Category: Media

Pulp Media by Joe WilcoxMay 23, 20067:12 pm

Nworb Nad

The new issue of The New Yorker arrived today. We started subscribing last month after getting a full-year offer for 25 bucks. I do read the copy and not just peruse the cartoons.

In the current, May 29, issue, Anthony Lane makes mush of ridiculous book, the Da Vinci Code—and his objective was to review the movie! I consider the Dan Brown novel to be the worst fiction book I’ve read or likely will ever read. The writing has no style, the plot follows (yawn, yawn) obvious paths and the history is nonsense (and I say that with no gripe about Jesus marrying Mary M.). Anthony does better ripping the book than I did.

Pulp Media by Joe WilcoxMay 22, 200610:14 pm

J-a-a-a-ck!

I couldn’t not watch “24” this season, because the plot got so ridiculous there was need to see what would happen next. Each episode I hoped for better. Now, after 24 disappointing hours, I’m starting to feel like a drug addict hoping the next fix will finally satisfy.

Bad as things were, the show’s writers ended the season with the worst kind of cliffhanger. Good `ol Jack Bauer got captured by the Chinese. I guess the American president and Russian terrorists weren’t tough enough. Now, “24” addicts must wait until January 2007—eight freaking months—to see what happens to beaten and kidnapped Jack on Day 6. Geez.

Pulp Media by Joe WilcoxMay 17, 20063:41 pm

The Da Vinci Decoded

Well, the first reviews of movie “The Da Vinci Code” are in, and they aren’t encouraging. One of today’s best comes from TimeOut London. It’s good, because reviewer Dave Calhoun is perhaps harder on the book than the movie.

The Da Vinci Code is a dreadful novel. I would be ashamed as a writer to have something so bad be so popular. And I say that with no gripes about a married Jesus, as presented by author Dan Brown.

News Media by Joe WilcoxMay 14, 20068:38 pm

Sifting Garbage

We are such bad Washingtonians, maybe; my family’s newspaper of choice is the New York Times—and even then we only get the Sunday paper (rest of the week is online). Today, my wife asked about Tim Russert, who had a Q&A, “All About My Father“, in the Times Sunday Magazine. Conversation took place on the Capital Beltway somewhere between US 1 and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.

Tim is one of my favorite Washington journalists. He’s got a pragmatic style that rips through nonsense and gets to the point of the conversation or topic. When I worked as an editor more than a decade ago, my editor—great guy, Stephen Osmond—would repeatedly ask, “What’s the point?” Answering that question made me a better editor. In fact for years, a Post-It with the question hung over my work phone.

Gear by Joe WilcoxMay 10, 20067:24 pm

We Are TiVo, T-i-V-o

It was a rough “Lost” tonight. I recorded the episode for later viewing. Frustration: The Media Center in the living room cut off something at the end. Preview for next week’s episode is gone, too. […]

News Media by Joe WilcoxApr 20, 20064:06 pm

MySpace is OK

CNN has a story claiming MySpace helped foil a school shooting. Last week I said that MySpace isn’t the problem the news media has made it out to be. Heck, any place high schoolers can […]

Apple by Joe WilcoxApr 16, 20065:05 pm

Where Old News is the Only News

On Friday, a good friend asked me to look at a news story about Apple legal sending an unwelcome letter to an eight year-old girl. The letter basically told her to get lost. Apparently, the third grader had sent a letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs suggesting a new feature for iPods: Lyrics viewing. She got her response, not from Steve but an Apple lawyer, about three months later. Turns out that Apple has a policy against taking unsolicited ideas, which the letter clearly stated.

The news story focused on the little girl’s hurt feelings and Apple’s slap-in-the-face response. Earth to Apple: Lawyers=bad PR. Always. But the response was lame for another reason: The feature already is available on iPods. It’s just not well publicized.

Apple by Joe WilcoxApr 11, 200612:00 am

When Magazines Mattered

To promote the Macintosh 22 years ago, Apple purchased all—as in every—ad space in the Newsweek 1984 election issue. That was 39 pages.

The folks over at Graphical User Interface Gallery (aka Guidebook) have preserved every page from that Newsweek issue. It was a time when magazine advertising really mattered, unlike today when the Internet undermines magazine circulation.

Photo by Joe WilcoxApr 10, 20065:12 pm

The D200, After All

Okay, so call me bogus. Back in February, I made clear that there would be no camera switch, as I previously contemplated—from the Canon EOS 20D to the Nikon D200. I’ve been unhappy with my EOS 20D for sometime, even as I acquired several nice Canon lenses. The Canon camera’s ergonomics doesn’t suit me, nor have I been satisfied with the photos compared to the Nikon D70. The Nikon D70 felt more like an extension of my eye, capturing images just as I saw them.

But low-light photography is important to me, and that’s one area where the EOS 20D excels over the Nikon D200, based on tests like PBase forum member Norm’s 20D-D200 photo comparison. I resigned to sticking with the EOS 20D—after all, I had some nice lenses.

Music by Joe WilcoxApr 4, 20063:00 pm

The Sounds

Late this afternoon, Nate Mook from BetaNews recommended The Sounds album, “Dying to Say This to You”. He made a great recommendation. The Swedish troupe is foot-stomping pop nirvana. Brainless me, soon after I started […]

Society by Joe WilcoxMar 28, 20063:03 pm

Way to Go, Kids

Now this is what social networking should be for: High school students use MySpace to organize a walkout over proposed immigration changes. The kids are right. It’s wrong to make illegal immigration a felony. The […]

The Arts by Joe WilcoxMar 27, 20066:00 pm

Stoning ‘Philosopher’s Stone’

While traveling this month, I started reading J.K. Rowlings’ Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, with the shameful, Americanized title. The book is properly known in the UK as Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Given the Potter series’ popularity (six books and four movies), I had high expectations of the bestseller, but lowered them upon reading.

Coming from Northern Maine, where remain cultural ties to Canada and Britain, I quickly picked up on the mishmash of very British references. I’d say that Rowlings includes just about every magical or ghoulish creature known on the British Isles. The book borrows heavily from literary consciousness. The lacking originality, of plopping together concepts and creatures familiar to many generations of Britons, is astounding—unless her originality is humor. I take the book to be farcical, humorous in its plopping together so many creatures steeped in British cultural heritage.