Links and Thoughts 8: 15 May 2014
REO Speedwagon – Roll With The Changes
Good Morning. (yes, I know what time it is)
Comics: What Would Make Manga More Appealing to Comics Fans? + 24 Manga for New Readers : MangaComicsManga
“How manga is shelved in bookstores and comics shops can definitely make discovery of new titles difficult for readers who want to get into manga. Having all manga titles shelved alphabetically by title and not by genre is kind of like going to a record store and finding all the jazz, rock, electronic dance music and classical records organized alphabetically by title. Yo Yo Ma, next to Yo La Tengo, next to Yngwie Malmsteen. I know that’s how things are, but it’s not helping new readers get introduced to manga, that’s for sure.”
…once you’re a fan, though, having everything mixed together enables serendipitous discover of new books easier.
Movies:
“But is that what we really want? When I was interviewed back in 2009 for The People vs George Lucas, I said that what I really wanted Lucas to do was take all that money and social capital and infrastructure and build a new universe with new characters and tell us a new story. Not because I’m sure it would be awesome, but because I want something new.”
No, Michael Bay Has Not Destroyed Your Childhood
‘Destroy’ is such a strong word. I think it would be more accurate to say Michael Bay has carved nostalgia-laden properties into chops, steaks, and roasts and is selling them back to us retail.
Media:
“At the annual City University Journalism School dinner, on Monday, Dean Baquet, the managing editor of the New York Times, was seated with Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., the paper’s publisher. At the time, I did not give a moment’s thought to why Jill Abramson, the paper’s executive editor, was not at their table. Then, at 2:36 P.M. on Wednesday, an announcement from the Times hit my e-mail, saying that Baquet would replace Abramson, less than three years after she was appointed the first woman in the top job. Baquet will be the first African-American to lead the Times.”
Why Jill Abramson Was Fired : The New Yorker
It came down to issues of fairness, and pay equity, and respect, I think — you can read all about it at the link.
Writing: Agreed. Want to Write Great Science Fiction? Read Classic Literature : io9
Design: Tip #1 should have been: don’t do these tall, scroll-scroll-scroll web infographics. Just Don’t. The information would have been better presented as a text outline, and the execution of the post neatly contradicts the intended message – Infographic: Tips For Designing Effective Visual Communication : Design Taxi
##
Building on that first link, let’s go back and look at manga —Though perhaps doomed to be out-of-date even in the year it was published, Today’s Book Recommendation is Manga: The Complete Guide by Jason Thompson — it dates to 2007, so we’re missing anything from that year on — but like yesterday’s recommendation, the value of the Manga Guide as a historic reference is incalculable.
##
Diary entry for 15 May:
Obviously I got a late start this morning, and while I am operating on something-of-a-buffer, I still prefer the links to be timely (so I’m working—at most—three days ahead) and even with that: The section of each “links and thoughts” installment that gets finished last is the ‘thought’ part.
It is not impossible to keep a daily diary, or even to think of something to write, but I can’t guarantee deep thoughts, annotated with images or video and with helpful links scattered throughout. I just can’t. I promise that links will always be presented with appropriate snark commentary, as merited, but the end of each post — be it confessional, lecture, revelation, insight, or total crap — can’t always be 12 paragraphs and won’t always follow a topic to conclusion. That’s nice and all, but I’m stretching things pretty far (and relying on your patience) already by doing this without proper editorial oversight, and may have to fall back on old conventions (“here’s a blog post mentioning that the other blog post is late”). Not every day is going to have an exciting, thoughtful, heartfelt essay attached.
Indeed, some diary entries will have to be short, if only because I want to get the product out the door before 2:30 in the afternoon. —M.
[subscribe: rss – twitter]
[bookmark these: http://www.rocketbomber.com/category/links-and-thoughts/]
