Oh, no, it can’t be. In the past few days in this blog we have reported that classified pages in newspapers may be something of the past in the near future, not to mention school and college yearbooks, which are considered expensive old fashioned ways to record events for posterity.
Now comes the news that the cassette, which was really dumped many years ago , but which continued to find a longer life through audio books, is now going out of circulation all together.
According to the Consumer Electronics Association, sales of portable tape players dropped to 480000 in 2007, and the group is predicting that sales will be about 86000 by 2012——yes, 2012, that year in lights up in the sky somewhere for all of us. As you know, anyone who turns 23 years of age in 2012 will have no recollection of life without the Internet.
I now use that as inspiration for all my projects. I tell the clients: think 2012, think a generation of readers/users who, if they read in print, bring the impatience and the habits of reading on the screen to the printed page.
We can only imagine what that will be like: more scanners than we have today, a highly demanding group of readers addicted to information and in love with the gadgets that dispense it, some of which we don’t even have today. I predict tablets and more epapers, and, of course, the mobile phone as the editor in your pocket, vibrating with alerts, or displaying a mini page.
Back to cassettes. I have thrown out every audiocassette that I found along the way while cleaning drawers, the garage, etc. Yes, there was that Julio Iglesias cassette that from 1994 which I found in a suitcase, with most of the “ribbon” from the cassette hanging out of the plastic; and there was the Donna Summer cassette which was my constant running companion in another era. Remember the Sony Walkman? I was so proud to have one, and felt so young carrying that thing around.
But that was seems like it was a thousand years ago. God knows that even CDs are not in my repertoire anymore. I download the music, so why carry CDs./ When will those see their obituary written?
I keep a precious audiocassette that I will never dispose of. I remember the day Maria and I taped our son Mario’s first words. The baby, our first, was talking—-was it mumbling?—and we were recording it all. I keep that audiocassette with my valuables.
But I just realized that I no longer have an audio cassette player. Better get one soon, as I want to play Mario’s first words for his three sons. Will someone please hold the last audiocassette player for me?
FASTEN YOUR TOWEL
So Emirates Airlines welcomes its first Airbus A380 to the fleet, which it plans to use on its Dubai-New York-Dubai route. But the item about this event, which has been a highlight, is the announcement that the super jumbo airlines will offer what may be considered the ultimate treat for those who wish to be spoiled. It is not new expensive caviar, or rare vintage Dom Perignon champagne. It is bathrooms with showers for first class.
We always knew that the President of the United States had to have a nice shower on Air Force one. How else could he look so clean and fresh upon landing in Moscow after a 12-hour journey?
Now the common man (well, not quite) can look just as good after landing in New York—-and soon in other destinations.
Restrictions apply: each passenger is allowed 25 minutes in the bathroom, but ONLY five minutes in the shower. An amber light starts flashing to alert you to get the shampoo off your hair before the water is shut off.
This is not the type of shower where you can sing all the songs in the first act of “A Chorus Line”. Perhaps just the overture.
Since I mostly fly with Lufthansa, I can wait for their showers in the sky. However, I am perfectly happy with the ones in their First Class Terminal in Frankfurt—-you can do a shower, or a long bath (complete with a yellow rubber ducky by your side, no kidding), and, no, no amber lights flashing here to get you out of the shower.
You can sing all you want and never have to risk landing on your behind during an unexpected turbulence.
We often discuss the value of powerful storytelling in this blog; we also like it when the story is carried across a multimedia platform. Such is the case in today’s St. Petersburg Times. It is an incredibly touching story about a little girl police found three years ago in a
roach-infested house. She was naked except for an overflowing
diaper, pale and skeletal, and she communicated only through grunts. She
was almost 7 years old but had lived a life of total deprivation. Love and nurturing had never been part of this little girl’s experience.
“We chronicle her journey from that house,” writes Patty Cox, deputy managing editor/presentation. “Written by Lane DeGregory and photographed by Melissa Lyttle, this is the kind of story that makes me proud to be part of an organization that commits time and space to stories like these, especially in these challenging times.”
Particularly strong multimedia package, complete with service items that include listings of social services available to help children, contact phone numbers and local organizations that specialize in adoption and foster care programs.
Bravo for the St. Petersburg Times. This is what newspapers can do best.
This is why I insist that these are the best times for storytellers, as we have the incredibly useful tools to tell those stories in a variety of ways with appeal to a large and varied segment of audience.
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Here’s a link to the multimedia:
http://www.tampabay.com/specials/2008/reports/danielle/
And the link to the story itself:
http://tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/article750838.ece
DISCOVERIES DURING A RUN BY THE RHINE IN FRANKFURT
It is a warm day in Frankfurt, and my hotel, the Intercontinental, is right by the river. On this day, people are out on their bikes, or jogging, or taking a boat ride down the river, the skyline of Frankfurt’s skyscrapers on one side (they don’t call it Rhinehattan for nothing), old churches and residential high rises on the other. I head south from the hotel until I leave the city behind, and enter an area full of trees. I make it a point to pass six of the bridges that connect one side of downtown Frankfurt to the other, then go across the sixth bridge to change the scenery as I run my way back. Surprise: they are setting up the tent for the famed Summerfest Theater by the River, which runs August 8-14. The circus-like set up is small, but it includes a train car turned café, and a splendid view of Frankfurt’s financial center. On this sunny day, each building tries to oushine the other. I stop briefly to read the Theater’s offerings: from poertry to comedy to light drama. Too bad I will not be here to enjoy the show.
Here are views of the run, including the tent where the Theater by the River actors will perform.
For more information:
http://www.sommerwerft.de/
Theater by the River: Frankfurt
KUDOS FOR GUILLERMO NAGORE:
Thanks to Al Trivino for setting us straight. In a previous blog I mistakenly reported that Al had been the chief architect of Dubai’s Emirates 24/7, the financial daily.The chief architect of 24/7’s handsome design was Guillermo Nagore. I stand corrected, and, congratulations Guillermo for what is an elegant and well crafted newspaper.
I stand corrected.
By the way, Al Trivino designed Al Youm, the Arab-language tabloid published by the same group as 24/7. Coming up in a future blog posting here: how Al studied Arab alphabets to prepare for the job.
First video of TheMarioClassroom, a series of 3-minute lessons on basic design strategies for beginners.These videos should be of particular interest to students in basic editing and design classes.