George Orwell the blogger

Okay so not exactly, but George Orwell's diaries are to go online daily to mark the 70th anniversary of their publication. If you've read them you will know that they are as rich as any of his better-known political writing and novels. If you haven't, it seems like the perfect way to discover them.

The diaries will be published in blog form on the George Orwell prize website each day 70 years after they were first written, opening up a wonderful opportunity to acquaint and reacquaint with Orwell in a very accessible way, offering eyewitness accounts from the 1930s on everything from unemployment, fascism and communism, but also his musings on the natural world.

The project kicks off on August 9^th and covers an important part of his life as a writer, beginning just before the period he spent recovering from tuberculosis in Morocco in 1938 and immediately following his time in Spain during the Spanish civil war, which led to the writing of 'Homage to Catalonia', my favourite Orwell book, and when he was writing his 1939 novel 'Coming up for Air'.

Having been wounded fighting in Spain, Orwell was much changed by his experiences during that key 1936-37 period and it marked a turning point in his writing and thinking. After this time, as he put it, he knew where he stood.

"Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it. It seems to me nonsense, in a period like our own, to think that one can avoid writing of such subjects. Everyone writes of them in one guise or another. It is simply a question of which side one takes and what approach one follows. And the more one is conscious of one's political bias, the more chance one has of acting politically without sacrificing one's aesthetic and intellectual integrity."

The diaries follow through from that time as rumblings of war continue, through the fall of France up until 1942 as the war started to turn in the Allies' favour.

Here are a couple of excerpts from that summer of 1938, one written in Southwold England and the other in Gibraltar, both just before he arrived in Marrakesh, which show the contrast of the kind of entries he made.

Southwold: Warmish day, with showers. Nights are getting colder & more like autumn. A few oaks beginning to yellow very slightly. After the rain enormous slugs crawling about, one measuring about 3" long. Large holes, presumably ear-holes, some distance behind head. They were of two distinct colours, some light fawn & others white, but both have a band of bright orange round the edge of the belly, which makes one think they are of the same species & vary individually in colour. On the tip of their tails they had blobs of gelatinous stuff like the casing of water-snail's eggs. A large beetle, about the size of a female stag-beetle but not the same, extruding from her hindquarters a yellow tube about the length of herself. Possibly some sort of tube through which eggs are laid?

Gibraltar Many Spaniards work here and return into Spain every night. At least 3,000 refugees from Franco territory. Authorities now trying to get rid of these on pretext of overcrowding. Impossible to discover wages and food prices. Standard of living apparently not very low, no barefooted adults and few children...Spanish destroyer Jose Luis Diez lying in harbour. A huge shell-hole, probably four or five feet across, in her side, just above water-level, on port side about fifteen to twenty feet behind bow. Flying Spanish Republican flag. The men were at first apparently prevented from going ashore, now allowed at certain hours to naval recreational ground (i.e. not to mix with local population). No attempt being made to mend the ship.

 

Overheard local English resident: "It's coming right enough. Hitler's going to have Czecho-Slovakia all right. If he doesn't get it now he'll go on and on till he does. Better let him have it at once. We shall be ready by 1941."

Cuil aid

A new rival to Google is born. They called it Cuil, but it is pronounced "cool". I have to say the name sucks. If it is pronounced "cool" why not call it cool? Or something else.

Oh right, because you were being clever and Cuil is an old Irish word for knowledge. Got it. And while that gives me a slight warm and fuzzy feeling (oh wait I can hear traditional Irish music in the background - mine's a Guinness dude) we don't speak Irish so that goes over our heads and really you have to do better (I think) and come up with a word that has half a chance of rolling off of the tongue (oh yeah not to mention the small problem that should you miss type the URL as as Culi.com you get Italian porn...so I'm told). Sorry to break it to the Cuil guys, but that is a first hurdle stumbler. Will they make it to the next fence?


Difficult to tell, the name I think is a big problem, which is a shame because it sounds like they have created a powerful search engine. I just Cuil'd myself. It gave me 664 results, compared with 58,000 on Google, but to be honest the first couple of pages of results all look similar.

I have to say I do like the look of the interface, but sadly that didn't help Cuil get off to a good start. One IT blogger Chris Brogan's gave it the big thumbs down after waiting two hours for Cuil to return two results for his name.

"I just tried out Cuil, which is supposed to be amazing and better search engine, and what not (that’s what they told Mike Arrington). But it didn’t work for me. I searched on “Chris Brogan” and found all kinds of relevant info, including random pictures not related to the text results beside the search, and none of them my main URL. I searched on “chrisbrogan.com” and it couldn’t find my URL.

Like I said it did OK for me and I will give it a run and see how it goes. In the wider world, I'm not sure there is enough about this search engine that will make it climb too far above the parapet without losing its head. The truth is Silicon Valley is like the boulevard of broken search dreams. A lot of companies, a lot of cash and all gone.

Pass the Kool Aid.  

Will Cuil make it? Vote in our poll. 

Is the advertising industry homophobic?

It's the question of the year. Today there is a guy with a funny walk being shot at by Mr T in a 4x4. Before that it was Nike and its Dunkin' ad. Bob Garfield has got so fired up he wrote a letter about it to John Wren. Is it a storm in a tea-cup?

Today we are talking about the Mr T Ad who shoots Snicker bars at a guy speed walking through suburban America.

Is it gay bashing? OK, he has a funny walk, but really it is difficult to speed walk without wiggling your hips a bit. It doesn't mean you're gay or that gay people walk funny. It just means you are a speed walker.

Mr T attacks him because he is walking and not pounding the streets like a runner. He says he pities him and that he is a disgrace to the man race? See nothing much to get worked up about. Besides Mr T is a solid wall of testosterone. It was the Mekong Delta that made him that way.

The campaign is jokey and some might say cruel and violent. It could also be seen to encouraging bullying, but I don't think it is.

The scenario depicted in the AMV London ad is clearly humorous and is part of a long-running campaign that, from its conception, has put humour at its heart, delivered via the booming megaphone voice of mockery that is Mr T. It is knockabout fun, it really is. How can something that fires chocolate bars be anything else?

Bob Garfield at Advertising Age got himself worked into a huge lather and took it upon himself to write an open letter to Omnicom CEO John Wren. He argued that the latest Snickers ad follows a trend coming out of Omnicom-owned agencies that is essentially gay bashing.

In the case for the prosecution he begins by citing a two year old ad from BBDO Detroit for Dodge Caliber, which featured a tough guy snorting the words "silly little fairy" at a Tinkerbell-like pixie. It was part of a long running "Anything but cute campaign".

Again it is funny and the pixie gets the last laugh. I liked it, I liked the focus group one as well.

The pixie in the ad I hasten to mention is not a lipstick ***, just a stand-up, run-of-the-mill, Lord of the Rings-type pixie who wants to turn the world into a toy box wonderland land, which means there is no place for the secret service-like black suburban vehicle.

Garfield then cites another Omnicom spot, this time from TBWA, New York. It is also for Snickers and was its Super Bowl spot. In this one, two mechanics chew on the opposite ends of a Snickers bar until their lips meet in an accidental kiss.

"Quick do something manly" and they both rip chest hair from their bodies. It's quite funny. It isn't laugh-out-loud funny as you can see the joke coming a mile away, because the set-up is lame playing on the general dislike straight Anglo Saxon men have for kissing other men. I mean that's fair enough, we're not French. Bob should get that.

Garfield even admitted the ad while "wasn't exactly homophobic" he said it was about homophobia and "men's deepest sexual fears about themselves".

Worse, Garfield said, was the Mr T ad. "The sentiment behind it is simply sick. John [Wren]: three Omnicom agencies, three outrages. It is time for you to intervene".

He goes on in his open letter to Wren to ask how he can be "so insensitive, how could you be so shallow, and how could you be so mean?

"Stop the dehumanizing stereotypes. Stop the jokey violence. There is no place in advertising for cruelty. Pull the campaign. Do it now. Then tell your agencies how to behave. Or else."

I think Wren will be resting easy. The ads Garfield talks about are mixed humour wise, but homophobic they are not. The Garfield Gaybashometer needs to be retuned and to get a sense of humour. No one was hurt in the making of those ads, not even the little pixie. Her message was don't mess with me as I will turn you into a preppie. That's a harsh punishment to deal on anyone. So don't mess with the pixie/fairy. Whatever.

Coincidentally the criticism of these ads comes as Nike pulls an ad that has been accused of sending out anti-gay messages.

The controversy broke last week when ads for Nike's new Hyperdunk basketball shoes broke and someone at Nick Denton's New York media blog gawker.com asked the question: does "Nike hate gays? Or do gays hate basketball.

The ads concerned as you can see features basketball players getting dunked in apparently what is considered the worst way possible with the dunker dangling off the rim and his undercarriage in the face of the dunkee.

I'll have to take Gawker's word for it that this is bad as I know nothing about the world of basketball.

The Gawker piece strikes me of being guilty of the same thing that Garfield is guilty of and that is reading too much into the ad. The blogger concerned even writes  leaving aside my unrelated general hatred of Nike". Well, I'm not sure we can.

In the case of the Nike ad sport is a fast, sweaty and occasionally painful business. Bodies crash into one another and like all things in life someone always ends up on top whether you are dunkin a basket ball, sliding into home or scoring a goal. It's a sweaty scramble. Anti gay? Well I wouldn't want to have someone's balls in my face, but then I don't get a hard on thinking about scoring a basket. No hoop dreams here.

Gawker argues that the campaign with its lines "That Aint right" is based on the implacable homophobia of straight jocks. "That can't be denied".

No probably not, but that isn't the point. Who, gay or straight, wants someone else's balls in their face?

Giles Coren - comedy genius of viral letters

Have you read journalist and broadcaster Giles Coren's fantastic pedantic rant to The Times? What do you mean you haven't? It's a work of a comedy genius.

Coren is a restaurant critic and columnist for The Times, as well as appearing in rather a raft of Channel 4 food-related shows, including the recent 'Supersize Me' series with comedienne Sue Perkins. Apparently, I am reliably informed, these were really quite good. He has also popped up in ads for Bird's Eye extolling the virtures of frozen food.

Anyway, I digress. Yesterday an email swept through the office, forwarded from various places, that was a missive from Coren (son of the late writer and humourist Alan Coren) to the subs desk at The Times.

Today, this email has caused a mini media storm, with coverage in the Boston Globe, the Daily Telegraph and a double-page spread in The Guardian's G2, which helpfully prints other very amusing emails that Coren has fired off over the years. They are the kind that we all write in fit of pique, but then delete. Coren, on the other hand, bashes the send button hard. I imagine his keyboard takes an absolute pounding.

As well as the email printed in full below, my favourite is another apparently sent to The Times back in 2002

"never ever ask me to write something for you. and don't pay me. i'd rather take £400 quid for assassinating a crack whore's only child in a revenge killing for a busted drug deal - my integrity would be less compromised. jesus fucking wept I don't know what else to say."

Fortunately, Coren bounced back from his 2002 rant, which is a relief as we would never have gotten this email below.

As sent to Times subs...

Chaps,

 

I am mightily pissed off. I have addressed this to Owen, Amanda and Ben because I don't know who I am supposed to be pissed off with (I'm assuming owen, but I filed to amanda and ben so it's only fair), and also to Tony, who wasn't here - if he had been I'm guessing it wouldn't have happened.

 

I don't really like people tinkering with my copy for the sake of tinkering. I do not enjoy the suggestion that you have a better ear or eye for how I want my words to read than I do. Owen, we discussed your turning three of my long sentences into six short ones in a single piece, and how that wasn't going to happen anymore, so I'm really hoping it wasn't you that fucked up my review on Saturday.

 

It was the final sentence. Final sentences are very, very important. A piece builds to them, they are the little jingle that the reader takes with him into the weekend.

 

I wrote: "I can't think of a nicer place to sit this spring over a glass of rosé and watch the boys and girls in the street outside smiling gaily to each other, and wondering where to go for a nosh."

 

It appeared as: "I can't think of a nicer place to sit this spring over a glass of rosé and watch the boys and girls in the street outside smiling gaily to each other, and wondering where to go for nosh."

 

There is no length issue. This is someone thinking "I'll just remove this indefinite article because Coren is an illiterate *** and I know best".

 

Well, you fucking don't.

 

This was ***, *** sub-editing for three reasons.

 

1) 'Nosh', as I'm sure you fluent Yiddish speakers know, is a noun formed from a bastardisation of the German 'naschen'. It is a verb, and can be construed into two distinct nouns. One, 'nosh', means simply 'food'. You have decided that this is what I meant and removed the 'a'. I am insulted enough that you think you have a better ear for English than me. But a better ear for Yiddish? I doubt it. Because the other noun, 'nosh' means "a session of eating" - in this sense you might think of its dual valency as being similar to that of 'scoff'. you can go for a scoff. or you can buy some scoff. the sentence you left me with is ***, and is not what I meant.

 

Why would you change a sentnece aso that it meant something I didn't mean?

 

I don't know, but you risk doing it every time you change something. And the way you avoid this kind of *** up is by not changing a word of my copy without asking me, okay? it's easy. Not. A. Word. Ever.

 

2) I will now explain why your error is even more *** than it looks. You see, I was making a joke. I do that sometimes. I have set up the street as "sexually-charged". I have described the shenanigans across the road at G.A.Y.. I have used the word 'gaily' as a gentle nudge. And "looking for a nosh" has a secondary meaning of looking for a blowjob. Not specifically gay, for this is soho, and there are plenty of girls there who take money for noshing boys. "looking for nosh" does not have that ambiguity. the joke is gone. I only wrote that sodding paragraph to make that joke.

 

And you've fucking stripped it out like a pissed Irish plasterer restoring a renaissance fresco and thinking jesus looks *** with a bear so plastering over it. You might as well have removed the whole paragraph. I mean, fucking christ, don't you read the copy?

 

3) And worst of all. Dumbest, deafest, shittest of all, you have removed the unstressed 'a' so that the stress that should have fallen on "nosh" is lost, and my piece ends on an unstressed syllable. When you're winding up a piece of prose, metre is crucial. Can't you hear? Can't you hear that it is wrong? It's not fucking rocket science. It's fucking pre-GCSE scansion. I have written 350 restaurant reviews for The Times and I have never ended on an unstressed syllable. ***. ***, ***, ***.

 

I am sorry if this looks petty (last time I mailed a Times sub about the change of a single word I got in all sorts of trouble) but I care deeply about my work and I hate to have it fucked up by *** subbing. I have been away, you've been subbing joe and hugo and maybe they just file and *** off and think "hey ho, it's tomorrow's fish and chips" - well, not me. I woke up at three in the morning on sunday and fucking lay there, furious, for two hours. weird, maybe. but that's how it is.

 

It strips me of all confidence in writing for the magazine. No exaggeration. i've got a review to write this morning and I really don't feel like doing it, for fear that some nuance is going to be removed from the final line, the pay-off, and I'm going to have another weekend ruined for me.

 

I've been writing for The Times for 15 years and I have never asked this before - I have never asked it of anyone I have written for - but I must insist, from now on, that I am sent a proof of every review I do, in pdf format, so I can check it for ***-ups. and I must be sent it in good time in case changes are needed. It is the only way I can carry on in the job.

 

And, just out of interest, I'd like whoever made that change to email me and tell me why. Tell me the exact reasoning which led you to remove that word from my copy.

 

Right,

 

Sorry to go on. Anger, real steaming fucking anger can make a man verbose.

 

All the best

 

Giles

 

Whedon plans internet takeover with Dollhouse

More news on the Joss Whedon front. Having already made a web splash with 'Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog' the Buffy creator plans a new internet takeover with plans for webisodes for his upcoming series 'Dollhouse'.

The series, starring Buffy bad girl, Eliza Dushku as some kind of programmable agent is due to air in the US in January where it should run for 13 episodes (say "should" because it is on Fox, which cancelled Whedon's last show 'Firefly' before its run ended. boo).

 
Whedon said that they are "planning to do a series of Webisodes -- literally a full season of them. We're planning to do one for every episode produced. Whether we pull that off remains to be seen".

Unlike other shows that have tried webisodes, like 'Battlestar Galactica', Fox will use them as pre-episode teasers that will go out before each week's show, so there should be 13 webisodes in all if things run to plan, which is cool becaause by the time it gets to DVD that means another 40 minutes of 'Dollhouse'.

No news on where it will air in the UK yet. BSkyB and the BBC, which have each aired 'Buffy' previously, are pretty much saying the same thing. Both seem interested, but are waiting to see a full pilot, which seems to have been causing Whedon the odd problem. He's just shot another one after "tone" issues with his first effort.

He explains all on his blog (in conversation with himself):

 

What’s that, you say? A second first? How can such a thing be? Does it defy the laws of all physics? Well, I sat down with Rutherford D. Actualperson to do a quick Q&A and give you all the skinny on the progress of my new series (Available on iTunes at some point one would assume!)

 

Rutherford D. Actualperson: Joss. You are a legend in the industry, and your forehead is a normal size proportionate to your face. Tell me about the idea behind doing a new first episode. Didn’t you already shoot one?

 

Joss: Yes, Ruhthie, I did. And it was grand, simply grand.

 

R.D.A: Then why shoot another? Also, your teeth are whitish.

 

Joss: I said it was grand, I didn’t say it was comprehensible. I showed some scenes to David Lynch and he’s all, “whuh?” Bad sign. But I kid.

 

The fact is, I’m very proud of the ep we shot and the series is making me crazy with the excitement. But I tend to come at things sideways, and there were a few clarity issues for some viewers. There were also some slight issues with tone – I was in a dark, noir kind of place (where, as many of you know, I make my home), and didn’t bring the visceral pop the network had expected from the script. The network was cool about it, but not sure how to come out of the gate with the ep.

 

R.D.A.: So they made you do another. It’s Firefly all over again! Run! For the love of God, HE’S CALLING FROM THE HOUSE!!!

 

Joss: Wow. Good panic.

 

R.D.A.: I try. But I am genuinely concerned. Also your smooth skin and elegant hands are making me bi-curious.

 

Joss: Well, the idea to do a new first episode wasn’t the network’s. It was mine. I understood their consternation, and saw the gap between my style and their expectations, and I suggested I shoot a new ep and make the one I’d shot the second. It isn’t going to be buried, like the pilot of Firefly. It’s simply coming after another, slightly cleaner ep. And because unlike Firefly, it isn’t a two hour epic which introduces everyone to each other, the onus isn’t on the new ep to explain a million things.

 

The fact is, Fox ordered the series before we shot a frame and then, after the strike, I had literally two months to write and prep the whole thing. Which means simply that the network has to figure out what they might want to tweak AFTER it was shot, unlike a pilot. Buffy didn’t make the fall sched, Angel got shut down when they saw the second ep outline… it’s birth pangs. The network truly gets the premise (this is a whole new crew, as you know), loves the cast, is excited about the show – but they’re also specific about how they want to bring people to the show and I not only respect that, I kinda have to slap my forehead that I didn’t tailor my tone and structure to the network’s needs, since that’s something I pride myself on.

 

R.D.A.: You’re not just being the good soldier?

 

Joss: We both know from years of experience that I’m a crap soldier, though I am an accomplished fan-dancer. No, this is a very cold look at what’s going on, and it’s not an Us vs Them. The truth is, I’m in love with this world, and I don’t care how people get into it. I have a million things to say about (and through) all of these characters, and I don’t mind which ones I say first. I think I just turned in a pretty cool pilot script. [Editor’s note: that means someone TOLD him THEY thought it was cool. He has no judgement of his own. This is sad, but on the plus side, it was probably one of his writers, who actually ARE cool. So rest easy.]

 

R.D.A.: So what does this mean for production?

 

Joss: We’ve pushed an extra few days so I can prep this bitch within an inch of its life, i.e., read it once more.

 

R.D.A.: But how will this affect the foundation of the very turning of our precious earth, and by that I mean Comiccon?

 

Joss: Yeah. Unfortunately, we won’t have a new teaser to show, since we’ll start shooting after the con. People will have to settle for chatting with Eliza and Tahmoh. But they’re likeable folk. (Sadly, Tahmoh only speaks Canadian, though he has a lovely translator at his side, like Isabella Rosselini in “White Nights”.) We’ll still rock the panel, but showing clips is kind of a tradition, so my emoticon doth frown.

 

R.D.A.: And the first first episode?

 

Joss: I’ll reshoot a few scenes, but it’ll basically air as is. When I was given seven episodes, I referred to them as “the Seven Pilots”, ‘cause you always have to lay out the premise one way or another in those early eps. So instead of Grumpy, this particular episode will be Sneezy. (Seriously. Eliza fights POLLEN! Sooo sexy.)

 

R.D.A.: So Eliza’s still a different character every week?

 

Joss: Often several.

 

R.D.A: And in the Dollhouse, the amazing-looking facility where all the beautiful people whose memories have been wiped live in a state of unselfconscious innocence, the showers are co-ed? [Editor’s note: the showers are co-ed?]

 

Joss: The showers are co-ed. [Editor’s note: HOT damn.]

 

R.D.A.: So nothing of substance has been changed. Shower-wise.

 

Joss: You are a sad, lonely actual man, Actualman.

 

R.D.A.: So true, so true. Thank you for talking/fan-dancing to me. Anything else you’d like to add?

 

Joss: Available exclusively on iTunes! Oh. About Dollhouse? Only that it’s going to be a funhouse ride of excitement, fear, existential angst and co-ed showers. That I love it. Love the writers, love the cast, and already blissfully live in the strange, compelling world of the removable self. Hmm. When I pitched it to Eliza, she said “My God, it’s my life!” But after that sentence, I think maybe it’s mine.

 

R.D.A.: I guess we’ll have to wait till January to see what you’ve cooked up.

 

Joss: And I’ll probably keep cooking till the moment I serve.

Big UK growth for Twitter

Sometimes you think that is just you and really not that many others, but it's interesting to see how micro blogging site Twitter is taking off in the UK. Latest Hitwise figures show its traffic is soaring.

According to Hitwise, Twitter's UK traffic is up 485% this year, 70% higher than US, where granted it already has a bigger base.

The figures show that UK visits to twitter.com increased by 631% during the 12 months, with 485% of that growth coming this year.

It does feel that is has been the UK year for Twitter., particularly as places like Number 10 have adopted it.

Interestingly, it is broadcasters and the BBC that have helped to lead this growth. There are a lot of BBC feeds available, more than a dozen, and they can really swamp you as can updates from any news outlet (including Brand Republic for that matter), but that hasn't stopped people from signing up.

At the moment, the BBC feeds are grouped quite broadly business, politics, educations health. 

Putting these in perspective the numbers show how far there is to go. BBC politics for example has 482 followers; sport 794 with news leading the way with 713 followers.

Those numbers reveal, among other things, Twitter's place in the UK social networking universe where it currently does not feature in the top 10, according to Hitwise, which is led by Facebook at number one with 45% share and Tagged.com (really know nothing about this site) in 10th place with 0.72% share.  

What is interesting is, as Robin Goad research director at Hitwise points out, the breadth of Twitter's appeal, with users split 50/50 male/female; only 15% from London; and while 25- to 34-year-olds are still the most ove- represented age group, 37% of visitors to the site are now aged 45 and over.

I'm still enjoying it and although I've looked at a few rivals, I haven't started using any. With the news bots like those from the BBC, the next step is for the ability to create more targeted and tailored feeds to avoid that swamped feeling.

*Follow me on Twitter.

Life on the streets

It isn't the worse job in the world, but handing out London's mountain of free papers has to be close, so it's interesting to see what the distributors think of the job themselves in this little documentary.

Every distributor has a story and largely it is an immigrant story, handing out papers while studying or just making ends meet, as really many don't want a proper job with the stresses and strains that come with it.

Most are like Tamin Rahman from Bangladesh, studying while ekeing out some cash to survive on giving out thelondonpaper and London Lite. There are Indians, Nigerians and even a French artist. Sarah Le Roy.

A couple use the word "degrading", which is uncomfortable to hear, as are how rude and occasionally abusive members of the public can be.

What also comes across in this CurrentTV documentary is that they are largely an optimistic bunch who are up off of their arses and doing something, which is a lot more than can be said for some.

Well worth a look.

Joss Whedon and the Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

It isn't really a blog, but if you like what 'Buffy' creator Joss Whedon does, it is more than worth watching. Even more so, if you like it set to to music.

Apparently during the writer's strike, Joss Whedon, who doesn't like to idly twiddle his thumbs, came up with a musical idea. Another musical idea. He has famously had them before... if you have ever watched any 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' you'll know he penned a whole episode (the rather brilliant 'Once More with Feeling') in song, where even people who couldn't really sing came out of it all looking pretty good.

If you liked that, then you are also going to enjoy this three-part mini musical, 'Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, featuring Neil Patrick Harris (of Douglas 'Doogie' Howser/'Starship Troopers' fame) as the eponymous evil doctor along with some familiar faces from the Buffyverse in Felicia Day as the woman of his dreams and Nathan Fillion of 'Firefly' fame as the doctor's nemesis, Captain Hammer.

Whedon's airing it in three parts, the first of which is now online with two more to follow on July 17 and 19. It is going to be, Wheedon says, "the finest 40-minute musical since the last one I made". They will only be online for a short period for free before becoming a paid for download and ultimately a DVD with lots of extras.

"Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog just fell out of us in a mad rush of joy and ridiculousness. And they're two completely different kinds of art that lead to the same thing, which is me having a happy. And the one helps the other. The fact that I could throw out Dr. Horrible as quickly as we did -- and we did our best; I'm not saying that we tossed it off like it didn't matter: We worked our asses off -- but the ability to do something that fast gives you the sort of patience to do the fine-tuning and the crafting on the other thing that you need to do."

It's great stuff and has won rave reviews. Does Whedon ever get it wrong?

It seems not. This comes just ahead of his new show 'Dollhouse', which is getting ready to air on Fox in the US and looks awesomely good if the trailers and the buzz are anything to go by.

'Dollhouse' stars more Buffy alumni, this time in Eliza Dushku who stars as Echo, a member of a group of people known as "Actives" or "Dolls" whose memories are wiped clean before they are sent on various missions... some good and others really not so much. The agents are not supposed to remember anything, but you can guess what happens next.

An independent Yahoo! is good for business (says Google)

Google CEO Eric Schmidt is at it again telling anyone who will listen what a great thing it would be for the industry if Yahoo! stayed independent because "a combination with Microsoft "would be anti-competitive". Like he should know.

Of course, what he really means is that if it stays weak and a bit of a mess.

"The world is better off with an independent Yahoo. There's "more competition ... in search, and more competition in the other advertising markets where Yahoo! is a leader."

A leader? Which markets would they be? Bora Bora maybe? Last time anyone checked anything Google dominated the world of search and the rest is just scraps on the kitchen floor for the dog. I'm betting Schmidt's dog is called Yahoo!.

In the US, Google accounted for almost 70% of all US searches in May and for more than 87% in May. Those figures are hard to ignore.

"The moment we saw the offer from Microsoft, we saw it as anti-competitive," Schmidt said. "It's easy to understand. Look at Microsoft's history."

 What he means is "wow the moment we saw this we thought: this could mean real competition finally. We have got to kill this deal guys". And they seem to have been successful as while Yahoo! continues to be circled by investor Carl Icahn the chances of a deal with Microsoft seem to be receding.

Schmidt, speaking at the annual Allen & Co gathering of media and tech chiefs, is obviously feeling pretty pleased with himself after Google essentially managed to thwart Microsoft by signing a heavily criticised search deal with Yahoo!.

What is Yahoo! for?

As Yahoo! boss Jerry Yang hits out at his detractors, there's an interesting piece around today that asks the salient question: what is Yahoo!?

While Microsoft tries to resurrect its effort to buy some/all of Yahoo!, Yang was yesterday talking up his ability to save Yahoo! and slating the software giant.

"I think that I can bring stability back to Yahoo, and I want to get on with building company. I think that the destabilising by Microsoft has become more and more intentional. I am not happy about it."

He also hit out at investor Carl Icahn, who wants to replace the company's directors at the August 1 board meeting:

"To trust Mr. Icahn and his board is really a bad choice," Yang said.

Yang just does not sound or act like someone who is going to be there that long, which was kind of the point of John Gapper's piece in the FT today, which backs Icahn and Microsoft before tackling the seemingly tough question what is Yahoo!.

"From the start, Yahoo has been more of a Gestalt, or a shape, than a company. When pledging loyalty, executives talk of "bleeding purple", its signature colour. Microsoft makes software, Google does search, Facebook is a social network. Yahoo! is purple and has an exclamation mark.

"When asked at a Journal conference last month what Yahoo was, Mr Yang replied: 'We want you to start your day at Yahoo!'. You could equally say that of a shower."

It shouldn't be a tough question, but it is and, if Yang really doesn't know, then you have to ask what is the guy doing there?

Gapper thinks it might be a newspaper, personally that seems something of a round peg/square hold stretch. Yahoo! is a disorganised bunch of web pages and software tool that do not coherently hang together. It is neither one thing nor the other.

And as Gapper points out, Yang has never run a big company before (Tim Koogle and Terry Semel have been the two CEOs over the last 12 years), is not a technology pioneer (Yahoo! was always more of a media company in the early years taking advantage of the early web) and does not seem to possess the skills nor ideas to take the business coherently forward and maintain that wealth of traffic -- Yahoo! still pulls in 500m users.

"I agree with Mr Yang that Microsoft ought not to be allowed to grab hold of Yahoo!'s search assets, leaving the rest of the company even more inchoate. If Yahoo! is to be sold, let it be sold whole to any company that will take on the risk.

"But simply giving Mr Yang yet more time to work on Yahoo" does not strike me as an appealing outcome for shareholders. He has, after all, had 14 years on the job so far. That should have been time enough," Gapper says.

Sex on the beach (and six years in prison in Dubai)

Have you ever thought about making the move to Dubai? Sure you have, everyone it seems has had an offer or two. Publisher Michelle Palmer probably thought the same and she now faces six years in a tough Arab jail for a drunken, errr, indiscretion.

Palmer, who works for B2B publishing firm ITP which is behind mags such as Air Cargo, Arabian Banking, Outdoor Design and Oil & Gas, went to a boozy afternoon event and ended up drinking throughout the day before ending up on the beach having sex.

It's a cautionable behaviour anywhere, but in Dubai which, as "liberal" as it might be, still has, behind all of the Western glitz, tough Arabic justice. Palmer's situation was made worse because not only was she having drunken sex, but she was unmarried as well... a huge no no in the Muslim world, with its morals and attitudes that come from another age and are completely incompatible with the kind of society the Sheiks in Dubai try to foster.

According to a report in the Sun today, Palmer, 30, not only faces prison, but she will be deported from the country where she has lived and worked for three years.

Admittedly she as brought some of it on herself. Having been spotted by a Dubai police officer, she and her partner were cautioned, but carried on. The same officer later returned and rediscovered the pair. Then it just went from bad to worse.

The paper says that Palmer "launched an angry four-letter tirade after her second romp was halted".

She is alleged to have called the cop a "f****** Muslim ****" and tried to hit him with her high-heeled shoe before being restrained, and so was charged with indecent behaviour in public, being drunk in public, and assaulting a police officer.

Six years is the worse case scenario and she could get away with three months. Her beach buddy, an unnamed holidaying Brit, faces a similar term.

But Palmer told the paper that she feared the authorities would make an example of her.

"Because this is known everywhere they're going to make an example of us and we’re going to get a higher sentence. We are in so much trouble and my family and everybody are affected. Until someone is in this situation they could never know what it’s like. It’s bad -- it’s so, so bad. They are being pushed into a corner to make an example of us. I'm panicking -- my mum is on anti-depressants. I can't say anything else. I’ve got to go."

The real crime seems to be that all this happened after one of Dubai's popular Friday Brunches where the deal is "all you can eat and drink" for a set price. The exact same thing that gives us binge drinking on a Friday night in British cities up and down the country.

Have you heard any stories about Brits behaving badly in Dubai?

Update:  Amazingly the Sun is now in day two of its coverage with more details. Including the fact that ITP has now sacked her.

A spokesman for ITP Publishing, said: "All of our employees are handed booklets advising on behaviour, local law and customs. Michelle has been dismissed." 

The paper also names the man concerned as Vince Acors who works for an SMS firm.

The story has been picked up across the board by The Guardian and the Daily Mail. Not to mention the Daily Telegraph, BBC, Scotsman and more than a dozen other stories from India, to the US to Australia. Ouch.

Digital struggles at Washington Post

The appointment of a new outside editor at the Washington Post is causing ructions as the paper tries to catch up with its rivals on the digital front and deal with the tough newspaper market.

The Post has appointed not just an outsider, but 24-year Wall Street Journal veteran Marcus Brauchli who was squeezed out of the paper's top managing editor job in April and replaced by Robert Thomson.

He brings with him what a lot see as one of the best models for print and digital integration from The Wall Street Journal where he was managing editor.

And the Post while it has made progress in recent time on the digital front it has a way to go. It has for instance two very distinct news operations with a separate newsroom, in Virginia, which has caused battles of stories with print and digital fighting for dominance.

His appointment is The Washington Post, one of the US's most influential newspapers, is thought to have been pushed for by publisher Katharine Weymouth (granddaughter of Katharine Graham) part of the Graham newspaper family and in line to succeed her uncle and CEO Donald E. Graham.

In a statement, Weymouth said that Mr. Brauchli's experience at The Journal would "help us navigate the new world of media".

It is a tough one to negotiate. As the Observer reported at the weekend in the first three months of this year, print ad sales at American newspapers saw their biggest drop since records began in 1971. It was the eighth quarterly drop in a row as advertisers spent 14% less than they did in the previous year.
 

The desire to focus more on the website is clear as while the Post is the US's seventh- biggest newspaper its website, which that pulls in more than nine million unique visitors a month, is the third biggest, but a long way behind market leader the New York Times with 20m uniques followed by USA Today on 12m. The Wall Street Journal Online is fourth, but then that is a subscription website, but still has 6.9m.

 
All it has to do now is work out like everyone else how you convert that wad of traffic into ad dollars to make up for the loss of print readers. The paper's circulation is down by almost 130,000 since 2000 to 673,000.

And it is a pressing problem as despite being one of the world's most famous newspapers it only made a profit $1.2m in the first quarter on revenues of $206m down from a profit of $15m last time.

That is a huge and worrying fall, but if you employ an editorial staff of around 700 you can easily see where a lot of that goes. Its staff has already fallen by 200 over the last decade and you can guarantee that the new editor will be tasked with further cuts to fit the paper out for what is sure to be a leaner digital future as the rest of the US newspaper industry including market leader the NYTimes is finding.

The $400m dollar radio man

Forget Jonathan Ross, US radio shock jock (and celebrated junkie) Rush Limbaugh (Guantanamo Bay: "a tropical retreat from the Jihad") has signed a $400m deal to continue broadcasting his right-wing bile until 2016.

Clear Channel signed the deal this week with its celebrated radio host, who pulls in an audience of between 14m and 20m who catch the show at least once a week on one of the 600-plus radio stations that host it. He is more popular than John McCain.

More than that, no other radio host comes close in America to this man and, in a tough climate, it means that when you put his syndicated show on your station you can guarantee the ad dollars. This has also led stations to model their broadcast around him, hoping that if they come for one they will stay for all. Forget Fraiser Crane and his refined liberal mutterings.

Limbaugh is known for his liberal-bating, tough-justice, Republican take on the world that has seen him come out with such gems as "Feminism was established to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream"; "The difference between Los Angeles and yoghurt is that yoghurt comes with less fruit"; and "I must be honest. I can only read so many paragraphs of a New York Times story before I puke".

The last is ironic, because he is to be profiled in The New York Times magazine this weekend.

He is also famous for saying such things as "If you commit a crime, you're guilty"...except when it's him.

Limbaugh famously got away with it, when he could have been sent to prison for a few years after being arrested in 2003 for illegally buying thousands of prescription painkillers, including OxyContin.

No surprise, like a lot of rightwing bigots he's full of ***. Can deal it out, but can't suck it up. The Drug Policy Alliance made a nice little flash video at the time asking viewers whether they would "Lock Rush Up Or Leave Him Alone For His Illegal Drug Buys?"

In The New York Times profile, which has gone up early on its website, it reveals that Limbaugh is planning to buying a new G550 jet and is making an estimated $38m.

It sounds very corporate, doesn't it? That's because it is, which has helped make him so successful.

In the NY Times piece, he describes himself as a "business man" and "a defender of corporate America".

It is a kind of message that seems to play well not only to his listeners but to advertisers as well. He won't rant about pollution or slate SUVs ("Global warming is bogus") or lay into corporations.

Did you ever wonder why there were no liberal equivalents of guys like Limbaugh? It's because advertisers don't want to be associated with shows where their very existence comes under attack.

 
You would think his elevation would be good news all around for the Republicans as they face a tough election against Obama not so. While he might not like the Democratic candidate ("He's saying nothing better than anybody in my lifetime ever has"), and was under recently for repeated playing a derogatory and racially charged song called 'Barack the Magic Negro (to the tune Puff the Magic Dragon), he hates McCain as well and thinks he will be the death of the GOP, which adds more spice to what is already shaping up to be a riveting US election.

New for summer 2008: the polygamist look

It's what the kids are wearing. The polygamist kids that is. Those wives of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have launched their own range of kids clothing after it proved such a "hit", following the publicity surrounding the removal of 400 children from the church's compound.

The clothing range has been dubbed" the prairie look", unchanged since wagons rolled West in the 1840s in the age of the American pioneer. Long conservative prairie dresses that go with big hair and come in a Ford Model-T range variety pack of colours (it's pastel or nothing).

The dresses are "bespoke". For that fashion speak, read that these women sit around in their Texas compound (aka the Yearning for Zion ranch) all day making these austere Victoriana outfits for their children. You can now buy these items online at the Mormon sect's website fldsdress.com. The rush is on.

If you're looking for brand values then the appeal of these outfits is clear. The church promises its clothing for children and teenagers "meet the FLDS standards for modesty and neatness" and "each piece is made with joy and care".

If you're interested, a basic dress sells for just $48.07, a nightgown costs $31.81, a set of child's long-johns is a snip at $6 with prices rising to $60 for a "teen princess dress".

"We don't know what to expect on demand, but we have had a flood of interest," Maggie Jessop, an FLDS member, told The Salt Lake Tribune. "Our motive is not to flaunt ourselves or our religion before the world. We have to make a living the same as everyone does."

You can guarantee that some designer is sitting somewhere and thinking we've borrowed from everywhere else? I can see it now... the DK Pioneer look for a leaner more frugal America.

The church says that it is hoping to add recipes and songs to the website soon. Polygamist food? What do they eat? I'm imaging it is all Little House on the Prairie type fare except little Laura Ingalls will have plenty of "brothers and sisters to sit with at chow time".

All of this comes out of what was America's biggest child custody dispute, when federal officials removed 463 of the Mormon kids amid allegations of under-age marriage and institutionalised sexual abuse.

Despite all of that, the return of the kids, and an ongoing investigation to the alleged grooming of these children for underage sex and marriage, the sect has won sympathy on the back of what The Times described as a "palpable sense of nostalgia for an America that has long disappeared".

Not as disappeared as the Church's "prophet", Warren Jeffs, who is in prison in Arizona facing charges of sexual conduct with a minor and it is alleged that his wives are as young as 12. Very spiritual.

Creative comes up with a way to get women naked and call it work

This is generally what I thought people in advertising did most of the time. Came up with ideas to get women generally to part with items of their clothes and call it work. Maybe I'm thinking of another industry? Anyway, some wag has come up with a "quirky twist on regular tanning, Tanvertising". Yes, it's ads on the back of half-naked women (not men as that wouldn't work).

I'm possibly being overly harsh on the ad industry, I must be a cynic, but I guess it is summer and you need scorching summer stunts... enter UKTV Gold.

It hired Brighton students for the stunt, with three having British comedy stars stencilled on their back to mark the launch of "Summer of Funshine, UKTV Gold's summer comedy schedule".

You can just about make out who the faces are supposed to be, but if you can't they're promoting UKTV comedy classics such as 'Only Fools and Horses', 'The Vicar of Dibley', 'Open All Hours', 'Blackadder', 'Little (there's only one joke in the village) Britain' and 'The Office'. Two of those count as comedy.

UKTV Gold says it plans to "sponsor" students nationwide beginning on the South Coast, from Brighton to Bognor Regis, before going over all of the country, except maybe Scotland for obvious reasons.

Anyway, job done, I'm blogging about it and Brighton is looking jolly nice and I am clearly in the wrong job.