All Jeff, All the Time: Jeff Jarvis, prince of all media, has finally given me a reason to get TIVO: He’s appearing on Brian Lehrer’s WNYC show Friday at 10:40a., Capital Report on CNBC at 4p on Friday, FoxNews between 1-2p on Sunday.

Update: Check Jeff’s local listings as FoxNews has bumped him for hurricane coverage (no cracks about blowing hot air from me, though) and he may be on CNN tonight.

rexblog bumper music: Television Man (Talking Heads)

Big in England: The Times of London has done a business feature story that, well, mentions the rexblog and, well, me. I feel rather dumb just now discovering the article as it appeared a couple of days ago. I googled and googled Google News looking for it, but it didn’t show up so I figured the reporter from the Times of London found some real folks to write about.

In Nashville, there’s a funny phrase in the music business (so I hear) that people use to describe an obscure recording artist. “He’s big in Europe,” they say. Now I get it.

The story, by Andrew Heavens (who, by the way, I’d like to thank — rimshot) can be read on the Times of London website for free through September 28. Here is the part that mentions me:

Three years ago, Rex Hammock set up a small website for the 25 employees in his Tennessee magazine publishing company.

On the site, he posted a daily selection of industry news snippets and articles, interspersed with personal comments and messages. It was a regularly-updated website, the kind now universally known as a “weblog” or “blog”.

Mr Hammock soon realised that more people were reading www.rexblog.com than just his in-house artists and editors. “I discovered a small but loyal group of magazine geeks - as my 17-year-old daughter calls us - followed the blog.

“Whenever I attend any magazine industry functions, I usually have someone I don’t know ask me if I’m the rexblog Rex. It’s a bit strange.”

Soon even stranger things started happening. Mr Hammock got invited to appear at more conferences and industry panels. More people went on to Hammock Publishing’s website and read its press releases. One regular reader invited him to compete for a magazine contract and eventually handed him the business.

Rex Hammock had become one of a growing list of CEOs to discover the strange and persuasive power of the weblog.

(via Roland Piquepaille whose weblog is also featured in the story.)

rexblog bumper music: England Swings (Roger Miller)

Blog pitching: If I were a book publisher, here is a proposal I’d snap up yesterday. Hugh MacLeod is using his weblog, gapingvoid, to pitch a book that expands ideas on “How to be Creative” that he’s explored there. Friends, I would think in the book biz, this is what they’d call a no-brainer.

rexblog bumper music: I Could Write a Book (Harry Connick Jr.)

A magazine for my heroes: I’m happy to learn about the new magazine, Vantage, from the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. It’s for caregivers (family members and professionals) of those with Alzheimer’s disease and related illnesses. The professionals in this field are my personal heroes.

Quote:

In every issue, experts will explore medical and behavioral aspects of the disease, safety and other practical issues, and caregiver wellness. Regular columns will highlight new products, answer caregivers’ questions, and showcase poems and other creative contributions from readers.

rexblog bumper music: Ashokan Farewell (Mark O’Connor)

Testing MarsEdit: I’ve always been a browser-based blogger despite sometimes composing the longer items in BBEdit (the items that contain slightly fewer typos than the others). So it has taken some coaxing (you know who you are) to get me out of my habit zone and try posting with this new-fangled MarsEdit beta thingee that comes from the folks who developed my newsreader of choice, the newly up-graded NetNewsWire. If hope I don’t break anything.

rexblog bumper music:
My First Trip to Mars (Atticus Fault)

NEW! free bonus post: I’ll skip commenting on how Gawker led me to low culture, but that’s where I learned the circle on the cover of US magazine that boasts “12 bonus pages” has been on every issue since May 24. Then again, do people ever believe what they read on the cover of a magazine, anyway?

rexblog bumper music:
Empty Pages (Traffic)

Walt sells a gazillion iMacs: The macosphere (what does one call the blogosphere inhabited by the macentric?) is all a-twitter about today’s over-the-top rave review given the iMac G5 by WSJ technology writer Walt Mossberg. (I know two folks at Hammock Publishing who will be all a-twitter when their back-ordered iMac G5s arrive.)

While I have been a mac person since 1984 and have purchased too many to count (100+ perhaps at work), I stopped trying to explain to non-mac users why my computer is better than theirs. (I stopped that about ten years ago, when Apple produced a couple of year’s worth of crap that was dangerously close to not being better than theirs.)

Somewhere along the way, I made the observation that being a mac owner is what it must be like to be French: We constantly try to convince ourselves and others we are superior, but the rest of the world just ain’t buying it.

Except with mac owners, we actually are superior.

rexblog bumper music: The Way Things Are (Fiona Apple)

Down elevator: Jeff Jarvis wants bloggers to elevate the pre-election discourse by discussing actual issues like healthcare and education. I plan to weigh in later with some healthcare comments, but this morning I only have time to spread goofy memes like the “horn guy” video (Windows Media Player).

(via joi ito)

rexblog bumper music: Cocktails for Two (Spike Jones)