POPROCKS.COM
The online home of Jess Barron

Web content and community expert, writer, editor, blogger, and internet video producer.
Bio | Resume/CV

You can also find me on:
LinkedIn | twitter | flickr | yoostar | vimeo

In 2004, a guy who I don't know named Jeremy Abbate saw my website and wrote a song called "I Wanna Be As Cool As Jessica Barron." It still amuses me. Here's the mp3 and here are the lyrics.

Archives (slowly being reconstructed):
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
June 2009
June 2008
December 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2003
October 2001
September 2001
June 2000
May 2000
March 2000
October 1999
August 1999
July 1999
June 1999

See how this site looked in 1998
Poprocks.com screenshot from early 1998
and how the place looked in 2000.
Poprocks.com from June 2000
Yahoo counted me as a "cool person" from 1997-2001. How far have I fallen?!
Yahoo counted me among the "Cool People" in 1997-1998.
The internets have come a long way, baby...

November 6, 2006 The Politics of Searching...
Tomorrow's U.S. midterm elections look like they're gonna be close. Please go out and vote. And if you need to do any online research about the ballot measures in your state, check out the Buzz Log post I wrote about the hottest ballot issues, according to the searches people are doing on Yahoo!

What do YOU think is the most important issue this election?

Labels: , , , , ,


posted by Jess Barron @ 2:17 PM
September 14, 2006 More Maria Sansone Than You Can Click a Mouse at...
I do a weekly radio interview about Yahoo! Buzz on KMOX in St. Louis, Missouri with the hosts of the late night Two Johns No Waiting show.

One of the Johns (I believe it's John Carney) admitted to me that he has a mild crush on Maria Sansone who hosts Yahoo!s daily video show The 9.

Today at the office, my colleague Eric IM'd me the URL for a blog called What Is Maria Wearing. It's pretty funny. Almost every day from July 14 to August 31 the blog's writer posted screenshots of Maria's outfits along with snarky commentary.

If that's not enough Maria for you, you can check out her Flickr photos.

Labels: , , ,


posted by Jess Barron @ 9:24 PM
June 1, 2006 Relax. Look into the Camera and Smile.
I think I've mentioned the weekly radio interviews I've been doing for the Yahoo! Buzz team to discuss what's popular based on the searches people are conducting on Yahoo!. The interviews are usually pretty fun. Some of my favorite radio shows of the past 2 weeks are The John Carney Show on KMOX-AM in St. Louis and The Morning Buzz on WHEB-FM in Manchester. We talk about everything from Florence Henderson to 3-armed babies. It's a blast, except sometimes waking up at 4 or 5 a.m. is a bit rough.

And now we've added video to the repertoire. Heather and I worked with the awesome folks at ABC News NOW to pitch a weekly online video interview about the top Yahoo! searches. It's happening every Friday, and it's cool stuff. You should check it out.

As if that wasn't enough, last Monday I ended up on MSNBC's "The Most" being interviewed by Alison Stewart about the summer's hottest concert tours as decided by the searches being condcted on Yahoo!.

They had a professional at the station to put on my make-up.

"How do you like to have your make-up done?" she asked me.

"I don't know. What do people usually ask for?" I said, perplexed. My idea of applying make-up is a tube of bright red lipstick, and I realize that might be a bit too dramatic and high contrast for an on-camera interview about internet searches.

"They usally say anything from 'natural' to 'glamorous.'"

"Hmmm. Can I stay more to the natural side..." I said. "but maybe slightly glamorous?" I figured I might as well see what magic she could work. I was trying to watch what she was doing so I could learn some make-up tricks.

"You look like an actress, but I can't think of her name."

"Who?" No one's ever told me I look like anyone.

"I'll think of it..... Marcia Cross from 'Desperate Housewives.' She has such great skin."

"Hmmm." I said, wondering if this meant I also had great skin, but thinking it was probably just the red hair.

Fifteen minutes later she was finished. The faux eyelashes were very glam, but I kept worrying they'd fall off when I blinked.

Being interviewed for TV from a remote studio is pretty weird. You have an ear piece in your ear, and a microphone clipped to your shirt, and you usually don't see the host/journalist who is interviewing you. Instead of seeing their face, you hear their voice in your ear and you look into a big TV camera as if you are talking to another person. You smile, but it's hard to know if the other person is smiling back. The camera lens is dark and blank. I sometimes wonder if I'm keeping my shoulders back and my hair out of my eyes or if I have something caught in my teeth.

Talking to the radio DJs I can wear my pajamas and sprawl out with my laptop on the couch or the floor. It's nice not to hafta worry about the faux eyelashes or if I look weird when I'm laughing.

Labels: , , , , , ,


posted by Jess Barron @ 11:15 PM