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Sasha Frere-Jones on Mariah Carey. Sample: [“Vision of Love”] begins with several bars of lovely, wordless melisma, as if Carey were warming up, and it ends with two very loud passages of melisma, one of them an a-cappella expansion on the word

A combo lock that uses words instead of numbers. I dig it. (Ferreterrific.)

It’s exciting to be finally able to say this is official. This deal has been in the works for what feels like ages. But Robin and I are thrilled to announce we will be joining the Yahoo!^® family. When we started Snarkmarket almost two-and-a-half years ago, we really didn’t know what to expect, and we definitely weren’t expecting to sell this baby off. (Under the terms of our acquisition, we’re really not allowed to discuss figures, but I think saying there are three commas involved is oblique enough.)

But as we’ve evolved into a media powerhouse, with a user base of almost 7 regular commenters, it became clearer and clearer that the only responsible thing for us to do was to partner with a large organization that could give this community the resources it needed to realize its potential. Yahoo!^® is certainly the best partner we could have imagined. We’re excited about what’s in store for us, for you our users, and for the world.

For more info on the acquisition, see here, here, and the official Yahoo!^® announcement here.

Pixel patterns, where have you been all my life?

There is nothing socially redeeming about the game Dad ‘n’ Me. It is violent, pointless, endless, and addictive. There’s not even the ironic, hipster sheen that normally comes with playing video games past the age of 17. Why would you want to throw your life away at such a young age? Do not click here and play this game, because it will actually rot your mind. I link to it merely to warn you away.

Clearly you, too, are wondering when the movie trailer mashup meme is going to die. But I still have to link to this one. Partly because it’s well-done, but mostly because there’s a shout-out to my favorite critic, “Chester Munro.”

A post on MicroPersuasion this morning reminded me of something I ran across a few months ago I thought was amusing and revealing. It’s the definition of “journalism,” from the 2000 American Heritage Dictionary:

1. The collecting, writing, editing, and presenting of news or news articles in newspapers and magazines and in radio and television broadcasts.

2. Material written for publication in a newspaper or magazine or for broadcast.

3. The style of writing characteristic of material in newspapers and magazines, consisting of direct presentation of facts or occurrences with little attempt at analysis or interpretation.

4. Newspapers and magazines.

5. An academic course training students in journalism.

6. Written material of current interest or wide popular appeal.

The iPod Moment: When a technology no one knew they wanted becomes indispensable.

Before the iPod came along, no one was sitting around saying, “You know, it would sure be nice to have a portable library of all the music I could ever hope to listen to.” A year after it first came out, I was still asking what the big deal was. After all, portable CD players that could play MP3s had been around for a while without totally taking off, and they could carry a decent amount of music. Who needs to have every song they own in their pocket?

Then I was given an iPod, and suddenly that need was mine. Yes, Master Jobs, I understand now. It was a fundamental shift in music delivery. I will never question you again. Lead me.

Yesterday, I got into a long conversation with my boss about iPod moments for other technologies, especially photos. And it reminded me that I had to blog about Memory Miner.

Read more…

Bah. Don’t believe Joe Strupp. The South Dakota Argus Leader‘s “brave” resurrection of the wikitorial isn’t a wiki at all. It’s a plain old blog that allows moderated comments.

Somehow, the Assimilated Negro has come up with a worthy follow-up to the Blink Don’t Wink™ campaign: the Netflix Neighborhood Challenge. His theory is that different neighborhoods get completely different tiers of Netflix service. If you’ve had Netflix delivered from different addresses, you’ve experienced the disparity in service; some places it’s lightning-quick, others it’s just speedy. Quoth the Negro:

So now I’m thinking there’s probably some “neighborhood priority system” going on behind the scenes at the ‘flix. And I’m planning to break the case. I’m going to be bringing my netflix returns around with me to the various neighborhoods I visit in Manhattan and Brooklyn. And we’ll see who gets the shaft, and who gets [insert smart funny line that plays off the ‘who gets the shaft’ setup here].

Do we have any other case studies on this matter? Have you noticed any difference in Netflix return speed based on your neighborhood, or um, level of education/body odor?

I think we should blow this up nationwide, and give it a Google Maps mashup.