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bright ideas
shut up, brooklyn
Even if the Brooklyn Literary Scene is dead, or as Colson Whitehead put it, annoying and irrelevant, there still are a lot of writers kicking it in the borough of churches. In today's New York Observer, Fort Greene's own Doree Shafrir made an extensive list of the Brooklyn literarati, including neighborhood listings. Not to sound like an asshole, but even I didn't know about some of the writers and editors on the list. The Observer's non-college educated readership will be totally lost. More »
Gawker Stalker For The Ultra-Literary Set
Even if the Brooklyn Literary Scene is dead, or as Colson Whitehead put it, annoying and irrelevant, there still are a lot of writers kicking it in the borough of churches. In today's New York Observer, Fort Greene's own Doree Shafrir made an extensive list of the Brooklyn literarati, including neighborhood listings. Not to sound like an asshole, but even I didn't know about some of the writers and editors on the list. The Observer's non-college educated readership will be totally lost. More »
writers
One Minor Flaw In Chris Hitchens' Sexiness
If you've been harboring fantasies of sleeping with portly British provocateur Christopher Hitchens, hold on just a minute: he snores. It's hardly his biggest personal flaw (educated guess), but he does manage to crank out thousands of words on his snoring affliction for Men's Vogue, as part of his ongoing quest to pre-empt any and all criticisms of himself so that he can continue to talk bad about whatever he likes in peace. Here, his long-suffering (educated guess, again) wife describes the experience of a Hitchens family slumber: More »
socialites
Derek Blasberg, Barbara Bush, And Hockey
Page Six's item earlier this week about first daughter Barbara Bush's attendance at a New York Rangers game, and the accompanying wholly unsubstantiated speculation that maybe she's dating a Rangers player, prompted a sports blogger to engage in some journalism (take that, Washington Post!). He dug deep in the photo archives and uncovered the haunting connection between Barbara Bush and the hockey team: Style.com writer, socialite, and Fifth Column Of The Gaydom Derek Blasberg! More »
media
Stuff Happening To Magazines, Say Magazine People Again And Again
Be forwarned, youngsters: the magazine industry has no room for you any more. Also, it can't find you! You're all out there working on the blogs and not learning how to do real journalism. Which makes you suck! "These people don't leave their fucking laptops," says elderly writer Gay Talese. "It used to be, you would go outside." My, how things change for the Gay. The Observer's attempt to capture the magazine freelancing zeitgeist in article form is written by former Gawker blogger Doree Shafrir, a fact which does not seem to register with the irony-proof older generation quoted therein. So the aspirational young magazine crowd either succeeds quickly or withers away into bitterness at the closed doors of the industry, while old veterans of top-tier magazines grow increasingly out of touch and bemoan every little change since their golden days. Isn't this how things have always been? More »
anne rice
Vampire Woman Worships Undead God
Anne Rice, the author of all those books about Vampires (including the one that they turned into that Tom Cruise/ Brad Pitt movie with the twin themes of latent homosexuality and glorification of the dark side), has opened up to the world about her bizarre and stunning deity worship [WP]. The famed creator of monstrosities publicly proclaims her allegiance today to a strange "God Man" who supposedly performed impossible miracles in days long past. Now, the Dracula-loving storyteller has "consecrated" herself to this mythical "Jesus"—who can die and revive himself at will—and nothing will change her mind about his magical powers. The bloodsucking aficionado will not abandon her hallucinatory reasoning for anyone! More »
politics
How Much are Writers Donating to Campaign 08?
And to whom? For example, Bright Lights, Big City novelist Jay McInerney donated $2,300 to Giuliani. (Oh, Jay. You're still cute, though). Vampire-novelist Ann Rice? $4,600 to Hillary Clinton. The list, compiled by Nick Antosca, after the jump. (In case you're wondering which candidate, say, Jonathan Safran Foer, Judy Blume, or Dave Eggers is supporting financially. Hint: Dean Koontz is supporting some crazies). More »
the late shift
Writers Do Matter! (Sorta)
Ever since the late night talk shows returned to the air, Leno has been beating Letterman in the ratings, as he has for a good dozen years. This despite Leno still working without his writers (a terrible, uncomfortable sight), all of whom are still on strike. Letterman's production company's deal with the WGA gave him back his staff, but hasn't awarded him a ratings edge—until Monday! "In the overnight ratings, measuring the country's 65 largest cities, Mr. Letterman had a 4 rating on Monday to Mr. Leno's 3.8. (Each point is worth 787,659 households.)." Of course, Leno still won the first half-hour. But once they brought the guests out, Letterman had America's favorite Oscar-whoring not-funny-anymore superstar Tom Hanks! Leno had Ron Paul. Enough to win an unscientific online poll, yes, but not to beat Forrest Gump in Nielsen households. So writers finally have some proof that their contributions are important! Specifically, their contribution of a sad picket line that SAG members and bleeding-heart superstars will hopefully continue to refuse to cross. [NYT]
Should striking WGA members really be writing on the internet over at HuffPo—in other words providing free content for new media? We say no, mostly because the majority of the striking writers blogging over there are so God-awful boring compared to the drama on the streets of Hollywood. [HuffPo]
williamsburg
Remainders: Williamsburg Water Taxi Brings Cookies, I-Bankers, Terror
• The Water Taxi comes to Williamsburg, bringing with it a level of comfort for Wall Streeters and a newfound terror for the hipsters who've fought so hard to delay the inevitable. [NYS]• Pam Anderson and Kid Rock are getting married. Honeymoon videotape of their threesome with the dude from Creed obviously TK. [Us Weekly]
• Gene Simmons drools on a celebrity weekly reporter, publicist fails to apologize, world keeps on turning (barely). [M2tv]
• Your guide to the great Author Portraits of our time. Joan Didion, you will always rule. [Jane]
• More Fabian Basabe than anyone should ever be forced to endure. [JuliaAllison]
• That whole mess with Israel and Hezbollah? Ain't nothing but a gizmo. [Jew School]
• Vote for the hottest gay journalist: what wouldn't we give to see the Coop and Daily Newser Chris Rovzar mud-wrestle for the tiara. [Left Behinds]
• Cranky Media Guy Simon Dumenco can go on and on about what's wrong with America's Got Talent — but if that's how he wants to deal with his disturbingly hot David Hasselhoff fantasies, then so be it. [AdAge]
• How sad is D.C.? So sad that residents will try to raise $20K just to get K-Fed to come by and liven things up a bit. [Circomlocuter]
• The life cycle of the Party Girl, as told by Kristen Cavalleri, Lindsay Lohan, Tara Reid, Pam Anderson, Janice Dickinson, and Keith Richards. [BWE]
books
Harper Lee's Oprah Essay: Actually, Not So Terrible
It must be 15 years, at least, since we last read To Kill a Mockingbird. But it's a mere few weeks since we read Thomas Mallon's New Yorker review of the new Harper Lee biography, and from that review we learned that the admiring world had been wrong for all these years. Lee is, the review told us, in fact an atrocious writer. So when we learned this morning that Lee had published in her first piece of writing in several millennia, we were eager to get our hands on it. We wanted to see if, without the distraction of Gregory Peck's strong-chinned virtue, we'd finally see Lee's writing for the drivel it is. We went to the corner newsstand and we sucked it up and for the first time ever, we bought O, The Oprah Magazine. And we discovered that Lee's piece (click on it above to enlarge), while as tritely uplifting as an open letter to Winfrey would have to be, is also a perfectly fine, reasonably well-turned essay. We found this a tremendous relief. More »
books
But Will Harper Lee Help Oprah Hunt Down Child Predators?
80-year-old Harper Lee hasn't given an interview in 40 years and, with the exception of a 1983 book review, she hasn't published anything in the same stretch of decades — but if there's anyone to pull the woman out of hiding, it's motherfucking Oprah. (OMG OPRAH SHE'S JUST THAT GOOD WE LOVE YOU.) For O mag's July "special summer reading" issue, Lee has written a piece, in letter form, about becoming a reader in Depression-era Alabama, when her parents and older siblings would read her stories and newspaper items every day. She writes, "Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books." More »
panels
Tickets So Hot, They Can't Even Give 'Em Away
It's come to our attention that one of Mediabistro's ever-helpful panels may not be selling too well, the irony being that for once, it seemed like a not-horrid event. Rather than learning how to pitch AutoWeek, this event was a gathering of mildly interesting journos-cum-writers to talk about making the change from magazine whore to book whore. Just a thought, but if the arguably unboring gatherings aren't selling, could it be the first, tiny sign of the death of the media panel? And if so, how long until Michael Wolff keels over? More »
radar
The Re-Re-Radaring: Maer Keeps His Friends Close and His Enemies Closer
Radar chief Maer Roshan has never been known to be the most understanding subject when reporters break pieces of news he doesn't necessarily want broken, or with a spin he doesn't particularly want spun. So he was no doubt less than tickled with WWD media guru Jeff Bercovici back in March, when Jeff uncovered the news that Maer's beleaguered mag was set to be resurrected once again. Savor this irony, then: We're now hearing — just as a rumor, mind you, but from more than one person — that Bercovici is in talks with the Radarites to join the mag, should it ever launch. It's a clever way for Maer to control some of his coverage, eh? More »
village voice
The ever-helpful Jim Romenesko points us to news out of Florida today that the Village Voice has actually — who'd have thunk it? — hired somebody. It's not for the EIC position, alas; it's a new writer. It seems that Sean Gardiner, currently a courts reporter at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, will be coming to our fair city to cover the justice system here. Bob Norman of New Times Broward-Palm Beach, who breaks the news, also gets some comment from Gardiner on why he's making the move. It's mostly because the guy wants a chance to do longer-form journalism but there are other reasons, too:
More »
Shocking: The 'Voice' Successfully Hires Someone!
The ever-helpful Jim Romenesko points us to news out of Florida today that the Village Voice has actually — who'd have thunk it? — hired somebody. It's not for the EIC position, alas; it's a new writer. It seems that Sean Gardiner, currently a courts reporter at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, will be coming to our fair city to cover the justice system here. Bob Norman of New Times Broward-Palm Beach, who breaks the news, also gets some comment from Gardiner on why he's making the move. It's mostly because the guy wants a chance to do longer-form journalism but there are other reasons, too:
More »
neil strauss
Never Forget Who You Really Are, Neil Strauss!
Ever since he published The Game, his inside account of the secret society of pick-up artists, bestselling author Neil Strauss has been spending less time as writer who helps folks like Jenna Jamison and Motley Crue write their biographies. Instead, Strauss has transformed himself into some sort of shiny-headed self-help guru for dateless dudes everywhere, holding seminars in his living room for those lonely souls willing to enroll in his pick-up artist programs. Now he's gone and made himself a YouTube commercial showing just how far he's come as a player. More »
writers
The Secret Lives of (Some) Writers
Rick Marin and Ilene Rosenzweig — a married pair of New York writers, he formerly a Times style scribe and the author of Cad, she formerly a Times style editor and the author, with Cynthia Rowley, of the Swell books — are leaving Manhattan with their family for first the Hamptons and then Los Angeles. They had a farewell party in their Flatiron apartment last night, and it was not so much the expansive space or the high design or the fountain of flowing chocolate or even the amazing views that got us. The ice sculptures of the amazing views are what ultimately made us realize: Writers get to live like this? More »
james frey
