[BLANK] OF THE DAY: The Awl author tag of the day »

(Source: twitter.com)

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Newsweek Tumblr as Intelligent, Grudge-Holding, Sarcastic Arm of the Mag

The Awl’s got a good round-up of this developing, Tumblr-centric media spat pretty down.

Basically the Newsweek Tumblr has served as the vehicle of retaliation against a column in the WaPo penned by Howard Kurtz. Here’s a quote from the Media Matters post Choire links to:

Editors of the online column took Howard Kurtz’s Monday piece on Newsweek and its dire future, in his view, and edited with claims of inaccuracies and poor arguments.

Pretty baller. Reminds us of another creative use of copy editing to prove a point.

Also we’ve got a definition of a Tumblr by a semi-legit source as an “online column,” potentially with multiple editors. Sounds good to us.

(photo)

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Boobquake: Conclusions

So despite some seismic activity in Taiwan and in other parts of the world yesterday, the results are in and boobs do NOT cause earthquakes.

Our buds over at The Awl posted a list of real headlines from publications about the event, linking to the Daily Caller, who unabashedly give us what we’ve been wanting all along: shoddy historical analysis! 

Rita Hayworth: [The] 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake happened the same year as “Gilda” came out.

Well, hopefully that wasn’t statistically relevant either.

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Applied Mathematics: By The Numbers, A Website's First Year »

fek:

“Back to back,
double-plat,
I did what you won’t.
Men lie,
Women lie,
Numbers don’t.
Ain’t nothin’ changed ‘cept the year it is.
I think I have to send you a reminder,
Here it is.” – Jay-Z

SOME OF THE THINGS THAT HAVE RESULTED FROM THIS WORK.

Number of Theme Songs: Not one, but two!

Number of Books Spawned from Awl Columns: Two (known)
Authors of These Books: Natasha Vargas-Cooper and Chris Lehmann.

Number of Books Spawned from Jay McInerary’s Three Week-Old Wine Column or Other Websites With Multiple Theme Songs Written By One of Our Time’s Most Veritably Underrated Singer Songwriters: None, bitches.

Foster did a bang-up job with this, but he did forget at least one IMPORTANT so-called thing. So, we’ll get all servicey. Again:

Number of times The Awl changed its slogan: At least one.

Oh, also? Congratulations on a marvelous year, and here’s to many, many more. 

59 notes

Matt Cherette Is Going To Move To New York City »

choire:

mattchew03:

I am? Well, I should probably get on that…

Anyway, for reasons unclear to me—because I don’t think I’m that interesting or worthy of something like this—but appreciated regardless, Daniel D’Addario wrote a profile on me for The Awl.

So, if you care to, go forth and read it (but try to ignore the negative comments, even though I wasn’t able to do so).

I’m actually completely surprised by the tone of many of the comments. I cannot figure out these reactions. I guess, in part, as has been discussed TO DEATH this week, people really do find it easy (both personally and technologically) to make fun of people on the Internets!

Ahhh! Too much meta-enabling, not enough post-post-meaningful love. However I do find the irony of the blogger-coming-to-the-big-city as the story The Awl/D’Addario chose to write meaningfully. Is the future of blogging importing meaningful teens/20-somethings/college grads from “real America” to keep the NYC blogging scene “grounded”? OK sorry, I’ll stop.

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

ANDRE 3000 AND UGK WILL SAVE THE INTERNETZ

With the coming of Web 3.1 comes the risk of the Internetz ironically meta-enabling itself out of existence. “Rex” over at fimoculous.com says “It’s everything that’s right and wrong about the internet right now.”

Thankfully, @Awl has taken a definite stand against the heinous practice (even a sentence like that reads sarcastically here). We should be able to write/blog/tumbl with sincerity without any quotes, whether they be implied, literal, assumed or plain necessary.

So to do our part here at The ## we thought we’d focus on that aspect of our society which all morals rest: hip hop. Despite the apparent wide-spread of polyamory, Andre 3000 and UGK stand for real American monogamy in the storm of modern, instant, narcissistic technology (via Web 3.0).

So, I typed a text to a girl I used to see
Saying that I chose this cutie pie with whom I want to be
And, I apologize if this message gets you down
then I CC’d every girl that I see see’d around town.

Int’l Player’s Anthem is essentially a modern-day motown song in its moral center— a fairy tale love story, a voluntary withdrawal from the fast-paced, exotic lives of hip hop stars and thus the businessmen/entrepreneurs that attempt to model their lives after them. And yet by referring to “a text” and CC (an interesting phrase that has been with us since typewriters made carbon copies), it’s strikingly modern.

Of course there’s a history of art that combines romance and communication technology, from James’ In the Cage to the Marvelettes. Not sure how long it will take the @reply to hit the Top 40.

Yes “IPA” is two blog centuries old, but I’ll coast this under the whole “Decade in Review” buzz to excuse any perceived irrelevance.

[Blank] of the day: Dream Job of the day

LOVE LETTERS OF LOVE(via TheAwl)

Thanks to The Awl for pointing out this undeniably romantic occupation: love letter writer. Working a recent Brooklyn craft fair, Chris Sullivan, “a scruffy and enthusiastic 22,” sold love letters for a penny.

The idea came from an independent film he’d made this summer featuring a young girl selling love letters. Since he had the sign left over, he figured he’d try his hand at the craft fair. “Love letters connect people,” Chris said. “They make people happy.”

Although he’d only made about $15 that day, the money was beside the point.

Sigh. Now back to trying to get real jobs.

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(via natashavc) Can’t tell which is better: Be less stupid, or Be less meta-enabling. Either way, it’s wonderful and, like, we love you, The Awl! Yay, zeitgeist. Also, related: It’s only a matter of time.

(via natashavc)

Can’t tell which is better: Be less stupid, or Be less meta-enabling. Either way, it’s wonderful and, like, we love you, The Awl! Yay, zeitgeist.

Also, related:

It’s only a matter of time.