William Gibson talks to the Paris Review: "It would be harder to accurately imagine what New York City was like the day before the advent of broadcast television than to imagine what it will be like after life-size broadcast holography comes online.... [W]e've already been there and nobody paid any attention."
A Guide to Old Media Tumblrs

The hip microblogging service Tumblr isn't just for photo blogs about dogs wearing human clothes anymore! As The New York Times writes today, it's also for media companies flailing about on the internet. Are they succeeding? Let's find out!
Graydon Carter the Poor Casting Agent's Patrician Editor-Type
Vanity Fair editor and Spy founder Graydon Carter reviewed a biography of Paris Review editor George Plimpton in the New York Times Book Review this Sunday. ("I could have been a contender [to be a Great Male Author]," Plimpton once said, "If I hadn't done the Paris Review...) Carter revealed both his admiration for…
Female Iranian Police Academy Graduates Are Fierce
In 2005 Abbas Kowsari was allowed to photograph the graduation ceremonies of female cadets graduating from Iran's police academy, and his images are featured in the fall issue of The Paris Review. Any small note of progress in a repressive society is a good thing, but the import of female cadets pales in comparison to…
Nathaniel Rich On Growing Up As A Rich Kid
Because I didn't grow up with rich, famous New York media figures for parents, who could use their connections to insert me into a choice job in the media world, I've always been in favor of banning people who do have such parents from holding those good jobs. It would make the competition for them more…
Meet the 'Paris Review's' American Apparel Model
Legendary literature magazine The Paris Review is still publishing, you know, despite the death of founding editor George Plimpton and the requisite identity crisis that followed changes introduced by new editor Philip Gourevitch (color photos! shorter poems!). One thus far unmentioned change: while the magazine used…
Who Founded the Paris Review for Reals?
Journalist and legendary party-thrower George Plimpton wasn't one of the original founders of litmagazine the Paris Review, corrects Immy Humes, daughter of H.L. "Doc" Humes. The so-called "hipster visionary neo-prophet" was among the original "instigators" of the publication. Plimpton, the first editor in chief,…
The National Magazine Awards
Doree and Nikola put on their fancy clothes last evening for the National Magazine Awards, where editors and publishers swill champagne and pat each other on the back for several hours.
At Least We Still Have 'R Blog'
The 'Paris Review' Revel 2007
Doree and Nikola headed to the Puck Building last night for a Paris Review fundraiser. Their account, and photos, follow.
There are certain ways that one announces one's place in the social pecking order. Dalton or Spence. Summers in Nantucket, winters in Palm Beach. Really all out is the board of the Metropolitan…
The New 'Paris Review': Philip Gourevitch Gets Behind the Eight-Ball
The Guardian caught up with new-ish Paris Review editor Philip Gourevitch the other day, and besides all the usual highbrow stuff he had to say about getting more reporting into the magazine ("I feel that our literature, especially the periodical fiction, is rarely up to the wildness and boldness of the times"), he…
Media Softball: 'High Times' Beats 'The Onion'; 'BizWeek' Beats 'Paris Review'
BusinessWeek's less-streaming report is after the jump.
Media Bubble: Because We Don't Hear Enough from Martha Already
• Martha Stewart to launch fashion mag. Oh, the endless opportunities for orange-jumpsuit jokes. [NYP]
• New Orleanian Doug Brinkley, who made his pundit name on his pal JFK Jr.'s death, unsurprisingly signs first Katrina book deal. [MSNBC]
• Hearst and Hachette — gasp! — work together on an ad deal. [NYT]
• What's…
More SARS
It's SARS Day at the Observer, apparently. (At Gawker, two = trend.) More celebs are asked about SARS:
· Writer Bret Easton Ellis: "Is it on 25th Street?"
· Paris Review founding editor, George Plimpton: "I m certainly going to turn away from anybody coughing, I know that...And there go all the doorknobs. Irving…
The Paris Review vs. Playboy
The New Yorker notes that the Paris Review and Playboy both turn 50 this month. (But being the New Yorker, the article is 5% Playboy and 95% Paris Review.) The article notes that Paris Review back issues were supposed to be transferred from founding editor George Plimpton's mother's garage to a warehouse in the Bronx,…