Sojourn

2011

2011-12-31T21:18:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it's over already -- 2011 seems to have flown by. I've never lost sight of what a privilege it is to have a readership, especially one so supportive of projects I'm working on. This year, my big project was the Bahá’í eBook cover idea, which was a success in its own right, and got taken to another level with my partnership with Bahá’í eBooks Publications -- the premier internet location for Bahá’í eBooks. The release of the eBook covers also prompted me to finally redesign and launch my website, ImanRastegari.com. I'm excited to continue my partnership with Bahá’í eBooks Publications into 2012, as well as continue working on some exciting projects that are currently underway. Thank you all for your support!

As always, here are some stats, courtesy of Google Analytics:

Readers from 22 countries visited the site, including the United States, Brazil, Israel, Australia, Russia, Bangladesh, Mexico, and India.

Of the 8 recorded OSs, more people visited on Macs than any other, followed by Windows, iPad, iPhone, and Android.

Of the 10 recorded browsers, more people viewed the blog on Safari, followed by Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer.

The Top 5 Posts of 2011 (by total views) were:

1. Steve Jobs
2. Bahá'i eBook Covers Project: Launching Today!
3. Remembrance
4. Steve Apple Word Tribute
5. Announcement: Bahá'í eBooks Publications Partnership!

Thanks for a great 2011, and here's to an even better 2012!

P.S. Here are my end-of-year posts from 2008 and 2010, for nostalgia's sake.

Announcement: Bahá'í eBooks Publications Partnership!

2011-12-25T18:11:00.001-05:00

I am delighted to finally announce that I have partnered with Bahá'í eBooks Publications to bring my eBook covers to their collection. I have been using their books as the basis for my personal Bahá'í eBook collection since I discovered them several months ago, as their formatting and layout is the best I have seen for electronic reading. Their attention to detail and technical skill in beautifully presenting the sacred texts makes it a pleasure to read their editions, and I'm honored to be working with them to bring my cover project to a larger audience.

My covers will still be freely downloadable from my website, where you can download them at full resolution and apply them to your own digital copies. I highly encourage you to check out Bahá'í eBooks Publications's work, however -- their eBooks are free, beautifully made, and they have a vast selection of texts from Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Shoghi Effendi, The Báb, The Universal House of Justice, and more.

We're starting by releasing three books with my covers, and will be expanding to more in the near future. The three (newly-updated!) editions with my covers are The Kitáb-i-Aqdas, The Kitáb-i-Íqán, and The Secret of Divine Civilization. Enjoy!

The official announcement from their website is copied below; you can also check out their tweets (first and second) and Facebook posts.

December 19, 2011

We have entered into a collaboration with designer Iman Rastegari to bring you a set of unified covers for the Sacred Writings. We will be offering a choice of covers for certain books – Iman’s covers will allow you to create a unified set of book covers for your electronic bookshelves. When we have options for books covers, a number will appear beside the book so that you know that the only difference between the books is the cover.

Weird Al's Kinetically Typographical Inspiration

2011-11-04T00:26:00.001-05:00

Over the past week, I've been thinking a lot about kinetic typography, and some projects I want to experiment with (more on that in future posts). In the meantime, I thought I'd share the video that kicked off my interest in this animation technique, Weird Al's music video for "Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me", the finale of his most recent album, Alpocalypse. It's one of the best examples of the medium I've seen -- if you have others that you like, please share in the comments!

Steve Apple Word Tribute

2011-10-27T19:38:00.001-05:00

I made this while I was waiting for my laundry to dry (no, really), and wanted to share. It took some tinkering, especially to get the words where I wanted them, and with relatively even distribution, but I like the way it turned out.

I got the source image from here, and used WordFoto to make it.

Remembrance

2011-10-06T16:28:00.000-05:00

There has been an outpouring of grief, reflection, and remembrance over the last 24 hours, as people around the world wrestle with the news that Steve Jobs has passed away. I wanted to collect a variety of pieces that have stood out; feel free to share your own in the comments.

A few quotes:

"Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world." - Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook

"Steve Jobs was our da Vinci." - @GuyEndoreKaiser

‎"Three Apples changed the world: The first seduced Eve. The second fell on Newton. And the third one was offered to the world half bitten by him." - trending on Twitter, source unknown.

"Steve's iLife is over, but now he's looking down at us from the iCloud." - former Apple employee, on Facebook

"If there isn't a heaven, Steve Jobs will invent one." - @SoniaTaitz

xkcd posted a rare Thursday cartoon. The alt-text reads: "There's always the hope that if you sit and watch for long enough, the beachball will vanish and the thing it interrupted will return."

My friend Jeremy Latour made this, based on the famous Think Different ad:

My friend Jamal Coleman sent me this photo link:

He also shared this poignant comic, by Scott Johnson:

MacRumors posted a great collection of statements and photographs chronicling the reaction to the news. You can read the full post here, including this photo they published from outside 1 Infinite Loop, Apple headquarters in Cupertino, CA. Flags at half-staff.

Outside an Apple store in London. This is happening around the world, including at the Apple store fifteen minutes from my house. The photo is from the New York Times, which also posted this story about the outpouring of grief around the world and throughout the internet. In it, they mention "Twitter briefly buckled under the mass of Jobs-related messages, a veritable technology 21-gun salute."

Nightline broadcast a full-episode tribute last night, including an interview with Apple co-founder Steve "Woz" Wozniak. It was respectful, reflective, and reasonably comprehensive. You can watch it here:

ABC just posted this story of designer Jonathan Mark's re-imagining of the Apple logo, with Steve's silhouette as the "bite":

It seems appropriate to end with a quote from Steve Jobs himself. This is an excerpt from his Stanford commencement address in 2005, on the topic of death:

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
[…]
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Please share your own thoughts, tributes, and favorite findings around the web in the comments.

Steve Jobs

2011-10-05T22:09:00.001-05:00

I'm still reeling from the news that Steve Jobs, visionary founder and CEO of Apple, passed away earlier this evening. As I tried to articulate and process my thoughts, I decided to try journaling a bit. I wanted to share a part of what I wrote:

Steve was Apple, but Apple is also Steve. Apple is not going to be the same without him -- and yet, it is. Steve's character, his vision, his style, are deep in Apple's DNA. The people who are a part of this company are so because they -- we -- were attracted to what Apple stood for, which was what he stood for. We carry on that legacy, which, in turn, keeps him alive. In a way. It's still not the same. But it means that this is not the end.

Disney + Lord of the Rings =

2011-09-18T23:40:00.002-05:00

A friend just sent this my way -- a clever piece of editing work (some of the lip-syncing is quite good), bringing clips from various Disney movies together to the audio track of one of the original Fellowship of the Ring trailers. Enjoy!

Hurricane Irene Timelapse

2011-09-08T22:25:00.001-05:00

I meant to post this back when I made it, but it slipped through the cracks. I took this through my window, looking out at the street. The video doesn't come close to conveying just how powerful the winds were, but you can see on the massive bunch of trees just how easily they're being blown around.

This was taken over the course of about 16 and a half minutes; 500 still frames played back at 24 frames per second. Taken with my Nikon D7000 on August 28, 2011, during Hurricane Irene hitting Massachusetts.

Bahá'i eBook Covers Project: Launching Today!

2011-09-04T11:42:00.001-05:00

It's been a while since I last posted, as I've been busy working on a number of projects. I'm really excited to share one of them with you today!

The Opportunity

More and more people are downloading Bahá’í texts, to read on a variety of screens -- their computers, e-readers, tablets, smartphones, and more. Project Gutenberg and Bahá’í eBooks Publications are both great, free sources for these texts, as are widely-used eBookstores like Apple’s iBookstore. However, there did not exist a cohesive and unified set of cover art that could be used with these digital copies, that would be freely and easily available to anyone who wanted to use them on their devices. Searching online yielded low-quality photos and scans of print copies, or sets of eBooks that had mis-matched or generic cover art.

The Solution

I wanted to design covers that would satisfy specific needs:

Consistency: Clearly identifiable as a set, consistent design across all books.
Quality: High enough resolution to look good on all smartphone, tablet, or computer screens.
Readability: Easy to read when full size, as well as small thumbnails lined up on a digital bookshelf.
Beautiful: While beauty is certainly in the eye of the user, designing with the elegance and sophistication deserved of Bahá’í sacred texts.
Accessible: Free to download, openly formatted and easy to add to an existing eBook collection.

You can see the full collection of eBook covers, available for a free download as individual .jpg files, or together in one .zip file, at my newly-revamped website. There are also directions for how to use them, if you're not sure how to add custom covers to your existing eBook files. Feel free to share your feedback, and enjoy!

Hulu pulls an April Fools

2011-04-01T16:50:00.001-05:00

Make sure to check out Hulu.com (not the app, the website) today for a great April Fool's Day joke! I particularly love the Guestbook and Netscape/IE links at the bottom.

The best scientific article. Ever.

2011-03-03T22:48:00.000-05:00

I think it does a great job of explaining itself. Enjoy it here!

More of VW's "The Force"

2011-02-14T00:00:00.001-05:00

I didn't actually watch the Superbowl, but the one ad everyone kept telling me about was this Volkswagen "The Force" ad, featuring an awesomely adorable fusion of Star Wars, childhood fantasy, and the new Passat.

I also came across this "Behind the Scenes" video, which shows some alternate takes, and is arguably even better than the actual ad. Well played, Volkswagen. Well played.

The Mac App Store has arrived

2011-01-06T13:49:00.006-05:00

I've been playing with it for a little bit, and I've got to say -- I like it a whole lot more than I thought I would. The App Store paradigm works well for a computer (i.e. non-mobile) platform, and the Mac App Store is just as easy-to-use as its iOS counterparts. I'm excited to see just how quickly consumers will be attracted to the Mac platform because of the increased perception of available applications -- something that has been an issue (unfortunately undeserved) for OS X for a while now.

Also, an interesting change (though not entirely unexpected) -- "Mac OS X Software" in the system menu has now been changed to "App Store":

Now, we just need to get Quinn in there, and life will be that much more complete!

2010

2010-12-31T21:03:00.003-05:00

As I wrote at the end of 2008, it is a privilege to have a readership, and I wanted to stop and take a moment to thank everyone who has stopped by to read, enjoy, encourage, and comment on this blog. You are what keeps me writing -- which, on a personal note, is very important for and to me, and affects many other areas of my life.

Like I've done before, I took a look at the Google Analytics report for this year, and like previous years when I returned from a long hiatus, the results were excitedly surprising. Aside from a single post in May, I've only started writing again for the past two months, yet over the course of the year, 30 countries have visited the site, from the United States to the United Kingdom, from Australia to New Zealand.

Thank you again for reading, and here's to a wonderful 2011, full of writing!

For those interested, here are the top 5 individual posts (by number of page views) this year:

1. Scrivener 2.0 Released!

2. D7000 RAW support in Aperture = :-(

3. Signs of the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

4. BlogPress Beginning

5. #wotw2

Have an awesome New Year!

The D7000 Aperture update is here!

2010-12-18T22:14:00.005-05:00

Apple released a Camera RAW update, so now I can use the D7000's RAW files in Aperture! I had to go back into my photo library, right-click on my RAW images, and have Aperture "Reprocess Masters" (and then right-click and Option-click on "Update Preview" to trigger a "Generate Preview" option so that I could see the thumbnails correctly), but now Aperture is working properly with my D7000's RAW files. Awesome!

How the Internet Works

2010-12-06T03:01:00.001-05:00

This is a lovely cartoon that explains many facets of the Internet (not just the web) in an easy-to-understand way. For those of us brushing up on our terminology, or to show to someone having difficulty wrapping their head around different aspects of the ubiquitous technology, this cartoon from Vladstudio may just do the trick.

Download various resolutions from the source here.

[via this article]

Thank you, Irvin Kershner

2010-11-29T19:50:00.001-05:00

Irvin Kershner, the director of The Empire Strikes Back, perhaps the most beloved and critically-acclaimed film of the iconic Star Wars franchise (and considered the best by many fans and industry professionals), has passed away. He was responsible for, with that film, shaping many childhoods and changing many lives.

The OriginalTrilogy.com forums have a thread commemorating his passing, with many heartfelt sentiments and poignant stories from fans who are posting.

Star Wars director George Lucas has posted thoughts on StarWars.com.

"I am serious . . . and don't call me Shirley."

2010-11-29T00:11:00.001-05:00

Thanks for all the laughs, Leslie Nielsen.

Click here for the New York Times obituary.

Traffic lights

2010-11-28T21:08:00.001-05:00

This is an interesting design for traffic lights, utilizing an hourglass-inspired visual indicator of how much time is left in the different phases of the light cycle. As Ryan Wieber put it on his Twitter feed, however, "anything that lets you anticipate when to go will result in people drag racing 1 second before it's green."

Check out the site for the design here.

I know this is random

2010-11-26T20:46:00.003-05:00

I saw this headline in my e-mail today, and just noticed how weird this word looks spelled out.

Reassesses.

It's all S's and vowels. Kind of fun.

Thanksgiving iOS game sales

2010-11-25T14:32:00.002-05:00

Thanksgiving is traditionally a great time for iOS gamers, as many developers put their games on sale for the holiday. touchArcade has a great article detailing many of the noteworthy sales of the day, and a forum post with an even more comprehensive list. Check it out, and enjoy!

No wallpaper for you!

2010-11-25T14:26:00.003-05:00

It looks like the second-generation iPod Touch won't support a background wallpaper in 4.2 after all; Apple's iOS page's compatibility chart has changed to the one above.

In the meantime, though -- 4.2 has been amazing on the iPad. In my opinion, it's the best thing to happen to my iPad since it was invented. Are you all loving it, too?

4.2 has arrived!

2010-11-22T12:32:00.004-05:00

iOS (and especially iPad) users, rejoice! The amazing iOS 4.2 update is here, bringing with it all of the AirPlay, multitasking, folder app organization, multitasking bar settings access, Game Center compatibility, in-Safari word search, and more that we've been waiting for. Now if only iTunes would show it as being available for me to download . . .

Two interesting (and unexpected notes):

First, MobileMe's "Find My iPhone"(/iPad/iPod Touch) feature has been made free for all owners of current-generation devices. This is a fantastic feature, and one that will help a lot of people -- but one wonders what will make people buy MobileMe when they can get a lot of it's other features (contact/calendar syncing, online storage space, web hosting, etc.) for free or much cheaper through other services. Of course, part of MobileMe's appeal has been its ease of use and unification of all these features, and that may still prove to be enticing for many customers.

Second, did anyone else notice how the second-generation iPod Touch suddenly has a wallpaper background (a previously-unsupported feature) in the 4.2 compatibility lineup image? If there's anyone out there with a second-gen Touch upgrading to 4.2, let us know if you can add a wallpaper now!

Giving Apple feedback

2010-11-15T15:35:00.005-05:00

Especially after writing about my recent Aperture woes, I thought it would be a good idea to highlight a resource a lot of people don't know about: Apple's Feedback page. I've used it personally a few times, most recently about the D7000's RAW compatibility in Aperture, and while they don't respond to the feedback personally, it's good to know where one can go to send such information when needed. As seen below, they have separate feedback categories for various Mac applications, and above those, they have forms for different hardware (as well as Apple iOS apps).

I've talked to some Apple engineers personally in the past, and I know they take feedback seriously; the comments are read, and often are incorporated into future product developments in some way -- and if not, they've at least been considered. Check it out!

Twitter as an Adult

2010-11-10T21:31:00.000-05:00

I still consider myself relatively new to Twitter, and so I find it interesting to learn more about what others use the service for, and how they manage this brave new world of brevity-based communication (came up with that one myself!). I stumbled across this interesting article, appropriately titled "How to Use Twitter as an Adult" -- though one could substitute "like" for "as", and it would still be pretty accurate. A relatively brief but thoughtful read, giving some advice, best practices, and expectation-setting. And a concluding thought in the article makes me feel a little better about sometimes not feeling like I fully "get" Twitter:

But Twitter is still evolving, and its usage evolves, too. How we use it now is different than how we used it a couple years ago. There is no one right way to use Twitter, and you should ignore anyone who says there is. Including me.

P.S. The header image was taken from here, though I'm not sure they created it.

Great 404 Error Pages

2010-11-09T00:26:00.001-05:00

I just saw this, and had to share. There are lots of great 404 (page not found) error pages here -- funny, artistic, and more. Enjoy!

D7000 RAW support in Aperture = :-(

2010-11-08T15:28:00.003-05:00

I finally got my shiny (a.k.a. nice matte black) new D7000 in the mail last week, and I've been psyched to try out its many amazing features -- in particular, its excellent low-light performance. While I won't always be shooting in RAW (the images are over 20 MB each!), I wanted to see what full-quality images looked like, and how much I could push them in post. So I hooked up the camera to my MacBook Pro, fired up Aperture, and imported the contents of my SD card -- only to find that all of the RAW images I had shot (which were luckily in the minority, since I was trying out many different quality modes) came up as unsupported images, and had very strange (and inconsistent) thumbnail previews, as seen below:

What's especially weird is that as they were importing, there were actually accurate previews of the images . . . which disappeared once the images were fully imported. Maybe they were coming from the thumbnail previews on the camera itself? Either way, I hope an Aperture software update comes to add D7000 NEF support soon . . . otherwise, I may have to start doing my RAW editing in other programs, then export JPEGs back to Aperture. And we all know I don't want to do that . . .

Signs of the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

2010-11-04T21:46:00.010-05:00

As promised, I've posted the gallery of signs (and the occasional pin/item of clothing/etc.) I saw during the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear this past Saturday! As soon as I arrived, there were tons of people around me, and I didn't really move much during the event itself, but I tried to get the best shots I could from where I was standing. I also ran into a few great ones after the Rally itself, as we walked with the crowd streaming from the National Mall.

These are just a few of my favorites, with plenty more in the gallery itself, which you can see here! Enjoy!

You can also see a slideshow of the images below. Make sure to click on the gallery here to see larger pictures, read captions, and leave comments!

Cramberry

2010-11-03T18:27:00.004-05:00

I found mention of this site a while back, and thought it was neat. Cramberry is an electronic flashcard system, for quizzing yourself and sharing your electronic flashcards with others. I still haven't gotten around to trying it -- I don't have much need for it in my current line of work -- but I take comfort in knowing that it's there if I want it, and I thought some of you currently-studying types might find some use for it, as well. What seems especially great is the integration with their native iOS applications, including the free, ad-supported iPhone version here.

If you try out the service, let me know what you think!

Mind Mapping for Creative Writing

2010-11-02T18:51:00.005-05:00

I bought iThoughts HD a while back for my iPad, for the express purpose of trying non-linear outlining for story-writing. And now that I'm all excited about Scrivener's ability to sync project files with my iPad, I'm looking to re-take inventory of my writing tools, mentally organize them into a prospective workflow, and start writing from there.

For those of you interested in using mind mapping for creative writing, this is a great article that not only talks about why you would want to, but also breaks down the author's practical system for doing so. The template he provides is a great starting point for anyone wanting to try it!

Have you used mind mapping before? How about for creative writing? Share your experiences and thoughts in the comments!

The polls just closed here, but . . .

2010-11-02T18:08:00.002-05:00

. . . if your polling station is still open, and you haven't gone to vote yet, make sure to do so! Even if you don't have a specific candidate or question to vote for, showing up and submitting a ballot still makes a difference with regards to voter turnout. Participating in democracy, civic duties, and all that.

Also, as the above image (which Comedy Central e-mailed to me this afternoon) shows, Stewart and Colbert are teaming up again for a live election night special, starting at 11 PM Eastern. I won't be able to watch it live, but if you do, enjoy!

Scrivener 2.0 Released!

2010-11-02T16:18:00.001-05:00

When I first switched to the Mac, I did a lot of searching around the Interwebs for great Mac software that I hadn't heard of before. One name that kept popping up was Literature & Latte's Scrivener, which, according to the headlining quote on their website, is "the biggest software advance for writers since the word processor." I got myself a copy of the 1.x version, but never really got around to using it -- not only did I have lots of other things to do that distracted me from a) writing and b) learning to effectively use a new software tool for writing, but I also started using my Mac less and less as I started to rely more on my iOS devices. Especially once I got my iPad, I started taking it with me on longer trips far more than my Mac -- which meant that if I was going to use a software tool to help me write/be creative, I wanted it to be as accessible as possible for me, wherever and whenever I wanted to work. In essence, I loved the concepts Scrivener brought to writing, but didn't want to be tied to my Mac to actually work with it.

While the Literature & Latte team has not yet made an iOS version of Scrivener, they have introduced an important new feature with the 2.0 release (among many wonderful tweaks and pieces of added functionality, from what I can see): Sync with External Folder. This feature allows your Scrivener project to synchronize its separate textual pieces with a folder outside of the project -- which includes a Dropbox (or other sync services') folder, which can then sync with a Dropbox-integrated text editor, like the great, free, (and Universal!) PlainText! Very exciting! I can't wait to actually try integrating Scrivener into my creative written pursuits.

Rally Signs

2010-11-01T17:55:00.002-05:00

I was at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear on Saturday in Washington, D.C., and took a lot of pictures -- especially of the many awesome original hand-made signs I saw fellow Rally-goers carrying. I'll be posting a special gallery of these signs within the next few days, so you can see a sampling of the creativity, irony, and thoughtfulness felt on the ground at the event.

BlogPress Beginning

2010-11-01T17:25:00.002-05:00

So I'm trying something new -- blogging from an iOS app. I've wanted to do this for a while, but haven't found an app that does what I need (which apparently hasn't really mattered, because I haven't been posting much, anyway). So here goes -- we'll see how this app does, and take it from there! I'm hoping this marks (another?) triumphant return to writing . . . something.

"The End" arrives

2010-05-23T14:56:00.005-05:00

It's been an amazing ride. Tonight marks the end of an era.

And the return of my blog posts, apparently.

Enjoy tonight. I hope to regain my posting momentum soon.

Pre-"Jughead"

2009-01-27T20:45:00.005-05:00

Now that you've already gone and re-watched both episodes from last week's mind-warping season premiere (watched by 20 million people, according to an ABC promo), here are two great articles with recaps and analysis to read over in preparation for tomorrow's episode, "Jughead":

Excerpt from Zap2It: It Happened Last Night's article:

In that scene, you'll remember Ben and Charles casually noting that neither can kill the other. Many of you might have simply chalked that up to Island will: after all, Jack and Michael have both had suicide attempts swatted down by the Island. But are we talking about Island will or the effects of major players in the Lost universe being unstuck in time? Remember what the increasingly important Daniel Faraday notes: the universe won't allow the creation of a new "string" of history. "If it didn't happen, it can't happen."
But there's an unspoken corollary to that: Everything that did happen, will ALWAYS happen. That's what course correction means. In short: Ben and Charles can't kill each other in London in 2005...because one or both die in the past. A past that hasn't exactly occurred yet, at least from the perspective of those two people at that particular moment. It's all relative. And it's all relatively awesome. And yet, completely and utterly baffling if you take it to its logical conclusion.

Excerpt from Entertainment Weekly's article:

Sounds like a time travel record. Sounds like a freak flag flown high. Sounds like what Season 5 aspires to be. Have you ever heard the title track, the one Dr. Chang listened to while feeding his baby? On the show, the tune starts skipping half a line into the refrain. The rest of it goes like this:

You can't make a record if you ain't got nothin' to say/ You can't play music if you don't know nothin' to play
Which reminds me of the song Lost used to open its second season, when it gulped hard and gave us the bizarre story of a man in a hatch that had to push a button every 108 minutes:
Make your own kind of music/Make your own special song
Make your own kind of music/Even if they won't sing along…
Translation: Yes, the producers do have a master plan. And now, it's time to play it out. Here's hoping it rocks.

Enjoy tomorrow night's episode, and feel free to discuss both last week's and tomorrow's in the comments!

Happy Birthday, Macintosh!

2009-01-24T14:50:00.009-05:00

The Macintosh computer, the first personal computer in history with a mouse and graphical user interface, was introduced by Steve Jobs exactly 25 years ago.

This is the infamous Superbowl ad that started it all:

And Steve Jobs's dramatic demonstration on January 24th:

MacRumors, Apple Insider, and The Register all have interesting stories and retrospectives commemorating the occasion.

Two hours, twenty-two minutes

2009-01-21T17:38:00.001-05:00

As the last few hours tick down, here's some reading that might help to get you (even more) in the mood, and keep your mind occupied so you don't go crazy!

That is, unless you haven't yet re-watched the entire series up to this point for review (or at least the three-part Season 4 finale) -- in which case, you'd better get started. There are only a few hours left, after all.

Chicago Tribune: Some answers from Darlton (Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse), in a nicely intriguing-yet-spoiler-proof package.

Zap2It: It Happened Last Night: I just found these articles this afternoon -- both entertaining and surprisingly thoughtful musings on individual LOST episodes, DVD releases, Mobisodes, etc. Here's the review of the Season 4 finale, though there appear to be posts for every recent episode.

Enjoy the three-hour premiere event, and feel free to post your theories, questions, thoughts, reviews, etc. in the comments!

The Inauguration Post

2009-01-20T13:25:00.005-05:00

Barack Obama is now, officially, the 44th President of the United States of America.

~~You can follow the Inauguration on Hulu, below:~~

UPDATE: Hulu's live coverage is no longer available. You can watch the video of Obama's inaugural address below, and click here for Hulu's Inauguration section.

Three more days

2009-01-18T18:49:00.005-05:00

With one of the best shows ever produced returning for it's fifth and second-to-last season on Wednesday, the anticipation is reaching feverish levels. For those who have already watched (and rewatched) the trailers and preview excerpts, Thursday's New York Times article about LOST's script coordinator and co-producer Gregg Nations won't necessarily help ease the suffering, but it's nevertheless an interesting read.

And with House returning from its six-week hiatus, and the fifth hour of thusfar-excellent Season 7 of 24 . . . it's shaping up to be quite a good week.

Note: Hulu has links to all of the show's episodes from the first four seasons here, though they're hosted by ABC and therefore need their media plug-in to be installed before watching. (And for those of you new to the series, the "Pilot, Part 2" is mis-labelled as the second episode, with "Tabula Rasa" being labelled as part of the first -- make sure to watch "Pilot, Part 1", then "Pilot, Part 2", then "Tabula Rasa", then "Walkabout", etc.)

SW: OT: Retold

2009-01-18T15:50:00.005-05:00

I found this video a few days ago -- it's a fun summary of the Original Trilogy, by someone who hadn't seen it before. The real brilliance, though, is in the editing of the animation, especially with some of its blink-and-you'll-miss-them references and snappy humor. Hilarious for Star Wars fans, and still pretty funny for non-fans, I'd think.

Star Wars: Retold (by someone that's never seen it) - watch more funny videos

[via TheForce.net]

Evolution of Evolution of Dance

2009-01-16T17:42:00.003-05:00

One of the most popular YouTub videos ever -- at the time of this writing, over 110 million views -- is Judson Laipply's "Evolution of Dance", which saw the release of it's official sequel several days ago. The original can be viewed here, and you can watch the new EoD rght here:

Let me know what you think of the new video in the comments!

24: Season 7

2009-01-12T19:38:00.003-05:00

The second night of the 2-night, 4-hour season premiere event is upon us. The first two hours of Day 7 (aired last night), along with November's 2-hour prequel, 24: Redemption, can be watched for free (and with limited commercial interruption!) here, at Hulu (though they'll only be available for the next week, so watch them now). This season is already off to a fantastic start, and I can't wait for hours 3 and 4 to start in 13 minutes!

Apple's last Macworld keynote tomorrow

2009-01-05T12:21:00.005-05:00

Now that we know Steve Jobs isn't dying (for those who were worried), we can all kick back and enjoy the show. I'll be following it here (if I don't wait for the video stream). I'm sad to hear that Apple isn't planning on coming back to Macworld; as many have said, it's looking to be the end of an era. Especially considering that Macworld was where Apple made many of their biggest launch announcements, I'm sad to see them go. Here's to hoping that they'll reconsider in the years to come (and that Steve starts giving keynotes again soon -- that guy can give a presentation like no one else!)!

Times for the keynote (via Engadget):

07:00AM - Hawaii
09:00AM - Pacific
10:00AM - Mountain
11:00AM - Central
12:00PM - Eastern
05:00PM - London
06:00PM - Paris
02:00AM - Tokyo (January 7th)

2008

2008-12-31T23:59:00.002-05:00

As 2008 draws to a close, I just want to thank everyone who has been reading over the past few years. I enjoy writing this blog, but what's even more gratifying is knowing that there are actually people checking in to read what I'm writing! I've never lost sight of the fact that it is a privilege to have a readership at all, and I'm tremendously thankful to everyone who has enjoyed what I've written here -- especially those who have left comments and participated in discussions around my posts.

Using the power of Google Analytics, I've found that over the past year (as far back as the data goes, anyway), this site has had visitors from no less than 29 individual countries and territories around the globe -- ranging from the United States to the United Arab Emirates, from Germany to Guam. This is, needless to say, tremendously exciting, especially since I've only really been back to writing on this site for the past two months.

I'm excited to see what 2009 brings, and I hope you are, too. Thank you again for reading, and I hope you all have a wonderful start to the new year!

Oh snap

2008-12-26T12:54:00.008-05:00

Judge Gary A. Feess has ruled in favor of 20th Century Fox in its case against Warner Bros. to assert its legal rights to a film adaptation of Watchmen. While the issue is far from settled, the ruling seems to have taken many by surprise, and Judge Feess is encouraging both sides to find a way to settle the case or appeal it, as it now will not be going to trial in January as originally intended.

So what does this mean? The excitement around Zack Snyder's upcoming film adaptation of the acclaimed graphic novel has only been building over the past year in particular, and there is a lot of concern from fans who anticipate this case delaying the release of the film, if not changing its content or cancelling it altogether. As of right now, there has been no official word on the tangible impact this ruling will have on the film or its release, but I'm confident that WB is going to do everything it can to protect the investment it's already made in the film's production, and the payoff they're expecting to receive from the hype it's generating around the world.

Indeed, while the judge's ruling shows that Fox does have legal claim to the property and the distribution of its motion picture adaptations, the timing of their case seems unfair to say the least. Why did they wait until the film was in post-production to push their legal rights? If they were sincerely concerned about preserving their claim to a film adaptation, it seems disingenuous to wait until the film was almost finished before opposing it. After all, the hype around the film has been building for the past two years -- it's not like its production was a secret.

In any case, it will be interesting to see where the case goes from here, and specifically, how it will impact the film. I, for one, hope the integrity of its content isn't touched by this lawsuit, and that the release date isn't significantly compromised -- the wait has been too long already!

This is weird . . . but there is an explanation

2008-12-22T01:07:00.004-05:00

Fans of ABC's LOST will find this both intriguing and very strange:

Some (of the many) questions in response to this might be:

What is happening to Sayid?!
Where is he?
What are those numbers?
What season is this from?
Is that a pink smoke monster?

Luckily (or not, depending how badly you're craving answers to the show's many actual unanswered questions), there is an easy explanation for all this, albeit a strange one. As commenters on the YouTube video have pointed out, along with several other sites, the three clips contained in the video are actually special promotions for Britain's Sky1, Sky2, and Sky3 television networks (which, it would appear, are or will be broadcasting LOST).

So while it may not help solve any mysteries or burning questions raised by the show, at least we can feel like we had a LOST-related mystery to solve, and we found a solution. Well, maybe. Or maybe I'm just trying to compensate for how badly I want the show to return . . . January 21, 2008 can't come soon enough!

Phonetic Punctuation

2008-12-18T23:55:00.005-05:00

Victor Borge, the great one-of-a-kind musician-comedian, has been a favorite of mine for many years. With the anniversary of his passing coming up next week, it seems fitting to share one of his most popular -- and one of my favorite -- bits: "Phonetic Punctuation". This video of it seems to have been edited slightly in the beginning, but jumpiness aside, the good stuff is all still there. Enjoy!

Borge had also adapted this routine for music, with Dean Martin. You can watch that here.

Flight of the Conchords: The Second Season

2008-12-14T01:23:00.006-05:00

It's official -- there will indeed be a second season of the HBO musical comedy series. There had been all sorts of rumors, after the season didn't premiere as expected during the summer of 2008, that the series had been cancelled. A trip to the official site, however, shows the above banner announcing the show's triumphant return on Sunday, January 18, 2009.

Since the first twelve episodes were nowhere near enough to satisfy my craving for more Conchords, I'm delighted to hear of their return. I wonder what amazing new music we're going to hear this season, since they used up most of their pre-existing material in the first season . . . maybe we'll finally see a studio-produced version of Jenny?

UPDATE: Readers have brought to my attention the fact that the first episode of the second season is currently available for free viewing, both through the FotC podcast on iTunes, and streaming via Funny Or Die. Thanks for the tips!

Duel of the Fates, animated

2008-12-13T14:02:00.002-05:00

Something fun for today: this is a great little bit of computer animation, covering all of the climactic Darth Maul/Qui-Gon Jinn/Obi-Wan Kenobi lightsaber duel from the end of The Phantom Menace. It's amazingly accurate to the film and the duel's choreography -- which I (sadly?) know from having watched the original so many times.

Of course, now a new adjective can be attributed to this epic duel: adorable. (Just look at those cute little hands and feet, without any arms or legs! Awwwwww.)

Auditorium

2008-12-07T21:32:00.000-05:00

I found this after someone posted about it on a forum I frequent; the basic idea is to redirect a stream of particles to flow through sound meters to create music. That sounds a whole lot less simple and elegant than this game actually is -- it is a great concept, beautifully executed and enjoyable to experience.

You can play the game (for free!) on its website. It's easy to dive right in and try, so go ahead and do it -- and bring along headphones or some speakers, because you'll want to be able to hear this game as you play it.

New "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" Trailer

2008-12-06T23:07:00.003-05:00

A new trailer for the sixth Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, has been released. I like this one a lot more than the first -- everything from the presentation of the story, to the humor (the interactions between Ron and Harry, and Hermione and Harry, are hilarious and well-done), to the effects (the smokiness of the memories is beautifully done, and looks even better in motion than it does in the frame below), to the almost-triumphant and engaging new rendition of the main theme at the end. I'm looking forward to this film a lot more after this trailer than I was before.

As has been the progression with the series, this film looks even darker (both in content and in color palette) than the its predecessors.

-- Mild SPOILER ALERT for those who haven't read the books --

There are a number of scenes included in the trailer, some of them short enough that one has to go frame-by-frame to really appreciate them. Especially of note (for awesomeness) is the Inferi scene:

And . . . could this be . . . ?

On a side note, does anyone know what these smokey things are? It's been a year and a half since I last read the book, so I may just be forgetting, but they're pictured a number of times throughout the trailer:

I'd love to hear your thoughts, so leave them in the comments!

The Unrepentant Terrorist speaks

2008-12-06T23:06:00.000-05:00

The New York Times has had some great editorial contributors in the past, and yesterday was no exception.

William Ayers, the individual originally brought up by Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primary campaign, and later used to damn Obama in the general election by the McCain campaign (sparking great debate after Gov. Palin's "pal around with terrorists" remark), used the Times as a platform to tell his side of the great Obama-the-terrorist debacle. Included is his explanation of why he didn't comment during the campaign, the nature of his notorious work in the 60s and 70s, and his relationship with Obama. He goes on to comment on the nature of politics today.

The dishonesty of the narrative about Mr. Obama during the campaign went a step further with its assumption that if you can place two people in the same room at the same time, or if you can show that they held a conversation, shared a cup of coffee, took the bus downtown together or had any of a thousand other associations, then you have demonstrated that they share ideas, policies, outlook, influences and, especially, responsibility for each other’s behavior. There is a long and sad history of guilt by association in our political culture, and at crucial times we’ve been unable to rise above it.

His piece can be read here, where hearing the story from his perspective, in his own words, is gripping.

TDK Re-release

2008-12-06T20:02:00.004-05:00

I had heard whispers of this earlier in the fall, but it looks now like it's actually happening -- Christopher Nolan's excellent film, The Dark Knight, is being re-released in both regular and IMAX theaters on January 23, 2009. This is significant not only because it will give people the chance to see it again on the big screen, but also because it will give them that chance after the DVD has been released (which is happening this Tuesday, December 9, 2008).

This is fantastic, and not just because it is The Dark Knight. I'm hoping that this will encourage other studios to re-release films that are meant to be seen on the big screen -- maybe someday, we'll get to re-watch Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, and other films like them in the theaters once again. Who's down for a Lord of the Rings: Extended Edition run in the theaters (I should note that when Return of the King was released, I heard of some special marathon showings at its premiere, of the Extended Editions of the first two leading up to the midnight release of the third -- which I thought was a great idea)?

Also -- if you haven't seen The Dark Knight yet in IMAX, I highly recommend seeing it when it's re-released. It's an amazing experience, between the power of the sound and the expanded resolution of the special IMAX-shot scenes. It's the only way I've seen the film thusfar (and I saw it three times), and I can attest that it was worth every penny (though with the prices of general admission at regular theaters, the IMAX tickets are often only a dollar more, for an exponentially better experience).

Al Gore's Plan

2008-12-05T15:49:00.004-05:00

It was published almost a month ago, but Al Gore's recent editorial in the New York Times, "The Climate For Change", is an interesting read that, in a short piece, clearly outlines where we are at this point with regards to the climate crisis, and some direct steps we can take now to deal not only with the present, but with the future.

Al Gore is so cool. Give this a read -- it's not very long, but is packed full of good ideas.

Flares!

2008-11-17T19:43:00.013-05:00

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not too well-versed in the ways of Star Trek (Star Wars is another matter, however). Despite this (or perhaps because of it), I'm intrigued by the new Trek film coming out next year, which is serving as a reboot of the franchise. It looks pretty cool, and it's also directed and produced by J.J. Abrams, who tends to turn everything he touches to gold.

The film's second trailer is causing quite a buzz, as it's the first to show more than just a bit of teaser footage to the drooling masses of Trek fans eagerly awaiting May 8, 2009. A lot of it is looking pretty neat even to me, someone relatively unfamiliar with the franchise. However, I couldn't help but notice (especially as a digital video editor and special effects artist) that there were a lot of flares in the footage shown, that were, at least for me, a little distracting. Now, I love lens flares. It's one of things I loved about Batman Begins and The Dark Knight -- the fact that there were so many flares, so beautifully and consistently shot. The thing about the flares in this Star Trek trailer is that they look less like lens flares from an on-screen light source, and more like light reflecting and refracting on/through a glass or plastic sheet in front of the camera.

You get the idea.

Is this a nod back to the original series? Is it a unique stylistic choice? Is it something else entirely? Feel free to post your thoughts in the comments -- I'm curious as to what you all think.

Watchmen Trailer #2

2008-11-17T17:02:00.003-05:00

I missed this when it was released a few days ago, due to my recent relative absence from the interwobs, but in case you haven't seen this yet -- check it out. This film is looking extremely promising, and while there are a few things that make me wonder about the look of the film (like the Silk Spectre's slow-motion spin from the explosion -- is this going to be Watchmen edited like 300?), even those things look pretty cool, and I can't wait to see what the film turns out to be like.

You can get the links to the trailer in all different sizes (including both .mov and .wmv high definition files) here. And don't forget to look at the newly-redesigned official site here.

Oops

2008-11-17T16:52:00.006-05:00

Remember what I was saying about momentum?

It's been a busy week on my end, and I've been away from my computer for a while. The next few days will likely be similarly busy, but I'll try and squeeze out a few posts along the way.

I hope you've all had a good week, and as always, thanks for reading!

How he did it

2008-11-08T04:18:00.004-05:00

According to the New York Times, anyway.

I really enjoyed reading this article about how the Obama team ran his campaign, all the way back from his race in the Democratic primaries, through the general election campaign against McCain. From the article:

“It was perfectly run; it made few mistakes,” Mr. Schmidt, Mr. McCain’s strategist, said of the Obama campaign.

This is the beginning of the piece:

It was the third week of September, and Senator John McCain was speaking to a nearly empty convention center in Jacksonville, Fla. Lehman Brothers had collapsed that day, a harrowing indicator of the coming financial crisis and a reminder that the presidential campaign was turning into a referendum on which candidate could best address the nation’s economic challenges.

On stage, Mr. McCain, of Arizona, was trying to show concern for the prospect of hardship but also optimism about the country’s resilience.

“The fundamentals of the economy are strong,” he said.

A thousand miles away, at Senator Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters in Chicago, the aides who monitored Mr. McCain’s every utterance knew immediately that they had just heard a potential turning point in a race that seemed to be tightening. They rushed out to tell Dan Pfeiffer, Mr. Obama’s communications director, what Mr. McCain, the Republican candidate, had just said, knowing that his words could be used to portray him as out of touch.

“Shut up!” Mr. Pfeiffer said incredulously. “He said what?” Mr. Obama, who had just arrived at a rally in Colorado, hastily inserted the comments into his speech. And by nightfall, the Obama campaign had produced an advertisement that included video of Mr. McCain making the statement that would shadow him for the rest of the campaign.

At the McCain campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va., at almost the same moment that morning, Mr. McCain’s chief strategist, Steve Schmidt, looked stricken when his war room alerted him to the comment. Within 30 minutes, he was headed for a flight to Florida to join Mr. McCain as they began a frantic and ultimately unsuccessful effort to recover.

It's a really interesting story, and brings back not only a lot of memories (remember the grueling race against Clinton? The days before Palin?), but also provides a lot of insight into the inner workings of the campaign, along with how Obama ran things. These sections are particularly telling, especially as Obama once said, "How you campaign shows how you will govern" (or something like that -- I'm paraphrasing something he said when questioned over whether McCain's negativity and lurching messages on the campaign trail were just part of the politics of campaigning, and not indicative of McCain's governing style).

I recommend you give it a read; it's a bit long, but engaging.

Iran welcomes Obama while Israel cautions him against Iran

2008-11-06T14:50:00.005-05:00

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued a statement congratulating Obama on his election as President, saying that he was looking forward to the change he anticipates Obama will bring to America's relationships with the rest of the world. From the CNN story, an excerpt from his statement:

The Americans who have spiritual tendencies expect the government to spend all its power in line with serving the people, rectify the critical situation facing the U.S., restore lost reputation as well as their hope and spirit, fully respect human rights and strengthen family foundations.
Other nations also expect war-oriented policies, occupation, bullying, contempt of nations and imposing discriminatory policies on them to be replaced by the ones advocating justice, respect for human rights, friendship and non-interference in other countries' internal affairs.

At the same time, Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni expressed apprehension over Obama's stated willingness to engage in diplomatic measures and direct talks with Iran. From the Reuters story:

"We live in a neighborhood in which sometimes dialogue -- in a situation where you have brought sanctions, and you then shift to dialogue -- is liable to be interpreted as weakness," Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said, asked on Israel Radio about policy change toward Tehran in an Obama administration.

[...]

Asked if she supported any U.S. dialogue with Iran, Livni replied: "The answer is no."

I've always been a fan of Obama's approach to this issue. As he put it in a debate, "The notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them -- which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration -- is ridiculous." And while I'm no domestic policy expert, engaging nations (including and especially potentially hostile ones) in dialogue seems to me to be both a mature approach, and one that will help to ease the impression of American blustery arrogance around the world. If even such an outspoken critic of the United States as Ahmadinejad is seeing this as an opportunity for more peaceful relations, then I'm looking forward to seeing where we can go from here.

Michael Crichton

2008-11-05T17:28:00.006-05:00

I just read that Michael Crichton, author of such bestsellers and modern science-fiction/thriller classics as The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, The Lost World, and Timeline, and creator of the long-standing television show ER, passed away yesterday of cancer. As a long-time reader of his books, I am saddened to hear of his death.

His final book is currently scheduled to be published posthumously, most likely next year.

What about Warren Buffett?

2008-11-05T13:52:00.007-05:00

During the second debate, both Obama and McCain said that they though Warren Buffett would be a good candidate for the position of Secretary of the Treasury, and since Buffett has been a vocal supporter of Obama, last night's election results seemed to make that a more likely possibility. However, his name is not on the short list of contenders making its way around the media outlets. According to ABC News:

Timothy Geithner, president of New York's Federal Reserve Bank, and Larry Summers, the former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, are believed to be the leading contenders.

I'm just wondering why Buffett's name isn't currently on the media's list anymore, especially since he was specifically mentioned by both the candidates (McCain, as he mentioned him, even pointed out that Buffett is an Obama supporter, but that he still thought he would be a good choice). Thoughts?

California passes Proposition 8

2008-11-05T13:38:00.009-05:00

No matter what one's own thoughts on the issue are, I think the results of this vote are interesting, especially since it reversed a decision made just earlier this year.

Here are a few excerpts from an LATimes story about the vote:

"I think the voters were thinking, well, if it makes them happy, why shouldn't we let gay couples get married. And I think we made them realize that there are broader implications to society and particularly the children when you make that fundamental change that's at the core of how society is organized, which is marriage," he said.

---------------------

Opponents of Proposition 8 faced a difficult challenge. Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, said California voters "very, very rarely reverse themselves" especially in such a short time.

---------------------

Research and polling showed that many voters were against gay marriage, but afraid that saying so would make them seem "discriminatory" or "not cool," said Flint, so proponents hoped to show them they were not alone.

---------------------

Perhaps more powerfully, the Proposition 8 campaign also seized on the issue of education, arguing in a series of advertisements and mailers that children would be subjected to a pro-gay curriculum if the measure was not approved.

"Mom, guess what I learned in school today?" a little girl said in one spot. "I learned how a prince married a prince."

As the girl's mother made a horrified face, a voice-over said: "Think it can't happen? It's already happened. . . . Teaching about gay marriage will happen unless we pass Proposition 8."

Many voters said they had been swayed by that message.

The role the media campaign had to play, as well as the sheer number of people campaigning on both sides (100,000 people went out for just one side yesterday), shows not only how important this vote was to people, but also how many resources (both financial and human) were used during the campaign for this issue -- striking especially given how many resources were already being tapped for just the presidential campaigns.

Florida and Arizona passed similar bans, by even greater margins, and Arkansas passed a measure keeping unmarried couples from adopting children or serving as foster parents.

Thoughts? Leave them (as long as they're civil) in the comments.

Barack Obama wins the Presidency

2008-11-05T00:35:00.003-05:00

The results are still coming in, but all the networks have called the election for the 44th Presidency of the United States of America for Barack Obama, who has just finished his victory speech. No matter where your opinions lie in this election, I think we can all agree that this is a tremendously historic and pivotal moment for the United States, and for the world.

VOTE

2008-11-04T02:41:00.001-05:00

If it's important enough for Stephen Colbert to put into his opening titles, then it's important enough for you to do.

Get information on voting (where to vote, how to vote, what voting is):

RockTheVote
GoVote
Vote411
U.S. Government

And from the candidates:

Obama: Voting information, more voting information, and reporting voting problems/voter protection.
McCain: Voting information.

Make sure to leave lots of time -- while your boss may have given you an hour (which is pretty awesome of them), you might need more time -- lines for just early voting have already gotten as long as eight hours. And while this probably will not be the case everywhere, you don't want to lose your chance to vote because you didn't give yourself enough time to do so. Also, remember that if you get in line by the time the polls officially close, you have the legal right to vote (officials will keep the polls open so that everyone already in line can vote).

All the best! Feel free to leave any questions or voting stories in the comments.

The results are in

2008-11-04T01:47:00.004-05:00

. . . well, the very first ones are, anyway.

The very first town in the United States to vote, Dixville Notch, NH, opened its polls at midnight, and has had 100% voter turnout already; according to CNN, the 21 registered voters (out of a population of approximately 75) voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama, 15 to 6.

We'll see where the results go from here. Though my question is -- shouldn't they be waiting until all the polls in the state close before reporting the results?

Indecision 2008 Election Night Special

2008-11-04T00:18:00.004-05:00

Right on the heels of last night's SNL Presidential Bash, Comedy Central is producing what for many (myself included) will be some of tonight's most-anticipated election night coverage -- a Stewart-Colbert joint live show! The coast-to-coast airing starts at 10 PM EST/9 PM CST/7 PM PST.

Here's a preview:

Voting = Free Stuff on November 4th

2008-11-03T17:13:00.005-05:00

Tomorrow, both Starbucks and Ben & Jerry's are giving free coffee and ice cream, respectively, to people who voted earlier in the day, joining other companies in providing additional encouragement to vote. Very cool stuff.

If you know of any other offers like these, make sure to let everyone know! Send me an e-mail or leave it in the comments, and I'll add it to this post.

UPDATED 11.04.2008: DailyNews posts a list of all sorts of free things you can get for voting (depending where you live), including tacos, donuts, cheesecake, and sex toys (not kidding).

#wotw2

2008-11-01T02:32:00.006-05:00

Carl Phillips returns.

Twitter was abuzz tonight with reports of an alien invasion à la Orson Welles's famous October 30, 1938 radio broadcast that, in a groundbreakingly creative adaptation of H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, caused a nationwide panic and solidified Welles's media career. Tonight's Twitter version, to save the masses from a similar reaction, tagged posts with #wotw2.

I write about it here because I think that this was a really clever and fun idea. In particular, as someone who has worked heavily in various forms of new media, as well as being a long-time fan of the dramatic radio of the 30s, 40s, and 50s, I was struck by the ingenuity of how Welles's idea was updated for the age in which we now live; to me, this seemed like a natural evolution of the concept, though I hadn't thought about it before I first read about this. TIME has an interesting piece looking at the original broadcast in retrospect, and drawing further parallels between the public reaction it inspired and present-day politics.

Finding new ways to utilize existing forms of media -- and keeping it simultaneously fun and safe.* I think Orson Welles would have been proud.

Download the .mp3 of the original October 30, 1938 radio broadcast here, along with a number of other Mercury Theater programs from the time.

* The 1938 radio broadcast did include a disclaimer at the beginning (not unlike the "#wotw2" tags here), though many people either forgot about it once it got underway due to the seeming verisimilitude of the news reports, or had tuned in late and missed the notice.

Thanks to these sites as the sources for the various parts of this post's graphic.

Your boss (and Borat!) want you to vote

2008-10-30T17:09:00.006-05:00

Well, at least these bosses do.

I've been really pleased to see some of the voter outreach Google's been doing over the past few months -- from this celebrity-supported voter registration video, to their handy voting map (and other fancy gadgets), to their interviews with candidates during the primary season, to this video showing people that even big bad corporate CEOs want you to vote:

And that celebrity voter registration video? Well, there's a sequel (uploaded yesterday):

And this one has Harrison Ford and Borat in it! A more powerful duo has never graced the small (small) screen.

Just make sure that you leave enough time when you go to vote -- with long waits even at the early voting locations, there's sure to be quite a rush on November 4th itself. Questions are already being raised over whether the system will even be able to handle the incredible turnout expected on Election Day -- so make sure to plan in advance. The groundbreaking voter registration efforts taking place across the country are showing and ensuring that every vote is going to matter.

You might want to give (and make your boss give) yourself more than that hour, just to be safe.

The Return

2008-10-29T22:23:00.001-05:00

I've found that writing, like many things, is deeply affected by momentum. It's a whole lot easier to write if you have a routine, if you have been writing somewhat regularly, than if you haven't done so for a long time.

As such, I'm writing this post to try and segue back in to writing here; there have been a number of times over the past two years that I've wanted to, but haven't -- either because I couldn't find the time or the focus to coherently organize my thoughts in a way that seemed interesting or beneficial for others to read, or because I couldn't find a proper way to reboot the blog and return to posting. Often, it was both.

In the end, though, I realized there's just too much to write about; I may sometime come back and write a proper "returning" post; in the meantime, it's time to look to the future, and kick-start the posting momentum again. I'm hoping, for both our sakes, that it will keep going for a while this time.

As always, thanks for reading, and for those of you returning readers, thanks for waiting! I'm looking forward to seeing where this all goes, and I hope you are, too.

Status check, Friday the 13th

2006-10-13T03:26:00.000-05:00

Boo! (yeah, I know, it's not Halloween yet, but it is Friday the 13th . . .)

Uploading a bunch of videos to YouTube. Will have posts for them very soon. The videos are fantastic -- make sure to check back soon (hopefully, everything will be set within the next day or two)!

Thanks again for your patience, and for continuing to check back. I'm sorry that we're all having to go through this delay. Until then, take care!

Note: The image is from the October 9, 2006 episode of The Colbert Report. In case you couldn't tell, it's a back view of Colbert's desk, looking past Colbert, out toward the audience. It was from a sweeping camera shot that was used as a transition.

(Temporary?) change

2006-10-08T02:01:00.000-05:00

Since I haven't heard anything yet from Metacafe, I've gone ahead and set up an account with YouTube. As I've said before, I'd really like to return to Metacafe, but in the meantime, hopefully YouTube will suffice. If anyone has problems with any of the videos (especially in the future, and as I move to YouTube), let me know -- either by posting a comment, or by e-mailing me.

Video delays

2006-10-06T13:58:00.000-05:00

Figured I'd fill you in on what's taking so long to post some new material -- I am currently waiting for the video I uploaded to Metacafe to be readied for consumption. During my hiatus, they seem to have changed their options a bit -- before, I had been able to submit a video as "private", and had done so, as I felt that as I was uploading the video for linking to from this site, and to provide context for the discussion contained herein (and therefore keeping it much more along the lines of Fair Use). Now, that option seems to have disappeared, and instead of the video being ready for linking to off of this site within an hour of uploading, I've gotten a message saying that my video "is now being distributed to members of the MetaCafe community for review". It's been like that for a day and a half now, with no update coming from Metacafe.

I'm not sure exactly what this means, but hopefully, it will straighten itself out very soon -- otherwise, I may have to switch to another video host. I've really liked hosting my videos at Metacafe, though, and so I'd like to give them a fair chance. I wrote them the following e-mail yesterday:

Hi,

In the past, I had submitted videos and marked them as "private". This was because I didn't want to overstep the bounds of Fair Use law, as I was using the clips to illustrate points made in my blog. By keeping the videos private, I felt I would minimize any question as to whether or not this was their purpose.

When I uploaded a new video last night, there was no option for making the video private. Now, my video is apparently undergoing some sort of review process -- which is something I did not have to do in the past -- which is not only slowing down my being able to link to it from the blog, but also shows that it is indeed not a private video anymore. My other uploaded videos have remained private -- is it possible to put this option back (or tell me how to do it, if I missed it)? It seemed to work the best for the way I wanted to use my clips.

Thanks so much, and take care,
Iman
http://sojournofthereal.blogspot.com

I guess we'll see what happens! If another day or so goes by with no response, I'll start uploading the videos elsewhere, if even just as a temporary alternative. I really want to get back to posting in my full capacity, and this is stopping me from doing so. There's some great stuff to post about -- hopefully, it will be with you within a day or two.

Video Directory

2006-10-04T23:46:00.005-05:00

This post is going to be like the one for Abbreviations, in that I am posting it now, but will be continuously updating it. It is also posted as one of the links on the right side of the home page, for easy reference.

This is a list of all videos that I have uploaded for use on this site -- instead of having to wade through all of my past posts to try and find a particular video clip, you can now instead refer to this list, and find the video directly. The list will be organized in decreasing chonological order, by date of the original post that included each respective video.

Tuesday, August 1, 2006: The Colbert Report. "Better Know A District" interview with Rep. Lynn Westmoreland. Originally aired on June 14, 2006. Video.
Monday, July 31, 2006: The Colbert Report. "Better Know A District" interview with Rep. Robert Wexler. Originally aired on July 20, 2006. Video.
Saturday, July 29, 2006: The Colbert Report. All states turn red, "Good Morning America" and "The Today Show" cover him, and "The Word" discusses Bush's stem cell veto. Originally aired on July 25, 2006. Video.
Thursday, July 27, 2006: The Daily Show. Covered Putin's kissing a young boy on the tummy. Originally aired on July 10, 2006. Video.

An (albeit brief) update

2006-10-02T02:02:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the very long delay in getting back to the keyboard. Semi-good news, though -- while I am still experiencing many hard drive-related problems, I have succeeded in recovering some (though not all, hence the news being only "semi-good") of the content off of the old drive, which can therefore be used in future posts. Which will be coming soon.

Thanks for checking back. 'Tis very much appreciated.

For another week . . .

2006-08-17T02:48:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, I'm going to be away for the next week, and most likely won't have access to a computer from which to post. Once I get back, however, I hope that posting will pick up again, somewhat uninterrupted.

Until then, take care, and have a great week!

Hard drive woes

2006-08-13T21:42:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. One of the main reasons has been the fact that a few days ago, I started having problems with my external hard drive, which is where I store almost all of my video (especially the video I upload for this site). I've been focused more on trying to fix that (among other things), and less on posting. For that, I apologize -- as you know, I had been posting, on average, at least once a (week-)day for a while. That should happen again soon. For now, though, know that new videos are not appearing because of technical difficulties (and not a lack of content or dedication).

Thanks for your understanding, and hopefully, things will return to normal soon.

That's strange . . .

2006-08-08T08:17:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, TDS and TCR broadcasted reruns of their episodes from last Wednesday, but according to the commercials that aired during last night's episodes, they should be back with new episodes today. Their respective websites, however, do not reflect this . . . which will it be?

UPDATE: The sites have been updated, and there are indeed new episodes starting tonight! Brian Williams will be the guest on TDS, and Bill Rhoden will be the guest on TCR.

(Note: The image, for those who are wondering, is from the July 26, 2006 episode.)

Filming "The Colbert Report"

2006-08-04T02:06:00.000-05:00

Sorry for missing a post yesterday, and also for the fact that there haven't been any discussions centered around any TDS or TCR episodes for the past few days. Don't worry -- they'll come. I've just had a busy few days . . .

In the meantime, thought, I just wanted to share this link I came across (on the EZTV forums) -- this person went to a taping of The Colbert Report, and wrote about it on his or her LiveJournal page. The entry is here, and it is a very interesting read, especially for those of us who want to know what it's like at a taping (I know that I would really like to go at some point).

(NOTE: There is a bit of offensive language in the post.)
(Note #2: The image is from the June 14, 2006 episode, for those who were wondering.)

Colbert web-base

2006-08-02T15:00:00.000-05:00

Here I was, thinking that ColbertNation was the only "fan"site devoted to Stephen Colbert, and more specifically, the Report, out there . . . but then I stumbled across a few others. Included among them are "Colbert's Heroes", the self-proclaimed "#2 Colbert Report Fan Site" (after ColbertNation, of course); "No Fact Zone.Net", which has establised itself as "a Stephen Colbert fan-operated blog and reference oriented web site", whose mission "is to aggregate as much information as possible about Stephen Colbert into a comprehensive web site, and to foster a community for the Colbert fans out there on the World Wide Web"; and "OSCLA: The Official Stephen Colbert Love Association", which is a small community of fans professing their love/lust for Colbert, the man (the name is a play on NAMBLA, which was also a running joke at The Daily Show).

It gets (even) more interesting, though -- and more politically charged. These aren't just fansites devoted to The Colbert Report -- for example, in response to Colbert's speech at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, the website "Thank You Stephen Colbert" (I've known about this one since the Dinner) was started, encouraging people to post personal "thank-yous" to Stephen for what he said. At the time of this writing there are over 61,900 thank-yous, and that number is bound to keep rising. A seemingly-related (if in layout alone) site has also popped up, "Candidates for Colbert", which is devoted to helping to fundraise for candidates the site has determined "embody Stephen Colbert's spirit of courage and honor". Then there is "Colbertocrat.com", which is the internet base for a political party rallied around a single cause: "We want to compel Stephen Colbert to run for president." How serious they are is difficult to ascertain, but there are already 183 signatures on their petition.

And, last but not least, there is a fanfiction piece that is very funny -- and if you are a fan of both the Harry Potter series and The Colbert Report, you really should take the time to read it: "Harry Potter and the Eagle of Truth", by Christine Morgan. And then, of course, there is the as-yet-unpublished work of the good Dr. Colbert himself -- "Alpha Squad 7: Lady Nocturne: A Tek Janson Adventure" (which might even be adapted as a comic book) -- but can that really be classified as fanfiction?

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland's TCR interview

2006-08-01T01:21:00.000-05:00

"This has been called a 'do-nothing Congress'. Is it safe to say you're the do-nothingest?"

Another now-infamous "Better Know a District" segment, which originally aired on the June 14, 2006 episode of The Colbert Report. This installment interviewed Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, from Georgia's 8th district. What particularly lit up the internet and news venues was the moment where Stephen asked Rep. Westmoreland to name The Ten Commandments, which the representative is pushing to have displayed in certain public buildings. Westmoreland's inability to name them all earned him a lot of criticism from many people, who openly commented about it on the internet.

Rep. Westmoreland did say, however, when talking about his interview experience, that, "The only part about it I didn’t like was when (Colbert) asked me did I know the Ten Commandments. I named off seven, but on the show he only gave me credit for three [. . .] Other than that I had fun." In addition, this other article also quotes Westmoreland saying some things that clarify his stance on representation and sticking to his campaign literature.

This was the other interview mentioned during the July 25th episode of the Report, which addressed the network news' coverage of this, as well as Rep. Robert Wexler's, interview. You can watch the video here.

Rep. Robert Wexler's TCR interview

2006-07-31T02:19:00.000-05:00

"So caribou are more important than my SUV?"

That's just one of the many great moments from this now-infamous "Better Know a District" segment, interviewing Rep. Robert Wexler, from Florida's 19th district ("The Fightin' 19th!"). This episode of The Colbert Report originally aired on July 20, 2006. It was one of the two interviews mentioned during Colbert's July 25th episode, and was covered by both "Good Morning America" and "The Today Show".

You can watch the video here.

“The man’s got a sense of humor – unlike, evidently, journalists.”

2006-07-29T04:21:00.000-05:00

The opening segment of the July 25, 2006 episode of The Colbert Report had a number of great moments (you can watch it here). One was Colbert’s coverage of Bush’s stem cell veto, and his discussion of how the President should use his unpopularity, strategically, to his advantage. Indeed, stem cell research is a controversial topic, and the President’s veto has garnered a lot of news coverage (searching “bush stem cell veto” on Google News brings up almost 7,000 articles at the time of this writing). A great resource for looking at this issue, especially in relation to TCR, is FootnoteTV, a website devoted to looking at the real news and issues that are referenced in popular television shows, and written and maintained by Stephen Lee. He has several links to the actual documents and press releases related to the subject of stem cell research, and more specifically, Bush’s veto, in his post about the July 25th episode.

Another great point that was brought up in this episode was Colbert’s interview of Rep. Robert Wexler for the July 20, 2006 episode’s “Better Know a District” segment. On Tuesday (the day this episode of the Report aired), both The Today Show and Good Morning America devoted time to TCR and Colbert’s interviewing of politicians. Between the two shows, both Colbert’s interview with Wexler and a previous (yet news-making) interview he had done with Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (I’ll try to have both videos up soon) were referenced, and both shows asked why politicians would go on the show, knowing that they would most likely be made to look foolish. Colbert’s ensuing analysis was great, and very funny, and yet this is a valid question.

Apparently, politicians are much more “in” on the joke than we give them credit for. Seattle Post-Intelligencer, in an interview with Rep. Rick Larsen, reported that “Larsen has no regrets [about his appearance on TCR]. Taping the segment, he said, "was a great time." And it will bring him some notoriety among his colleagues, whether they've been singed or not. "Around here, it's like a badge of honor to be on Colbert," he said.” In that interview, Larsen also said, “They interview you for an hour and take the four or five minutes that make you look the most ridiculous. That's their job, and my job was to look ridiculous” – which goes to show that he fully understood what he was getting himself into. Indeed, The Washington Times reported that for many of these politicians, “any publicity is good publicity.” In their article, “Politicians relish comic's needling”, they quoted several Representatives who had been profiled through the “Better Know a District” segments, many of whom had good things to say. “We tend to take ourselves too seriously in this business,” said one, while another commented, “You have to have the right attitude [about being interviewed by Colbert].” While some responded in the way one might have suspected (“It was a stupid waste of time, and he is two stooges short of a good routine,” said one, while another observed “I would think it would be OK to go on if you were live to tape, but don't subject yourself to a comic's edit unless you want to be made a fool of”), which is understandable given Colbert’s tendency to make the representatives look silly. However, it is clear that they are not as unintelligent as many accuse them of being – often, they are simply playing along with the joke. Wexler reportedly played along with Stephen’s joke purposely, after having agreed to be on the show at the urgings of his own staff members. Larsen commented, “I talked to other members about their experiences, and they told me the whole thing is, they are going to edit; they are going to take the answer to question B and put on question A. So what are you gonna do? You just play along. All you can do is just play along.”

(By the way – Westmoreland’s press secretary, Brian Robinson, responded to the Representative’s appearance on the Report, and specifically Westmoreland’s ability to name only three of the Ten Commandments he is pushing to have erected in the Congressional buildings, by saying that Rep. Westmoreland had actually been able to name seven of the Ten, but that the segment had been edited in such a way as to exclude the rest of his response.)

Another TCR transition

2006-07-28T17:51:00.000-05:00

Just to be a perfectionist, I wanted to show another transition that I saw on TCR’s July 25, 2006 episode – to be more accurate, is a new(-ly noticed?) lead-in to a more classic transition. This new transition-to-a-transition is the spinning “C” from “Colbert Report”, spinning toward the screen (and at the end of the transition, proceeding to spin from right-to-left across the screen). You can see a frame from the lead-in transition above, and from the closing one below.

New transitions -- UPDATE

2006-07-27T15:35:00.000-05:00

A few days ago, I posted about the new transitions that TDS and TCR are using before and after commercial breaks. In the original post, however, I had written about only one new transition that The Colbert Report is using, as I had forgotten about a second -- which is similar, but nonetheless unique. Like the other one I had mentioned, I think it works well for the show. These (and the one above) are a few frames from this other new transition (taken from the July 24th episode).

“And . . . BOOM goes the dynamite!”

2006-07-27T04:41:00.000-05:00

On the July 10, 2006 episode, The Daily Show covered a “curious incident” which has “raised eyebrows” and “stunned Russia” – Russian President Vladimir Putin, while walking through “the Kremlin”, stopping to talk to a five-year-old boy named Nikita, and then spontaneously kissing him on the tummy. As TDS pointed out, kissing children is an oft-seen publicity stunt for politicians, and is not usually seen as wrong. This incident caused a stir, however, as kissing Nikita on the stomach was seen as being too familiar, even within standards of publicity and culture (also aptly – and humorously – pointed out by TDS). Putin’s explanation did not do much to appease those questioning his actions – as quoted in an article by the Telegraph Group, “‘I tell you honestly, I just wanted to stroke him like a kitten,’ he said of the boy, who has reportedly refused to wash since the kiss. ‘He just seemed so nice. There was nothing else behind it.’” That statement was part of his response during a two-hour webcast, during which the President answered questions compiled from a list of top questions submitted by both Russian citizens and other individuals from around the world.

Something that TDS did not point out, however, was the larger context within which this incident took place. Some have put forth the opinion that the action was not quite as spontaneous as it appeared, but that it was a botched attempt by the President’s public relations company, Ketchum, to boost Putin’s public image, and create a more positive view of his interactions with children. Others have pointed out the parallels between Putin’s incident and others with a vicar named Alan Barrett, who kissed a ten-year-old girl on the cheek when presenting her with an award at William McGregor Primary School, and the boxer Eddie Daniel, who kissed the Queen during Britain’s Commonwealth Games. The whole situation has sparked a discussion about kissing and its appropriateness regarding strangers kissing each other – with regards to both political and cultural standards. Guardian Unlimited reported, “even innocent behaviour must now be punished if it is capable of misinterpretation by people conditioned by the media to suspect paedophilia in any gesture of friendship or affection by an adult towards a child. It doesn't seem at all fair. What makes it particularly difficult to avoid such pitfalls is the fact that kissing among adults has grown enormously in recent years: it is now customary for people who barely know each other to greet each other with at least one kiss and usually more.” [sic] The Washington Times, via London Daily Telegraph’s Tom Leonard, puts it well: “Arguably, the complexity of kissing strangers has never been greater. Although the touchy-feely politics of "inclusiveness" encourages public figures to be more intimate with the public, panic over pedophilia and the threat of sexual harassment accusations increase the risk of a kiss.”

You can watch the coverage from TDS here (EDIT: here is another link, which may be faster), and click the relevant links in this post to connect to seven different articles on the issue (here is an eighth). What do you think?

New video hosts found – hopefully

2006-07-27T04:26:00.000-05:00

I have (I think) successfully uploaded videos to two new sites, Putfile and Metacafe. I will try to monitor the links on this site, but as they grow in number, I am going to have to rely on you to let me know if a link goes down for some reason. So if you have any problems with any of the video links, please let me know, and I'll look into it. For the time being, though, it looks as though we are set!

"The Truthiness Teller"

2006-07-26T00:37:00.000-05:00

It may be four-and-a-half months old, but this article about Stephen Colbert and The Colbert Report is really great -- well-researched, well-written, interesting, and informative. Way to go, Marc Peyser and Newsweek/MSNBC!

Here are a few excerpts from the article, which can be read in its entirety here:

Despite the popularity of "The Wørd," the best part of the show is usually Colbert's interview. He's a brilliant ad-libber—he spent his early years doing improv theater—with an encyclopedic mind. "He'd be comfortable not only in any discipline, but in any era," says Jon Stewart. "If you transplanted him to the 1600s and suddenly he was involved in the medieval arts, or even dentistry, he would be fine. I consider him, oddly enough, like the Internet."

Colbert, 41, hardly acts like a wanna-be power player. He keeps one of his "Daily Show" Emmys in his office, but he hasn't bothered to attach the plaque with his name on it. Much more precious are his "Lord of the Rings" pinball machine and his photograph of Viggo Mortensen, etched in chocolate. "It's all edible—it's fantastic," he says. "I'm a huge, huge geek. I played Dungeons and Dragons the first week it came out." Where Colbert the news anchor wears designer suits and monogrammed cuff links, Colbert the comic shows up at work in khakis and a golf shirt. He married a woman from his hometown in South Carolina and goes to Catholic church every Sunday—for kicks, he once started an interview speaking in Latin. He's also got three kids he dotes on. He won't let them watch his show. "I say things in a very flat manner that I don't believe, and I don't want them to perceive Daddy as insincere," he says. "I basically tell them I'm professionally ridiculous." At one point while he's preparing for that evening's interview, his assistant comes in and says that Conan O'Brien wants him on his show. OK, says Colbert, but only if it doesn't conflict with taking his son to swim practice. "There couldn't be a huger difference between the character Stephen and the real Stephen," says Richard Dahm, one of the "Report" head writers. "The real Stephen is an amazing guy. The character Stephen—well, I wouldn't want to be working for him."

The irony is that now that he's a famous comic, people are taking him seriously. Naturally, the "Colbert" folks are amused and bemused by the "truthiness" phenomenon. "You can never tell when a song or a word or whatever will become of a particular moment. You know, like, why the macarena?" says executive producer Ben Karlin. For those interested in the historical record, Colbert coined the T word moments before he went on the air for his first show; no one on staff had any idea what great things it would achieve.

Definitely take the time and go read the article!

New transitions

2006-07-24T23:49:00.000-05:00

This may seem like a small point, but I thought it was interesting (especially being an aspiring filmmaker myself) to note that both TDS and TCR have, over the past few weeks, been showcasing new transitions between their commercial breaks, in addition to the ones they've been using for the past few years. Personally, I don't really like the new ones for The Daily Show, as I feel they are flatter and not as nice to look at. I also feel that they don't quite fit with the overall feeling, execution, and look of the program. The new one for The Colbert Report, however, I like a lot, as I feel it is not only colorful and pleasing to the eye, but also works well within the context of the show.

Here are a few examples of the ones The Daily Show has been using for the past few years (which are still being used, as well):

Here are a few shots of the new ones:

Now, in some of the frames, they look okay, but in others, I don't feel that they work as well as the old ones. The first two, in particular, I don't like (they are a part of a separate transition than the other frames). As you can hopefully piece together from the frame succession, the text of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart") zooms in from off screen, kind of assembling itself at the bottom of the page, and then zooms off screen.

The new transition for The Colbert Report, however, I feel works much better. Here are a few examples of transitions the show uses, with the last one being a frame from the new one:

You can click on each of the separate images to view a larger picture, if you want to take a closer look.

Well, that's the update, and it's just my opinion -- leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Video delays

2006-07-21T22:19:00.000-05:00

I had been planning a series of posts about recent TDS and TCR episodes, which would have included clips from the episodes embedded in the blog posts discussing them, through the hosting services of Google Video. I had gone ahead and uploaded the first two clips I had wanted to use, but had waited to post here, because I wanted to have the video embedded at the time of posting.

Unfortunately, the clips that I had uploaded were denied by the Google Video team, as they felt that they violated their Program Policies. Their first e-mail is posted below:

Hi,

Your video "The Daily Show - July 10, 2006 - Putin clip" was rejected
because it didn't comply with our Program Policies.

Videos submitted to our program are subject to an initial review to
ensure that they comply with our guidelines. When videos do not meet
our standards, we disapprove them. You can review our guidelines at:

http://video.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=27737&topic=1490.

Please make sure that you have all legal rights to use the content you
wish to submit to Google. For more information about intellectual
property rights and the program, please visit:
http://video.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=1490

Thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

The Google Video Team
http://video.google.com/

(Their second e-mail said the same thing, but referred to the second clip I had uploaded.)

I e-mailed them back, as I felt that other clips, similar to mine, were being hosted on their Video service, while mine were not being allowed. In particular, I cited this example, which is a segment from The Daily Show that was even longer than the one I had uploaded (and, I would assume, would be the same infringement of copyright as mine had been perceived to be), and yet had been hosted nonetheless.

We exchanged a few e-mails, and while they were pleasant in their responses, they were firm in their decision to not allow my clips to be hosted. While I disagree with their decision, as I strongly feel that my embedding these clips in this blog is covered by Fair Use law, I respect that they are trying to abide by copyright-holders' wishes (though I still don't understand why they are allowing this clip, and not mine), which is a philosophy with which I agree overall.

I still want to be able to show you the video clips that will be discussed, and so I am continuing to work on finding an alternative solution. It's a shame that Google Video won't host the clips, as their service integrates very nicely with the Blogger service, which hosts this site. Hopefully, I will have them up soon, and posting can continue uninterrupted. I'm sorry that things have been slow here in the meantime, however, and I wanted to explain now why there haven't been as many posts over the past week as I would have liked.

TDS and TCR nominated for 3 and 4 Emmys, respectively

2006-07-12T16:46:00.000-05:00

Both TDS and TCR were nominated for multiple Emmys – I’ll get right to it, and list the nominations below:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Outstanding Directing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Program (Episode #10140)
Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series
Outstanding Writing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Program

The Colbert Report
Outstanding Directing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Program (Episode #110)
Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series
Outstanding Writing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Program
Outstanding Individual Performance In A Variety Or Music Program

Interestingly, the two shows received nominations in the same categories (meaning that they are up against each other for the win), with the exception of the “Outstanding Individual Performance In A Variety Or Music Program” nomination, for which only Colbert was nominated.

The award ceremony will be broadcast live on August 27th, at 8 PM EST. For the official, complete listing of all of the nominations, visit this site, or download the list in .doc or .pdf format.

Formatting problems -- fixed!

2006-07-11T21:55:00.000-05:00

I think I've successfully fixed all formatting errors that had come up. Thanks for your patience! As always, if other problems arise, please be sure to let me know, either by leaving a comment, or by e-mailing me.

I look forward to things on the blog returning to their normal rhythm!

Formatting problems

2006-07-11T03:03:00.000-05:00

I use Mozilla Firefox as my default browser, and therefore, when I make my posts and check them to make sure they are displaying properly, I check them using my default browser.

So it came as quite a surprise when I accessed the blog using Internet Explorer, and saw that there were all sorts of random snatches of code interspersed with my entries. For those who have been reading the blog and have been seeing this, I apologize.

I wanted to let you know that I am working to try and fix this -- however, I'm not sure how long it will take, as I have been having a bit of trouble with the formatting for the site, as is. Please know that I am working to fix the errors on all of the previous posts, and hopefully, this problem will be resolved shortly.

Thanks for your patience, and if there continue to be problems, please let me know -- either by leaving a comment, or by e-mailing me.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

2006-07-11T01:37:00.000-05:00

The other night, I watched the movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, with a few friends. Now, never having played any of the Final Fantasy games (though they are all reportedly separate, as opposed to being direct sequels in a linear series), I had to have the story of the Final Fantasy VII game explained to me by my better-video-game-informed friends beforehand (the movie is actually a sequel to the story of the game, taking place two years after the game finishes). We also watched the “Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII” segment on the DVD before watching the film, in the hopes that that would further explain what had happened previous to the storyline of the film.

I must say, if my friends had not given me an overview of the story before we put in the DVD, I think I wouldn’t have had much of a clue about what was going on in the “Reminiscence” piece. This 20+ minute montage of what appeared to be footage from the game, edited together with random (to my eyes) scenes of people driving and talking on their cell phones about meeting somewhere, gave me more of a visual reference for what my friends had described, along with giving me some more details about what happened during the course of the game. However, a good part of it left me more confused, and wondering just how lost I was going to be feeling during the film.

Well, I was definitely confused about many parts of the film. I had this constant feeling that I was an outsider watching, someone who was not in the know on everything that was happening. The meager understanding I had of the story helped a great deal, however, and (to my surprise) some of the “Reminiscence” piece came in handy, too.

The thing is, overall, I enjoyed the film. Why? The main reason: the animation. It’s spectacular. I have never seen computer animation this good in a film before – certainly, there are other animated productions that are quite good, but this film earns the need for a clear distinction of its own. In addition, the fact that it succeeds in bringing the look of more manga/anime-style characters and scenes into three dimensions in a way that is so stunning, realistic, and life-like is yet another accomplishment that deserves its own recognition.

And so while you may not know much about the world of Final Fantasy VII, and some of the sequences are edited far too quickly (for my tastes, anyway – while the action is fantastic, the cuts between shots happened too quickly for me to be able to make out what was happening. Couldn’t they have just kept a few steady camera shots of the fights? Ah, well . . .), I would go as far as to say that you should watch this film for the quality of the animation alone. I enjoyed the story, the characters, etc., as well, but . . . well, I’m thinking of watching it again, so I can see the animation again.

It’s that amazing.

These are a few images of the film, taken from one of its trailers. And I am compelled to point out that while these may be great, there are even more spectacular images in the film. And beyond that, they look even better when in motion – the stills can’t fully do the film justice. You can watch a trailer for the film here, to get a taste.

New TDS and TCR episodes

2006-07-10T17:58:00.000-05:00

It appears that The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are back from their week-long vacations, and that a week of new episodes is about to begin! They both appear to be back until at least the end of the month.

Tonight’s guests:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Ilario Pantano
The Colbert Report: Amy Sedaris

What Jon Stewart "would like to see" in the media

2006-07-07T02:01:00.000-05:00

I recently came across this excellent interview with Jon Stewart that was done by Charlie Rose, on his PBS show. In it, Rose asks Stewart what he thinks the perfect news media system would be like. Stewart highlighted the importance of the credibility of the anchor, built by experience and knowledge, which would lead to a system that could hold those being interviewed, such as public officials, accountable for the truth of what they say. Here is a snippet of what they discussed:

Jon Stewart: There is no expertise from the anchor chair. And I don’t understand that. […] Find someone with the passion and the juevos to just lay it on the line – not in a partisan way, not in the pursuit of political power or political gain, but in the pursuit of credibility. In the pursuit of being a judge, an arbiter, and earning the trust of the audience over time as an oversight to the shenanigans of the political world. […] When they say the Republicans have created jobs that are nine thousand dollars less, in that moment, you need to be able to counter that. You need to be able to hold them accountable and be honest. And it’s not hard.
Charlie Rose: Or, you can have a bank of very smart people behind the scenes, until you create a credible guy, or a credible lady, who’s the anchor, and if somebody says something that’s simply not right, something happens so that you see, “That’s not the truth!” […] What you’re saying is that the people who do – who are anchoring the news ought to have --
JS: Expertise. Tenacity. And passion. […] Take it out of the political realm. That’s -- the problem with the media today is that they are too wrapped up in the strategy of the Beltway. They are now consumed by this idea that the whole world is running for reelection. They are worried about their connections within that world, when what they need to be worrying about is their connection to us, outside of that world. You know, there’s a funny name for that place they call “outside the Beltway” – it’s called America, and they need to think about that. Think about that – they’re – we’re the ones that they need to protect from this cynical game of right and left that is being perpetrated. […] Context doesn’t require rolling over. And that’s what has happened, that people are steamrolled because of what is timidity, or fear of losing access, or, uh, a fear of not advancing far enough – why would you want to get to be a White House correspondent anymore? Why would anyone want to approach that job, why would you want to take the best and the brightest out of the journalist corps and put them where basically they are just – I mean, do you read the transcripts from Scott McClellan’s press conferences with them?
CR: No, I don’t, but –
JS: It is an exercise in dystopian conversation.
CR: Right. They’ll ask a question, and he will deflect it, and they’ll ask the question again, and he will deflect it – is that the idea? Or more?
JS: It is -- no. It is absolutely a contrived dance, where both sides know that what is going on isn’t real. And when you read it, it freaks you out.

He also made a point of stating that the interviewer, who has the aforementioned expertise to hold his or her interview subjects accountable for what they say, does not have to do so in a manner that is too forceful for something that is difficult to verify with objective fact (i.e. saying, “Mr. President, you are not telling the truth” in response to a comment that things are going well in Iraq). I thought that this was an interesting and important point, as it seems that many feel that holding politicians accountable for what they say equals being rude, or constantly being on the attack. What Stewart was putting forth sounded like a much more reasonable alternative, and one that appears to be sorely lacking in the overall sphere of the mainstream media.

The interview with Stewart is the first half of the show (which is presented in its entirety on Google Video), which constitutes about half an hour. I would definitely recommend watching the whole half hour, especially if you are a fan of TDS in general, as he talks a lot about the show, as well as the book that the Daily Show team wrote, America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction.

You can watch it here. (It is currently being offered for free viewing through Google Video.)

Note on abbreviations

2006-07-06T21:58:00.003-05:00

Any abbreviations used on this blog will be defined here:

TCR: The Colbert Report
TDS: The Daily Show
the Report: The Colbert Report (this is often how Stephen will refer to it on the show, i.e. "Here on the Report . . ." The italics are for grammatical accuracy, not for emphasis.)
TDK: The Dark Knight, a 2008 Batman film directed by Christopher Nolan

A permanent link can be found on the sidebar of the homepage.

Note: This post has been substantially altered from when it was originally posted on July 6, 2006. In addition, while that original timestamp remains, it has been edited multiple times since that date.

While it is technically a blog entry, this page is being used as an ever-growing lexicon of abbreviations that are being used in other entries in the blog, and is therefore being managed differently than if it was a regular post.

For reference, here is the original text of the post:

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Note on abbreviations

I just wanted to make this clear – “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” may be abbreviated to TDS, and “The Colbert Report” to TCR. These, and any other abbreviations used on this blog, will be defined here.

A permanent link has been added to the sidebar of the homepage.

posted by Iman at 10:58 PM

A note about the videos and pictures

2006-07-06T21:49:00.000-05:00

You will be seeing video clips posted here on this blog. Most of them will be streaming video, courtesy of such hosting services as Google Video. I may provide both links to videos that I have uploaded, as well as to some I have not. In addition, there will photographs accompanying some of the blog posts.

As far as I am aware, my posting video clips and photographs, even if they are segments and screen caps of broadcasted shows (such as “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” or “The Colbert Report”), is legal under Fair Use law. However, if you are the owner of the copyright on a video or photo you see linked to on this blog, and would like to see the link removed, please e-mail me directly about the content, and I will do what I can to straighten out the situation.

I want to make it clear that I am not trying to illegally disseminate copyrighted material through this blog. Quite to the contrary, I am trying to use these clips to illustrate points that will be made on the site, and in a way made legal by Fair Use law. In doing so, I feel that the experience for the readers of this site will be enhanced, as the multimedia content will supplement the written content. However, I also want to ensure that I am not using any of this content in a way that is deemed unlawful by the owners of any of the content. As such, if you find that I am using your content in such a way, please contact me directly about it.

Thank you very much, and I look forward to making this blog the best experience it can be!

The Beginning

2006-06-14T12:41:00.000-05:00

Welcome! This is the first official post to this blog, and I want to outline what I currently see as its future, and what you can expect to see.

I am a huge fan of both “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report”, a fake news show and fake pundit/commentary show respectively, that each air four nights a week on Comedy Central. I will certainly get into why I like the shows so much in future posts, but I feel like my affection for these programs will act as an effective springboard for a discussion of many issues.

This is not going to be a blog about these two shows. There will certainly be a lot of information about the shows, and over time, an episode guide will be built for reference and for your convenience. This will be more of a side project, however, and much of what will be discussed will be issues brought up by the shows, as well as other points of discussion that are unrelated to the programs.

Essentially, I’m not sure about exactly what is going to happen on this blog. It will evolve over time, I’m sure. However, throughout all of it, there will be some interesting discussions of various issues (I hope you will think so, too!).

Another point – I have set the blog up so that comments are open for anyone, not just registered members of Blogger. I’m doing this so that anyone can read and comment on a post when they want to, no matter who they are. Please keep your comments polite and relevant to the blog entry on which you are commenting – not only will obscene or spamming comments be deleted, but they also may lead to my shutting down the public comment system. This is something I don’t want to do, because I want anybody who wants to be able to comment to feel free to do so. This, I hope, will help to stimulate plenty of healthy discussion.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy this blog!