Death to Film Critics! Hail to the CelebCult!
Roger Ebert describes the sad state film criticism has reached and how the “CelebCult” has affected not just film criticism, but the dumbing down of readers. He writes:
The crowning blow came this week when the once-magisterial Associated Press imposed a 500-word limit on all of its entertainment writers. The 500-word limit applies to reviews, interviews, news stories, trend pieces and “thinkers.” Oh, it can be done. But with “Synecdoche, New York?”
As a good contrast to the previous link, this one is more optimistic on the state of print media. It goes in depth through all the bad things happening to the “news” industry, but it concludes that journalism will never disappear. From the essay:
While it’s true that the Web allows the average individual to create and disseminate information without the help of a publishing house or a news organization, this does not mean journalism institutions are no longer relevant. “Oddly enough, information is one of the things that in the end needs brands almost more than anything else,” explains Paul Duguid. “It needs a recommendation, a seal of approval, something that says this is reliable or true or whatever. And so journalists, but also the institutions of journalism as one aspect of this, become very important.”
This one is a long one. Over 6,000 words. Bookmarking is a no brainer.
Malcolm Gladwell at AIGA Business and Design Conference
Video presentation where Malcolm Gladwell gives a talk about Fleetwood Mac, creativity, and the 10,000 hour rule. If anything, it’s really about the importance of working hard.
It’s a philosophy embedded in the Western mind-set, a theory essential to the American dream. Popular culture and history books have long stressed the importance of individual initiative and inherent skill in achieving success. Indeed,