"America: Now, slightly Socialist-leaning"

According to a new Rasmussen Reports survey, only 53% of American adults believe capitalism is better than socialism

Distriction: Head's Up

Wisdom in the weirdest places -- and the most apropos times

... it made my week nonetheless

watch this space: the cynic in me has to point out the riot control/opiate-of-the-masses angle of inspirational adverts on the ever-"moving-momentarily" Metro car -- points for PR and practicality

All-Time Vilest Villans in Pop Culture ... Honorable Mention: MTV

Really? Well, seeing as it is pop culture I've got a few honorable mentions after the jump ...


"Honorable" Mention(s):

Ringtones:


Now anyone can be an artist -- I'm looking at you Soulja Boy


Obviously no culture there, but I think I can hear the Pop -- wait, no ... no, that's just what's left of his career -- thought I had something there, alas

Tweens:



they dictate the next big thing in pop culture -- and are every marketer's dream demographic ...

Tweens. They're a hot market, they're complicated, and there are two in the White House: Sasha and Malia Obama. What do tweens consider cool? Music was at the top of the list, followed by going to the movies. "Being smart" ranked third tied with video games followed by electronics, sports, fashion and protecting the environment, according to a report.

so, i guess be on the lookout for vampires that protect humans, are really cool, and are immune to garlic, wooden stakes to the heart, and sunlight


MTV:


case rested. Reality TV -- my bad "Reality Drama," thanks MTV! Just what I wanted ... like the gift, that keeps on ... keeps on giving ... and taking

Case not rested, MTV deserves more than that. MTV is the baddest most vilest villain on the Pop Culture block; it owns the block, it's bigger on the block than Jenny -- and that's big. That said, the state of pop culture reflects on MTV; the state of pop culture now is about bank statements, not making statements. Thanks MTV.

Watch this space: someone call Andy quick, and better call Edie for backup; Pop is only a few weak fads away from life-support -- well, that or a permanent conservatorship a la the one and only ...

Distriction: Day Tripper Deluge

No better time or place to people watch than right now in DC ...


Watch this space: Hold the phone, we may not need Cheney's cardiologist just yet; DC is showing signs of life again

Twitter, you're a lifesaver! -- Literally.

So now it saves lives too ...


and that's why Google and the Times are paranoid

Don't discount the power of people who follow stars on Twitter.

A woman who used the micro-blogging network to announce her plans to commit suicide by tweeting actress Demi Moore was later found by authorities and taken in for evaluation after followers of the actress reported the incident to police, who said this is an unprecedented use of the network.

Watch this space: especially if you are a paramedic -- and as if you're not already

The Silver Post

The big 5-0

I'm up there like Madge


Cent ...

and the cops ...


Watch this space: until the Golden Anniversary

Rolling Stone: Bringing you the hottest artist -- of 2008 ... finally

Rolling Stone finally managed to get arguably the most fascinating figure -- of last year -- on their latest cover ...

it only took Lil' Wayne 3 Grammys, 1 million copies of Tha Carter III sold -- in a week ... in 2008's music industry, and 10 years in the game to get the cover. It is difficult to live up to the Jonas "Clean Teen Machine" Brothers and Taylor "Very Pink, Very Perfect" Swift though -- which is why they got their first covers months ago?

I must admit, the most disappointing part of the long-overdue cover is the lack of originality -- per usual Rolling Stone-as-of-late. Print media is suffering, but it doesn't take millions of dollars to portray an artist's persona ...



Watch this space: Rolling Stone: still gathering moss

(News)paper Chase: From downsizing to digitizing

The ongoing saga of how to sell the story -- resuscitate the ad revenue lifeline for print media -- is more often than not becoming the story itself.


While the newsprint and newsroom personnel downsize ...

“In 2009 and 2010, all the two-newspaper markets will become one-newspaper markets, and you will start to see one-newspaper markets become no-newspaper markets,” said Mike Simonton, a senior director at Fitch Ratings, who analyzes the industry.

[...]

Nearly every large paper in the country prints fewer pages and fewer articles, and many have eliminated entire sections. Bureaus in foreign capitals and even Washington have closed, and papers have jettisoned film criticism, book reviews and coverage of local news outside their home markets.

[...]

The steady trickle of downsizing that sapped American papers for almost a decade has become a flood in the last few years. The Los Angeles Times still has one of the largest news staffs in the country, about 600 people, but it was twice as big in the late 1990s. The Washington Post had a newsroom of more than 900 six years ago, and has fewer than 700 now. The Gannett Company, the largest newspaper publisher in the country, eliminated more than 8,300 jobs in 2007 and 2008, or 22 percent of the total.

online expansion is a window of opportunity for companies looking to transition in the technological age -- to adjust and adapt to, instead of avoid, the digital domain ...

The death of a newspaper should result in an explosion of much smaller news sources online, producing at least as much coverage as the paper did, says Jeff Jarvis, director of interactive journalism at the City University of New York’s graduate journalism school. Those sources might be less polished, Mr. Jarvis said, but they would be competitive, ending the monopolies many newspapers have long enjoyed.

though it may not be greeted with the warmest welcome ...

Many critics and competitors of newspapers — including online start-ups that have been hailed as the future of journalism — say that no one should welcome their demise.

“It would be a terrible thing for any city for the dominant paper to go under, because that’s who does the bulk of the serious reporting,” said Joel Kramer, former editor and publisher of The Star Tribune and now the editor and chief executive of MinnPost .com, an online news organization in Minneapolis.

“Places like us would spring up,” he said, “but they wouldn’t be nearly as big. We can tweak the papers and compete with them, but we can’t replace them.”

the transition is seen as an inevitability

A number of money-losing papers should “have the guts to shut down print and go online,” he said. “It will have to be a much smaller product, but that’s where we’re headed anyway.”

Industry executives who once scoffed at the idea of an Internet-only product now concede that they are probably headed in that direction, but the consensus is that newspapers going all digital would become drastically smaller news sources for the foreseeable future.

Again, the print media needs to break down the barriers between itself and online news media. Print needs to start from the ground up in the digital sphere, and that begins with interacting with online journalists -- and yes, bloggers -- to get acclimated to the new world of online news journalism.

Even Howard Zinn can attest to early Pilgrims' alliance with Natives in the U.S. That collaboration was integral to the settlers survival -- much like an alliance on behalf of the print media with the online news media community is integral to the newspaper's survival.

Naturally, as the settlers gained manpower, capital, a manifesto, and regained enough sanity to remember why they ventured here in the first place, they went from friends to forefathers of a new nation built on the backs of Nativ-- I mean morals and ideals of true Patriots. I see print doing the same; I see print's future relying on a collaboration with bloggers, online journalists, etc., to gain the basic grasp of this new medium. More importantly, I see that as the "cut losses" in time and revenue before rebranding and rebuilding the corporate print news empire online.

Print media needs to start from the ground up. Many companies -- obviously the increasingly paranoid, but rightfully so, New York Times -- take the fear-of-the-unknown route and choose to valiantly play on the sinking ship. There's nothing wrong with humbling yourself and starting from square one; for the print media, they've got nothing -- and so nothing to lose.

Watch this space: especially you advertisers, it's for sale -- still

Call me Casper the Friendly Ghost-Tweeter

I could say it better myself -- but not just yet

What's the solution? These people all need professional help. But since they're unlikely to spend the time they need on the psychiatrist's couch, they'll doubtless end up hiring assistants adept in social media. Ghostwritten Twitters are the hot new Hollywood must-have.

Every tweet will be media-coached. Every blog will be relentlessly edited — and then have typos inserted for authenticity. (Is that why someone pretending to be Rachael Ray consistently misspelled the cooking-show personality's name on a Yahoo blog?) The kids who are pretending to be celebrities on Twitter today will no doubt get paid to do it in the future.

Watch this space: never underestimate the substance beneath the stylish smoke and mirrors, there's jobs to be saved -- and plenty more to be made -- in this digital age ...

See, there's hope for the bullied kids yet ...

Glenn Beck. Rising star. -- no, that's not right. Glenn Beck, rising star?! -- that's more like it.

I mean with a glam-fab head shot like that, how could he not be a rising star? Not to mention his on-screen presence ...



Plus he's been doing it for years. It hasn't always been easy, but he had to take what Diddy calls the "Rihanna Road," where progress is a slow process. Beck's been nose to the grindstone forever, I suppose it is about time he see the fruits of his labor ...

Not everyone can support Global Warming as the world's biggest scam ...



or stand on the same pedestal of political pre-eminence as Ann Coulter ...



or make candy bars come out of their butts?



or be creepy ...



all the time ...



but that's called moxy and moxy makes it to the top.

Watch this space: Especially, if you've never seen a star on the rise. I've been watching this space forever, but I liked it better when it was called Public Access Television.

The Quarter: Title Mag

The kid's alright ... Title Magazine Editor-in-Chief Catherine Bui stopped by the Motel to let us in on her latest work:


The Quarter is a fourth of a dollar and the Fourth Estate went from promoting public opinion to profiting the private sector -- but a quarter is still a fourth and it's always a pleasant surprise to see the vanity press resurfacing. Now, the point, over at MdM a visitor sent a link to their magazine -- and I had to pass it along. So, here is an introduction to Title Magazine



At it's core, Title Magazine is an independent culture magazine on the upstart. For it's first issue, I was blown away at the clean design, and diversity of artwork and editorials. If only I had this kind of get-up-and-go as a teenager -- or a young adult at that.



Catherine Bui has her finger on the pulse. For a junior in high school this is an excellent example of how to present oneself as an asset to the cultural online media community. Title is a portfolio of visual and editorial pieces. Moreover, it displays a strong grasp of the digital sphere to produce an original online magazine of this calibre. Beyond the personal positioning though, Title is just a great publication for the culture and arts crowds.


I anticipate great things from Catherine & Co. A personal favorite within the inaugural issue was this foray into "Underexposed Photographer," Nick Asokan's work.


In my day, we had school newspapers; obviously, times have changed. It's great to see pockets of passion within the next generation of journalists and future media figures.


Title Magazine is an example of positive perpetuation: Bui's initiative is the kind that makes you, too, want to "Follow your dream."


Watch this space

Distriction: A is for American -- all day

To the victors go the spoils ... no matter how unpredictably fleeting

watch this space: while you can

Because I'm busy that's why

Like N.E.R.D. said "It's time for some action," so while I'm out studying the world in 4 minutes just know I've got the wiings to stay fly. Schoolwork, work work, life work: only work if you work them

In between inspiration: synthetic ...


and organic ...


I work hard now so I won't have to settle for situations involving Sarah later.

Though it's still not too late for her to employ my no-fail two-step plan: magazines and manners, remember them -- keep those in mind and it should be easy sailin' for Palin. As for where that tugboat is going exactly, I'm sure I don't know; but there's bound to be a loyal fleet of good ol' boats following.

Watch this space: Will discuss after I TiVo it ...

photo credit: munzz

Distriction: DC HIV/AIDS Rates Surpass West Africa

Because it's not just a third-world problem, it's a problem on Third and Maryland Ave too


More imperative -- but innately intertwined -- with the "Anti-Journalism" movement is the need to debunk the (mediated) HIV/AIDS mythologies within the U.S. For example: toting Africa as the world's AIDS haven. HIV/AIDS -- like hunger, like poverty, like inadequate education -- does not stop at our doorstep. The sooner we come to terms with social pandemics -- and take accountability and ownership of them as our own -- the sooner we can solve the problem.

As the Obama Administration aims to reconnect the U.S. with our international partners, it is key that we as Americans look -- beyond politics, to people -- at shared experiences between ourselves and our fellow global citizens -- flaws and all.

Hopefully, this sparks an expansion initiative for the Project Red -- who's brilliant campaign stimulates charity, capitalism, and consumption ... all in one! The brand's mission to "fight AIDS in Africa," would provide worlds of support -- literally -- to fight the AIDS within the U.S. as well. Even a campaign to establish sub-projects -- country/region specific extensions within the larger "Project Red" umbrella -- would present the gravity in sheer breadth of the social crisis, but more so the solidarity behind the solution.



Watch this space

Tweeting Made Easy: We Follow

Per T.I.'s suggestion: "They don't know which way to go/I'll make it easy follow me." Twitter launched a site rendering "I have a Twitter, but I don't know what to do with it now that I'm there," a thing of the past. We follow is a "user powered Twitter directory," -- a Twitter search engine, of sorts, using hashtags as keywords to find and follow fellow Tweeters of a feather.

To add yourself to the directory enable/follow @hashtags, then tweet @wefollow three 1 word tags that describe you/your twitter page (i.e. @wefollow #blogger #music #dc) ... it's just that easy!


Obviously the big tags at the mo are (in very particular order) celebrity, music, tech, news -- and yes this is an apt reflection on priorities within the Twitter community.

After a winded round-the-world "Twitter is no threat to G" lecture series, Google is resting its voice and opting to Tweet instead of talk for the time being ... If you can't beat em, define yourself in three tags or less and enter the directory like everyone else ...


Speaking of Twitter -- which is becoming the modern day equivalent of "How's the weather?" -- I'll make it easy ... for you to follow me.

Watch this space: Old man Google's Tweets are speaking louder than his words -- for Twitter to be such a non-threat, We Follow got the leader to G Follow pretty quickly

"Anti-Journalism" 101

Journalists need the work, educators need the break, and students need the media literacy training.



Educators have been teaching students how to read and write what is printed for centuries. Now, in a time of unparalleled transition, ex-journalists are re-entering the classroom to teach students how to read what is in between the print -- and in between the blurred lines of news/entertainment. News literacy is increasingly important in social and personal development -- with more time being spent in front of a television or computer screen over textbooks. Where "the media" is replacing teachers, textbooks, and tutors; former media professionals are becoming teachers and tutors, explaining how to decipher through the tech-books of mainstream news/entertainment.

Some say we are drowning in information and starving for knowledge -- I conquer. However, initiatives like this one at Stony Brook set blueprints for a new media that aims to inform -- not inundate.

Watch this space: more to come ...

Bristol Palin: Why ya buggin?!

Oh. Right. The whole "my-mom-ran-for-vice-president-and-lost-and-all-i-got-was-this-baby-and-pending-child-support" thing ...


When life gives you lemons Bristol ... ask, "In what respect, Charlie?" ... then pass the baby to your little sister for grooming, and pre-game for the heli-hunt. By the looks of the new and improved lil' Miss Palin -- talking Pro-Choice, using logic, ending up on Keith Olbermann and not as the embodiment of evil -- it might be your last hunt.

Two thumbs fresh for Bristol. Her mom may not know politics, and I ain't sayin' she a gold digger, but Bristol knows Deepthroat: "Follow the money."

Levi Johnson: Levi's jeans and Johnson & Johnson?! oh ... he's broke. Figures, after all, Johnson & Johnson is "a family company," while Levi is on "Federline company" kind of time.

Well, either way, I don't know what 20% of zero is but after carrying ones and working out remainders Bristol is bound to be ... on the receiving end of the stimulus package -- doesn't seem so silly now, does it?

Watch this space: Bristol might be the one to pull through ... who knows she might even be able to name a magazine she reads

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Oh those pesky boys and girls ... always begging to seek amy

At long last -- for those who cared, namely: troubled persons named amy, angry radio producers, myself -- Britney Spears' new video for "If U Seek Amy" dropped today ...


American Beauty + Britney Spears + Pies + Kate Trask + Funhouse/Madhouse + Mad Men + Justify My Love + June Cleaver = "If U Seek Amy"



And, yes, after watching the video ... "All of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if you seek amy"

Oh and for the record: double points for pop culture and puns -- because "begging to if you seek amy" is grammatically incorrect, but quite clever ... triple points if you include the politics behind radio censorship ...

watch this space: apb/amber alert on last name: amy-dammit, first name: seek me, middle initials: i.m.

Watch This Space: ThruYOU

Just when you thought it was safe to come out again ... Kutiman killed the lights


ThruYOU is a brilliant site that takes mixtapes to the tube. YouTube + DatPiff + Grit+ Girl Talk + je ne sais quoi + Kutiman = ThruYOU.

What you are about to see is a mix of unrelated YouTube videos/clips edited together to create ThruYou. In other words -- what you see is what you hear.

For instance ...



Watch This Space ...

The British Sublet: Stem Cell Bans and Bands Selling Stems

Again with the British-American tandem ... Spring theme-du-jour: stems. While an American politician lifts the federal funding ban on stem cell research -- to build a legion of South Park-esque Supermen no doubt -- a British pop powerhouse builds a legion of super-producers. Thanks to stems you can be a superhero and a super producer ... all in one!

On our coast this weekend, Barack Obama planned a much needed lift on the stem-cell research federal funding ban -- per Peter Griffin's inquiry of "Why aren't we funding this?!" no doubt.


On the other side of the pond, lil' Miss Lily Rose lifted the Oz/ProTools curtain and tucked an 80-track surprise in each hard copy and iTunes version of her album "It's Not Me It's You." Anyone who uploads their legal copy of the album gets each track stem from the release.

I finally mustered up the civility to get my hands on a hard copy of INMIY -- solely because of the stems -- and it was worth every penny. Now, I'm finding it hard to break away from remixing Everyone's At It, revamping the drums on Chinese, or seeing how Back to the Start would sound if I dropped the vocoder. But the fun doesn't end with vanity listening sessions amongst you and your closest pal, remixers are encouraged to upload their exclusives for peer and label review ... so get on the 1s & 2s, start scratching away, and you'll be a Hollywood Kid in no time!

Stems are this girl's new best friend.

Oh, and it's not a British Invasion this time ... it's more of a sublet until things get back to normal

Watch this space