take the box
today is april fool's day, and google had a nice setup with its "virgle" website, which is all about how virgin founder richard branson and google founders larry page and sergey brin are going to start the first permanent human colony on mars in 2014.
ahaha. i mean, it's obviously fake. everybody knows the world's gonna end in 2012.
but my fave fake of the day was NME.com's assertion that amy winehouse is gonna be on doctor who, playing a villain in the season finale. reporting that she's been a who fan since childhood, the spoof said amy was cast as a rebooted version of the rani -- another evil time lord from the doctor's past. and that this role was part of a planned year off the troubled British soul singer was taking from music.
when 00soul showed me the entry on some music blog, it seemed a total nonstarter. i was surprised anybody bought it, but it got some play (and i totally faked out a friend of mine with it for a minute ... sorry, NAME REMOVED TO PROTECT THE GULLIBLE!)
first of all -- like, right. they already brought back the master -- they're not gonna bring back the rani too. well, maybe SOMEDAY. but the very next season? it's kinda been-there/done-that. (although lord knows russell davies et al. have gone to the dalek well often enough.) also, thanks to crazy celeb-news gig, i just saw a bunch of stuff about how amy's working on her third album, and it's gonna be darker than ever thanks to all her recent travails. so she's obviously not taking a year off from music.
still, the photoshopped graphic of her with the doctor (above) is pretty damn cool.
in other, totally true news, on saturday i gave my resignation at citybeat. i just can't stay on there, considering how rudely steve appleford was shoved out the door. i had a whole speech prepared here, but suffice it to say that i have to do what feels right for me. whoever stays, whoever goes -- that's their business, and i don't have any beefs with anyone's choices. some of my oldest and best friends are sticking it out, and i hope the new editors treat them well.
my issues are with the business side, and today my fellow departed columnist dennis romero, of "groundswell" fame, offered his take on all of that. i gotta thank him, b/c he laid it out very precisely ... and saved me some work.
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1 comment:
Dennis Romero summed it all up with precision and eloquence.
This is nothing new, and is always a pleasure.
There is good news and bad news; it isn't unusual to ease the blow by starting with the bad, and to ride it off into the glorious sunset with the good. So if I may ...
The bad news is that from the smallest of companies, all the way up to Enron or the White House, that all too often, we are lead by the least amongst us: The least noble, the least fair, the least capable, the least intelligent, those with the least ideas, those least able to lead. Southland Publishing will not be the first nor the last company to point the finger of blame towards everyone, but those truly culpable for its failings. If society is an operating system, than within it lays this ugly, viral glitch.
This is nothing new, and as we all know, it is never a pleasure.
The good news is that for a brief period in time, some talented and outstanding people got together and made a great thing. Even though thier were proverbial axes being swung at thier knees, they got together and produced something that was truly worthy. This good news craps out the bad news 100 fold. No need to wax poetic; simply put, the founding CityBeat edit crew made great art, and great art makes the world go 'round.
All my respect,
Dana Collins
former CityBeat art director
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