Allan Duffin - Writer/Producer

Paper periodicals take another hit

Time, Inc.  — publisher of Entertainment Weekly, Fortune, and of course the venerable Time magazine  — will be announcing $100 million in cuts. This means that even more magazine staffers will be pink-slipped in large numbers. From the New York Times:

At Time Inc., cuts have already been heavy. A year ago, it announced it was dismissing about 600 people, or 6 percent of its staff. Since 2007, it has shut magazines including Business 2.0, Cottage Living, Southern Accents and Life, which it had revived as a newspaper supplement. A stricter expense-account policy has been in place for some time, and some magazines have decreased the weight of the paper they use.

Though I write for a variety of media, it's particularly heartbreaking to watch the painful demise of the newspaper and magazine industries. I don't think that paper periodicals will ever disappear completely, but online access to the hottest and latest news has made obsolete one of the biggest selling points of magazines and newspapers. It's been a slow process over the last decade or so, but the poor state of the economy isn't helping.

Best wishes to the staff and writers who fall to the latest swing of the sword. Hopefully they'll find new homes and continue to do what they love.

Everything old is new again

One of the neat things about doing historical research is that you often run into previous versions of today's ideas. History has a way of recycling itself. As each generation gives way to the next, certain items drop out of the collective consciousness, only to be resurrected later on.

While researching a new book I ran across an article from the Hagerstown (Md.) Morning Herald about eating six small meals a day to keep up energy levels and to affect body weight. That's something you hear from some of today's nutritional experts... except this mention of the idea was published on April 5, 1910 —  nearly a century ago. Dr. Joseph Aub talked to a panel at the American College of Physicians about "reducing" (weight loss), saying that

The... reducing diet is given, but spread over six meals. In eating so often, the hunger pangs do not get a chance to become really gnawing... This, however, is only the beginning of the benefits. After about a week, the stomachs of dieting persons shrink a little. Due to the smaller size, the stomach demands less food and appetite actually drops a bit.

A little more digging, and we come across Dr. Aub's papers at the Harvard Medical Library, which tell us a little more about him:

During World War I, [Dr. Aub] was part of [a Massachusetts General Hospital] unit that spent 20 months in France and treated soldiers with pneumonia at base hospitals. He also collaborated in France with ... physiologist Walter Cannon to study the effects of traumatic shock on the recently wounded.

Wonder what else I'll run across while going through old content? Research is an adventure, that's for sure.

(Photo of Dr. Aub via this link)

Farewell, Rocco

It's been such a strange and tragic month. While Michele and I were out of town for the funeral of one of our family members, I received word that I'd lost a friend who was serving a combat tour in Afghanistan. Rocco Barnes was one hell of a guy. In addition to working on film and television projects, he was also a U.S. Army Reservist. Excerpting from his obituary in the Los Angeles Times:

Maj. Rocco M. Barnes was supposed to be back home in Los Angeles this summer at the end of his fourth overseas tour with the California Army National Guard. But the 51-year-old entertainment company executive was killed June 4 in Afghanistan, the victim of what officials described as a vehicle rollover.

An Ohio native selected for the elite Special Forces, he served two tours in Iraq and two in Afghanistan. Friends say he was driven by his passion for both the military and the movie business.

As a young man, Barnes worked as a coal miner before getting into the security field. He  provided security for [Arnold] Schwarzenegger on the sets of "True Lies" and "Collateral Damage," and was head of West Coast operations for the security company Vance International before beginning his career in entertainment.

Although he was quiet about his military activities, friends said, Barnes was in the thick of combat. About two weeks before his death, he was part of a team that cleared the way for the landing of a helicopter that airlifted a severely burned, 22-month-old Afghan boy to emergency care.

I had the privilege of working with Rocco on several TV projects and always appreciated his quiet confidence, warmth and camaraderie. He was modest about all he had done and all he was doing, and my heart breaks to know that he's gone.

(Obituary in the Los Angeles Times, written by Steve Chawkins)
(Details on Rocco's last mission, from AfghanistanMyLastTour.com)

On the deaths of two Air Force Academy graduates

Friday brought us the heartbreaking news that another member of the American military died in a combat zone. Roslyn L. Schulte, a 25-year-old first lieutenant in the Air Force, died from wounds sustained in a roadside bomb attack as she was traveling in a convoy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Schulte was a 2006 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

What hit me most about this event — aside from the tragedy of losing another military member to the ravages of war — is that it reminded me of another female Academy graduate who was lost during a deployment. The difference: that victim was a high school classmate of mine. We'd both entered the Air Force at about the same time, but her job very quickly took her overseas into a combat zone.

On April 14, 1994, First Lt. Laura Piper — who, like Roslyn Schulte, was also just 25 years old — was one of 26 people aboard a flight of two Army Black Hawk helicopters over Iraq. Two Air Force F-15 fighters mistakenly shot down the helicopters in a friendly-fire incident that is still vividly remembered today. 

The aftermath of the tragedy compelled Laura's mother to write a book, Chain of Events, which accused the military of pulling up short on its post-accident investigation and disciplinary actions against the personnel involved in the cascade of decisions that led to the shootdown. "[Laura] knew what she was doing," Laura's father told the New York Times. "She knew the danger. She was there to protect the Kurds. And I think she's a hero."

Regardless of how and why these deaths occurred, at the heart of the matter is the fact that we lost two young people who were just beginning their  careers. More than that, as they were barely three years out of college, Schulte and Piper were just beginning their lives as individuals, on their own, each with unique talents to contribute. We'll never know what they might have accomplished if they'd been able to live out their lives as intended. They certainly deserved to, and now never will.

(Click here for CNN report on Roslyn Schulte)
(CBS News report on Laura Piper)

Daily Monsters everywhere!

A shout-out to Stefan Bucher, friend and graphic designer extraordinaire, who appears in the current edition of L.A. Weekly. Stefan's ongoing blog and book, The Daily Monster, have garnered a huge following. The plot is simple: draw a monster a day, record its creation, give it a backstory. Here's a clip from Gendy Alimurung's feature on Stefan:

For the past year, Bucher has videotaped himself drawing monsters. The videos, 199 of them, are archived on his Web site, dailymonster.com. This new toucan-beaked critter, Monster 200, is the last of the “daily” monsters for a while. They’ll be going on hiatus while Bucher develops their cousins into an animated TV segment for 2009’s rebooted Electric Company on PBS. His work is also collected in the book 100 Days of Monsters.

Here's a video of Stefan drawing Monster #200:

(From the L.A. Weekly. Photo by Linda Abbott)

Where the hell is Matt?

Caught Matt Harding, the guy who dances on the Internet, on an MSNBC interview yesterday. Stride chewing gum sponsored him on a worldwide tour. The New York Times covered his adventures in an article published several days ago.

From his website:

Matt is a 31-year-old deadbeat from Connecticut who used to think that all he ever wanted to do in life was make and play videogames. Matt achieved this goal pretty early and enjoyed it for a while, but eventually realized there might be other stuff he was missing out on. In February of 2003, he quit his job in Brisbane, Australia and used the money he'd saved to wander around Asia until it ran out. He made this site so he could keep his family and friends updated about where he is.

A few months into his trip, a travel buddy gave Matt an idea. They were standing around taking pictures in Hanoi, and his friend said "Hey, why don't you stand over there and do that dance. I'll record it." He was referring to a particular dance Matt does. It's actually the only dance Matt does. He does it badly. Anyway, this turned out to be a very good idea.

A couple years later, someone found the video online and passed it to someone else, who passed it to someone else, and so on. Now Matt is quasi-famous as "That guy who dances on the internet. No, not that guy. The other one. No, not him either. I'll send you the link. It's funny."

(Photo credit: New York Times)

"Broken Down Blues": A video response to interview questions

This is a first for me: during research for a recent article on truckers' relationship with tow truck drivers for Towing & Recovery Footnotes, trucker Aaron responded to my interview questions by preparing a short film. He blogs about his adventures on the road. Some truckers, like Tom Wiles and Jeff Forester, create audio and video podcasts during their long-haul trips. If you've ever wondered what a truck driver's life is like, these programs provide great information.

New magazine, Internet and newspaper articles

Time to catch up on new articles that have my byline:

Flight Journal Magazine: "Restoring a Restaurant B-17" (June 2008). Aviation expert Bruce Orriss rescues a World War II B-17 bomber fuselage from a theme bar in Greeley, Colorado, and brings it back to his warehouse in Los Angeles, where it awaits restoration to a flyable aircraft. The fuselage section was used by Twentieth Century Fox as a soundstage mock-up for the "Twelve O'Clock High" movie and TV series. Editor for Flight Journal is Roger Post.

Towing & Recovery Footnotes: A trio of new stories — "Cars Under Cover" (February 2008), which tells you where your vehicle gets stored after it's towed; "Towing Troopers" (March 2008), honoring the unsung tow truck drivers of the U.S. military; and "Truckers on Towers," where we investigate what long-haul truck drivers really think of tow truck drivers. Editor of Towing Footnotes is Bill Candler.

DramaBiz Magazine: "Special Effects: Size Doesn't Matter" (April 2008). Whether it’s fire, fog, smoke, or water, crafting eye-popping special effects is a challenge for any production, large or small. And fitting SFX into tight or unconventional spaces takes an expert designer who knows where and how to install tools like fans, strobe lights, and even snow machines. Editor for DramaBiz is Joel Dorr.

If you're curious, the Flight Journal article was bought based on a pitch, while the Towing Footnotes and DramaBiz articles were assignments (I'm a regular contributor to the latter two publications).

The Amazing Vanishing Media Job

Magazine and newspaper writers like me have to keep one eye on the future, as the Internet monster continues to chomp away at traditional media. I don't think that print media will ever completely go away, but it's scary to watch publications cut back staff or close up shop as their readers migrate to the Internet.

Advertising Age reports that the media workforce has slumped to a 15-year low. While newspapers are bleeding staff, the marketing arena is actually adding employees: "Marketing consultancies over the past year added 14,500 jobs (up 10.8%), nearly matching staff cuts at newspapers (down 16,900 or 4.7%)." Here's some more from the article:

U.S. media employment in December fell to a 15-year low (886,900), slammed by the slumping newspaper industry. But employment in advertising/marketing-services -- agencies and other firms that provide marketing and communications services to marketers -- broke a record in November (769,000). Marketing consulting powered that growth.

Here's the reason behind the disparity: Marketers still invest in marketing, but they have options far beyond paid media: digital initiatives, direct marketing, promotions and events, just to name a few. That creates more opportunities for consultants to help define strategies.

You can read the entire article by clicking here.

"Towing Over There" and "Made In China"in Towing & Recovery Footnotes

Overseas towing techniques and a new equipment manufacturer are featured in this month's Towing & Recovery Footnotes, edited by Bill Candler. Both of my articles, "Towing Over There" and "Made In China," appear on the front page of section two of this popular newspaper for the tow truck industry.

First up, read about how countries overseas handle their towing needs, from different types of tow vehicles to vastly different techniques. Then delve into the David-and-Goliath story about a new tow truck manufacturer, Galaxy Towing, that imports its equipment from overseas to sell in the United States. The Galaxy article has triggered a lot of discussion about importing and the quality of overseas products. Click here to catch both articles.