Gawker: Hope

Gawker Friend Aaron Jamison Is Joyous to the End

Hamilton Nolan — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 13:03:44 EDT

Terminal cancer patient Aaron Jamison has hung on longer than anyone expected. We first met him last year, when he was selling ad space on his cremation urn in order to help his soon-to-be-widowed wife pay the bills. You, the generous Gawker readership, helped them out. Earlier this summer, we heard that Aaron did not have much time left. He's made it this far, but his situation is grave. More »

Watch Kids React In Disgust To Rebecca Black's 'Friday'

Seth Abramovitch — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 22:26:51 EDT

Here's an antidote to that sad, helpless feeling you get every time you hear Rebecca Black's unkillable ode to hebdomadal cycles, "Friday." In it, a group of brave, young test subjects submit to a screening of the infamous video that turned Black into our generation's biggest anti-star, then answer questions on what they've just seen. The results are reassuring, to say the least. Even the one little girl who actually liked it compares it to "a dessert with a pig on top." We might be leaving the planet in good hands, folks! [The Fine Bros] More »

Confessed Castration Murderer Pleads 'Not Guilty'

Hamilton Nolan — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 09:21:13 EST

Renato Seabra (pictured), the Portuguese model who confessed to attacking, stabbing, bludgeoning, and castrating his companion, fashion journalist Carlos Castro, in order to "get rid of demons," is pleading not guilty. His optimistic attorney promises "a vigorous defense." [Photo via] More »

Trapped Chilean Miner's Wife Has Baby

Max Read — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 22:01:00 EDT

The wife of one of the 33 trapped Chilean miners gave birth to a baby girl, named Esperanza, or "Hope." Ariel Ticona, the miner, had promised to be in the delivery room. His wife, Elizabeth Segovia, will probably forgive him. More »

Wyclef Has the Hope Thing Down

Hamilton Nolan — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:36:26 EDT

Wyclef's still insisting that he will be cleared to run for president of Haiti. Sure. More »

Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange Dodges Feds In New York

Adrian Chen — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:06:00 EDT

Well, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's reemergence from hiding didn't last long. He was scheduled to be the keynote speaker at a New York hacking convention today. Homeland Security agents showed up, Assange got spooked and cancelled his appearance. More »

Please Tell Us This is the Beginning of the End for Sarah Palin

Ravi Somaiya — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 12:16:34 EDT

Sarah Palin. We find her fascinating. Idiots also find her fascinating. Or do they? Her Fox News special, Sarah Palin's Real American Stories, got fewer viewers than the show it replaced. People switched over as the program went on. [HuffPo] More »

Lying 'Hope' Poster Artist Shepard Fairey Under Investigation for Lying

Adrian Chen — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:57:23 EST

It sucks when news that you're under criminal investigation comes out during your civil trial. A judge in Shepard Fairey's legal fight with the AP today revealed that the lying Obama "HOPE" poster artist is being investigated for, yep, lying. More »

Have You Been to the Mountaintop Today?

Hamilton Nolan — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 09:00:16 EST

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. day. Let's all take the day off from killing each other. More »

The Only Qualification for Teen Vogue Interns

Hamilton Nolan — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:08:02 EDT

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Teen Vogue is cannily taking advantage of the widespread yearning to work in fashion by publishing a new "Handbook" which says—we're paraphrasing—"You will fail. Fashion sucks." But the NYT digs up one solitary useful piece of advice. More »

One Gracious Woman Keeps Men's 'Magic Love Scent' Hopes Alive

Hamilton Nolan — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:11:01 EDT

"Pheromone"-infused body wash to lure the ladies: Pretty fucking stupid bit of pseudoscience, honestly. But the New York Times will turn this city upside down to find a lady seduced by pheromones' sexy powers! More »

Shady Obama Barber Pushes Gray-Hair Story

Ryan Tate — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:36:33 EST

Barack Obama's barber "Zariff" has no last name and is suddenly in all the papers explaining that the president has GENUINE gray hair after just 44 days in office. Why? More »

Anxious, Critically-Panned Manhattanite Wins PEN/Faulker Award

Ryan Tate — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 06:28:12 EST

No more excuses, blocked novelists: A shrink convinced nervous London lawyer Joseph O'Neill to follow his novel-writing dream. Ten years on, he took the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. More »

Barack Obama Tells Us Who's President Now

Gabriel Snyder — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:28:29 EST

Sure, the inauguration is twelve days away, but Barack Obama's speech today was his most public declaration that he's in charge and (Lord help us all) knows the way out of the financial apocalypse. More »

Obama Inaugural Will Probably Kill You, Congress Promises

Ryan Tate — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 00:00:59 EST

To discourage people from actually attending Barack Obama's presidential inauguration, the Democratic Congress is promising the ceremony will be hell on Earth, like Katrina, except planned by Congress. More »

Colin Powell Slams Rush Limbaugh

Ryan Tate — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:37:38 EST

As usual, Colin Powell is the first to say what other prominent Republicans are only thinking: The eloquent endorser of Barack Obama now warns that conservative media linchpin Rush Limbaugh is destroying the movement. More »

DC To Celebrate Change With Mass Public Intoxication

Pareene — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:37:50 EST

Washington DC is already the most fun place in the world, what with its many free museums, intoxicated douchebags in popped collars, and Sassiest Boy in America Ian Svenonius. But for one magic week, next month, when the city is choked with hundreds of thousands more tourists than usual, you will be able to drink all night long. The DC City Council approved a 5 a.m. bar close! More »

National Book Awards Has Only Happy People On Wall Street

Ryan Tate — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 01:07:57 EST

They say human happiness depends largely on your position (social, economic) relative to those around you, an axiom that would explain why the bunch of struggling New York writers at the National Book Awards on Wall Street seemed so giddy in press reports about the "determined... party." "Our dinner here is larger than it's been in five years... we have an afterparty (with) 300, 400 people coming," the executive director of the foundation behind the gala told GalleyCat (video after the jump). Call it the awards' year of hope, then, particularly with the hopey president-elect getting a shout-out in several speeches and an African American author taking home the nonfiction prize for the first time since 1991. A short (fun!) video and winners after the jump. More »

Let's Watch Obama Turn Europeans Against One Other

Ryan Tate — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 23:39:56 EST

It's been fun to watch the American press covering how foreigners react to Barack Obama. First we heard how nominee Obama was inspiring the black working class in Europe, along with fashionistas. Then president-elect Obama became the toast of the global intelligentsia, for his expected foreign policy changes. But now some little feuds are opening up across the Atlantic that will allow U.S. newspapers to give readers what they crave: A chance to laugh at sad, bickering Euros. Based on what the Times of London is saying, we foresee some front-page coverage! More »

UK Reporter Drunk on Hope, Booze

Pareene — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:06:16 EST

This is Adam Smith, "also known as Steve Zacharanda," in Chicago on Election Night. He is a reporter for the Birmingham Mail, a newspaper in the UK. He's just been approached by a friendly Dutch person with a video camera. He seems to be filing a story, and he's definitely been drinking. Please watch his hilarious reportorial style—"I'm just a little bit pissed.... Thank god for the BBC, because I'm cutting and pasting, baby!"—after the jump. More »

Obama Redeems Hipsters And All Of Us, Too

Hamilton Nolan — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:40:53 EST

I watched the election results last night at a big shiny CNN party surrounded by flat screen TVs and media people in suits. Sure, there were free mozzarella sticks and lots of cheering, but Lou Dobbs was there too, and when the Obama victory came through I wished that I was out in the streets surrounded by hundreds of crazy cheering hopeful people. And I found that very thing on Bedford Ave. in Williamsburg, the geographic heart of all we mock. Hipsters, it was your finest moment. And you can't help but believe that when the amorphous hipster mob takes to the street for democracy while a grim Lou Dobbs climbs silently into his pajamas somewhere across town, brighter days are ahead. God bless America. More »

Obama To Not Blow Everything On Daily Show, Probably

Ryan Tate — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:51:40 EDT

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A media pool report on Barack Obama's Daily Show taping indicated he handled the appearance with his usual calm rationality and didn't blow everything with an ill-advised gaffe, as nervous nellies (or anyone who has tracked Democratic presidential nominees for the past, oh, two decades) might worry he would. According to the Daily News' Mike McAuliff, the candidate (wisely!) wouldn't even indulge a joke about old people in Florida: More »

Palin Boys' Rage And 'Unraveled Dreams'

Ryan Tate — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 09:00:05 EDT

Times food writer Kim Severson spends her time these days not with restaurateurs but in Alaska, where her background at the Anchorage Daily News has suddenly become a very valuable asset. Severson today reeled in a tasty scoop: Confirmation, first, that Levi Johnston, the teen father who is marrying into Sarah Palin's family, has in fact dropped out of high school, as rumored, amid slipping grades and unwelcome pressure from his family to play hockey. Severson also delivered the most credible explanation yet for why Track Palin, son of the Republican vice presidential nominee, enlisted in the Army. The rumor mill had him caught up in a drug bust, or perhaps nailed for vandlizing some school buses, and under pressure to join as a corrective. It sounds, for now at least, like the reality is more mundane, if still quite sad. It seems Track, a top Wasilla hockey prospect prone to rink rage, met his fate on the ice: More »

Barack Obama's Gift To European Models

Ryan Tate — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 05:24:28 EDT

Here in America, Barack Obama spends most of his time insisting he is a non-terrorist, American-born Christian who doesn't hate white people, and who impregnated his wife only after they got married. Sad. But in Europe the Democratic presidential candidate is actually producing uhhh, what's it called — CHANGE. And HOPE. French newspaper Le Monde credited Obama with "stirring up high hopes" among French blacks, while the Times said Obama "hastened... a new black consciousness there." And today fashion writer Cathy Horyn reveals that Obama helped inspire a forthcoming issue of Italian Vogue with all-black models, including Naomi Campbell, pictured at left in a shot from the issue. The idea, executed by photographer Steven Meisel, was to highlight inequality in the fashion industry: More »

Obama Will Be Rupert Murdoch's Next Tony Blair

Pareene — Thu, 29 May 2008 11:20:45 EDT

Lovable media mogul Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corp, has been going around predicting a landslide victory for the Democrats this November and also big-upping Senator Barack Obama—he called Obama a "superstar" and a "complete phenomenon" at a conference yesterday. He apparently nudged his pet tabloid the New York Post toward an Obama endorsement in the New York primaries (despite his early attempts at making friendly with the Clintons). And as the Post goes, so goes, well, other News Corp holdings. So maybe Fox News will let up on Barry a bit? They've never been terribly friendly to McCain anyhow. But why would this noted conservative tyrant endorse Mr. Liberal Hope? He's done it before—with a friendly little weasel named Tony Blair. More »

Plagiarism Scandal Taints Dem Debate

Pareene — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:47:31 EST

Did you watch the Clinton/Obama debate last night? We didn't! But apparently it went like this: Hillary was all "Obama is a plagiarist hope you can Xerox lol" and the crowd sorta booed but the media decided it was the best zinger ever and Obama was ok but no zingers at all! And Hillary had a rousing and inspiring closing speech that she totally plagiarized from "Lonesome" John Edwards as the following YouTube clip clearly shows. More »