When I saw the post-race interview with Kentucky Derby winning jockey Calvin Borel, I knew he reminded me of someone. Now, thanks to Fark, I remember who. I mashed-up a short clip of Calvin and the person who is sure to play him if this story ever makes it to the big screen — or, perhaps, direct to DVD. (Play it on left or on YouTube.)

Technorati Tags: humor, parody, satire

Due to some personal commitments, I’m not at American Business Media’s annual spring meeting, so it’s nice that Tony and the Folio: crew are blogging it.

Anyone who reads this blog knows how I cringe whenever reporters and bloggers get a whiff of statistical data that proves or disproves their pet theory. I figure that by the end of the day, a new Pew Research study on how people use information and communication technology (here is the press release) will be cited to prove just about anything someone wants to prove. In a way that is similar to studies that people use to argue blogging has peaked or print is dead, this study will be used by individuals who did everything in their power to avoid college statistics courses, to back up whatever they believed before they read it.

The sound-bite from the study will be that half of American adults are only “occasional” users of informational “gadgetry” while only 8% are avid participants “in all that digital life has to offer.” Here’s the lede of the press release:

“Fully 85% of American adults use the internet or cell phones – and most use both. Many also have broadband connections, digital cameras and video game systems. Yet the proportion of adults who exploit the connectivity, the capacity for self expression, and the interactivity of modern information technology is a modest 8%.

While I strongly discourage you from misapplying the findings of the research, I will make one exception: The report strongly suggests that I am a male in my mid-to late twenties, a finding with which I am in complete agreement.

The New York Times has a story about Mignon Fogarty’s success at selling an audiobook version on iTunes of a book that will be released in print next year. The audiobook was put together in a few days using the equipment Fogarty uses for her podcast, Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips to Clean Up Your Writing, because she was scheduled to appear on Oprah.

Quote:

“On March 26, the day the show was broadcast, iTunes’ home page highlighted “Grammar Girl’s Quick & Dirty Tips to Clean Up Your Writing,” an hourlong audiobook that could be downloaded for $4.95. By the end of that week, Ms. Fogarty’s presentation had bumped “The Secret,” the advice book that espouses positive thinking which also had been promoted by Ms. Winfrey, from the top spot.”

While no specifics are shared in the article, the one-hour book has sold in “the thousands.”

While isolated, this is quite similar to publishing deals that have grown out of blogging — books which have been published that either leverage the popularity and expertise of the blogger, or aggregate some of the “best of.” As audiobooks — and the sales channel of iTunes — are clearly in the mainstream of e-commerce, it takes little imagination to envision a new marketplace of podcast-marketed audiobooks that need no manufacturing.

Flashback: Back in 2005, when Apple announced it would be supporting podcasting, I wrote a series of posts (the most extensive one-topic effort ever on this blog) regarding what I thought the long-term impact would be. One of those predictions was this: “If you want to, it will be easy (one day) to sell your podcast through iTunes.”

I’ve never quite known exactly what James Lileks does, but I’ve often been amused or entertained by how he does it. I know he’s a columnist for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and he’s done some very funny and innovative web and blog-like things for years on a site called The Bleat.

So I don’t know exactly what it means when he says his column has been killed and that he’s going to be “developing new content, both video and audio, as well as blogging throughout the day in a new, improved, evolving Bleat!” His post sounds like he doesn’t like a new assignment from the paper — but that “union rules” may be precluding him from writing clearly just exactly what his plans are. Frankly, I don’t follow his writing enough to be able to parse it enough to understand where he is in deciding what he’ll be doing in the future.

Quote:

“I don’t want to write about the Internet. I want to write on the Internet. I’d rather develop content than report about content developers. It’s that simple, and it’s also a matter of recognizing my failings: I am not Biff Deadline, Ace Reporter. I can do long stories with lots of color, all aslosh with subjective opinions, but writing straight news - clearly, simply, briskly - is a skill I lack, and I take off my hat to those who’ve mastered that discipline.

Update: With the help of Roger Abramson (see comments), I’ve been able to reread and decipher the post a bit more to catch his drift — that Lileks is saying he’s been demoted and will no longer be a columnist.

Update II: Quote of the day from Dave Barry who is dumbfounded that the paper could demote Lileks from his column so that he can write general assignment articles: “This is like the Miami Heat deciding to relieve Dwyane Wade of his basketball-playing obligations so he can keep stats.”

Final Update: Apparently, Lileks isn’t the only Star-Trib employee who received news of an employment change as, “The Star Tribune announced plans Monday to reduce its workforce by about 145 employees across the company.”

• Marketers demand magazines give guarantees | Advertising Age
  Quote: “Media buyers long have been frustrated with many magazines’ insistence on guaranteeing average paid circulation — instead of guaranteeing circulation of specific issues in which ads appear.”
  (tags: magazines)
• statisfy.net/rexblog
  Statisfy.net is a Google maps mashup that displays real-time the locations of people visiting your blog. (Requires a minimal amount of geekiness to set up.)
  (tags: mashup googlemaps)