Posts tagged roger ebert
“ I was born inside the movie of my life. The visuals were before me, the audio surrounded me, the plot unfolded inevitably but not necessarily. I don’t remember how I got into the movie, but it continues to entertain me.
”
Those are the first three sentences of “Life Itself,” Roger Ebert’s upcoming memoir. Ebert posted the opening to the book at his blog, and while some of it reads like he’s been reading too much Twitter poetry, the man has been a writing machine since recovering from cancer, so don’t be surprised if the rest of the book knocks you on your backside.

-DM

[Roger Ebert]
“I’m not going to say the word I’m thinking of.” That’s the caption that got Roger Ebert to the finals of the New Yorker’s cartoon caption contest, but I dare say the Pulitzer Prize winner was out-witticismed this go round by Ronn Koeppel of Los Osos, CA. I also would have accepted, “This is why we need to use Peapod.” -DM [newyorker]

“I’m not going to say the word I’m thinking of.” That’s the caption that got Roger Ebert to the finals of the New Yorker’s cartoon caption contest, but I dare say the Pulitzer Prize winner was out-witticismed this go round by Ronn Koeppel of Los Osos, CA. I also would have accepted, “This is why we need to use Peapod.”

-DM

[newyorker]

“ A guy goes into a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist says, ‘You’re crazy.’ The guy says, ‘I want a second opinion.’ The psychiatrist says, ‘All right, you’re ugly, too.’
”
That’s Roger Ebert, telling a joke using a computer-synthesized voice created by a company called Cereproc. Ebert told The New York Times that the ability to tell a joke properly should be the litmus test for any successful synthesized voice, since the success of a joke can depend almost entirely on delivery (even a joke as old as the one above). But the truth is that getting a computer to talk exactly the way you’d like to talk is a near impossible task. As The Times points out, you talk faster than you type. Also, most people don’t even plan out how they’re going to say what they’re about say. Speech is a fluid, spontaneous thing. You can’t program it into a computer, nor can a computer think of that exact delivery for you. In many ways, Ebert’s quest for the perfect voice should make you realize just what a profound gift you have resting inside your throat. Try to do more with it than yell at other motorists.

-DM

[The New York Times]
‘There is a cultural elite, in America, which tries its utmost to manipulate the habits and tastes of consumers. It consists of the corporations who sell nearly everything with the possible exception of classical music and conceptual arts, and while its methods include some of the publicity-driven hype that finds its way into newspapers, magazines and other traditional media, its main tool is not criticism but marketing.’ (Via @terstsherminator)

‘There is a cultural elite, in America, which tries its utmost to manipulate the habits and tastes of consumers. It consists of the corporations who sell nearly everything with the possible exception of classical music and conceptual arts, and while its methods include some of the publicity-driven hype that finds its way into newspapers, magazines and other traditional media, its main tool is not criticism but marketing.’

(Via @terstsherminator)