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I love this and it’s spot on in one regard. However it too fails to point out the deeper problem. Old school newspaper journalism as it is is broken. The situation of pay walls or ad support is a red herring to the real problem. Business as usual doesn’t work anymore because it’s simply too bloated. If old media wants to survive it needs to reform itself from the top down. The cuts that have happened over the years have been from the wrong places. It’s not the writers and photographers that need to go, it’s the editors, executives and content deals. Things like farming out the mobile version of the website and treating it as something separate is fundamentally wrong. We don’t need a different content and different brands for each city either. Media companies can and should distribute the same content across different markets and add in local content based on market. Some of this is already done but not nearly enough. Things like http://chicago.times.com http://philadelphia.times.com http://us.times.com should be how it is structured and have the content served to them by geography but allow them to switch with their login. (Yes, possibly a paid login) Give people an actual reason to create an account other than withholding information. Blogs and amateurs succeed because they aren’t mired with red tape, archaic licensing and content deals. They can work with distributed workforces a ton more nimbly and most are focused on the issues at hand rather than trying to figure out how to turn the clock back 20 years and be fat cats again. That said they will never have the resources that a company like the Times or the Tribune does and international reporting and livable wages suffer because of it. Big media are the only ones who can save big media and they are too focused on how to bring the old revenues back to realize they completely need to restructure for a new world instead. |
tom gabel of against me! comes out as transgender
Against Me! singer Tom Gabel reveals plans to begin living as a woman in the new issue of Rolling Stone. Gabel, who has dealt privately with gender dysphoria for years, will soon begin the process of transition, by taking hormones and undergoing electrolysis treatments. Gabel will eventually take the name Laura Jane Grace, and will remain married to her wife Heather.
Wow, I have been an Against Me! fan for years and while this was unexpected I can’t say this comes as a total shock. I admire the heck out of Tom and I will continue to admire the heck out of Laura. Now more than ever.
Wow, I’m really amazed, seriously, at the level of civil discussion and discourse going on around my post from last night. Lot’s of people extrapolated this to male/female dynamics in pop culture, which I hoped people would do. Many people are talking deeper about friendship and love. I’m impressed.
Only two people have ignorantly called me a homophobe instead of understanding what my point was. I expected the moron level to be a lot higher. This gives me hope for humanity.
Thank you. Seriously.
Not every close-working male duo in pop culture needs to be banging.
I mention this because it feels like every-time I log into Tumblr I see a flood of posts of Sherlock and Watson, Tony and Steve, or Bruce and Dick recontexualized to imply sexual relationships.
Why do we need to immediately jump to the conclusion that any duo of strong male characters with close bonds have to be a couple?
Why does everything have to be sexualized?
It’s disappointing to me that we can’t accept or appreciate that life, friendship, and even love can be deeper than, and even unrelated to, sexual preference. By saying that it’s impossible for two men to be close friends, business partners, or just share a close bond, without being homosexual we’re basically creating the same kind of intolerance and lack of understanding that bred homophobia in the first place.
Love knows no sexual preference. Why does it matter who bangs who?
Can’t we just appreciate good characters, good stories, and love without turning it into something it’s not?
Apple not only responded to the New York Times on the (admittedly ridiculous) taxes story, but supplied it with a four-paragraph statement to be printed in full.
I love Tim Cook’s Apple.
This is pitch perfect from Cook and something I think Jobs wouldn’t have necessarily done.
While I think Apple should pay more taxes I do not fault them for taking advantage of these loopholes. I fault our broken government system that creates these scenarios. I’m glad these things are coming to light and people are getting angry about them because now maybe we’ll see change happen but “don’t hate the player, hate the game.”
Avengers Barbecue by Awkward Spaceship
Harry Caray (FujiFilm) on Flickr.
Shot on my Canon EOS Rebel G with expired Fujicolor Press 800 Film.
