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Here's
an interview with Mark Crispin Miller, the leading critic of corporate
media.
A Site Full of Filth!
One
of the most sexually explicit movie sites on the web is actually a
guide to help parents govern their kids' media consumption. I can see where
it's a useful service, but these guys are very uneven in their esthetic
judgement. They cut Metallica some heavy slack on the bloody semen cover
photo on the
Load album (a design by Andres Serrano, much-hated
by fundamentalists since his "Pisschrist" work), granting a qualitative
review of 8 on a scale of 10; but they also offer the most clueless, literal-minded
review of Cronenberg's
Crash that it's been my misfortune to read. Even though children
are barred from the NC-17 film, these guys love their work enough to provide
an obsessively detailed blow-by-blow account of every offensive moment
in this "worthless" (0 out of 10) "exploitation" film. Actually, teens
will love this site, as it provides the info they need if they want to
impress their pals with their knowledge of scandalous movie scenes (i.e.,
"Butt-head 'moons' a chauffeur and his bare cartoon butt is seen. Later
the boys 'moon' the Capitol and both their cartoon bare butts are seen").
Microsoft's financial surplus
Last summer, when
Microsoft began its current spree of buying media companies, it was reported
that the company had a $5 billion cache of surplus capital to play with.
The stories about the recent Comcast investment say the outfit's surplus
capital, despite all its media gambling, now stands at $9 billion. Who
dares to guess what it will be next year, after the rollout of "Windows
'98?"
And their partner, Norinco, is a weapons contracter...
Prodigy was always
the most-censored of the online services, so it's kind of amusing to read
quotes from Prodigy executives give lip-service to Freedom of Speech as
they move to supply China with censored
Internet.
"Push" Comes to "Shove"
The new trend in
websites: fat, bloated interface, thin content. Netscape's Netcaster introduces
something called "persistent cache," which, for subscribed sites, will
permanently install interface elements on your hard drive. The idea is
that the crazed corporate web designers will now be encouraged to throw
even bigger java apps and more mammoth graphics at you; subscribers will
need to endure the interface download only once.
I tried out an early, pre-Netcaster, beta
of Communicator, and found it already far too fat for Mr. ThinkPad's hard
drive -- and many of the suite's elements struck me as completely useless
to most people. And Internet Explorer is just as bad. I expect Navigator
3 will be my last browser until some smart outfit trims out the graphical
email, groupware, and "push" crap that no one really needs, to produce
a browser that's both trim and modern.
Bill steps in
Well,
just last month I got myself canned from the Sci-Fi Channel's magazine
for saying that cable providers will have to invest heavily in upgrades
to survive the digital era. Now Bill Gates has backed me up by plowing
A BILLION in Microsoft cash into Comcast -- only the fourth-largest of
the cablecos, but #1 in bandwidth. The Gates money is expected to go to
the expansion of their cable modem service, currently in 5,000 homes in
the Northeast.
As I never tire of telling you,
Gates has a hard-on for show-biz. This investment, added to WebTV and the
recently announced TV capabilities of "Windows '98," constitute hard evidence
of Gates's BIG push to grab the entertainment distribution business --
something a handful of people, including myself, have been predicting for
about three years now.
Not
everybody thinks Gates is making a good bet. Cable's existing infrastructure
is one-way, and a billion is just a drop in the bucket in relation to what's
needed for the advent of digital television in two years, and for the interactive
TV services that are certain to follow. Comcast's heavy investment in a
network that serves only 5,000 is one reason why the company has over $7
billion in debt.
Two-way media, like phone networks
and satellite systems, have no such handicap. So why didn't Gates put his
money there?
My theory: this billion is strictly
research & development money, not a vote of faith in the future of
cable. Gates wants to start experimenting as a provider of interactive
content as soon as possible, and Comcast's few thousand cable modem subscribers
are already sufficiently wired to serve as guinea pigs. It'll be interesting
to see whether some of the top-secret projects financed by Microsoft at
Dreamworks Interactive -- like the immersive 3-D Jurassic Park adventure
now in development -- will emerge in beta versions in Comcast homes. [postscript:
the
recently-announced sega game isn't what I heard about, unless whhat
I heard was mostly hype.]
Two opportunities recently opened up; one is a start-up business,
web-oriented, that I would be running, under the direction of a deep-pockets
money guy and the marketing-idea guy who thought up this particular concept.
It's a terrific corporate marketing idea that will likely make many webophiles
hopping mad. And it could mean a ton of money for yours truly.
The other is a regular job-job, that starts on the 23rd of this month.
It's another non-writing job, really an entry-level techie internet job,
though the pay is adequate. (I meant it when I said writing for a living
sucks!) If the start-up enterprise doesn't seem more real by the end of
this month, I may drop it and throw myself into this job with an eye toward
"rapid advancement."
It's weird to drop writing after more than twenty years making my living
at it. But my specialty, show-biz journalism, is utterly controlled by
corporations. I have no problem whatsoever with lending my technical expertise
and efforts to corporations; but I can't live with the idea of subjugating
my journalistic instincts to a corporate agenda.
I will always consider myself "a writer." And I will continue my freelance
work for the film studios so long as they are willing to assign me--I don't
mind "copywriting," so long as no one is pretending that it's journalism.
Unfortunately, the bulk of magazine writing these days is merely that.
Readers, writers and editors seem not to care very much. It's a stinking
shame.
Withdrawing my writing skills from the day-to-day marketplace might
help me to revitalize my creative writing efforts, stagnant now for several
years. This website is also likely to transform its focus and purpose in
the coming weeks; I am weighing several ideas that might establish it as
a more "formal" type of E-Zine, with a specific focus other than my personal
angst (that material, and more like it, will remain available to those
interested).
If you're looking for film news updates, definitely go to the film
research page; check out the "all-films" link to the *ultimate* film news
& rumors site.
Encyclicals From Uncle Bob:
Latest: I'm trying to decide whether I should cancel my premium channels...
actually, I suspect it may cost me less to keep 'em, as it will help to
keep me at home nights. I
have taken a pledge to watch every one of these movies on Cinemax.
On getting canned.
My last
column.
My
last column -- Censored Version, on the Sci-Fi Channel Website (reprinted
from the print magazine without pay or permission, as is the Channel's
regular habit).
The
Death of Ed.
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