Bryan's Place

Lady GaGa meets THE Queen.

2009-12-10T12:59:00.001-06:00

I love this picture.

All About Broadway

2009-02-19T12:44:00.004-06:00

One of my best friends is taking questions through Sunday, Feb. 22 at The New York Times regarding his book, Broadway Musicals. Please go leave a question or buy the book at Amazon.com.

Here is the question that I left, but somehow I don't think the moderators will post it:

Long time reader, first-time writer. I am a big fan of both of you. With the economics of putting on a show so high now, will it be possible to actually hire real talent instead of former TV stars with no theater experience trying to restart their career? As a corollary, do you have any great anecdotes about back stage drama with such stars as Liza Minnelli that you can share? Thank you.

UPDATE: It was posted.

It's a firesale

2008-12-09T17:41:00.001-06:00

don't miss this.

Big News Day

2008-12-09T14:41:00.002-06:00

It's about time. Who knew it was this bad. The recorded conversations of the first lady of Illinois are the best

This is so inappropriate....

2008-12-04T09:44:00.005-06:00

but, Rosie O'Donnell made a movie (Rosie can act?) a few years ago, Riding the Bus with My Sister, for TV. In the movie, Rosie played a developmentally challenged person, and I can't say that she "acted" the part well.

I came across a site this morning that actually has a soundboard of Rosie from the movie. It provides one with hours of entertainment.

You know...

2008-11-15T17:38:00.005-06:00

things are really bad when there is gun fire in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. There was a robbery in the jewelry store next door, but this really is shocking. Crime always increases during a recession and if the type and location of the crime is any indication, this is going to be a rough recession.

Alaska

2008-11-05T07:16:00.004-06:00

Senator Ted Stevens was re-elected yesterday to the Senate. An 84-year-old man who was just convicted of lying about gifts (government corruption).

I need to get this in writing. Senator Stevens will resign over the next two months and Governor Palin will appoint herself to the seat.

UPDATE
Alaska law does not allow an appointment by the Governor to fill this seat because Frank Murkowski (Governor prior to Sarah Palin, upon being elected Governor resigned his own Senate seat and appointed his Daughter to his fill his vacancy). If Ted Stevens were to resign, there would be a special election. But, Sarah Palin could resign as Governor and ask the Lt. Governor to appoint her to the vacant Senate.

Newspapers are too Liberal

2008-11-03T10:16:00.009-06:00

The Ombudsman for the Washington Post, Deborah Howell, wrote her weekly article yesterday about why newspapers are losing money. The reason: they are too liberal. Glenn Greenwald wrote a great post about this yesterday.

The entire thesis of this article is wrong. Newspapers may be losing readers for all of the reasons that she mentioned, but the most influential reason they are losing readers (in print) is the internet. Very few people under the age of 30 read any newspapers in print. Nor, do they have a land-line phone (only cell phones). And, as these people age, this is going to continuing growing. Newspapers as is are a dinosaur and are dying. If News organizations use ad revenue from print as their main business model, they will not make enough money to turn a profit. In fact, the trajectory is downward on revenue, so they may not even make any revenue let alone profit.

And, how did Deborah Howell determine that the Washington Post is too liberal? She came to this sound scientific reasoning on the number of emails she gets complaining about the liberal bais the Washington Post has. You would think she would alread know that there are very well organized PR campaigns to flood the inbox of the likes of Deborah Howell with emails where the sender writes how liberal the WP is. Just using the number of emails that one gets on a certain topic is not scientific at all. That is the same as using all of my friends or coworkers as a scientific survey. It is not reality.

And, this idea that for a newspaper to be objective and correct, it should offend people on the left and right doesn't make any sense. What about the Iraq war coverage? And, not the lead up to war, but the actual coverage, especially in 2004. The right basically was highly critical of "objective" coverage and publishing pictures of the dead or their names. People on the right (or a very vocal small percentage of people) seem to be upset when the truth is printed about the right and it's not favorable. People on the left (or a very vocal small percentage of people) get upset when stories are printed about the right and they aren't truthful.

Progressives are willing to hold all sides accountable and publish the truth. Think about it.

Election Night

2008-10-21T15:47:00.003-05:00

The Obama campaign just announced that there will be an election night gathering in grant park open to the public (hopefully to celebrate a HUGE victory. I will be there!)

Unbelievable

2008-10-17T15:14:00.004-05:00

Today, The Chicago Tribune endorsed Barack Obama for President. This is the first time that the Chicago Tribune endorsed the Democratic Party's nominee for President. I really can't believe it.

Being the cynic that I am, I wonder how much sway Oprah had over this. After all, she did endorse Obama. And, if he loses, I am sure she will take this as a reflection of her declining influence over all things in America (and the world). I think she has a very strong vested interested in seeing him win. I could be completely wrong.

It's only 30 minutes into the debate...

2008-10-15T20:30:00.004-05:00

and a lot can happen in the last hour, but, Obama is doing an INCREDIBLE job.

John McCain is such a liar! He just said that he is proud of the people that come to his rally (and threaten to kill Obama).

Wow. This man has sunk so low.

Shocked...

2008-10-15T08:33:00.000-05:00

I am shocked by this news. I never saw this one coming at all.

Great News Day

2008-10-13T09:02:00.002-05:00

Monday morning and already there is good news. Paul Krugman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics. I read his columns in the New York Times regularly. He is a very smart man and saw the housing bust coming two years ago. He won for his research on Global Trade Patterns. Very Smart.

And, on the other end of the intelligence scale, the New York Times has an article today about Andy Martin. The man who started the false rumor that Barack Obama is a muslim. Very good article.

Hangin' with Terrorists

2008-10-12T19:18:00.003-05:00

Frank Rich has an incredible piece in today's New York Times about McCain/Palin and their how they are A) lying and B) through gas on fire with their rhetoric

More Yotify coverage

2008-10-10T10:15:00.005-05:00

The cable channel G4 featured yotify.com last night. Here is the video.

Yotify.com

2008-10-09T08:39:00.003-05:00

Our coverage is slowing spreading out throughout the web. This is very exciting. The midwest tends to be a little slower than the coasts, but news has finally reached Chicago. There is a great little article.

It's Live!

2008-09-26T11:24:00.002-05:00

Our web site went live on Wednesday. It is very exciting. We have gotten some good press and already the stats are good.

This is the official public beta launch. Check it out: www.yotify.com. Our corporate web site is: www.branchnext.com.

www.yotify.com

2008-09-08T13:25:00.002-05:00

We finally launch a private beta of out new web site last week, www.yotify.com. Our corporate site is up now too, www.branchnext.com. This is all very exciting and things are taking off very quickly as we get ready for our official launch on 9/24.

Pictures....

2008-08-05T14:14:00.002-05:00

from Lollapollza 2008. These are of Kanye West. He put on a great show

Qantas

2008-08-03T10:05:00.003-05:00

I just read this morning that Qantas Airlines is being investigated by an Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority. Qantas had it's third emergency landing in 8 days. It does seem odd that they had 3 different planes have maintenance issues within 8 days. Without even knowing the specifics yet, I am going to guess that Qantas has been outsourcing their maintenance and repairs to 3rd party vendors to cut expenses (and decrease losses) and there is little oversight to the actual maintenance that is going on.

This is what US airlines are starting to do. It would be nice if some journalists could actually do some investigative work here and find out if this is true. But news agencies don't pay journalists to do long-term investigations. And governments aren't doing any oversight.

Love this...

2008-08-01T12:10:00.002-05:00

Still more about the Jifs....and FLASH...!

This is hilarious.

Is it 'Gif' or 'Jif'...

2008-07-30T11:12:00.003-05:00

I had no idea that this discussion even existed. I guess I came to the "internets" through creative services and EVERYBODY I knew, and everybody that taught me what I know, pronounced it Gif (with a hard G). In fact, books I read said both were acceptable, but most people used Gif. In fact, we would laugh at people (where I worked) that pronounced it like the peanut butter...Jif, because those people obviously knew nothing about file formats for print design and production.

Who knew that this debate actually existed....

My favorite is the last post in the above link that redirects the user here. This animation encapsulates EVERYTHING about the "internets"....and people who work creating "internets"

I can't get enough of these

2008-07-30T11:04:00.003-05:00

The feed is here.

OMG

2008-07-19T19:13:00.002-05:00

My Idea of Heaven

2008-07-15T22:13:00.000-05:00

Not because I LOVE her, but because I really, really like her.