Interesting Read.

Op-ed: Cause of Death Determined for Print Media:

"The problem newspapers face isn't that they didn't see the internet coming. They not only saw it miles off, they figured out early on that they needed a plan to deal with it, and during the early 90s they came up with not just one plan but several. One was to partner with companies like America Online, a fast-growing subscription service that was less chaotic than the open internet. Another plan was to educate the public about the behaviors required of them by copyright law. New payment models such as micropayments were proposed. Alternatively, they could pursue the profit margins enjoyed by radio and TV, if they became purely ad-supported."

Interesting idea.

Plan unveiled to hire 50 laid-off journalists to teach "news literacy" to non-journalism college majors | Media Giraffe:

"Stony Brook University unveiled on Friday a plan to hire 50 laid-off journalists to undergo training this summer and join dozens of U.S. university campuses in the fall to teach 'news literacy' to non-journalism majors."

Open Mouth, Insert Tomahawk

Mlb: James Parr's Not Buying Into All This Obama Hype:

"Since SI's had a history with Atlanta Braves pitchers saying some potentially incendiary things and if you're a professional athlete who plays for that team who's anti-Obama, well, you must be racist, SI cautiously asked him to expand on this comment.

'I'm not saying he's bad or good, but he's not the savior. With the economy, he acts like it's America's own fault we're in this.'"

Paul Rudd is the new Raul Pudd

And Poster Boy has a Fan

Is an unlikely bromance in the air? Has Paul Rudd reached out to Poster Boy with specifics about how he wants the I Love You, Man ad campaign altered? This letter was spotted on the downtown 6 platform at 51st Street. The actor does like to take on fake names (at a recent Virgin Megastore appearance he went under "Fred Rudd"), so giving himself a musical moniker of "Raul" does fit his M.O. However, this is probably just the work of a crazy Rudd fan, or some sort of plan by Dreamworks to enliven their boring posters.

Totally Ganked from Gothamist.

I want the Jim Cramer on TV to protect me from that Jim Cramer

If you didn't watch Jim Cramer on the Daily Show last night, please do.

Jim Cramer Unedited Interview

Dear God, I hate this woman

Erbe Myths - Kathryn Jean Lopez - The Corner on National Review Online:

"Being a single mother isn’t a glamorous endeavor, but neither is randomly hooking up and hoping you remembered to take your pill at the same time today as every other day, or to have Plan B handy in case the condom breaks or otherwise fails. So glamorous."

HAH!

Troy is the new Brooklyn | All Over Albany:

"We love the Collar City, but here's what we need to know -- if Troy is the new Brooklyn, does it come with good bagels? And can Harry Tutunjian help Sandor find a decent egg cream?"

Funny because...

A) Troy as Brooklyn is funny, because...that would make Albany...what? Manhattan?!?

B) Sandor gets name checked.

I am prepared...

First Look: Will The New Absolutely Fabulous Be Absolutely Awful?:

"We can't say how this happened, but we've seen script pages from the pilot episode of the new Absolutely Fabulous, starring Kristen Johnston and Kathryn Hahn.

Kristen Johnston, whom you may know from Third Rock or Music And Lyrics, will play Patsy. Kathryn Hahn, who was in Crossing Jordan, Revolutionary Road and Anchorman, is Edina."

To be disappointed...

F' Me Gently With a Chainsaw

Heathers Musical Coming to Broadway, Maybe! - Gothamist: New York City News, Food, Arts & Events:

"A musical adaptation of the '80s black comedy Heathers is in the works, according to Hollywood Reporter."

Ok, so that means in five years or so screaming girls (and their mothers) are going to be lining up to see "Heathers: The Musical: The Movie".

*sigh*

How Helpful

Mary Louise-Parker on the "10 Albums That Will Never Get You Laid".

Confidential to FAU

What is McCain thinking?

John - Brains and Earmarks (mostly Brains)
Cindy - I need to score.
Meghan - I hate you Man Coulter!

Bailout Needed

"Lex Luthor Bailout" with Jon Hamm - watch more funny videos

How good does it have to be?

Some Other Time | Blithe Spirits | Kempt:

"The Magnificent Bastard recently devoted a post to the question, “how good does a scotch have to be before you won’t use it in a Rob Roy?.” Understandably, it led us to pose the following counter-query: “Does anyone still drink Rob Roys?”"

So, FAU has now become the "Scotch Master of the Interwebs" and how good does the scotch have to be to avoid mixing it?

Ironic post after my "rethinking drinking" post below.

Not scary, but interesting

And I don't know if I agree with it.

What's Your Drinking Pattern?

I remember when they were the Indians.

Looking for Love? Try Siena. - Storming the Floor:

"While we all continue to hold out hope that Davidson and Saint Mary's will make it into the Big Dance in much the same way we really hope that cop with his lights on is going to pull someone else over, reality is sinking in. We might not have our old mid-major darlings to fall back on."

Go Saints Go!

Hail New York

Will Leitch -

"I thought living in Illinois would give me all the gubernatorial drama one human could handle, but, alas, New York's getting almost as good. As hilariously documented by my colleague Chris Smith, the state of New York is being run by incompetent blind guy who seems almost proud of the fact that he doesn't know what he's doing."

GALACTICA SITREP: United Nations Panel. Yes, you read that right.

GALACTICA SITREP: United Nations Panel. Yes, you read that right.:

"On March 17, there will be a 'Battlestar' retrospective at the U.N. in New York and a panel discussion of how the show examined issues such as 'human rights, children and armed conflict, terrorism and human rights and reconciliation and dialogue among civilizations and faith,' according to Sci Fi."

And Laura will threaten to airlock someone...I know it...

So very cool.

Video: Topps launches 3D Live baseball cards, video cards on deck:

"Just hold the special 3D Live card in front of a webcam and watch a three-dimensional avatar spring to life -- rotate the card and the figure rotates in full perspective. The technology provided by Total Immersion also allows collectors to drop the player into simple pitching, batting and catching games using the computer keyboard. Series 1 cards will cost $2 for a 12-pack while a buck snags a fistful of five."

Link Dump - Media Edition

1) Esquire - 10 Bands Ready to Break Out at SxSW
2) Radiohead - The Grammy Preperations - (Green Plastic Radiohead & Vulture)
3) Variety - Joss Whedon to do a musical on a Very Special Episode of TAL
4) David Edelstein adds "Step Brothers" to his list of Top Ten Movies of 2008.
5) Yeah Yeah Yeahs have a new video (Vulture & Cannibal Cheerleader)

The Beginning of the End

Explosions in downtown Albany | All Over Albany:

"it was the corner of washington and swan. i walked out of one commerce plaza and a manhole cover was on fire. about 10 minutes later, a 4 story fireball erupted from the ground. after that, there was smoke for a good 15 minutes then another explosion that i heard, but didn't see. all has been clear there for about an hour."


I blame Alberto Jazzeria.

Several Things, Poorly Written

I was at the gym last night and I noticed something interesting. Let me start off by saying that I am generally a first things in the morning type of gym go-er, and I am used to the people that I see there at 5:30 am. Sleep still in their eyes, slightly disheveled and alternating between "happy to be here" and "why am I doing this to myself", these are my people. (NB: I go to a gym in a suburb. One of the reasons I go to this gym is that it is not a meet/meat market. I go to work out, tan occasionally, and feel slightly better about myself. I am not looking to meet someone at the gym, though I may be semi-interested in dating again as a concept, but I will get to that later). The evening crew is different. While the bell for the morning crew is largely 27 to 40 and dedicated to working out, the evening crew…well…skewing both young and older (or flattening out the bell, so to speak) and…well…

Ugly.

When I looked around and thought to myself (not proudly but sadly) that I was one of the best looking people in the building, I realized that this is why I work out here. Not to feel better through physical work but to feel better by not being those people.

Speaking of (or writing about) interesting people, I mentioned earlier that I am tentatively putting my pinkie toe into the ocean of on-line dating. I have gone to one of the free sites that matches you up based on interest and location (and they even provide the math behind how they make the match, if you are in to that kind of thing) and I was matched with a twenty four year old hetero-flexible alterna-chick. She had checked out my profile several time over the last couple of days and I was ever so slightly tempted to send her a message, but…she was too young and maybe (just maybe) too conspicuously different for me (and from me)…

and then this morning…

I saw her walking her dogs and realized that I had fallen victim to a "MySpace" photo angle. I was with a friend at the time, and she remarked, "Well, I am sure that she has a nice personality."

When one of the sweetest people I know, who never says a negative word about anyone, and who can put up with an enormous amount of shit from anyone snarks about someone without meeting them, you know that there may be an issue.

*sigh*

Part of me is resigned to being happily alone, while part of me wants to find that one person.

You know the one that I am talking about…the person that you fit with like a well worn puzzle piece. Hopefully, they are out there, and not encumbered by fears…and will allow themselves something…I know that I am damaged and I know that I am attracted to damaged women and the sad thing is that sometimes we are both too damaged to make it work.

Which means that the concept of "dating" is terrifying for me.

Following up on the smoking thing…

Ever since I wrote that out, I have been thinking about my relationship with tobacco and I have not had a cigarette since Sunday evening. I am not saying that I have quit, nor am I saying that I will never smoke again. All I am saying is that I haven't had a cigarette since Sunday evening.

Oh, and I am listening to OK Go and kind of hating myself for it.

Oh So Many Jokes.

Wall St. Friday's Was Ultimate Hot & Spicy Spot for Cocaine - Gothamist: New York City News, Food, Arts & Events:

"Cops raided a TGI Friday's in the financial district on the day of its namesake and shut it down after discovering that the family eatery was striped with cocaine. Apparently the business plan at this franchise location included looking the other way as dealers at the bar lured in high rollers from nearby Wall Street institutions. The Post says that the bankers and traders would 'spend their nights getting high after the market spent the day going low.'"

Oh noes! What are the academics going to do?

Humanities Ph.D.’s Are Anticipating Hard Times - NYTimes.com:

"“This is a year of no jobs,” said Catherine Stimpson, the dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at New York University. Ph.D.s are stacked up, she said, “like planes hovering over La Guardia.”"

I mean...having a PhD means that you have ZERO other options, right?

What there?

I'm wrong.

Oh, so this all about smart people whining about a soft economy?

Ok, fair enough.

Generation OMG - NYTimes.com

Generation OMG - NYTimes.com:

"Children in the stagflated 1970s, meanwhile, grew up in the too-much-information age of Judy Blume. As Mr. Howe quotes one: “Our parents gave us answers to questions we never asked.” The system that produced Watergate had failed everyone, the lesson was to be a free agent, to take risks. Even today, Mr. Howe said, lottery officials report that those Gen Xers are their biggest customers."

Because, as a generation, we are so math-impaired that it isn't even funny.

Yes, we do suck.

Generation OMG - NYTimes.com

Generation OMG - NYTimes.com:

"Children in the stagflated 1970s, meanwhile, grew up in the too-much-information age of Judy Blume. As Mr. Howe quotes one: “Our parents gave us answers to questions we never asked.” The system that produced Watergate had failed everyone, the lesson was to be a free agent, to take risks. Even today, Mr. Howe said, lottery officials report that those Gen Xers are their biggest customers."

Because, as a generation, we are so math-impaired that it isn't even funny.

Yes, we do suck.

Oh, Slate...

Battlestar Galactica: not so frakking feminist. - By Juliet Lapidos - Slate Magazine:

"Perhaps because science fiction has historically appealed to men who don't leave home much, the genre has often used alien mores and alien technology to rationalize pornographic depictions of near-naked women."

There are two things going on here.

The first one being Slate’s wonderful reputation for being contrarian simply to be contrarian.

It’s cute. Really. No, the aging “Xers” who make up the staff at Slate have that bemused indulgence for the great unwashed schtick down so pat they could give lessons. Consider the faux tastemakers at Slate to be the Tony Robbins-es of snarky condescension, they keep giving because they want us to be better.

BSG doesn’t have a feminist slant, however, it doesn’t have a misogynistic slant either. It is a (sometimes convoluted) about the frakkin’ apocalypse and I would suspect that traditional norms of behavior (like gender roles) are going to be thrown out the window if the population suddenly ends up being 1% of what it was say 24 hours earlier.
It’s about the end of the world, people, the end of humanity, and what it means to be human, and that is going to be ugly. Very ugly. Bad things are going to happen and people are going to make bad choices.

The second thing is that I am a fan boy, and I am going to defend the show for even some of the bad choices that they make.

Anyway…I wonder what Paglia thinks of the show…maybe she can offer something a little more nuanced than a well…paper that I could have written for one of my WS classes fifteen years ago.

Read the article.

It does read like an aborted position paper for a social sciences elective.

*sigh*

Edit: Someone at the Atlantic seems to agrees with me...even using the same quote as the one that I found a bit...offensive.

Loving Hell's Kitchen

As it still hurts to eat, I am gaining sustenance from watching "Hell's Kitchen" episodes on Hulu.

When Gordon Ramsey is asked by a approximately twelve year old boy if he is the best cook in the world, Ramsey (to my delight) replies with a simple answer...

"Yes"

And for those keeping track at home.

I made an excellent pot of coffee today.

What a difference a day makes.

Yesterday, a viral cousin treated me much like Ike treated Tina. What
does love have to do with it, cousin?

I spent the day sucking on Edy's Lemonade fruit pops and reading
(First The Diamond Age and then the first half of A Confederacy of
Dunces) and some television...BSG (which really didn't drive the
narrative forward), 30 Rock (which is becoming too damn 'zany') and
Hell's Kitchen.

I slept fitfully with horrible dreams, but woke up feeling a lot better.

So far this morning, I have futzed around my house, upgraded my
desktop to a more recent version of the OS (and in the process, I
munged the soundcard) and I may, at some point, drag my contagious ass
to the gym.

There is no point to this, aside from the sincere belief that I am not dying :-)

Hours since I last broke the promise regarding smoking, 12. I can
display remarkable will power on occasion.