Category: Media

Web by Joe WilcoxJun 2, 201511:16 pm

Tidal gets My Reprieve

My third month as a Tidal subscriber started yesterday, but nearly not at all. Last week I prepared to cancel the pricey, streaming service after encountering a disastrous functional flaw listening on either Nexus 6 or 9. Songs skip to the next track part way through playing, which is unacceptable behavior—made more so because of expectations that higher pricing and loftier monthly subscription fee set.

I would have stopped subscribing on May 31st, at the billing cycle’s end, if not for Tidal offering a free month of service. Whether or not our paying relationship continues depends much on the music streamer resolving an app problem. “There is a bug with Nexus and Sony phones with Android 5 unfortunately”, according to a tech support specialist, “We are working on fixing this. Mostly after 26 megabytes have been streamed, it skips. So for now we do not have a solution yet”,

Photo by Joe WilcoxJun 2, 20156:54 am

Flickr a Day 153: ‘Birkenhead Lake View’

Travel photographer James Wheeler takes the Day with an evocative, wish-you-were-there view captured on May 17, 2015, using Nikon D600 and 17-35mm f/4 lens. Vitals: f/11, ISO 100, .5 sec, 17mm. I picked the pic mainly for composition and color; the red canoe to the left set against the lake looker to the right makes the shot—without even considering the majestic mountains framing the foreground.

James describes self-titled “Birkenhead Lake View”, visited over the “Victoria Day long weekend” (ended May 18 in 2015 and on the 23rd in 2016). “It is a bit far from Vancouver but is an amazing place to go camping for a long weekend. We had relatively good weather for May and will definitely go back next year”.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJun 1, 20157:03 am

Flickr a Day 152: ‘Unexpected Wedding’

Self-titled “Tightrope Walker Cat” demands to be chosen, but I reluctantly pass, having featured felines on Days 38, 51, and 143. Instead, José Manuel Ríos Valiente wins with “Unexpected Wedding”, for candid capture and contextual caption that […]

News Media by Joe WilcoxMay 31, 201510:20 pm

Responsible Reporting Section 2 ‘The New Journalisms’: Chapter II

The second of the five journalisms was a topic on this site long before becoming part of my ebook Responsible Reporting: Field Guide for Bloggers, Journalists, and Other Online News Gatherers. First reference: “Process Journalism and Original Reporting” (July 2009). The concept closely aligns with contextual journalism, which is the topic of the previous chapter published here a week ago.

I wrote the book understanding that the intersection of old and new media presents an opportunity to develop more realistic reporting guidelines. The cultural and ethical differences too often set one against the other, which process journalism demonstrates. However, online reporting demands a different way of thinking about news gathering and what the so-called quest for truth really means.

Photo by Joe WilcoxMay 31, 20156:56 am

Flickr a Day 151: ‘Sometimes Life Hurts’

There is an art to shooting with models. The style of Jonathan Emmanuel Flores Tarello reminds of Day 89 photographer Gabriela Camerotti: Dreamy and ethereal, with a touch of fantasy. I chose today’s selection, which is among […]

Pulp Media by Joe WilcoxMay 30, 20156:10 pm

Survivor

Frak the critics. I really enjoyed Survivor, which released to theatres yesterday. Or not. The official reviews are dated May 28 or 29, 2015, but I can’t find the movie playing on the big screen anywhere locally. I streamed from Google Play, which has the film for rental or purchase, last evning.

I didn’t read reviews until after watching the flick and seeing something shocking: Rotten Tomatoes 0 percent. Yes, Yes, the action thriller is overly predictable. But sometimes you sit down to eat fine steak and wine, while other times glutton down s`mores and ice cream. Burp. Pass the Bud, Bud. Survivor is a junk food feast along the lines of Taken—which got two sequels!

Photo by Joe WilcoxMay 30, 20157:35 am

Flickr a Day 150: ‘Fischer am Nebeligen Erlaufsee’

Self-titled “21er Haus“, at Museum moderner Kunst, Wien (Museum of Modern Art) in Vienna, Austria—taken just 5 days ago—seemed sure to take the Day. Jakob Hürner used iPhone 5s, which produced a photo that is remarkably balanced […]

Photo by Joe WilcoxMay 30, 201512:22 am

Google Photos is Disruptive Innovation

Google Photos is more than an exciting—and hugely transforming—new product. The app/cloud service is a metaphor for an escalating mobile business model that, with perhaps the exception of Facebook, no competitor has the capacity to match.

Users gain tremendous time-saving utility, such as the ability to meaningfully search using innocuous terms like “dog” or “Washington”, all without the need to manually add metadata tags by way of applications like Photoshop. Meanwhile, Google gets access to quantifiable information, in the image and accompanying metadata, around which to sell advertising and related contextual content or services.

Photo by Joe WilcoxMay 29, 20157:23 am

Flickr a Day 149: Steal

Living in Syracuse, Utah, R. Nial Bradshaw is a photographer for the U.S. Department of Defense. His photostream is phenomenal and, thus, nearly impossible to choose from. I narrowed the number to 70 from the […]

Photo by Joe WilcoxMay 28, 20157:33 am

Flickr a Day 148: ‘Power’

Sometimes simple makes the best photographic art. Composition is excellent. The eye draws to ultra-crisp “Power”—the self-title—then up the tilt-way plugs. Color and contrast are superb. Ricardo Camacho captured the image on March 6, 2012, […]

Mobility by Joe WilcoxMay 27, 20153:04 pm

Google Music tempts Me from Tidal

My love affair with Tidal nears dissolution. The second month’s renewal is five days away, and divorce is nearly certain now. Mid-month I asked: “What Good is Tidal HiFi if Content won’t Play?” Matters are better and worse since. I no longer have the song stalls in the webapp running from Chrome OS. But track jumping behavior now afflicts Nexus 6—not just its tablet sibling.

On the phablet late this morning, I switched over to Google Music for a quick refresher comparison between identical tracks. I most certainly can hear the difference between 320kbps MP3 and Tidal’s 1411kbps Free Lossless Audio Codec. But the aural benefits are valueless if I can’t listen. Google Music invited me to resubscribe, with half a year free; it’s some kind of promotion for Nexus 6 buyers. How could I refuse no billing until after Thanksgiving? November feels forever away.

Photo by Joe WilcoxMay 27, 20157:36 am

Flickr a Day 147: ‘Old Lady’

If you asked reasons for today’s selection, several would stand out. Top of list: Exhaustion that makes me identify with the subject. That’s how I feel after searching the photostream of Oliver Degabriele; I could choose any and most every image for the Day. Composition, color, and contrast also appeal, and I find something old-worldly and interesting about self-titled “Old Lady”.

But I like “Soundcheck” as much, but passed even though it more topically represents the photographer, who also is a musician. As the series progresses, increasingly my choices are influenced by previous picks. We bad musical performance themes on Days 12, 16, 92, and 100.