Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’

  
Sunday, February 28th, 2010

Sugar Water: The Word of the Lord (In 140 Characters or Less)

by Robert Cass

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A recently published report by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that 26 percent of “millennials,” or young people born after 1980, claim they have no religious affiliation, compared to 20 percent of Generation Xers (1965-1980) and 13 percent of baby boomers (1946-1964) when they were between the ages of 18 and 29.

There’s no need for religious organizations to panic, since 40 percent of millennials say religion is a major part of their lives, just as 39 percent of baby boomers said the same thing in their late teens and 20s. However, as a precautionary measure, God has become the latest celebrity to create a Twitter account, in the hopes of reaching young people in the ever-evolving world of social networking.

Besides, as author and pastor Robert J. Morgan pointed out on his Facebook page last summer, “Texting is very biblical; it has divine origin … For example the book of Proverbs is the original Twitter. In 140 characters or less, the Lord sent down His short bursts of insight and wisdom, which we call the Proverbs. Each of the individual verses of Proverbs is like a Tweet from the Lord — His divine Short Message Service.”

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Monday, October 12th, 2009

Sugar Water: Promise Some Peace, Win a Prize!

by Robert Cass

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President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, a decision that instantly created controversy. For one thing, Tina Fey wasn’t even nominated. For another, Obama’s been president less than nine months, and had only been in office for 12 days when his nomination was submitted.

In case you’re wondering who nominated him, NobelPrize.org states, “The names of the nominees and other information about the nominations cannot be revealed until 50 years later.” So if you’re an anti-birther or anti-taxer or anti-tolerater, the answer is: the Forces of Evil. (And if you’re wondering how I know about Tina Fey, sorry, but I’m not sharing my peyote with you.)

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which chooses the winner each year, explained that “Obama has as a president created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play.” According to the Associated Press, committee member and Norwegian politician Aagot Valle added that this year’s prize should be seen as “support and a commitment for Obama.”

The president, for his part, was humble about his victory. “I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many transformative figures that have been honored by this prize,” he said. “I will accept this award as a call to action.”

But just a few hours before Obama’s victory was announced, he stood idly by as NASA tried to blow up the moon! From what I can gather, the U.S. space agency’s $79 million rocket was supposed to poke a giant hole in the Alan Shepard Memorial Golf Course, at which point all the water inside the moon would rain down on Earth — because the moon is up above and we’re down below and that’s how gravity works — thereby solving our planet’s impending water crisis.

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Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

Sugar Water: Off the Record, I’m a Liar

by Robert Cass

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When things are said off the record in the world of politics, they should stay off the record. Unless I need something to write about, of course.

Last week I brought you an exclusive report on the scripted outbursts Rep. Joe Wilson almost said in place of “You lie!” when responding to President Obama’s position on illegal immigrants receiving universal health care. I obtained the list of outbursts from a congressional aide named Mark Cloth, who asked not to be identified, but I’m not a real journalist with “ethics” or “common decency” — either slip me a Benjamin or suffer the consequences.

I went ahead and used Cloth’s name, but it turns out he was using an alias inspired by Deep Throat, from All the President’s Men. He duped me, but I’m not mad. The way I see it, we both got what we wanted, and neither of us had to look at the other one naked.

On Monday the president was about to be interviewed by John Harwood when the CNBC reporter casually asked him what he thought of Kanye West’s outburst at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday night, comparing the hip-hop artist to Wilson. West had interrupted Best Female Video winner Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech by grabbing the microphone from her and complaining that Beyoncé deserved the award instead. Obama’s opinion was “He’s a jackass,” which got some laughs from people in the room, but the president quickly tried to make sure his off-the-cuff comment would stay off the record.

Yeah, right. The tape was already rolling, and Terry Moran, co-anchor of ABC’s Nightline, apparently overheard the pre-interview conversation, because he soon jumped on his Twitter account and wrote, “Pres. Obama just called Kanye West a ‘jackass’ for his outburst at VMAs when Taylor Swift won. Now THAT’S presidential.” And that’s unprofessional, Moron — unless you somehow got a Benjamin out of it, that is. (I wonder if he had to look at Vice President Biden naked.)

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Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

Screw TV on the Radio — Who’s Ready for Popdose on the Radio?

by Jeff Giles

Up ’til now, you’ve been able to get Popdose in your browser, your RSS reader, your Twitter feed, and all over Facebook — but we all know that simply isn’t enough, so we’ve teamed up with radio host Jon Grayson to bring your favorite pop culture disseminators onto the radio dial.

Here’s the deal: Once a week, one of your faithful Popdose writers will be making an appearance on Overnight America with Jon Grayson, a weekly show broadcast out of KMOX in St. Louis, and syndicated in several cities. We’ll be chatting with Mr. Grayson about some of the most interesting stories to post at Popdose in the last week, and…well, our Overnight America debut — recorded with New Music Editor Ken Shane — is already on the books, and you can hear it in the show’s archives, so listen now!

Obviously, we’re all very excited about this new development for the site, and we hope you’ll be able to find us on your AM dial (see the list of Overnight America stations here) — or visit the show’s archives every Tuesday to hear our latest segment. And stay “tuned” (ugh) for more exciting news…we’ve got big plans!

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Friday, June 19th, 2009

The Bigger Picture: Film and the Age of Facebook

by Arend Anton

mm_twitter[1]We live in a self-absorbed culture. Everything we do is shared through blogs, status updates, and tweets. Now that people have the Internet on their phones, nobody is more than a second away from an update. Yet, in this age of instantaneous content, cinema is still going strong.

Hollywood has panicked a bit in the last few years. For a time, box office numbers took a dive, and they began to blame their troubles on piracy. First, let’s discuss that logic. The entertainment industry always labels pirated works as “lost sales.” That’s not quite true. It’s difficult to predict whether the people who watch pirated movies would have actually paid for that work in the first place. People who use cracked software generally do so out of necessity, and how can the software industry really justify the prices they charge?

None of what I say is the equivocal truth, but then again, neither is the industry’s complaint of “lost sales.” I don’t even know where to look for ripped movies. The people who do it, thought prevalent, still make up an incredibly small number. Would it be justified for the retail industry to blame poor sales on shoplifting, and to call those incidents “lost sales?” (more…)

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Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

Numberscruncher: Perfectly Imperfect Information

by Ann Logue

19990607-750-0[1]Eugene Fama is the Susan Lucci of the Nobel Prize world. He not only developed the Efficient Markets Hypothesis, which sits beneath almost every theory in finance, but he also is on faculty at the University of Chicago, a Nobel factory. Still, Fama has not received the early-morning call from Sweden. That’s too bad. The Efficient Markets Hypothesis says that market prices are accurate because everyone has the information needed to make rational investment decisions. In the real world, markets are not perfectly efficient, but they are close. The Efficient Markets Hypothesis assumption helps people try to figure out where the flaws are. (It goes without saying that those people who believe that markets are always efficient do not see the flaws and make mistakes. Fama, by the way, does not think markets are perfectly efficient.)

The Efficient Markets Hypothesis doesn’t assume that everyone involved is wise, but that there are more people with good information than bad information. The signal-to-noise ratio is high enough that the irrational and uninformed traders cancel each other out. Over the long run, this seems to be true, but there can be enormous deviations from efficiency in the short term as traders figure out who has the right information. (more…)

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Thursday, May 28th, 2009

Popdose Interview: The Man Behind Green Lantern’s (Fan-Made) Power Ring

by Lance Berry

green_lantern_symbol1If you’re a fan of superhero flicks, fan-made films or comics in general, then chances are you’ve seen the phenomenally well-crafted Green Lantern trailer that recently hit the web. In spite of its highly professional look, it was not made or sanctioned by anyone working at Warner Brothers — it’s a fan-made trailer, cobbled together with well-edited scenes from more than two dozen films, by Jaron Pitts.

Jaron is just a married guy living in Texas with his family, minding his own business…one who happens to be highly talented at putting together trailers that spark a nerve in the collective consciousness. His trailer for Green Lantern has many fans of the hero now convinced that his vision will surpass anything Warner Bros. can come up with for their real flick, which is currently in production. I reached out to Jaron recently to find out how in our world–or on Oa–he came up with such an amazing trailer, and here’s what he had to say…

Tell us about yourself. What do you do for a living, and what are your long term goals?

I’m 26 and live in Dallas, TX with my wife and two little girls. I am a multimedia director and worship leader for a church here in town. My long term goals are somewhat vague, but I would say that if I put them into words it might limit them. Who doesn’t dream to work in the movie industry? (more…)

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Friday, April 17th, 2009

Bootleg City: David Bowie in Baton Rouge, April ‘78 (Pt. 2)

by Robert Cass

Late last summer a DVD of the movie August, which features David Bowie in a cameo, showed up at the office where I used to work. If you haven’t heard of it, you’re not alone: it was released in one theater in New York City last July before making a quick exit to video the following month. If it hadn’t been for that promo DVD, I doubt I would’ve heard of it either.

Directed by Austin Chick, August isn’t a terribly compelling film, due in large part to Josh Hartnett’s emotionally distant yet gratuitously beefcakey lead performance, i.e. “Don’t look at me! I mean, check out the six-pack, of course, but don’t look look at me.” (Is it just me, or do you get the feeling Hartnett tortured small woodland creatures as a child? Somebody needs to cast this brooding hunk as a serial killer — or at least a young Tommy Lee Jones — ASAP.) Howard A. Rodman’s script has some clever touches, though, like how it never explains what dot-com guru wannabe Tom Sterling’s (Hartnett) company actually does. I worked for a start-up for just three months in 2000 before being laid off, and during that brief time I had trouble justifying the company’s existence to my friends and family.

The press release that came with the August DVD said that the film “follows Josh Hartnett as a young dot-com entrepreneur who fights to regain control of his company from Ogilvie (David Bowie).” Based on that description you’d think Ogilvie is a major character in the movie, but as I said, the part-time actor only has a cameo. His single scene — at the film’s climax — is an important one, but he’s in and out of August in less than six minutes.

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Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

SXSW ‘09: Off to Austin

by Ken Shane

As I write this, I’m sitting at the gate at Newark Liberty Airport, waiting for my flight to Austin. The ungodly hour is 6:20 a.m. As you read this, hopefully I’m jetting over America, on my way to SXSW.

This is my first visit to SXSW, but I’ve worked hard on my schedule to provide the best possible coverage of this massive event. The festivities begin officially tomorrow, but I’ll be out and about today and tonight, getting the lay of the land.

So check back here each day to see what I’ve been up to. I hope to be able to include photos, and perhaps even some video. You can also follow my adventures on Twitter @popdose.

See you in Austin.

Ken

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Monday, February 16th, 2009

Unsolicited Career Advice for… Tupac Shakur

by Rob Smith

Hip-hop music is not typically Uncle Donnie’s thing, nor is hip-hop slang, nor hip-hop fashion. Basically, Uncle Donnie doesn’t understand hip-hop, though he does try. Apparently, he doesn’t read much about it, either, because he’s still wondering why he hasn’t heard back from Tupac, whose estate received the following missive from Uncle Donnie about a month ago. —RS

TO:  Tupac Shakur
FROM:  Don Skwatzenschitz
RE:  Career advice

Hi, there, Pac. You might not remember me, but we ran into each other in the men’s room at the Palladium back in ‘94, at a Janet Jackson show. Wasn’t she great that night? My God, the sheer athleticism of that show—now there’s someone who has talent, who never has to stoop to silly publicity stunts (like, you know, public nudity or something) just to get people to listen to her music. Awesome. Though, I did really want to see the end of her show but couldn’t, because that one overly eager bodyguard of yours snapped my collar bone like he was breaking a pencil. But I let bygones be bygones, you know? Life’s too short.

So here it is, 2009, and I’m just now hearing the last record you put out, Pac’s Life, from 2006 (my wife Mitzi and her hip-hop tai chi class use “Playa Cardz Right” in their “2zday Mix”). What amazing poetry you, um, drop. Bringing in T.I. and Ashanti on the track “Pac’s Life” was a stroke of genius too, uh, playa. They’re totally hot right now. Why haven’t you done anything in the last two or three years? I went back to some of your other records, and was just floored by your delivery and the way you bring in these awesome guest stars and producers. “Fuck ‘Em All,” from Better Dayz? Talk about universal sentiment, uh, dawg. And “Thug N U Thug N Me,” from Until the End of Time is my new anthem. I’m even getting a t-shirt made with that on it.

Anyway, uh, homie, I think you need to get back out in front of people again, and I have some ideas to help you do just that. Be open-minded, though—some of these might seem odd, particularly to an obvious recluse like yourself. Just hear me out, though, um, yo. Check out this, uh, fly shizznit: (more…)

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