David’s Journal

The cover (yes, cover— and above the fold, too) of today’s Marin Independent Journal featured this picture:

Rather than sponsor a “Caption This Photo” contest, which might be equally as amusing, I will instead mention that the house in the background is for sale (and the woman in the background is the real estate agent). I looked up the house on the MLS, and saw that has been remodeled with many upgrades, including bamboo floors. It has two jacuzzi tubs, and it is located just a few blocks from the community pool.

This 1,600 square foot three bedroom, three bath ranch on a third of an acre in beautiful Marinwood is listed at only $942,000.

Full disclosure: it is overrun with a flock of wild turkeys that chase away visitors trying to attend the open house.

Perfect for bird lovers.

I was kind of glad to hear that the Public Radio International program produced by Chicago’s very own WBEZ— Ira Glass’s “This American Life”— was being adapted to television.

I was a little annoyed, because I always said that I wanted to make a TV version of “This American Life” (I’d call it something else, obviously). But you snooze, you lose. And who better to adapt the concept than Ira Glass himself?

Then, I found out that the program will not be airing on a PBS station, like I probably would have preferred. “This American Life: The TV Show” will be on Showtime. Certainly not ideal for me, since I will never pay for premium cable since it isn’t a very good value, but no matter. I am sure it will come out on DVD eventually, and then I can Netflix it.

But finally…

I was clicking around the Internet, and I found a link back to the Chicago Reader, a paper I no longer read very much since I moved away.

This link took me to a February 3rd column by Reader media critic Michael Miner. In short, the article informed me that during the production of the initial six-episode run of TV episodes, the entire “This American Life” operation, radio and all, will be relocating to New York City.

Why, you might ask?

Miner writes:

Showtime and Killer Films, which will shoot the TV show, are both in New York. “When we were doing the pilot,” Glass told me, “I insisted for a while that everyone come here [Chicago], the editors especially. It turned out to be very expensive, and we wouldn’t be able to get some of the people we wanted.” That spiked any idea he had of fighting for Chicago.

Um, Ira?

There are production companies in Chicago.

There are editors in Chicago.

I was in Chicago for a while, looking for work. At Chicago-based production companies that were downsizing.

Once upon a time, I wanted to be a Chicago-based editor working on something like “This American Life.”

If a Chicago-based institution cannot even hire locally, how can Chicago-based production ever catch on?

Worry not, Chicago radio boosters, for as soon as the initial TV episodes are finished, the radio show will move back to the fourth floor of WBEZ in Chicago.

And somewhere, a future TV producer, director, or editor, living in a nameless Chicago suburb, is beginning to face the reality that he too will have to leave his or her hometown someday.

Northern California is nice this time of year.  I am glad I came here.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the end of the blog may be nigh.

Packing in as many Al- Gore- invented- the- Internet- ha- ha jokes as possible, a Tribune editorial dated February 22 briefly recounts the history of the blog, née web log, née “website with commentary… often insightful, usually irreverent.” Then, it declares:

[W]ill everyone live happily ever after?

You’re forgiven if you cling to the conventional wisdom that blogging, like half-pipe snowboarding, enjoys an unrelievedly rich future. Forgiven, but maybe behind the curve. A new report from Gallup pollsters, “Blog Readership Bogged Down,” cautions that “the growth in the number of U.S. blog readers was somewhere between nil and negative in the past year.”

What the Tribune doesn’t realize is that blogs like this one exist. Even though no one actually reads this or really cares what I have to say, I will still pursue this narcissistic endeavor.

If a blog is written, and there is no one there to read it, does it still exist?

And (for that matter, Tribune Editorial Board) what about declining readership in the print media?

Maybe we should all give up Writing Stuff and just make TV shows. (Oh, wait, that’s supposed to be my day job).

Okay, so there wasn’t really snow in San Anselmo. Snow in San Anselmo is really a song by Van Morrison.

The scene pictured above is actually above San Anselmo. Fifteen hundred feet or so above San Anselmo, to be precise.

Yes, it snowed today in Marin County, but only on Mt. Tamalpais.

(It also snowed at other high elevations in the Bay Area, such as Mt. Hamilton, the Santa Cruz Mountains, higher parts of the Oakland hills, etc.)

Down here, it was simply soggy.

I am not really sure what the article underneath this headline in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is about, nor do I really care. That isn’t the point.

The point is that this is an incredibly great example of headline-writing.

Reiman Renames, Revamps… does it really matter what Reiman renamed and revamped? The point is that he did it. And a journalist found it newsworthy. And an editor wrote the headline.

Reiman Renames, Revamps.

I aspire to write headlines like this.

In January 2006, people travelled far and wide to visit my humble home on the web. Below, you will find just a select few of the search engine terms that got them here:

Four people sought jeanette aguilar. Hi, Jeanette’s friends!

Three searched for passat. Three more for black vw. Sorry, folks. The one I spoke of is not for sale anymore.

Two people were looking for david nickel ice skater. No ice skaters here. Just a guy named David who only had a nickel so he went to Walgreens and reminisced about his days working at the ice rink.

Two searchers typed in mcdonalds got boycott in india. Another wanted an indian guy who sued mcdonalds for french fries. Somebody else searched for mcdonalds offends indians. And lastly, a potential franchisee (perhaps) wanted to know about problems faced by mc donalds to survive in india. I can tell you one thing: these Indians, vegetarians, researchers, whatever they are— they aren’t going to be shopping at Macy’s or Safeway or Dominick’s anymore after reading what I had to say.

Someone was researching carson pirie scott & co advocate blog. Huh?

An electronics enthusiast cried out to Google: sony cdp 101 sell. This person was disappointed to find out I merely was talking about the first CD player. Same with the person who wanted to know more about sony cdp 101 1982 revolutionary.

Unrepentant Walgreens fans like myself queried their favorite search engine for walgreens logo and walgreens media producer. Sorry, folks. Why not try Walgreens.com?

Nine words: san francisco chronicle even before you extract your cash. Huh?

Fratricide, anyone? how do you get rid of a foster brother.

What? You wanted my journal to be useful? Like life saving product in earthquake journal?

costco mexico sd400? I think you still have to pay sales tax.

david waxman blog. Curiouser. And curiouser.