Gawker
muzak
Posts Tagged “
Questions
”
muzak
Fitness
Times Gym Teacher: Sweat Is Your Friend
I've long wondered why the New York Times, perhaps the world's most sophisticated news-gathering operation, writes articles about fitness that would be an embarrassment to a fifth-grade PE class. Really now. Times readers were certainly grateful that the paper of record brought its unparalleled resources to bear to answer imponderables like "Does Weight Lifting Make A Better Athlete?", or "Should we stretch?" But perhaps such questions would better be left to, you know, the sense god gave a rock. I know the media wants us all fat and broke so we consume more media, but come on. Well, fuck it. I give up. Today they reveal that sweat cools you off: More »
questions from the young
A young lad on his way to college posed this question today, in the above email, to our tips line (in response, we're fairly certain, to today's Lodwickgate). Honestly, it's left us a little stumped. What to tell this curious fellow about the things we carry to you every day? Perhaps we should simply tell him to drop the F out of school. Perhaps we should say that we are indeed immensely hip and that we got that way through years of calculated faking it. Somehow, those responses don't seem to satisfy such a deep and ponderous question. So we're curious, dear readers, what would you say to this chap? Do people in New York really act like this? Hell, do "people" period really act like this? We may never really know the answer, but please try to elucidate the dear boy if you can.
More »
'Do Most People In New York Really Act Like This?'
A young lad on his way to college posed this question today, in the above email, to our tips line (in response, we're fairly certain, to today's Lodwickgate). Honestly, it's left us a little stumped. What to tell this curious fellow about the things we carry to you every day? Perhaps we should simply tell him to drop the F out of school. Perhaps we should say that we are indeed immensely hip and that we got that way through years of calculated faking it. Somehow, those responses don't seem to satisfy such a deep and ponderous question. So we're curious, dear readers, what would you say to this chap? Do people in New York really act like this? Hell, do "people" period really act like this? We may never really know the answer, but please try to elucidate the dear boy if you can.
More »
magazines
Elle: Too Gay?
Fashion magazines have a female target audience. But the look of many fashion magazines is controlled, to a large extent, by gay men. Is that a problem for the magazines? It could be. The interests of the gays and fashion-conscious women overlap, but not perfectly (see the Perez Hilton empire, example A). But is it really possible for a women's fashion magazine to become too gay? A brief perusal of Elle tells us: it just might be! More »
media
The BlackBerry Continues To Destroy The Workplace
An interesting philosophical question: Should employees get paid overtime for checking their BlackBerries outside work hours? Money-grubbing writers at ABC News say "Yes." Money-grubbing executives at ABC say "No." We say: throw away your BlackBerry and it becomes a moot point. More »
race
Boy, you just know that when you see the headline "RACE-CARD JOKER DUG OWN GRAVE" above that photo of Post columnist Andrea Peyser that you are in for a treat. And she does not disappoint! Former Mets manager Willie Randolph, see, was whiny and overpaid and complained far too often that people were racist to him. When he was asked why the Mets own cable station was so mean to him all the time, he foolishly said something about how black people are held to higher standards. Or, as Peyser puts it, he "channeled Jesse Jackson and stabbed at the heart of fans, colleagues, and the entire colorblind game we call baseball." Ha, we forgot that professional sports is a post-racial utopia where white fans, owners, and media figures don't consider black athletes to be ungrateful overpaid savages. This all raises a question that the media's been really into tackling lately: why are black people so angry? In the attached clip, the noted racial experts at Fox News attempt to find the answer! More »
Who Are Black People and Why Are They So Angry?
Boy, you just know that when you see the headline "RACE-CARD JOKER DUG OWN GRAVE" above that photo of Post columnist Andrea Peyser that you are in for a treat. And she does not disappoint! Former Mets manager Willie Randolph, see, was whiny and overpaid and complained far too often that people were racist to him. When he was asked why the Mets own cable station was so mean to him all the time, he foolishly said something about how black people are held to higher standards. Or, as Peyser puts it, he "channeled Jesse Jackson and stabbed at the heart of fans, colleagues, and the entire colorblind game we call baseball." Ha, we forgot that professional sports is a post-racial utopia where white fans, owners, and media figures don't consider black athletes to be ungrateful overpaid savages. This all raises a question that the media's been really into tackling lately: why are black people so angry? In the attached clip, the noted racial experts at Fox News attempt to find the answer! More »
questions of our time
Is Celebrity Gossip Really Dead This Time?
According to one editor of a celebrity weekly, it's the "last trip to the buffet table," as Britney Spears' gurney-bound trip to the hospital signaled the end of dish. If that seems a bit ominous, it may be because there is a discernible lull in glossy-packaged brain candy. "There's nothing going on in celebrity land. There's no news, no gossip, no scandal," whined a TV producer to Liz Smith a few months back. "The Oscars showed how dull things are. People are only interested in politics." It's true. Reliable pop tarts no longer yield Google results like they once did (at left, Paris Hilton's trend chart, which shows a baseline traffic drop of about two-thirds). Here are a handful of theories about what's happened: More »
reality tv
Do Faked Reality Shows Bother You?
In Variety today, Daniel Frankely posits that television audiences don't give a hoot if their favorite reality shows are, well, slightly less than real. After all, shows like The Hills and Man vs. Wild are still very popular even though, in The Hills' case, producers of the show openly admit to staging whole conversations, or, as happened with the hotel-staying scandal for MVW, some enormous blunder reveals what's behind the curtain. Many reality television producers own up to a little plot doctoring here and there, and they don't see what all the fuss is about. "Nobody's confusing these shows with documentaries," says a producer for The Biggest Loser. A producer for Deadliest Catch, which is about Alaskan crab fishermen, agrees. "I'm not a journalist, I'm a storyteller," he says. "We never fabricate a story, but, geez, I'll use crayons if I have to in order to illustrate that story. We should be able to use the entire palette." More »
request for information
Hamptons Party Calendar
Summer is almost upon us, party people. And we're considering putting together a party calendar, so all of you know where to sneak in and scam free booze from rich people. We need YOU to email us info about highfalutin' upcoming parties in the Hamptons, and we'll do the rest. To give you a general idea of what we're looking for, here's an invitation for all of you to a Social Life Magazine party this weekend that will feature none other than Whitney Port from The Hills! OMG OMG. Send more now! More »
advertising
Do We Really Want Better Ads?
MTV Networks is having its upfronts today, where it pitches its new season to advertisers. The network is also trying to sell sponsors on its "podbusting" techniques—i.e., making commercials that are like mini-shows in themselves. The theory, of course, is that making ads more like regular programs will defeat the almighty Tivo, with content so compelling that you cannot help but watch, slack-jawed, as the hypnotic 60-second Mountain Dew Bourne Ultimatum spinoff flickers before your eyes. They're so entertaining! Way better than boring old regular commercials. In one sense, this is corporate America trying to give us what we want. But do we really want better ads? More »
scandals
Liberal Hillary Clinton Won't Get Tough On Miley Cyrus
At long last, the mainstream media stops its glad-handing of Hillary Clinton and pins down her position on the most important issue of our time: Vanity Fair's scandalous Miley Cyrus pictures. Clinton reveals that Cyrus is a "great kid," and vows that this should be a "teachable moment" for parents and children alike. Good work, ET! Then she gets interrogated about her position on Barbara Walters' affairs, her workout routine, and how great her last interview with ET really was. Why the deafening silence on these issues, Obama? Video of the interview is below. More »
Why Is This
Why. Why would anyone make this. David Brooks is admittedly the best illustration for "corporate dude" basically ever, but that is exactly why this is so terrible and wrong.
.jpg)
deep questions
Is 'Home Buying For Hipsters' Actually Just For Tools?
Like "cool," "hipster" is a multivalent word with no set definition but many different meanings. But from a real estate developers' perspective, if you live in Brooklyn, have read a Jonathan Lethem book or have gone to Studio B, you qualify. Sorry! Even so, no real hipster admits to being one. That's worse than saying you want to be cool. Which makes Home Buying For Hipsters — a monthly real estate advising meet-up with ties to the Corcoran Group — so perplexing. What tool would show up to their event tonight, which is aimed at a demographic no one would acknowledge being a part of? More »
authors
Just Answer The Fucking Question, Jonathan Franzen
Here's a video clip in which the interviewer had two very simple and specific question for Corrections author Jonathan Franzen, who famously got himself disinvited from the Oprah Book Club for being too ungrateful: Do you regret your run-in with Oprah? And would you be part of the book club if you could do it over again? To these simple questions, Franzen stares at the floor and says things like "What does regret mean?" and then remarks on the magnitude of dividing the world's opinion in two. Maybe this is the nuance necessary to be a literary titan; check out this quote of his at the time of the dispute: "To find myself being in the position of giving offense to someone who's a hero — not a hero of mine per se, but a hero in general — I feel bad in a public-spirited way." No, that's just mealy-mouthed. Yes or no question, Jonathan Franzen. The full clip, after the jump. More »
Journalistic Perversity Continues
Canadian celebrity journalist Malcolm Gladwell got in a bit of trouble recently for telling an embellished story about sneaking a funny phrase into the Washington Post. Canadian less-famous journalist Clive Thompson recently received a minuscule amount of press for admitting that he's jealous of Gladwell. This, Clive, is not the healthiest way to work through those feelings: "These tools raise a fascinating, and queasy, new ethical question." [SilverJacket]
Canadian celebrity journalist Malcolm Gladwell got in a bit of trouble recently for telling an embellished story about sneaking a funny phrase into the Washington Post. Canadian less-famous journalist Clive Thompson recently received a minuscule amount of press for admitting that he's jealous of Gladwell. This, Clive, is not the healthiest way to work through those feelings: "These tools raise a fascinating, and queasy, new ethical question." [SilverJacket]
eliot spitzer
NYT Readers Mystified By Hooker Pictures
Sedate national readers are so curious about Eliot Spitzer's sexy sex affair of illegal sex that the Times had to post a whole list of FAQ's about the story. Complete with answers! One of the most asinine questions is, "Why did The Times track down and identify 'Kristen,' the prostitute in the case?" Our answer would be, "Seriously?" But the Times, being a respectable news outlet, tells its curious old readers that the real answer is: because she's in the news. Well, why did they have to print a picture of her sexy sexiness, then? More »
Question
What happened to ed2010? The website that promised to help bright young things land their NYC editorial dream jobs has been down for a while now. Did they just become reasonable and give up? Email us with any info. [UPDATE: Turns out they got so popular that their service provider shut them down for "over access" Well, make some money, you socialists!]
What happened to ed2010? The website that promised to help bright young things land their NYC editorial dream jobs has been down for a while now. Did they just become reasonable and give up? Email us with any info. [UPDATE: Turns out they got so popular that their service provider shut them down for "over access" Well, make some money, you socialists!]
