Thirteen years ago, David Byrne’s performance on the show Sessions at West 54th Street proved definitively how much he didn’t need the other people from Talking Heads. This video of “Making Flippy Floppy” serves as Exhibit A. The band is electrifying: I think the backup singer is terrific, in energy, look, enthusiasm, and vocal colors, and the keyboardist brings several good new textures to the song, but then, every member sounds great. On a personal note, I have to say that David Byrne’s dance moves here speak directly to my soul. I encourage you to watch the entire video — including the final minute where he explains to host Chris Douridas his thinking behind the choice of those clothes. To this day, David Byrne is always thinking.
In recent years, movie studios and exhibitors (movie theatres) have been at war over when it’s appropriate to release a movie for digital distribution. Exhibitors, obviously, want people to go out to the movies; if the same movie is available within weeks — or, worse for them, day-and-date of release — they fear that people will stay home and watch them there.
Now the same drama is playing out in comics. DC’s “New 52” line is available day-and-date for digital reading, with comics store owners still unsure how that’s going to play out; my own local comics shop owner told me he’s hopeful that if people buy their DC titles electronically, they’ll buy them from his online store, where he’ll get a one-third cut. Retailers I met at this summer’s San Diego Comics Con felt like angry villagers ready to storm DC’s castle.
Now this: Barnes & Noble is pulling all the DC graphic novels because DC’s parent, Warner Brothers, has entered into an exclusive digital deal with Amazon, meaning that, say, “Watchmen,” will be made available for the new Kindle Fire — but not for the B&N Nook.
Where will all this wind up? No one knows. Digital delivery — of music, of books, of movies, of information, of mail, and more — has already destabilized countless industries (including the post office). Expect more of that.
So one of “the 1%” died recently — that being Mr. Steven P. Jobs — but the left isn’t angry at him. Here’s one person’s theory about why, and it rings true to me. No matter what the laughably ill-informed Herman Cain says, the people in the streets aren’t anti-capitalism. They’re just pro-fairness, and they’re tired of getting ripped off by their own system.
Remember when in April of 2010, Gizmodo got hold of an accidentally left-behind iPhone prototype, which proved to be the iPhone 4, ran with the story, and suffered Apple’s response? (I wrote about it here.) Now former Gizmodo editor Brian Lam details his behind-the-scenes email and telephone exchanges with Steve Jobs, and comes away with a little regret. Even though my opinion hasn’t changed that Gizmodo was in the right and Apple was extremely in the wrong (seizing the writer’s computer and files), this is well worth reading for what it says about Jobs, and the impact he made on one technology fan.
Is it fitting that St. Croix is running a promotion that enables you to wear Steve Jobs’ favorite style of mock turtleneck, and will donate $20 to cancer research? Or is it tasteless? Or, hang on, is it… ironic? Given that Jobs never asked the personal permission of Einstein or Lennon or Warhol or Gandhi or anyone else to promote the “Think Different” campaign, and now his spirit finds himself in the same boat.
The front page of the LA Times website says that it’s time for “Lee Back” to step down. They say this right beneath a photo of LEE BACA. So, question of the day: Are there ANY copy editors left at the LA Times? I mean, Lee Baca is only the sheriff protecting just shy of TEN MILLION PEOPLE. (Kinda well-known, right?)
For more than 30 years, he’s been America’s contemporary Edison, revolutionizing the delivery of computing, music, and movies, and putting all of them more readily into the hands of people around the globe. That you now carry the Internet on your hip is greatly due to Steve Jobs.
I saw him in person only once, many years ago, in San Francisco at the rollout of the second-generation iMac. But he’s been a daily part of my life for a long time.
