Tyler Kongslie took some great shots in and around the Nemo warehouse during the Mixed Media event on Friday June 26. See the whole set here.

Photographer Clay Enos goes from shooting super heroes on the set of Watchmen to taking street portraits of random people. He shows us how to do a street-studio portrait session with a sheet of white paper, some tape, and a camera.

The world lost a wonderfully acerbic writer this week – Steven Wells. I knew Steve back in the late 70’s as he was friends with all of us in Gang of Four and was a regular contributor to the Leeds post-punk scene. In later years he wrote for the New Musical Press [fortunately before it became a shallow imitation of itself] and up until his death he had written a weekly column for the UK’s Guardian Newspaper.

Here is the Guardian’s farewell to him – in it are links to some of his best writing.

And here is another eulogy from Clash Music.

He will be missed.

I have only ever been to Cannes for the MIDEM Music Conference so obviously I have missed out on the advertising world’s shenanigans during Cannes Lions 56th International Advertising Festival. Not to worry though, it appears that the folks at the Duffy Agency are covering things on their blog and from what I have read today they have saved me at least 2,600 Euros, not to mention the cost of flying from Portland, Oregon.

Case in point – here’s the list of 10 things that The Duffy folks don’t want to hear again next year. [In fact Nemo's Interactive Director Justin Spohn, said on Twitter "that those are 10 things I don't want to hear ever, anywhere...!"]:

1. ”It’s not about advertising, it’s about engagement.”
2. ”Print’s days are numbered.”
3. ”You don’t want to advertise, you want to have a conversation.”
4. ”It’s about having a great narrative, a great story.”
5. ”Advertising is no longer a one-way process. The consumer can now talk back to you.”
6. ”You have to let go when it comes to the controls for your brand online. Consumers will take it anyway.”
7. ”Online banner and display advertising is a broken model.”
8. ”The next big breakthrough will be centered around mobile devices.”
9. ”Social media is not a fad, it’s here to stay.”
10. ”Consumers are ’always on’.”

Read their whole post here. Follow The Duffy Agency on Twitter here.

Hopefully by this time next year that sad list of worn out phrases will get a fresh coat of paint although I suspect there may well be some papering over the cracks instead.

Current.org on NPR’s Argo Project – To add depth to web news, stations try going ‘vertical’

Published in Current, June 10, 2009
By Karen Everhart

Looking to advance public radio’s standing as an online provider of news, NPR will try ramping up 14 stations’ local reporting capacity through a project that creates and distributes web-original content in specialized subject areas that the stations want to develop.

The Argo Project, as the network calls it, will help the stations expand coverage by creating “content verticals,” a new-media term for an ongoing online offering devoted to a particular subject.

Think of Planet Money — the NPR.org feature that persistently examines the mysteries of the global economic meltdown. Imagine how Boston’s WBUR could apply that reporting depth and doggedness to health-care reform stories on its CommonHealth blog, or what Triple A pioneer WXPN could do on the Philadelphia music scene, or how Oregon Public Broadcasting could clarify environmental policy.

Read the whole story here.

NARM 2009 State Of The Industry: Michael Masnick from NARM on Vimeo.

Mike Masnik of the Techdirt blog tells music retailers – relax, it’s not all doom and gloom.