[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-L4jPVoNAE] While browsing hats at the local Urban Outfitters last week, I Shazamed a French song playing over the store speakers. Shazam is among my three most-used smartphone applications—to discover music everywhere. If […]
Darwin Was Wrong
Somebody at the BBC sure knows how to write a story lead: “Charles Darwin may have been wrong when he argued that competition was the major driving force of evolution.” Say what? I always believed Darwin was wrong—not that I’ll here pitch for Creationism. Darwin being wrong doesn’t make his major opponents right.
My Pitch for a Truly Gruesome Vampire Story
This week I got PR email about new “True Blood” comics, and I received Rolling Stone issue 1112 with cast members from the HBO series on the cover. Suddenly, an idea came to me for a different, modern vampire drama. Here is the plotline of the story I’d tell:
Google Brain
In an interview published today in the Wall Street Journal, Google CEO Eric Schmidt lays out the next stage in his company’s ambitious plan to replace human agency with automated data processing, freeing us all […]
Le Soleil and Me
My cousin Dan emailed several old photos he recently obtained while vacationing in Maine. That’s me, probably age 11, but only a guess. The newspaper’s date isn’t visible. I don’t recall the photo or its taking but the shot must have been posed by either my father or uncle. I don’t read French. (Le Soleil was published out of Quebec City. This evening, a quick Web search left me wondering if the newspaper still exists.)
‘The China Question’ Revisited
In March 2009, I asked “The China Question,” highlighting shocking parallels between the 1920s and `00s (the “Noughties”). Both decades similarly started off and ended, with boom and bust. Other parallels show how quickly an empire collapses—the Brits during early last century and quite possibly the yanks during this decade.
I resurface the post in context of incessant chatter about China’s increasing global economic dominance and America’s growing mountain of debt. Additionally, the United States is close to entering a double-dip recession, if it’s not there already. Recent economic indicators are disconcerting. China has largely exited the global recession fairly unscathed, while the United States is an economy divided: Public companies are reporting record profits, while the American public struggles to relieve record debt.
Old Media Should Pay Up If It Wants to Tumblr
There goes the neighborhood. Big media is invading Tumblr. For weeks I had been meaning to blog about how old media might ruin Tumblr. I shouldn’t have waited. Monday’s New York Times story “Media Companies Try Getting Social With Tumblr” raises the topic without rightly razing it. How could Jenna Wortham’s story have been any different, since The Times is among the old media vanguard invading Tumblr. Jenna’s story positions the big media invasion as something good. I most certainly don’t agree, given Tumblr’s free-for-all embrace.
‘Kill Shakespeare’ Act IV
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlXJR7O2rjI] My concluding “Kill Shakespeare” interview segment is suddenly existential. During San Diego Comic-Con 2010, I chatted with “Kill Shakespeare” artist/illustrator Andy Belanger and creators Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery. Anthony and […]
‘Kill Shakespeare’ Act III
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YuBaZ_DTsU] It’s a world exclusive. Act III of my interview with “Kill Shakespeare” artist/illustrator Andy Belanger and creators Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery introduces upcoming content. “Kill Shakespeare” is a comics/graphic novel […]
‘Kill Shakespeare’ Act II
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBdpNx0QaiY] The second part of my San Diego Comic-Con 2010 interview with “Kill Shakespeare” creators Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery provides insight into the characters and to critics’ reaction. Surprising: Some Shakespeare […]
‘Kill Shakespeare’ Act I
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FasEBYDkGw4]
Finally—and it took too long—I edited the 18-minute video interview with “Kill Shakespeare” artist/illustrator Andy Belanger and creators Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery. We chatted during San Diego Comic-Con 2010. They reimage the Bard’s characters in a good versus evil hunt for Shakespeare. You’ll never think of Hamlet the same way again.
