Class presentation: Sept. 21

Blogging, Tweeting, Facebooking and so forth are fast-evolving media. A few things that might stay constant:

(YouTube video embedded here to make the rest of this post a mild surprise as we scroll through. This is an old-school technique for hiding things readers may not want to see right away, such as sports scores for games they might be recording. Also, this song is Twitter-friendly because it has three words — four if you count the scream …)

1. Faster, faster, FASTER …

- Smile! You’re about to be on Facebook and Twitter!

- Tweet it now

- Share pictures now

2. A “work” blog/Twitter feed/Facebook presence is not the same as your personal blog/Twitter feed/Facebook presence.

- Duh

- Not more formal, but more focused

- SEO. Not just writing for your friends

- You are not Dave Barry

3. The noise, the NOISE, said the Grinch …

- Self-edit or lose friends

- Use tools (RSS readers, TweetDeck) to filter through your feeds

4. ontex

- Something that only works if you know where I am

- Explaining a link you’re sharing

5. Engage

- Ask questions

- Answer questions

6. Why do we have to this?

- Joining conversation

- Immediacy

- Marketing – like 24-hour talk radio plugging your site, your paper, your brand (which may outlive your paper)

 

The Cure: Still beats the heck of the disease

The Cure: Renewed And Rocking : NPR Music

Good interview and performance clips. The new tunes are pretty good, with propulsive bass and less of a morbid tone than you might expect from The Cure.

One qualm with the interviews: The Cure’s personnel have been relatively steady over the past 15 years or so. No one in the band now has less than a decade of experience playing with Robert Smith. It’s hardly a solo project.

Robert Smith is a terrific interview, open and honest. I don’t buy his annual “this is the last Cure album” moan, but aside from that, it’s great to hear from him. I hope it’s not the last Cure album.

 

Still here

Just really, really busy at work. That’ll wrap up in time for the holidays, at which time you’ll likely see a few more posts while I procrastinate on Christmas cards.

 

Programming note

This has always been one of those blogs that’s updated as time permits, ranking roughly fourth on my priority list behind family, work and day care board work. This month, with Mrs. MMM’s obscene work load and my own heavy load, I haven’t had much time left over.

Next month will be interesting. I’m going to China for three weeks. That could mean a complete absence of MMM posts, but you never know. During the last Olympics, I produced some of my more entertaining posts. If I have time and access, I’ll do that again.

 

Onion explains obscenity

I’m deprived of sleep but probably would’ve found this funny anyway:

FCC Okays Nudity On TV If It’s Alyson Hannigan

 

Widget

Euro 2008 standings — testing

Widget

 

Songs du semaine: Blue Man, Alanis, GNR

Seemed only fair to do three, since I haven’t done one of these in a while. Also, I accidentally ran down my iPod battery, so I listened to one of the CDs I’ve had in the car since … hmmm … probably since I got an iPod a couple of years ago.

The first three songs are an interesting, eclectic, upbeat mix. I can’t explain why they fit together — I’d never be a great DJ — but to me, they do.

Blue Man Group, I Feel Love (2003)

Yes, you recognize the title. It’s the Donna Summer-Giorgio Moroder disco classic, remade here with the Blue Men’s large tubular thingamabob standing in for the synthesizer. And instead of Donna Summer, we have Annette Strean of the intriguing techno-ish group Venus Hum. She looks a little like Lisa Loeb but seems like she’d be much more fun.

If you prefer to see it with the full glory of the Blue Man light show (and a couple of fun gags before that), try this:

Alanis Morissette, Eight Easy Steps (2004)

If there’s one valid criticism of Alanis Morissette, it’s that she sometimes gets just a little too wrapped up in her own personal dramas. The overenunciation, the semi-shrieked melodies … sure, she goes overboard sometimes. But the saving grace is that she does indeed have a sense of humor about her whole image, and it comes across in this three-minute blast of up-tempo rock.

Guns N’ Roses, Garden of Eden (1991)

I don’t really care if Chinese Democracy or whatever Axl eventually calls it is released. I’ll just enjoy this one and hope that one day Slash, Duff and the gang can find a lead singer who writes lyrics on this level of brilliance and isn’t a black hole of ego and personal problems.

 

Reminder: Update feeds, blogrolls, etc.

I think I’m going to stick around here at WordPress.

 

Tweet this

I think half the people I know make fun of me for not using Twitter. The other half make fun of me for using Facebook. The sets are mutually exclusive.

I am not alone in my failure to “get” Twitter. In the brief time I’ve observed it, this is my favorite “tweet”:

Twitter seems more about allowing large groups of people to observe your navel with minimal effort.

Word.

(Do people still say that?)

 

Meet the new blog, same as the old blog

Just figured it was time for a change. Blogger was very good to me, but I’m intrigued with some of the features at WordPress. And now that I’m back at work and finishing the book (today … really), it’s a good time to retrench.