"The Grey Album" is less great in retrospect.
The next several weeks of Fimoculous are going to feature some of my favorite bloggers and link-makers as guest editors. Blogging right now is Drew Grant. Quick bio: Sex blogger by day, media reporter by nights and weekends. Turn-ons: media, the media, new york media, guys that work in new york media, comedy. Turn-offs: Sincerity.Hey if you want to steal Google Maps coding to turn in for your 2nd year C++ course at community college, the SA forums have a really good cheat-sheet for you to use. Mr. Baronsky totally won't notice the difference, since he's too busy getting drunk to forget about his impending divorce.
American Apparel + Lookbook = an actual clothing catalogue? Crowdsourcing - the butts? -- DG
So is Heidi Montag liberal now? Because during the election, she and Spencer were all about John McCain, but suddenly she's making these Ron Howard-directed videos for Funny or Die about creating a consumer agency to protect against big banks. So...she's against mindless corporate growth now? Heidi, get back to me. I need to know where you stand on the health care bill. Is it messed up to say she got hotter? --DG
[Sorry, I'm sneaking back onto my blog for self-promotion!] I forgot to announce that we relaunched this over the weekend: TheWeek.com. If you know the magazine, you know The Week is in an interesting position, as basically the most internety thing in the entire print world. If you take some of the editorial principles -- aggregation, synthesis, simplicity, clarity -- and apply them to the internet, you could envision something immensely desirable. It's a fantastic staff, so I'm excited about applying our/their ideas over the next few months.... -RX
Last night's House episode dealt with one of the show's key demographics: bloggers. Let's see what the show's writers thinks our profession looks like.
Nailed it. --DG
Well, when Rex Sorgatz was asked a while back, How bad do you anticipate Gould's book will be? Rex said he was still gathering his thoughts. In the meantime, Publishers Weekly have gathered theirs: "On the strength of an exposé she wrote for the New York Times Magazine two years ago about her experience working at Gawker.com, Gould, hailing from Silver Spring, Md., and now in her late 20s, delivers a series of 11 insipid essays about her uninspired youth and general lack of motivation or talent for various jobs she took after moving to New York City. The writing seems intentionally bland, as if Gould is attempting to be blasé."
Rex, have you gathered your thoughts yet? As someone from around the Silver Spring area myself, I can promise there is not much else to do besides listen to Liz Phair and then go to Kenyon (Oberlin). Also, haven't read the book, but based on what I've read of Gould's work, I don't think that being blasé is "intentional" as in something she's faking...shit is genetically imprinted. Not bland though: How can the person who made the Internet coin the term "overshare" be bland? --DG
So, admidst all the conversations about Chatroulette's marketing potential, some enterprising video editor went ahead and gave the medium a chance. Mind you, this isn't actually on behalf of Fancy Feast, and it's not entirely revolutionary, but it IS more than just shouting out loud.
I don't believe for a second that this guy isn't trying to get himself a job doing viral marketing campaigns on ChatRoulette.
He even admits to making this "spec ad specifically for the medium" which we all know is industry slang for "Hire me, crowdsourcing ad agency!" -- DG
David Foster Wallace's papers are all going to the University of Texas, including some "juvenilia" like 200 books from his own library, poems, and college/graduate papers. Why Pomona didn't get these is sort of head-scratching, but UT is building up quite the collection. In case you wanted to hear what Chuck Klosterman thinks about this:
"He definitely is the writer I've ripped off the most," said Klosterman, author of "Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs," on Monday. "Wallace showed me that you could present ideas that were insightful and complex, but the presentation could still be as entertaining as any sort of writing whose sole purpose was to entertain. Considering how dense his work could be, it was almost never confusing."
Unlike say, having a quote from Chuck Klosterman in your article that has nothing to do with the subject matter of where DFW's materials are ending up. --DG
Lights Camera Jackson is the only movie review site you should be reading. This 11-year old puts SexMan (who is now apparently Pruane2Forever?) to shame. Ex: He gave Alice in Wonderland, a movie ostensibly marketed to him (and Neil Gaiman fan-girls and 40-year old man-children who still think Burton puts out good work) a D+!
Yes, the Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum are involved in the story, but not that much. However, the one thing that is missing completely from this version of "Alice" is fun. Burton has made a serious film, that, at times, is even a bit depressing. And the movie gets off to a dreadfully slow start, as the first 20-minutes: Alice's life prior to falling into the hole, are completely unnecessary.
A+ review from someone who has never seen another Tim Burton film before he redid Willy Wonka! Are you legal yet? Call me! -- DG
Hey, right at 2:30 you can spot Adam from Mythbusters making a cameo as the drowning kid!
It will be very interesting to see how NYC media absorbs this one: Mediagazer. It's a spin-off of Techmeme focusing on media news. -RX
Elizabeth Spiers' The Gloss, which Peter Feld reviews in GuestofaGuest today:
When Spiers described her earlier idea for an online "Maxim for women, Women's Wear Daily noted comparisons to Gawker Media women's site Jezebel (where that story's writer, Irin Carmon, now works). However, The Gloss feels quite different from Jezebel. It's female-positive, for sure, but without the overtly feminist voice often found in Jezebel. (Spiers' "Maxim" concept was intended to cater to the female id and the female ego.")
New York's okay if you like saxophones a women's site catering to your ego where the only dude is Michael Orell. --DG
It wasn't just the first time a woman has won Best Director (and then take Best Picture). It's the first time a woman has been able to shove that shit in her ex's face and go "See? I am better than you." Kathryn Bigelow is literally the best director of 2009. Fuck you and your little blue suicide-inducing Na'vi, James Cameron. --DG
Fred Wilson said he was going to reach out to the founder of Chatroulette to see if he'd visit America. Now it appears he's coming. -RX
I guess I'm on the record being annoyed with NYC's recent look-at-me-look-at-me glee over a handful of successful startups. Obviously, it's not that I don't want this fair city to succeed; it's just that I shun boosterism for its own sake, and there's a lot of that here. Go social media!
That said, Jenna Wortham's Sunday NYTimes piece on the scene hits all the right spots, namechecks all risers, and generally feels informed about what's at stake. If NYC digerati can position themselves as the next version of their key fracturing industries (media, fashion, finance, advertising, publishing), it should be poised to find the next versions of those sectors. --RX
It's been a fun week. I'll sign off now before I get tempted to overstay my welcome and live-blog the Oscars tomorrow night. ("WHAT?! Hurt Locker was SO contrived!!", etc.)
Thanks for reading, and thanks to Rex for the opportunity.
If you're interested in more of this kind of thing, you can follow my shared links and catch me on Twitter. In a couple months, I'll be launching Slow Machine (RSS), a site with occasional, longer pieces about -- what else? -- pop culture and politics. Hope to see you there. --ADM
A few hours ago, Conan O'Brien (@conanobrien) announced on Twitter that he had finally selected someone to follow -- a random person:
I've decided to follow someone at random. She likes peanut butter and gummy dinosaurs. Sarah Killen, your life is about to change.
She had 3 followers. Now, as I post this, she has 9,200. It seems her life is already changing, at least a little bit. --ADM
Update: Here's an interview with her.
Some people asked me for the slides from last night's Ignite talk. It completely lacks context without the audio, but here they are: Why The Hills Is The Greatest Show In The History Of Television -RX
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