Blogs > 37th Frame

Photography, notes, commentary and much more from former Reporter Online Editor Chris Stanley.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Electronic newspapers? Wow!

I found this link on the Sportsshooter site about the future of electonic journalism...as seen in 1981.
There are several quotes from journalists who were well ahead of their times looking at the promise, and issues with online news delivery.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Faked out again

Once again television viewers have been faked out.
Extreme cold temperatures at the inauguration prevented classical instruments from working properly, so whoever was in charge of the music portion featuring Garbiela Montero, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and Anthony McGill decided to have the musicians play, but the crowd and TV audience heard a version of their song recorded indoors a couple of days earlier. Only those sitting within earshot of the musicians heard the actual performance.


The performers are defending their move, saying they did not want to distract the audience with a poor performance due to frozen instruments. And they did actually perform the piece, which was written by John Williams just for the inauguration.
So is this a problem?
I'm left feeling cheated, the same way I did while watching the Olympics opening ceremony last summer. If something is presented as a LIVE event, I just expect that it is actually live.
If I see a lone live singer performing to recorded music, that's not a problem because you are not seeing live musicians. But I still expect the singer's voice to be authentic and live.
What could have been done in this case?
Maybe the musicians could have performed inside, overlooking the festivities. Maybe they could have been placed in a heated tent. Maybe they could have just taped the whole thing in advance as a tribute, then acknowledged the crowd in person after it was shown.
I am astonished that the producers and musicians just don't get why an audience feels cheated when things like this happen. People always say how they don't trust the media or the government. Well, here's one more reason.

Monday, January 26, 2009

another snow photo

Here's another snow photo from last week that I forgot about:


I saw this driving around in Hatfield, and despite being in a hurry, made time to stop and get it.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Snowy scene

You might get the idea from recent posts that I like snow.
In the news business, we tend to think of snow in terms of traffic problems, transit delays, depletion of municipal snow removal budgets, and school delays.
But when we got a surprise snowfall just before inauguration day, those of us trapped in the office with work to do stared outside at the splendid windless, frosty scene unfolding outside, and a suggestion was made that this should be captured so we can remember the good side of snow storms next summer.
I agreed and set out to do just that, and here is the result:

Monday, January 19, 2009

Snow

Snow in b&w:







...or better in color?





Monday, January 12, 2009

Scenes from the Farm Show

The 93rd annual Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg is underway this week.






Sunday, January 11, 2009

The Academy

A few dinos at the Academy of Natural Sciences



Thursday, January 8, 2009

Sing along

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Cabela's

A few scenes from Cabela's in Hamburg...if you've never been, it's worth the trip.
Also see the Reporter's travel blog for another nearby site worth visiting.