links for 2009-07-02

• The Poor Soul of Television by Leah Churner - Moving Image Source
  "Take the retired Broadway lyricist and composer John Wallowitch, host of John’s Cabaret, “the only piano bar of the airwaves.” As a phone number crawled across the bottom of the screen, Wallowitch, sitting at an upright piano, in evening dress and a bow tie, took requests over the air. He would perform whatever song his audiences wanted to hear, whether he knew the words or not. The show was surreal, but it was also truly interactive."
  
  
• Dave Gorman: Putting Two And Two Together
  10 ... 10 ... 10 ... 10 ...
  
  
• Prospect Magazine: 'Mark Thompson on the future of the BBC'
  Wide ranging and quite challenging interview covering everything from web presence to the future of schedule design. Includes talk of a season of programmes about Shakespeare to support the broadcast of the RSC Hamlet and a return of really high end cultural programming, such as documentaries about Nietzsche.
  
  
• The Guardian: Apollo 11
  Some very good writing in today's G2 special and plenty I didn't know about the mission. The astronauts were sent to visit the engineers in the factories to motivate their work and remind them that the work were doing was protecting the safety of people who they'd met personally.