March 2011
1 post
February 2011
3 posts
Intelligent Life's Winter Issue: "The Ballerina... →
“When Peru’s most wanted man was captured in 1992, a young ballerina went to jail too, for harbouring him at her studio. The story was turned into a novel and film, “The Dancer Upstairs.” This year, the author of the novel, Nicholas Shakespeare, flew to Lima to meet the dancer at last—and to ask her whether she was guilty…”
Wonderful, wonderful article from The Economist’s...
“I want my reporters to reject the false idea that you simply poll people at both...”
– Peter Goodman, the business editor of the Huffington Post, hits it on the head here.
“There are a thousand things we could be doing each day, and it’s my job to...”
– prioritization is definitely one of the most important things to be done in a startup
Jack (via brycedotvc)
Great quote. Smart guy. This is the hardest thing to do at foursquare too. (via dpstyles)
This is my new mantra.
January 2011
1 post
December 2010
3 posts
What I've Learned Since Yesterday Morning
I am apparently too shifty to be selected for a trial jury. Whoda thunk it??
(Furtively trying to catch up on all I’ve missed these past 2 days.)
“The two great American literary forms are the sermon and the sales pitch.”
– Lewis Lapham, to The Morning News. [Via here.]
November 2010
3 posts
“If you get to go to one fancy party in your life, or if you go to five hundred,...”
– So, so true.
(From Chiara Atik’s farewell column for Guest of a Guest, see here.)
The New Yorker: "What Does Procrastination Tell Us... →
A wonderful article by James Surowiecki that I’ve — ironically — been procrastinating in putting up here.
October 2010
7 posts
“To “spike” a story is to eliminate it before it sees print…If...”
– Via the Washington Post.
I never knew about the origins of this journo-word, but — now that I do — I really, really want one of those spikes for my office desk. (Put aside the fact for now that I’d inevitably injure myself somehow on it.)
“To me, the reason this episode is called “Tomorrowland” is because...”
– “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner dissects the season finale for New York Magazine. This comment resonates a little.
One of the things I make sure to look for on my birthday each year is the “birthday horoscope” in the New York Post, which attempts to sketch out what awaits you the next 365 days. This year’s:
“If you think big and act big you’ll accomplish big things between now and your next birthday. There may be the occasional failure but that’s okay— in fact, it’s good. Failure is just a stepping...
“The great underdogs tend to be tricksters, showing up the powerful, and like...”
– From By Kári Tulinius’ wonderful essay, “Why Do We Root for Underdogs?”
“You’d be surprised at how easily I turn it off when I go home…The...”
– Jon Stewart shares with NPR how he achieves his work/life balance.
“After all, Facebook, like Zuckerberg, is a paradox: a Web site that celebrates...”
– David Denby in the New Yorker. Change “Facebook” to “Tumblr” and “Zuckerberg” to “Karp” and….
“No one knows what the future of technology holds, but we can be confident it...”
– Great essay in The Economist’s quarterly Intelligent Life about the rise of the acronym— and especially its pervasiveness in corporate culture.
September 2010
8 posts
Two Ways I'm Like David Axelrod
From Noam Scheiber’s great look in The New Republic on what is causing Obama’s chief strategist, David Axelrod, some disillusionment of the Washington “culture”— although he knew the place was trouble to begin with:
A very idealistic streak: “He does not see politics as the art of the transaction. He sees it much more in a human context, that people are motivated by...
“The most intriguing phrase Simon has used regarding “The Wire” is to...”
– The New York Review of Books takes a wonderful and insightful look at the resonating themes of “The Wire.” God, what I might give for another season of this show…
2 tags
I'll Take This as a Good Omen
I spy three morarch butterflies outside my window, in the garden below, right now.
“The first rule of politics, kiddo: Never let the truth get in the way of a good...”
– One of my favorite lines from the upcoming HBO series ”Boardwalk Empire.” This series is going to take the place of “The Wire” in my heart, I think, based on what I’ve seen— it’s first-class all the way.
“Look back over the past decade. How many films have approached the moral...”
– A.O. Scott, “Are Films Bad, or Is TV Just Better?” (via editorlisa)
Best article I’ve read today.
Doorman at Porch Bar tonight: “Pretty sure I don’t need to see your ID, sir.” Ouch, that left a mark.
August 2010
18 posts
“When I landed at The Wall Street Journal I had coffee with then Deputy Managing...”
– The above is adapted from a goodbye note written by well-respected reporter Suzanne Craig, who is moving from the Wall Street Journal to the New York Times. The full text appeared this afternoon on Talking Biz News (and I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that dwarf-tossing is also...
Great.
Can’t fall asleep. The 2 a.m. bedtimes I’ve been holding myself to during my vacation are going to make for an unpleasant day tomorrow.
“The only advertisement for your services, the only thing anybody really knows...”
– This is probably the best article I’ve read on the art of writing in a long, long while. I’m going to be coming back and reading this again.
Vanity Fair’s Bryan Burroughs is a master of the long-form narrative, and he deconstructs his craft over at Nieman Storyboard. His take on...
“I think it is a sad commentary on much of our culture that most of us think of...”
– I think Sidney Harman, the new owner of Newsweek, is dead-on with his thoughts here.
(Via the New York Times.)
Vanity Fair: "Washington, We Have a Problem: How... →
On the heels of the New Yorker article two weeks comes another mammoth and eye-opening read on the place Rahm Emanuel calls “F***nutsville.”
My favorite tidbit from the article, besides some of the comments from Emmanuel and Axelrod:
A lobbyist friend of mine—who previously worked on the staffs of two Senate Republicans—recently, and ruefully, summed up how the system now works. My...
My Moral Quandry of the Day →
Sigh…I probably won’t take the umbrella.
“Hey, put the cellphone down for a while
In the night there is something wild...”
– I think the lyrics to Arcade Fire’s song “Deep Blue” might be appropriate for some reason today.
(This has become my favorite song from the new album, incidentally— love the pianowork and distorted guitars meshing in and out.)
“[K2 climbers Rolf Bae and Cecilie Skog] shared in their love for the outdoors...”
– A line from Graham Bowley’s epilogue in “No Way Down,” a tragic nonfiction account of the 2008 K2 disaster.
Note to Self
Drinking with John Carney can possibly lead to an altogether unrelated injury.
(Also, you’re old.)
Nothing Makes Me Happier...
…than two friends — who you know separately — finally meet after you have long conspired for them to do so. And that the resulting photo shows them in bathrobes (no, no— not like that way you’re thinking of at all).
Tumblr Milestone
I just passed 150 followers. I know you’re likely to laugh at that puny number of people I’ve attracted to my erratic scribblings, but I’d just like to point out that those people who do follow me are reportedly very intelligent, very witty and extremely good looking.
(Yes, I stole that joke from another. If you don’t like it, unfollow me.) (Please don’t.)
The Atlantic: "What Jay Rosen Reads" →
Sometimes I wish my media diet was as hardcore as Jay Rosen’s.
Arcade of Fire— “Crown of Love”
...
“Now the cities we live in could be distant stars
And I searched for you in...”
– A lyric from Arcade Fire’s “Suburban Wars,” one of the stand-out tracks from the new albums (in stores tomorrow!).
July 2010
23 posts
I Wish I Had a Tiny Little Newspaper...
…because a tiny little fruitfly keeps dive bombing me today in my TV room, and I’m not able to kill the damn thing. Very, very frustrated.
“To err is to wander, and wandering is the way we discover the world; and, lost...”
– From Kathryn Schulz’s new book, “Being Wrong,” which is described as looking “at how human error can transform our perceptions of the world and of ourselves.”
“[F]irst, you walk into the room with the CEO and you hit the key issues. Then...”
– How Tom Donohue, the leader of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, draws money from donors.
The kicker to the above, as told by a former lobbyist for the trade organization:
“The lobbyist, who’d been trained well by Donohue, leaned forward and stared at me as I sat listening. I became nervous....
Yesterday and Today
Yesterday, I rose at 4 a.m. to travel to our national’s capitol. I got home around 1 a.m., and fell asleep an hour later on my couch. That’s 22 hours awake after a supremely busy week, so I must win some kind of booby prize.
And so, for some odd reason, I find myself dead tired today— and unable to leave the sanctity of my couch.
If I were smarter, I might find some type of...
Bill Murray Continues to Be Bill Murray as Bill... →
(via baxterp2)
Bill Murray Week > Shark Week.