Submitted without comment.
Without Portfolio
Portfolio magazine, Condé Nast’s big business magazine, closed down today. Because it’s Condé Nast and because it was all about big money, people keep talking up the purported $100 million (or is that $150 million?) that was spent on this mag for fewer than two years of existence.
Anyway, everybody’s got some sort of post-mortem about it: Daniel Gross, Jon Fine, Megan McArdle, a former staffer. My two cents: they were stupid to launch a mass-market publication about unphotogenic finance wonks at a time when print is dying. I don’t think Condé likes the internet, because ads for luxury brands don’t look good on a computer screen, so they were stuck trying to sell luxury companies big money ads in a recession.
Maybe they’ll finally come around and support my magazine about comic books, basketball, and gin, especially since I don’t need $100 million to launch it. I could probably get by with $30 or $40 million.
What It Is: 4/27/09
What I’m reading: Plutarch’s Lives
What I’m listening to: Not a lot. I watched The Wire on my Pod during both flights last week, and my two days back in the office were so hectic that I didn’t put any music on.
What I’m watching: The first season of The Wire
What I’m drinking: I had 2 beers in Vegas, and 1 G&T since returning.
What Rufus is up to: Not being happy with the sudden near-90 temps that we got this weekend. And giving free rides to the ticks of NJ.
Where I’m going: Nowhere this week, but I’ll probably take a day off and do all sorts of errands.
What I’m happy about: I went to a minor-league baseball game on my last night in Vegas, and had a fun time (pix and story to follow). And I’ll get to meet both Tatsumi and Seth (I hope) during my Toronto visit in two weeks.
What I’m sad about: Bea Arthur’s death, I guess. (Thanks, Tom!) UPDATE: a great tribute to Bea from the Fugly Girls!
What I’m worried about: Global pandemic.
What I’m pondering: How you tell if the raider is cheating.
Sunday Dogblog
He truly is . . . the son of dog:
This room is a pig sty!
Before we all die of Mexican swine flu, read this theoretical take on urban design and pandemics from BLDGBLOG.
Adding Insult to Injury
Remember that shooting-rampage at a town council meeting in Kirkwood, MO (residence of the official VM brother) last year? Todd Smith, a reporter covering the meeting for the Suburban Journals, took a bullet in the hand that night. Last week, the paper laid him off.
Budget cuts, y’know?
No bailout
While I was in Vegas this week, I entertained the thought of giving up this blog, bailing on writing (but not my day job as an editor), and trying to find another pursuit/outlet.
Then two things happened. First, one of my best friends wrote out of the blue to tell me that my blog “keeps things interesting for me and expands my horizons.” Then, Roger Ebert wrote this post about his childhood home.
It doesn’t exactly work (although it has some beautiful evocations of what seems to be a very specifically American life), but its failure made me more forgiving of my own ineptitude. After all, if a lifetime reporter/critic/writer like Mr. Ebert struggles to make something like this work, then I shouldn’t feel so bad about my own shortcomings.
So you’re stuck with me, is what I’m saying. Thanks for reading.
Unrequired Reading: Apr. 24, 2009
Weren’t you just saying you wanted another collection of links to see you into the weekend? Just click “more”!
Continue reading “Unrequired Reading: Apr. 24, 2009”
Go Wes
It took me some time to get over my rage at Wes Anderson and learn to enjoy the quirky preciosity of his movies. Now I’m good with him. I’m still trying to suss out what I expect from movies, novels and, well, art in general, so I’m not going to hold my dissatisfactions with his storytelling against him. And far be it from me to goof on someone else for being precious.
Now that I’ve checked out the five installments of Matt Zoller-Seitz’s analysis of Anderson’s work and influences, The Substance of Style (parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), I appreciate Anderson a lot more.
I also learned a bunch about Hal Ashby (the subject of part 3), who had an awfully good 10-year run of movies: The Landlord, Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Shampoo, Bound for Glory, Coming Home and Being There.
(Note: If you go to these articles, click on the video links, because those include the entire text of each installment, along with great images and movie clips to illustrate MZS’s points.)
(Bonus! It’s Wes Anderson without Wes Anderson, but with Rachel Weisz!)
0-fer of the week: Pulitzer edition
Evidently, this year’s Pulitzer Awards come out soon. In fact, they may’ve been awarded already. I’m not really sure, because I don’t give a crap about awards.
But, so, hey, I came across a link to this AbeBooks list of the Top 10 Forgotten Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novels, and guess what?
I haven’t read a single book on this list! In fact, I haven’t read any other work by any of the authors on the list, except for one!
That would be Steven Millhauser, because David Gates recommended one of his books to me. This recommendation was from our first conversation a dozen years ago, and I realize now that I never actually read more than a couple pages of that book, although it looked promising.
It’s Edwin Mullhouse: The Life and Death of an American Writer 1943-1954 by Jeffrey Cartwright