Wired has a piece out this week called "The Nielsen Family Is Dead," exploring the ways in which TV has left the Nielsen ratings system behind, thanks to Hulu, Netflix, Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Roku, iTunes, smartphones, tablets, Twitter, Trendrr, and a bunch of other stuff your parents aren't aware of yet.
In Wired's Humor Issue, Professor Peter McGraw postulates that all comedy operates as a kind of benign violation, which I am reserving as an improv team name now.
Journalist Bob Woodward's journalistic tactics were called into question a couple weeks ago over a dispute with the White House, and Tanner Colby has taken this as an opportunity to analyze Woodward's reviled 1984 John Belushi biography Wired in a new piece for Slate. Wired being criticized for its inaccuracy is nothing new. The book has long been thought of as inaccurate and sensationalist, but the Slate piece is the most damning and clear evidence of this yet. Colby, who co-authored a different biography of the late comedian called Belushi: A Biography, writes of Wired, "It’s like someone wrote a biography of Michael Jordan in which [...]
Biopics are a Hollywood mainstay, with films based upon an inspiring public figure's life being a tried-and-true path for stars and filmmakers to gain prestige during awards season. The most common are films about musicians (Walk the Line, Ray), but those based on political figures (Milk, The King's Speech) and media moguls (The Aviator, The Social Network) also pop up in cineplexes with regularity. Films focusing on comedians are all the more rare, but a small handful been produced, to varying results. With biographical films about Richard Pryor, John Belushi, and Sam Kinison in the early stages of development, now seems an appropriate time to evaluate the state of [...]
