Someone give Anderson a valium: Anderson Cooper is covering Ivan from downtown Mobile and looks like he’s having a grand time being whipped around by the wind, yet I’m talking on the phone with my brother who is about four miles away who says there’s a lull in the winds in the Spring Hill area.

The meterologist and Cooper are acting tremendously goofy as the wind blows them around. “I’ve spent all my career telling people to get out of these things and this knucklehead has got me out here,” says the meterologist. I agree. Someone give him the hook and suggest he call it a night. [mid-post bumper music: Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head (B.J. Thomas)]

Back at my brother’s house, they are without power but have phone service and plenty of batteries and a generator…They are following the news on radio, local TV and via the Internet via a dial-up account with which they are watching satellite images. He says they are going to try their best to go to sleep…but he recalls the “train sound” of Frederic a couple decades ago.

Update: I’ve added some more Mobile-located Ivan bloggers to the list below.

Update II: CNN reports a tornado warning for Dothan, Ala., at 10 p.m. CDT. I was born in Dothan.

Hola: Adweek’s Marketing y Medios, a new trade magazine covering marketing, media and advertising news for businesses targeting the U.S. Hispanic population, has launched. The monthly print edition is available now and the companion Web site, which will be updated daily with news and data, is live at www.marketingymedios.com.

Ivan watch (a personal note): Thanks to those who have e-mailed regarding my family who live in Mobile, Ala. A brother and sister-in-law in the Spring Hill section of Mobile are riding Ivan out in their home (along with some neighbors who have many more over-hanging trees than they have). My mother is across Mobile Bay, in Daphne, and is similarly situated in a high, dry facility with plenty of food, water and an industrial generator standing by. My other brother, another Mobile resident, was last seen at Disney World where lines are short. I’ll pass along any original reports I hear (however, I’m anticipating that phone service there will be down soon). Local information can be found at the sources linked below (I’ll be adding more.):

Weather:

National Weather Service: Mobile Forecast Office

Bloggers in Mobile blogging Ivan:

Storm Central (from al.com)
Weatherbug Blog
beyond salvage
And Then I Stepped in Gum …
The Bull Speaks!
Kelli’s Journal
Life of an IT Major
Trying to Stay Afloat in a Sea of Mediocrity
Wandering Aimlessly… on Purpose

Forums:

Mobile Register (al.com) Mobile forum

Mobile media:

WKRG-TV (CBS)
WPMI-TV (NBC)
al.com

(mobileregister/”>Mobile Register stories on al.com)
Storm Central (an al.com weblog)

Free Martha: Martha Stewart makes official the much rumored news that she will start serving her prison sentence in order to “put this nightmare behind me.”

bumper music:
In the Jailhouse Now (Jimmie Rodgers)

Technical difficulties: It has been brought to the attention of the owner of this site that some of our bumper music links go to a song called, “Error : -Invalid Offer ,Please contact site owner about this!” Unfortunately, I have no idea what group recorded this song, or when, but I am trying to track down that information. In the meantime, just hum the songs and send me a nickle. (Ironically, the bumper music chosen for this post, a zippy electronic piece called “Error404″ is suffering from the link glitch as well. That’s okay, you could not hum it anyway.)

Read now, will blog later: Great piece by Sean Callahan of B2B Magazine on the impact of weblogs on B2B publishers. Excellent overview that I’ll comment on when I come up for air later today. (via Steve Rubel who has some good comments)

Later: A slight clarification on the following paragraph:

Rex Hammock, president of Hammock Publishing, who also publishes his own blog, sees the form as providing a future template for b-to-b media Web sites, particularly in the development of community. “I think what we’re seeing is a recycling of what happened when Verticalnet was around [in b-to-b media],” he said. “They were not a threat. They were an opportunity.”

My reference to verticalnet regarded the point in time when they, because of a psuedo-valuation in the billions and because of the blustery claims of an exceutive there (something to the effect of, “we will crush you”) were causing B2B publishers to consider online ventures as a “threat” or as “the competition.” What I meant to communicate was that blogs are not the competition.

As for my other quote, well, I couldn’t have said it better myself:

Beyond creating specific blogs for narrower target audiences, Hammock believes that b-to-b media executives should study what a blog approach can mean for their Web strategy. For Hammock, the aspect of blogging that offers the most potential for b-to-b media is the ability to create community. Blogs allow comment on stories and not just in a letter to the editor format, but in a genuine dialog not only with the publication but with other readers.

“We as an industry haven’t gotten over the psychological barrier to realize that our readers, the members of the industry we serve, talk with one another,” Hammock said. He said a Weblog can bring the unheard conversations that occur in the aisles of trade shows out into the open.

By creating a blogging dialogue, Hammock said, a b-to-b media Web site can strengthen the community it already provides for advertisers. Plus, a blog that allows readers to post messages is a tacit acknowledgement that readers often know more than editorial staffers about the business. And a blog can be a great conduit for story ideas.

A9 update: A9, the Amazon.com search alternative that combines Google APIs and Amazon’s personalization and user-experience strengths (and all that history in your Amazon.com account), is getting enhanced. PaidContent.org has links to several stories. No word yet on my predictions that collaborative search will be a part of the enhancements.

bumper music:
Search, Find (Bee Gees)

Birth of a magazine-y: In what will likely be treated as a trend story if reporters can find at least one more example, alternative weekly Chicago Reader is revealing a new, colorful “magazine look” tomorrow.

Quote from the Chicago Sun Times:

“The whole thing’s going to look really different,” (Editor Alison) True said. “The new design attains a tension between the newspaper feel and a more magazine-y look.” The free weekly will continue to come in the “quarter-fold” format, one executive said, with three sections of the paper folded inside a fourth, top section. But the paper’s lead story will no longer cover the entire front page, and the story’s text will no longer start there. Instead, the front page above the paper’s fold will read vertically, with color photos or art. It will also have more information about articles and features inside. An advertisement will appear below the fold of the front page, as if it were the back of a magazine.

I’m developing a theory like the one I have regarding reporters avoiding articles that include math, that reporters should skip trying to describe graphic design.

bumper music: Colour My World (Chicago)

magazine news
<b>Birth of a magazine-y:</b> In what will likely be treated as a trend story if reporters can find at least one more example, alternative weekly <a href=”http://www.chireader.com/”>Chicago Reader</a> is revealing a new, colorful “magazine look” tomorrow.

Quote from the <a href=”http://www.suntimes.com/output/business/cst-fin-reader15.html”>Chicago Sun Times</a>:

<blockquote><i> “The whole thing’s going to look really different,” (Editor Alison) True said. “The new design attains a tension between the newspaper feel and a more magazine-y look.” The free weekly will continue to come in the “quarter-fold” format, one executive said, with three sections of the paper folded inside a fourth, top section. But the paper’s lead story will no longer cover the entire front page, and the story’s text will no longer start there. Instead, the front page above the paper’s fold will read vertically, with color photos or art. It will also have more information about articles and features inside. An advertisement will appear below the fold of the front page, as if it were the back of a magazine.</i></blockquote>

I’m developing a theory like the one I have regarding reporters avoiding articles that include math, that reporters should skip trying to describe graphic design.