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"I want to be
the girl with
the most URLs."
subscribe to poprocks.com
who?
Jess Barron
Los Angeles, California
I do web stuff
thoughts on the past and future of online journalism
Does Online Journalism Have a Future? -- share your thoughts
e a r c a n d y :
1. 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". Another person in New York emailed the MP3 to me in Nov. 2004. The narcissist in me loves the lyrics and the song itself is pretty darn catchy. Don't you think?
2. In 2005 I had a weekly radio show on Pirate Cat Radio 87.9 FM in San Francisco from 6-8p.m. on Friday nights. You can listen online from anywhere in the world. Or
just check out our podcast.
3. Also, listen to my LAUNCHcast station
Be my friendster?
Some accomplishments
Who's on Top in 2006?
Goodbye 'Portal Shortall'
Elex Success!
Turning Away from Jackson's Breasts for a Moment.....
The Politics of Searching...
Photos and Video -- Halloween 2006 in Los Angeles
Halloweens I Have Known
You Haven't Lived Until You've Seen a Very Pregnan...
That's Right, I'm Very Knowledgeable About Purses ...
January 2004
February 2004
March 2004
May 2004
October 2004
November 2004
December 2004
January 2005
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
March 2006
April 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
November 2007
New Year's Eve 2005 pics
Mici's pics from the Pirate Cat Party (12/04/04)
Los Angeles (11/27/04)
2004 U.S. Presidential Election (inside Yahoo! newsroom) (11/02/04)
London (11/15/04)
Allyson's photos from our London trip (11/22/04)
Halloween 2004
Oregon beach house weekend for Esther's birthday (10/22/04)
Simone and David's wedding at Fairytale Land in Oakland(08/01/04)
Owen's 30th birthday (05/01/04)
Mirror Project Gallery, "The Make-up Mirror"
Daniel's birthday suprise party (04/23/04)
live band karaoke at El Rio (04/10/04)
August's closing party at Ebb Tide(02/27/04)
valentine's day weekend in NYC(02/16/04)
nice day, new convertible(02/08/04)
nostalgia for the present (02/02/04)
my 30th birthday(01/04)
August's art opening at Ebb Tide (01/03/04)
Jeff's 30th birthday (12/20/03)
pics from Yahoo Holiday Party 2003 with The Flaming Lips (12/12/03)
Nathan's band, the cables(11/15/03)
pics from Burning Man 2003(09/03)
photos from Burning Man 2002 (09/17/02)
pics from Allyson's wedding(09/03)
Cali Convertible Adventures with Nemesis(ter)(07/03)
Allyson's bachelorette party(07/04/03)
Dogpatch Sunrise - There are some visual benefits to waking up at 6a.m. when you live by the San Francisco Bay. (04/11/03)
Kicking it with Frank the KJ (04/05/03)
Bad Pioneer weekend - riding horses in Hollywood and swimming with dolphins in Malibu (02/14/03)
Dat Ass - hip-hop and ghetto tech party, SF, CA (01/25/03)
Jeno spins at House Plant - Oakland, CA (01/17/03)
Halloween Costumes at Yahoo! and in the Castro (10/31/02)
pics from Portland (10/26/03)
the story I told at Fray Day 6 in SF (09/23/02)
What is YOUR Anti-Drug? (09/16/02)
ugly kids (08/19/02)
Save poprocks.com
Picking Blackberries (07/12/02)
she said, she said (06/28/02)
The Phoenix Festival (07/10/02)
Photos from my SXSW road-trip (05/01/02)
off-site:
Esther
Allyson
Lana
Mary
Jen
Leanne
Fruitcake Brigade
Sarah
re-runs:
love letter to los angeles (11/09/01)
pics from Scuba with Migual Migs (08/11/01)
robots and warehouses in my SF neighborhood (06/19/01)
My pics from Burning Man 2001
My pics from Burning Man 2000
My journal from Burning Man '99
Meeting Monica Lewinsky (11/15/99)
What was Diane Sawyer really like? (11/17/95)
Turkish Delights (09/08/95)
The Scatman in Greece's Modern Ruins (08/26/95)
Caught in a Mosh (10/94)
Montreal Stripped Down (08/01/94)
sophomore year spring break in Russia (04/08/94)
conversationskill: a real life mellow-drama of Vassar students abroad in Russia (04/08/94)
pics from the Russia trip (04/08/94)
sophomore year road-trip to Mardi Gras (02/12/94)
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Take a Bite of Me:
1.31.2005
Here's to the New Media Hobos
Today I met Elizabeth Osder who is a Yahoo! (Overture) compatriot attending the Poynter seminar. She presented on the topic of "Key Issues Facing the Future of Online Journalism." Some of things she said that really stuck with me include Elizabeth's quote: "I'm not sure what the difference is between a great marketing person and a great editor,"
and also her description of herself: "I tend to consider myself as a new media hobo." I hadn't heard the phrase "new media hobo" before, but it adequately seemed to summarize my own career too.
Dan Gillmor (author of 'We The Media') introduced himself by saying "I've just jumped off a cliff and I'm hoping to assemble a hanglider before I hit." Dan presented on a vision of future content and showed us the hysterical short clip of Bush and Tony Blair singing "Endless Love" to each other. Dan posited that "Mash-up/Remix culture is what we are doing." He also said that he was wary of asking/answering the question 'Are blogs journalism?' Dan also pointed out that the web of 2005 is a read-write medium, whereas the web of 1995 was mostly a read-only medium.
We also received our assignments for the manifesto teams, and I was thrilled to find out that I was on my number one choice -- the Content team. The other five folks in the group include Theresa Moore (executive producer of web content for WTSP-TV Tampa Bay's 10), Tom Regan (associate editor of The Christian Science Monitor, Kevin Anderson (reporter for the BBC), Ron James (managing online editor, SignOnSanDiego.com), and Elaine Zinngrabe (assistant general manager and exectuve producer of the Los Angeles Times).
1.30.2005
What Are We Defining as Journalism?
This morning my dad showed me around North Port and the neighboring towns of Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte, Florida, both of which I watch being ravaged during hurricane Charley last August on ABC News NOW while handling Yahoo!'s video coverage. I was surprised to still see so much hurricane damage -- some houses were still torn open.
When I arrived at Poynter for the welcome reception and dinner, I met fellow redhead Theresa Moore, Executive Producer of Web Content for WTSP-TV Tampa Bay's 10. Fresno Bee reporter Matt Thompson came over and welcomed me saying, "Hey, you're one of the bloggers here!" I found out that Matt and another conference participant Robin Sloan have kept a blog called SnarkMarket since late 2003. Robin currently works as a producer at INdTV in San Francisco. (Oddly enough, former VP Al Gore is a founder of the network which aims to serve the twentysomething and thirtysomething audience with "real life video." This Washington Post piece tells a bit about what kinds of programming to expect, including a show called "That's F*&#ed Up". I told him about Pirate Cat Radio and Pirate Cat TV.
So far, I see the print newspaper folks making comments that are somewhat disdainful of bloggers, while knowing that bloggers are themselves pretty darn disdainful of "real" media folks.
Longtime family friend and my brother's first girlfriend Kristy Fox drove down from Orlando to visit me, and we walked around St. Petersburg late at night and found a restaurant to serve us chocolate cake and tiramisu. She brought a photo of us taken in 1988, which I may post here.
1.29.2005
The Journalism of Online Futures
I am about to fly to Florida to visit my dad for a day and see his new house in North Port, and then attend this Poynter seminar on "The Future of Online Journalism" in St. Petersburg. The 40-person Poynter group is truly made up of luminaries (a.k.a. smart people) of the journalism world, who you might recognize from holding such titles as:
Executive Editor of MSNBC
Executive Editor of the Washington Post
Editor of the Chicago Tribune
Vice President & Editor-in-chief of USA Today
Assistant Managing Editor of The Los Angeles Times.
How I got myself involved with the likes of these folks -- I'll never know! OK, OK... as much as it pains me to, sometimes I guess I actually do need to take myself seriously for a moment. I suppose I have worked on some pretty kick-ass technologically forward-thinking and creative projects over the past 9 years. One of my greatest strengths is that I never take myself too seriously, however that also seems to be one of my biggest weaknesses too. I wonder if it's always that way for everyone that their strenghts are their weaknesses too.
In filling out the homework assignment for the course, I just realized that it's been almost 9 years since I've been working professionally on the web and almost 10 years since I've been doing this website.
The most interesting question for me to think about was #6 -- "What do you imagine you would be doing today if you hadn't gotten into online news (or if the Internet hadn’t come along)?" My response: "Magazine journalism, independent 'zine publishing, and/or pirate radio." I realized I value having a voice in independent self-published media, but realize I'll need to sell work to a major established company as well in order to make money. I guess that has always been my career philosophy.
1.28.2005
The Danger of Grounding a Good Thing into the Hype
August sent me this piece from Slate to read because it relates to the Poynter seminar on "The Future of Online Journalism" which I will be attending in a few days.
This is my response (that I also posted in Slate's fray bulletin board and emailed to the author of the piece in question):
A long, long time ago -- OK, it was 13 years ago -- Michael Joyce and a clutch of other hypertext aficionados introduced me to chatting on a Macintosh computer using a clunky program called Interchange inside what was being called a "virtual classroom" for a "Hypertext Rhetoric and Poetics" class at Vassar college, where I was a freshman.
Though Interchange was clunky, we students and the professor and visiting writers all sat at our separate Macintosh computers, typing away inside a chat dialogue box while at the same time another person might be speaking and presenting at the head of the class.
At the time -- back in 1992-1993, people thought this was "crazy." How could we learn and participate in the class if we were all holding separate discussion(s) on our computers? I loved it. It was the perfect way to learn for someone who always had too many ideas at once on a variety of different topics -- some which pertained and did not pertain to the agenda in the class. It was also the perfect way to ask questions, voice unpopular opinions, and just have an outlet for your thoughts.
Today I work programming news for a major internet portal, and I realize that this was hands-down *the* most valuable class I took at Vassar. It is the one class that prepared me for the work-world from 1996-2005. Today when I'm at work -- I will be choosing content for the portal, composing 3 simultaneous emails, and holding IM conversations with a minimum of 4 people at once, and occasionally posting tidbits to my personal blog. Add in the spoken conversations with my co-workers, and that's a *lot* going on all at once. Too much, some would say. And many days I agree. It's not as fun and exciting anymore now on those days when my wrists ache with tendonitis caused from too many keystrokes. On days when it hurts too much -- I turn off my Instant Messenger program, and cut out the blogging and rely on the phone instead of email.
Another brand new, futuristic-sounding concept that Michael Joyce introduced us to in that class back in 1992 was the concept of writing in "Hypertext" with interlinking thoughts and ideas via "links." In less than ten years' time this concept is now almost universally understood and utilized by millions of people to communicate via websites, blogs, and comments posted in forums like this.
While I appreciate Shafer's point about how he is part of the "Slow Blogging" movement. (I too, am a "Slow Blogger" myself; I enjoy processing ideas a bit before posting them.) Still, I worry that Shafer's overall tone is a bit defensive.
I strongly believe that there is something to be said for the fact that the younger bloggers move faster, and that they aren't afraid to post before they think and take risks. This is what makes what they do more valuable and more interesting than those who think too long and process and worry about the details too much and worry if they should post something and slow-blog. Their speedy posting time allows them to investigate and break certain stories before the mainstream press and the slower bloggers. Of course, it also allows them to make mistakes of judgment. And that is the risk associated with their sometimes haphazard, loose-lipped posting style.
Watching ABC News' internet-only subscription video channel last week during their coverage of Bush's inauguration – I was interested to see the anchormen (Hari Sreenivasen, Sam Donaldson, and Bob Woodruff) cutting away frequently and including video camera phone clips shot by amateurs -- teenagers performing in the Inaugural Parade and spectators along the parade route. Now inauguration coverage is usually quite boring, I'm sure we can all agree. But these producers and anchormen took new risks in their programming (for a major news network!). And, though they were grainy and sometimes ill-lit, the amateur video clips (documenting such mundane stuff as people waiting in line at the porta potties) definitely made ABC News NOW's 2005 Inauguration coverage more personal, real, interesting and watch-able.
I can't help but think that that the folks that wrote "Guerrilla Television" and foretold about how the video Porta Pak would change everything 33-years-ago were actually correct – it just took longer than they thought and happened differently (e.g. who would have thought that they would put an affordable video recorder inside a cell phone?!)
1.27.2005
Los Angeles, I'm Yours(?)
"There's a city by the sea
A gentle company
I don't suppose you want to
Oh what a rush of ride with them
Languor on divans
Dallyiant and dainty
Los Angeles I'm yours..."
-the Decemberists "Los Angeles, I'm Yours" (a bitter love letter to the city off of a decent album)
"Are you moving to Los Angeles?" several friends emailed and called to ask me this week, after reading Wednesday's LA Times article about Yahoo!s new office in Santa Monica.
Though I am not among the group of Yahoo! folks who have been told they must relocate to LA -- you know how I like to keep you all guessing.
As you know, I love San Francisco and my friends here but the truth of the matter is -- though I live in San Francisco, I don't work in San Francisco. Sunnyvale is such a long commute -- 2 hours each day down the traffic-encrusted, ugly 101 freeway that runs through the middle of Silicon Valley.
When you work 12-hour days and then commute 2 hours round-trip on top of that, it really doesn't leave you with very much "life" left for experiencing the city, seeing friends and going to movies, or well, anything except maybe sleep and sometimes eating. The only time I see my friends and go out in the city is on the weekends. And even that is so tough -- because by the time friday rolls around mostly all I want to do is curl up in my bed and not go out to a club see a band.
So, the option to live in Venice or Santa Monica and work at an office in Santa Monica seems rather appealing to me. As does the ability to be part of the group of people building Yahoo!'s editorial, news, and content realm. As someone who's worked in an news programming job at Yahoo! for the past 3 years, it's awesome to see the company getting behind the ideas of media and content, once again (after a bit of a hiatus after the dot-com downtime).
Plus, as you know, dear readers -- unlike most people who love San Francisco, I also love Los Angeles. By doing this, I am breaking one of the cardinal laws of San Francisco, which is "You must look down dismissively at Los Angeles." I'm sorry -- but Los Angeles is much more of a cultural center than Sunnyvale, California. And Silicon Valley has at least as many ugly strip malls as LA. And plus, the housing and rental prices are still (a bit) cheaper down there. These are things I am thinking about.
1.20.2005
No Place for Thespians...
"It's really too bad there's no place for thespians in the parade."
-Sam Donaldson on ABC News NOW coverage of Bush's inauguration
Starting at 6a.m. PST today I was putting together and monitoring our portal's live video coverage of Bush's second inauguration centered primarily around the ABC News NOW internet-only channel. ABC News NOW's coverage was somewhat off-the-cuff and technologically experimental, so the end result was pretty interesting. It was almost as unpredictable and weird as watching pirate TV.
The ABC anchors -- Bob Woodruff, Sam Donaldson and Hari Sreenivasan -- interspersed their inauguration commentary with interviews from high schools around the country via internet cams. They also included short video clips captured with cell phone cams by students and other inauguration attendees. The footage was very raw and grainy, but sometimes amusing. One woman from the "Red Hot Mamas" parade group captured video footage of waiting in the porta potties line, and they showed that on-air. (That clip gave me Burning Man flashbacks.)
The use of personal broadcast technology was good to see, but the loose, casual (and at times competitive-seeming) banter between the anchormen themselves was probably the most interesting aspect. One high school student watching a bandmember friend march in the parade identified herself as a "thespian," and Sam Donaldson said, "It's really too bad there's no place for thespians in the parade." Then he asked "Have you guys heard the joke about the guy with the thespian cousin who goes to the all-girls' college?" (He was actually riffing off of how the word 'thespian' sounds like 'lesbian.' It was unbelievable to hear something off-color like that coming out of a newscaster's mouth. I was hoping that Mary Cheney wasn't listening. It was a bit dicey.)
Toward the tail-end of the parade, the anchors' commentary became goofier and goofier. As the cavalry groups on horseback passed in front of the bulletproof glass parade-viewing window (umm, can I get one of those added in my apartment?) that the Bush family watched from, Sam Donaldson and Hari began talking about how the president always made a point to give a special wave and thumbs-up to the guys whose job it was to walk a few paces behind the horses armed with shovels to pick up the poop. "That's the kinda thing you can only see on ABC News Now," Sam Donaldson said while Hari directed the cameras to zoom in on Bush's tumbs-up to the poop pick-up guys. "He's a man of the people," Sam said. "That's how he won the election." I suppose there's a lesson to be learned from this. I hope the future Democratic candidates and campaign strategists have taken note.
My 5 favorite photos from the inauguration are:
#5 Jenna gives the horns of rock (do you think I could get Jenna to come out to The Odeon for some Kostume Karaoke?)
#4 Bush gives the horns of rock (like father, like daughter!)
#3 Hmmm. Maybe Bush IS a marionette controlled by Satan?
(that is, after all, what the Norwegians think.
#2 Jenna yawns during the inauguration (too much partying the night before?)
#1 Bush's limo gets pelted with a snowball
(Sam and Bob also argued over whether or not the anti-Bush protestors were hurling snowballs at the President's motorcade. Sam was pretty certain that the projectiles being hurled were not snowballs. Looks like he was wrong.)
1.18.2005
"Your little yellow smiley face needs some gray time."
This is what Donald Trump told Yahoo's COO Dan Rosensweig via a pre-recorded video segment shown on a large screen during our company All-Hands meeting today. The Donald was razzing DanR (as he is called) for being online all the time and "annoying your employees by pinging them at all hours." The quote -- "your little yellow smiley face needs some gray time" -- refers to the little smiley face icon that appears in someone's Yahoo! Messenger buddy list to indicate whether or not the person is online and "available." Your Yahoo! Messenger smiley face "goes gray" when you go offline and sign-off (or when you're being stealthy and hiding from someone). This is my favorite new catch-phrase, and honestly I think I love it so much because my freakin smiley face needs to get some gray time.
Raj Bhakta, the overly exhuberant Cassanova from last season of "The Apprentice" (who memorably tried to ask out Anna Kournikova on the tennis court during one episode) also spoke at our All-Hands and hit on our CFO Sue Decker. "I've heard you're the 48th Most Powerful Woman in business," he told her on stage. "And, you know, power is a strong aphrodesiac."
"She's married!" yelled several folks from the audience. Egads.
"Why the heck did you have all this "Apprentice" stuff at your company meeting?" you might ask.
Well, Yahoo! has this deal with "The Apprentice" that was made last season: we host the official web-destination where you can go to find all of the extra behind-the-scenes video clips. And so, our company All-Hands became sort of like a commercial for the new season of "The Apprentice." They showed us a teaser/preview of the second episode in which the task is for the two teams of contestants to re-model a Jersey Shore motel and then guests stay there and use Yahoo! Local to rate the hotel experiences. I used to feel like I was living inside a cartoon; lately I feel like I'm living inside a commercial. At least it's one of those expensive, attention-grabbing Super Bowl commercials, but still.
1.08.2005
I'll Tell You a Secret...
I'll tell you a secret: I didn't even wear a bra for one year from age twenty-four to twenty-five. (This was back in 1999-2000 when I worked at WildWeb in Boston and then at Scour in Beverly Hills when I first moved to Los Angeles).
One of my dearest (and very gay) friends was staying with me in LA for a few weeks back in the warm spring of 2000, and he took me aside one morning after we ate breakfast.
"Sweetie," he said. "I'm not sure how you're gonna take this... but... you really need to start wearing a bra." He dragged me back into my bedroom and turned me so that I could see the sideview of my chest in the full-length mirror. "Your boobies are too big to be just letting them hangout together all unsupervised."
I think my jaw dropped, or I giggled. And I probably turned red. But he was right. It was true. I needed to wear one! In fact, it was totally obscene that I wasn't wearing one to work.
You know, I dunno why I even stopped wearing bras at that point in my life -- was I embracing an excessively bohemian lifestyle? Or maybe I thought bras weren't comfortable or they were too complicated... or something. More likely I was just too lazy when getting dressed in the mornings before work.
"Princess, trust me, you'll thank me for telling you this someday," he said as he rummaged through my armoire to find a bra with underwire.
You'll be no doubt relieved to learn that ever since that breakfast-time chat on a warm spring day in 2000 in Los Angeles, I've been committed to wearing a brassiere every day. Especially to work. I mean, those were the wild internet/dot.com days -- but what was I thinking?!
Thank you, JP! You certainly had at least one positive impact on my life.
New Year's Eve Lessons and Secrets and Photos are Revealed
"So Michael please keep the tape rolling
Boys keep strumming those guitars
We need a record of our failures
Yes we must document our love
. . . . .
It's not a movie
No private screening
This method acting
Well I call it living"
--Bright Eyes "Method Acting"
Happy fucking New Year! Last week, I returned from visiting my mom and family members in Boston, and decided to throw a big, big New Year's Eve bash.
It's a good thing that my digital camera survived, because I don't really remember much of what happened. For instance, I don't have any recollection of shots like this or this or (god forbid!) this being taken. (Thanks Jen and Deneb, for returning some of my missing memories... Waitasecond! You can have those back!!)
My New Year's resolution: "To drink less?" you respond. Naaaaaaaw! To update my blog and post all those photos everyone keeps asking about.
So, with that in mind, I offer you (in reverse chronological order):
New Year's Eve
Los Angeles (November 2004)
London (November 2004)
2004 U.S. Presidential Election (inside Yahoo! newsroom) (November 2004)
Halloween 2004
Oregon beach house weekend (October 2004)
Simone and David's wedding at Fairytale Land in Oakland (August 2004)
Just so you know, this New Year's Eve I did learn a few things:
You can never have enough champagne (15 bottles?!) nor enough booty music on your iPod
If even the sweetest party guest should happen to get her hand on a riding crop -- she is destined to run amock, overdosing on the power.
When planning to drink heavily, be sure to wear clothing that offers appropriate coverage with little or no assistance, otherwise your friends will all show you their nipples and tease you mercilessly. (It's like didn't I learn anything from Tara Reid's red carpet breast exposure...) Also, everyone has those pesky digital cameras.
At only $6.99, the New Year's Eve Party Kit is a phenomenal value for all the fun you're gonna have.
And yes, Will Weitzman allegedly captured a photo with my nipple visible. Alright, whatever. I'm not really embarassed.
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