| July 28, 2005 | Why It's Not Totally Stupid to be Celeb-Obsessed |
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Allyson, I think you'll be happy to know that our friends at MSN have published some scientific explanations to your celebrity obsessions! This is a great topic to discuss tonight on the show. I found it particularly interesting when they talked about how celebrity worship was almost taking the place of religion. (A crazy, though possibly true, theory!) One psychologist they interviewed speculated:
Personally, I've always thought that today's celebs were our modern version of the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses, but I never quite made the leap that people who had less organized religion in their lives today might be proportionally more celeb-obsessed. Another fascinating point made on the second page in this article is that our brains are hard-wired from hundreds of years ago to cliassify a recognizeable face as a "friend:"
Finally, on the third page the article explains why although beauty is obviously important -- personality is really what transcends and influences our interest:
Labels: allyson, celebrities posted by Jess Barron @ 3:33 PM 
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| July 20, 2005 | The Phoenix from the Flames... |
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I'm about to take off to drive up to Portland with Andy and August to go to the Phoenix Festival up in Washington. We're gonna meet Esther and Jason up there and camp in the ambient chill area. On Friday night, it's all gals on the decks -- Ladies Only DJ night. Bocce's coming too. It's her 3rd Phoenix Festival. She's not a huge fan of camping, because she gets a little bit cold at night. But she loves it during the daytime when she can lay around in the sun or inside the tent. Here are my photos from the Phoenix Fest in 2002 and here are some photos from 2004. Labels: andy, august, bocce, phoenix festival, photos, washington posted by Jess Barron @ 11:56 PM
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| July 14, 2005 | "Little surprises around every corner, but nothing dangerous." |
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Sam Beauregarde: What is this Wonka, some kind of funhouse? Willy Wonka: Why? Are you having fun? --"Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" (1971) Last night I went to see a Walk-In Movie on Potrero Hill (my old 'hood which I've lovingly photographed again and again over the past few years). Walk-In Movies are put on by my friend and Yahoo! co-worker Derek. The movie was the original 1971 version of "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory." The last time I saw it was 10 years ago when it was played at Vassar's trippy Founder's Day. The weather was great -- not too cold, although we needed to wear scarves and hats and long coats. (It is, after all, San Francisco in the summertime.) Jason, Jackson, Andy, and August were there. And I brought Bocce with me too. The setting was gorgeous; the movies was projected on the side of a house and beside it was a view of the city and the Bay Bridge. I didn't have my digital camera with me, but here's a photo Jason took. (And here's what Jason wrote about it on SF Metroblogs. Gene Wilder's portrayal of Wonka is creepy, but it still seems like deep down his Wonka has a heart. (I'm wondering if Johnny Depp's Michael Jackson-ish Wonka will).) That scene where Wonka is driving the paddle boat through the tunnel scared me to death as child. It's still pretty freaky as an adult. With its flamboyant costumes, strange images projected on the walls and darkness and day-glow paint this scene reminds me of Ken Kesey's mid-1960s "Acid Tests," (which now that I think of it, were still probably figuring prominently in people's minds as the 1970s began and this first Wonka movie was being made). On of the father's in the movie, actually has a line where he says, "What is this, Wonka, some kind of freak-out?" Tim Burton allegedly hates the original 1971 "Wonka" movie, which I found a bit shocking, because it's truly dark, twisted, and funny in a way which I had assumed he would appreciate. Sure, it's a bit cheesy at times, but that just makes it more fun in a campy way. Check out these snippets of dialogue. Gene Wilder, apparently, is not very happy to hear they're re-making it There were elements to the original film which certainly deserve a modern re-make. For example, the scene where Wonka shows the children and their parents his chocolate river and candy meadow. When I saw this scene as a 5-year-old in the late 1970s, I thought it was incredible and magical. Now, in 2005, the candy meadow looks obviously fake, dingy and sort of sad. I also found myself wondering what had become of the child actors in the film. Lucky for me, Mike who writes Ask Yahoo! recently researched the answer to this question. If you're still left wanting to find out more about the 1971 film and cast, you should check out this documentary "Pure Imagination: The Story of 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.'" Have you seen the original 1971 "Wonka"? Did you like it or hate it? Are you looking forward to the new Tim Burton version? Labels: movie, sanfrancisco, sf, vassar posted by Jess Barron @ 11:46 AM
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| July 11, 2005 | Da Governator Vs. Da Protestors |
 Da California Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger came to speak at Yahoo! campus in Sunnyvale as the latest of our Yahoo! Influentials speakers (New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and Tom Brokaw were previous speakers).On the corner of Mathilda Ave there were about 35-50 people loudly protesting the Governator's policies and presence. They were in the same spot where anti-war groups loudly protested against our corporate neighbor Lockheed-Martin a year or so ago during the beginning of the Iraq War. (Lockheed-Martin builds some serious weapons.) This is what the protest against Arnold looked like. People held signs with statements like "Public Health, NOT Corporate Wealth," "Kids, Not Cuts," and "No on Prop 76." Two motorcycle cops stood watch from the Yahoo parking lot. And here's some video I shot so you can hear it too. The number of people waiting to see Arnold (all Yahoo! employees) was much much longer. People lined up outside the cafeteria an hour before he was scheduled to speak. It was quickly standing room only and some latecomers were locked outside. Arnold spoke for a little less than an hour, and he didn't say anything too fascinating. He didn't talk about the Internet or technology. He didn't directly address the fact that there were protesters outside, though he did sort of try to refute some of their points about his education cuts. Here is some video of his speech, so you too can feel like you were there (or re-experience it, if you were there). One of the most memorable things he said was "California is the best state in the best country in the world." At least he didn't boast, "California is the only state that touches both Canada and Mexico," as my geographically-challenged Vassar-educated (but usually quite intelligent) friend Mindy once said. ;) Arnold also told us how rich he is, and how we should feel good about having a rich governor, because he can't be bought by special interest groups. Yeah right. No one protested our previous Influentials speakers Thomas Friedman or Tom Brokaw. Then again, neither Friedman nor Brokaw attracted as large an audience of Yahoos either. Still, I don't know whether it's just because Friedman and Brokaw are in the field of writing and journalism that I felt like their speeches meant more to me. I felt interested and inspired by what they had to say. The same was not true of Arnold. It felt like he was at Yahoo just to make another campaign speech and plug his many movies. (He managed to slip the titles of almost all of them into his speech.) Check out my flickr photoset of this strange event. Labels: arnold, california, influentials, photos, yahoo posted by Jess Barron @ 8:36 PM
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| July 7, 2005 | Awakened to London Blasts |
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When you work in online news, today is one of those terrible days when you wake up to 10 or more alerts from the AP coming in on your Blackberry one after the other. Pop. Pop. Pop. The messages say things like "LONDON (AP) Police have reported \'a number of fatalities' at one London subway station" and "LONDON (AP) Hospital officials say 190 people are being treated for injuries from explosions in central London." It is a terrible feeling. My phone rings before the alarm goes off at 7a.m. I wake up and pull the laptop off the floor and up into bed with me. More than 10 Yahoo! Messenger windows are active and highlighted in bright orange at the bottom of my screen as I sit in bed in a similarly bright orange Trainspotting T-shirt (that used to belong to J.P. before he disappeared). The active Messenger windows are all of my Yahoo! news co-producers (in Canada, East Coast, West Coast, and London) who are pinging me to join voice chats to discuss how to handle this news on our front doors and portal pages. Everybody is so on top of it, but still we're scrambling to stay on top of the latest angles: How many dead? How many injured? Is Al-Queda being officially blamed? My friend Clare in the Yahoo! London office is also telling me via Messenger that she narrowly missed getting onto the bus that minutes later exploded. She decided to take a faster bus this morning instead. I'm telling her that I'm glad she's OK, but this is all pretty horrible. If you want to read the latest news on this story, check out the Yahoo! Full Coverage page. The people working on it -- my friends and colleagues on the Full Coverage team -- are updating it with the best articles, info and photos available online. Also, check out the London bomb blast Flickr pool (sent to me by Esther). posted by Jess Barron @ 7:00 AM
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| July 6, 2005 | It's Allyson's Birthday. Pay Her a Visit! |
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It's Allyson's birthday today. Pay her a visit and leave your birthday wishes as comments.
posted by Jess Barron @ 2:39 PM
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