On Sunday, I went down to Philadelphia, PA, with my friends Jerry and Misha to catch the Men's Lacrosse Finals for NCAA Divisions II and III, and have a cool meal while we were in town. No, we didn't go to Pat's or anywhere that served up traditional Philly steak sandwiches, that's too easy. We went to Jack's Firehouse, which is right across the street from historic Eastern State Penitentiary. So we had some fun, caught some sun, saw sticks and gloves and helmets thrown around and participated with the cheering crowds, and rolled on home back up the NJ Turnpike that evening.

That all sounds simple and easy, right? Well, it was. But what was crazy was when I was checking out the photos on Flickr, and hopped on over to some of my contacts' photos, and saw that Scott McNulty, who also blogs for Weblogs, Inc., was in just the right area of Philadelphia, at exactly the same time I was. He blogged about it here, and I have pretty much the same sentiments. Kind of crazy, if you think about it. The car in question in this photo isn't mine, it's actually Jerry's, but close enough. Kind of random, huh?

I mean, I can see how two random Flickr users happen to post pictures of being at the same spot on the same day, but two people who actually know each other? To make it worse, one of the interns at my employer was actually there at the event on Sunday, and was actually sitting in the same section of the stadium that I was, and it was general admission.

If there has ever been a moment when I wished that two well-known personalities offline, who happen to have blogs online, would start corresponding back and forth, it's right now, when Malcolm Gladwell is talking about Kevin Garnett, who plays for the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves. It's just ripe for Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to jump on top of, even though he'd probably have to wait until his team's season is over, given that he might not want to get himself fined for commenting on another team's player right now.

It gives new meaning to the whole "which five people - living or dead - would you like to have dinner with?" thing. Except for the dead part, that is.

Here's a batch 'o' links for your viewing pleasure.

• World Cup soccer your thing? Here's the TV sked for the blokes here in the States. via kottke's remainders


• Thanks. No.. Props to Amanda & RB for having some fun with a nifty new "service" out there. And, props to Chris for reminding me to watch on this pre-holiday weekend Friday. I mean, c'mon, anything that has Natty Light is worth watching. Too bad there was no Natty Ice.


• Sure, everyone's not doing it, but subscribers numbers for wireless television are better than you'd expect, points out Lost Remote.


• Chris Thilk and I absolutely, positively, need to be careful what we IM one another, because we're posting those threads on blogs left and right. Today's excerpt. In a related vein, something amusing will be spewing forth from this particular topic that I think you'll all enjoy.
Posted by Tom at 1:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

If you're at all familiar with the world of media in Europe (and elsewhere outside of the U.S.), you'll know that it's much less conservative in many nations, both on television and in print. That's not saying that all of it is, just that things we regularly censor on network television are admitted on the air in a lot of places. Well, it looks like the U.S. is getting yet another taste of this, according to Photo District News. PDN's Daryl Lang wrote Thursday about the U.S. launch of Shock (which runs as Choc in France), which we'll be able to grab on Tuesday. I could give you a more detailed description of what the pub is all about, but the name pretty much sums it up. Read on and enjoy!

Okay, so while I think I enjoyed most of the 2nd season finale for ABC's Lost, I've gotta say that I really wasn't very happy about the last few minutes, which while they do sort of leave things open, they do nothing except confuse you. And like, what did the key being turned and finishing off the magnetic field really do, that for some reason would have Desmond's girlfriend woken up by men at a random cold-weather station? It does look like, however, Pen did "wait" for him, if the photo by her bed was enough. So was she in on the whole situation to get Desmond sent to the brig and all that? I don't even know where to start.

Make sure you try and get a job at Hanso Careers all summer long, btw.

On Tuesday, CBS Radio stated that it might sell some of its radio station assets, including four in Cincinnati, two in San Antonio, including one of its "JACK" format stations, and a number of properties in Buffalo, among other cities. The company's official announcement can be found here.

[16:24] Chris: Amanda C just held up a sign that said "the NSA is still listening"
[16:24] Chris: I almost shot Coke out of my nose

You, too, can experience Coke shooting out of your nose while watching today's excellent (shocker!) episode of Rocketboom.

A few days ago, Anil Dash sorta-kinda called out some mainstream journalists he suggests penned pieces as link bait. Link bait, if you haven't heard it before, is a simple way of describing what someone else has written purely for the sake of getting others to link to it. Typically it's obnoxious, insulting, or totally off base and can't be left alone, but other examples surely occur.

IMHO, the funniest thing is that this particular blogpost is one of the better link bait things out there. Damn. No wonder Anil won that SEO contest a while back.

It's like that, huh.

[11:29] Chris: you seeing Da Vinci this weekend?
[11:29] Tom: might tomorrow night. you?
[11:29] Chris: possible - maybe saturday night
[11:29] Chris: I hear there's a bit of controversy but the news isn't covering it much so i can't figure out over what
[11:32] Tom: LOL

In case you hadn't noticed, Flickr today moved into "Gamma" mode, with some nifty little changes, dropdowns, font adjustments, etc. You can get much more skinny on this here at the Flickr Blog.

Also, I just had to share this exchange from IM today:

[16:04] Tom: did you notice that flickr was in gamma
[16:04] David: yeah, i didn't know if they were just fucking around or not
[16:04] David: google can't compete now
[16:04] Tom: heh

Most of you will probably get the joke. Or not.

The Associated Press reports Monday that Consumers Union, the folks who bring you Consumer Reports, will be letting loose a new magazine later this year, one that will run quarterly. The publication, ShopSmart, is all about style when it comes to layout and content, from what the article states.

OMG.

In what has to be the funniest thing I've seen all year, the BBC apparently ran an interview with a man who was supposed to be Guy Kewney, a technology expert, but instead put a taxicab driver job applicant who was in the lobby of the network at the time on the air. (You can see the video at the link above)

Phil Gomes, who pinged me about this this morning, had some fun with the story, even getting a poke in at FairPlay. More details over at Guy Kewney's blog, where he is most certainly taking this well. Well, after he had this to say.

[update 12:29pm 5/15] As it turns out, he's NOT a taxicab driver after all, but an applicant for an IT job at the BBC who thought this was an "initiation prank," Kewney informs. That's okay, though, Phil's FairPlay joke still stands.

Just posted something over at my work blog that's relevant to most of you media hounds - regarding RSS feeds for media outlets you subscribe to, and what kind of information you would like to see in your RSS feeds.

The Seattle P-I's Dan Richman writes Friday about the announcement that the Post-Intelligencer, owned by the Hearst Corporation, and the Seattle Times would go ahead with binding arbitration in the joint operating agreement (JOA) battle. There is the definite possibility that a "win" for the Times would mean the end for the P-I, at least from what Hearst has said publicly.

You can see the Times' coverage of the story here in an article by Eric Pryne.

Is there anyone else out there who is actually surprised by the "news" that Howard Stern would be staying put on satellite radio and not moving back to terrestrial? I mean, I *could* see something similar to the Opie & Anthony situation going down, where an OTA station picked up chunks of Stern's show that weren't too heavily edited, but other than that, I just don't see it.

When it comes to the morning talk shows, I'm not sure we'll ever see the likes of what we had in the last two or so decades, with Stern grabbing one huge chunk of the audience, and Don Imus grabbing another sizeable chunk, and the rest going to news and localized programming. Given that, at least in the case of Stern's former show being rehashed with multiple hosts, there haven't been too many great entrances into this market, we might go away from the nationalish shows and stick to more localized stuff as far as mornings go. Sure, it's probably just as costly to hire people on in every single market, but people like local stuff that's customized to them. Just my two cents.

Damn. Only a few weeks after we learned that Rosie O'Donnell would be joining the cast of ABC's "The View," TV Squad's Chris Thilk writes about a note in today's Page Six about how Star Jones is getting the boot from the show. Ouch.