The Anton Chighur of Tabloid Media

Matt Zoller Seitz, on the myth of Charlie Sheen:

[N]o matter what idiocy he gets involved with, and no matter how many lives he damages or destroys, people just continue hiring him, and talking about him, and writing about him (see also this article), and otherwise supporting and enabling him. He truly seems invulnerable. He is the Anton Chighur of tabloid media, capable of withstanding (or so it seems) any amount of controlled substances as well as public shaming. Sheen’s last flameout was covered more extensively than most foreign wars. His obligatory period of wandering seemed to last about two-and-a-half minutes.

Does Michelle Bachmann Have Blood on Her Hands?

A saddening story from the NYTimes about the projected damage that Bachmann’s vaccine statements may cause:

[T]he harm to public health may have already been done. When politicians or celebrities raise alarms about vaccines, even false alarms, vaccination rates drop.

“These things always set you back about three years, which is exactly what we can’t afford,” said Dr. Rodney E. Willoughby, a professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin and a member of the committee on infectious diseases of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The Body of Your Enemy

TechCrunch’s continuing disaster spilled over onto the site again this weekend, as columnist Paul Carr decided to engage in some scorched earth tactics on his way out the door (see TechCrunch editor Schonfield’s response).

Rex Hammock pointed me to this post by David Winer, which tells a story that really resonates with me:

When competitors make public and personal accusations, how are you going to respond, when customers are watching? It’s a very low-road way to compete. Not much you can but weather the storm, keep offering the best service you can, figuring the smart customers will ignore the personal stuff.

Anyway, there’s an ancient Chinese proverb that goes something like this. “If you sit by the river long enough, you will see the body of your enemy float by.” It works! As your competitors rise, eventually they have done to them what they did to you, and if you sit there a while, you don’t have to do a thing — nature takes care of it.

‘Run Lola Run’

I really enjoyed Tom Whalen’s Film Quarterly essay on Run Lola Run. Yes, it’s 10 years old (and the film is even older) but the film’s subtle message about fate and determinism has been sticking with me recently as I sense big changes coming in my life quite soon:

Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run (Lola rennt, 1998) blasts open doors for viewers in the late 90s the way Godard’s Breathless (1959) did for viewers in the late 50s. In few other ways would I compare these two films. Godard’s exercise is tinted cool, hip, his characters posturing cartoons; whereas Tykwer’s is hot, kinetic, and his (at times animated) characters bristling realities. Though a profoundly philosophical and German film, Run Lola Run leaps lightly over the typical Teutonic metaphysical mountains. Tykwer’s work doesn’t have the Romantic receptive gaze of a Wenders or entertain the grapple with the gods of a Herzog, but instead possesses a ludic spirit willing to see life and art as a game. Nor, though as excited by the techniques of cinema as the film of a first-time director (Run Lola Run is Tykwer’s eighth movie), is it the loose, dehumanized display of, say, Pulp Fiction (1994) or Trainspotting (1996). Run Lola Run is fast, but never loose. It’s as tightly wound and playful as a Tinguely machine and constructed with care.

For TechCrunch, This Is How It Ends

The Guardian chronicles the latest chapter in the Crunchgate fiasco, in which a startup that Arrington invested in won TechCrunch Disrupt:

The whole episode marks a giant loss in credibility for TechCrunch, a mangled, undignified departure, unprofessional personal scraps between colleagues and a decidedly fetid atmosphere around what has generally been a vibrant, inspiring and powerful brand. Ultimately, whatever the future of the writers and investors involved, this is a real shame for the entrepreneurs who’ve worked extremely hard to get this far.

Journalist Johann Hari Apologizes for Misrepresenting Interviews

I was actually an admirer of the works of Johann Hari before I read his mea culpa today in the Independent:

When I recorded and typed up any conversation, I found something odd: points that sounded perfectly clear when you heard them being spoken often don’t translate to the page. They can be quite confusing and unclear. When this happened, if the interviewee had made a similar point in their writing (or, much more rarely, when they were speaking to somebody else), I would use those words instead. At the time, I justified this to myself by saying I was giving the clearest possible representation of what the interviewee thought, in their most considered and clear words.But I was wrong.

I didn’t have much background into the situation, but Jeff Bercovici provides it, along with some stinging commentary:

No, Johann, it’s arrogant and stupid of you to think anyone you’re not related to by blood is going to buy this. Journalism is filled with people who rose fast and/or received not formal training. Most of us (I’m in the latter category) never had to be told you can’t steal quotes. You’re smarter than most. You knew this. Until you admit it, you’ll never have a chance of regaining your credibility.

Hating on ‘H8r’

Dan Fienberg has a spectacular yet thoughtful takedown of the new morally reprehensible show H8r, hosted by Mario Lopez:

Mario Lopez doesn’t care how little money you make or what you do or even if anybody out there on the Internet cares about whatever mean thing you might say, because he’s got a point to make, one that he believes in strongly: Even the lowest-level celebrity — ESPECIALLY the lowest-level celebrity — should be exempt from criticism. But feel free to love them and write about that.

My Grandfather’s Watch

While Stephen Tobolowsky was in town recently, I shot this video with him using my Canon 5D Mark 2 on a tripod, my Rode Videomic, and natural lighting in Stephen’s hotel room.

I realize there are problems with this video. Specifically, Stephen’s face is overexposed, he is ever-so-slightly out of focus, the other half of his face needs a little bit more illumination, the sound suffers from some bad automatic gain control, etc. etc. etc. But above all that, Stephen’s storytelling is still able to shine through.