Lame Journalism

I'm dropping a brief note just to give you a sense of how lame journalism has become. This is my example (they say example is the best teacher, though that is highly debatable): NPR (National Public Radio) initially made a tepid and lame announcement regarding the earthquake that hit Japan yesterday (or the day before, depending on where you were on the globe.) From the tone of the announcement, you would never have guessed that the temblor was quite significant, though they did mention that it registered 8.9 on the scale. Their reporting on the event was so low key and innocuous that it rather surprised me. TODAY however, they are falling all over themselves to cover as much detail of the event as possible. This is extremist journalism - from nothing to overkill. And this is NPR, supposedly the least sensationalistic news organization out there.

On The Rocks

Here is another inventive photo - a picture of a drink on the rocks - literally. How many times do we say things that if taken literally seem quite unusual. For instance: Heads up, flying off the handle, off the top of my head, on my shirtsleeve, camera ready, top secret, underground, ballistic, choked up, on the edge, loose canon, pushing the envelope, anti freeze, etc.

Subtlety

You probably agree that the eyes can convey a world of meaning. The face too. But the eyes, as small as they are, are abundantly expressive all by themselves. How many emotions or thoughts can they convey? I don't know. I might ask the Timid Reporter. He has lots of experience in those things. Perhaps this girl is saying "I am in full control." If I ever met her, I certainly would not disagree. Just to be sure, I would question her too.

Timid Reporter

If you like to read, this is what your bathtub might look like. I always like to see inventiveness and this photo is inventive - a bathtub made of books. One could say this woman is immersed in her reading obsession. She is not reading one of the Timid Reporter's books - he hasn't written any. She is probably reading some crime novel which she cannot put down. There are hundreds of them.

First of 2011

Correspondents around the globe? We don't have any. We leave that to the big boys - The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, The New Yorker, The Economist, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Miami Herald. We're here to make fun of them - the posturing, the pretense, the commercialism. PLEASE. The only correspondent we use is the Timid Reporter. That's enough for us and (besides) he's the only one we can afford - really. Even when he's not entirely sober, the man is as honest as the day is long. He may be timid, but he's not naive and he's not afraid. On top of that, he is so old (he'll be 234 in July - DOB=7/7/1777) he's the only correspondent in the world who can claim to have lived history, not just read about it in a book. Openly timid?  Yes.

The Last One

I'm just posting this because I can - it will be the last post of 2010. I can remember far better years than 2010. We are at this point about one hour away from 2011. I wonder if things will ever get better. I think they will get a lot worse before they get better. Men have a knack for making a mess of even the best things. Too much violence - too much greed - too much ego - too much sickness. Ok. I guess that's enough.

Nobody came

I attended an art show opening recently - very recently. The artist was well-known and experienced. The show was scheduled for a good, convenient hour - 7:30pm. The room could accomodate about 120 people but only 8 showed up, including myself. I would like to know why. Poor promotion? Low appreciation? The holiday hours? Bad location? No free wine? Not enough friends? Not avant garde enough? I think low appreciation and poor promotion are to blame - in that order. I figure that if someone cares about something they will make every effort to support it. I bet that if the artist had been giving hundred dollar bills away, the place would have been jammed with wall-to-wall self-serving art lovers. The art itself was not at all bad by the way.