Subterranean Homepage News

By Sheila Lennon

Bottom-up' journalism from the pros
Fair and balanced, too!

March 23, 2005, 8:10 p.m. -- Last week's weblog

New media: Podcast and simulprint. We broke some new ground here today. I was asked by to write a story about late gospel/blues singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe for today's Live weekend section of the paper, a what's-on-the-web sidebar to Rick Massimo's advance (Gospel Shouter, reg.req.) of the Shout, Sister, Shout! tribute to Tharpe coming to Fall River Saturday. (That's Sister Rosetta below, in an AP photo, giving an impromptu concert at London Airport on Nov. 21, 1957.))

Since it would also be on the Web, I wrote it in an html editor, putting the story's 28 links to songs, blog items, photos and a video into boldface type. The story ("If you want to hear Sister Rosetta...") ran in the paper with this note at the top:

When I write about music, I want the page to play music for you.

If you read along online, it will. The music and Web pages named in bold are linked at http://www.projo.com/music/tharpe/ (reg.req.)

The effect of the print story was, "look what you're missing." As a convention to indicate in print where there's more on the Web, bold link text might stick, if it's explained up front this way.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. When my new boss, Tom Heslin, the newly appointed, first-ever Managing Editor for Digital Media here, heard I'd written the story, he immediately suggested I read it into a microphone and offer it as an mp3.

So my first podcast (reg.NOT req.) was published today. (Podcasts are audio files, usually spoken, mp3s meant to be played in an iPod portable player. Anyone can make one, so it's a form of citizens' media. Right-click on that link to save it to iPod or disk. Click just to listen without downloading it.)

I'd been up all night writing the story, and my voice sounds quavery and edgy at the beginning, but I warmed up to it by the end.

Thanks, Sister Rosetta. I wished I'd heard of you while you were still alive.
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Fla. judge in Schiavo case shared house with Jim Morrison: The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times reports on George Greer's brush with a pre-Doors Morrison:

When (George) Greer came into adulthood in the 1960s, he was about as counterculture as Barry Goldwater, the presidential candidate he voted for in 1964. One of Greer's favorite bands is the Bee Gees.

His biggest brush then with nonconformity: being cited for underage drinking about the time he entered FSU and hunting without a license in 1959.

Greer, whose family moved to Dunedin when he was 4, spent 21/2 years at St. Petersburg Junior College before entering Florida State University in 1962 as a 20-year-old. He majored in marketing.

He moved to a house about a mile from the FSU campus with a friend and some students he didn't know. Greer described the house this way: "Jim Morrison and five normal people."

One Halloween, Greer recalled, Morrison greeted children out trick-or-treating at the front door completely naked. Morrison had lighter fluid in his mouth. He spit it out, touching a match to the fluid to create a roaring flame.

"The poor little kids ran screaming to their parents," Greer said....

That's an AP photo of the judge, above.
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Real Alternative: I got tired of RealOne Player popping up with unwanted messages, and uninstalled it completely. The free program at the headline link there is sweet.
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NowPublic: A new citizen journalism site. From the About...

The news is now public thanks to new technology like camera phones, digital cameras, blogging tools, and RSS standards. NowPublic combines the functionality of these emerging tools to let people investigate, produce, and publish news that they care about.

With NowPublic, bloggers and citizen journalists can automatically dispatch reporters and photographers to the site of a news story anywhere in the world. At the same time photographers can safely distribute, manage, license and sell their work through NowPublic's portable, point-of-sale smart media format.

News readers can compare real-time, breaking stories to other coverage on the web and in the media, and because all NowPublic content is accessible and sortable into multiple and specific RSS feeds, reports are circulated back into the blogosphere.

There's a story I'd like checked out about Saddam Hussein's capture: "Saudi newspaper interviews 'former Marine' who says troops didn't catch Hussein in hole." The source is allegedly in Lebanon. Can you do that for me?
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Block Firefox popups: As Firefox grows in popularity, some pop-up ads are beginning to make it through the browser's blocker. Here's the very easy fix from Ed Bott, former editor of PCWorld and PC Computing magazines.
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Tom Waits' 20 most cherished albums of all time: The Guardian (U.K.) occasionally asks musicians to name their favorites. You'll never guess Waits' top choice:

1 In The Wee Small Hours by Frank Sinatra (Capitol) 1955

Actually, the very first 'concept' album. The idea being you put this record on after dinner and by the last song you are exactly where you want to be. Sinatra said that he's certain most baby boomers were conceived with this as the soundtrack.

Not to quibble with a dead legend, but an awful lot of us were already born by 1955, including me. WWII, which spawned this boom, had been over for a decade.
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Belated Bloggy Birthday, writes reader Eric Lilius, my "Canadian correspondent," who sends the bouquet at right:

3 Years old!
You know I am a fan.

Eric, who lives in Eagle Lake, Ontario, also sends a book recommendation, a link to a review of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman.

Books, music and flowers, a shack on the beach with my family and a fast net connection, that's all I need...

Thanks, Eric, and thanks for all the links and photos you've sent since you discovered this blog.
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March 23, 2005, 7:55 p.m. -- Last week's weblog

Sorry, awfully busy.

March 22, 2005, 7:55 p.m.

Ourmedia launches: Its first day, the servers groaned under the load, so I didn't add to it, but OurMedia.org launched yesterday:

The idea behind Ourmedia is really simple: it's a community where anyone who creates online media - video blogs, podcasts, photos, you name it - can have a place where they can publish it and share it with others.

This may not seem like a big deal, but it really is an important step forward in the world of online citizen journalism. Now, you don't need your own Web host to store that killer 50 meg video file you've just produced. Just become a member of Ourmedia, use their upload tool, and presto ...

It's the brainchild of J.D. Lasica and Marc Canter. Go check out proud papa J.D.'s updates on its first days. Here, he comments on a portion of his own welcome message:

We are in the midst of the greatest boon in grassroots creativity in ages. Tools once available only to a professional elite are now being taken up by everyday citizens. Just as weblogs let millions of people become part of "the media," so too are new tools empowering individuals to create video, audio, playlists and other works of personal media and to share them with a global audience.

The personal media revolution is turning multimedia. Digital stories, video diaries, documentary journalism, home-brew political ads, music videos, fan films, Flash animations, student films – all kinds of short multimedia works have begun to flower. Alas, the most compelling ones are scattered across the Web or hidden away on thousands of PCs, laptops and closed networks. These works deserve a wider audience.

That's what Ourmedia is all about: Create. Share. Get noticed.

Marc and I believe that real change in the mediasphere will only come about when millions of us pick up the tools of digital creativity. The tools are now at hand. Let's go.

It's all free.
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Rock's Oldest Joke: Yelling 'Freebird!' In a Crowded Theater. At the Wall Street Journal (really), with audio links. Lynyrd Skynyrd, at right, is memorialized every night, somewhere...:

Yelling "Freebird!" has been a rock cliché for years, guaranteed to elicit laughs from drunks and scorn from music fans who have long since tired of the joke. And it has spread beyond music, prompting the Chicago White Sox organist to add the song to her repertoire and inspiring a greeting card in which a drunk holding a lighter hollers "Freebird!" at wedding musicians....

But as with many mysteries, the true origin may be unknowable -- cold comfort for bands still to be confronted with the inevitable cry from the darkness. For them, here's a strategy tried by a brave few: Call the audience's bluff. Phish liked to sing it a cappella. The Dandy Warhols play a slowed-down take singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor describes as sung "like T. Rex would if he were on a lot of pills." And Dash Rip Rock has performed the real song in order to surprise fans expecting the parody. For his part, Mr. Doughty ("Mike Doughty, the former front man of the "deep slacker jazz" band Soul Coughing" ) suggests that musicians make a pact: Whenever anyone calls for "Freebird," play it in its entirety -- and if someone calls for it again, play it again.

"That would put a stop to 'Freebird,' I think," he says. "It would be a bad couple of years, but it might be worth it."

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Your own private Schiavo: Barbara Brotman at the Chicago Tribune:

...Presumably, most of us will be spared having the president of the United States weigh in. But be forewarned: Even if your family is in unanimous agreement and you have all the legal documents in hand and the situation seems sad but clear, when the phone call comes and you are on one end of the line and the life of someone you love is on the other, things look a lot less clear.

My husband and I entered the murky waters on behalf of both his parents. They both headed into their 90s with dementia that left them unaware of their surroundings. Their bodies were gradually failing. They were adored by family members who agreed that if they began to die, we should not stand in their way.

One night, the phone call came. The nursing home called to say that my mother-in-law had pneumonia. The doctor wanted to send her to the hospital to be treated and was calling for the family's permission.

My husband and my mother-in-law's family were out of town. That left me.

Shouldn't it have been easy? Our sweet Pearl spent her days crying in terror that she couldn't enunciate or understand. If there was any time for pneumonia to serve its famed function as the old person's friend, surely it was this. In fact, the family had specifically agreed that if she got pneumonia, we would not treat it.

And yet. The voice on the other end of the phone line waited. My mother-in-law's life, or at least a little bit more of it; or her imminent death. It was up to me....

(If you're not registered at the Trib and this link triggers a registration screen, try this link at Google news; click on the headline above. I got it without registering.)
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Pinpoint Travel is a sleek little form that searches flights from many sources at once. You need to have a date in mind, so if you're planning a vacation around the lowest fares you can find, this isn't for you. But it's handy if you know when you're going.
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Massive directory of freeware: Tuck this link away.

"complete freeware collection" are choice applications, which when combined, make the complete freeware package. In other words, all you need is the operating system and you won't have to spend one cent on software. All this software contains no spyware or adware.

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Optical Illusions and Visual Puzzles looks interesting.
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Daily Show clip listing parser: Fake news as you like it.

This is a reprocessed version of Comedy Central's listing (link) of streaming Daily Show clips. Unlike their listing, it contains direct links to view the videos ad-free in the media player of your choice.

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A birthday bouquet: Responding to yesterday's news that this blog turned 3 on Sunday, reader Bill Marsland sends virtual flowers:

Like the spring flowers that accompanied your first blog three years ago were a harbinger of a wonderful summer to come, your first blog introduced us all to the fun of the Subterranean Homepage News, still a "must read" for me each day.

I just feel sorry for the poor people who only subscribe to the "hard copy" of the Pro Jo and miss your insightful and offbeat reports and links. Oh, I love those links.

I'm happy to have been a part, albeit a very small part, of your first three years. In fact, I'm mentioned on March 22 of your first week concerning the Pete Townsend web page.

Been there since the beginning and looking forward to many more years of reading. Thank you for all you do.
And "Congratulations and Happy Birthday" again. Keep up the good work.

Made my year. Thanks, Bill.
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March 21, 2005, 7:55 p.m.

iVillage takes over GardenWeb: Here's what Gardenweb used to look like (courtesy of The Internet Archive/Wayback Machine). Minimal, fast, easy to navigate, its value lies in its hundreds of forums, subdivided by microregions, types of plants, types of garden, pests, problems, statuary, composting and much more.

Here's its front page today.

In a thread titled "GardenWeb has been sold," "Spike," the former owner and even-handed moderator of these forums, announces the sale and notes that an iVillage rep has posted in a thread that begins, Dear iVillage...Please pay attention to this thread

Dear iVillage,
We GW members are now aware that our favorite website has been sold and a few of us are nervous about the change. Most of us hope that you don't take any of our forums away from us or discourage the gentleman who are a part of our community from posting here.

Hopefully you (iVillage) will pay attention to the posts that express concern over certain changes.

1. Men are gardeners too, and we women have always enjoyed having a mixed forum.
2. Coming here is our safe haven and would like it to be kept that way.
3. Spike managed to keep the pop-up ads out of our lives, hopefully you will too.
4. If anything give us more pages for message archives, not less and add to what we currently have....do not take away, please.
5. We all feel safe here because Spike did such a great job at keeping the nasty folks out.

I am sure other members of GW have there own 2 cents on this matter, but please look at this letter/thread as a serious suggestion if not petition from your loyal and long time members.

We thank you for taking the time to read this post and hopefully take it into serious consideration.

Respectfully yours,
Carlota = GW member and long time forumer.

Please fellow forumers, speak and have your voice heard since this site is so important to us.

Many others address iVillage as well, echoing these concernsm, and complaining about the pop-ups that have already been added. (Some say they're getting through their pop-up blockers, but my new install of Firefox is keeping them at bay.)

Overwhelmingly, the online gardeners are begging the new owner, "Don't change anything!"

And here's the response from iVillage -- kudos to them for posting here. (I'm posting the text of both of these because there's no permalink; Spike's announcement has a permalink.)

Dear GardenWeb Members,

As you may have heard, GardenWeb is now part of iVillage Inc, having been acquired in November 2004. We want you to know that here at iVillage, we understand the value of strong communities, having created has an award-winning community of its own. We take considerable pride in the quality of the community experience at iVillage, and we make every effort to ensure that our members have a positive experience. We also understand that as members of GardenWeb, you feel loyalty to your online communities and we respect your allegiance and commitment.

One of the first questions we've been asked by you is whether men will be discouraged from participating in GardenWeb. Although iVillage.com is targeted to a women's audience, we have other sites (such as Astrology.com and Healthology.com) that appeal to both men and women. Additionally, many boards within iVillage.com's community also welcome and embrace men and their perspectives. Since gardening is an activity that both men and women enjoy, the Garden Web community is (and will continue to be) open to everyone.

As far as future plans for GardenWeb go, the direction is for it to continue as it has, with perhaps an update to its look and design. The same personnel who have run GardenWeb to date will continue to run it. The community forums will continue to be moderated by Spike, who has been dedicated to making your experience on the forums as enjoyable as possible. Communities thrive when forums are well-tended. We respect your community and we want it to remain strong and vibrant.

We are sensitive to the fact that site visitors don't want to be overwhelmed by ads. We strive to strike a balance between featuring ads people notice and inundating our users. However, it's important to recognize that advertising is the primary support of GardenWeb.

We appreciate your feedback and we hope we have addressed some of your concerns. If you have other comments or questions, please email feedback@mail.ivillage.com

We are happy to welcome you to the iVillage network of sites.

Sincerely,

Stacia Ragolia
VP, Community : iVillage Inc.

There is some reason for the concern. Here's a screenshot of Astronet as it was in early 1999 and here it is today, in the iVillage portfolio. There's a lot for sale there.

iVillage is also buying promotions.com, experienced at online contests.

I'm a GardenWeb user. Its appeal is that its readers own it. They start threads inviting others to post local plant sales they know of, or asking which varieties of roses (traditionally expensive and finicky) are thriving in actual gardens here. Imposing popups and contests, monetizing those who came to share freely with others who find deep pleasure and satisfaction in growing their own food or their own beauty, is not the way iVillage should do this one.

If nothing else, it's too easy for the entire swarm to pick up and go somewhere else where they won't be disturbed.
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Yahickr, Flichoo, Floo...: Yahoo buys Flickr, a one-year-old photo-sharing service with 350,000 registered users

Yahoo actually does acquire Flickr: From the Flickr blog, co-founder Caterina Fake promises a rosy future.

Are you going to become Yahoo Photos?

No. Yahoo Photos will get a lot of Flickr features, and there are alot of other areas around Yahoo that will also be Flickrized where Flickrization would be good. Yahoo Photos and Flickr have different kinds of users with different needs, and will remain separate for the foreseeable future. Flickr would also suffer from a sudden deluge of LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! omg! so we're going to grow it carefully.

Do I have to have a Yahoo ID to use Flickr?

No. In the future, you'll be able to log into Flickr using your Yahoo account, but you can continue logging on as before.

Yahoo is adding new blogging / social networking service, Yahoo 360 (still in the beta-test stage), and Flickr offers instant photo-hosting and an established user base.

And last, probably not least, IAC/Interactive Corp, perhaps better known as Barry Diller's company, is going to buy search site Ask Jeeves (which recently bought RSS-news-feed distributor Bloglines) for $1.85 billion. IAC also owns Home Shopping Network, Ticketmaster, City Search and Match.com.
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Guardian hasn't forgotten time with Schiavo, and never will: Cara Buckley of Knight Ridder writes a stunning story about the man appointed by the court to act on behalf of Terri Schiavo:

TAMPA, Fla. - One of the few observers to spend extended time with Terri Schiavo says he saw no indications of awareness.

Two dark scenarios haunt Jay Wolfson even now, a year and a half after his brief appointment to be a neutral arbiter, a guardian, an unbiased observer, the one man asked by Florida to stand in Terri Schiavo's shoes.

One is that the severely brain-damaged woman is in a terrible lightless place, aware of nothing but a yawning, endless hopelessness.

The other is that even though he never elicited a response from her, despite all the pleading and cajoling he did at her bedside, that he might have missed some subtle, nearly invisible signs that she was somewhere in there -- aware.

"Imagine not having hope and being aware that's all you had was no hope. The horror. It's like not being, but knowing that you're not," said Wolfson recently in his Tampa-area office. "That's one thing. The other is, what if she's knocking on a door somewhere and I was walking through all the wrong corridors and I missed it. What if?"

Wolfson was appointed by a Florida court in fall 2003 to be Schiavo's guardian ad litem, or guardian at law, to deduce Schiavo's best interests and represent neither her husband nor her parents but Terri Schiavo herself...

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Cropless Crop Circles: Freelance artists have been making geometric designs in the sand on San Francisco's ocean beach tidal flats at low tides. More photos, video and explanations at the link.
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Pet Pillows: A taxidermist will turn Fluffy into a memorial that can sleep on his favorite chair.

Jeanette's Taxidermy proudly introduces Pet Pillows as an alternative way to remember your pet. Each pet pillow is hand made from the fur of your pet and made into a pillow that you can display. On one side of the pillow is your pet's fur and the other side of the pillow is your choice of fabric. These soft, huggable pillows are a great way to enjoy your cherished pet and is an inexpensive alternitave to taxidermy.

Domestic cat pillow- $65.00
Domestic dog pillow- $75.00-125.00
Domestic cow pillow- $130.00
Domestic horse pillow- $150.00

Please freeze your pet immediately upon passing to insure there will be no hair slippage. Double bag to insure no freezerburn. Ship packages ONLY on Mondays to prevent carrier mishaps. All frozen animals must be shipped next day air to insure against spoilage. In case of large animals please call for shipping instructions.

Probably still smells like Fluffy, too.
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Spring Start(ed) Sunday, But Why Has the Date Changed? In case you were puzzling over this, Sp[ace.com takes a stab at an answer:

...when we were all growing up, the first day of spring was always on March 21, not March 20, right? Now all of a sudden spring comes on March 20. How did that happen?

Incrementally, apparently. There's no smoking gun here.

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"Non-smokers who drink make out": In response to Friday's, Online cigarette sales, Al-Qaida, Indians, taxes and the ATF: Do these dots really connect?, a reader named Steve emails,

Too bad the state wasn't as interested in taxing liquor, wine and beer sales as deeply as cigarette sales.
I have asked the Governor why not, with no answers forthcoming.
The cost of alcohol related incidents is always high. Police, fire and rescue calls for fights, domestic abuse, accidents, etc.
I wonder why the tax hasn't been increased proportionately with the tobacco tax.

The non-smokers who drink make out. How about the non-drinkers who smoke?

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Happy birthday, blog: Born three years ago yesterday, here's the first post of Subterranean Homepage News, March 20, 2002:

'Bottom-up' journalism from the pros

Day One: It's a cliche among musicians that you get your whole life to make your first album and three months to make your second. This "weblog" may never have such a long daily entry again. My latest Journal job (features & interactive producer of projo.com; I've been an editor here since 1985) and a dozen years of my life online have led me way beyond the categories of the traditional news website. Here, I hope to look at hard news sideways, go deep into parts of the culture that don't make it to the newspaper, delve into freeware and the future of this medium, and share the spotlight with you....

Still true.

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