{ January 3, 2003 }

The 2002 Goodbye Hello Awards

My initial game-plan for the year-end rollover was to simply avoid it like the plague. That meant no talking, celebrating, or reflecting about 2002 with that misty, doe-eyed nostalgia some people seem to enjoy doing. But now that we're a couple of days into the new year, I feel the need to record the moment.

Truth is, for me anyway, 2002 will go down in the history books as one long, tortuous year of public anxiety, stagnant stock markets, the continued slashing of business spending in areas that directly impact my livelihood, and one of the lamest years of music I can remember (since, say, the MTV-fueled hair-metal freak-out of 1990).

Instead of focusing on personal resolutions, of which I don't have any, I wrote up a quick list of winners in my very own 2002 Goodbye Hello Award Show - a splashy banquet honoring the people, events, and technologies of 2002 I wish we could all bid a final adieu to, as well as those showing the most promise as we head into the new year.

::: The 2002 Goodbye Awards

Trent Lott - As a born-and-raised Southerner (which, keep in mind, few Atlantans will admit to), I was thoroughly embarrassed and angry over the remarks of Lott, and the broad brushstroke the national media tried to paint "The South" in after his remarks. I had mixed feelings about his election as Majority Leader from the get-go, and while the method may have been long-winded and at times unfair, his removal was an obvious, necessary action for everyone.

Strom Thurmond - As a former resident of South Carolina, I've long been sensitive to the state's national image thanks to Thurmond and his incessant presence in Washington. If there is one thankful event that came from Lott's remarks, it was the re-opening of Thurmond's political record; reminding the rest of the nation (and hopefully the people of my former home state) why the man should have never held office as long as he did. Thurmond's exit is quite possibly the best thing to happen to South Carolina (and the rest of the South) in as long as I can remember. Again, goodbye.

Eminem - Critics fawn over his (supposed) cultural importance, his intentionally provocative lyrics, and the fact that he moved more records in 2002 than anyone else by a healthy margin. But for me he just personifies the angry, slacker American suburbanite teenager who bitches about everything without realizing how damn good they really have it. (Note: I really am starting to sound like my father).

The News Alert - This was the year of scrolling news tickers and the splashiest motion graphics ever seen on cable news. CNN spent all of 2002 trying to out-fox Fox News by adopting their agitated, anxious, obnoxious packaging of every little event as an A-L-E-R-T and basically crying wolf all year long. Every sliver of news, however inconsequential, was elevated to Code Red, DEFCON 5 status, and thus left the viewer in the awkward position of having to edit the importance of what they were watching since news editors (in their rush to scoop one another) clearly were not doing their jobs.

Old web browsers - Another year, another chance for web developers everywhere to rejoice over the continually dropping usage statistics for the outdated, buggy, rancid browsers that only increase our development time, decrease profit margins, and basically hold a leash on the continually expanding web and the technologies therein.

Michael Jackson - To music journalists and news editors everywhere: please, please, please stop referring to Michael Jackson as 'The King of Pop.' Jackson himself coined the aforementioned title in a press release a number of years ago, distributed it to all media outlets, and has been referred to the ridiculously inaccurate moniker ever since. Dangling babies off hotel balconies is one thing, but for God's sake MTV and VH1, the man hasn't had a hit song (or album for that matter) in years, is cultural insignificant, and is hardly deserving of the incessant video marathons and so-called specials he so lavishly receives.

That hip, underground, urban milky-green ambiance - Advertisers, you aren't fooling anyone anymore. Done to death by liquor distributors, car companies, and anyone else hoping to capture the seedy vibe of urban nightlife, that saturated fluorescent green and blue lighting has been elevated to the level of parody while simultaneously rendering the products indefinite.

Dell Computer - Between the Dell dude and those grinning, evil interns, the award for the most obnoxious, dumbed-down campaign was a complete tossup.

Hollywood, the RIAA, and Microsoft - Hollywood film studios and the recording industry continued their attack on digital copyrights and consumer hardware by attempting to slip rogue, consumer-unfriendly legislation into homeland security bills, embedding confusing, idiotic copy protection in their CDs, blowing the trading of online films totally out of proportion (has anyone actually downloaded and watched a Divx of one of these?) while continuing their cozy relationship with Microsoft, who are all too willing to include more encryption and control over what you can and cannot do with your home computer.

The PowerMac G4 - 2002 will hopefully be the last year for the Motorola-powered, PowerMac G4, which has been the unfortunate victim of technological neglect, insignificant speed bumps, and a price tag that is wildly out of sync with not only the rest of the industry, but Apple's own consumer line of portables and the iMac, which are nearly as fast and cost a lot less. PowerMac sales are way down, as pro users everywhere (including myself) await the next, IBM-powered overhaul, which should hopefully arrive sooner rather than later.

::: The 2002 Hello Awards

Merger breakups - American corporations, hell bent on mergers and acquisitions throughout the 90s, have now realized that bigger is rarely better, as the abysmal impact of AOL on Time Warner's balance sheet (and stock price) has proven. Mergers, despite claims from their golden-parachute CEOs, rarely, if ever, benefit the consumer, and only turn once nimble companies into gargantuan, sloth-like entities that stagnate the evolution of technology and consumer choice.

New York Wifi - Average tech enthusiasts prove what can be done on a grass-roots level with a little organization and teamwork; effectively creating a city wide wireless web while the other guys chased their tail. WiFiMaps.com

HBO - Singlehandedly raising the creative bar of television while slowly ringing the death knell for the big three networks.

Web standards - As evidenced by the redesign of Wired News and the rapid proliferation of trend-setting weblogs, 2002 was the year web standards finally seemed to reach a broad base of support from web designers and a handful of forward-thinking corporations.

Plasma - The days of bulbous, living-room swallowing, energy-sucking CRTs are closer than ever to ending. Sales of flat plasma televisions and LCD screens for desktop computers rocketed higher in 2002, while their prices continued to fall. Soon, very soon, we all will have one.

Chimera - The little OS X browser that could is quickly becoming the lightest, fastest, most compliant browsing alternative to the Internet Explorer monopoly.

Hydrogen fuel cell automobiles - After years of shadowy development, the auto makers suddenly felt sure enough about hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles to unveil prototypes of the clean, efficient technology in 2002 with promises of showroom delivery by 2005. The sooner I can drop my oil and gas sucking hunk of a Honda, the better.

Movie credit typography - Contrary to the stale, one-size-fits-all art direction of most opening movie credits, more directors and film studios are packaging the opening credits of major films as short films within themselves. Breathtaking examples include the ominous 3D type of The Panic Room and the giddy blast of flat vectors in Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can.

Mens fashion - Perhaps it's just me, but clothing designers seem to be finally waking up to the fact that all men don't want to dress in khaki Dockers, Abercrombie & Fitch pullovers and baseball caps with the front bills curved - by hand - ever so slightly around the forehead. The vacuum between slacker Gap and conservative formal wear has steadily shrunk to offer more variety, styles, and better cuts at affordable prices.

On-Demand TV - From Tivo to ReplayTV to EyeTV and a host of other emerging personal video recording technologies, consumers are less patient than ever with the out-dated, rigid, decades old style of push programming. If the networks don't learn to embrace the technology and adapt their business models to take advantage of the revolution, they will surely waste just as much money as the RIAA fighting a battle they are guaranteed to lose.

::: Notable Mention

That sucking sound you heard on the internet? Yeah, that was the explosion of personal web pages hogging Google searches while simultaneously highlighting news and trends ignored by the mainstream media establishment. 2002 was, quite simply, the year of the blog.

Comments

Great job, Todd. I stayed away from all the year-end hoopla myself. As a Mac user at home, I can't agree more with the G4 statement.

Posted by: Britt at January 3, 2003 12:31 PM

Cool list. The only one I don't agree with is Men's Fashion. It seems like Gap and Old Navy have become one and the same and everyone else seems to copy the slacker style. I can't find conservative formal wear or casual formal wear anywhere except for places like Banana Republic and that hardly counts as affordable on southern designer salaries. And what gives with these stores not offering anything for men over 6 feet to wear? You can be round and short but heaven forbid you be tall and have a small gut.

Sorry.... LARGE point of contention in my life these days.

Posted by: Steven at January 3, 2003 1:10 PM

You might like these two sites about movie typography: Typecasting: The Use (and Misuse) of Period Typography in Movies and Typecasting: Review of, and Commentary on, Film Typography

Posted by: kirkaracha at January 3, 2003 1:24 PM

RE: Steven

As a six-foot-four man myself, I easily relate. The best way to find trim, long sizes is to shop on the applicable company's web site, in my experience at least. I've found a few items at Banana Republic, none long enough or trim enough in the waist, but found just the right sizes online.

Posted by: Todd Dominey at January 3, 2003 1:35 PM

As someone else said: great list. The G4 comment is true but some of us just couldn't wait any longer and felt like a dual 1Gig G4 would suit them just fine for the next few years.

As far as the clothing comment goes... I couldn't disagree more. The current state of affairs in New York (unarguably the most stylish city in this entire country) is abysmal when it comes to men's clothing. The "70's nerd come ultra intelligent new media 21'st century dork" style of ugly faded colors, loose fitting everything, and sneakers is the 1 thing on the menu. Good luck having some personal style outside of this sad, sad realm.

Posted by: Patrick Bennett at January 3, 2003 5:02 PM

Great list Todd - specially on the news and merge breakup parts. It's not an end-all be-all per se, of course, but covers a lot of ground. I would have added "'War in Terror' psychosis" to your Goodbye list though. If I hear phrases like "Weapons of Mass Destruction" or "Make no mistake about it" one more time....

Posted by: Beto at January 3, 2003 6:31 PM

Great list.

The least effective use of TV screen real estate award goes to MSNBC, and the worst instant replay belongs to the world series, the little "train woosh" sound and graphics had all the subtlety of a Windows alert box.

As for politics, the most disturbing issue is the unholy mix of the erosion of personal freedom in the name of "homeland security" and the activities of groups like the RIAA, whose sole mission is the destruction of public domain and fair use.

Posted by: nathan at January 3, 2003 6:32 PM

Michael Jackson may be over the hill, way way over the hill, but he *so* does deserves video marathons and specials due to the incredible significance he *has* had..

Your reasoning excludes any special about any dead or retired artist, as these hardly have any cultural significance anymore..

Posted by: tomas at January 4, 2003 10:22 AM

I think that while HBO is a fabulous network, they've got some serious work ahead of them as far as unique and original content goes. This season of the Sopranos was terrible, and they only have one left. Oz will also end after this coming season. I think HBO, which made (and still makes) big waves with it's original series, is going to have a lot of work ahead of them if they wish to keep the same viewer numbers in the future.

Posted by: Garrett at January 4, 2003 11:14 AM

Nicely done - I thought I was the only person who noticed the Panic Room titles....

Posted by: Donna at January 4, 2003 1:25 PM

I know very few people who download Hollywood films, but it's pretty easy to find Japanese animation (usually the hot new licensed-but-unannounced stuff, and often the hot new licensed-but-who-can-wait-two-months? stuff like Ghost In The Shell: Standalone Complex, subtitled by fans in the most incoherent excuse for English you'll ever see. And cropped to 4:3 because the HD masters weren't out yet, but WE CAN'T POSSIBLY WAIT FOR THAT) and not impossible to find cult TV content which is too entangled in licensing awkwardness, syndication contracts or just plain "no one would buy this" nature to see DVD release anytime soon.

Posted by: wednesday white at January 5, 2003 12:16 PM

beto: don't forget, "connect the dots..." (c.f. Iraq >> rumored Qaeda link)
As for the state of the powermac, after nearly 10 years as a die-hard mac user, I gave up last spring and went Windoze. It's been mostly good. I miss OS X, what little I got to use of it before I left my last job 1.5 yrs ago (when it was still immature).
I don't miss having to pay twice as much for the power I get though. The pc shwag is, sadly, cheap and efficient.
Great list Todd!

Posted by: wazungu at January 6, 2003 12:55 PM

I was pleasantly surprised to see the opening titles for Catch Me If You Can as well, but even more happy to see the actual figure animations were not vector based at all, but in fact done in a traditional wood-cut stamp animation. I'm all for digital overhaul, but it was nice to see they combined the two elements (the typo and the figures) so beautifully.

If you like the opening credits for that, try to get your hands on some of Kuntzel/Deygas' other work (e-timecap.com has some great features of their static art (their print work for Yves Saint Lauren's particularly nice).

Posted by: Jory at January 12, 2003 10:23 PM