Musician Aimee Man made a comment about rapper/actor Ice-T on Twitter. He retaliated via Twitter, which sparked a short war of words among their respective followers. What was said isn’t important but this Tweet from Ice-T sums up the whole thing pretty well:
Once again. She made a comment.. I replied… She apologized. Peace!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FLTG. Mooooovin!
At the end of the day, it seems it’s not a big deal for either individual but it does bring into question how something like this happens. A Tweet from Aimee Mann might explain:
Plus, I do not like to hurt people’s feelings. I forget that twitter is not just me and four other dorky friends, ragging on TV stars
She has 9,070 followers but when using Twitter it sometime feels like nobody is paying attention to what you’re writing. Much like the way driving a car can give a false sense of separation from the outside world, it’s easy to forget that Tweeting about real people can catch up to you. Unless you have over 9,000 followers, in which case you need to know that even harmless Tweets can get you in trouble.
On the Nerdist Podcast Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park admitted to initially holding off on Twitter, letting other artists test the waters before he jumped in. It was probably a smart move. Many celebrities have given up Tweeting after being quite prolific, like Trent Reznor. Others like Larry David only managed to write a couple dozen Tweets before giving up. On one hand of the spectrum, you’ll have artists Tweeting their every thought and action, and on the other, there are artists whose Tweets are updates from a publicist. Really successful Twitters fall somewhere in between the two.
Like many of you the past few days, I touched an iPad. In browsing the many apps, one struck me as particularly remarkable: the Marvel iPad App. While it may not be any more unique than any of the other many print publication apps out there, its implications in the comic industry make it potentially more revolutionary – the short length and highly illustrated nature of the weekly comic make it most ideal for the iPad medium.
Consider the traditional comic subscription model: the subscriber pays an arguably high periodic fee to receive a weekly short story crammed in the mail. With the iPad, an issue is received immediately to be viewed on a clear, bright display. Simply eliminating the need to print and distribute material could dramatically lower costs. And since the distribution format can be regulated by an app, the risk of piracy is reduced.
On the other end of the battlefield, Marvel revolutionary Stan Lee’s son, Jim Lee, offered an opposing opinion as head publisher of DC Comics on the industry trend towards digital distribution, as reported in geek culture blog Geeks of Doom:
“I think at the end of the day, I have not seen anything on the digital side that is more compelling to me than a printed comic,” said Lee in response to a fan question at the panel. “I’ll use Blackest Night as an example. You open that up and — I don’t want to spoil anything — but there’s a spread inside that’s just amazing. You cannot replicate it on a device with a smaller screen.”
Ultimately, he said it’s why DC hasn’t jumped head first onto the digital bandwagon the way other companies have, such as competitor Marvel Entertainment, which released their own iPhone/iPad application to coincide with Saturday’s debut of Apple’s iPad tablet device.
“There’s no real business model for it, in that, it’s not a big part of anyone’s business right now, regardless of if you’re on the iPad tomorrow or not,” Lee said, adding that even when digital does start to carve out a portion of the industry it won’t cannibalize the printed comics because of all the differences it will end up having.
These differences include advantages like having an entire comic collection in your pocket, Instant access to purchase comics and being about to seek out new comics and new tools that will allow creators to tell stories.
“We have to come up with some really compelling content that plays to the advantage of digital distribution. Once we have something like that, that’s when you’ll really see things start to shift,” Lee said.
While Russia deals with the aftermath of its second terrorist attack in two days, I thought I might focus on some positive things about the country. My wife is from Russia, and I’ve spent a little time there. The thing I really love about the above video is it illustrates two characteristics that many Russians embody; ingenuity and a complete disregard for superfluous boundaries.
Complacency is a universal problem among humans, but I’ve noticed that most of the Russians I’ve met would fix a broken washing machine without considering calling a repairman. While in Russia, I saw an internet cafe’s grand opening and not so grand closing in a three week period. The reason? Russians won’t spend cash on something they can do at home for less money. Phrases often heard around my house include: “don’t waste that”, “save it”, “why waste your money”, “I’ll fix it” and my favorite, “let’s save money and drink in tonight.” As the picture below illustrates, Russians will solve a problem with what’s in front of them, not a trip to Target.
