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August 26, 2003

Get me to the minibar!
: Oh, I would not do well at Burning Man, not well at all. These descriptions make me want to call in the deprogrammers:

Trying to explain what Burning Man is to someone who has never been to the event is a bit like trying to explain what a particular color looks like to someone who is blind.

And:

Burning Man is an annual experiment in temporary community dedicated to radical self-expression and radical self-reliance.

And radical self-absorption.

: Jim Treacher points us to the comments on Boing etc., where the audience is giving Burning Person Xeni heck.

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Is half a BBC better than none?
: David Brake cautions that we all may have gotten a bit too excited about the BBC's announcement that it would put its programming on the Internet:

In fact, while BBC News' summary suggests Dyke said the Creative Archive would contain "all the corporation's programme archives", the speech actually promised to allow "parts of our programmes, where we own the rights, to be available to anyone in the UK to download" (emphasis mine). Nothing there about all of the BBC's archives. And the example he uses - kids downloading, "real moving pictures which would turn their project into an exciting multi-media presentation" make it sound like a collection of digital clip-art.

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Sight
: Ain't science grand?
Here's a man who received a stem-cell implant into his eyes and for the first time since he was 3, he can see:

I found it very distracting to look at people's faces when I was having a conversation. I can see their lips moving, eyelashes flickering, head nodding and hands gesturing. At first, I tried looking down, but if it was a woman in a low-cut top that would be even more distracting. It was easier to close my eyes or tune out the visual input. This was often necessary in order to concentrate on what they were saying. I am sure there will come a time when all this visual communication will mean more to me, but for now it is just distracting....
The kids played soccer and asked me to play with them. I am more tentative with sight than I was without. My perception of space is still confusing enough and I don't want to run over one of these little guys. Still, I can see the ball flying through the air, which gives me a thrill.

And bloggers' favorite Halley has a cataract operation and reports the results:

I open my new improved eye.
Okay, I am freaking out. The bird is so resplendent in color and gold leaf. The colors are so vibrant. The edges are so clear and ... I hardly know the word ... try CRUNCHY ... that I can barely believe it. The delicate detail of the bamboo leaves on the painting are exquisite. I am gasping.

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Project Trainwreck
: The numbers are in: The Battle of Shaker Heights, the product of this season's Project Greenlight on HBO, brought in $47,693 in five theaters last weekend. So that's less than $10,000 per screen. Miramax execs had said on the Greenlight season finale that if they were going to consider wide distribution of the film, they'd want to see $20,000 per screen (to which one scarred exec replied: the only way this is going to make $20k is if everybody seeing the movie leaves a $100 bill on the seat when they leave). So by that measure, it's a bomb.
But that doesn't matter. It's better, in fact.
This is what reality TV is all about: humiliation. And who better to humiliate than Hollywood executives? It's such great entertainment.
I can't wait for next season.

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No-speed chase
: I'm watching a no-speed chase in L.A. on FoxNews right now: The perp isn't moving and when she is, she merely creeps or goes around in crazy circles.
Could this be the result of skyrocketing gas prices: Cops and robbers can't afford bad fuel economy?
Turns out, the lady just got out of a mental institution (a bit too soon, I'd say).
As I'm watching, a few colleagues come into the office to catch the, uh, action with me.
One turns to the other and says: "David, here in New York, those people aren't in cars. They're in subways."

: Now she's proving to be a Pied Piper; there's a parade of pedestrians (yes, they exist there) following her. I half expect to seem them waving to the choppers above.

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Two years
: Anniversary stories are among the least informative nonstories media cover; they're dutiful and predictable and so I'm no big fan of them.
But I do think that September 11th is different. Network news will be all but ignoring the date -- here's the Post's roundup -- and that will probably indicate how other media will handle the date. Perhaps they're reflecting a national mood to get past, to get over, to get on with life. But I wonder. There are plenty of good stories two years on: How safe are we? How are the families coping? How much have our lives changed? What has been the cost of terrorism to business and government? What has the health impact been on New Yorkers (I'll tell you mine)? What has the psychological impact been on our children? What about the explosion of this new medium, weblogs, after 9/11? How about following the memorial jury for a day to see how the outpouring of tribute is affecting them? There are a million stories...

: For what it matters, I will again take the day away from work to spend at the World Trade Center and I will blog about it.

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Attention must be paid
: Inspired by David Weinberger's blogging from the Dean bus, I suggested yesterday that a wise campaign would invite some bloggers to get press credentials and get on the buss to cover the election. Why not invite Ken Layne, Matt Welch, Michael J Totten, Roger L Simon, Matthew Yglesias, make your own list. You'd get a fresh perspective of real people, real voters; it would shake up the status quo, and it'd be easy to get lots of digital link. Just look at how impressed Dave Winer was to get a press advisory from Dean:

I got a press advisory this morning, via email, from the Dean campaign. That's very cool. Someone decided that even though I write for a weblog, I count as a press person.

That's what it's all about: Letting people know that they count.

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