codedread

I’ve corrected some bugs, tweaked the theme in a few places to improve it - but I haven’t done anything major yet with the blog user interface, leaving it as a simple “stream of entries”. I’m trying to decide the things I should show and then I’ll work on how to present them. What are all the different ways people use blogs? Click To Read More...

Where’s the best place to get Kung Pao in the Chicago area? Bonus points if it’s in the NorthWest suburbs…

Lots of groundswell to try and save NBC’s “Journeyman”, a well-written serial drama with great writing and tons of potential. Looks like no more episodes have been ordered and episode 12 may be it for this show - so if there’s an opportunity to save the show, it closes within the next couple weeks. There are a couple plans out there:

• Groundlings say to watch Journeyman episodes online Monday night via NBC’s website. This costs you nothing, but would send the network a message that there is a fan base. If you’ve never seen the show, start with the pilot, of course
• A comment at the above blog gave out the name of the press manager for the show:
  

  Park, Joanne
  Senior Press Manager - NBC Entertainment Publicity (Project Assignment: “It’s a Wonderful Life” “The Singles Table” “Journeyman” “The Office”)
  Phone: (818) 840-4579
  Fax: (818) 840-4943
  Email: joanne.park@nbcuni.com

• Sign an online petition. Mostly worthless, but it doesn’t hurt.
• SaveJourneyman.net is planning to send either Rice-a-Roni or Aspirin to the network (show-related). I might even consider this once the campaign has made up their minds.

I know it’s kind of sad to see somebody whining about how their favorite show is on the chopping block - and oh, the injustice in the world (or at least in the business of network television). Ah well, at least I did my bit to spread the word. That’s what these self-serving, narcissistic blogs are about, right?

Via Slashdot. Hm, maybe someone at Marvel Comics is reading my blog? About a year and a half ago, I made a suggestion of a $10 monthly charge to read any number of older comics online. Now Marvel comics is doing just that. I’m not claiming my suggestion was original or revolutionary, it’s just good to see the comic book companies finally starting to get a clue.

I took a look at a sample issue and the quality is pretty good on my 19″ monitor. What cares about the fancy page transitions, though. They use Adobe Flash 9, of course.

I hope DC follows suit because I bet some of those really old issues are impossible to find through any other means.

Once again, NBC’s Journeyman is proving itself to be a solid science-fiction serial drama, overshadowing its sophomore lead-in Heroes. The stakes have been escalating over the past few weeks, and last night’s episode was probably my favorite so far. Last night was the first time I felt really bad for Livia, too. Click To Read More...

My wife was watching TV in the other room and suddenly I heard Feist’s 1 2 3 4 (that I wrote about only a couple weeks ago). We saw Apple’s new commercial twice tonight for the colourful iPod nano. Looks like much bigger exposure for Feist.

For me, I’m still holding out on buying an Apple product - it’s not a boycott, it’s just that I already have a free mobile phone and a cheap DAP. We’ll see how the iPodTouch fares - that might be what I need (an audio player that lets me browse the web over WiFi). Some may claim that it makes more sense to spring for the iPhone because the iPhone is only $100 more - but it’s the 2-year AT&T chokehold that I dislike…

Having a “Blog Break” in the summer I guess…

Anyway, I happened to catch the tail-end of an impressive musical performance last night on The Late Show with David Letterman. So I hopped on Google which led me to the show’s site where I learned that the musical performer had been “Feist”. Looking it up on Wikipedia, it was not obvious at first that the performance I had seen was by a solo artist, but I was able to make out that it was Leslie Feist, a fellow Canadian.

Woops, her official site is currently having an “identity crisis”. Ugh, check out the referenced MySpace page and get inundated with audio that I didn’t necessarily want to hear. Enough of this, go to YouTube and search for “Feist”. First link is to a video for the song “1 2 3 4″ which happens to be the song I enjoyed on Letterman (to be fair this video is also currently the first one on the MySpace page). Video is kind of cool - the fact that it’s all one take, colourful, lots of youth and energy, with (apparently) no special effects. Might take one or two viewings, but it’s catchy too. Here’s a “Making Of” video too, see if you can spot the differences in the take they used in the final video…

Here’s the same song performed on Conan two months ago. Still doesn’t compare to the bigger choir and brass sections they had on Letterman. I’d pay to see a show with all those people clapping and singing and playing music… An hour after seeing it on Letterman, I used Google’s Blog Search to find out that someone has now posted the performance on YouTube so you can judge for yourself (Update: video taken down, here’s another copy).

Then I found this cute video: Some high schoolers re-enacted (and adapted) the video for a senior project. I was impressed enough to leave an encouraging word and rate the video.

Anyway, I’m liking Feist. She reminds me of Regina Spektor in the sense that she seems like another talented female artist that’s fresh and new and wholly herself, despite achieving some popular commercial success (i.e. present in commercial and television spots). Do you think music companies are learning a thing or two about letting the artists be themselves? Do you think music companies are learning anything about marketing in the internet age?