Captain Digital

Random musings on politics, society, and pop culture from the Internet's marketing curmudgeon.

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Archives for 2009

I’m still here. Um…there.

If you’d asked me three months ago if I’d still be in Shreveport, taking care of my dad, I would have said something like “hie thee to an asylum…you must be mad.” Yet, here I sit.

Taking care of an aging parent is a lot of things – a responsibility. A challenge. A privilege. But a burden it is not. I love my dad, and he needs my help. Unfortunately, It’s played havoc with my family, and for circumstances beyond my control, there’s little I can do about that, at least for now.

If you’re reading this blog, thanks for stopping by. I don’t really have time to post right now – soon, I hope. but let me encourage you to follow me on Twitter (www.twitter.com/captaindigital, natch). Since it’s just 140 characters at a time, and I can do it from my iPhone, I do seem to be able to fit that into my day.

Thanks, and talk to you soon.

– The Captain

Memory Lane.

I’ve spent the last month or so in the place where I was born and grew up. This evening, I was in a restaurant with my dad and another relative, when my college roommate turned up, dining with his family.

There’s nothing quite like seeing somebody you haven’t seen in over 10 years to bring back a flood of memories.

The weird thing is, he didn’t really look any older.

Then again, aside from a few pounds and few gray hairs, I don’t think I do, either.

The even weirder thing, though, is I’ve recently run into a bunch of people from my past, either in person or online, who fall into one of three categories: [Read more…] about Memory Lane.

[BLEEP] This.

I was surfing around my Dad’s satellite service last night, and stumbled on a rebroadcast of Blazing Saddles on AMC. Several years ago, I made a list of what I thought were the ten funniest movies ever made (in no particular order). As I recall, the list went something like this, give or take:

  • Blazing Saddles (Brooks/Little/Wilder)
  • Young Frankenstein (Brooks/Wilder/Feldman)
  • Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Monty Python)
  • Arsenic & Old Lace (Cary Grant)
  • The Producers (Brooks/Mostel/Wilder)
  • Animal House (Landis/Belushi)
  • A Night at the Opera (Marx Brothers)
  • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Stoppard/Oldman/Roth)
  • Airplane! (Abrams/Zucker/Abrams)
  • Duck Soup (Marx Brothers)

When you watch a great movie, you’re watching a collaborative effort, but one that SOMEbody (usually the director) oversees and marks with his or her creative stamp. In comedies, more so that any other art form, timing is essential. Just one frame (a 24th of a second) can make a recognizable difference in the timing of a joke.

That brings me to the hatchet job AMC did on Blazing Saddles. [Read more…] about [BLEEP] This.

Where I’ve been.

For those of you that are regular readers of this blog, you might wonder, “Where’s Captain Digital?” The answer is, I’ve been busy, taking care of family stuff. And unfortunately, I’m not yet done.
I’d love to tell you all about it, and someday, perhaps I will. Suffice it to say that family’s gotta come first. Of course it didn’t help that I expected to have web access here, and that didn’t happen until late last night/early this morning.

I’ll be back sometime soon, I hope. In the meantime, please forgive me if I’m not able to post as often as I’d like.
Talk to you soon.

The UN-candidate.

Gov. Palin: You say Goodbye...I say Hello!
Gov. Palin: You say "Goodbye"...I say "Hello!"

We are all, at one level or another, creatures of habit. That’s a good thing, most of the time. I mean, if we woke up to a world everyday where we had to figure out how to feed and clothe ourselves, with no idea of what would come next, none of us would leave very productive lives. But there’s a dark side to habit – that being the phenomena whereby we attempt to pigeonhole everything that happens, so we can process it, understand it (in terms of previous experiences) and move on. This system of shorthand evaluations doesn’t work at all, however, when you run smack dab up against something new. New is…different. It doesn’t fit the mold. It doesn’t lend itself to snap analyzes, or fitting into patterns. But “new” is where innovation comes from. It’s where solutions come from. And it’s where our future lies.

Consider (soon-to-be former) Gov. Sarah Palin. [Read more…] about The UN-candidate.

Michael Jackson and web traffic.

Tragic figure, or train wreck?
Tragic figure, or train wreck?

I gotta say I’m floored.

I write two blogs – one on marketing (blog.grokmedia.com) and this one on politics, pop culture, and whatever else interests me. The other day, I wrote a post on the phenomenon surrounding the death of Michael Jackson. Let me just say that I’ve NEVER seen anything like the kinds of numbers I’m getting on my visitor logs like I’ve seen since Jackson’s death. I’ve seen – and I’m NOT exaggerating – an uptick of approximately 1,000 times more hits.

That’s insane.

And I’m not alone – Google originally thought that the search hits they were getting on “Michael Jackson” was a coordinated denial of service (DoS) attack. Nope. Just millions of people, searching for anything and everything they could find on the subject of Michael Jackson. My question is, “why”? I mean, sure, Jackson was a pop superstar (emphasis on the word “was”), but are you seriously telling me that he’s THAT popular now? Here are the possible reasons I can fathom for the current fascination with Jackson: [Read more…] about Michael Jackson and web traffic.

A Call to Arms. And Legs.

The Spirit of 1776 lives!
The Spirit of 1776 lives!

Do you love your country? I do. What are you willing to do to save it? For it needs saving. Seriously.

Understand, this is not a Democrat versus Republican, or Liberal versus Conservative issue. It’s a Right versus Wrong issue. Our country, our values, our freedoms and our inalienable human rights are under attack. From where I sit, we each have but two choices – ignore the problem and hope it goes away, or do something about it.

So what do we do?

I think the answer are the many Tea Parties that will take place across the country on July 4th.

I am against the idea of armed insurrection. To take up arms against your own country is a contradiction of the very reason to fight – how can you protect the Constitution by violating it? (Answer: you really can’t.) Until and unless the Federal Government ignores the Constitution on a wholesale basis, taking up arms is NOT the answer. And, frankly, we’re a long way from that. Unfortunately, the American people are in the position of the proverbial “frog in the pot,” with the Progressives, Socialists, Communists, and Anarchists turning up the heat, gradually. Ignore the threats to the Constitution at your own peril. [Read more…] about A Call to Arms. And Legs.

The King of Pop Dies.

Michael Jackson, then and now
Michael Jackson, then and now

The King of Pop is Dead. I don’t know of anybody that is really surprised. Think of any other celebrity (except Amy Winehouse) and you’d at least register a blip on the emotional surprise meter. Not here.

Jackson was talented. He was also, obviously a tortured soul, regardless of the reason. From my experience in show business, being a child star is a tough road to travel. Being a child star in what has widely been reported as a dysfunctional family, then add all the pressures of superstardom, and throw in a bizarre addiction to plastic surgery, and you have formula for an unhappy life and a premature death. [Read more…] about The King of Pop Dies.

Thoughts on Farrah Fawcett.

I never met her. Although, my family has some close friends that lived next door to her, when she was growing up in Houston. They said they could get her autograph for me. I laughed…it was during her reign on Charlies’ Angels, and I could have cared less about an autograph.

What I wanted was a date.

She was out of my league. Okay…waaaaaaaaay out of my league. At the time, she was already an item with Lee “The Six Million Dollar Man” Majors, and she was 10 years older than I was. None of that stopped me, and thousands of other guys just like me, from wishing we had a shot with Farrah. [Read more…] about Thoughts on Farrah Fawcett.