Media

Three things to watch for in this video. The first time you watch it, you’ll likely notice the boulder more than anything else. But if you watch it again, at the very beginning, look at the top of the image to see the boulder break off. And finally, just before the boulder hits, watch the lead car get violently jerked to the side.

Everyone knows about Seinfeld. And maybe most people are aware that, more recently, Jerry made a web series called Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. But did you know how incredibly successful that series is?

Comedians’ first season, which featured interviews with Larry David, Carl Reiner and Ricky Gervais, has been streamed 10 million times, and early installments of season two already have clocked more than 4 million streams. More impressive, viewers spend 19 minutes on average watching his interviews, which vary in length (between eight and 17 minutes) and tone (Michael Richards discussed his N-word saga; Chris Rock joked about Conan O’Brien’s Tonight Show stint).

If you haven’t seen Comedians in Cars, you might want to take a look before you read the interview. Here’s a link to the David Letterman episode, though I think they are all equally entertaining. Enjoy.

Matt Gemmell has some solid tips that you can try the next time you sit down to write. Two tips in particular that I’ve done for a long time are:

I have a habit of adding a bullet-point right after I stop, briefly outlining the very next thing that happens. The following day, I just transform it into a sentence or two, and I feel that I’ve at least started.

I actually do this throughout my stories. As the story evolves, I think of things that need to be added or points that need to be made. The problem is if I stop and add it in, I lose my momentum and I don’t like that. Sometimes a single word will be enough to jog my memory and by the time I’m finished, all of the relevant points have been made in the article.

Just trust yourself. Something will emerge. Unplanned structure.

For me, it’s not necessarily lack of planning, but lack of putting it on paper. I formulate my ideas in my head—sometimes for days or even weeks—before I ever write anything. When I do sit down to start writing, I have a flow that gets me through the toughest part of the article.

Here’s one critic’s takes on new shows worth a watch. Somehow I doubt that all of these are worth watching, but I have to say I will definitely be checking out The Michael J Fox Show (so hoping this is good) as well as The Crazy Ones (Robin Williams as the head of an advertising agency). Curious if the latter gets its title from the brilliant Apple campaign.

Des Traynor:

Once a company succumbs to it, bloat seeps through its veins. A round of layoffs becomes a “Strategic Talent Re-Architecture”, sharing a link becomes “Internal Socialising”, or “Knowledge Cross Pollination”. You no longer “think about things” any more you “incubate them internally”. If you’re thinking about them really hard, you’re now “deep diving to disambiguate”.

Wonderful article. Bloat is everywhere.

Fantastic take on the First Amendment and the evolution of censorship.

Because of the ironclad protection of the First Amendment, it has proved very difficult for government to control what we can read, listen to or see. A few curbs have been put up, though, notably by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the regulations of which largely determine what kind of material is bleeped out of radio and television broadcasts.

There’s discussion of the 1873 Comstock Laws, the first radio censorship, Lenny Bruce, George Carlin (and his 7 words), Madonna on Letterman, Arrested Development, and much more. Brilliant.

The Guardian asked a series of writers, including Elmore Leonard, Neil Gaiman, and Margaret Atwood, to list their writing Do’s and Don’ts. Hard to pick a favorite, there are just so many that I love, but here’s an example:

Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue. The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But “said” is far less intrusive than “grumbled”, “gasped”, “cautioned”, “lied”. I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with “she asseverated” and had to stop reading and go to the dictionary.

Though these rules are all listed by novelists, worth reading by anyone who creates prose of any kind.

Man of Steel was a pretty good Superman reboot and Henry Cavill a fine Superman. Last week, we learned that Ben Affleck will play Batman in the sequel. To me, an odd bit of casting, but more than made up for by this genius bit of casting. Think Lex Luthor, then click the link in the headline. Perfect!

Even better, The sequel is called Batman vs. Superman. Wow!

Now if only we didn’t have so long to wait. Batman vs. Superman opens in theaters on July 17, 2015.

From Eadweard Muybridge and George Méliès to James Cameron and Phil Tippett, the history of movie effects is basically the greatest bedtime story never told. Except it’s a yarn so full of dragons, dinosaurs and mimetic polyalloy killing machines sent back from the future that you’d never get any sleep after hearing it. As Life Of Pi and Avatar amply demonstrate, there are many chapters still to be written and innovations still to be forged, but whether in-camera, matte, prosthetic, CG, or just lovingly modelled by a man with a passion for Plasticine, effects have brought magic to the movies since the silent era. In a unique celebration of the art, Empire asked the people who make them happen to pick their favorites.

Each one of these really brings a new appreciation to the effort involved and the incredible effect achieved. The closeup of Davey Jones from Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest, for example, really gives a sense of how breathtakingly realistic the effect is. Love this.

This interview was done in 1990, before Star Wars Episodes I-III were created. Pretty interesting stuff.

One of the least-known Monty Python rarities is “The Great Birds Eye Peas Relaunch of 1971,” a short advertising film that was made for the Birds Eye company’s internal use and then apparently locked away from the public eye (and probably the Python’s, too) until it magically appeared on YouTube.

So great to see something from the Pythons that I’ve never seen before.

The Washington Post will phase in a paid online subscription model for Web content starting June 12, charging some readers $9.99 a month for access to more than 20 articles a month on desktop and mobile devices.

For $14.99 a month, readers can get a premium package that includes access to all of The Post’s custom apps.

It will be interesting to see how they do with this strategy.

Such a great article by Om Malik on “Doing that one thing.”

Monthly magazine The Atlantic is in the crosshairs of a freelancer after they asked him to repurpose a blog post, but weren’t willing to pay him anything for the privilege.

I’m glad I’m not the only one. I’ve written about my similar feelings on The Loop and my personal site in an article called “Sometimes too much is just too much.”

This is exactly why Peter, Shawn and I do our best to bring fresh links and articles. We aren’t focused on pageviews, but rather posting things that interest us. Of course, the hope is that they’ll interest you as well.

My thought is that if we continue to provide things worth reading, you will come back. So far, that has proven to be true.

These will make you laugh.

Gabe Weatherhead:

RSS is time-shifted news. It’s closer to a newspaper than a radio station. I visit a news feed when I have time to read. Like a newspaper, the value comes from being judicious in using my time. I can’t read everything but, I want to read every good thing.

I use RSS everyday and find it very useful — that’s why I offer an RSS feed for The Loop and a full text feed for members. Sometimes it does get out of hand though, so maybe these tips will help you.

Harry Marks rounds up all the excuses from major publications who falsely reported on Monday that Google bought ICOA. Not a single apology, but lots of finger-pointing.

Six of 10 Americans believe news reporting is biased, according to Gallup. Still, we trust the media more than any other source of information. Skewed News Tutor helps news consumers learn to pinpoint exactly why a report might feel one-sided, or skewed.

Great idea.

The New York Times Company has sold About.com to IAC for $300 million.