November 2008
Please Visit Your National Parks →
“Today, however, visits to the national forests are off 13 percent.
Top officials at the U.S. Forest Service blame it on circumstances outside their control — rising gas prices, the popularity of video games and the Internet, and an increasingly urban and aging population less inclined to camp out.”
- AP: National Forest visitors down, no one knows why.
(via youngmanhattanite)
...
Jersey cops sick the SWAT team on a paper cutout. I’m adding nothing.
Las Vegas: Home For The Holidays →
Even though Vegas tourists keep the local economy alive, they’re by far the worst kind: drunk, unruly, stupid, and in town to spread their diseases (typically: venereal). That being said, there are a few places I have to drop in on each time I go home to make me feel … a little more at home. Some places in Vegas simply aren’t replaceable, and they’re the few that make going...
Our Endorsement: ‘Friday Night Lights,’ Season 3 →
The third season was clearly budgeted at less than the others—big, epic, expensive music licensing moments aren’t as present as they were in seasons past. The setups and scenery aren’t as elaborate. Main characters—staples of the show’s previous seasons—are doing guest appearances for three- to four-episode arcs. Things just feel paired down. Yet instead of taking the show low, it’s the best thing...
Dude, Everybody's Saying You've Been Laid Off
Foster, author of a piece for BlackBook called “Desperate Drinking in Desperate Times,” says that ever since he and co-writer Ben published the piece, “I’ve had at least 20 calls and/or emails asking if [editor] Chris Mohney laid me off via [Blackberry message] last night.”
“This makes two things that were already totally evident even more evident: (1) people...
Life Writes Mamet-esque Ending For Mamet →
Yeah, I’m writing for Flavorpill again (take: four) and also, reluctant YM associate Spiers. Whee! No idea how or why they’re going to support me writing totally innocuous, over-insidery theater commentary (or anything-commentary), but why has anybody, ever?
Retrievers are the best.
Desperate Drinking In Desperate Times →
12:00 a.m.: I am outside having a cigarette, my last one, gazing longingly at the Beatrice, when BlackBook executive editor Chris Mohney sends me a BBM: “Sorry Foster, we let u go. Teh media/economy sux. Also, ur American Visa (both company-card and citizenship-wise) is fucked! LOLZ.” Looks like I’m going back to Canada. I begin to cry.
12:38 a.m.: My other media friends—who’ve also been laid...
MTA to NYC: Pay More, Ride Less, Drop Dead →
● Job cuts: “More than 1,500,” including (but not limited to) a bunch of drivers, conductors, and subway service agents. Con: More tourists asking you for directions, since they can’t find a professional to ask. Nobody to scream at when your Metrocard does an “empty scan” (i.e. uses a “ride” but doesn’t let you through the gate). More freakish, subterranean civil unrest—that crazy shit you see on...
PS. I’m sure it’s already been talked about plenty, but Dorota’s cell phone ringing “I’m A Slave (2 U)” is totally brilliant.
Frank Owen Calls the Cops on Steve Lewis →
chrismohney:
CRISIS
(via bbook)
I just, I can’t even explain this. I mean, I could try, but you don’t want me to. Needless to say, it’s an exciting day at work when one of your feature columnists is (kind of, not really) on the lam. Update! Beef sqaushed! Except for the possible showdown at the Time-Warner Center tomorrow!
ProblemSourcing
As in, I’m giving you my shit to do.
Does anybody know any writers in Colorado who knows, say, Aspen and/or Vail? Hit me up.
Marnie Stern vs. Lil’ Mama - “Absorb...
Stuff White People Like: Children.
ninety9:
Well, not so much.
Okay, this is easily among the worst news items I’ve ever read.
The Return of Great Hip Hop Comedy →
Hip hop comedy — once a thriving genre that opened up a portal for the stiff and uninformed to get involved with hip hop — is now a dead art. In Living Color’s only alive on DVD, Mad TV’s pithy attempts are now a bad, distant memory, and Chappelle’s Show’s sad, unfortunate demise still being mourned. All we have left are Saturday Night Live’s occasional...
OH NO YOU DIDN'T
You fucked with the Gays. And then you fucked with the Jews.
But that’s okay. Because this administration and the next eight years are going to (ideally) spread church so far from state that by the time the next Republican majority comes around you’re going to need to create some kind of gooch-like intermediary policy/translation group to even put the two things within telescopic...
Is it just me...
soupsoup:
or has Gawker basically become a recap of what was on Tumblr two days ago?
Is it just me
or have I heard this line before?
or is Tumblr basically becoming a recap of what was on Tumblr twenty times before?
Brooklyn Vegan’s newest weekly feature, “It’s Not Selling Out Anymore—This Week in Music Licensing” is an awesome roundup of all the places the bands you’re listening to are being uber-commoditized.
Not that this is anything new; bands have been getting commercial and television licensing deals since long before The O.C. gave Alexandra Patsavas a multimillion dollar...
One of the best DJ’s in America—KCRW/Morning Becomes Eclectic’s Nic Harcourt—is stepping down. Get in while he’s still around and give it a listen; I promise, you will not regret it.
Ra Ra Riot - Anthony
Who’s that kid over...
With News Of Obama Victory Arcade Fire Announces...
soupsoup:
(via michaelorell)
final words for the night. then bed.
the phrase struck me like lightening. i knew it when i heard it, immediately, there, the power of it. maybe it’d been said before, probably somewhere, somehow, with more bombast than the occasion had called for, and i hadn’t heard them then. but i heard them tonight, and now, i’m presenting them here in the least flashy way possible, sans...
Hop On The Bus, Gus →
FiveThirtyEight, my make-a-wish for today is that Nate Silver could run a prediction scenario, here. Think about it: a few sad Facebook updates; some outraged Tumbling. They would sit in a bar for one night, cry, maybe, and wait for the next election to come around so they can give it another shot. This isn’t pessimism, it’s not cynicism. It’s sure as shit, time tested and true....