the pod bay door

:: I have subscribed to Time Out New York since Feb 1999. Although it consistently arrives 3-6 weeks late in my mailbox, there are always articles and news of interest to me within each issue. Its late arrival would prevent me from using it as a guide to NYC for that week of publication, but I don’t live there, so it doesn’t matter.

TONY has created an online archive of their past issues, and begun posting the contents of each issue one month after publication – a brilliant move, and one that supports the concept of open access, to some degree anyway. In TONY’s case, it makes sense: consider that the “current event info” in each issue of TONY is good for that week only. Once the week is over, the events are in the past, and the need to refer to and use that particular issue of the magazine as as such is over. However, the articles do not (necessarily) outdate themselves.

Issue 406, 10-17 July, has (at least) three fascinating pieces.

1) What’s eating Sean Penn? is a fascinating interview with this brilliant actor. To answer the question: “Plenty. The “heartbroken and angry” father talks about fear, terrorism and what fueled his segment of the film September 11.”

2) Weapons of Mass Communication details the frightening grip of Clear Channel, a media conglomerate based in San Antonio TX that, within its growing empire, owns or operates 1,248 US radio stations, and promotes ~25,000 concerts, sporting events and stage shows, many of them in 41 amphitheaters it owns (not The Gorge, however – that belongs to the House of Blues.) Clear Channel’s presence in NYC is strong, although not everyone on the street knows about the long reach of CC.

3) Friendster or foe? Friendster is an online social network that allows people to meet each other via their friends and contacts who are already in Friendster. To join you need to be invited. A friend in NYC invited me to join, then another in Edmonton as well. Through three friends, I’m “connected” to 124,938 people as of today. No, I haven’t met any of them. The article notes that Friendster began as a more discriminating alternative to online dating sites, but has grown to over 750,000 users in 200 countries, with 50,000 users in NYC alone. The idea of the site is that you meet new people on the word of a friend, who might almost function as a virtual chaparone. A feature on Friendster appeared in July 2003 in Wired.

:: Next weekend I hope to be in Calgary to attend The Blues and Roots Festival, and see, among others, Los Lobos and Solomon Burke.

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