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Mixed and mixed-up media
Feb. 14th, 2014 09:33 pmOur main Valentines celebration this year was watching the last half of this past week's Beatles 50th anniversary special, aired on CBS on the 50th anniversary of the Fab Four debut on Ed Sullivan and then again (when I recorded it) two nights ago. The tribute performances were all wonderful, but having Paul and Ringo on stage- each alone, then together for two final numbers- was goose-bumpy.
So much of their music- and so much of their talent- still holds up all these years later.
----
Turns out Jeff Bezos isn't much of a Beatles fan.
In a New Yorker piece about the creeping-into-everything effect of Amazon, the author mentions that the site's founder built from the book up, unlike the way that Steve Jobs used music to infiltrate the old-school castles of pre-internet commerce:
Bezos wasn’t a passionate listener: he once agreed to be interviewed for a program about the Beatles, and when employees, prepping the boss, asked him to name a favorite Beatles tune, Bezos chose “America,” by Simon & Garfunkel.
The piece is a good look at how both the old-guard tactics of the Big Six (now Five) publishers and those of Amazon were, and are, equally ruthless; more than once, a diss of Seattle led to a near instant disappearance of the "buy" button next to a publisher's works. The author also recounts an incident at a Manhattan book expo where two Amazon-tagged thugs basically told a publisher's rep, "Dat's a really nice imprint you got dere; be a shame if anyting happened ta it."
I'll still use the site, but I'm more motivated than ever to look into less pushy alternatives when they're available and functional.
----
Just now, our landline rang. There's nobody on the other end. I'm getting used to this. It's a continuation of the "trouble on the line" we had in December, and Verizon tells us the only option is to replace our copper wire with fiber optic- at no cost to us. They're coming Tuesday to make the change. The only inside work involved is to install some kind of battery backup in the house, because apparently the 21st-century wiring is not as electricity-independent as our 50s-era phone lines are. That preserves their biggest advantage over internet or cable-based phone providers, and I may be more inclined to look into expanding our Verizon service now; if you haven't heard, our cable company and possibly yours, Time Warner, with its Warner-based mascot-
- is about to be swallowed whole into the NBC-Universal entertainment world owned by Comcast. It's a good thing I don't pre-order any stationery, or tons of business cards, because my business email address is now almost certain to change, and the bird is likely to be replaced by, I don't know, a dancing Jimmy Fallon or something.
So much of their music- and so much of their talent- still holds up all these years later.
----
Turns out Jeff Bezos isn't much of a Beatles fan.
In a New Yorker piece about the creeping-into-everything effect of Amazon, the author mentions that the site's founder built from the book up, unlike the way that Steve Jobs used music to infiltrate the old-school castles of pre-internet commerce:
Bezos wasn’t a passionate listener: he once agreed to be interviewed for a program about the Beatles, and when employees, prepping the boss, asked him to name a favorite Beatles tune, Bezos chose “America,” by Simon & Garfunkel.
The piece is a good look at how both the old-guard tactics of the Big Six (now Five) publishers and those of Amazon were, and are, equally ruthless; more than once, a diss of Seattle led to a near instant disappearance of the "buy" button next to a publisher's works. The author also recounts an incident at a Manhattan book expo where two Amazon-tagged thugs basically told a publisher's rep, "Dat's a really nice imprint you got dere; be a shame if anyting happened ta it."
I'll still use the site, but I'm more motivated than ever to look into less pushy alternatives when they're available and functional.
----
Just now, our landline rang. There's nobody on the other end. I'm getting used to this. It's a continuation of the "trouble on the line" we had in December, and Verizon tells us the only option is to replace our copper wire with fiber optic- at no cost to us. They're coming Tuesday to make the change. The only inside work involved is to install some kind of battery backup in the house, because apparently the 21st-century wiring is not as electricity-independent as our 50s-era phone lines are. That preserves their biggest advantage over internet or cable-based phone providers, and I may be more inclined to look into expanding our Verizon service now; if you haven't heard, our cable company and possibly yours, Time Warner, with its Warner-based mascot-
- is about to be swallowed whole into the NBC-Universal entertainment world owned by Comcast. It's a good thing I don't pre-order any stationery, or tons of business cards, because my business email address is now almost certain to change, and the bird is likely to be replaced by, I don't know, a dancing Jimmy Fallon or something.