This enthusiasm is contagious.
Have I ever told you that I work on Georgia Tech’s alumni magazine? I don’t know if I have. But I do! I have since last June but haven’t really written about it here, mostly because there hasn’t been a whole lot of excitement to report, although now there is, because we just wrapped up the first issue of our entirely redesigned book, and it’s fantastic. Metaleap did the whole thing and I basically just love it. (This might be my favorite spread BUT I REALLY CAN’T CHOOSE!) There’s more here if you’re a designhead and would like to nerd out about it (that post doesn’t include any “before” shots, though, which I think is totally crucial; here’s what we started with). I would also like to brag about the fact that the magazine’s editorial staff numbers exactly two and that my EIC and I wrote pretty much all of the copy except for the one feature (on SPACE TRAVEL!) we farmed out to a more-qualified freelancer. So. Yes. Quite pumped about this, god I love magazines, writing about nerds is so great, etc.
OK Go drives a car through a song. Best stunt driving/music video gimmick ever.
Streaming at Rolling Stone.
About a year ago, this small local site decided to move its operation exclusively to Facebook. It seemed a little gimmicky, yes, but it also promised new possibilities for social interaction with readers, extremely minimal operation costs, and it was a bold move that attracted nationwide coverage from media nerds like myself.
I thought I’d check in with the brave little news site, and lo and behold, I discovered they posted for the last time in October.
We view our move to Facebook as having been successful. We have appreciated the members of our community posting photos, questions and links on Rockville Central and seeing other people respond. We’ve also been pleased to have first-hand news accounts from the people with their cell phones. Our active users have increased by over 500%. We’ve gone from about 24,000 hits a month on the website to 100,000 post views a month on Facebook. A single post on Facebook typically gets over 2,000 views.
Even with all this interaction, comments have remained civil. People have participated with thoughtful and full opinions about the issues. We’ve been able to provide a place for public discussions about Rockville based on the many news sources in our region. All these outcomes are gratifying.
However, the simple fact is that it takes a great deal of energy and time to support the online community in the way we feel it deserves. We do not make money off of Rockville Central, and never intended to. It is a labor of love and devotion to Our Fair City. We don’t feel we can devote the kind of energy it deserves and so, rather than let it whither, we decided to make a clean end.
Brad Rourke, of Rockville Center, posted an entry regarding the shut-down last October on his blog.
I still think the Facebook-only thing could work — but there would definitely be some important challenges to overcome. Tumblr only? No problem.
On a Saturday night in August, 2010, a week before starting college, Dharun Ravi decided to look online for his future Rutgers roommate. He was living with his parents in Plainsboro. Ravi, who was planning to major in math and economics, had learned that he had been assigned to Davidson Hall—a collection of single-story, barracks-like dorms on Busch campus, which is considered the dullest of the four Rutgers campuses in New Brunswick and neighboring Piscataway. He would be in Davidson Hall C, a coed dorm for about eighty students. He knew Clementi’s first name and that his last name started with C; he also knew his e-mail address, keybowvio@yahoo.com—apparently, a distillation of musical terms—and had e-mailed him but received no reply.
(via givemesomethingtoread)
“Twitter is the ultimate real-time engagement mechanism, so it’s moved everything to a much faster speed,” said Zac Moffatt, the digital director for the Romney campaign. “You have no choice but to be actively engaging it at all times.”
Mr. Romney’s aides say they can get a sense of where a story is headed before it is published simply by reading reporters’ Twitter messages. If reporters have flagged a particular incident on Twitter — for instance, the woman who stood up at South Carolina event and asked Mr. Romney, a Mormon, if he believed “in the divine saving grace of Jesus Christ” — Mr. Romney’s aides might pull him aside before a press conference and warn him that the topic is likely to come up.
Pinterest continues to climb the social networking charts - now up to No. 5 according to Hitwise.
Brian Stelter tumbled our salt and pepper shakers!
1/29/12: Here’s my weekend edition. Does it count? —@_dougcampbell
Incredible: Maurice Sendak is just a wonderful, horrible man.
I definitely want to try this.
Back in 1700 or thereabouts, if you wanted a hot drink, you asked your tavernkeeper to mix it up in a mug and then thrust a red-hot poker into it. The method lacked a bit of subtlety, though, and between that and the fact that modern bars rarely have blazing fires with iron pokers in them, that method of heating drinks has fallen out of fashion. Which is a shame, Dave Arnold points out, because it did more for the drink than merely making it warm — it caramelizes sugars and ignites alcohol vapors, changing the flavor of a beverage significantly. Your winter hot toddy gets its warmth from boiling water, which does the basic job, but has no flavor-enhancing effects.
Now that I’m at work from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., I’m starting to think seriously about how I consume media. What’s important? What’s junk? How can I choose what’s important and what’s not? Who can I trust to do most of that filtering for me?
I haven’t figured it out yet. I’m guessing I’ll settle on a combination of Twitter Lists and a few trusted news sources. I’ve been subscribing to a daily issue of the NY Times on my Kindle for a few days, which I read on my way to and from work, but I can hardly get through a few top and national stories (and I’m a quick reader! And it’s a fairly long commute — half an hour both ways.)
My alarm clock sounds like one of those bright-red bells that might ring in a firehouse to signal an emergency, aptly setting the tone of my morning, which is a bleary scramble to answer: What did I miss?
This video makes it look like Full House was about a bunch of demonic child kidnappers.
So I just got a job, which is great news, but I have even better news — I’m playing at Pete’s Candy Store in Williamsburg this Sunday night! It’s going to be a pull-out-all-the-stops no-holds-barred acoustic-solo-singer-songwriter event.
I think it should be a lot of fun. If you’re busy or you can’t go out at 10:30 p.m. on a Sunday night because we’re all adults now, tell your friends looking for a party on a Sunday night that they should go! Josh Ritter’s girlfriend told me that Pete’s Candy Store is cool when I interviewed her for a story about cheap Christmas presents. (That’s like my one “cool guy living in a cool city” story so far.)
Here are the details:
SUN 1/29: 8:30
Oh! My BlackbirdFronted by lead vocalist and guitarist Annie Sullivan, alt-folk trio Oh! My Blackbird harnesses the magic of close vocal harmonies and pissed off early-twentysomethings lyrics. With Nick Jozwiak (cello, bass, auto harp) and Veronica Kohl (tambourine, vocals), the self-described “gritty, New York City hippies” create a tight yet playful folk pop sound.
9:30: Linzi Zaorski
10:30: Me
The address is 709 lorimer street - williamsburg, Brooklyn - 11211. The ZIP code is a palindrome!
