Random Musings on Liza, Brooklyn, the News, and Summer

Ever feel like there's some sort of energy field that surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together to act in synchronicity? Oh, yeah, that's the Force. Anyway...

So a friend of mine invited me to go see Liza Minelli at a free show in Brooklyn last week... It's part of a series that's goin' on this summer. I'm not a huge Liza fan, per se, but it would've been fun to see just for the ridiculous spectacle of it all; Liza Herself, Brooklyn, free, the NYC/Brooklyn Gay Scene, etc. I didn't go, 'cause we ended up doing karaoke instead -- that's another entry. Anyway, I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't check it out now... Why?

Found out that Christopher Cross was a special guest... One of my favorite one-hit wonders, with a song from probably one of the only Liza movies that I've ever sat through.

BTW, I just tracked this video down, and it frakkin' RULEZ:


So how did I become privy to all this information? Well, I heard that Huey Lewis is performing on Thurs 8/21 - saw him a few years back, and it was a super fun show. Now here's where that "Force thing" comes in: the Back to the Future movies have been on rotation on HBO lately, along with the underrated American Psycho (a.k.a. the Dark Knight!) so I've been inundated with Huey recently. The movie's been in the news a bit lately too, because of John Edwards' girlfriend (Gawker) That Patrick Bateman really understood the band:


On top of all that, there's a movie out there that I'm DYING to see (perhaps this afternoon) -- it's become an 80s summer with Huey and his News releasing a theme song to a big summer movie... Wha? (AllAboutJazz)

Wow... That's totally a move I'd make if I was making a movie...

Who's Watching You?

Scoble mentioned on his blog today a term that I've never heard before, but have referred to often in usually inelegant terms: Granual Privacy Controls.

Whereas I realize the story that the term came up in is what he's discussing (Google Reader privacy), I started thinking more about the big-picture implications of privacy in regards to the term.

I've started a somewhat successful Facebook community at my company. One of the strongest privacy features that Facebook offers in this case is its options concerning who can view what particular content on your profile. While some people (not including myself) like to post pics of themselves in bikinis or doing keg stands, they don't want their Managing Director to see them. Don't get me wrong -- I really support the posting of bikini and keg stand shots, and enjoy them immensely, so y'all keep posting them. But I digress...

ANYWAY, people really do like to keep tabs on what others are doing -- the Facebook Newsfeed is a good example. I can actually track friends' movements, moods, etc., and it's fun and engaging. That said, some folks don't want people to know, and Facebook gives them the option of doing as such. As people get more involved in online communities, social networking services that don’t have Granular Privacy Controls will increasingly piss off users and chase them away.

It makes you think a bit about where all your 'assumed privacy' falls. For instance, I tend to ignore Google ads and banner ads... It's just a thing of mine (which is baaad, because sometimes I'm involved in producing them). I'm a big fan of Gmail, and in general, I ignore the ads on the page which allow me to use Gmail for free. But do people realize that the (possibly very personal) email that was sent to me (and I replied to) has been scanned by a service that picks up keywords in the content and then provides marketing information to show me things that "I may be interested in", based on that (personal?) content? Most people don't think about that.

Scobleizer