The Oregonian announced today that on April 2, they will be switching from their regular broadsheet size to a new “compact format,” which will be 15 inches tall by 11 inches wide—HEY, WAIT A SECOND!! THAT’S THE EXACT SAME SIZE AS THE MERCURY! (I had no idea we were “compact.”) From the O: The compact […]
Media
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XRAY.FM Is Killing It
If there’s any question in your mind that Portland is ready for a new progressive community radio station, take a look at XRAY.FM. They’ve blown their Kickstarter fundraiser out of the water—as of this writing they’ve raised over $70,000, with their original goal having only been $40,000, so now they’re going for 80k. They’ve also […]
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#BestPictureoftheYear
For some reason, movie publicists never want to use my insightful film-related tweets in their ads, but they do want to use A.O. Scott’s, which… okay. That actually makes a ton of sense. Like over the weekend, for example, when Scott’s great tweet about the Inside Llewyn Davis soundtrack (and how a ton of annoying […]
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Spellbound Flowers and the Art of Floriography
Um, I’m going to go ahead and call floriography “media” because we don’t seem to have a subject category for “flowers” or—I sense an unfortunate omission here—”witchcraft.” Floriography is of course the language of flowers, born out of the Victorian era of repression, when people were too shy to express things like “I share your […]
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You Do Not Own Your Digital Media
If you buy your entertainment digitally, you really should read this story from Boing Boing that was published over the weekend: Bill sez, Last “December I bought some favorite Christmas specials for my kids with the idea they could watch them every year. Went tonight to watch one (‘Disney Prep and Landing 2’ if you’re […]
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The Final Print Edition of The Onion…
…is pure genius. I hope the final print edition of the New York Times—which this longtime subscriber is not looking forward to—is just as good. Because why not go out in a blaze of completely delusional, gleefully counter-factual, giddily revisionist media history? Why the fuck not?
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“For All You Kids at Home, Santa Just Is White.”
Is this discussion about Santa’s race the dumbest three minutes of television news to air this week? If it isn’t, I don’t think I want to watch the dumbest three minutes of television news to air this week. The climax of this clip sums up Fox News’s advice to minorities everywhere: “Just because it makes […]
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Glenn Beck Names His Man of the Year
Glenn Beck points out that Time magazine once made Hitler man of the year. So why, he asks, don’t they make Ted Cruz man of the year? Because Time is a bunch of fascists, that’s why! That logic totally checks out. Incidentally, Time did choose Ted Cruz as a runner-up to Pope Francis for Man […]
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Today in TV News Whoopsies!
In this news anchor’s defense, EVERYBODY looks at sexy bikini babes before they broadcast the news. It’s an industry standard. Unfortunately, this particular anchor forgot to clear his browser. (Oh… don’t forget that last one!)
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NPR’s Nina Totenberg Has Casual Disdain For the PlayStation 4
The PS4! It’s out, everybody! Did you stand in line? No? Me neither. The new console went on sale Friday and, according to Sony, sold over a million on its first day. One of those was sold to this annoying person who microwaved it, and another to an annoying person who smashed it in front […]
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Another TV Live Shot Goes Horribly, Hilariously Wrong
Local news stations use live shots like Mayor Rob Ford uses crack cocaine: (allegedly) A LOT! They seem to think it makes them look more “involved” in a story, when in actuality they’re usually just in the dark standing next to an empty lot where nothing is happening. (HEY NEWS STATIONS! THAT MAKES YOU LOOK […]
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Oregonian Comment of the Day
via Welcome to the new Blogtown feature “Oregonian Comment of the Day”—in which I will present a comment from the Oregonian‘s comment sections, utterly without context, until (A) I get sick of it, or (B) reading the Oregonian comment sections completely and ruthlessly drains me of whatever meager will to live that I still possess. […]