My blogging plans have taken a new direction, so I’m rebranding. (Practice what you preach, you know.) I’m also using the change as an opportunity to switch to MovableType: more features, better support, all kinds of good stuff. Please swing by the new space and join the fun.

"The Swan," in The Missouri Review.

Link via Maud Newton.

The last word on the “wardrobe failure,” from one close to the action.

Tomorrow is National Wear Red Day, and Choire Sicha of Gawker is having nothing of it: National Wear Red Day is a project of Glamour magazine, Laura Bush, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which begs the question: Would you jump off a bridge if Laura Bush told you to? Of course not. So if she told a bunch of winter-pasty magazine girls, frantically getting ready for carousing on the first night of fashion week, to dress in hideous bright red outfits that emphasize blotchiness and alcoholic red-eye, would you do that either? We certainly hope not.

1965: Kenneth Tynan says ‘fuck’ on TV and four motions are tabled in parliament
1976: the Sex Pistols use it on a teatime show and are banned from TV
2004: more than 10 million people watch John Lydon use the ‘C’ word and fewer than 100 complain

Mark Lawson of The Guardian considers how Britain’s perceptions of cursing on-air have changed and what it means for the future.

It’s particularly interesting to consider this event in light of Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl performance and the subsequent Tittygate fallout (no pun intended). Lawson highlights two factors as key to public reaction: labeling and context.

Certainly no one watching the halftime show was warned that there might be largely naked (and floppy) breasts in view. So reaction is acceptable for that reason.

As for context: From the beginning of the song, the camera shots of sexily-dressed dancers lolling on the stage should have clued people in that the content would not be family-friendly. The song wasn’t particularly new, and the lyrics described pretty much what direction the action was going to take. But Super Bowl halftime does take place before 9pm anywhere in the U.S., and there’s an understanding that near-nakedness doesn’t happen ever on broadcast television in this country. So again, the public outcry isn’t a surprise.

What strikes me though is the difference between an FTC investigation (in the Super Bowl show case) and 100 complaining letters (in the John Lydon instance). Had Lydon made the same remark in the same context on a U.S.-based program, I believe the public reaction would be greater, and he’d have received more than a verbal warning.

Of course, what Lydon probably wanted (and didn’t get) was to be kicked off the show. Irony!

Anytime I start to think that maybe I’d like to move to Manhattan, I’m going to re-read this and remember why I haven’t done so yet.

What the Hell is the Fibonacci Series? Textism explains, with pictures!

The Pixies are reuniting!

Sources have confirmed to Billboard.com that dates are being booked, and guitarist/vocalist Frank Black’s unofficial Web site (http://www.frankblack.net) reports that the Pixies will first embark on a North American warm-up tour that will lead up to the Coachella appearance. A full-scale tour will follow, encompassing both North America and summer European festivals.

Despite all the plans, drummer David Lovering told Billboard.com last week that the group has yet to begin rehearsing.

Every entrepreneurial company has no choice but to focus on sales. Most of the great leaders – military, business, government and entrepreneurs – are great salesmen. Great product concepts are one thing; great product successes are another. The difference usually centers on sales. The magic may be the brand, but the carpet is the sales force. Your brand can’t fly without it.


John Bello, CEO and co-founder of South Beach Beverage Co. (makers of the SoBe beverage line) describes how insistent, agressive sales efforts made their company a success in a saturated market.

No. 15 Usher’s Island – the “dark, gaunt house” on the south quays of Dublin’s River Liffey immortalised in Joyce’s best-known short story “The Dead” – very nearly didn’t survive the passage of time. When Dublin barrister and Joyce fan Brendan Kilty bought the four-storey Georgian building three years ago, it was little more than a wreck, testimony to the local authority’s failure to protect Dublin’s illustrious heritage. Fortunately, it has been restored by the new owners – read the details here. For context, you can also read the full text of Joyce’s most famous short story.

(Link via the amazing Maud Newton.)

Writing tips from Gene Wolfe.

A sample:
“If you can’t make a section good, at least make it short and get the pain over with.”

(Link via Inner Bitch, who today also points to the latest Elmore Leonard news.)

See also these tips and these.

In past years I have attempted to keep track of the ads shown during the Super Bowl, along with reactions and analysis. Each time, I’ve either become too bored or too drunk to get all the way through. This time I didn’t bother, and it’s just as well because Seth Stevenson of Slate has done a fine job in his coverage. He liked the donkey/Clydesdale ad, which many people seem to have thought best of show but which left me cold. But otherwise I think he’s largely on target.

Here’s his take on the ad I liked best in the game:
Kids get their mouths washed out with soap—they can’t help but curse in disbelief when they see the new line of Chevys. This ad is kind of funny, but what’s funnier is that the Linux kid is in it. It’s just two commercial breaks later, and already he’s gone from grandiose metaphor to kid with soap in mouth. Side note: Shouldn’t IBM have some sort of exclusivity clause? They can’t be too pleased to see their metaphor hawking cars.

(Link via TMFTML.)

Also, regarding Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction: First, I missed it, even though I was watching the halftime spectacular. I’m completely bummed that I had to read about it the next day to know what went on.

Second, I’m delighted at the phrase “wardrobe malfunction.” We had clothing issues all the time in theater, and I now have a perfect term for them. Hooray!

Pixar, with a string of computer-animated blockbusters to its credit, including “Monsters, Inc.” and the “Toy Story” films, broke off negotiations Thursday to extend its partnership with Disney and said it would seek a more favorable deal with another studio.


“After 10 months of trying to strike a deal with Disney, we’re moving on,” Pixar chief Steve Jobs (news - web sites) said in a statement. “We’ve had a great run together — one of the most successful in Hollywood history — and it’s a shame that Disney won’t be participating in Pixar’s future successes.”


Pixar still owes Disney two movies under the current deal, “The Incredibles,” which is scheduled to open in theaters in November, and “Cars,” which is to be released next year.

"Here I am, this fat bloke from Reading sharing a room with Jack Nicholson, Bill Murray and Michael Douglas. It’s fantastic."

Rick Gervais, creator and star of the BBC’s The Office, is awed by his new international star power.

(Link via Anonymous Outsider.)

You are HP-UX. You’re still strong despite the passage of time. Though few understand you, those who do love you deeply and appreciate you.
Which OS are You?

"People are asking whether, ultimately, PowerPoint makes us all stupid, or does it help us streamline our thoughts?" said Norvig, who first saw Talking Heads in the late '70s. “My belief is that PowerPoint doesn’t kill meetings. People kill meetings. But using PowerPoint is like having a loaded AK-47 on the table: You can do very bad things with it.”

Microsoft spokesman Simon Marks wouldn’t comment on whether PowerPoint has debased society but said in an e-mail, “PowerPoint continues to evolve to make it easier for customers to present their information in the style that best suits the content and the audience.”

Contrex is being marketed as Britain’s first “cosmetic water”, on the basis that it works as a slimming aid.

Nestle, its maker, claims that the mineral water contains natural sources of calcium and magnesium, which can eliminate toxins, fight fatigue and help people stay in shape.

The claim the calcium can also increase the body’s metabolism and improve weight loss.

But health experts have dismissed the idea of a “diet water” as ridiculous.

“Drinking water will not make you slim, even if it is fortified with calcium and magnesium. It just doesn’t work that way,” said Amanda Wynne of the British Dietetic Association.

Despite this criticism, industry insiders are predicting that “aquaceuticals” will be the boom dieting products of 2004.

(Link via Agenda.)

A decade has passed since Berendt, a New York magazine writer, published “Midnight” with its gossipy tales of a murder, a drag queen and voodoo rituals that many Savannahians doubted outsiders would ever read. Since its debut in January 1994, Berendt’s book has sold 3.3 million copies and spent 216 weeks on The New York Times list of best sellers. Savannah, GA, continues to benefit from being a featured “character” in the best-selling novel, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

"Chuck Gerba, a professor of environmental microbiology at the University of Arizona who has studied bacteria in home kitchens, said that he found that people who had the cleanest-looking kitchens were often the dirtiest. Because “clean” people wipe up so much, they often end up spreading bacteria all over the place. The cleanest kitchens, he said, were in the homes of bachelors, who never wiped up and just put their dirty dishes in the sink."

...

"'The basic reality is that the risks that scare people and the risks that kill people are very different,' said Dr. Peter M. Sandman, a risk communication consultant in Princeton, N.J. ‘Risks that you control,’ Dr. Sandman said, ‘are much less a source of outrage than risks that are out of your control. In the case of mad cow, it feels like it’s beyond my control. I can’t tell if my meat has prions in it or not. I can’t see it, I can’t smell it. Whereas dirt in my own kitchen is very much in my own control. I can clean my sponges. I can clean the floor.’

"Dread is another factor, Dr. Sandman said. People can deal
with sick stomachs, but they absolutely dread the idea of rotting brains."

The New York Times looks at germaphobia, kitchen cleanliness, and people’s poor understanding of food-borne germs and risks.

I’ve know for years that sponges are breeding grounds for germs, but I rarely take the time to microwave them to make them safe. It’s such a simple solution too. I do wash my hands, and perhaps that’s what has saved me so far.

(Link via The Morning News.)

From iowablog: I think the first story I ever put up in workshop (the one about the time machine) might have been the right path all along. My next book is going to be an international sci-fi thriller, and I don’t care who knows it.

"More and more, I think I don’t mind being a cheap whore for the publishing world. What was that you said... you’d like a short story on growing up Vietmanese in Garth Brooks country? I happen to have one in me back pocket..."

(Links via the amazing Maud Newton.)