T&G

In The next front[ier] in the disruption of traditional media, we see a journalist who realizes that journalism can largely be done by anyone. This is even more true with recipes:
I currently subscribe to more than 20 RSS feeds on my NetNewsWire aggregator. Three come from traditional news-media companies. The rest are offered by hobbyists and niche publishers. These feeds are no less interesting, insightful or engaging than the mainstream media feeds. These self-syndicated writers have become part of my daily media habit. A Big Media Company hoping to get on my deck will start in 20th place and will need to beat out the new breed of syndicated writers.

Shirky talks about how the internet has flipped the music business from A&R depts filtering and then publishing the “best” music, to anyone publishing, and then using collaborative filtering tools to find the best music. (I think he ignores how well Amazon works as a collaborative filtering tool for music, and I am surprised he didn’t go back to see what happened with Firefly, when he calls for more collaborative filtering in music and only cites Blogdex & Slashdot like sites.) However it strikes me again when looking at the music industry, in comparison with the cookbook publishing industry that only a marketing department could have “made” the likes of “Bobby Flay” and “Emeril” and that given the choice more people would like Mirjam and Bergy…but like Juno or Reindeer Section they just won’t get the marketing. Recipezaar, like MP3.com aims to change that.

We call ourselves pugs because we are pugs

We had a bunch of trees topped and removed on Saturday. A couple near the house were so rotten, it is surprising they hadn’t fallen on the house yet. The 6 trees topped on the slope improved our view far more than expected. Watching the guys climb the trees with chainsaws hanging from their belts, and tops the tress above them or swing between the trees..and then just these huge trees falling…as so scary, gay had to leave. Well worth it, but seeing it was like watching a car crash.

Fun dinner with our lawyer John and Deborah Bender, and their friends Jeff & Carol and Pat & Dawn. Followed by a terrible game of pool. We may have finally found folks who love bourbon as much as we do.