Hollywood’s Crowd Control Problem
Read this NYT story, especially the final paragraph for an interesting critique of iPoddification…
Lost in the craftiness
I love the drifting, the random connections and weird explorations, ending the pleasure in finding something you didn’t know existed but can’t live without.
The Internet. I spend a lot of time looking at the same things every day. And some of the coolest things come from cooler people than me posting stuff on sites I visit regularly. It also amazes me to think how many cool and creative people there are out there, and makes me feel a little guilty about how I’m not stretching myself more.
I came across this site, Etsy: Your Place to buy and sell all things handmade. It features a direct way for people who handmake everything from yarn to shirts, jewelry, dolls, purses, and … well, I dunno. I got lost in some of the site’s other features.
Like being able to find items by mousing over a beautiful color picker. I could spend a long time playing and never buying. The site’s designers clearly had more fun by allowing you to toss the item away if you’re done looking. There’s another time travel function, which I admit I still don’t understand the point of, but it’s fun.
I spent probably a half hour just looking at purses (not that I bought any), insanely driven by the need to have something different, that I couldn’t buy in the store. And handmade. And the money going to directly someone who put a lot of time and effort into it.
And for the most part, the prices were very reasonable.
The Internet marketplace. The best thing invented since … sliced cheese. Or bagels.
Pancake Day…
…as explained by the BBC, recipes provided.
And here’s another site, complete with Pancake Day rhymes and songs.
But if you didn’t get to properly celebrate yesterday, you’ll have to wait an entire year to get another chance. Sad but true, and I know you’re all itching to sing those old Pancake Day songs.
Election Strategy From the Inside Out
In today’s NYT. I would love to see this one, though, somehow, I doubt it will make it to NW Ohio. Then there is netflix…
Todd
Election Strategy From the Inside Out
It may come as little surprise that American political advisers regularly extend their services to foreign presidential candidates, but Rachel Boynton’s “Our Brand Is Crisis,” which chronicles the entire election-strategizing process in scrupulous detail, will pack a punch with even the most informed viewer.
Here, associates of James Carville’s consultancy firm GCS, including the pollster Jeremy Rosner, the advertising consultant Tad Devine and Mr. Carville himself (in typical hyper-to-the-point-of-lunacy form), set their sights on winning Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada a second presidency during Bolivia’s 2002 elections. (He previously served from 1993 to 1997.)
At first, the goal seems unattainable, especially considering he wasn’t all that popular the first time around, not to mention that Bolivia was on the brink of a violent political uprising. Undaunted, the GCS consultants work their magic as if it were a game, shrewdly devising ways to sell a new and improved Mr. Sánchez de Lozada to the public. Endorsements and smear campaigns are conceived for television, general brainstorming sessions and focus groups are held, and the impact each has is thoroughly analyzed. The unrestricted access we are given to these discussions that would normally take place behind closed doors is astounding, even if the “victory” ultimately gained for Mr. Sánchez de Lozada is truly unsettling. Perhaps the only thing left to be desired from this momentous documentary is a reference to the size of the consultants’ paycheck — or their consciences.
Our Brand Is Crisis
Opens today in Manhattan.
Produced and directed by Rachel Boynton; in English and Spanish, with English subtitles; directors of photography, Tom Hurwitz, Michael Anderson, Christine Burrill and Jerry Risius; edited by Ms. Boynton and Jennifer L. Robinson; music by Marcelo Zarvos; released by Koch Lorber. At the Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, west of Avenue of the Americas, South Village. Running time: 87 minutes. This film is not rated.