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Cold Frontier

Cold Frontier: Current Issue, Issue 24, Volume 1, for Tuesday, December 28, 2010. New Issue published every month, and updated throughout the month. Next issue due online January 2011.

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INITIALIZING

ISSUE INTRODUCTION BY EDITOR AND PUBLISHER C. A. PASSINAULT

2010 is almost over, and going into the new year of 2011 this week, it’s time to address some issues, reflect on the past year, remember past friends, and plan for the future in 2011.
I, for one, am glad that the holiday season is about over, because I’m pretty much broke this time around, and all of my extra money has gone into my business resources, support infrastructure, and other expenses which were unplanned. I didn’t have any money for the holidays. This, of course, will change in the next year.
Let’s get on with it, while my fingers are still working. As the old Latour song, Cold, goes, “It’s cold in here”. It’s kind of hard to work when you’re in a very cold room.

Too Cold In Florida
Once again, Florida is very un-Florida with these temperatures. I was very much looking forward to a mild winter, after last year’s miserably cold, long-term temperatures, and I’ve been disgusted by the winter so far. It’s just as cold, if not colder!
On Saturday, when it started, the highs during the day were in the 70's, and the nights were cold (ironically, ahead of the approaching cold front, which told me that it would get really, really cold), I decided to take the weekend off, and hole up in the studio. It was Christmas, after all, so I turned on my heater full blast that morning, and left it on until Monday night. I was hoping to use the mild highs of the day on Saturday to give my temperature a boost, and keep it nice and comfortable in the studio. Well, it didn’t work, and the reason that it didn’t work was the high winds. It seems that I had a draft problem, and it caused issues.
Saturday night, the temperature in the studio was a perfect 80 degrees F, and I was very happy. Within 24 hours, however, despite the heat boost, and the heater on full blast, I watched the temperature slowly drop 12 degrees to 68. I was not happy at all about that. To me, 68 is chilly. I wondered why my temperature was so low, despite the heat, and figured out that the north wind was driving a cold draft under the mounting of my A.C. unit, and there was nothing that I could do about it. So, I spent the weekend under a blanket, watching Netflix and DVD’s the entire time. Not wanting to emerge from my cocoon of warmth, I didn’t get any work done in the studio.
When I finally had to leave Monday evening and shut off the heat, the temperature was an annoying 67.
Also, overnight, the temperature outside was expected to drop in the 20's, after a high in Sunday and Monday in the 40's and the 50's. Is this Florida? Really? Someone up there hates us. I really dislike cold weather. Couldn’t we have a normal winter with highs in the 70's and lows in the 50's? I’d really like to get some shoots done without my models freezing to death.
I really feel bad for the farmers, too, as well as my bank account when I have to buy fruit and veggies in the coming months.
Oh, and a reminder to my wonderful readers. When it is a severe freeze, it’s best to open your water faucets and allow them to slowly drip. It will save you a lot of time and money fixing burst and damaged water pipes! Water expands when it freezes, increasing pressure, and you want to make sure that you relieve that pressure. Nolan, this goes double for you. Relieve that pressure, old friend!

PCR / Rival Pop Culture Site Insanity
You know, I was obtaining a lot of entertainment watching a certain rival pop culture site fall apart the past few months. Nolan, the editor (no relation to Reader Reaction poster Evil Nolan, of course, parody aside), has been hemorrhaging writers left and right, and has lost pretty much all of his readers. His site is in shambles, and I’m no longer taking pleasure from watching what is, in my opinion, the collapse of a house of cards.
This is really sad, and I’m afraid to say that I have to agree with Johnny the crass idiot (a sociopath, in my opinion, who started to attack me with slander for no reason other than because he was following the crowd, also in my opinion. Pathetic.) In my opinion, Terence is the cause of most of the problems that Nolan is having with his site. Terence is an asshole, IMO.
I was on the set of a local short film with Terence in early 2009, and the experience was very unpleasant. I was there to do a job, and not to be harassed by a jaded idiot. Terence kept making smart-ass remarks to me the entire time, such as “I banned you from our site, ha ha” and “What are you going to do with a video camera?” (With what I demonstrate with a still camera, he really doesn't need to ask that. I'm a better D.P. than he is with video and indie film, too, IMO, especially with Terence doing poor films like A Grave Matter, which is the worst indie film ever done in Tampa Bay, IMO. I've also been working on independent films since Terence was only a child; I started in 1993. My experience will be demonstrated when I begin making indie films of my own, and they are among the very best in the history of Tampa indie film from the first films done). My actress friend, who I referred to the film, was not really aware of the history between myself and Terence, as well as between myself and the indie film clique (other than me having to explain why I could not join her and my other actress friend at the final Tampa Film Review film festival in early 2009, as I had been banned by Paul Guzzo, who could not take my bad reviews, and took professional criticism personally. What an insecure schmuck). After the short film wrapped and I took her home, we had a discussion on the long drive back to Tampa about what was going on, after she noticed that I was annoyed. It further annoyed me later when Terence left comments on her Myspace page. Listen, loser, I did not refer a good actress to you, and it was never our intention for you to meet one of my actresses on a film set (had I known that you were going to be there, I would have never allowed the filmmaker to get in contact with her). I referred a good actress to a good filmmaker, and that filmmaker was NOT Terence, who is, in my educated opinion, one of the worst filmmakers in the history of Tampa indie film. Could it be that the reason that Terence is so bitter, and jealous, of real artists is because he fails at art and filmmaking?
Terence, leave my people alone! They have all be warned about you, the crappy work that you do with your films, and your desperation to obtain talent to work on your films. Ever wonder why my actress never bothered to reply to you, or contact you? I made sure that she was aware of who you were, what you were, and what was going on by the time that we arrived back at her house. Good actors don’t want to waste their time with no-talents like you.
Regardless, I heard that Terence had a difficult time casting his latest film. For example, I’ve heard that this audition postings on Craiglist kept being taken down by people flagging and removing them (not that Terence had anywhere else to post them. Actually, my audition boards on my talent resource sites will be the best place to post auditions by the middle of 2011, and I can tell you that we will be ignoring his audition posts. He has been blacklisted, as far as I am concerned). I have no idea who could have done such a horrible thing! Could it be actors and filmmakers who don’t like him or his films?
Rancid douche or not, Terence does, however, do an impressive job with his video blogs and his fanboy roundtable videos (which, it must be noted, are NOT indie films! There is a difference.). I hope to see more of those, as I really do enjoy watching them. Terence is knowledgeable about his subject matter, and the videos are entertaining, particularly the “To Hell With You” series, which I highly recommend that people check out. “Hello sheep”, indeed. I dig it. He might just be on to something there (and, no, I will not be copying anything that he does. That is a baseless attempt to attack my credibility from my naysayers and unethical people who themselves are guilty of what they accuse me of doing. I copy no one. I am original!), as the videos are good.
Regarding Nolan’s pop culture site, I have no desire to see it fail. In my opinion, it’s all Nolan really has, or has to look forward to. He’s lost Lisa, and now, it looks like he has lost his old friend Michael. I have no idea what is really alienating his writers, but I wish that they would continue to support him. He needs them; especially Lisa, who is a good writer.
Well, allow me to rephrase that. I DO have a good idea what is going wrong, but please note that this is speculation on my part, and it is merely an opinion, and not fact.
I believe that the issue with the other pop culture site is that Nolan does not allow his contributors to promote themselves, and he specifically has stated that his web site will not be used as a promotional web site. I disagree with this. There is a difference between allowing official contributors to be compensated by allowing them to promote themselves, and advertisers paying for ads. If they contribute content to your site, which makes it worthwhile to readers, and they are not promoting a conflict of interest, why not, at least, compensate them by allowing them to promote their web site or cause?
To have people contribute content to a web site, without compensation, and then not allow them to promote themselves, or to link to their site, is a dickish move, in my opinion. No wonder the writers are leaving! The writers leaving, as well as some other rude policies, have also caused readers to stop going to the site. Nolan KNOWS this, but will not publicly admit it. You see, according to him, there are other avenues and outlets for people to use, now, such as social media sites, and this is the reason that his site has hit rock bottom. It's never anything that he does!
Another issue is enforcing deadlines. If you are not paying your contributors, which are basically independent contractors, and not employees, regardless of if it pays or not, and they add to the content of your site, why crack a whip? Just allow them to upload their columns when they want to, and encourage them to work on that, and link to the relevant content after it is uploaded and published. While I can understand the point that regular uploads make the site more promotable, you need to rely on your core content, and treat irregular contributions as a bonus (at the very least, you can always reference them as recent additions in the following issue). Too, that “bonus” content will give people a reason to check out the site every day; I know that readers comments had a benefit of encouraging people to constantly check the site, especially when some of those cowardly, anonymous posters were slandering me. Now that you have moved the comments to the message board, without having a large group of readers who are constantly logged in to respond, you lose the addictive benefits of the readers comments, while burning yourself with the perception that you do not have any readers because no one is posting on the message board, as it is too much of a pain in the ass to post feedback that way when the readers comments was quick and easy.
I’m not buying any of your ridiculous site policies, and neither are your diminishing team of writers and you readers. You’re doing this to yourself, and I don’t have to lift a finger to undermine your site.
I’ve written out what I think is wrong with your site. Now it is up to you to fix it, and stay in business. This said, it is rather funny reading the petty, silly fights between you and your “dedicated staff” of writers, and to watch them turn on you after you piss them off. Well, Terence is really the one who pisses everyone off.

Copy Cat?
It’s funny how people accuse you of things which you are innocent of. The concept behind Frontier Pop is nothing new. I began working on an online pop culture and entertainment magazine in late 1998, for crying out loud. Over the years, I’ve developed lots of web sites, and have written and uploaded content constantly.
Nolan, the owner of the rival pop culture site, has implied that people have been jealous of his pop culture site, and have wanted to “copy” it. Well, not this person. You see, although he does have a lot of content on his site, there is little worth copying when it comes to his site. It’s organized badly, and there is little continuity between the latest issues and archived issues. Also, good luck navigating that site to find what you are looking for, as the navigation is a bunch of drop down menus full of obscure, and nondescript, links.
Worse yet is the jarring transition between the web site and the tacked-on PHP template message board. The message board is one of those generic phpBB template boards from 2001, one which the webmaster, Nolan, did not code, or create. Had he coded it, he would have been able to incorporate it into the design of his web site instead of jumping from his web site to his message board, and back again. There would be fluid continuity in the overall site design, and that message board would be sleekly incorporated into his actual web site. The same navigation and design continuity issues plague the rest of his site, such as the disorientating differences between his "issues" and his archive pages.
Basically, with Nolan’s pop culture web site, which he treats as a serious publication, you have a bunch of poorly designed web pages, of at least three different design formats, cobbled together.
I am wondering what aspect I am supposed to copy, as Frontier Pop is as different from that site as day compared to night.
I recently put the sites side by side in front of a focus group, and Frontier Pop won in every category. I also asked the focus group if I had copied any aspect of the other site, and they laughed. The search engines seem to be in agreement, too, as Frontier Pop easily outranks the other site for entertainment and pop culture in the Tampa Bay area.
Now, I will admit that the reader reaction section for reader feedback was inspired by a discontinued feature on the other site called the readers comments, but it’s more of a parody than an emulation.
At any rate, despite the allegations that I fear and hate the other site, and that I copied it, Frontier Pop seems to have an impact. From what I gather, Nolan is going back to the drawing board this week, and is supposed to launch a reformatted, radically redesigned web site in January 2011. I’m almost eager to see how many ideas from Frontier Pop show up on the new web site. I’m sure that I’ll be flattered, because if I see any of my Frontier Pop ideas, or any of my other web site concepts on there, I will take it as an admission that I have a better site, and that I won.
Then again, if he actually DOES do a good job redesigning and relaunching his web site, I’ll be the first to admit it here on the hallowed pages of Frontier Pop. Of course, that isn’t going to stop a three way review which I have pending between the 2010 versions of Frontier Pop, his pop culture site, and another pop culture web site where a sociopathic hoodlum rants from the ghetto and some guy gets violated under a desk by a David Koresh preacher, aka the deranged preacher (actually, that third site does a lot of reposting news from other sources, but it is better designed that Nolan’s site, for sure!). Another review and comparison for 2011 will have to wait.
In retrospect, though, Nolan keeps referring to his 10 year old site as an “experiment”, which is spinspeak for someone who doesn’t know who they are, what they are doing, or where they are going. You have to have a plan!
I’m thinking that, because Nolan is such a poor web designer, that he might have to go out and get a web designer to do the site for him. What he’ll pay the web designer, I wouldn’t know, but I suppose that some exchange of services could be worked out, although I’m not sure what, since Nolan has no business skills or talent which have any value, in my opinion.
Time will tell. In the meantime, feel free to bask in the well-designed, well-organized greatness which is Frontier Pop!
Oh, and I will say that a little bird, or a spider which was on a wall, told me that Nolan freaked out when he saw what he was up against with Frontier Pop, and that Frontier Pop is one of the reasons that he ran back to the drawing board with his poorly designed, and outdated, site. This is just speculation, though, but it will be interesting to see what happens.

Promotion And My Properties
Regarding the statement above about what Nolan should do with his writers, as far as allowing them to promote themselves as payment for them writing for his site, I don’t know if he will wake up and realize that he is doing it to himself by being a dick to his writers, but I can tell you what my policies are, and will be. You see, I know what I’m doing.
With my web sites, where I allow people to post, such as the Tampa Film Blog, Frontier Society, and Frontier Pop, contributors are allowed, and encouraged, to promote themselves. They can even link to their web sites.
In events, such as my Tampa Film Showcase film festival, where there are networking and meet and greet features, participants can promote themselves and hand out cards as much as they want to. No problem.
Of course, there are limits. On event programs which have sponsorships, they would not be able to advertise unless they paid for ads or sponsored the event. Also, the sponsor or advertiser would not be able to advertise services which conflict with the business of the primary sponsor. As for myself, I have sponsor status by default, and I will say that I will not allow photographers, ad agencies, DJ’s, web sites which compete with mine, or event planners to sponsor, or to advertise on my marketing and support materials. It would be a conflict of interest. With all of my film festivals, events, and web sites, I have all of the slots for photography, design, DJ’ing, event planning, advertising services, and other service businesses which I am invested into, all tied up. I see events, film festivals, and web sites as dynamic marketing and promotion platforms, and this is one reason why I am putting so much work into an array of events. Yes, I will help people, but I’ll make money doing it, too.

Friends And Lost Friends

I Am Not Alone

Lost Flames

Catching Up On Frontier Pop

McAfee Antivirus Issue Part 2

Going Into The New Year

You Are Aware Of Only 20% Of What I Am Working With

DJ Career, Indie Films, and My Online Television Series

Vinyl Fever Closing? No!

Tampa Bay Film - Updated!

2011 Plans And Resolutions

Frontier Pop Going To Monthly Issues In January 2011
I saved the best news for last (well, maybe it’s not going to be received well by those who love a new issue every week, but I cannot help that). Effective next issue, Frontier Pop will be going from a weekly publication schedule to a monthly one. Because of all of the things that I am working on, and the imminent launch of sister site Advanced Model, it has been decided that we will slow down the publication of the issues of Frontier Pop. Not only do we have plenty of issues in play in our archive, which are all still being updated with new content, but I’d like to be able to put together more comprehensive issues, as well as synch up the issues with the editorial and the letters sections. This does NOT mean that the site will not be updated weekly, or daily, as all issues are constantly updated, but it does mean that new issues will be published every month instead of weekly. This will lead to more focus, and each issue will be far meatier. It will also allow us to complete several past issues which are lacking. I have a lot of writing and updates to do with content on Frontier Pop.
The social media updates, the “thoughts” section, content updates on any issue, and reader reaction updates can occur daily. We also have a Frontier Pop blog, which hasn’t been used much to date, which will be updated a lot more. Our gentle readers will be getting a lot more, and the quality of each issue will increase because of the new schedule. Frontier Pop will still be able to compete with weekly online publications, and will beat them in every way!
Next issue, issue 25 for January 2011, should be online sometime in early January. I hope to have my indie film reviews up, and those reviews will be published on the Tampa Bay Film Tampa Film Review site. Each review on the Tampa Film Review site will link back to issue 25 of Frontier Pop, maintaining the integrity of the issue while spreading content over relevant affiliated web sites. Remember, as revealed in issue 23 of Frontier Pop, Frontier Pop is far more than this site. All of my sites are considered to be a part of Frontier Pop, and some content updates on my other sites will be added to the content of certain issues, and linked back.
Also, starting in the January 2011 issue of Frontier Pop, all of those links on the issue page will be dramatically scaled back, and indexed properly in menu sections of the site. Issues will also begin to be indexed by subject as well as date published, and the updates on “archived” issues, which will always be in play, will be updated with content relevant to the issue main topic whenever the content is published.
Issue 26 of Frontier Pop will be published the first week of February, 2011. Expect a romance and dating topic for that issue (a subject that Nolan and his fanboys are clueless about).

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THE LATEST ON THE OFFICIAL FRONTIER POP SOCIAL MEDIA SITES

Frontier Pop @ Facebook
Updated regularly.

Frontier Pop @ Youtube
Updated regularly.

Frontier Pop @ Twitter
Good inside information and upcoming features revealed on twitter.

Frontier Pop @ Myspace
Updated regularly.

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THE LATEST UPDATES ON FRONTIER POP FEATURES

This was one of the first things published on Frontier Pop, and was online before the site officially launched. We added video excerpts of the play.

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THE LATEST UPDATES AND NEWS ON OUR SUPPORTING WEB SITES AND COMPANIES

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READER REACTION

Posted Opinions and Debate by the Frontier Pop Readers

The Frontier Pop Reader Reactor

CONTROVERSY SCALE: 1 (Warm) to 10 (Critical Mass)

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10

Reader reaction section is organized from top to bottom. Latest posts are at the bottom. See Disclaimer.

Agree? Disagree? Have a comment or opinion to share? POST NOW! Updated Daily.

Join the Frontier Pop Readers and post your opinion, today. It's free!

C. A. Passinault - Posted 12/28/10: 0800

Too cold. Working on Frontier Pop. Rest of the content should be up tomorrow. Oh, and there will be a change in the site starting next week, with an updated format and a publication change from weekly issues to monthly issues.