Tag: New York Times

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Books

Deliverance turns 40

Nice piece in the New York Times about Deliverance’s 40th anniversary. I had the pleasure of interviewing James Dickey in the late ’80s when I was reviewing his novel Alnilam. Fascinating guy.

Deliverance is one of the few movies I’ve seen that rivals the intensity of the book, though I still vastly prefer the novel. Might be because Dickey wrote the screenplay for the movie. I remember talking to Dickey about the music in Deliverance. At the time, he was having major health problems, and we talked about his stubborn insistence on not going “gentle into that good night,” which now seems odd given his dislike of Dylan Thomas. I’m also a major fan of his poetry.

Do yourself a favor. Pick up a copy of Deliverance and re-read it. Or discover it new. And then pick up a copy of Buckdancer’s Choice to sample his poetry. Despite his many flaws, Dickey was a literary giant in my eyes.

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Media Bob Web Bob

Too much information …

In a recent post about “FourSquare Fatigue,” I noted the generational difference in the way people view online privacy.

The New York Times had an interesting piece on Friday that digs into the issue more deeply. While privacy advocates bemoan that many users don’t consider how the information they’re sharing could be “used and exploited by marketers,” venture capitalists are pouring millions of dollars into plays like Blippy, FourSquare and Skimble. And  many consumers are freely offering up their data.

While I’m not sure I see the business model that will evolve from some of these plays, it’s clear people see the power of social networks to drive purchase decisions and generate reams of behavioral data.

And this made me think of another article I bookmarked recently. Groundswell co-author Josh Bernoff wrote a blog post on Peer Influence Analysis on his blog. This is a preview of sorts for Empowered, an upcoming book about the “power of  individuals and word of mouth.”

“The question is, can you quantify that?” Bernoff asks. He then answers: “Yes, you can. … It’s called Peer Influence Analysis.”

Clearly, an increasing amount of work is being done in this area. It’s worth keeping an eye on … and it will be interesting to see how consumers react to Facebook’s latest moves to aggregate data. Will this be the next Beacon, or will consumers be willing to negotiate some of their privacy in exchange for “the power of word of mouth.”

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Assorted Bob Books Web Bob

The Mac as poetry …

Via BoingBoing, I found this New York Times article about Gary Snyder, where he offers his unique take on modern tech, including a previously unpublished ode to the Mac, “Why I Take Good Care of My Macintosh.”

“Because my mind flies into it through my fingers,

“Because it leaps forward and backward, is an endless sniffer and searcher,

“Because its keys click like hail on a boulder …”

Love it. Vintage Snyder, especially the faint echo of RipRap, where he urges his reader to “Lay down these words/ before your mind like rocks.”

Maybe it helps that I share his abhorrence of texting …