Archive for April, 2007

A Visit to NYC

Published
by
Ethan Bodnar
on April 22, 2007
in Art
. 1 Comment

On Thursday, I headed down to New York City with a couple art classes. (2 teachers and about 15 students) Here is my account of the day.

Elizabeth Murray Subway Mural

We arrived in Grand Central and took the subway to the 59th street subway station where we checked out Elizabeth Murray’s Mural.

Elizabeth Murray

My friend named Brian and I came up with this analysis of two shoes on either side of a door and the show laces being tangled above the door way….

The shoes laces represent how we can all come together through the chaos of being tangled up. The door way sends us out into the world with the ideas and values that we have learned at the mural. Once we pass through the doorway we are on our own. The shoes represent us stepping through the doorway.

Comic Abstraction

I saw this exhibit for the second time and really enjoyed it. My two favorite pieces are Untitled by Arturo Herrera and Lisa de Cohen with Adaptive by Franz West.

Comic Abstraction

Dan Perjovschi

I met Dan at the museum where he was drawing on a huge wall white wall with fat magic markers. His drawings comment on political issues. I waited my turn as some important people from the museum talked to him. When I talked to him he explained the project and told me he would be there for two weeks working on it. He is originally from Rome and this is his first exhibit at a museum in the United States. I invited him to be part of the Grab Bag Book and he gave me his email. I can’t wait to see the wall when he is done.

His Website

“Perjovschi has made his drawings spontaneously in museum spaces, allowing global and local affairs to inform the final result. For his first solo museum exhibition in the United States, the artist will draw witty and incisive political images, in response to current events, on one wall…” -From the MoMA Website

MIscellaneous

-Did some drawings on the train.
-Went to Queens
-Checked out some portraits
-Tried some Indian food, an later ate pizza.

GOOD Magazine

Published
by
Ethan Bodnar
on April 21, 2007
in Life
. 0 Comments

GOOD Magazine is a wonderful publication that I have recently discovered. It is a magazine about doing “good” in the world and making an impact on peoples lives. One hundred percent of your subscription goes to a charity of your choice. The magazine is produced in a way that is friendly to the environment and has some great content. The design of the magazine is very nice as well.

They have an website where you can create profiles and become part of the community.
My Profile

You should go check it out and subscribe for only twenty dollars.
Magazine Website

“The Greening of Geopolitics”

Published
by
Ethan Bodnar
on April 18, 2007
in Politics
. 1 Comment

I am in the process of reading Thomas L. Friedman’s article in the most recent New York Times Sunday Magazine. He suggests that by becoming a green nation we can fix the problems of terrorism, the environment, and our economy. The idea that he has here, is one that needs to be payed attention to. Before reading his article, I thought the only benefit of becoming a green nation would be helping the environment, but it can do so much more.

Go read the article.

“America will need, and want, to get its groove back. We will need to find a way to reknit America at home, reconnect America abroad and restore America to its natural place in the global order — as the beacon of progress, hope and inspiration. I have an idea how. It’s called ‘green.’ ”

'The Greening of Geopolitics"

A New Project

Published
by
Ethan Bodnar
on April 17, 2007
in Miscellanous
. 0 Comments


Link

The Future “News Stand”

Published
by
Ethan Bodnar
on April 16, 2007
in Internet
. 1 Comment

The online “news stand” of the future will allow you to purchase all sorts of information and entertainment. You will be able to interact with it through your cell phone, your computer and the television. We have already started to see this be offered by companies, the difference is that it must be integrated and work together in order to provide a seamless experience.

You will be able to download movies and have them waiting for you on your television when you get home. You will be able to record segments of news programs that interest you. You will be able to view your custom news feeds made up of blogs and videos. You will be able to submit photos, videos and stories to newspapers and magazines.

There are many more possibilities for the future “news stand”.

Thanks Kurt Vonnegut

Published
by
Ethan Bodnar
on April 12, 2007
in Books
. 13 Comments

The writer Kurt Vonnegut was, from what I have heard, a wonderful person who recently passed away. Glynnis Eldridge, a friend and fellow classmate of mine, knew Kurt Vonnegut through her grandparents. She has told me a story about Mr. Vonnegut that I would like to share with you.

(This story was written by Glynnis Eldridge)

Jimmy Breslin (”JB”) and Kurt Vonnegut were good friends. JB, my friend Glynnis’ step-grandfather, and his wife, Ronnie [Eldridge], were having a dinner party one night that both Mr. Vonnegut and my friend attended. Glynnis was probably not much older than seven and didn’t recognize that the people mingling in her grandparent’s pent house apartment were celebrities. So Glynnis didn’t try to talk to any of them because she thought that they were just old farts. She thought that she had better things to do like play the piano and eat asparagus, rather than talk to someone who claimed to be famous. And so she settled herself in between the fat cushions on one half of a pair of matching armchairs.

On the table next to her she had a tall glass of ginger ale and on her lap she had a plate of asparagus. Someone sat down on the chair next to her. He looked old; he had gray curly hair not only on top of his head but also underneath his nose. Some people came over to talk to him for a little while and then Glynnis’ foot fell asleep. Her pink, white, and red plaid dress fell just above the knee of her ripped black tights. Her shoes were patent leather Mary Janes with silver lining on the clasps. She sat comfortably with her legs overlapping “Indian style,” and with the dirty bottoms of her shiny shoes pressed against her thighs.

When her feet’s sleeping sensation struck her, Glynnis winced and bit down on a piece of a crushed ice cube. She crinkled her nose and squeezed her eyes closed, and then the man with the gray curly hair looked over in her direction and smiled. He excused himself from the conversation he had been having with the other famous people in the room, and smiled down in the direction of the black Mary Janes dangling off of the end of the armchair.

“Are they sleeping?” the curly haired man asked in between glances at the shiny shoes, and sips of some beverage that Glynnis assumed was ginger ale. Glynnis didn’t say anything, but instead gave him an exaggerated nod of the head. Yes. Her feet were very much asleep. She picked up her glass of ginger ale.

“My feet fall asleep sometimes too,” he continued, “not long ago I ran into a little boy about your age who also liked ginger ale. Do you know what he said?”
Glynnis grinned and shook her head, “No”.

“Well, he told me that his feet feel like ginger ale when they fall asleep,” he gulped down the last of the liquid in his glass, “How about that?”

Ronnie called everyone into the mirror walled dining room for desert. Pies and cakes and pastries and cookies and ice cream and plates of fruit and bottles of wine covered the entire table. Maybe it is necessary to say that celebrities do eat (by the way), but what was much more scrumptious than any desert treat on that pent house apartment’s dining room table, were the experiences that took place, and the stories they made. The curly haired man with the hair under his nose was named Kurt Vonnegut. He was brilliant.

(The story is Copyrighted 2007 by Glynnis Eldridge. All Rights Reserved)

Magazines

Published
by
Ethan Bodnar
on April 10, 2007
in Internet
. 2 Comments

I am going to continue with somewhat of the same theme that I did for the Newspapers post, only this time with Magazines. And next I am going to write about the future of the news stand. Feel free to Subscribe to my blog.

(This is partially a response to Devin Poolman’s (8020 Publishing) comment)

The main idea here is that magazines should start allowing their readers to participate and have content in the magazine. It is obvious that Time or Sports Illustrated will not become fully written by “the people”, but they can allow people to submit content online and then mix it in with the their current content.

Magazines are wonderful. I subscribe to currently only two magazines: Wired and Time. And its always great to go get the mail and have the magazine sitting there waiting for you to read it.

This is how I started thinking about the future of magazines…

This past summer I discovered Threadless. The online weekly shirt design competition that allows the people to design and choose which t-shirts are printed. This got me thinking about participation in many places such as music, design, television and of course magazines and newspapers. Here was my plan for a magazine that had people participating in the process…

-Create a “creative” magazine with design, photos, illustration, etc.
-Make a website where people could submit and vote on content
-Highest ranking content would make it in the magazine.
-Distribute as a PDF (this was before pdf magazines became big)
-Have a different designer layout and design it each month, costing us nothing to design it.
-Make profits from no intrusive advertising in the magazine and on the website. (based on the same principles that The Deck by Coudal Partners is based on)
-Partner with website for content (Flickr Interesting Photos, Digg Top Sites, Etc.)

-Eventually create new magazines based on certain subject and maybe even print them.
-Allow people to create their own custom magazine with content from the entire line of magazines on different subjects.

So that was the plan, until I realized that I still had to go to school and that I would have no time to do this business. Those were my ideas from back in the summer of 2006.

Then I found 8020 Publishing’s website where they hinted at a magazine like the one I was thinking about. It was exciting to see that they were actually doing this.

Months later I received my first copy of JPG Magazine and was very impressed. The quality of the magazine was great. They are continuing to work on this type of magazine and will be having more titles soon. Magazines should really pay attention to what they are doing and learn from them.

Also, check out Good Magazine The cost of your subscription is sent to a charity of your choice.

Thanks for reading.
Next Post: The Future of the News Stand
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Future of Online Advertising

Published
by
Ethan Bodnar
on April 10, 2007
in Internet
. 1 Comment

You should check out this conference. It hosted by the wonderful people over at Carson Systems. I am very excited to be attending.

FOOA Website

Here is some more information…

Topics:

* How to guarantee the success of your online ads
* Tips for packaging your inventory and maximizing ad revenue
* Online Advertising Basics - Everything you wanted to know but were afraid
to ask
* Advertising in RSS feeds - the next big thing?
* Marketing Beyond Google, Yahoo, AOL & MSN with Scale, Quality and Safety
* It’s all in the creative - how to create successful online ads
* Targeted Ad Networks - Cost Per Influence Vs. Cost Per Thousand
* Ads in Online Video - the future of interactive advertising?

Speakers:

* Erick Schonfeld (Business 2.0)
* Henry Copeland (Blog Ads)
* Jim Coudal (Coudal Partners)
* Mike Hudack (blip.tv)
* Jay Adelson (digg/revision3)
* Darren Rowse (ProBlogger.net)
* Greg Stuart (IAB)
* Carla Hendra (Ogilvy)
* Matt Freeman (Tribal DDB)
* Jeremy Allaire (Brightcove)
* Chas Edwards (Federated Media)
* Steve Rubel (Edelman)
* Andrew Goodman (Page Zero)
* Michael Walrath (Right Media)
* Steve Olechowski (FeedBurner)
* Alyson Racer (New York Times)

Newspapers

Published
by
Ethan Bodnar
on April 6, 2007
in News
. 16 Comments

Introduction
Today newspapers are struggling. They are struggling to adapt. The are struggling to make money through advertising. They are struggling on taking advantage of the internet. And possibly most important, They are struggling to engage and interact with their readers.

This is an article on how to fix these problems. How newspapers can change, be revived and re-created.

Custom Newspapers
Through an online system subscribers choose what kind of content they would like in their newspapers. Papers are printed specifically for one person and RIFD tags allow them to be sorted to be delivered. In the cities, people can choose which newspaper box they will pick their custom newspaper up at.

Newspapers will also include major headlines so that people can read more about them online. In addition articles and stories that friends have recently enjoyed could be published in your custom newspaper.

Advertisements can also be customized and geared towards a persons interests. Thus allowing for many more options for advertisers.

Obviously, this would be a major re-creation of the infrastructure for newspaper companies but it is possible and in the long run will pay for itself. This saves cost on paper and ink by only printing stories that people want to read.

Participation
People can submit news stories, photos, and videos online. People will then be able to vote on them and the highest ranking stories will be published in the paper or promoted on the website. This will allow for people to become more involved in the process and newspaper industry.

Digital Media
Newspapers should start and continue to publish digital content online. Videos, podcasts, photos and interactive stories are very important and are an added bonus for the newspaper subscribers. Social networking can be built into the newspaper sites as well, allowing friends to share content.

We have already seen newspapers take classifieds, stocks and other information out of newspapers and put it online. This will continue due to the money being saved.

Conclusion
There is a certain essence and feeling of picking up a newspaper and reading it, and this is something that I would not like to see go away. But keep in mind that this news delivered on paper must be accompanied by digital media, user participation and new advertising techniques.

For more articles on the future of newspapers check out the link below.
Del.icio.us Newspaper Bookmarks

To all the newspapers out there, I wish you the best of luck on your journey to revive and re-create the newspaper.

(This ideas are the intellectual property of Ethan Bodnar. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2007 Ethan Bodnar.)

The College Search…

Published
by
Ethan Bodnar
on April 3, 2007
in Education
. 0 Comments

…has begun.

Last week we (the junior class and I) headed out to a college fair and met many college admissions people. We collect countless ammounts of handouts, brochures, booklets, and more.

Of course we will be taking the standarized testing that this country is based on in May and June, the SAT.

You can see what colleges I have looked at by going to my del.icio.us bookmarks.

medicine-area.com