Media

Failed Experiment?

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Glenn gives us a heads up to what might be the beginning of the end of Pajamas Media.

I wrote about Pajamas Media back when they started. At the time I had grave misgivings, mainly because I couldn’t figure out how there could possibly be enough money coming in from ads on blogs to pay everyone a decent wage. Looks like that was exactly the problem.

Now it would appear that PM is dismantling their blog advertising to focus exclusively on their own television productions. This is something that sounds really iffy to me. And when I say “iffy”, I mean from the standpoint of something that someone would actually want to watch. But I’m hardly an expert on the PJTV content because I only ever watched three episodes of Poliwood before deciding that I could spend my time better elsewhere.

I’m not trying to sound harsh, just assess the situation in a realistic manner. A simple glance at PJTV’s home page reveals a fair amount of content. But the majority of it is by people I’ve never heard of before, and whose opinions I don’t care about. The few that I have come across before in the past, such as Austin Bay, have other places where I can go to find their opinion. Why check PJTV’s home page and wait until, every so often, they have someone I want to hear when I can narrow down the search?

There are a lot of things I like about blogs, but the way that readers can carry on a conversation with the author has got to top the list. It is easy, since you can cut-‘n-paste a passage from the essay on to your comment before stating that the author is brilliant or a schmuck. You can even add a link or two to prove your assertion of brilliance or schmuckitude.

It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to do this with a video even if they would allow comments. Oh, you might be able to transcribe what was said, but the ease of cut-n-paste is gone. You also would have to sit through the entire thing, in real time without being able to skim like you can with the written word, to make sure that there was no hedging or clarification that would invalidate the point you were trying to make. You could be leaving comments on five or six blog posts in the same time you are waiting to speak your mind on one 19 minute gabfest. Who wants to spend their time this way?

Four years ago I said that, although I wished them well, I thought Pajamas Media was doomed to failure. The same thing goes for PJTV. Try as I might, I cannot see how this will be a success.

I doubt it will take four years more to prove if I’m right.

DEFIANCE–Brief Review

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Went to see Defiance a couple of days ago. This is the story (based on real events) of a group of Jews in Nazi-occupied Byelorussia who obtained weapons, moved deep into the forest, and established a community there, sometimes joining with Russian partisans for raids on German troops and on local collaborators.

This post (via a comment by Eric at Bookworm) indicates that many “official” reviewers did not like this movie very much, and cites an absolutely bizarre passage in a review published by CNN:

It’s a remarkable story, one that should have inspired a more exciting and original movie than this sluggish compendium of earnest debates and hackneyed battle scenes.

The timing is unfortunate. For a story that has gone neglected for the best part of 60 years, this is hardly the ideal week to be extolling heroic Jewish resistance fighters. Ari Folman’s angst-laden nonfiction animated film, “Waltz With Bashir,” is altogether more relevant.

Zwick’s Hollywood liberal credentials are not in doubt, but his films have a surprisingly gung-ho undercurrent (they include such martial adventures as “The Last Samurai,” “Glory,” “The Siege,” “Legends of the Fall” and “Courage Under Fire”).

So, films are now supposed to be assessed based on the “Hollywood liberal credentials” of their directors? And the past heroism of Jews fighting their would-be murderers must only be portrayed and celebrated when Jews are not currently fighting other would be murderers?

Americans must no longer allow their opinions on movies, or on anything else, to be mediated by the court scribes of the old media. For movies as for books, reviews by “nonprofessionals” posted on blogs and on sites like Amazon are generally much more enlightening than those by the “professionals.”

Defiance will not go down as one of the great movies of all time, but it holds your interest and it tells a story that ought to be better known. Go and see it if you have a chance.

New Deal Again

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If the 1930s are really back, it won’t be long now before they remake Confidence, starring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit as an economist. Sorry, embedding was disabled.

Notes on the cartoon: Oswald was originally drawn, but not owned, by Walt Disney. A few tweaks and a change of species later, Mickey Mouse was born. Take a good look at the mice on drums in the band – it was probably an in-joke. Also, check the credits: Tex Avery (Bugs Bunny) and Walter Lantz (Woody Woodpecker), among others.

Tit for Tat

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[Update (2008.11.1.18:49): It appears that “the Stranger” took down the offending page and redirected the link to “The Drudge Report”. I can’t find a cached version of the page. This is a blog entry at the paper apparently written by the guy who wrote the original offending article.]

 

“the Stranger” a leftist rag in Seattle, Wa. decided it would be funny to [update: the original page has been removed]    write a supposed review of local haunted houses in which the scariest houses where those that had Republican campaign posters in their yards. [h/t Instapundit]  Presumably  trying to be  thorough, they displayed the addresses of the houses  prominently in the article.

I figure that turnabout is fair play, so I did some Internet research and found the address of the paper’s editorial director.  

Daniel K. Savage

1146 16TH AVE E
SEATTLE, WA 98112

Here’s a map.

His Wikipedia entry is a hoot, especially the part about licking doorknobs.

The paper’s business number:
(206) 323-7101

is registered to:

Catherine Darkenwald
121 WOOD AVE SW
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, WA 98110

The paper itself is at:

1535 11th Ave. 3rd Floor
Seattle, WA 98122

If a reader in the Seattle area would like to swing by and take pictures, we could post those, you know, just to be thorough.

[Update (2008.11.1.19:07): Just to be clear, the problem here arose from the ability of a media outlet to focus the attention of an entire community (tens of thousands of individuals in the case of this paper in Seattle) onto one or two people and then to single those people out as evil. They neglected to take into account that some unstable person might decide to act out the hatred in the article. The media demands special  privileges  but with those  privileges  come responsibilities.]

[Update (2008.11.1.19:07): Hey look scary photos:

Here’s the building at  1535 11th Ave. 3rd Floor  Seattle, WA 98122 where “the Stranger” offices are located.

Here’s close up of their door (it looks kind of seedy).

 

Here’s the house at  Daniel K. Savage  1146 16TH AVE E  SEATTLE, WA 98112 where Dan Savage, the paper’s editorial director lives:

Lastly let me just reprint these thoughts about the morality of putting up these addresses and photos of the houses of people you disagree with politically:

And for anyone who thinks we secretly want somebody to go vandalize those houses—seriously, don’t. It was just a joke.

I could not have put it better myself.

On German-language newspapers in pre-US* America

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* Or at least before America officially became the United States of America

David writes here about Sgt. Mom’s intriguing trilogy of books on German settlers in Texas and their influence, cultural and otherwise, on the state of Texas.

I couldn’t possibly do the subject, much less the lovely and erudite Sgt. Mom, any justice on this short notice. So here are just two somewhat surprising facts about a (kind of) related subject, i.e, the German-language press in America:

– In 1732, Benjamin Franklin published the Philadelphische Zeitung, the first German-language newspaper in North America. Unfortunately it only lasted for two issues.

– On July 5 1776, The Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote was the first newspaper to report the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

PS: Some years ago, Sgt. Mom was kind of enough to mail me the recipe for some delicious caramel. I’ve made it several times since then (maybe a bit more often than my waistline can take, but it sure is worth it :)