Blogistan Dispatch: Old Media to New Media: "Don't Wear Yourselves Out"

Old media: Hates bloggers, spunk

Unhinged Commentary by Noah Mallin

Oh New York Times, I appreciate the concern. In their article Friday headlined "Blogging Kills"...I mean, er, scratch that. It was "In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop" writer Matt Richtel is very, very worried that I'm not eating enough, or too much, or I'm not exercising because I'm blogging or something.

"Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December."


Good lord! And I got into this to avoid the high mortality rate suffered by famous lead guitarists. Looks like I picked the wrong line of work! Two deaths out of the merely millions of bloggers out there. Why that's what I call a trend! I look forward to tomorrow's piece analyzing the rising mortality rate of the cast and crew of the film Night and The City. Just in the past two weeks the director Jules Dassin and the star Richard Widmark died. Stop the presses -- old noir film kills!

I don't know what I'm saying anymore -- it's this crazy blog fever!

Or is it possible that the deadly effects of blogging are merely wishful thinking in the minds of the old dead tree purveyors at the Times? I wonder...

Culture: Headlines on Client 9 Fine, None Sublime

This is a draw pretty much -- the News gets the rhyming cadence and tortured spelling of vintage Post but the Post counters with simplicity and refreshing colloquialism. Oh yeah and the Times cleared up the headline from the web by pointing out that the Guv was a client. So far the only punishment Spitzer has received is the removal of his upper lip and really, isn't that enough?
Sex shame? Get real -- the world's oldest profession ought to be legal, nothing would cut down on sex trafficking and forced prostitution like registration and unionization.

Culture: Spitzer ?! I Hardly Knew Her ! Spitz Supporters in Fits Over Prostie Blitz, Impending Crix

There was a time when New Yorkers could look forward to the latest impending scandal with the glee that only Rupert Murdoch's New York Post, and more specifically it's outrageous headlines, would bring. Today The New York Times breaks the story online that embattled Governor Spitzer has been "involved" in a prostitution ring.

Now at this early stage of the game I can understand the grey lady hedging her bets by being vague, but "involved"? Or as their headline puts it -- 'linked"? It makes him sound more like a denizen of the Player's Ball then, say, hunky Richard Gere in Pretty Woman.

Depending on whether the Governor was pimp, john, book-keeper, prostitute or hired muscle, the Post would have it's choice of unsavory innuendo filled headers. Yet, sadly the Post seems to have taken a page from Murdoch's other NYC property The Wall Street Journal and toned it's front page down to a dull roar. On the other hand, the Daily News doesn't give them much competition (see below). Still -- lame photoshopping? Where are your standards?



The overall message in this still-breaking scandal is clear: New York Post, we'll be watching to see what you do tomorrow -- don't let us down!

TV: Better Late Than Never -- Kellie Pickler is Dumb as a Bag of Rocks, Foxworthy is a Pig

Ok, so this has been floating around the series of connected tubes known as the interwebs for a while now but it took the elitist New York Times to draw my snooty nose around in it's direction. This trifecta of head-slapping moments is a perfectly stormy tipping point that includes Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, American Idol winner Kellie Pickler and You Might Be a Redneck If? auteur Jeff Foxworthy. Here is living breathing proof that George W. Bush won re-election in 2004 fair and square.

Music: David Brooks Shows Us Why NYT Doesn't Charge To Read Columnists Anymore

Brooks: "Evidently the disc jockey, or deeee JAY, places a turntable on either side of him or herself and proceeds to syncopate the revolving discs rhythmically..."

David Brooks, Bush lover (of the W. variety) and all around low-watt bulb, deigned to descend from his silver cloud and offer his predigested opinion on The State of Music Today in The New York Times. Put Sasha Frere-Jones (writer of the goddamn piece that wouldn't die), The Allman Brothers, Barack Obama and roots music in the word blender and voila! Instant punditry.

E-Street band guitarist and Sopranos Lieutenant Little Steven Van Zandt also shows up to lend authenticity to the musty ideas in Brooks' column. His prescription for the fragmented state of music today? Teach rock history in school. I think Sopranos scion Anthony Junior would agree that assigning rock and pop history to high school students is anathema to all that is great and transformative about the music itself. Seriously, that's what one credit college courses are for.

Brooks: Stick to bloviating about politics where your stupidity is a known quantity.

Van Zandt: Enjoy touring with Brooooooce, bring Sil out of retirement for a sitcom, just please don't be one of those old guys moaning about the lack of history in music and music history in people. For chrissakes -- your band is the hot indie touchstone this year! Arcade Fire fans wept -- wept -- at footage of their heroes playing live with Springsteen (the big wusses!) And don't return Brooks' calls!

Design: New York's New Nouvel Springs From MOMA's Earth

The New York Times has a gushing piece on the new tower planned for the site next to the Museum of Modern Art. Though architecture ace Nicolai Ouroussoff takes the museum to task for not developing the entire parcel for their own use, he has high praise for the tower's design by Jean Nouvel comparing it to the Chrysler Building, the Woolworth Building and the Seagram Building.

The 75 story tower will house some exhibition space for MOMA as well as a hotel and apartments, and restaurants. It was commissioned by developer Hines.

Books: All Press is Good Press

The New York Times today reports that Picador books is taking a rather direct approach to selling the paperback version of Oprah-snubbing author Jonathan Franzen memoir The Discomfort Zone. Two rather nasty quotes are included in the blurbs -- both from the Times itself. Is it that people only register the blurbs as a mass of positivity without actually reading them? Or is Picador banking on anti-Timesism?

Music/ Politics: Paul Krugman -- Don't Worry About The Government

Talking Heads: "Deadline writer, fa fa fa fa fa..."

In his otherwise decent if plodding rundown of conservatism's ills in, surprise surprise, The New York Times, Paul Krugman goes way off the rails with a hackneyed Talking Heads hijack:

"Now, as they survey the wreckage of their cause, conservatives may ask themselves: “Well, how did we get here?” They may tell themselves: “This is not my beautiful Right.” They may ask themselves: “My God, what have we done?" "

Ugh. Was that really necessary Paul? Read the rest of his screed here.

Design: Herbert Muschamp, Influential and Quirky Architecture Critic, Dead at 59

Muschamp championed Edward Durell Stone's "Lollipop Building" at 2 Columbus Circle, which has since been radically altered.

Herbert Muschamp, Architecture critic for The New York Times, died yesterday of lung cancer. He was a passionate and insightful critic who loved New York deeply. His sometimes florid writing could seem over-the-top for many but his eye for detail and context was unparalleled. Here is the Times' obit. One of my favorite pieces by Muschamp and one of his most controversial is this one on 2 Columbus Circle.

Politics: Thomas Smears Hill -- Again

Justice Thomas: She had a Coke and he ain't smiling...

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who is in the midst of an unprecedented book tour, has taken the opportunity to smear the woman who almost cost him his nomination -- both in print and on 60 Minutes . Thomas, who opposes racial preferences unless they benefit him, was picked by President George H.W. Bush for the highest court in the land in 1991 and underwent a grueling round of hearings before ultimately being narrowly confirmed. One of the main issues were accusations that he sexually harassed Anita Hill when they both worked at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission -- most famously with a strategically placed pubic hair on a can of Coca-Cola. Hill has responded with this editorial in the New York Times. More to the point, Media Matters is taking on CBS' utter lack of investigative journalism in their puff piece on Thomas.

Books: Madeleine L'Engle Dies

Lost's Sawyer gets some knowledge from A Wrinkle in Time

''In my dreams, I never have an age...I never write for any age group in mind. When people do, they tend to be tolerant and condescending and they don't write as well as they can write...When you underestimate your audience, you're cutting yourself off from your best work.'' - Madeleine L'Engle

Author Madeleine L'Engle, best known for her 1963 book A Wrinkle in Time, died Thursday at the age of 88. The series of books that included Wrinkle introduced many children like myself to cerebral adventuresome science fiction. Here's a link to the wonderful obit in the Times (free registration required). It includes some wonderful facts -- The Newbury Award- winning Wrinkle was rejected by 26 publishers and her husband was a soap opera star!

Television: BET -- is their satire racist?

As The New York Times reports today (registration required) BET has a new set of animated promotions that bring to mind MTV in it's late 80's heyday of mixing music video programming with self-referential and sometimes even avant-garde promos. The question being raised is whether the satire "Read a Book" is racist? I'll let you see for yourselves.



BET is also airing the very powerful "Bid 'Em In", which acts as straight commentary. "Bid" is barely present on YouTube unlike "Read a Book". Here's a decent home recording:



I think they are both really thoughtful and wonderfully animated. I can see why some people object to "Read a Book" but I think the slap in the face nature of it is what makes it work. The commentary on the imagery and iconography in today's hip-hop is trenchant. Let me know what you think.

Art: The Dick Just Keeps on Coming -- or, Inserting Dick in Dionne Warwick's Mouth

There must be something in the air this week, perhaps an orbiting all-knowing satellite monitoring our activities and shooting a pink beam of light into our foreheads. Oh, never mind, that's just Alberto Gonzales monitoring our activities...see you in FISA court! Anyhow, this is our second Philip K. Dick item and it comes from the Gray Lady herself - The New York Times. Randy Kennedy writes about conceptual artist Sean Dack who has taken the sheet music for number one hits in the years after Philip K. Dick's death, including Dionne Warwick's gloopy "That's What Friends are For" and replaced the original lyrics with Dick's late life apocalyptic prophesies. Hilarity ensues? Maybe not -- but sometimes art ain't funny. Read the piece here. Note that you have to register on the Times if you haven't already but it's free. What's next? Total Recall II?