Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2

On Obama and Fox: Like rama lama lama ke ding a de ding a dong

Lots of talk about Obama and his White House's war on Fox News. Big deal. Obama needs Fox and Fox needs Obama. No different than the Cold War days when we need the USSR and vice versa, or in more current times, we need Osama and his gang just as much as they need us. Without a bad guy, you can't paint your self as a good guy.

I mean let's face it, the Republicans have proven they can't put up a decent fight, so the White House needs some one to play off of. It never ceases to amaze me that we keep forgetting that every yin needs a yang.

It always reminds me of the song "We Go Together" from Grease. All this ranting back and forth makes as much sense as those lyrics ever did. But, hey, they were fun to dance to.

Shoobop sha wadda wadda yippity boom do boom.

There Are Days I Feel Like This

Yes, indeed, there are days where things are coming at me from all angles and I feel like this. Today is one of those days.

Via The J-Walk Blog

The Vodafone Symphonia: The 1812 Overture Played on 1000 Cell Phones

Very fun. The Vodafone NZ folks got a team together to create a viral video and I think they succeeded. Called The Vodafone Symphonia, the phones play (kinda, sorta) The 1812 Overture using ringtones and alerts. Apparently 53 ringtone sounds were used.

The two part “Making of” videos are actually pretty cool. Check them out after the jump.

Sunday Morning Reading

Well, it ain’t Sunday morning anymore, but what the hell. I’ve taken to sleeping in on Sunday’s of late to try and catch up on some rest. In any case, here’s a little Sunday reading to share.

Wal-Mart is going to have its own Geek Squad. This will be entertaining.

Nigeria arrests some online scammers. Who’d a thunk that? I thought that was a major part of their economy.

Frank Rich’s column in entitled In Defense of the ‘Balloon Boy’ Dad. It is more of an indictment of the culture we’ve become than it is a defense of the nutball behind all of that circus.

Cell phones are linked to brain cancer. Again.

George Soros Says Wall St. profits are a gift from the state. Wrong. They are gift from the taxpayers. I’m still waiting for my thank you card.

Historians are reexamining the Battle of Agincourt and upsetting all sorts of folks. Thank goodness for Shakespeare.

David Pogue: Don’t Cry For Me Cupertino

Clever. But by a bit too much.

 

Via Mashable

Fall Colors Starting to Peak

It has been an odd autumn for color here in the Northern Shenandoah Valley as some trees turned early, some have hung on, and well, it has just been odd. This weekend looks like we’re starting to peak though. More at this Flickr feed.

R.I.P. Soupy Sales

Sad to see that Soupy Sales will no longer hit folks with a pie in the face on this planet. He was a classic comedian who really pushed the envelope. Did you know that his family was the only Jewish family in Franklinton, NC. They ran a dry goods store and sold sheets to the Ku Klux Klan. Amazing.

A Tale of Two Newspapers and the Net

Things are far from decided in the ongoing newspaper struggles here in the Northern Shenandoah Valley. Both The Winchester Star and The Northern Virginia Daily have, like most print publications, suffered immeasurably in the last year or so. Both have reduced the size of the paper (in terms of both articles printed and the physical size of the paper.) Both organizations have cut staff. Both are still here, but it looks like they are taking divergent paths towards the Internet, and I think their respective futures.

Before the recent quick decline began The Winchester Star beat the Northern Virginia Daily to the Internet. The Star was available free online, the Daily was and was not. They had a website, but it was really poorly designed and didn’t feature the content it does now. In the last few months, The Winchester Star has disappeared behind a paywall. The Northern Virginia Daily still retains a free presence on the web and has jumped into that game with both feet. Not only is it a free presence, but the NVD seems to be working hard to make it a viable web presence on all levels. The NVD also tweets its articles, drawing more traffic to its site.

Those are the basics of this story. Now, I’ll add a personal level to it. I am the Artistic Director of the Wayside Theatre. We serve the same communities both papers serve. Both papers are still major vehicles for helping us get our message out. But as economic times are tough and advertising dollars keep shrinking, we at Wayside Theatre, obviously look for more economical ways to get the word out wherever we can find them. When the papers print an article about Wayside Theatre, I use Twitter, Facebook, (Wayside Theatre has a Facebook Fan Page) and our email mailing list to send out links to those stories. We’ve got a small army of supporters who then do the same to their Facebook friends, and email lists. I don’t know how much traffic that drives to those articles and reviews, but I do know that it drives some. Our Young Ambassadors Guild (students who participate in our Educational programs) is relentless in helping us spread those links and they are spreading them to potential future customers of both papers.

At the moment with The Winchester Star behind a paywall, we can’t send them any traffic because our customers would just get stopped at the door if they followed the link. The NVDaily is obviously benefiting from this because our customers can click straight through. So, in essence the Winchester Star is content to only offer its content to its paid subscribers (there are various levels of this) and the NVDaily is more than willing to have links to its content spread far and wide.

Our area isn’t the most Internet savvy but that is slowly changing. When I look at the Internet advertising on both sites it is easy to see things growing on NVDaily.com and going the other direction on The Winchester Star.

Fun Pixar Parody

This is just fun. Assuming you aren’t against capital punishment for lamps.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Shenandoah Valley.com Podcast on Sherlock Holmes

Here are some nice words from Hank Zimmerman of ShenandoahValley.com on our production of Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure at Wayside Theatre, and a podcast interview I did with the host about the show. Give it a listen.