It is springtime here in the city. For a week or so, my cat and I have been fascinated by the periodic choruses of peeping from the highest boughs of our spruce tree. His interest was dietetic, mine just aesthetic. This morning, the peeping dispersed. From inside my kitchen, I…
What are we to make of this latest flap over a teen icon revealing herself as a potentially sexual being?
I was only dimly aware of Hannah Montana till the Vanity Fair scandal (if scandal is the word). Now it seems I can’t get away from her, which is, of course, the goal of marketing—to make something inescapable for the general public. There are elements of the incident that require less froth and more examination. The accusations of “whose idea was it in the first place and how was Mylie Cyrus manipulated?” are loud and in many ways naive.
First off, Hannah Montana is a Disney product. I don’t think we’re yet quite comfortable with the idea of a person—even a fictional one—being a “product” like a box of soap or a car, but this is indeed what the character is. Designed, engineered, and road tested, Hannah Montana is a money-making machine for Disney and the various participants in the show and franchise.
Pause for a moment and consider: Disney.
It is difficult to imagine a marketing machine that is better at what it does. Which means the chances of something being done with one of its properties that it (a) doesn’t know about and (b) doesn’t approve are next to zero. Especially when you add to that:
Vanity Fair.
Big magazine, famous magazine, a magazine people in show business lust to get into. In the vernacular, Lot A Bank there.
So we’re talking about two major corporate entities, …
Because I have a tiny new camera (a Canon SD1100IS), I have lots of excuses for taking photos of familiar things. It’s amazing how taking photos forces me to see. It makes me appreciate many of those sights that I otherwise take for granted. With this new little camera, then, I had an excuse to go see.
BTW-my new camera, a Canon SD1100IS is a small moderately-priced consumer-level camera that is incredibly packed with features. It has so many features that I would bet that I’ll never use half of them. It’s an 8-megapixel, 3x optical zoom camera that measures only 3 1/2″ x 2″, small enough to take everywhere. Some of its features (including image stabilization) allow it to handle existing light photos fairly well (for those of you who haven’t yet sworn off cheap flash units, you might want to consider turning off your flash and noticing the difference). The problem with turning off the flash indoors is that many digital cameras do not offer a fast enough ISO to allow for a sharp image.
I admit that I processed these photos a bit, but only a bit. The only processing I used were a few of the features offered by Picasa, a well-designed (and free) photo organizing program from Google.
Here’s a good way to start a weekend day in St. Louis. It’s called “City Diner” (It was formerly “South City Diner”). Located within walking distance of my home, this is where you must …
Japan's Kaguya lunar orbiter is sending back some incredible photos, including this photo of an earthrise. Here are many other photos (click the HDTV tab). Here's a post (by NASA) discussing the lunar missions of Japan and China.
This is a view on my way home from work tonight. The 180-foot tall Compton Hill Water Tower is decorated, at its base, by traffic lights and the lighted traffic flowing by during this long exposure shot. Located near my home, in St. Louis, Missouri, the Compton Hill Water Tower:…