The traditional medium that is the newspaper — well, let’s face it — hasn’t translated well to the internet. The front page of TheAge.com.au reads like it was thrown together last-minute by Andrew Bolt, at the best of times. And the paper itself is becoming littered with articles about how Twitter is the “next big thing” to affect you and your teenage children, smarmy comments in the opinion pages about the latest flu epidemic, footballers who sexually assault and narcotically abuse, and how this week’s magazine is “the fashion issue” (every week is the fashion issue!)
A typical newspaper website
And it’s not just the paper, it’s seems as though with the influx of blogs and social networking sites, that writers on the web — and writers in general (see The Wire: Season 5) — are feeling intimidated. I’m not saying that a blog like mine is more valuable than others, rather that some of my favourite blogs, well-written blogs such as the recently discontinued Speak Up, are slowly dying out. With the abundance of online video, access to torrents and DVDs, the majority of free-to-air television is becoming increasingly more focused on an older demographic. And professionals in areas such as illustration and photography are being replaced too often by economically-efficient templates and stock libraries.
Times Reader 2.0
I know that Marshall McLuhan said that ‘the medium is the message’, but as we know, content is the key. So it will be interesting to see that as the internet matures, how the traditional media will evolve. Recently, Google have been getting into all sorts of strife with their online Books site. Last week, Amazon announced the 3rd generation of their Kindle digital reading device, following the release of a Kindle app for the iPhone. And this week, The New York Times released Times Reader 2.0, a standalone piece of software, using Adobe Air, that has been designed to look like a traditional newspaper and is updated via the internet.
The Amazon Kindle DX
So how will traditional media adapt to the growing online world? Well, the technology is here. We have devices like the Kindle, iPhones and Blackberries, technologies like XML, RSS, Flash/Adobe AIR and a multitude of online formats. The issue lies in what is considered newsworthy in a world where the immediacy of information is so apparent, whether writers, artists and designers will be duly compensated for their work and whether people in general will embrace the internet as their preferred method for information and entertainment. Maybe time will tell.
16th May 2009
Simon
I finally finished reading this book last night, The Art of Looking Sideways, by the late Alan Fletcher. No, not the guy who plays Karl on Neighbours… this guy.
I was given the book by a few friends for my 21st birthday, almost 3 years ago. But it wasn’t until recently that I actually read through it and I can’t recommend it highly enough. To say that it is a design book would hardly do it justice. It features very little — if not, none — of Fletcher’s professional work and it doesn’t try to sell you anything. And the chapters cover just about everything in life, from the perspective of one creative individual. It’s like a really interesting blog, but in book form. Highly, highly recommend.
18th November 2008
Simon
From somewhere on the Internet:
We have been lucky to discover several previously lost diaries of French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre stuck in between the cushions of our office sofa. These diaries reveal a young Sartre obsessed not with the void, but with food. Apparently Sartre, before discovering philosophy, had hoped to write “a cookbook that will put to rest all notions of flavor forever.” The diaries are excerpted here for your perusal.
October 3
Spoke with Camus today about my cookbook. Though he has never actually eaten, he gave me much encouragement. I rushed home immediately to begin work. How excited I am! I have begun my formula for a Denver omelet.
October 4
Still working on the omelet. There have been stumbling blocks. I keep creating omelets one after another, like soldiers marching into the sea, but each one seems empty, hollow, like stone. I want to create an omelet that expresses the meaninglessness of existence, and instead they taste like cheese. I look at them on the plate, but they do not look back. Tried eating them with the lights off. It did not help. Malraux suggested paprika.
October 6
I have realized that the traditional omelet form (eggs and cheese) is bourgeois. Today I tried making one out of cigarette, some coffee, and four tiny stones. I fed it to Malraux, who puked. I am encouraged, but my journey is still long.
October 10
I find myself trying ever more radical interpretations of traditional dishes, in an effort to somehow express the void I feel so acutely. Today I tried this recipe:
Tuna Casserole
Ingredients: 1 large casserole dish
Place the casserole dish in a cold oven. Place a chair facing the oven and sit in it forever. Think about how hungry you are. When night falls, do not turn on the light.
While a void is expressed in this recipe, I am struck by its inapplicability to the bourgeois lifestyle. How can the eater recognize that the food denied him is a tuna casserole and not some other dish? I am becoming more and more frustated.
October 25
I have been forced to abandon the project of producing an entire cookbook. Rather, I now seek a single recipe which will, by itself, embody the plight of man in a world ruled by an unfeeling God, as well as providing the eater with at least one ingredient from each of the four basic food groups. To this end, I purchased six hundred pounds of foodstuffs from the corner grocery and locked myself in the kitchen, refusing to admit anyone. After several weeks of work, I produced a recipe calling for two eggs, half a cup of flour, four tons of beef, and a leek. While this is a start, I am afraid I still have much work ahead.
November 15
Today I made a Black Forest cake out of five pounds of cherries and a live beaver, challenging the very definition of the word cake. I was very pleased. Malraux said he admired it greatly, but could not stay for dessert. Still, I feel that this may be my most profound achievement yet, and have resolved to enter it in the Betty Crocker Bake-Off.
November 30
Today was the day of the Bake-Off. Alas, things did not go as I had hoped. During the judging, the beaver became agitated and bit Betty Crocker on the wrist. The beaver’s powerful jaws are capable of felling blue spruce in less than ten minutes and proved, needless to say, more than a match for the tender limbs of America’s favorite homemaker. I only got third place. Moreover, I am now the subject of a rather nasty lawsuit.
December 1
I have been gaining twenty-five pounds a week for two months, and I am now experiencing light tides. It is stupid to be so fat. My pain and ultimate solitude are still as authentic as they were when I was thin, but seem to impress girls far less. From now on, I will live on cigarettes and black coffee.
by Marty Smith, Portland OR
from Free Agent March 1987, Republished in the Utne Reader Nov./Dec. 199
25th June 2007
Charles
