RELATED SITES:
Ganymede
Ink Syndicate
CannonFilms.com
The Dunsel Report

SYNDICATION:
Atom Feed

BLOG LINKS:
John Gorenfeld
Paul Frankenstein
Jim Steinman
Soul of Trek
True Father
ST XI

ASSORTED WRITINGS:
"Cannon Films: The Rise and Fall of Menahem Golan" (2001)

"Fast Company" (2007)

"Last Man Dancing" (2001)

"Our Alien, HE" (1987)

"Drummer on Top: The Red Hot Chili Peppers' Chad Smith" (2002)

"Singin' the Hi-Res Blues" (2003)

BIO:
I grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. I have a bachelor's degree in linguistics from Swarthmore College and a master's degree in journalism from UC Berkeley. Feel free to email me at patrick@runkle.info.

From 2000 until 2004, I was the editorial director for ArtistPro, a music-industry trade publisher in the Bay Area. I also was editorial director for ArtistPro's short-lived national magazine, which was distributed to all the members of the GRAMMY organization. (That includes Phil Spector.)

Current activities include my band, Ganymede, my trips to Canada, and various other things I do. (See above for links.) I also have a large collection of oversize video boxes from the early 80s.

ARCHIVES:
January 2004 / February 2004 / March 2004 / April 2004 / May 2004 / July 2004 / August 2004 / September 2004 / October 2004 / November 2004 / December 2004 / January 2005 / February 2005 / March 2005 / April 2005 / May 2005 / June 2005 / July 2005 / August 2005 / September 2005 / October 2005 / November 2005 / December 2005 / January 2006 / February 2006 / March 2006 / April 2006 / May 2006 / June 2006 / July 2006 / August 2006 / September 2006 / October 2006 / November 2006 / December 2006 / January 2007 / February 2007 / March 2007 / April 2007 / May 2007 / June 2007 / July 2007 / August 2007 / September 2007 / October 2007 / November 2007 / December 2007 / January 2008 / February 2008 / March 2008 / April 2008 / May 2008 / June 2008 / July 2008 / August 2008 /

January 25, 2006
On the corner of Houston and Lafayette in lower Manhattan, two poignant reminders of outmoded computer technology ... First, discarded after what probably was a long and very productive life, an Apple Imagewriter. Those of us who went to elementary school in the early to mid 80s will remember this machine; it was the one that you used for Print Shop banners that advertised your school's bake sale or, in my case, said "Dukakis/Bentsen 88".



And next, you look up from the discarded Imagewriter on the street corner and notice a large Sony PSP billboard, the one with the fancy color video screen in the middle. But wait, today the system running this has crashed and given us ... a Windows 2000 Professional login screen! I think I speak for everyone except maybe Paul Thurrott when I say that this is not the kind of thing I want to see when I turn on my portable entertainment device. Sony should be embarrassed that it can't figure out a better way to run its multi-million dollar billboard than Windows 2000.