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Suzanne Boyd's new baby, Suede was dropped this week due to lack of ad sales. Read about it on cbc.ca and The Maynard Institute and The New York Times.
The sad thing is that I thought Suede was really good. Well, if that isn't disconcerting...
Where will you be tomorrow night? After the dramatic ending of The O.C., turn off the television, put on your jacket and leave the house. Go to the bank machine (you'll be thankful later) and head over to the Rivoli. That's where we, the Ryerson Review of Journalism masthead will be at THE PARTY, our 2005 fundraising party. All money raised will go towards the production of the RRJ (new website to lauch very soon).
In addition to a screening of the Oscar-nominated film, Ryan and a performance by the Harlettes, there will be superfantastique DJs and prizes like an Apple iPod, a pair of airline tickets to New York City and a private movie screening from the National Film Board Mediatheque.
Thanks to Torontoist, This Magazine and Metro for the publicity.
is it just me or is it tough to be a woman at a local news station? in the past month, i have seen two women do stories that sort of struck me as... odd. first off, i was watching ctv's daily report a few weeks ago when marci ien did a piece on strip aerobics. to my shock, besides reporting on the new craze (which i remember hearing about on one of those american tabloid magazine shows years ago), she actually participated. hmm.
then, about a week ago, i was watching city tv news and a female reporter there was doing a valentine's week special. one promo featured her unzipping a vinyl nurse's uniform that she was wearing.
i don't know - do these reporters want to forgo actual news reporting for this blatant sensationalism? is it that they like the attention? i tend to think not. i think if i worked in a male dominated newsroom and i was asked to do a segment like this (espcially as a young, less established woman), i might feel pressured not to protest and just get it overwith to avoid getting less assignments.
After my initial shock of hearing of the legendary Hunter S.'s suicide this morning, I slumped down on my couch and breathed out a sigh of understanding. It wasn't the kind of "It's for the better" acceptance you feel when an elderly relative at last gives into a painful, terminal illness. It was more of a "I should have seen this coming" acquiescence. Thompson's surrender to death is a sign the world has become one that even the pro of 60s weirdness can't handle. In an article titled "What Lured Hemingway to Ketchum?", Thompson attributed Hemingway's suicide to "the mean nature of a world that will not stand still long enough to see it clearly as a whole." He further explained, "the function of art is supposedly to bring order out of chaos, a tall order when the chaos is static and a superhuman task in a time when the chaos is multiplying." I can't help but think of this article as an ominous foreshadowing, of Thompson's suicide as a copycat one. It's a scary revelation to think that Thompson fell prey to the same confused exasperation that has seen the end of so many great writers. After all, Thompson was known for his clear thought and critical analysis during times of absolute anarchy (Hell's Angels shindigs and booze-fuelled superbowls). If the founder of Gonzo couldn't hack it, who could possibly create a whole or even coherent picture of this world we live in? A world where the most powerful country on earth is picking off nations at whim and the only form of resistance we have is to watch the Daily Show and laugh about it, a world where vapidity and arrogance holds our attention (think Paris Hilton and Donald Trump) while inspired analysis bores us (which is why magazines like Walrus and Saturday Night continue to struggle) - a world where the talking head on CNN is seen as the sane voice of journalism, while Hunter S. Thompson could very well go down in history as a rambling lunatic.
Maybe it's just because I'm stuck in the same defeated slump I've been in all day, but I'm starting to feel the chaos is winning.
I should be putting together my fact-checking package but I had to pause when I learned of Hunter S. Thompson committed suicide in his Colorado home on Sunday. I've been reading The Great Shark Hunt on and off since the fall and always found him to be an intriguing character.
He's best knownn for popularizing "gonzo journalism" — a very subjective, personalized form of writing, often in a stream of consciousness style. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is his best known work in which he documents his drug-induced adventures in the Nevada city. The book was later adapted into a feature film with Johnny Depp as Thompson.
Earlier this week, he wrote about his new sport, shotgun golf, for ESPN. Some people hate the guy, but we probably won't ever see someone like Thompson again.
There has got to be more to life than being really, really, really, ridiculously good-looking...
When I interviewed Globe columnist, Christie Blatchford, she said "I think crime is inherently sensational because it deals with death or rape or pedophilia or whatever. You're dealing with things that are unpleasant and stark and gripping but does that mean you shouldn't write about them?"
We spoke at the end of January when the Johnathan trial was still going on. This morning, I awoke to news that Justice Watt declared the trial a mistrial because the key witness, a 15-year-old girl, made posting on the web site, VampireFreaks.com, that contradicted her testimony.
I was getting a little tired of Christie's three or four columns a week about the trial but this startling turn has made it far more interesting and reeled me in again. The story of poor Johnathan's murder is truly stranger than fiction and with its sensationalization it has all the makings of a feature film to further glamourize the situation.
I just finished reading How To Lose Friends And Alienate People, an almost scathing look at the NYC mag industry through the eyes of Brit expat, Toby Young. The book systematically badmouths a list of people, even droves of "PR flacks" and Young's fellow staffers at Vanity Fair.
The most interesting stories are about Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue. There's one story of her insistence that no one ride the elevator with her... if she walks into the elevator, you get off. Anyway, if you've read How to Lose Friends... and The Devil Wears Prada (I haven't), then I'm sure you think this lady is a total bitch.
But this slate article focuses on something different - her editorial skills (who would have thought?).
The younger generation seems to be newspaper challenged, don't we? Well John Kelly at the Washington Post has created an easy new system with which you can enjoy any paper daily! Act now!
(A step-by-step guide on "how to read a paper")
Attack of the graduate students - An interesting look at the way the Columbia Journalism review approaches blogging with its so-called "liberal bias".
Attack on the high school students - It ain't easy being a teen - censorship plagues the young ones...
(my apologies for the exclusively American content...)
I've been giggling at Fox News for a few months now, but I realize not everyone has the luxury:
Fox Anchor Attacked by Dissenting Opinion
I've concluded that the anchor is a Fem-bot. Her "How dare you attack Our President!" response is neither fair or balanced, but it sure is entertaining.
I thought I'd take this opportunity to praise CNN for its thorough news coverage. Being a journalism student, I figure I ought to know what's going on in the world. So my default homepage is CNN.com--a trusted source of important up-to-date world news. Alongside the main story of the moment is a list of "more news." It's a good thing I read through the headlines a couple times a day because I would have missed out on several important world events:
-After meeting online, a Romanian couple named their son Yahoo in honour of the internet.
-A 42-year-old woman was arrested for pretending to be a ghost and haunting the house of her husband's boss.
-A New York taxi driver sets up blind dates in the back of his cab.
-A 65-year-old woman confessed to cheating on a high school English test 47 years ago
-A half-ton man lost 500 pounds.
The sad part is that even though I smile to myself when I see these sorts of stories in the same lists as news about Iraqi soldiers and missing children, on Friday I skipped over a headline about Bush's social security plan and instead clicked on one about a transvestite who accidentally killed a man while giving him silicone implants.
I have decided to make a late new year's resolution: I will not read these kinds of articles...starting next week.
(Oh, one more important story I should mention--a Romanian tabloid reporter was fired...that couple didn't really name their son Yahoo.)
i know this isn't really media-related as much as some of the other entries, but these pictures the toronto police released are incredibly creepy. i think it's great that they are trying to find a little girl who is incredible need of help, but couldn't they have done a better job with the photoshop?
this news release says that the police used a "special electronic processing technique" to digitally remove the girl from the pictures. could this technique be ... photoshop? what about all that CSI stuff i keep seeing on TV? do the police not have access to some better technology?
or was this done purposely to evoke disgust?
its almost 5am and i cant sleep cause my public relations test is tomorrow (see today) and the thot of failing miserably is actually HINDERING my sleep despite the fact that that class seems vaguely useless and, well, hm.
...speaking of ethics, what the hell is with new york's gotham magazine offering an internship to the highest bidder on ebay? did anyone hear about this (ohk, granted i read about it on gawker but they're a RELIABLE source)? i mean, i figure its legit but it kinda rubs me the wrong way. what if ca. 1950 a nubile joan didion wanted to work at said mag and was completely destitute and then 'chris322fran'--aka dickie greenleaf sans talent--came along and BOUGHT the job from under her nose? i mean, that would be gotham's loss and, i suppose, the charity's gain, but isnt that WRONG?
i was actually gonna apply to gotham's internship but they'll have to survive minus my brilliance cause that ebay thing makes me feel...unusual :/
It's that time of the month - time for my mandatory blog entry. The thing about blogs, you see, is that it's all about spontaneity. You can't really schedule a poignant thought, can you? In any case, I will write this entry and point you in the direction of a few good articles I found today.
Firstly, there's the "America is stuffy and I'm sooo cool" article, which is very good. I was living in Denmark (largely known for its wide variety of porn, or if you're ducking censorship, pron) at the time this whole nipplegate thing happened and you couldn't believe how everyone took this to mean that Americans are (a) stupid and (b) obviously trying to hide some conspiracy because why else would they put this on the news? Anyway, this article is good because it's always fun to foster our evergrowing superiority complex (Canadians are soo open!) while using the phrase "McCarthyism" - cause who doesn't love that phrase? Come on, now.
Second up is an article that might seem laughable if not coupled with that whole nipplegate article. I mean, do you think people really want to buy a DVD player that automatically censors things from the movies you've just paid to rent or buy? Yes, apparently they do! What a crazy world we live in. Here's a better idea: invest some time in being a real parent and don't let your kids watch movies with violence and (God forbid) sex in them. And no I don't have any children of my own so I don't know how hard it is to watch over the little guys after they pick up your porn and Godfather movies that just happen to be lying around. *ahem*.
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