I believe life’s a mystery; a sacred one. As for faith, that’s a personal and private thing…”
– John Walton Sr.
Tag: Media
Fish talking about water.
Private Fame
TO AN AMATEUR SKYWATCHER (in the original sense of that first word), the beginning of the month is quite special; it’s when the new issue of Astronomy arrives. Among that magazine’s many excellent features and fixtures is “Ask Astro,” where experts answer readers’ questions. Here is something from the May 2023 “Ask Astro” that — well, just look:
Pithyism #-30-
DO NOT MOCK THE DAMNED, for you yourself may be one of them someday.
— Old reporter’s proverb
True Confession
I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT ‘bizarre’ means anymore.”
— Anthony Bourdain
Pithyism #001010
SOMETIMES, THE TERM “ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE” is just a cover for genuine stupidity.
Open Wound
Tree of Life’s members will do everything for the 11 dead except show up in their place.”
– Pittsburgh rabbi to Mark Oppenheimer, from the latter’s “The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood”
Meetin’ and Greetin’
MY PUBLISHER ADVISES ME THUS: “…[W]rite a blog post that you’ve published an in-depth Q&A interview … and invite your blog readers to comment on your blog and suggest additional questions they’d like to see answered in your interview (and then go back and answer those questions too!).”
This is that blog post. Do what thou wilt.
“That is the Order of Things”
BEING A NERD ISN’T ABOUT the things you love — it’s about the way you love them.”
— Wil Wheaton
5 Thoughts: Seminal v. Derivative
1. ONE OF THE CHICKEN-OR-egg challenges of modern media (social and traditional) is their pervasive sense of nonlinear immediacy, by which I mean the everything-at-once flattening of the artistic landscape.
Continue reading “5 Thoughts: Seminal v. Derivative”
Of Heroes, Waterbeds, and After-Midnight Television
THERE IS A MOVIE THAT follows the struggles inherent in the so-called Hero’s Journey: a high-born child is raised in secret by commoners, and eventually groomed by a wise elder to overcome obstacles and fulfill his destiny by taking his rightful place among the knighted nobility. And that movie is called … The Black Shield of Falworth.
If TBSoF (1954) sounds a bit like Star Wars (or even Excalibur), that’s because it travels the same mythic highway. And if it feels like 1938’s The Adventures of Robin Hood, that’s because it too was based on a Howard Pyle book, Men of Iron. Continue reading “Of Heroes, Waterbeds, and After-Midnight Television”
Fandom as Cargo Cult
IF WE BUILD IT, THEY will come — again.
First, you need to know what a “cargo cult” is: a folk religion among some groups of Melanesian Islanders who believed that they could attract cargo-carrying airplanes by engaging in sympathetic magic. They got this idea during World War II, when real airplanes (both Allied and Japanese) visited these islands and airdropped actual cargoes — food, weapons, clothing, medicine, and the like. After the war, the planes stopped coming. But the islanders, convinced that the proper conditions would bring more goods, built airstrips (in some cases, complete with landing lights) and otherwise mimicked certain behaviors they thought would achieve their goals. It’s a powerful communal buzz, and easy to get lost in. Continue reading “Fandom as Cargo Cult”
20 Observations on Newspaper Reporting
- ALTHOUGH THEY RELY ON THEM, few people say they actually trust the news media. (I call it “Ross’ Paradox.”)
- Everybody has a story. And many want to share it.
- Newswriting is a form of reality-creation, wherein readers trust you to describe the world beyond their immediate perceptions. Don’t ever abuse that trust.
- Every face is a door, and if you knock just right, you’ll be invited in to witness wonders.
- First-responders have the darkest sense of humor of anyone outside of reporters. It’s an evolutionary strategy that serves both well. Continue reading “20 Observations on Newspaper Reporting”