Thursday, February 25, 2010

Jayelle Hudson Featured at Juxtapoz

The discriminating eyes over at Juxtapoz have become hip to Jayelle Hudson, an artist that we featured last September here.

(Reminder: you can meet all of OO's featured artists on this dedicated page)

Juxtapoz's piece gets a little more in depth with Hudson, who explains some of the sensibilities behind her designs. Check it out . . . now!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Secret Origins

Some PR lady approached me the other day with an offer to join her database of blogs*, so that both content providers and product peddlers could join up for corporate interests.

Hmmm. Not really our thing. But my response to her sort of encapsulated my thoughts on O.O.:

"We cover pretty much anything our writers find interesting, from food and pop culture to literature, small business, art, photography, politics, and even sports from time to time. We function on a policy-based approach, not a content-based one . . . the policy being: if you give a sh*t, write about it. Our goal is to create content with personal resonance from the writer that will add weight to the story for the reader. . . . [and thus her service wasn't really in our bailiwick]"

Osmosis Online is mostly an effort to see what you might accomplish by banding together with people you find intriguing and talented to share your collective sensibilities with a larger audience. Not just the writers, but folks like the ultra-talented Charlene Tiedemann, who designed the logo, and the legal advice from a buddy who I would name, but I haven't cleared it with him first.

*Oh, and we're not a blog. I mean, THIS page is the O.O. blog, but we call the main site a "Web Magazine" and we're sticking to it. Blog being a mostly useless term, right, since all blog format means is publishing in a chronological top-to-bottom order . . .

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Who is Mr. Silence Dogood?

One of the problems with working in politics is you can't express your true opinions. At least not to a public audience.

Enter our political insider, the pseudonymous Mr. Silence Dogood.

He chose his nom de plume based on a similar faux identity assumed by one of our nation's founding fathers. Ben Franklin = Mrs. Silence Dogood. So is Mr. Silence Dogood similarly transgendered by his (her?) pen? Or is it a trick to throw you off his/her trail?

Damned if I know.

But I like his/her stuff. Even when I don't agree.

By all accounts, it's been too busy a political environment to get any writing done, but more will be forthcoming at some point. In the meantime, Mr. Silence Dogood's contributions dominate OO's Politics Page. See what you think.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

We Like People

Christopher Neseman, one of the subjects of my article on podcasting back in September ("It’s The New Dial: Popular Podcast Proprietors Talk About Talk"), recently revealed to his audience that his show "Around Comics" is being put to pasture after a rather good run. He can still be heard on other shows, including 11 O'Clock Comics, and some special projects for the gang at iFanboy.

It's a little sad for fans of the show, but it's also a good reminder that things change. As they should. The prospect of a static world is pretty frightening. But it really pounds the point home that there's a fairly limited window in which you can show your appreciation for something. I interviewed Chris and the others from that article (Peter Rojas of GDGT, Patrick Melton of NLO, Brian Ibbott of Coverville) because I dig their respective acts.

I need to credit Ken Coffelt, who recently came on board to talk movies, but has really excelled at coming through with cool interviews. It was his piece about BabyWit that prompted me to pursue the recent pieces with cartoonist Minty Lewis and entrepreneur Kristin Fraser Cotte . . . and I have a few in progress in my pocket that should be pretty great. (Here's a hint on one of them).

Add Ken's recent interviews with Jeffrey Luck Lucas and our bevvy of featured artist pieces (which, Matt tells me, has a pretty amazing entry coming soon), and maybe we're finally living up to one our original goals: to spotlight "interesting people doing interesting things."

Thanks for listening. Next up: two very different takes to Valentine's Day . . . from the same writer.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Welcome

While I've distinctly never characterized Osmosis Online as a "blog" (rather, it's a "Web Magazine"), I thought it could be a worthwhile endeavor to have an accompanying, actual blog for O.O.

So here it is.

What's the point? Well, there are a few. First, my ability to market O.O. has been severely limited, and I think from a search standpoint, and maybe "more real estate" standpoint, an accompanying blog can help get our contributors the attention they deserve (I make no such claims about my own articles, mind you. Except maybe the peeing in the pool one. Ha ha.)

I also thought it would be cool to occasionally offer some behind-the-scenes thoughts about the pieces we publish. The thought process, the internal discussions we had, etc. Like the argument Milla and I had about her very popular Sarah Palin thing. I'm not telling you who won.

In any case, I intend to "blog" in the next few days about how O.O. came to be, as well as offer some commentary on the site . . . and maybe some thoughts on other things outside of O.O.'s purview as well.

In any case, I intend to have fun writing it; if someone else enjoys it as well, all the better.