Thursday, August 31, 2006

Playtime is Over, Get Back to Work!

I had a momentary bit of peace, quiet and tranquility this morning - my children are back to school. Now I can make phone calls without being asked, "Who are you talking to?" "What are you talking about?" "Why?"

With great power, however, comes great responsibility - as Spider-man was told. Now that I have the potential for productivity, it's time to get serious about work.

By the same token, now that we're all enjoying ourselves watching wacky videos on the web - Mentos and Diet Coke, George Allen putting his foot in his mouth, an amorous couple trying to have sex on a (literally) hot stove - the web needs to get serious also. In this case, how to make money. Between now and the Christmas (excuse me, Holiday) season, video on the web will continue to grow exponentially and viable business models will begin to emerge. Partly, this will occur because those without business models will disappear.

Next week, the true fun begins!

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

How Many Idols Can We Have, Anyway?

I'm not a religious guy, but I seem to vaguely remember a Commandment about false idols (ok, so I googled "Ten Commandments"). But what about real idols? Let's see, we have American Idol, RockStar: SuperNova, So You Think You Can Dance, America's Got Talent (or not), and a couple of shows that ABC already cancelled. I thought American Idol was painful to watch; the others are worse, with their manufactured anguish and tension.

Some wit said that in the future, we will all have our 15 megabytes of fame. That's at least 14 megabytes too many.

Someone else had worried that our economy would devolve into us flipping burgers for each other. That will also not happen - instead, we will each be starring on a reality "talent" show while watching everyone else on other talent shows.

I love televison; I just can't stand what's on it.