Sumner Redstone Fires Fake Steve Jobs

“He called me a few weeks ago and told me I was fired. I was like, Sumner, I don’t work for you. He said, I know you don’t, because I just fired you. I’m like, No, Sumner, I’m at Disney, and you don’t own Disney. He said, Don’t give me no back-talk, punk, just clean out your desk or I’ll call security.”

Fake Steve Jobs on Sumner Redstone’s recent tirade.

Life In Shanghai

“People buy fresh food daily.  They buy clothes directly from clothes carts or in markets.  Things like nail clippers and cotton swabs are sold from carts in the street outside the lane, as are dishes and cups and most other household items.  I went to buy some string one day and the man cut me a 12-inch piece.  People buy only as much as they need.  They do not hoard and their homes are not full of items they never use.”

From an article by Emily Prager in the nytimes titled Settling Down in a City in Motion.

MeeVee Has Alot Less Marketards Today

On the new web 2.0 hate blog uncov, Ted, the fierce word smith that he is, tore apart MeeVee for their recent layoffs and even invented a new word.

“After shitcanning 20% of the dead wood in the company, they’re allegedly ‘working on moving the product forward’. In non-marketard speak, that means ‘we’re ripping as much scrap metal out of the building so we can make it look like we have revenue’. Holy shit, I just invented a new word: marketard. There isn’t a ruler long enough to measure how awesome I am.”

I dabbled with meevee for a bit, I am on Ted’s side.

Why I Don’t Watch Sitcoms

In an interview with AssignmentZero, Douglas Rushkoff answers a question I’ve had for several years: why do I hate sitcoms now even though I grew up addicted to them?

“You create tension or anxiety in the audience member. You bring them into a state where they are depending on you for a release from the anxiety. And then in order to get out of anxiety, they have to accept the solution that you’ve come up with, however lame it might be. So once you as an audience member are no longer dependent on the sole storyteller for a solution to the problem, then you are no longer as ready a target, you’re not as susceptible to the storyteller’s programming.”

There you have it…  why sitcoms (and a ton of other things) suck.