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Friday, April 25, 2003
Google Calling Craig Newmark | 11:07 AM
MM wants to give you a free book about scones unmarriage!
· Thanks to Craig Newmark [cohabitationation.com]
Thursday, April 24, 2003
Film School Update | 2:31 PM
Attending the reading of CBD's MFA thesis screenplay at NYU tonight. To my mind, the précis is absolute genius:
THE BALL BOY
The pretzel vendor from Boston who became a strawberry vendor at Wimbledon.
The strawberry vendor who became a ball boy.
The ball boy who defied a nation.
$5 says monkeys will somehow be involved.
Subway Update | 9:26 AM
Attention MTA passengers... Reports that the V Train would actually become useful at some point in the distant future are incorrect. Repeat, incorrect.
"I don't know where that came from," TA President Lawrence Reuter said yesterday. "We haven't studied that and we don't have the car equipment to do it if we wanted."
· V Train Tale Out of Line [nydailynews.com]
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
Radar: My Review | 2:10 PM
This is not a very good magazine.
The Age of Google | 12:56 PM
Here's another Deal Lunch goodie:
Co-founder of Wired and the Industry Standard John Battelle's THE
SEARCH: Business and Culture in the Age of Google, about the
"extraordinary company that has cracked the Internet profit barrier and is
now reinventing the advertising business," to Adrian Zackheim at
Portfolio, for publication in 2004, by Esther Newberg at ICM (world).
· Publishers Lunch [calderbooks.com]
Literature Update | 12:52 PM
Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have found James Frey's successor as Literary It Boy. From this week's Deal Lunch:
Recent Harvard graduate (and Crimson columnist) and Atlantic Monthly
editorial analyst Ross Douthat's memoir PRIVILEGE: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class, about his Harvard experience--e.g. academic life, "punching," student tensions following 9/11 and the economic recession--as well as
examining the elite culture of higher education that pays lip service to earnest ideals like diversity and public service and tolerance but in point of fact indoctrinates its students in a religion of success, to Will Schwalbe and Ben Loehnen at Hyperion, for six figures, by Rafe Sagalyn. Or, failing that:
Dubbed a "Christian Dave Eggers," Patton Dodd's MY FAITH SO FAR, a
whirlwind spiritual journey "that will resonate with all those seeking to
understand the relevance of Christianity to real life," to Mark David Kerr
at Jossey-Bass, in a nice deal, by Greg Johnson at Alive Communications
(world).
· Publishers Lunch [calderbooks.com]
UPDATE: Ross Douthat is "the nicest guy around and brilliant," sez Aaron.
· Six Figures [601am.com]
Travel Log | 10:30 AM
eatLA finally reviews R23, the excellent restaurant in the artists' loft area of downtown L.A. we enjoyed two weekends ago with the eatLA proprietor and a group of good friends. (Embarassing details about the liquid I sprayed all over my shirt have been omitted.) Email from MOP this morning indicates the West Coast dining scene continues to impress. "Had dinner at a small, quiet restaurant in Laurel Canyon tonight," he writes. "Who was at the next table directly to my left? Monica Lewinsky." (N.B. MOP's music blog Palmermix is back in overdrive after a few slow weeks.)
· R23 [eatla.blogspot.com]
Tuesday, April 22, 2003
Satellite Radio Update | 9:52 AM
Count me as a continued disbeliever in the once-nascent, ever-nascent satellite radio industry. Yesterday's Times business section weighed in with a rather chipper piece, pointing out what a genius Hugh Panero, the CEO of XM Satellite Radio (the industry leader), is, especially for his ability to raise additional financing in a tough market. Then, near the end of the rather lengthy story, comes this little tip-off:
Executives at G.M. say they threw their resources behind XM rather than Sirius largely because XM had agreed to buy satellites and related ground technology from G.M.'s Hughes aerospace and electronics subsidiaries and to work with Hughes's DirecTV satellite television unit. XM and DirecTV officials say it is too soon to tell whether the News Corporation's plan to buy control of DirecTV's parent, Hughes Electronics, will affect their relationship, which includes a joint marketing agreement and Hughes's 7 percent stake in XM. XM already broadcasts the News Corporation's Fox News and Fox Sports channels.
Bought backers aside, the article reaffirms XM's previously stated break-even level: 4 million subscribers. Its current count? 500,000. No word in the Times article (nor the XM annual report) about subscriber churn rate, which it seems important to know. The annual report does reveal that "our average subscriber acquisition cost was $116.03 during 2002"; that "during the year ended December 31, 2002... we incurred expenses of $54.1 million related to subscriber acquisition costs"; and that "Total subscription revenue during 2002 was $16.3 million." Good times... good times.
· Satellite Radio Gains Ground with Right Mix of Partners [nytimes.com]
· XM Satellite Radio Annual Report [yahoo! finance]
· XMFan [xmfan.com] "The #1 XM Radio Fan Site"... 3289 registered users
Car Talk | 9:45 AM
Anyone had experiences, good or bad, with auto repair work done by garages in the LES/East Village nexus? The ol' '89 Trooper is making some rather odd noises. Reports appreciated, and may be shared for everyone's benefit.
·
Tuesday, April 15, 2003
CueCat Update | 9:56 AM
For those who recall this delightful apex of dot-com insanity, an update on CueCat founder J. Jovan Philyaw from the Dallas Observer:
Jovan is no longer Jovan. Now he's J. Hutton Pulitzer. Does Mr. Pulitzer have anything to do with the recently announced Pulitzer Prizes? No. What does Mr. Pulitzer do? Not sure. Read his Web site www.jhuttonpulitzer.com) and see if you can figure it out. When D magazine tried to find out, mean ol' JHP just swore at the mag.
Buzz, however, is confident that there are two things we know for sure about JHP. First, we know that he's selling his crystals. What crystals, you ask? The ones that make up the Pulitzer Collection ( www.pulitzercollection.com)--a.k.a., a coupla hunks of mineral that used to adorn his offices at Digital Convergence Corp., the company that brought you the CueCat and helped send its primary investor, The Dallas Morning News, into a PR nightmare.
Don't miss his personal website, which is full of unintentional humor: "Since 1987, J. Hutton Pulitzer has been rewriting Media, Marketing, Entertainment and Publishing history." Uh, indeed.
· Crystal Clear [dallasobserver.com via romenesko]
Monday, April 14, 2003
Death by Smoking | 12:29 PM
Notes on the bizarre, sad death of a bouncer at Guernica this past weekend at the hands of a nutcase who wouldn't put out his cigarette:
1) Newsday says this most succinctly: "Friends and relatives blamed the smoking ban for what happened and angrily called for an end to the citywide policy." Our sympathies to the family, but hello?
2) Only the Daily News nailed the lowdown on the killers' drinks: "Police arrested Jonathan Chan, 29, and his brother Ching Chan, 31, who had been drinking rum and Cokes before the slayings, witnesses said."
3) Selected site descriptions: "A trendy East Village nightspot... which serves Spanish tapas and cocktails to a thumping hip-hop beat" [Daily News]; "a popular East Village nightspot known for its disc jockeys" [Newsday]; "an East Village nightclub" [Post]; "a bar on Manhattan's Lower East Side [!?!]... with a sleek curved bar and a menu of tapas" [NY Times]; "an overcrowded, unspeakably grim place that can be considered 'trendy' only insofar as it continues to attract an overconsumptive frat crowd in search of pleasures alcoholic and carnal" [lockhartsteele.com]; "My motto: Guernicas gue-arantees a good time" [ random Citysearch user]
· He's Killed Over a Smoke [nydailynews.com]
· Bouncer Fatally Stabbed [newsday.com]
· 'Cig Ban Killed Him' [nypost.com]
· Bouncer Dies, and Family Blames City's Smoking Ban [nytimes.com]
· UPDATE: Circumstances Around Death Unclear [nytimes.com]
On Metrocards | 11:59 AM
Grant Barrett offers a fascinating long-form analysis of Metrocard pricing. One part deals with a debate I have with myself every, oh, 30 days or so:
An annual rider who uses only the 30-Day Unlimited MetroCard will spend $851.90 per year. A rider who makes exactly 40 rides per month—and no more—will spend $799.48 a year if he uses nothing but the $10 and $20 discounted cards. That’s $51.72 saved throughout the year: a phone bill, school supplies, part of a wedding plan. However, just three more rides a month, to 43, would make the 30-Day Unlimited Card the better value. The cost of the $10 and $20 discount cards would increase to $869, making them more expensive at the end of the year by $19.10.
He's actively soliciting feedback on his theories.
· Exciting World of Metrocard Pricing [worldnewyork.net]
Back East | 11:56 AM
Thought, while reading the newspaper Saturday morning in a grassy backyard of a good friend's home in Santa Monica: "My, this is a rather sane approach to living." In related news, the usual insanity resumed this morning at 5:24am, when my JetBlue redeye touched down at JFK.
Thursday, April 10, 2003
La La | 2:30 PM
Off to the great city of Los Angeles for the weekend, where people have somehow learned to deal with a smoking ban. Follow along on MOP's eatLA weblog, on which he promises "real time updates" of our exploits.
· eatLA [eatla.blogspot.com]
Wednesday, April 09, 2003
War Update | 10:12 AM
We've been lax in reporting about the war, lacking that crucial "local angle" to "bring it all home." Leave it to cub war reporter Gideon Yago to help us out.
After arriving in Kuwait, Yago even explained his surroundings using MTV lingo.
"Kuwait City is dominated by its sheik, Jaber Al-Sabah, whose royal palace makes Puffy's crib in the Hamptons look like my dilapidated Lower East Side apartment."
Ah, now that we get. Perhaps this is a good place to note that last night's Real World reunion special really sucked?
· Troops Channel of Choice? MTV [nypost.com]
Monday, April 07, 2003
Referrer Log Update | 10:13 AM
As proof that the Rice to Riches phenomenon is sweeping the metropolis, results from our logs of what search terms have lured people to this space from search engines since April 1:
"rice to riches"... 105 hits
"basso est restaurant nyc"... 3 hits
"rice to riches nyc"... 3 hits
"rice to riches spring"... 3 hits
Alas, we've dropped from the tops of the Google results page for "rice to riches" to the bottom. Oblivion, dead ahead.
Yahoo! Update! | 10:09 AM
My! God! This! is! exciting!
· Yahoo! Launches! Revamped! Search! Engine! [theage.com.au]
Thursday, April 03, 2003
Believer Update | 10:11 AM
JBA emails us a good Salon take on The Believer, notably its design sensibility:
My take on Eggers is that he's an interesting and occasionally inspired writer, but his unacknowledged significance is that he's one of the most important graphic designers of his generation. In fact, although his aesthetic is fairly reactionary and at times unbearably twee, he has a rare talent for the arcane art of typesetting and publication design.
The look of the Believer, with its sophisticated attempt to professionalize the shaggy, Bay Area broadsheets of the '60s and '70s, confirms my suspicion that Eggers' goal is not to become postmodernism's answer to Bennett Cerf, but to function as an update on the 18th century "gentleman printer" -- a contemporary Ben Franklin. (Eggers, however, wants to be Franklin minus the political and scientific enthusiasms, which distracted the founding father from the altogether more fascinating business of printing.)
Indeed, this from the man that has single-handedly made the world safe for Garamond again. As the Salon writer, Matthew DeBord, notes, "There's nary a sans serif typeface in sight." We still haven't picked up The Believer. Falling behind the curve with every passing moment...
· The Believer [salon.com via jba]
· The Believer [felixsalmon.com]
Wednesday, April 02, 2003
War Update | 4:18 PM
JMD emails, "Checked ls.com today, and, before I actually read the post, I thought that Josh Albertson and Andrew Butters were debating the merits of the operation. On closer inspection, the similarities are striking." UPDATE: JMD is making a guest appearance at Palmermix this afternoon, too.
· Sweet Emotion [palmermix.com]
Comic World | 1:40 PM
In a move seen by knowledgeable observers as "an eventuality that is now an event," JVG has launched a new comic strip on his webzineblogpresence. The concept: one panel a day, drawn from his life.
· JVG: The Comic Strip [jvg.com]
· About JVG: The Comic Strip [jvg.com]
War Update | 1:37 PM
The smackdown fight between Josh (on the left) and Andrew (on the right) has heated up in the past 48 hours. Good reading... but careful, boys, don't lose an eye.
· Still More Goal Post Moving on the Right [talkingpointsmemo.com]
· Contra Josh [andrewsullivan.com]
· Tit for Tat [tpm]
· Marshall's Hyperbole [as]
· Administration Meltdown [tpm]
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