google reader – Page 161 – Gabriel Snyder

Jun 14, 2012

Taxi appÂ a share delightÂ

SPLIT A TAXI? Hail yeah! Taxi riders may soon be able to find a cab to share using a tech firmâ€™s smartphone app. A would-be passenger can punch in the nearest intersection and neighborhood theyâ€™re traveling to, and GetTaxi will help find someone else headed in the same direction with its Ride Share feature, the company said.

via NYDN Rss Article only http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/gettaxi-app-a-ride-share-delight-article-1.1095334?localLinksEnabled=false&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nydnrss%2Fgossip%2Frush_molloy+%28Gossip%2FRush+%26+Molloy%29

Jun 14, 2012

Editor Flees Russia on Alleged Threat

A prominent Russian newspaper journalist fled the nation after what his associate says was a death threat from one of the top law-enforcement officials delivered during a menacing walk in the woods.

via WSJ.com: Media & Marketing http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303410404577464582155562486.html?mod=rss_media_marketing

Jun 14, 2012Jun 14, 2012

This story could be called “The Quest for a Personality” — or “15 Guys in Search of a Feminine Identity” — or “How Miss Virginia Slims Got to Be the Kind of Girl She Is.”

From UCSF’s Legacy Tobacco Documents Library, “How an Agency Builds a Brand–The Virginia Slims Story.”

In an interview with Alan Sepinwall wrapping up the latest season of Mad Men, Matthew Weiner said, “We were always interested in this early Virginia Slims thing. We loved the fact that it was a small, undesirable product for everybody, and it of course became a pretty big success. But that’s such a famous campaign written by such a distinctive person that I would never do that.” But what’s the real story behind Virginia Slims? As Hal Weinstein of Leo Burnett asserts:

Cigarettes have gender, as everyone knows. It was a study by Pierre Martineau, I am told, that first pointed out that cigarettes are either masculine or feminine but never successfully neuter.

via MetaFilter http://www.metafilter.com/116922/This-story-could-be-called-The-Quest-for-a-Personality-or-15-Guys-in-Search-of-a-Feminine-Identity-or-How-Miss-Virginia-Slims-Got-to-Be-the-Kind-of-Girl-She-Is

Jun 14, 2012

Django Unchained Gets an International Trailer

Seven long, anxiety- and excitement-ridden days since Django Unchained‘s first trailer hit, the wait till December has been given the salve of an international clip for Quentin Tarantino’s next film. Herein you’ll receive: Christoph Waltz’s bounty hunter character’s name, Dr. King Schultz, and a visual gag that remains great after many viewings; at least 50 percent more shots of Waltz and Jamie Foxx blasting folks; the same Johnny Cash/James Brown soundtrack segue; a smidgen more of Lost‘s Mr. Friendly; a single glorious second of Tarantino mainstay Samuel L. Jackson; a reminder that it’s fun to live in America, land of ~~the free~~ Django Unchained being released on Christmas 2012 rather than this trailer’s vaguely heralded “next year.”

Gomorrah Filmmakers May Have Paid Off Italian Mob

Italian prosecutors are looking into it.Â

via Daily Intel http://www.vulture.com/2012/06/gomorrah-filmmakers-may-have-paid-off-mob.html

Jun 14, 2012Jun 14, 2012

Django Unchained Gets an International Trailer

THICK AS THIEVES. So Michelle Malkin and Juan Williams were

THICK AS THIEVES. So Michelle Malkin and Juan Williams were on Sean Hannity’s Fox show, and Williams was, as usual, playing the good liberal, patiently reciting facts while Hannity bellowed bullshit at him and Michelle Malkin made faces.

It’s a living, folks — and a very good one; as you may recall, back in 2010 Williams was fired by NPR for remarks he made on Fox about being ascared of Muslims, whereupon he was immediately given a two million dollar contract with Fox. Not bad pay for a ten-minute bellow every so often.

After Williams told Hannity, who yelled counterpoint, that Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation of the Valerie Plame case did indeed show that Plame was a covert operative, Â Malkin got to recite a set piece in a funny voice: “All you can do, Juan, is say ‘Plame, Plame, Plame,’ and ‘Blame, Blame, Blame, Bush Bush Bush.” No, honestly. Go see, it’s on around 5:30 in.

This seems to have roused Williams, who told Malkin, “I’m a real reporter, I’m not a blogger out in the blogosphere somewhere, I’m gonna tell you something…” And on he went about how reporters “in a free society, in a free press, reporters go and talk to officials…” which I’m sure is what he thinks journalism is.

Hannity yelled at Williams some more, then graciously gave Malkin “the last word.” And what a last word it was. “The American people are sick,” said this tribune of the people, “of the kind of snotty condescension from liberal elitist journalists like Juan Williams who tell us that the rest of us are not doing our jobs.” Then she demonstrated what job was, telling us that when Eric Holder was “shamefully approved and nominated to be Attorney General, he had already had a long record of bastardizing national security and the rule of law…” whereupon her skull split open and jets of blood and bile shot out of it, more or less.

We who have free souls, it touches us not. Rightbloggers, on the other hand, immediately declared victory over the hated Lame Stream Media. “OUCH: Epic,” hehindeeded Ole Perfesser Instapundit. “Michelle Malkin Smacks Down Juan Williams,” asserts The Rightnewz. (No, I never heard of them either, but then I never heard of All American Blogger before he was crowned the Breitbart Laureate of Blogs.) “Whoa!” declares Jim Hoft, “Michelle Malkin ABSOLUTELY Destroys Juan Williams…” etc.

But my favorite response is that of Jammie Wearing Fool: First, because he actually says, “Yet another nail in the MSM coffin.” Boy, does that bring me back. How long’s the internet been on the verge of killing the MSM now? Ten, twelve years? And yet Williams, as much as Citizen Journamalist Malkin, is still yapping away on the TV — and making, I am sure, quite a bit more doing it than she is. The MSM is still kicking; journalism, well, that’s something else.

But better still, Fool says this:

Considering it was bloggers who came to this boobâ€™s defense after he was canned by NPR, condescendingly referring to Michelle Malkin as â€œjust a bloggerâ€ tonight on Hannity wasnâ€™t exactly showing his thanks.

Thanks? Oh, Fool, don’t you know? In the immortal words of Bill Fields, never give a sucker an even break.

via alicublog http://alicublog.blogspot.com/2012/06/thick-as-thieves.html

Jun 13, 2012

TMZ Didnâ€™t Recognize Terrence Malick

TMZ let quite the scoop slip through their fingers this week when they caught the press-shy Terrence Malick meeting with Benicio del Toro â€” but they didn’t recognize Malick and instead asked Del Toro some meaningless questions. Malick generally refuses to be photographed or filmed, so the fact that TMZ just happened to stumble upon him is some magical serendipity, and the best part of the whole encounter is Malick’s nervous, goofy attempts to turn away from the camera. The clip starts at 3:15.

Once Illegal, Health Rumors Now Have Mubarak Die Daily

Since Hosni Mubarak received a life sentence, a torrent of leaks has sprung suggesting that he may be nearing his end.

via NYT > Most Recent Headlines http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/13/world/middleeast/once-illegal-health-rumors-now-have-mubarak-die-daily.html

Jun 13, 2012

Suggested new movement: â€œCord Trimmingâ€

Critics say a pay TV business that regularly charges its customers $100 a month is doomed.

OK, so how about a cable bill that costs less than $40?

Yes, in between that revolutionary band of consumers who say they no longer want to pay for services and channels they donâ€™t use, and a video content establishment that says you need to support the imcumbent pay TV model to fund shows like Game of Thrones, there is â€¦ compromise.

Also read: Pay TV Â growth keeps slowing â€“ 484k video users added in Q1

I call it the â€œcord-trimmingâ€ movement â€” if Iâ€™m watching my shows on my Xbox 360 and iPad most of the time, why am I paying for whole-home HD DVR service? If Iâ€™m spending half my viewing time on Netflix and HBO Go, what need do I have for Cloo, the Church Channel, CMT and dozens of other smaller cable networks Iâ€™ll never watch?

On Tuesday, I went into multi-channel downsizing mode, perusing the packages of the TV service providers in my Downtown Los Angeles area, Dish Network, DirecTV, AT&T U-Verse and Time Warner Cable.

Also read: Why HBO is once again TVâ€™s most relevant network

Here are some of the cost-reducing options I found:

Dish Networkâ€™s Welcome Pack: This, my friends, is the welcome mat to nearly total pay TV minimalism. All your local channels, plus about 40 cable networks highlighted by TBS, Comedy Central and History, and a simple standard-def receiver box, all for $14.99 a month. Iâ€™d be almost completely cut off from my Lakers and Trojans, with no ESPN, TNT or regional network access. (Although a subscription to a service like NBA League Pass could alleviate some of that loss). Iâ€™d miss AMC, too, but I could â€œcatch upâ€ on all their series with Netflix.

What I would be able to do is watch streams from networks like Fox without having to wait eight days. I could also subscribe to HBO Go or Showtime Anytime, since I have the necessary pay TV papers for that, too. And if I watched on tablets and notebooks, I donâ€™t know that Iâ€™d miss the HD.

Dish International Basic: If the ability to stream premium channels is all I want (plus maybe the BBC), I can choose this crazy-minimal package for $10 a month (which gives me just 20 foreign channels without local broadcast networks). Iâ€™d get free HBO and Showtime for three months, in addition to Dishâ€™s Blockbuster-branded streaming. That alone might offset the $240 Iâ€™m paying on the base subscription over the two-year span of the contract.

Time Warner Digital Basic: Since I donâ€™t know that Iâ€™m ready to give up sports and the HD big-screen, this $29.99 package might be a better option for me. Itâ€™ll give me all the basic authentication I need, plus access to ESPN and TNTâ€™s HD channels. Notably, Time Warner is the only provider in my area that will let me authenticate WatchESPN. Then again, after 12 months, the price shoots way up.

Option 3: Negotiate a better price with my current provider, DirecTV:Â Heavens no, I didnâ€™t levy threats. But I did lay out a reasonable argument to a reasonable woman. If I have to keep paying $84 a month for 200 channels, an HD DVR and a thin-client-enabled second TV room, Iâ€™m going to walk in September, when my contract runs out. Iâ€™ll be taking my check-writing talents to Dish â€¦ or AT&T â€¦ or Time Warner, or whoever can process and American Express. Turns out that in the cord-cutting era, these sales reps â€” or at least, the one I talked to â€” are flexibly empowered to trim prices mid-contract with various discounts and promotions. I got my monthly bill reduced by $20.

Itâ€™s a good deal for me because I use regional sports networks like Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket on a somewhat regular basis, and I can justify the added subscription cost by imagining what Iâ€™d spend to attend local home games, or to buy friends beer in order to see games at their place.

I can tack on Netflix and HBO subscriptions, and still keep my video budget under $100. I still have a DVR, so I reduce my exposure to unwanted advertising. But Iâ€™m kicking into the pot for re-transmission fees, so Iâ€™m not putting Disney, Viacom, Time Warner Inc, et. al. out of business.

Everybody â€” or most everybody â€” wins.