Noi Mahoney

Happy Halloween!

Actually, Steve and the rest of the Prime Time gang decided to celebrate Halloween with a little costume party and lots of booze! Just kidding. We actually had soda and lots of sugary treats. (I'm the handsome guy in the orange jumpsuit.)

New company uniforms!

Steve, one of our editors, models the new company employee uniforms. Just kidding!

Tiolet reading

Roger McNamee, an influential venture capitalist and private equity director had an inadvertently hilarious comment on why magazines (and maybe newspapers) may never disappear:

"“Magazines are a low-power, light-weight thing you can read on the toilet. None of that applies to the Web,” McNamee said at the Future of Business Media Conference in New York on Oct. 27. (from cnnmoney.com)

Media blogger Paul La Monica's reaction: "I hope he's right ...Still, it's kind of depressing if mobility and the human excretory process are the best arguments to be made for why the print medium won't go way of the dodo, don't you think?" (from romenesko)

You have to take hope where you can get it.

Southside's spirit of Halloween

Tim Schaumloffel has gone all out on decorations of his South Side home every Halloween year since 1990. But back ailments, have forced him to layoff this year. Still, Schaumloffel said it won't keep him down:

“Every year I decorate, I go all out,” Schaumloffel said. “I do it for the kids.” Schaumloffel creates many of the decorations himself, using paint, plastic, tape and ingenuity. “I don’t have a blue-print, I go by what it is in my head."

RIP Jerry E. Bishop

Some could find it strange, but every time Romenesko posts an obituary for a reporter or editor who has died, I take the time to read it. I think I started reading them out of respect for fellow journalists. Now, I find most of these "obituaries" to be strangely uplifting. Many reporters, editors and newspaper people are interesting, funny and full of life. Like this one about former Wall Street Journal science reporter Jerry Bishop.

The old Aurora

The old Aurora Building has been bought by a developer. The building is on the edge of downtown in the Tobin Hill neighborhood. It is also near Olmos Park. Legend has it that San Antonio radio pioneer Joe Anthony started KISS-FM radio out of his Aurora Building apartment in the 1970s or 1960s. Now, it looks as if the apartments will become high end apartments or condos. (Photo by Helen L. Montoya/ Express-News: Local developer Mitch Meyer, the new owner of the Aurora Apartments, poses against the view from the building's rooftop.)

Newspaper layoffs

The San Antonio Express-News and the Houston Chronicle both recently announced they would be trying to trim their editorial staffs by as a 40 to 50 people. Both papers are part of the Hearst Corp., which owns my paper. They hope to get most of the cuts from buyouts and forced retirements. If they don't, they will resort to layoffs. It's sobering, scary times in the newspaper business.

Asian journalists conference

The East West Media Center in Bangkok is hosting a conference called "Power, Politics, Media Challeges" from Jan. 20-23, 2008.

Blogging in China, 2008 Olympics coverage, inside views on Burma, and outlooks on North Korea's latest moves will be just a few of the highlights at a Bangkok media conference sponsored by the East-West Center in January.  Journalists will get the most current and reliable information on the big stories in the Asia Pacific, as well as the lesser known but important emerging issues.  In three compact days, you'll hear from experts and reporters on the front lines. Attendees will also get the latest on Asia's dynamic media as well as challenges facing journalists in the region.

The conference only costs $75 to $100 bucks to register. Of course, you have to buy airfare and a hotel to Bangkok. Still, it sounds awesome.

Hangman's noose starts controversy at CPS

The Express-News has an interesting piece on City Public Service Energy manager displaying a hangman's noose in his office cubicle. Apparently, the manager got it as a gag gift more than 10 years ago from another employee. But to some CPS employees, the noose brought to mind images of racial lynching and racial insensitivity. Is it racially insensitive, or over-reaction? Express-News columnist Carlos Guerra weighs in here.

Lonesome Dove revisited

Lonesome Dove screenwriter Bill Wittliff has released a book of photos called simply enough, "A Book of Photos from Lonesome Dove." The book is about a 100 photographs from on-set and locations during the filming of the 1980s mini-series Lonesome Dove. Before it was a TV mini-series (and a hugely successful one in terms of ratings), Lonesome Dove was also a famed novel by Larry McMurtry. I liked the book, and loved the mini-series. I still remember the inscription at the beginning of the novel:

All America lies at the end of the wilderness road, and our past is not a dead past, but still lives in us. Our forefathers had civilization inside themselves, the wild outside. We live in the civilization they created, but within us the wilderness still lingers. What they dreamed, we live, and what they lived, we dream- T. K. Whipple, "Study Out the Land"

Wittliff will have a launch party and reception for his book on Oct. 13 at 7 p.m., at the Wittliff Gallery in the Alkek Library, Texas State University in San Marcos.