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| Wednesday, April 14, 2004 |
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Err America? 
| | Normally we¹d let this go because "habitual liars" like Drudge are laughable, and ridicule is our business. |
| | But Arthur Liu --- not funny. He lied to us, he ripped us off and now we¹re chasing him down with a pipe wrench. It¹s a metaphor. |
| | Here¹s what really happened: |
| | This Liu-ser was ripping off our boss Evan Cohen big time (he can't do that, that's our job). Evan found out about it and he stopped payment on a check to keep Liu-cifer from ripping him off even more. You can touch Evan for the occasional meal or drinks but a million bucks is crossing the line. And if we ever get low on cash, we can always call Barbra Streisand. Or any of the Baldwins. Except Stephen. |
| | So we got screwed, Liu'd, and tattooed. How Liu can you get? In Liu of payment. Liu'd and lascivious behavior. These write themselves. What we¹re getting at is that we hate him. |
| | So now everyone's saying we¹re going down the dumper in Chicago and Los Angeles, but what they don¹t tell you is that we're still on in Portland. And we OWN Portland. And let¹s not forget Riverside and Plattsburgh. And New York. And streaming on the internet. And XM. And Sirius. Actually we¹re fine. |
| | So cool your jets. Air America Radio isn't dead, we¹re in court and we¹re going to slam Liu's head in a car door. Another metaphor. We hope to be back on the air tomorrow or the next day in those markets... |
| | But on what? The network was on second-tier stations (Liu's) in those cities in the first place. In Los Angeles alone, at least three of the other second-tier candidates are also Liu's (near as I can tell). Are bigger ones tempted to drop what they're doing and carry All-Left Radio? i guess we'll see. |
| | Still pretty embarrassing, no matter how they spin it. |
| | Anyway, for more about Liu, see here and here. |
| | Not that it matters, but Liu's MultiCultural Radio Broadcasting Inc. has one of those linkproof all-design web sites, complete with annoying flash and javascript tricks and a strangely downbeat soundtrack. In any case, Mr. Liu has a pretty big pile of stations. |
| | [Later...] The "Click here for Breaking News from Chicago and L.A." link that led to the snarky message quoted above now leads to We're sorry, you've arrived at this page unexpectedly. Please to return to the home page. |
Undertow
| | Carpe Diem is a hard post to read, by Simon Phipps. That's how it sometimes happens here. You go to people you know, looking for more wisdom about current hot subjects that are deeper than they seem, and get pulled sidways and downward to unexpected depths on an unrelated yet far more important topic. |
Phone/net recommendations?
| | I'm going to Dublin and London soon, and to Europe several more times this year. So I'm thinking about swapping out my AT&T Wireless phone service, which only works in the U.S., and offers no special extras, like bridging to Internet service, which I hear you can get with Sprint and T-Mobile. |
| | Is there a way of getting good domestic and overseas service with bridging to the Net as well? The new laptop lacks bluetooth, but I can add it. A wired connection to the cell phone (or PDA that's also a cell phone) might also be fine, long as it works. |
| | Top recommendation so far: Sony Ericsson P800. |
Hard one to miss
| | Everybody's asking me if I'll be going to Bloggercon. And this morning I see Lenn is going too. Man, I wish I could, but it just doesn't work schedule-wise. |
| | Still, I'll do my best to be there in the pixels, if not in the flesh. |
One tentacle needs to become acquainted with another
| | My credit card bill says I paid $137.30 last month to T-Mobile. But... for what? When I go to the T-Mobile site, I can't log on with the same ID and password I use at T-Mobile wi-fi hot spots, and the site seems to assume that T-Mobile's only business is cell phone service. |
| | Right now my accountant is on the phone with 1-800-TMOBILE, and they're insisting I must have a phone account with them. But I don't. I only have a wi-fi account for when I'm at Starbucks and other locations featuring T-Mobile hot spots. |
| | [Later...] I see T-Mobile Hotspot has a whole different site (same branding, same company, yet not real visible from the main site). I can log in there, where there is appoximately no accounting for what the $137.30 is for. |
| | Much conversation on the phone (apparently to somebody in India) and research online later, it seems I've been on a pay-as-you-go thing while I thought I was on some kind of subscription plan. Very confusing. |
| | Ah, I see... on my browser the little clickable graphic on the main site pointing to the HotSpots site failed to load. |
| | At the very least, T-Mobile needs to get their identity act together, so HotSpot customers can log in to the main site, or at least be greeted with an error message redirecting HotSpot customers to the HotSpot site. |
| | Context: Tomorrow is tax day. My accountant is here today. One or two days a month, she saves me about a week of what I used to do alone, which usually caused more problems than it solved. (I really suck at this kind of stuff.) |
Dancing with wolverines
| | I didn't see the post & comments by Jay Rosen and his readers, regarding last night's presidential news conference, until this morning. On the radio I heard the back half of Bush's opening speech, and the opening questions, all of which seemed (to me at least) to be of the hostile "gotcha" sort. Obviously the President is a much better giver of speeches than answerer of questions. His inarticulacy (thank you Andrew Sullivan for that nouning that adjective) has a positive side: he speaks plainly and directly, and keeps to his scripts. (Unlike Bill Clinton, a great improvisor and a quoteproof windbag who must have driven his speechwriters nuts.) |
| | That's why I thought Bush was giving a good speech, right up to the end, when he started taking questions. Oh no, I thought, He's doing a press conference? Why? Apparently, Jay reports, because his advisors thought that would be a good idea. BZZZZT! Wrong. |
| | Exhibit A: Ronald Reagan. It didn't matter how senescent and out-of-it that president seemed, he could always take his case to The People. It was amazing to watch. Right when it looked like the old guy was losing control, he'd get on the tube, make his case, and that was that. He greased through a lot of legislation that way. |
| | Of course, Bush is no Reagan. As Johnny Carson once said of somebody-or-other, Bush couldn't ad-lib a fart at a bean party. As presidents go, Reagan was an ad-libber on par with Kennedy and Lincoln. Still, he can talk. And give speeches. (Remember his inauguration? That speech was outstanding.) |
| | What I heard from Bush's speech last night sounded like leadership. What I heard from the Q&A that followed sounded like a man cornered by wolverines. |
Why we like the window seats
| | Here are Monument Valley ... |
| | ... and the Grand Canyon.. |
| | ... which the kid and I saw and shot while flying from BWI to LAX yesterday. |
| | The camera was my new Nikon CoolPix 5700. |
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