February 1, 2010
I’ve pounded pavement from sea to shining sea, but you don’t have to walk even a block in my shoes to know the futility of a search for fashionable men’s footwear. Shoes are supposed to be a “female thing,” the purview of leather hounds such as Imelda Marcos, Carrie Bradshaw and their ilk. The New York Post wrote, as recently as a couple years ago, that “it’s only for women that shoes become an all-consuming obsession.”
Based on my own inclinations, and those of people I know (some of whom track the release of, say, Nike Air Forces like others do the weather), I’d say the male focus on footwear isn’t considered at obsession level due only to the absence of available inventory. As a sports journalist, I’ve traveled extensively, killed considerable time in the name of fashion, and can suggest the best places to buy menswear in a lot of different cities. But ask me about a place, anywhere in this country, to buy well-made, in-style shoes, and I’m stumped.
Until now, that is. Until Leffot.
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January 26, 2010
Though I will be perfectly happy to run current and enhanced applications on a new Apple tablet device with a higher-resolution, 10-inch color screen that will read multiple finger swipes and be tethered to the Internet, like many of my ilk, I will be most interested in its impact on journalism – more specifically, the newspaper industry. Coupled with the iTunes retailing environment, the iTab, or whatever it will be called, should enable newspapers to easily and more reliable charge for content. But it will be up to the print-publishing industry (lets include magazines) to generate the kind of compelling content for which digital-generation consumers will pay.
One imagined version of the Apple tablet
I’ve tried out many of the newspaper and magazine readers for the iPhone and have to say
The New York Times comes closest to getting it right. It is fast, and intuitive to navigate (via headlines and categories), updates as news breaks and
includes images. Stupidly, almost no other newspaper does the latter. I travel considerably and consume newspapers religiously. I cannot tell you how many “photo projects” I’ve seen in recent months that lost their impact because the photos were published out of register (color plates are not lined up, producing a “ghosting” effect). The Internet is where photos go and can be viewed at their heavenly best.
I hope it goes almost without saying that newspapers on an iTab must constantly be updated. Gone are the days when one, two or three editions of a paper and published and the day is done. Because of the Web, news cycles now are 24/7. This would be a starting point for me to even consider installing a newspaper app – for free – on my new device. Otherwise, I’m happy with the NYT (I’m a print subscriber which probably means I will be grandfathered into any new, digital offerings) and excellent news apps from the Associated Press, CNN and National Public Radio (NPR).
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Filed under Uncategorized
Tags: Apple, Apple iTab, Associated Press, CNN, death of newspapers, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, news, NPR, SI Swimsuit, The Seattle Times, Victoria's Secret
January 9, 2010
It’s just occurred to me that I listened to Bob Blackburn during the 25 most formative years of my life. I first listened to him for 15 years on the radio, delivering an almost nightly Sonic serenade, mostly in the dark, on my scratchy transistor radio. I then was a captured audience during my first 10 years as a sportwriter, during which Bob was a travel and dinner companion, and tennis partner on the long and long-winded NBA road.
Bob Blackburn, 1924-2010
Man, the guy could talk. It’s difficult to fathom The Voice silenced. Not even death, which came to Bob Blackburn today, Jan. 7, 2010, could muzzle him. I mean, as I contemplate and grieve his passing, Bob’s voice, clear as a bell, comes flooding back, describing Bob “The Golden” Rule’s 47 rookie points so vividly I almost think I actually was there. Or like I was in Washington, D.C., when Gus Williams threw the ball way up in the air and Les Habegger did the “Habegger Hop” after the Sonics won the 1979 NBA championship. Bob was the reason I ran out to my porch that day to listen to what seemed like the entire city of Seattle honking its horns in celebration.
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December 9, 2009
I recently reached the 10th anniversary of my leaving print journalism for the Web and, in reflecting upon some of the personal developments during that decade, I noted with some remorse my separation from one of my childhood loves — my subscription to Sports Illustrated. As a sports junkie and participant, plus a budding sportswriter, SI was my Bible. However, with the proliferation of instant score gratification and sports analysis on the Web, SI’s weekly format and in-depth, albeit well-crafted, prose no longer fit into my what’s-happening-this-millisecond lifestyle.
But, like the ugly high-school duckling who shows up to the reunion as the swan you wish you’d asked to the prom, SI is poised for a dramatic return — more beautiful, hip and engaging than ever.
C’mon, admit it, if you’re like me, you want this badly. Real badly.
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October 27, 2009
As my multimedia ideas and capabilities have evolved, it has been nice to intersect them with the evolution of jazz trumpeter Thomas Marriott, one of my favorite musicians and friend. Marriott on Sunday headlined a concert for the Earshot Jazz Festival, considered by Downbeat to be “Seattle’s most important annual jazz event.” The concert, at Tula’s in Seattle, highlighted Marriott’s own works, which are formidable, and Marriott had a great supporting cast, which included local sax player Mark Taylor and pianist Travis Shook, an electric performer who was in from New York City for the show.
I’m a big fan of jazz and a big fan of trumpet players, dating back to Clifford Brown, Lee Morgan and Miles Davis and stretching to Wynton Marsalis, whom I started following when he was just a young lion in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Marriott is moving into the realm of the former because he’s more of an artist than musician, with inventive and emotive approaches to his tunes. I never get tired of his music.
This is my third post about Marriott, and each has discussed a shooting (still and video) environment with its own unique challenges. The first shoot took place at Ama Ama, a restaurant and bar with no stage and little ambient lighting; the second shoot was at The Triple Door, with its big stage and good stage lighting. Tula’s, which has been the local showcase for jazz, is more typical of jazz clubs you’ll find in other parts of the country, with a small stage engulfed by tables and a bar, with stage lighting that is a bit more localized.
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October 13, 2009
When critics accuse journalists of “being in bed” with some of their sources, I don’t think they mean it literally. But occasionally it happens. And in the “real world,” it can be the stuff of major scandal.
Just two years ago, Mirthala Salinas, an anchor for the Spanish-language network Telemundo, became the source of national headlines when her affair with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa became public. Salinas was suspended without pay and subsequently reassigned (banished, really) by Telemundo and her once-rising star has been shot down. Her crime — covering the mayor while she was romantically involved with him — is considered a clear conflict of interest by the news industry and the public at large.
Which begs the question: Is sports no longer part of the real world? Where I live, in Seattle, Wash., sports reporter Lisa Gangel of KING-TV is engaged to Patrick Kerney, a defensive end for the NFL’s Seahawks. I’d really not thought a lot about that until, channel surfing last Sunday, I happened across a Seahawks post-game show on KING and there was Gangel on the broadcast. Interesting — Salinas covers her love interest and gets drummed into obscurity; Gangel covers hers and is named recently by SeattlePI.com sports columnist Jim Moore, (in the interest of full disclosure, a friend of mine), the sexiest female sports personality in Seattle.
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September 21, 2009
I got an opportunity to do a short photo shoot of jazz legend McCoy Tyner’s visit to KPLU, the NPR affiliate in Seattle. First of all, I was really thrilled because he still is a vibrant performer, though he is one of the last from the truly golden era of jazz. He is closely associated with John Coltrane, but stands more than firmly on his own. Just find a version of his “Search for Peace,” one of my all-time favorite songs (also see the bottom of a previous post Jazz and the Flip Mino HD Camera). It’ll move you, for sure.
Tyner is humble and easy going. I got a chance to speak to him for 5-10 minutes and it wasn’t nearly as terrifying as it could have been. I often get intimidated speaking to artists, as opposed to athletes, mostly because I’m afraid my very crowded memory will fail me. I tend to remember when a basketball player scored 40 points in a game a lot better than who played the bass on a certain recording with a certain artist.
McCoy Tyner waiting for his on-air session at KPLU.
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July 22, 2009
NEW ORLEANS — We think a lot of time has passed — four years — and therefore much has changed since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood. Shockingly not as much has changed as you might expect.
I’m down here for a basketball tournament, but cannot help but be captivated by the continuing reminder of loss and rebuilding that has not happened quickly enough.
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June 10, 2009
Next week at ESPN HoopGurlz we are launching a three-day series of featurettes on the players we considered for the No. 1 ranking in the 2011 class. We will unveil our choice on Thursday. The candidates are (spoiler alert) Cierra Burdick of Matthews, N.C.; Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis of Anaheim, Calif., and Elizabeth Williams of Virginia Beach, Va.
Kaleena is one of my subjects, so while I was in Orange County last month, I stopped by her place to shoot a portrait. Since we’ve already run so many different shots of her, I wanted something different. This is what I came up with:
Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis
I believe I do a decent job at action and environmental portraits and want to get better at doing more-formal sitdown shots. That requires mastering the lighting and other variables that help bring out the subject’s personality. This is going to be a tale of how I bumbled into what I feel is a pretty good shot.
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May 14, 2009
I was present during the birth of my two daughters, Sassia and Mika, and, believe me, there’s nothing like it. I also was at the figurative birth of Thomas Marriott’s latest creation, the “Flexicon” CD. And that, too, was awesome.
In my opinion, the highlight of the performance, as well as the CD, is Marriott’s tune, “Little Frances,” about his daughter. To some, it is a melancholy song, so much that Marriott says people sometimes ask if anything is wrong with Frances (a resounding, “No!”). I hear a father’s emotional homage to his daughter, and the flugelhorn Marriott used during the CD release party gave it a light and playful touch (check out the clip):
This clip, by the way, was exactly what Florangela Davila and I needed for our video project on Marriott and the KPLU School of Jazz. I open with his fingers on the valves, in front of the mic, and pan to a full shot of Marriott and his horn, to first surprise, then answer (just as one of my mentors, Travis Fox, once instructed).
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Based on my own inclinations, and those of people I know (some of whom track the release of, say, Nike Air Forces like others do the weather), I’d say the male focus on footwear isn’t considered at obsession level due only to the absence of available inventory. As a sports journalist, I’ve traveled extensively, killed considerable time in the name of fashion, and can suggest the best places to buy menswear in a lot of different cities. But ask me about a place, anywhere in this country, to buy well-made, in-style shoes, and I’m stumped.
