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July 15, 2004

Conference overload

: Just came back from a conference in Detroit. Next I'm off to the Aspen Institute in Aspen. Off to the journalism education confab in Toronto in August. That's why I turned down going to Always On this week, Blog On next week, Supernova a few weeks ago, and Lockerghnome in the fall. Too many conferences about blogging. Too little time to blog.

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Beam me up

: How did I miss that Leonard Nimoy does nude photography?

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The Seal of Censorship

: Ernie Miller is properly shocked at the movie industry cooperating with -- even promoting -- the frightening Parents Television Council by putting PTC seals of approval on movies.

This is tantamount to taking out ad with a screaming blurb: "Jerry Falwell says go see this movie or go to hell!"

The PTC is Brent Bozell's self-appointed national censor. They are almost single-handedly responsible for the rash of complaints to the FCC. They are attacking the First Amendment and fres speech.

It's bad enough that news organizations treat them as if they're a real organization that represents the "parents" of its title -- they sure as shit don't represent me! -- as opposed to the fanatics that they are.

But now, as Ernie points out, the movie studios are promoting the PTC by using its seal and that will come back to bite them in the butt, guaranteed.

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Mini movie review

: Saw and really liked Spiderman 2 in Detroit and I have just one thing to add to the many rave reviews:

Nice dress.

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Bad taste

: Just heard a commercial for Martha Stewart sale week at K-Mart, the night before she's sentenced to the slammer.

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Eisner's review

: Disney dictator Michael Eisner tells a conference that he likes Fahrenheit 9/11.

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Opinions re opinions

: I'm probably the last to see it this morning but in case I'm not and you are... did you see the NY Times editorial this morning lauding the inclusion of bloggers at the Democratic convention... without even the condescension and snarkiness I might have anticipated. The Times laments the old days, long gone, of unpredictable conventions (before politicians were smart enough to manipulate the news by controlling the event):

... All the more reason to hope, then, that this year's one potentially risky innovation — accepting dozens of free-form online bloggers as accredited convention journalists — may lace the proceedings with fresh insight and even some Menckenian impertinence.

People who think the mushrooming world of wannabe polemicists and their Web logs, or blogs, is merely a high-tech amusement should talk to Senator Trent Lott, the Mississippi Republican....

Beyond its power as a source of news and commentary, the Internet has proved itself to be the ultimate fund-raising tool. Bloggers can be crass and biased, but politicians no longer scoff at their rich online realm. Hence the red carpet at the conventions — at least for some of them.

The Democrats, needless to say, are already paying for their venturesome invitation. They received applications from 50 bloggers and later announced there was room for only 30. Conspiracy theories are already abounding on the blogs of the disinvited. Such is Web life. We do wonder whether a blogger's buccaneer self-image will suffer from having to wear a garish credential necklace just to watch conventioneers as they mainly say, "Nice to see you!" to each other. Will bloggers be tamed into centrism? Or, like Mencken, will they gleefully report that the convention's main speechmakers are "plainly on furlough from some home for extinct volcanoes"? Log on to find out.

Well, I doubt that bloggers can do anything to liven up what is already a dead event. But maybe they can find the odd story the pack isn't finding. Maybe they can at least bring a fresh perspective. We'll see....

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Marketing, marketing everywhere...

: Fox is signing deals with malls to market its movies, says the Wall Street Journal.

In a typical campaign, shoppers will be bombarded with advertisements for the latest Fox movie on everything from huge banners in the garage to tray liners in the restaurants. In some cases, characters from the studio's movie will wander around the malls; in others, retailers will give away premiere tickets to loyal customers. Teens will be one of the main targets.

Fox's "I, Robot," which opens tomorrow, is the first movie promoted under the partnership. Four-by-six-foot banners of the star, Will Smith, are dangling from mall ceilings. Double-sided stickers adorn store windows, posters hang in elevators and alongside escalators, and various ad placements appear in food courts.

Smart: going to where the people are to market. I'd do a similar deal with airports; I spent five hours in one yesterday and would have considered trailers an entertaining distraction.

I've actually come to appreciate the Captivate screens now in elevators everywhere. It's hardly a reliable place to get my news. But it gives me the weather and the Dow and a few headlines and most important, it gives me a place to look and something to do rather than accidentally ending up in a conversation with an elevatormate.

So there's a marketing strategy: Grab my attention when I dread the attention of human beings: on commuter trains, in airports, in the DMV?

: Speaking of movie marketing, one of the interesting things Jerry Yang said yesterday (he pretty much reminisced and rambled) was how Yahoo helps movie studios market movies, taking the data the service collects on trailer viewership and advising them on distribution, marketing, and even DVD release.

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Five-oh-no

: Won't dwell on it but today's the five 5-0 for me. Can't say the beard's prematurely gray, damnit, anymore, I guess.

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Happy trails to me

: Not that you should continue to care about my travel trevails but I arrived home tonight after witnessing many canceled flights and spending many hours in the airport and watching much Northwest confusion due to its computer glitch. That was all bad enough.

But the people on the plane smelled. Smelly feet to the right. Smelly feet behind. Heavy dose of garlic ahead. And that was bad enough.

But they were apparently too fat, too. We finally taxied out almost two hours late and then parked and then mysteriously had to go back to the gate. We were 11 people too heavy. People volunteered to leave (not the last four people who got on, who were each the size of a yacht). We lightened the load, which is better to do on the ground than in the air, and we were on our way. Midnight. Home.

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