Victor Currie's Bloggish Observations

Frustrating Technorati Listing Requirements

Victor Currie — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 06:57:56 +0000

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Sorry everyone. I realize that this is a completely useless post here in the Bloggish Observations world. The Technorati blog listing service requires that a post with that lovely little numerical code appear here in the blog portion of the site so that their web crawler can verify my existance.

While I appreciate that they are trying to keep spam sites out of the Technorati database, they seem to have come up with an amazingly complex and user-unfriedly process for dealing with getting people into their lists. And of course this is one of the areas I'm frequently called upon to deal with: Helping others clarify their message and communicate it in some creative way. So if a real person from Technorati shows up here instead of the automated web crawler, feel free to contact us and we'll put together a needs analysis and produce a really simple video to explain to users how the process works (for a fee, or course).

UPDATE: Actually, I'm kind of impressed that Tchnorati has improved their operation so that the trawler came through in less than 12 hours, unlike the times several months back when I couldn't get them to look at my site at all (I host with Squarespace because I like their tech support, rather than the more typical WordPress kind of blogs).

Wish I'd made this: Did You Know 4.0

Victor Currie — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:52:50 +0000

This promo for the third annual Media Convergence Forum last October in New York produced by XPLANE (I don't know them, but like their work) is a great piece on the changing medie landscape. The scary thing is that just four months later, a lot of the stats have already been blown away (remember when there were only 65,000 iPhone apps?).

No wonder it seems hard to keep up with all this stuff these days even after 30 years in media.

Producers as entrepreneurs

Victor Currie — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 22:36:46 +0000

One of the questions I get asked more often than anything else is "So what does a producer do, anyway?"

That's a good question, actually, since there are myriad definitions throughout the industry. My favorite definition is "somebody who's got a friend with a script," though that's mostly a joke (though not always).

I'm currently involved in the largest non-media project I've worked on (even though there is a media and advertising component in it that I'd be overseeing), and I'm fascinated by how the skill-set required to be a successful producer in film, television, or media, is exactly that of the entrepreneur: Defining the business, seeking out investors, clarifying the market, finding top talent for the key department heads.

And probably the biggest advantages producers have when heading into the regular business arena: We're used to working under intense budgetary and time pressures, and we're used to rejection along the way and never letting it stop us.

So right now, I'm enjoying the entrepreneurship as much as the producing. And finding it just as creatively rewarding. I might just have to revise my business card.

You're a liar whether or not Beyonce had the best video!

Victor Currie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 23:50:12 +0000

Civil discourse is dead in most circles. People with opposing views stop conversing with people who would otherwise be close friends, focusing on the 10 percent of things on which they disagree instead of the 90 percent where they do.

Okay, I no longer hate Twitter

Victor Currie — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 23:37:41 +0000

This is very difficult for me. I have enjoyed bashing Twitter as mostly useless babble, a platform designed to turn Ashton Kutcher into a pundit (which in modern times I guess he's as qualified to be as the next person). I tend to prefer to read people who are thoughtful, quality prose writers, and the 140 character thing just didn't quite click-in for me (honestly, neither did haiku, and plenty of people enjoy that)

I See Dead People

Victor Currie — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:55:41 +0000

I have to admit that I loved one person's Facebook post, "Oh my God, a second plane just crashed into Michael Jackson!," because it totally summed up the level of domination his death caused across the media. It seemed especially odd, since it was mostly reported as a surprise despite almost every newsperson I know (including me in the days I still reported) thinking Jackson would go young (if only to satisfy his own psychological need for a Lennon/Presley level of tragic immortality).

It's time to save news

Victor Currie — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:49:55 +0000

While online journalism has a wonderful implication of immediacy, the fact-checking that gets lost in the rush to be first is worse than even local TV news' need to have something to say when they go "Live at 11!" And of course, we are seeing far too many blog posts accepted as fact and then re-quoted by a more (supposedly) legitimate source and then picked up by national media as if it was real. (None of this is actually new. Back in the early 1970s, my dad and the actor Glenn Ford made up a fake story together and my dad read it on the air as a test to see how long it would take for the National Enquirer to pick it up and report it as fact. It took three weeks.) So I'm going to propose what many, especially the FCC, consider sacrilege. Consolidation within individual markets.

Reunions in the age of Facebook

Victor Currie — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 12:49:50 +0000

Erica and I had a great time last night at a reunion of friends who were Tour Guides at Universal Studios 20 years ago, and it was of course great to see everyone. The strange part was how much Facebook has changed the group dynamic.

Bailout Blues. New cast, but same old story.

Victor Currie — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:23:54 +0000

One major difference is that the media likes Obama (pines for with lustful abandon might be more accurate), and of course, they hated Bush with even more passion. Fortunately for Obama, his smooth vocal style gets him through any lack of substance (so far), where Bush's greatest failure overall was his ineptitude as a communicator. No matter how many things Bush did right (and yes he did do a lot right, despite the well-reported fialures), he was never - with the possible exception of his first post-9/11 speech - able to articulate his vision clearly to the American people.