the chutry experiment

I think that I understand what you mean by "losing" links, because this is the same idea that motivates me to create links posts. When something catches my eye I e-mail it to myself, but these e-mails tend to get buried, forgotten about, ignored, "lost."


When I post a link, though, it's right there at the top of my site until I update it, staring me in the eye. Other people respond to it (hopefully) which motivates me to talk more about why I think it's interesting. I'm more likely to think about and write about links that I post. They are somehow more permanent...


Which is interesting, given the inherent impermanence of blogs....

Blogs are far more permanent than they seem, at least in my read. I'm pretty obsessed with my Sitemeter stats, and I'm always surprised at how many people find my blog via 2-3 year-old entries, often leaving unexpected comments.

But creating link posts have also been helpful in allowing me to organize ideas/essays for my book, especially since MT has categories and a search function, both of which make it easy for me to find old entries or ideas. And link posts occasionally inspire interesting comments (I'd love to know more about the reception of Star Trek Interactive, the TV show I mentioned in my previous entry, for example).

I could create an elaborate, private bookmarking system for my book, but I like having some aspects of the book's development in a relatively public space, even if I don't always discuss the ideas in detail here.

Re losing links: I really love del.icio.us for lots of reasons, not least because it keeps me from losing links. I've also made connections with like-minded linkers through it and they have helped me discover even more new links I don't want to lose. And thanks for the links. One should never hesitate to link.

Re seenon.com--a similar sort of thing has been going on for a few years on the daytime dramas' websites. Often they make a piece of jewelry significant in the plot and then tell you to go to ABC.com to buy that same item. Interesting how gendered this is...one can imagine similar consumer connections being made with men during sporting events and the like.

I probably should use del.icio.us, but now that I'm in the habit of blogging most of my links, it seems easier to keep everything in a single mental space.

Re seenon.com: the use of daytime dramas to sell merchandise isn't that surprising. You're right that it seems incredibly gendered. Most of the examples from the Post article (Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives, even Grey's Anatomy) certainly seem to target women rather than men.

Of course, televised sporting events are already so highly commodified that perhaps seenon.com would almost seem redundant when you could buy Reggie Bush's jersey or Michael Jordan's shoes from Nike or espn.com or nfl.com (or wherever).

Hmm, looks like the Oscars finalist link isn't working. But, i get the gist of what you are saying : the highest-quality films right now are poltical one. Really, I think thats a great sign, as it means that global politics (and people CARING about global politics) is making it into the mainstream. I think only good can come from that, as I can't think of a better (or at least widespread) media for getting the word out than movies. Once the war, genocide, etc is in your living room, its more difficult to deny.

Fixing the broken link now. Here's the link. I'm feeling a little more cynical about political docs right now, though. I'm hoping for the outcome you describe, but I'm less confident that any kind of real structural change will take place.

There's a great moment in Gunner Palace in which one of the soldiers says that after seeing the film, we'll talk about it, but then we'll go for dinner or drinks and "forget" what we saw, and unfortunately, I think he's probably right.

Related to some of the issues I've been thinking about this week: a recent TiVo commercial ("You had me at TiVo"), via this TiVo forum.

Also for future reference on TiVo.

More media links: check out Freedom to Differ, which I found via the seenon.com article.

I am all for this Oscar-activism of using nominations for docs to further political agendas... ok, no I'm not... but I hate to see good films not even get screened... Ward Serrill talks about this vis a vis his The Heart of the Game over at my site (scroll down)...

I don't know the full story behind The Heart of the Game's Oscar campaign, but I can assure you that most of the fifteen finalists for Oscar nominations were worthy films.

With digital cameras making production far cheaper, the competition in Oscar races and film festivals becomes that much more intense.