Yabloka

NOT SO PEACHY PAST

2011-10-25T00:33:00.000-07:00

BIG LEAGUES IN THE FOREST CITY

America is a resilient country. One that doesn't give up easily on its future...or its pastime, baseball.

As Major League baseball enters its 140th year, most people can probably name many of the cities that have hosted teams through the years: New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago...Rockford, Illinois. Uh...what was that last one?

Yes, you heard right. Not only did Rockford once have a Major League baseball team but the Rockford Forest Citys were actually one of the charter cities of the sport, part of the nine-team National Association League of 1871. Not only that but the Forest Citys' star third baseman, Cap Anson was the first big leaguer to reach 3,000 hits and another player from Byron, Illinois, Al Spalding, went on to co-found Spalding Sporting Goods. Both are in Baseball's Hall of Fame.

Amazingly, two teams from that first league still exist: The Chicago White Stockings and the Boston Red Stockings, today known as the Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves, respectively. Dispute among baseball historians exist as to the legitimacy of the NA as a "major league," but the continuity of these two teams lead many to consider the NA as the official start of Major League Baseball.

I was born and raised in Rockford and honestly, I don't remember ever hearing about this. Which is odd. Or is it? Perhaps Rockford has good reason to avoid the nostalgic celebration that normally one would expect a city to take advantage of. Turns out the team went 4-21 in 1871, finished dead last, and folded after its inaugural season. Even stranger, the ballpark where they played, The Fair Grounds of the Winnebago Agricultural Society (now known simply as Fairgrounds Park), is a bit of an elusive ghost. It counts as one of the first nine Major League Baseball parks and yet, apparently, no known photo of the park exists.

What was going on? Why is this huge event in my hometown's history mostly forgotten? I paid a visit to the baseball exhibit at Midway Village Museum on Guilford Road in Rockford to get to the bottom of this mystery. Surely there will be some evidence of Rockford's first and only Major League franchise.

Nothing. All I found were lots of photos and relics from the Rockford Peaches women's baseball team famously featured in the 1992 film A League of Their Own, directed by Penny Marshall and starring Tom Hanks and Madonna. Certainly, I don't blame the museum for the omission. First, because of the film, there is huge awareness of this women's sports league. "There's no crying baseball," a line from the film, entered the national pop culture consciousness. Second, there probably isn't much left to show. And maybe it is a sore spot considering the team ended in dismal failure. Still, it is safe to assume the wounds of loss inflicted on the 11,000 folks living in 1871 Rockford have probably healed by now. We should celebrate this amazing place in history. Not even the New York Yankees can claim to be a charter team of baseball.

It seems marketable. Why not play up the team's history in sports bars? The city could sell jerseys and caps of the logo. Maybe the River Hawks could have a "Forest City Day" and wear uniforms celebrating this pioneering team. By turning the city's contribution on the National Pastime into a positive, perhaps 140 years of loss could be turned into a gain.

The problem is, there just isn't much to go on. I felt like I was chasing something that didn't really happen or exist. There needed to be more proof. I wondered about the park. Then I found this article by Jim Nitz, who found this first-hand account from Rockford resident John Clifford in an August 16, 1939 Rockford Register Star article:

"The games were played on the fair grounds and a poorer baseball field, to my mind, has never been known. Trees in every direction. There was a cluster of five around third base. The catcher was hemmed in by trees with the exception of a space about 30 by 50 feet. An umpire could not see a foul unless it hit back of the plate or a few feet on either side of the base lines. Between the plate and second base the terrain was fairly level, but approaching third base there was a noticeable rise and from third to the plate there was a depression and the base runner had to dig in for life. At the edge of the outfield was a deep gutter to take care of water from the quarter-mile race track and why more fielders did not break legs in this trap was because Providence protected them. The bleachers were situated along first base and the plate and would accommodate about 300 to 500. They were made of bridge planking. In the later years of the club’s existence there was built a grandstand, primarily to protect the scorers. The grandstand would hold about 30 to 40 persons."

Mr. Clifford must have been at least 80 years old in 1939 to have remembered the team but it's fortunate he was interviewed because accounts of the team are almost non-existent. Still, I felt there must be something else. I visited The Fairgrounds in September of this year. It was a beautiful day. Kids were playing on swingsets and running through the grass. There were several large oak trees in the park. I wondered if the cluster of five trees around third base was still there. Here is how one of the nine original Major League Baseball parks looks today:

It's a pretty park, but I didn't find anything. So I decided to look at the park from space. I was shocked. There it was. The park of which there is no photo. One of the first Major League diamonds, visible like a fossil imprinted deep into the ground. From Google Maps:

In fact, it looks like there are two diamonds, which makes sense because the grounds were used for years after for various semi-pro sporting events, as this 1913 photo shows. The background of this photo even shows one of the diamonds still intact:

Now we're getting somewhere. There is more physical evidence. An actual baseball card of Forest City second baseman Bob Addy:

There is also the team portrait at the top of the article. Suddenly, this team is starting to feel real. Rockford is a city that sometimes strives for legitimacy from beneath the shadow of Chicago. It must have been exciting in early July 1871 when the Boston Red Stockings came to Rockford to play Major League Baseball. Optimism of an exciting future may have brought Forest City fans out for a sunny family outing. We are an important city. From the Rock River Democrat, May 31, 1865, 23 days before the last shot was fired in The Civil War, during the early formation days of the club:

"We hope to see this association keep up from year to year, till it becomes a permanent institution. From the character of the men, we have no doubt our fullest expectations will be realized."

Much was lost in 1871. Rockford lost its baseball team, but possibly also the hope of playing with the big boys, a sense of insecurity that, in some ways, it still carries 140 years later. A recurrent pattern for Rockford is that it sometimes is granted a glimpse of greatness, only to be snatched away before it even gets started. Is denial of a past a way of hiding collective disappointment?

The month after Rockford's losing season ended, 70 miles west, most of Chicago burned to the ground, tragically putting things in perspective and yet, proving once again, that Americans never give up, Rockfordians included.

THE LANGUAGE OF NEWSIES

2011-06-26T02:21:00.000-07:00

I worked in broadcast news for 10 years.

4 cities, and 5 TV stations. I wrote down how we talk:

This is a glossary.

Newsroom vernacular, lexicon, industry speak, nomenclature, phraseology, slang. Much of it is vulgar and idiomatic, but it's the way television communicators communicate with one another. An interesting point is that these terms vary depending on region. When I came to work in California, I encountered variations I hadn't heard at stations in Rockford or Milwaukee.

VOSOT- Voice-over, Sound on Tape. An interview within a short news story.

Sometimes called VSB (soundbite-video), or VSV, depending on region or station.

One-man Band- Producer/Reporter/Cameraman all in one.

Donut- live sot live. A reporter is introduced live, tosses to a soundbite, goes back on cam and tosses to anchor.

Set Piece- Reporter appears on anchor set to toss to package.

Nat Pop- burst of natural sound during story, editing trick.

IFB- Interupptable feedback – audio sent often through cellphone lines during live shot or coming from master control in a studio to a small earpiece worn by anchors, reporters, and photographers. IFB also refers to the earpiece itself which is usually a curly cord tucked behind the ear.

Mix minus- Audio content reporter hears through IFB during live shot (usually air and a producer or director minus the reporter’s own voice to prevent feedback).

Track (N or Verb)- The recorded reporter voiceover

Shotgun – long microphone usually attached to camera for capturing directional sound.

LAV- lavalier microphone.

Hang a mic- used for NAT sound. When a lav mic is left on a person, or animal, or machine to capture sound, sometimes from a distance.

Roll a Crew- send field crew to scene.

Wraparounds- In a news magazine show, the intros and tags of the host.

Stand up- Reporter on cam , often a bridge or turning point in story.

PJ- Photojournalist.

Predator- person who reports, shoots, and edits.

Show- as in the 5,6, or 11 shows.

Sequencing- editing within a story that functions as a visual narrative of events.

Ingesting- Taking in a video feed.

Hot roll- Air the story directly from tape from Master Control.

Slamming- late edit.

Chyron/Lower Third/Super- The text on lower portion of screen that identifies person speaking.

Nat Sound Piece- A package usually produced by a cameraman or producer that is a collection of interviews without reporter track.

Gang Bang- when two or more news crews interview a subject at the same time.

Presser- Press conference.

Multbox- Audio feed from a press conference containing multiple outputs to accommodate various crews.

Pool Camera- When one camera serves captures videos for multiple stations, this is done to reduce number of crews in a courtroom for example.

Reel- Reporter/Anchor/Producer/Photographer resume tape for getting next job.

Fake live- Live shot on tape tossed to by anchor is if live.

Toss- intro to another segment, usually to another on air person.

Prompter- Teleprompter. Scrolls script across camera lens.

Nuts and bolts- Just the facts package, sometimes an addendum story that explains background to another current event.

Stringer- a freelance camera person who is often called at odd times when no one else is available.

Stick mic/sticks- a hand held microphone, usually with a micflag attached and in view.

Mic flag- a plastic cube on a stick mic with the stations logos and call letters printed.

Rack focus- to focus from an object to another, one usually being at a different distance than the other

Cutaway- a shot used to cover an edit, sometimes of a reporter reaction or a crowd reaction

Reader- a story during the news show where there is no video and the anchor just reads the story

File- archive video.

2-way- radio- before cellphones, CBs were used for newscrews to communicate.

Feed- Video coming in over satellite. Also means to feed in your package to the station from the field for master control to air.

Package- a 90 second (on average) news story produced by the reporter and photojournalist which includes reporter track, b-roll, soundbites, natural sound. And a sig out.

Cart- Tape that a reporter tracks their voice onto. Vestige of the days when reporters tracked on 8-track-like cartridges. More currently, reporters track into cameras or hard drives.

Sig-out- the prerecorded tag at the end of the reporter pkg i.e., ‘REPORTING FROM ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS, I’M SNOW SAVAGE, NEWSCHANNEL 17."

Sun gun- small light mounted on top of camera.

Kicker- a show close piece. Can be a pkg or a VO. Usually it is a feature or humorous video. Think squirrel water-skiing.

B-roll- Video at location. The video between the soundbites that tells a story.

Live shot- A live presentation from the field during a news shot facilitated by a live microwave truck or a satellite truck.

Bridge- plot-point, turning point in story, often an on camera stand-up by reporter.

Small market- small tv station where usually offering low-paying, entry –level jobs.

Rundown- Sort of like an Excel sheet of the show script.

Block- As in A block, B Block, sections of show separated by commercials.

Tease- Quick, one-sentence read, usually over video to entice viewers to stay tuned for upcoming story/package.

Crew- usually just a reporter and a photographer. Networks sometimes include a field producer.

The Desk- The Assignment desk. The desk full of monitors and radios where the assignment editors send crews to news stories.

Bump- Moving a story, by producer, to another time in the rundown due to technical issues or time considerations.

Live Van- Live truck with usually a mast that transmits signal to a tower enabling live video during show.

Soc- Unknown.
Vj- Videojournalist. Person who shoots, edits, writes, reports. Synonymous with Predator and One-Man Band.
Mmj-Unknown.
Spray (a scene)- Shoot a scene very quickly usually without regard to quality. Producers ask for this a lot. Haha!
Looklive- Same as a Fake Live. Live on tape, taken as a package but tossed to as if live. Live Chyron is dropped.
Aslive- Same as above.
Minipkg- Very short story, 45-60 seconds.
Breaker- Breaking news story. Often diverts crews.
Talking chopper- Unknown.
Eng- Electronic News Gathering, as in ENG truck or ENG camera.
Sng- ?
Spot news- Often breaking news, such as car crash, fire, news of the day. Large markets tend not to cover traffic accidents.
Spot (as in commercial)- Ads between breaks.
Promo Produced by promotions department. Promoting newscast or show on station. Often Proof-of Product using video as proof the news gathering operation is effective.
Make-good ?
Break (as in commercial) Air time between blocks.
Get live Go live on a story
Sat shot A live shot from a satellite truck, often in a more remote location to distant for microwave trucks to beam back a signal.
Broll- Video in a news story that is not the interview. B-roll is seen while the reporter of another person is speaking. Speaker is not seen however.
Crashing on a pkg Pulling out of a package while it is airing to go to breaking news or because of technical issues.
Dog and pony show
Bopsa
Cold open- Opening a newscast with video/natural sound and usually a soundbite as opposed to opening with anchors speaking. Cold opens are usually 5-10 seconds, then the video continues and anchor begins speaking under video.
Live tz- Live on camera tease, telling viewers a live report is up later in the show.
Tease Usually a tease on tape at the end of a block the tells viewers what is coming up later in the show. Keeps them tuned in.

Thumbsucker- Live shot where reporter only speaks and is not supported by video or a SOT. Often ad-libbing is necessary.

Top Tail- ?

FEAR THE BEARD

2010-10-27T11:38:00.000-07:00

I went to a great party last night. The Gala for the World Series 2010 held at the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. Complete with albino alligators, a full skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and giant pools with live stingrays, we ate our unagi and sipped martinis as we strolled among the jellyfish tanks. A fireworks display followed. Go Giants!

COME HOME TO ME • THE FAMOUS

2010-07-15T14:40:00.001-07:00

I just finished directing this music video for San Francisco's The Famous. Shooting took place over 6 months.

Sounds of Resurrection

2010-06-30T13:09:00.000-07:00

What do nuclear weapons, Abraham Lincoln, and time travel have in common?

Not much, unless you have the tools to make sense of ancient microscopic bumps and lines.

Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville was a French bookseller and printer living in Paris. One day in 1855, while looking over some engravings of a physics book about audio anatomy and sound waves, he got an idea. If he can print words with his printing press, why couldn't he pump sound into a stylus and "engrave" sound onto paper covered with black soot? It was an historical moment. But it took the the same laboratory that helped develop the atomic bomb to figure out what he had invented.

It had long been thought that Thomas Edison made the first sound recording in 1877 when he sang "Mary Had a Little Lamb" into his tinfoil cylinder and was able to play it back through a sound horn. People at the time actually accused Edison of promulgating a hoax or worse, practicing witchcraft. In fact, he had merely invented the phonograph which later evolved beyond cylinders and became the record player.

But he wasn't the first to do it. When Mr. Scott of Paris tried out his idea with the soot paper, he was able to produce a visual representation of sound waves--which was all he was going for. He took his invention, the phonoautograph, around the world showing people who might be interested. He sold a few units but never really made much money from his idea and so, back he went to his little home on Rue Vivienne in Paris to sell books.

What Mr. Scott may not have known is that when you etch a waveform onto a piece of paper, you've created a "record" of an audio event. Now who wouldn't want to play that back at some point in time?

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory certainly did. This U.S. DOE lab had a hand in the development of the cyclotron, an early particle accelerator, which comes in handy if you're trying to make an atomic bomb. This time, however, all they were blowing up were long-held historical notions of invention, namely the idea that Mr. Edison's pioneering "Little Lamb" recording was a first.

By using modern audio software to interpret the waveforms that were "printed" on the paper, researchers Patrick Feaster and David Giovannoni, among others, produced in 2007 an audio file of the first sound recording, a clip of a human voice singing "Au Claire de la Lune", a French folk song from the 18th century. The following was recorded on April 9th, 1860.

Keep in mind, the sound you just heard was from almost a full year before Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as the 16th President of the United States.

And speaking of Honest Abe: There is a rumor that Scott made a trip to the White House in 1863 and made a recording of Abraham Lincoln speaking and the paper recording is somewhere in the basement of the White House, lost in the archives, Raiders of the Lost Ark-style. There is no evidence that Scott visited the States during this time but if it were true, imagine how important a voice recording of Lincoln would be. His voice has not been heard since his death so information about his voice is purely anecdotal.

But of course, it gets weirder. Some "archeophones" or "paleoaudiologists" contend this may be the start of a new field of archeological discovery. If waves on paper can be converted into sound files, perhaps other etched vibrations can be scanned using an electron microscope and converted into sound that is playable.

Ideas include scanning paint chips on the Sistine Chapel to hear the sounds of Michelangelo as he was painting. Van Gogh paintings could yield some good sounds. His paint was often globbed on thick, potentially making it a suitable "mould" for audio sound waves. Perhaps the crazed sounds of Vincent swallowing absinthe and muttering incoherently about ears and sunflowers are buried in those paint lumps.

And just think: if we could scan waveforms at the subatomic level, maybe we could time travel even further: sounds of ancient Egypt extracted from pottery, cries of Neanderthals from 20,000 B.C. pulled from cave walls in Europe, the roar of a Tyrannosaurus Rex culled from amber. Is this fantastic and ridiculous? Maybe. But remember, we have already heard the sounds of the creation of the universe by scanning radio waves in space left over from the big bang.

And that makes the voice of Lincoln sound like yesterday's news.

Republic of China Scootin' Boogie

2010-04-27T02:35:00.000-07:00

Top 10 Things about Taipei, Taiwan (okay, 14 things)

14. Being in this city made me feel like Americans are prisoners in their own homes. Everyone is outside, in markets day and night, cooking outside, shopping at all hours.

13. The flight attendants on Eva Air, the Taiwanese airline, are gorgeous, like beauty queens but nice, not crabby or snotty. Also the the ceiling had artificial stars and sunsets projected during the flight.

12. Bridges along the highway are built from the middle out in a V shape and then pulled straight when done with giant pulleys.

11. The longest stoplights I’ve ever seen. 80 seconds and it counts down in LED. With full animation of a guy walking for the crosswalk.

10. 7/11’s everywhere. On every block. And you can pay your mortgage in the store and buy concert tickets!

9. As soon as you get off the plane, it smells like a botanical garden.

8. Nobody is overweight. The people are thin, young and old.

7. No one asked for money or had tattoos. I’m not in San Francisco anymore!

6. The money is 31:1 on the dollar so a soda costs 64 dollars!

5. Karaoke places aren’t just in bars, they are on top of skyscrapers!

4. Bladerunner-like architecture all over the city. Like a dusty Star Wars city.

3. Scooters in the thousands, most drivers wearing surgical masks to protect from the grime.

2. Dramatic, extreme mountains shoot into the sky around the city, covered with white blossoms. Beautiful!

1. Polite and gracious people in a very busy city. New York and Chicago could learn a few things!

RUINED?

2010-02-15T21:35:00.000-08:00

WHEN TAKING A BATH IN SAN FRANCISCO DIDN'T MEAN YOUR OPTIONS HAD TANKED

The Sutro Baths were opened on March 14th, 1896 as the world's largest public swimming pool. Former mayor of San Francisco Adolph Sutro built the baths and it was no small feat. The baths could hold 25,000 people and 2 millions gallons of water. Watching film of the baths in action, one is immediately struck by a sort of ancient modernity. The Thomas Edison Company rolled film on October 25th, 1897, as people zipped down a gigantic slide and possibly thought, "this is soooo cutting edge."

The baths eventually went out of business in the 1930's. For the next 30 years it was an ice skating rink. In 1966,

as San Francisco and the rest of the world were going through a social revolution, the baths burned down.

The land that the Sutro Baths occupied is now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and has not been developed.

The ruins are still visible. Both eerie and beautiful to explore,

like an industrial age archeology site, the debris is crunched

close with a dramatic and intimidating ocean cove.

The crashing waves seem to have declared victory over man,

slapping the ruins and encouraging its rot.

A stroll on the ruins is fascinating and it's easy to imagine what

must have taken place over several decades:

sounds of music from the 8,000 seat concert hall, people screaming

and laughing in 7 tanks of different temperatures,a luxurious

palace with staricases, 500 rooms, palm trees, and the feeling that

this is how kings play.

Okay, but let's not forget what happened to the Statue of Zeus at

Olympia or the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Even giant

accomplishments are temporary and fleeting.

Adolph Sutro built his wealth with gold and real estate. He was worth

millions by the end of the 19th century. Sutro's success was a

bay area harbinger of tycoonery to come.

Makes you wonder if powerful economic bubbles are rogue,

ebbing and flowing like waves.

Will 22nd century tourists walk on ruins of dot-com campuses?

Will they imagine how that time must have felt?

The epiphany of innovation, the exhilaration of gargantuan

financial success, an orgy of greed and gluttony.

Are those our "Hanging Gardens"?

I decided to squeeze a bit more art out of the

ruins of this amazing place. Here's my short film which flies

you through and around the ruins:

Sutro Baths Ruins • San Francisco from barton bishoff on Vimeo.

YOU NEVER GIVE ME YOUR MONEY

2010-01-24T04:18:00.000-08:00

WERE THE BEATLES FISCAL CONSERVATIVES?

Often the challenge of writing necessitates that you have to question your own believes and subjectivity. This one is hard because I love The Beatles and their vibe. But were the members of this innovative group always true to their word? Were The Beatles fiscal conservatives?

In 1963 The Beatles agreed to assign their publishing rights to music publisher Dick James. This created a company known as Northern Songs. The company went public in 1965 with John Lennon and Paul McCartney owning 15% each of the company's shares. John and Paul tried to buy the company outright but in 1969 James sold Northern Songs to Associated TeleVision (ATV). In 1985 Michael Jackson (after receiving advice from Paul that music publishing is a good investment) bought the company for $47 million. Today that catalogue is worth $1.5 billion.

Perhaps the cleverest one of the bunch was George Harrison who created his own company in 1967 called Harrisongs. This company still owns George's songs after 1967 which are some of the most valuable of his compositions with The Beatles, notably Something and Here Comes The Sun and to a lesser extant, While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

John Lennon complained during his December 1970 interview with Rolling Stone magazine founder Jann Wenner that The Beatles never saw much of the money they made during their early days. Harrison and Starr received even less and what they did receive was taxed heavily by the British government. Labour Party Prime Minister Harold Wilson was in power during a time when top earners in England were taxed 95%.

Harrison's 1966 song 'Taxman' may be tongue-and-cheek, but one can't help detecting bitterness toward big government and fortunes lost to high taxes. The song is sung from the perspective of the The Taxman, whose insatiable greed is fed in part by taxing the rich:

Let me tell you how it will be

There's one for you nineteen for me

Cause I'm the Taxman

Yeah, I'm the Taxman

Later there is a reference to British politicians:

Don't ask me what I want it for--ah-ah, Mister Wilson

If you don't want to pay some more--ah-ah, Mister Heath

This line refers to Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Conservative Party leader Edward Heath I suppose in an effort to be fair and balanced.

For a band that influenced the social attitudes of millions and proclaimed that "All You Need is Love" and Lennon who later imagined "no possesions", they certainly lived well. Above are the homes of John Lennon and George Harrison, Tittenhurst Park and Friar Park respectively.

That's a lot of ten-bob notes.

TRASH TALK AND GLOBAL GUNK

2009-05-25T09:39:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine oversees regulatory affairs for a pharmaceutical company in the midwest. They had some sort of last minute recall of one of their products. My friend's company asked her to personally witness the destruction of millions of pills loaded onto several semi-trucks at a garbage disposal facility in Indianapolis. I went with her to keep her company as she was NOT happy to have to do deal with this. Her usual work is more legal and compliance-geared.

We ended up at this weird factory from hell. Trucks with wheels the size of HOUSES drove around dumping into a pit that, I kid you not, was a tower of trash equal in height to a 10+story building! There was a huge metal claw that darted around like a dinosaur-sized spider picking up inconceivable amounts of sludge and debris. The waste was burned at thousands of degrees in an oven that had little windows you could peer into and see the most terrifying inferno! Outside the huge facility were a couple of smokestacks as tall as twin Eiffel Towers. They were oozing steam into the sky. I'm pretty sure this was a place incinerating in order to generate electricity.

The employees seemed very hard-working but not always thrilled to be there. In the photo, you can see some of the employees enjoying New Year's Day. Looks like a party you don't want to miss:

The most alarming thing about seeing so much trash is the fact that, when you're standing there looking at it, you are struck by the realization that most people DON'T see where their trash ends up. Out of site, out of mind. But people should see what all this consumption adds up to. It's a sobering sight.

We've all heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch that has grown to twice the size of Texas. It's a land mass of trash discovered about 10 years ago in the Pacific Ocean, floating plastic killing fields that swallow up wildlife in it's path. Will the human race someday be swallowed up by its own refuse?

We will certainly suffer consequences if current behavior continues. The United States produces 220 million tons of garbage a year (NY Times). The U.S. constitutes 4% of the world population so global garbage "productivity" probably exceeds 4-5 billion tons annually. Individuals recycling is a good thing, but more regulation of corporations is on the horizon if we are to solve this problem.

The notion that "businesses can be trusted to be socially responsible-they don't need regulation" is certainly a page taken out of the foolishness of a utopian fairy tale --the Wall Street equivalent of a hippy-dippy Kumbaya singalong. More effective is legislating regulation. A transition into using more biodegradable materials would be required within a certain timeframe. The tricky part is many American companies farm out their production to China and other countries. A global initiative and treaty is needed along with restrictions on overseas manufacturing.

If we don't alter our habits we could end up throwing away something that really matters: our future.

I SHOT THIS VIDEO OF THE TRASH CLAW:

POTATO CHIP

2009-05-20T00:55:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, I had this weird dream that a giant peanut-guy wearing a top hat was leading my cousin Robin and I around, holding our hands, and doing a strange dance. I was about 8 years old when I had this dream. It took some time to figure out the dream was inspired by the logo of a local potato chip company. Even more odd is the caption on the bag: Potato Chip. Are we to think there is only one really big chip in the bag? Anyone from Rockford, Illinois knows about Mrs. Fischer's Potato Chips. Along with "The Symbol", Tinker Cottage, Cheap Trick, The Rockford Peaches, and the On The Waterfront festival, it's just one of the things that you grew up with if you were from "The Forest City."

The bag is cool too. It has sort of an Andy Warhol retro/minimal commercial design that is inadvertently vintage. There is no effort to be stylish. The design is from the 1930's and that's what they still use.

I used to love to buy a bag when I was in town until recently when I looked at the back of the bag and it had more trans fat than I've ever seen in my life. They're really good though, but maybe you have to be from Rockford to really appreciate this snack. A friend of mine, who also grew up in Rockford and now lives in the bay area, recently gave a bag to her son (who did not grow up in Rockford) and he thought they tasted like stale McDonald's fries.

I suppose you had to be there.

MILES AND MILES

2009-02-25T23:34:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I flew back to Rockford, Illinois, my hometown, where I was born and raised, to play the CD release party for Miles Nielsen. He just put out a new CD and we played 2 shows, at Kryptonite in Rockford on Friday, February 20th and the next night at Café Monmartre in Madison, Wisconsin. We played the entire CD in sequence both nights which, if you're a working musician, it's a great experience to play an entire album live for an audience. I hope the audience was equally thrilled or at least intrigued by these unique performances. I was honored to be a part of this project and it was one of the top musical and creative experiences of my life.

Miles is a rare talent. Many in the Chicago area know he's a great singer and songwriter but he is also a fantastic guitarist and instrumentalist. It was a source of pride for many to see this group of nine Rockford area natives recreate Miles' record. There is so much talent in this town, the kind of talent that matures unfettered by the politics and status-positioning common in many larger markets like L.A. and New York City. I think often really inspired and innovative music comes from places like this and not from coastal economic centers. Just think Liverpool UK, Athens GA, Memphis, New Orleans, Chapel Hill NC, the list goes on.

For the Kryptonite show, our line-up consisted of Daniel James McMahon on guitar and vocals, who produced the CD with Miles, Micky Rosenquist, Bun E. Carlos, and Charles Koltak on drums, Andrew Scarpaci on bass, Hayward Williams on guitar and vocals, Adam Plamann on clarinet, soprano and tenor sax and keyboards, Kelly Steward on vocals, and myself on guitar.

I have to say, as a kid growing up in Rockford learning how to play guitar from my dad, Beatles and Cheap Trick records, it was a gas looking back at Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos for cues during the songs "Sugaree" and "Lucy." He's a great drummer and a real student of the instrument.

Later in the night, Rick Nielsen, Miles' dad and chief songwriter for Cheap Trick (he wrote 'I Want You To Want Me', 'Surrender', 'Dream Police', and many other chart-topping hits), former Trick bassist Jon Brant, and Bun E. joined in to play their hits 'Voices' and 'Surrender.' Cheap Trick also is the band responsible for the theme songs for 'That 70's Show' and 'The Colbert Report.' My dad, John Bishoff, also a veteran of the Rockford music scene since 1958, hit the stage and played a Harmony Riley (an earlier Miles band) song with Miles and the band.

All of these folks are very productive, inspiring, and creative. Check out their websites:

www.milesnielsen.com

www.kellystewardmusic.com

www.myspace.com/danieljamesmcmahon

www.haywardwilliams.com

www.fearanddesire.net

www.myspace.com/mickyrosenquist

www.cheaptrick.com

You can buy Miles' CD here:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/milesnielsen

A SMALL BONE TO PICK

2009-02-06T23:18:00.000-08:00

INNER COTERIE CONTENTIONS

by Barton Bishoff

What's more worthwhile? A knock down drag out fight over the subconscious or a battle over a more primitive consciousness? I'm not sure what would happen if you put a bunch of anthropologists and surrealists in a room together, but smart money is on the fact that, collectively, there would be a lot of infighting (and unusual facial hair).

Whether you're talking communism or hobbits, these two groups have a history of inner disharmony.

On the Indonesian island of Flores, inhabitants have for centuries passed down legends of the Ebu Gobo. Similar to the leprechaun myths of Ireland, the Ebu Gogo are said to be tiny humans who murmur to each other in a strange language and are hardly ever seen. Almost all cultures have legends rich in detail and references to mythological creatures. But in this case, bones were found.

In 2003 anthropologists exploring the Liang Bua Cave in a remote area of the island discovered 8 skeletons of what appeared to be full grown adult human beings that stood about 3 feet tall. The new species of human was named Homo Floresiensis and the most recent individuals had died only 13,00 years ago. If this was a new species, that means that during that time, there were at least two different species of humans living on earth at the same time: Us and Them.

Many islanders claimed to have seen living individuals of these "Hobbits" living as recently as 100 years ago. It's almost surreal to think of interacting with these creatures. History has taught us that it's hard enough for modern people who may look different from one another to get along, imagine if we had to contend with a completely different species of human? Would they get a social security number? Would they be able to vote? Would they enjoy reality television?

Many scientists are not convinced. They contend this is just dwarfism and that the bones found are Homo Sapiens, just like us, sufferers of a genetic disorder called microcephaly, a condition that produces small brains and skulls in humans. Scientists have battled over this issue back and forth in scientific journals. One of the dissenters actually took some of the bones without permission from Jakarta's National Research Centre of Archaeology and returned them damaged further agitating rancor between the two camps.

There are people who have so much in common, they can't agree on anything.

In 1924 French writer Andre Breton wrote The Surrealist Manifesto. He defined surrealism as "the chance meeting of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table." Members of the movement (which grew out of the Dada movement) included Paul Eluard, Max Ernst, Man Ray, Yves Tanguy, Joan Miro, and, for a time, Salvador Dali. Rene Magritte was also a member of a splinter surrealist group.

It wasn't long, however, before the rot set in. Andre Breton was fond of asking members to "assess their degree of moral competence." The political stance of the surrealists was sort of a mish-mash of Communism and anti-colonial anarchism. Members were ostracized for not falling in line and Breton expelled many who swerved from Surrealist Principles. Dali was kicked out for "anti-revolutionary activity" and accused of supporting fascism.

Think what it must be like to be banished from an art movement that channels the subconscious as its muse. It's not hard to imagine Dali trying to join the Surrealist's table at a French Cafe in Paris only to be told "yes, you paint weird stuff, but you cannot sit with us. You are a traitor and we don't like you anymore." And off he goes to paint melting clocks and nightmarish landscapes. That'll show 'em!

Andre Breton wasn't above getting picked on either. The feminist writer Xaviere Gauthier critiqued Breton's movement as "adopting typical male attitudes toward women, such as worshipping them symbolically through stereotypes and sexist norms."

Ah, boys will be boys, right? Whether it's arguing about pygmy people or proletarian painters, these groups demonstrate that it's not always about who you associate with, but what you believe.

My Teeth Hurt

2009-01-04T23:26:00.000-08:00

Think Frank Lloyd Wright and Nirvana don't have much in common? They just might and we're not the better for it.

The former is the father of an entire genre of architecture, the Prairie School movement being among his approaches, and the latter was the popular momentum pushing grunge music into the mainstream, considered sort of a sub-genre of alternative rock music.

Nevermind the fact that they are both credited as innovators, or that they were all white men, or that neither are with us anymore.

No, what Mr. Wright and the boys from Seattle share is the rather ignoble distinction of creating exciting new directions within their respective artistic communities that inevitably and inadvertently spawned some of the most unfortunate trends within those very genres.

Simply, they made great art that when imitated, pretty often sucked.

Frank Lloyd Wright shattered architectural conventions with his organic and holistic approach to design. Some of his best known buildings are the Guggenheim Museum in New York City and the gorgeous Fallingwater in Bear Run, Pennsylvania. His best work integrates his concept of "organic architecture" sculpting lines out of the natural environment and echoing the beauty of nature.

But his Usonian homes, middle class homes of elegantly simple design, are often cited as the inspiration for the ranch house, the "little boxes" that dot so much of American's more soulless neighborhoods and "Master Planned" communities. Wright has been quoted as saying that when he saw a poorly-designed building, it "made his teeth hurt." I suppose his dentist would need to be on call night and day if Wright were alive today and living in Fresno.

Nirvana was formed in 1987 but didn't really hit the national airwaves until 1991. Their breed of hard rock was too ironic and challenging to be considered a continuation of conventional "hard rock." The heavy rock genre had, up until this point, largely been a self-important brand of male-dominated, male-perspective music. Nirvana effectively was the death knell for 80's heavy metal, both replacing it in the charts and rendering metal irrelevant and cliche.

However, Nirvana, alas, is indirectly responsible for bands such as Creed and Nickelback, utterly horrific and formulaic bands that loosely base their sounds on the grunge model. Some view them as the "ranch houses" of alternative hard rock, serving the servants of bland mainstream rock.

Innovation can be dangerous business. Influence can be transforming but, at the same time, in the wrong hands, destructive.

STANDBY FOR TAKEOFF

2008-12-23T16:56:00.000-08:00

I shouldn't be here. I'm in front of a roaring fire with a glass of Cab enjoying the holidays. It was only days before when I was faced with the prospect of missing Christmas.

I was scheduled to leave on a flight from San Francisco to Chicago at 7PM on December 18th. The weather forecast was grim. Many were saying that if I didn't leave sooner, I wouldn't get to Chicago until next week because FOUR snowstorms are coming. I went to SFO at 6AM to get on standby for earlier flights.

People under duress are both more assertive and ruthless than usual and, at the same time, more communicative and kind to strangers. There is a feeling that we are all in this mess together, so there is bonding and yet, when it comes to getting that rare coveted seat on a plane when the outlook is not good, we don't hesitate to survive, using our instincts to outwit the others, thus securing a spot on a plane that doesn't have room for everyone.

I met a lot of people this day: from Burlington, Vermont, France, New Jersey, Hong Kong, Detroit. It's minutiae, really. But through this common travel crisis, I saw glimpses of what happens when a societal process breaks down. How people are and what they do.

One thing to note: on this morning something happened to me that has never happened, and I travel a lot. I was strapped into a seat, with my luggage stowed in the compartments above, and I was asked to deplane. They had to open the sealed door and escort me out as they re-sealed the door behind me and went on their way.

Here is how it went down as I kept my sister Karyn posted throughout the day:

IM Thread with Karyn Bishoff:

Dec. 18, 2008 9:06 AM PST

Karyn: Any word on a flight?

Bart: Didn't get on 8:50...over 50 people on standby--I'm#21 out on 9:50, unlikely to get on--there is a 10AM but they don't keep your place...so for the 10AM, I could be #1 or #50

Karyn: Just be persistent and patient..be really nice to them.

Bart: People are making friendly small talk with others, then pushing their way to the front of the line.

Dec. 18, 2008 9:16 AM

Bart: Actually it's out of my hands now--there is no "them" it's all automatic from here

Karyn: Ah, Are you in like for any possible flights to Madison or Milwaukee?

Dec 18, 2008 9:30AM

Bart: I could buy a ticket for those but they are sold out--you can't standby on those w/o tickets

Bart: It's interesting to find out it doesn't matter when you get here for standby--it's all based on miles and fares

Karyn: you should have a ton of miles though...you'll get on.

Bart: So many people are trying to be that one guy who talks his way on with the best story. It's not working.

Dec. 18, 2008 9:48AM

Bart: So I was 19 out of 59 on the 9:50-didn't make it on- next is 10AM--there are 2 hippies at the gate pounding on the door and talking into the mic at the gate desk yelling "United Sucks!!" Hilarious. No one is around. Doors are shut.

Karyn: Haha. you're bound to get on one.

Bart: I'm #21 out of 61 for the 10:30AM with 1 seat open so far.

Dec. 18, 2008 10:47AM

Bart: 13 out of 53 on the 11:00AM

Karyn: at least you're in the higher ranks. Can't you just slip them a fittie?

Bart: Missed that one-into 11:50-this is fun! Now I'm chatting up this guy who looks just like Mark Feldt--"deep throat"

Karyn: I guess they pushed the storm back so you can still get on an afternoon flight and make it.

Dec. 18, 2008 11:06AM

Bart: 19 out of 63 on the 11:50AM

Dec. 18, 2008 11:22AM

Karyn: Now they are saying the storm won't start until 7

Dec. 18, 2008 11:50AM

Bart: I'm on a plane! Seatbelt on!

Karyn: Woohoo! That's fantastic! See you soon. What's your flight number?

Bart: They just kicked me off. They gave a seat away to me and that person was somewhere on the plane apparently. I'm being walked off.

Karyn: What?! NO.

Bart: Next flight: 1:50PM

Karyn: Will you be on that one? Or are you part of the lottery again?

Bart: Lottery-I could be first, I could be 21st again.

Dec. 18, 2008 12:04PM

Bart: Standby tip: if they ever say your name don't go to the desk-just board-they don't care who gets on, I got on a plane that way and almost got a seat.

Karyn: Maybe just try even if they don't say your name. Hehe

Bart: Interesting. They didn't even scan or look at my ticket. they just let me on the plane.

Karyn: Kind of scary. Wouldn't you need a ticket which lists a seat?

Bart: Dude, no. SFO has deteriorated into a dystopian nightmare. Every facet of human tragedy is represented somewhere within each number on the standby list. People are pleading with the desk, telling them their life stories.

Dec. 18, 2008 12:20PM

Karyn: Wow. Have you been waiting the longest of all the standby folks?

Dec. 18, 2008 12:32PM

Bart: Now I'm #19 out of 62 for 1:50PM. It's time to start thinking about bribing friends for a ride to Rockford at 1:00AM...cashmere scarves anyone? Icehogs tickets for 2?

Karyn: Is anybody who is begging with a sob story getting on? I doubt anyone will be able to drive at that time.They are calling for an inch of ice on the roads covered by up to a foot of snow. I seriously doubt planes will be coming in then, I hope I'm wrong.

Bart: A really striking-looking woman from Argentina just told the desk that her boyfriend is ill and needs to be bumped up. I think she's lying.

Bart: Do you have Shanwnee's number?

Karyn: 773.555.5555

Bart: I'm facing spend the weekend in an airport with a random selection of people. Maybe I should conduct some kind of poll that will be accurate within + or - 3%.

Dec. 18, 2008 12:45 PM

Bart: Gracias! They just cancelled the 4:30PM flight.

Karyn: Oh no! Due to the weather?

Bart: Yes

Karyn: Does that mean you're screwed?

Bart: A guy from Missouri just told me all flights to Chicago are cancelled after this. This is the last hope. This guy was was soft-spoken and helpful but he is the harbinger of death.

Dec. 18, 2008 1:27PM

Bart: Boarding! I'm the last standby out of 9 on the LAST plane leaving out of SFO for Chicago. All subsequent flights are cancelled due to snow.

Karyn: YES! You're good! Tell me the flight number.

Bart: Seatbelt on, window seat. I was the last standby on a 777. Thanking the f#ck out of my proverbial lucky stars right now! If they try kicking me off again, I'm hiding in the lav.

Bart: Plane is moving!!!!! Too late for deplaning. I'm in!

Karyn: Woohoo! Fabulous. Flight number?

Dec. 18, 2008 7:06PM CST

Bart: Don't know. But I am here in Chicago and very happy. Wait? What's the temperature?

Dec. 18, 2008 7: 58PM

Bart: Ran into Daxx at O'hare getting ride with him to Rockford.

Karyn: Cool. You're just all around lucky today.

Bart: I know, right? If you don't count getting dragged off that earlier plane. I'm buying everybody drinks tonight downtown!

Karyn: There's still a huge storm coming.

Bart: Bring it on now, baby! I don't care.

Karyn: They are predicting a thundersnow. The last time I experienced that was in the Rockies.

Bart: I'm just happy that soon I'll be seeing people I know.

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE

2008-12-15T23:48:00.000-08:00

299 792 458

No, this is not a digit-challenged phone number nor is it your long-lost high school locker combination. It's the number of meters light travels in a second. At that speed you would think it would take little time for light to travel even the most staggering distances but space is more than staggeringly huge. Quick as it is, even light has to endure eternities of time as it bounces around from galaxy to galaxy.

When I was 11 I decided to ditch my pipe dream of pitching for the Chicago White Sox someday and become an astronomer instead. 18 semesters of math and lots of B-'s later, I also moved on from that plan as well. But I still like to look up at the sky and think about the mind-bending implications of what is really up there beyond our planet.

First of all, the sky at night is pretty. Just great.

What really gets me though is not just the vast distances that you can see with the naked eye, but the reality that you are also looking at millions of different points of TIME as well. If you can find Saturn in the sky, you are looking at that planet not as it is now, but as it WAS an hour and a half ago. It could blow up and you wouldn't see it happen until 90 minutes later. But this is child's play.

There are 133 or so stars within 50 light years of Earth. Most of them I have only seen as they were before I was born. It gets weirder. If you are lucky enough to spot a galaxy--some are visible to the naked eye: The Andromeda Galaxy, for instance, then you are looking at that galaxy as it was 3 million years ago. At that moment, you are looking at something in real time from before humans even existed. You think it's spooky looking at a daugerrotype from the 1840's? Try looking at something RIGHT NOW that is really happening millions of years ago!

You can keep going. If you get a really big telescope, you can see galaxies and other exotic and mysterious objects that are 10 billion light years away. That's almost the beginning of time. All over space, light is bouncing around from the creation of the universe. It just needs something to receive it in order to exist as a perception. Whew!

Or how about this? If you could right now this moment put a fantastically high-resolution telescope in orbit around a star 160 million light years away, you could focus it in on Earth and take photographs of dinosaurs, just as an example. Okay, that's getting a little carried away, but the point is that time is relative. Of course there would be no way to get those photos back to Earth in time for us to see them. It would take another 160 million years to send them...even by radio or microwave transmission.

So next time when you look up and think the stars seem so far away, you have to ask yourself: in distance or time?

UNDER THE STARS

2008-12-10T00:53:00.000-08:00

I attended a fascinating recording session tonight in the Seacliff neighborhood of San Francisco. Joe Goldmark was putting pedal steel touches on The Famous' second CD. Joe has played with Jim Campilongo (Norah Jones), Bart Davenport, and many other really grand recording artists. The pedal steel was developed in Hawaii in the 1800's but has evolved into a very complicated contraption that is now commonly associated with American country music. The layout is usually two guitar-like necks mounted flat, with 10 strings to each neck, one tuned to open C6 (the notes C E G A) and the other tuned to an E9 chord (a dominant or V chord-E G# B D F#). Chords are bent with foot pedals and volume is controlled by foot as well, usually in swells often masking the pick attack so that all that is heard is the resulting vibration. A slide is used in the left hand to fret notes and add vibrato. Regardless of context or genre, I find this instrument to be haunting and emotionally evocative, especially when used by the right artists. In this clip, we see and hear Joe laying down pedal steel parts to the instrumental song "Under The Stars" by The Famous. Sit back, click on my video, and listen to the sounds of Joe Goldmark.

Any relation to Jack Frost?

2008-12-07T23:13:00.000-08:00

In Russia, Ukraine, Slovakia, and some of the other Eastern European countries, their Santa figure is a character known as Ded Moroz, or "Grandpa Frost." He also has a granddaughter known as "Snowgirl." He's not as sneaky as our Santa; no breaking and entering houses via the chimney. He just shows up and hands kids their presents or he puts them under the "New Year Tree." He also carries a magical staff and wears interesting hats. No explanation as to what happened to Mrs. Frost or their children, Snowgirl's parents.

The Famous Record Second Album

2008-12-05T00:56:00.000-08:00

San Francisco quartet The Famous are almost finished with their second CD. They have been recording at Tiny Telephone Studios (Death Cab for Cutie, John Vanderslice), Laughing Tiger, and Sonic Zen Records. This is a trailer I produced as I followed them through the process of tracking. I also play lead guitar on two tracks, "Come Home to Me", and "Cold Tonight."

Leave Your Rods and Cones at Home

2008-12-04T23:27:00.000-08:00

Dining in the Dark

October 9th, 2008- My friend Annika invited me to go to a restaurant in San Francisco called Opaque. The idea is that you are served high-end food with one of your essential senses deadened thus heightening another, mainly taste.

Opaque is located at the corner of McAllister and Gough in San Francisco. We entered a small room where there was a cash register and menus. There are only 3 choices for diners: meals 1 through 3. All the servers are sight-impaired and once you've ordered, your party is escorted into the dark in a bleak conga-line march to your table. Once you are seated, you realize your spatial instincts are all you have to guide you.

I was amazed at how adept I was at grasping my drink and silverware. Muscle memory, baby! I couldn't see anything. There isn't even a trace of light sneaking in through a cracked doorway. Nothing. Eyes wide as can be and just...darkness.

I ordered the salmon.

There were four of us and, at one point, I noticed the conversation was a tad more intimate, like lovers whispering on pillows. I mean this in terms of tone not content! I wondered if this was liberating to some. I asked the server.

She said people have been known to take off their clothes or do other "things" they wouldn't normally do in a crowded public restaurant. I left it at that. I had to scoop up some of my food with my fingers onto my fork, but otherwise, I could tell what I was doing. I realized that if I were blind, I would be able to function mechanically at least.

Then it happened. The enemy. I bit down hard on a crunchy raw green pepper. I hate bell peppers: green, red, yellow, orange, teal, mauve, doesn't matter. I decided to use this opportunity of heightened taste-awareness to pick apart the reason I dislike this vegetable. It tastes like what I would imagine urine tastes like. Those things are awful.

Our pupils must have been the size of shirt buttons. Toward the end of the night, I noticed if I gently rubbed the sweater fur on my arm I could see sparks of light. Finally! It wasn't long and we were all rubbing our clothing furiously, our eyes hungry for stimulation. You don't know it, but your clothing is constantly shooting off flashes of static electricity.

We were the last table. We asked the server if she could ask the chef to turn on the lights. I mean, come on! No one was here. We wanted to see the room. We were told that "this is not an option." I felt the wall. It was rough cement texture.

The profit margin must be huge here. No cost for decor and 120 bucks a plate!

We paid at the tiny lit room where we entered. I can see now why this offering has become so trendy. In a city where every look and atmosphere has been tried, now there is a place that offers....nothing.

Time to Get a Cluetrain

2008-12-04T21:44:00.000-08:00

SAVING FACEBOOK: AD FOLK IN SELF-IMAGE CRISIS

As Pownce, the social networking site launched just over a year ago prepares for its end, and a global recession continues, it isn't uncommon to hear lots of discussion in Silicon Valley about the health of the business side of social media. It may take something as simple as the passage of time before we really know if all of this will make much money.

In fact, any conversation about social media is probably too broad. Email, picture-sharing, podcasts, video uploads are all here to stay. It's just a question of how to monetize the traffic and which type of media you are talking about.

Industrial media, the old school stuff, still packs 'em in, just not as much. According to Broadcasting Cable, television ad revenue increased 1.7% in Q1 2008 compared to Q1 2007. Internet ad revenue increased 8.5% over the same time period. The difference is that traditional media outlets are more stable over the long haul. Contrast that to internet sites which have fickle users. Case in point: Friendster and the declining MySpace. Television is in an odd pickle. They are being forced to play catch-up to a vanguard that hasn't proven itself financially.

Social networks, for instance, can be flash-in-the-pan quick starts but sometimes nothing more. Other social media, however is more solid.

"The clue train stopped there four times a day for ten years and they never took a delivery."

The Cluetrian Manifesto was written in 1999 by a quartet of technology pundits. It states, in a nutshell, that an internet-enabled global conversation is taking place and that markets are getting smarter much faster than companies and the services and products they provide.

The sanctity of social media marketing is dependent on the integrity of the conversation, i.e., a website has to DO something useful. Obviously, the crudeness of spamming doesn't lend itself to being an effective delivery system for value. Social networking sites, although popular, usually do a good job of getting lots of people in touch and then fall short of continuing further engagement.

I mean, do I really care if my long-lost friend Jimmy is bored on a Thursday and is thinking about buying a new chew toy for his pug?

What is more effective and in line with the Cluetrain Manifesto is niche sites. And folks, this means more work for everyone. Special interest sites tend to be more self-policed and quality controlled. It also means smaller market share. This is an efficiency dilemma. You could target these users with relevant ad content but it's such a small slice. Hyperlinks are great, but are only for the cyber-initiated, not Joe the Plummer.

It's a lot easier to advertise on a passive medium like television which is much more catch-all but the drawback is that it is less targeted.

Advertisers need to take the clue delivery. They are going to have to employ a smarter workforce who can identify solid social trends on the internet and work with developers to target large groups of tiny multiple audiences. It's really the opposite of mass marketing. It's a long-term investment. Not bottom line-friendly.

All of this adds cost. To keep costs down, companies will inevitably attempt to push their ads through more all-encompassing sites like YouTube. But it's too broad. As of late 2008, YouTube is still not turning a profit.

It could be that social media marketing and viral marketing are not going to be effective for years, when the savvy young users of today settle down and become middle-aged consumers. Far more profitable, in the short term, are search engines who rely on sponsored search results for most of their revenue.

Clues can lead to insight, but the test of time might just be.....time.

THE MADCAP LAUGHS

2008-12-04T14:07:00.000-08:00

SYD BARRETT DIES

Talk about pathologies, Arthur Barrett had no idea.

A doctor of pathology, Dr. Barrett suspected little when he encouraged his ten-year old son, Roger, to pursue music. It is easy to imagine the precocious tyke laughing as he played, his father having scant idea that some day his offspring would change his name to "Syd" and found one of the most influential pop groups of all-time.

Roger would also take heroic amounts of LSD, freak out the members of Pink Floyd (that's a task mind you), and succumb to an agoraphobic existence in his mother's basement for the last thirty-odd years of his life.

Truly a player of the swinging 1960's international mod scene, "Syd" Barrett established a band that would eventually find much success chronicling the demise of its leader. Barrett in the prime of his life was a charismatic extorvert, one of many ringleaders in the midst of a cultural revolution. In 1966, at the famed UFO club in London, you could find Pink Floyd playing gigs with The Beatles or Jimi Hendrix in attendance on any given lucky night. The rooms were full of girls wearing mod-minis and go-go boots dancing as multi-colored lights flashed across walls of psychedelic art. More of a fashion chic scene for socialites than a hippy scene, it was a brief time when those two worlds were intertwined. "Syd", by most accounts was articulate, quick, good with girls, and the life of the party.

Out of the blue and without a lot of warning, "Syd" just changed. It's hard to say whether it was the lysergic acid diethylamide or the psilocybin. "Syd" certainly ingested a lot of each. It's unfair to place full blame on the drugs; there was a history of mental illness in the Barrett family. He became erratic. He played an entire Pink Floyd gig just strumming one chord. It was hard to tell if he was fading away or experiencing too many hallucinations.

The boys in the band, who egged him on during his chemical escapades, kicked him out of his own band. They just couldn't deal with his inexplicable behavior. After a couple of solo albums in the early 1970's (including 1970's 'The Madcap Laughs'), Syd Barrett finally headed for the safety of his mother's basement.

Living off royalties for the next 30-plus years, Syd hardly made a public appearance. He could be spotted near his mother's home in Cambridge UK, donning jams and tennies, riding a bicycle with a basket and heading to the market for a paper and some ciggies. He spent 3 or 4 years as one of the biggest rock stars in the world and then retreated to a hermetic life, speaking to no one in the music business or the press. He didn't even keep in touch with his old band mates in Pink Floyd.

Tom Cox of the Guardian UK was one of the few journalists brave enough to approach "The Madcap" during this period. In 2001, this is the only known exchange post-1973 between a journalist and Syd Barrett:

Tom Cox: I'm writing a piece about Syd Barrett.

Barrett: Who?

Cox: Syd Barrett. He used to be in Pink Floyd.

Barrett: Never heard of 'im. Is he one of them rappers?

Cox: No-he was a psychedelic genius. Are you Syd Barrett?

Barrett: Leave me alone. I've got to get some coleslaw.

Cox: I take this as a 'no.'

There you have it. Thousands of countless trips on LSD through the cosmos, all the women he could ever want, a rock star in the 1960's, and what does our boy need?

Coleslaw.

Since 1972, the public knows Syd only through candidly-snapped paparazzi photos shot from afar with zoom lenses. He looks more like Ned Beatty in these recent shots than a dashing rock star. Maybe he's not even that crazy anymore but is just over the whole 'fame thing.'

He came back once. In 1975 when Pink Floyd was recording "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" for the Wish You Were Here LP, a plump bald man seemed to be hanging in the shadows at Abbey Road Studios in London. The song was in fact about Syd Barrett's mental collapse. Hours into the session the members of the band were startled to realize that this man actually WAS Syd Barrett and they hadn't noticed because his appearance had changed. He had shaven his hair and eyebrows off. According to Rick Wright, keyboardist for the band, Syd was brushing his teeth by holding a toothbrush still and jumping up and down. They asked him how he was doing. He mentioned that his mother had pork chops in the freezer and he was eating a lot of those. That was the last time they ever saw Syd Barrett.

Roger Waters broke into tears after seeing Syd in this state. Roger later wrote the dystopian LP and motion picture The Wall, starring Bob Geldoff with shaved eyebrows, a character no doubt loosely based on Barrett.

Syd Barrett died July 7, 2006. It didn't seemed like a lot of people noticed. His sister is quoted as saying he did a lot of painting and gardening. Roger "Syd" Barrett may be the only figure in pop music to live the life of a 1960's icon, yet avoid death at 27 (the age when Morrison, Hendrix, and Joplin died) and ultimately lead a peaceful life far from the glow of publicity.

Was Syd Barrett a victim of success or a crafty loafer with a brilliant past? Great Garbo and J.D. Salinger look out. Syd was the Howard Hughes of rock. He experienced the fullest extremes of the Rock N' Roll hero's journey.

He's still laughing.

2008-12-03T17:20:00.000-08:00

The Famous putting the finishing touches on their second CD at Sonic Zen Records in Berkeley, CA. November 2008

фотографии из России

2008-12-03T16:30:00.000-08:00

My grandparents visited Russia (USSR) in 1986 before the fall of communism. My grandfather brought back over a thousand photographs. I am now in the process of scanning his amazing collection. PHOTO BY CARL BISHOFF

Outside Lands 2008

2008-12-03T13:17:00.002-08:00

August 24th, 2008--I woke up this morning and from my open bedroom window, I could hear the sounds of a distant concert. It sounded like either The Mother Hips or Widespread Panic, I couldn't tell which. So I strolled over to Golden Gate Park and threw down a C-note and walked into the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival. I felt myself closing in on very large crowds of people as Lindley Meadow and the Polo Field came into view. I could smell the Pesto Flatbread and Organic Fennel Seed Sausage. Soon I could see tens of thousands of people. I wondered how many of them paid for college selling ginseng burritos and Ecuadorian sweaters in the parking lot of Phish shows.

The giant Microsoft tent interior was pitch dark and full of stoned teenagers, school teachers, and parents playing Rock Band. I thought this must be the equivalent of throwing balls for the radar gun at a baseball game; a sideshow where you could pretend to do what you just paid admission to see professionals do.

I walked from stage to stage, feet stomping on soft paths through eucalyptus and cypress groves. I emerged from forests of twisted wood that must have been Dr. Suess' muse. Meadows of trampled grass opened up like multiple hidden Woodstocks. It seemed for a second like Monteray in '67. Oh shit, there's someone texting with a 3G iPhone. Back to reality.

Then it hit me! Jack Johnson is the Jimmy Buffet of Generation Y! Holy crap. Now what am I going to do? This ruins everything! No. I have to regroup and feel at home again. I'll go see the guys from my home state of Illinois. That will do the trick. Wilco is over at the Twin Peaks stage in Speedway Meadow. I watched them NOT play songs from Summerteeth for the fifth time in five years. They sounded great though. Man, outdoor sound reinforcement has come a long way. Thank God for Meyer speakers.

I was on my third Sierra Nevada Pale Ale draft. The beer was flatter than John McCrea's singing but still, it was beer. The sun was out and that is a miraculous event in the upper Richmond area of San Francisco so I counted my blessings. I sat on the grass eating a veggie burger and thought about two days ago late Friday night when I watched Radiohead fill a very dark park with lasers and electronic out-freakage. Their set was marred with technical problems and power lapses forcing a very apologetic Thom Yorke to ask for the the crowd's forgiveness. So many hours ago was that opening night and now, as the sun retreats here on Sunday, the first Outside Lands show is over.

I started the walk back to my apartment. Dozens of electric muni buses, so full of people they sagged, lumbered down Fulton street. I imagine most of these folks drove here from all over the country, rolling through prairie states, hoping to God the cops didn't pull them over and find their secret stash of magic mushrooms hidden in the fake Mr. Pipp can under the seat.

I realized I was fortunate to have an event this big so close to home. I know tomorrow I will wake up there will be no more concert in the park. I'm leaving the window open anyway.