Back from the beyond
Why don’t more business sites use weblogs? They keep things current, they’re easy to update, they’re easy to set up, they let lots of people participate, they’re mainly text. All the best attributes of good business web sites, rolled into one. It seems like such a simple idea, but so few people understand, as the Cluetrain Manifesto puts it, “what the web is for.”
I guess those of us who love and understand the medium just have to keep plugging away. The rest will catch up. Someday.
The main problem with “About Schmidt” is it’s being marketed under false pretenses. To watch the previews, you would think it’s an “Election”-style wry comedy. Instead, what you get is one of the most profoundly sad movies I’ve ever seen.
Maybe this was on purpose, for lots of reasons. People may not want to go to a sad movie these days, and perhaps the emotional punch of the film comes somewhat from being unprepared. I know I wasn’t ready for what I saw in Jack Nicholson’s eyes in this story.
It’s a brilliant, touching film about how life moves past us when we’re not looking. Nicholson, who I normally can’t stomach, is a marvel. This one stays with you. There are laughs, but even those come from sadness. Highly recommended – but know what you’re getting into.
Heaven for a word person and “West Wing” fan like me must be to hear a cool word on the best-written show on television. So I was ecstatic when reporter Danny Concannon told C.J. Cregg the Democrats were “bumfuzzled.” Not only because it’s a cool word, but because it’s so true.
On the one hand, Democrats are so confident in their good intentions that they never learned how to play hardball. And on the other hand, they’re so cowed that they have no ability to stand by their convictions. Not a great combination. They are so paralyzed, they’ve lost the ability to spin even the simplest issue to their way of thinking. Aaron Sorkin continues to show his willingness to skewer his liberal brethren, although I wish he’d do it even more.
As an added bonus, apparently next week’s episode will focus on the coolest woman on TV right now, Allison Janney’s C.J. Cregg. I can’t wait.
Haven’t posted any photos in a long time, so I thought I would offer up this one, a cool shot of one of our family bulldogs, Emily, probably circa 1975 or so.
Yesterday was fun. I had another instance of someone responding to my low-key communication with unexpected spitting venom. Unfortunately it reminded me of the Global Dialog incident. And there have been others in recent memory, all involving e-mail communication. Maybe it’s an e-mail thing – I know that people tend to haul off and smack someone in an e-mail when they wouldn’t do so in person, or even over the phone. But I’m beginning to wonder if there’s something about me that causes people to snap.
The other problem is, I wasn’t able to just shrug it off as I should have. It really bothered me all day yesterday. If someone is unexpectedly difficult, insulting, or rude, how do you handle it? I’m not some sort of hothouse flower that needs to be handled carefully. But sometimes things just come out of left field, you know?
OK, back to Joe Millionaire, Justin Timberlake’s broken heart, and other matters of importance.
“Can’t Believe I Just Saw That” Award of the Week
Martha Kent is making superhero costumes for her son on the first episode of “Lois and Clark.” We get to the final familiar one, and Martha leers up and down Dean Cain’s body, saying, “Well, at least they won’t be looking at your face. They don’t call them ‘tights’ for nothing.”
I almost poked out my own eyes.
I watched “Joe Millionaire” on Fox last night. And while I’m not proud of it, I’m not ashamed either. It was damn entertaining. Seeing those women leer at the French castle and all its trappings was fun, and having the rose of The Bachelor replaced by jewelry of escalating value was a brilliant touch. Not to mention the competition for the dresses to wear to the ball hosted by the fake millionaire.
Those producers are good.
But for me, the thing that crystallized all that’s creepy and yet compelling about these shows was watching Mr. Fakey fondle the women’s necks as he put the pearl necklaces on last night’s lucky ones. (Later the women were shown testing the necklaces to make sure the pearls were real. Did I mention these producers are good?) Only a brilliant TV strategist could come up with a premise that simultaneously caters to and mocks everything that makes “reality” shows such ratings boosters these days.
I’m hooked.
After months of procrastination, I finally called my mother’s school district to see if they would accept the donation of her iMac. She doesn’t use the thing, and her frustration with it causes her to get a knot in her stomach every time she sees it, much less turns it on. No one will believe this, but it was her idea to buy the thing in the first place, not mine.
For many years I was a passionate technology missionary, believing that everyone’s life would be enriched by a computer (and in later years, internet access). But I’ve learned that for a substantial portion of the population, a computer will never be anything more than an intrusion into their daily lives.
I still think that’s a shame. But I’ve given up promoting it.
Altruism is overrated.
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