Sunday, January 02, 2005

ACC Hoops on UNC vs. W&M: "It was more like S&M once Carolina got rolling." 4:55:25 PM    comment []

David Wharton: "Why Does the News & Record Give Free Advertising to Developers?" Well, the section is marked at the top "Classified Advertising Supplement," but it could be a LOT clearer. It's made to look like regular news coverage, that small banner aside. The Rhino does the same thing. Both papers should label this stuff for what it is -- advertorial content, or as we say in English, advertising. 2:54:05 PM    comment []

We watched Super Size Me. Thus a rare New Year's resolution from me: less fast food in '05. Also watched this holiday season: Meet the Fockers, which was fairly funny but hardly essential viewing, although it gave me a sense of why people love Barbra Streisand so much; Jersey Girl, on video, in Jersey -- worse than the scathing reviews could convey, I just gave up after a while; The Terminal, for which I was unable to suspend my disbelief but which I did not deeply hate --well, not very deeply; all of The Lord of the Rings movies on video, as discussed here ad absurdam; The Incredibles, again, and I liked it more the second time. Read: The Rule of Four, which was surprisingly badly written (even for a bestseller) and did not deliver the goods in terms of plot, either; reread various key scenes and chapters of LOTR; began The Confusion. 2:20:48 PM    comment []

Sometimes you wonder if the Times could better use the space it gives to David Brooks by running...I dunno, blank newsprint? 2:09:01 PM    comment []

Jay Rosen expands on the words of Tom Curley: "Content will be more important than its container."  He cites GSOLive, an aggregator I slapped together in an hour or so and keep updated with minimal effort, as an example of RSS allowing readers to see content without visiting  individual sites. All of which is upsetting to people who wish to create walled gardens on the web. They can try, they can kill their RSS feeds, take their ball and go home, but I doubt they'll end up controlling big private networks -- they'll need substantial original content to do that, and I don't see the economics working out in their favor. 12:29:36 PM    comment []

The N&R writes about Jessica Cole. I still lack the resources to say much about her death. Her funeral was one of the most beautiful and wrenching services I have experienced. A jumble of impressions: the strength of her friends -- middle school kids -- as they got up and spoke about Jessica in front of a big crowd at the Greensboro Day School theater; the grace and leadership of GDS headmaster Ralph Davison, a true friend to Jessica, as he spoke and sang; a song about losing a child that played as we shuffled for the exits; the way the seventh-graders formed an impromptu honor guard and stood silently as her coffin went past; the faces of parents and friends as they gratefully slipped on their sunglasses and walked outside together; another song, one I've loved since I was in middle school, that suddenly had new meaning. 11:23:30 AM    comment []

The editor of our daily newspaper is quoting Dan Gillmor, and not just for us webheads but for the print readers, too...2005 is going to be an interesting year. 10:58:16 AM    comment []