Nutty, Dry and a Hint of Vanilla

Moving day

2011-04-12T16:39:00.001-07:00

My new address is meganmaykay.tumblr.com

Longer posts still go here, so please keep this blog on your reader.

RiRi is a copycat

2011-02-15T10:20:00.000-08:00

Follow up to my post "Get to Know a Reference Image," David LaChappelle is suing Rihanna over her video "S&M."

RiRi, you got served.

More at ONTD

Sit and Wonder

2011-02-09T19:12:00.001-08:00

All of the Lights

2011-02-09T19:07:00.000-08:00

2011-01-29T16:53:00.000-08:00

Life decisions made easier

2011-01-27T10:39:00.000-08:00

Oh! You were just offered an internship! Congratulations. Eek! But they're not going to pay you? What are they, publishers? [hahaha]

Well, I can't tell you what to do but here's a flowchart (from shouldiworkforfree.com) via @meghanmac to help you decide if you should take the job.

[Flowchart here]

The Neversink Library

2011-01-27T10:11:00.000-08:00

There's never any less joy in reading a prize winner or blockbuster, if the book is truly great. Over the holidays, I read Patti Smith's National Book Award winner, Just Kids, and just loved it. But then again, isn't it wonderful to discover something obscure? C'mon, isn't there a little hipster inside all of us just wanting to latch on to something good--whether it's a band or a book--before it blows up...and ends up at Urban Outfitters?

For more honourable means, Melville House is rescuing those types of books and repackaging them in bright, simple covers:

[Melville House’s] Neversink Library champions books from around the world that have been overlooked, underappreciated, looked askance at, or foolishly ignored. They are issued in handsome, well-designed editions at reasonable prices in hopes of their passing from one reader to another—and further enriching our culture.

I'm delighted they are preserving parts of literary history, but more importantly, can we just adore these cover designs for a while?

Looks like a promising and thoughtful series so far. Case in point: the genesis of the imprint's name:

"I was by no means the only reader of books on board the Neversink. Several other sailors were diligent readers, though their studies did not lie in the way of belles-lettres. Their favourite authors were such as you may find at the book-stalls around Fulton Market; they were slightly physiological in their nature. My book experiences on board of the frigate proved an example of a fact which every book-lover must have experienced before me, namely, that though public libraries have an imposing air, and doubtless contain invaluable volumes, yet, somehow, the books that prove most agreeable, grateful, and companionable, are those we pick up by chance here and there; those which seem put into our hands by Providence; those which pretend to little, but abound in much.”

—Herman Melville, White Jacket

/hat tip Too Many Books In The Kitchen

2011-01-25T19:44:00.000-08:00

Just saw Toy Story 3. I'd write a review but Dana Stevens at Slate sums it up perfectly. This from her review:

"Like the marriage montage near the beginning of Up, the last 10 minutes of Toy Story 3 seem to have been developed in collaboration with an ophthalmologist specializing in the production of tears. Maybe Pixar has one on staff?"

The Crisis at the Front of the Book

2011-01-23T21:00:00.000-08:00

Magazine publishing is making a big comeback, but that doesn't mean that things are back to usual. It's become apparent that the recession wasn't the only thing holding the industry back in recent years. For one, it turns out the Internet is better at being snarky and info-graphic-y than the magazine front-of-book. The Observer notes,

"Many front-of-the-book sections are in deep trouble, a charticle-size version of the angst infecting the glossy world in general. When readers are bombarded online with short items and attitude all day, do they really want that when they relax with a magazine in bed at home?

...

"There is no longer a front of book or a back of book," Ms. Levine [Ellen Levine, editorial director at Hearst] said.

Juicy reading for editors: "The Crisis at the Front of the Book"

The gift that keeps giving: James Franco

2011-01-23T20:46:00.000-08:00

[context]

2011-01-23T20:40:00.000-08:00

Says The Hairpin, "Seven-Second Cat Video Also a Representation of the Human Experience"

Well, pretty much.

The Girl Talk experience

2011-01-23T20:18:00.000-08:00

"A cartoon baby ate a Burberry bag and regurgitated it, then ate a slice of pizza and regurgitated that."

From: "The 373-Hit Wonder" by Zachary Lazar

Quoted: Female experts

2011-01-23T20:09:00.000-08:00

"'Well, I’m flattered to be asked, but I’m really not the best person.'"

According to Shari Graydon, author and resident of the non-profit organization Media Action in the 1990s, women are declining interviews in droves. Female scholars, business executives and NGO leaders are deferring to men when it comes to offering their opinions and expertise to the press and public.

more/Western News

Quahags: Clams to you, but you are wrong.

2011-01-23T20:02:00.001-08:00

This beautiful passage comes via Ryan, a veritable food-literature connoisseur:

"Uncle Quentin ate the quahaug properly. Free—by the open sea. He sat on his broadside under the snowing gulls by the broad Atlantic, at utter case, and opened the shell-on which amateurs use dynamite of scalding steam—delicately, with the merest flick and turn of his jackknife blade. He scooped out the astounded creature, tossed him quivering under the awning of his wide red moustache, and swallowed him down alive, tipping the delectable juice of him out of the lower shell down his throat. His moustache quivered twice with ecstasy, his blue eyes turned a deeper blue, and Uncle Quentin sighed and reached for another plump mate to the quahaug that had mellowed him so."

Absolutely delicious.

From: Robert P. Tristram Coffin's "Quahaugs and Uncle Quentin", originally published April 1951 in Gourmet magazine.

Let's Talk About Love

2011-01-23T19:08:00.000-08:00

In grade 8, my best friend was playing the theme song to Titanic on the piano when an older student—a conspicuously enthusiastic Dylan fan—asked her to stop. The moment has been forever burned into my mind as the formation of a dichotomy in musical tastes. And that memory made my most recent read very satisfying.

Carl Wilson's book Let's Talk About Love is part of Continuum's 33 1/3 series—books about music and the world of music. As part of a collection that includes books about Trout Mask Replica and Doolittle, Let's Talk About Love is an unlikely member. It's the album that brought us the Titanic song. That indelible pan flute opening, that incredibly forceful beating of her heart in Céline's Oscar night performance, and the thousands of times you heard it in 1997—all these things make the song, and the album it came from, a worthy candidate of scorn and ridicule.

But it's a most appropriate album to start an incredible exploration of taste, cultural consumption and capital, and music criticism. Wilson talks with fans of Céline, goes to Vegas to see her at Caesar's Palace (and weeps) and revisits the famous Larry King interview with fresh eyes (Wilson goes as far as to say that Céline's outburst is as warranted and sane as Kanye's accusations against Bush in the wake of Katrina).

Wilson's research also travels around the world, looking at Céline's global popularity. From a music critic, Wilson's deep investigations in the sociology of culture and cool are especially pointed. The book is a masterpiece.

Full disclosure: When I was a teenage girl, I may have listened to some Céline songs on repeat—for hours. Still, even when taking my bias into consideration, Let's Talk About Love deserves a place among the great essays by Greil Marcus and Lester Bangs. Worry not, at no point does Wilson endorse the album or any of Dion's music, but he lends reasons to appreciate her achievements and her humanity.

And it's a small victory for my best friend. If I could go back in time, I would hand the Dylan fan this book, so Lauren could finish playing on and onnnnn.

Fictional Internet

2011-01-23T17:06:00.000-08:00

Haven't you always wondered what reality shows would be like if people could use their iPhones? Movies too, right? Sometimes I'm sure Geocities exists in the cinematic world. Says Laura Miller in the Guardian, "We spend hours on the web, but you wouldn't know that from reading contemporary fiction."

With the exception of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom and Chris Ware's Lint, I haven't read much fiction that deals with the complicated speed of life with Twitter. Granted, there are some works that are more futuristic, speculative, and that consider digital technology... but more as a metaphor for some existential or political argument.

Miller's piece must be one of the first that finally says, Hey authors, stop trying to kid us.

"High Fidelity, with its once-hip record-store setting, has been transformed into a nostalgic artefact by the advent of downloadable music files. (Where do guys like that congregate these days?) Some vast number of people now meet their partners through the rationalised sifting of online dating services rather than haphazardly, at parties or bars. Smartphones prevent us from ever getting lost, unintentionally or on purpose. Social networking routinely returns long-gone friends, lovers and enemies into the unfolding of our present-day lives. People we've met in person once – or never – start to seem like bona fide pals, and unlike the "friends" we once fantasised TV characters to be, these people friend us right back."

What makes the medium different than say, television?

It is what the internet lures out of us – hubris, daydreams, avarice, obsessions – that makes it so potent and so volatile. TV's power is serenely impervious; it does all the talking, and we can only listen or turn it off. But the internet is at least partly us; we write it as well as read it, perform for it as well as watch it, create it as well as consume it.

Miller's piece does a wide survey of how recent American and British fiction has begun to acknowledge the irresistible pull of online shopping, and the guilt and pleasure of Facebook creeping.

I wonder how, though, fiction writers approach the job of representing and fictionalizing young people's lives in the world of endless Internet when a million tumblrs (arguably) already do it better.

Where I've been

2011-01-23T17:00:00.000-08:00

Hello there!

In the last year, every ten posts seems to one of these: an explanation of my absence. There isn't much to say except that I miss blogging, but there isn't much time to do it now that I'm not in my undergrad and between work, play and class, there isn't much time to burn. Still, I'm reading plenty and have lots to share with you in the coming weeks.

Also, let's start a Portlandia viewing club, yes?

Anyone who is interested in a TV club, à la Slate's should contact me.

Talk to you soon -
M

House of Broken Hearts

2011-01-07T16:03:00.000-08:00

Mi-ss-i-ss-i-pp-i

/Download

Get to know a reference image

2010-12-27T10:19:00.000-08:00

Found on my hard drive (maybe from Fashion Gone Rogue?)

The place where young people go to retire

2010-12-20T04:34:00.001-08:00

This is where I'll be in a week:

Nicolas Cage losing his shit

2010-12-06T16:09:00.000-08:00

I mean, what else is there to say?

Thanks, Chantal!

Another ode to Martha Stewart (and another reason to love Joan Didion)

2010-12-05T21:25:00.000-08:00

A decade ago, Martha Stewart came into my house every morning and taught me to craft or cook. It was the summer time and watching her show was a ritual, probably borne out of my family's tradition of watching Julia Child on the weekends, and my instilled craving for domesticity. But even then, I noticed how the lifestyle Stewart projected was a fantasy, and how easily positioned she was for parody. I always laughed at the way that she was bossy and confident enough to even interrupt and correct segments with her role model, her mother. When her mother embellished a step in a recipe with a factoid about a cooking technique or a recipe, Martha would cut in, her mother mid-sentence, with a detail of her own.

After the show finished at 11:00 a.m., I would run upstairs and try making something of my own. Martha had inspired the courage to take on making my own picture frame, centrepiece or pastry. More than that, she had convinced me of the sense of accomplishment it would bring and pleasure it would give guests when the project was finally done.

Of all the things I made that summer, I distinctly remember concocting a batch of scones. The recipe wasn't Martha's. It was pulled from one of the dog-eared books in our house. Or it could've been from our a family "cookbook," a collection of inserts my mother had cobbled from Homemaker's magazine--baking specials sponsored by Robin Hood flour or Baker's chocolate .

As I cut the butter into the flour, I felt the easy satisfaction of baking. An hour or two later, my brother and I tasted what I had made: bites alternately had the bite of baking soda or were overwhelmed by bulky pockets of butter. Far from a success, the pastries still gave me a deep sense of pleasure to have even approximated making a recipe that the day before was a complete mystery to me. What goes in a scone? No one has a real reason to know until they try to make one themselves.

Years before that, I took piano lessons from a gifted music student from UBC. Her mother kept a beautiful house. The mantle above the fireplace changed seasonally. It always held objects that can only be described as decorative: rattan balls, porcelain figurines, silver candlesticks, which displayed impeccable taste. And on special occasions, I was offered perfect cookies fresh from the oven after ear training. Of course, when I peered into their magazine folder or onto the coffee table, there was always the latest issue of Martha Stewart Living.

Being Martha, even emulating or following Martha, is connected to a certain level of affluence. She is elite. And yet, she is accessible. She prudently makes herself approachable by hitting the note precisely between being a friend and a master, always ensuring she cannot be touched, or worse, matched. Still, she invites her audience to model her absolutely singular brand of femininity. She is someone whose success and character is completely defined by how she can serve others, but above all she is an woman of independence, often to the point of self-elected seclusion.

The portrait that defines Martha better than another other photograph is one by Annie Leibovitz in her book Women. Leibovitz's late partner, Susan Sontag, while a skeptic of truth in photography, was a believer that there is a spirit that escapes the materiality of prose but is plainly a part of a photographic image. Sontag surely would've have seen a great deal of truth in Leibovitz's portrait. In the photo, Stewart is made minute against a golden, fall landscape. She rests her arms and head on a pick-up truck; her blonde hair, her light skin, and her khaki jacket recede into the scenary. But the focal point of the image is Martha's expression. It easily draws your attention. It's one of repose and focus.

...

While I was making scones, Martha had reached a milestone as an entrepreneur: Her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, went public. That year New Yorker asked Joan Didion to write a piece as Critic At Large: a profile of Martha Stewart. This was well before Stewart's jail sentence in 2004 for securities fraud and obstruction of justice. On the surface, Stewart's phenomenal success today is notable because she managed to recover her company from public scandal. Nonetheless, Didion, characteristically perceptive, foretold that Martha's failings weren't likely to lose her any admirers. In fact, they are part of her attractiveness as a brand:

The “cultural meaning” of Martha Stewart’s success...lies deep in the success itself, which is why even her troubles and strivings are part of the message, not detrimental but integral to the brand.

Reading Didion's piece lends one a profound understanding of who (and what) Martha Stewart is elementally. The last sentence of the article, which describes the genius of the personality and brand, is one that floors the reader, partly because of the way that Didion has quietly led you there and presented--with stunning diction and faultless timing--her one-sentence rendering of Stewart:

The dreams and the fears into which Martha Stewart taps are not of “feminine” domesticity but of female power, of the woman who sits down at the table with the men and, still in her apron, walks away with the chips.

Lately, when I clumsily attempt fluted pie crusts or ambitious multi-stepped recipes involving elaborate equipment and much patience, the paradigm, the measure of success, is still Martha. Didion's interpretation of this complicated woman, itself a piece of perfection, exemplifies and illustrates how few people achieve excellence. Writing this, though, is proof that many of us will try.

A letter to Tracy (a.k.a. some love for comics)

2010-12-05T07:56:00.001-08:00

Hi Tracy,

Thanks for lending me these books this week.







I liked Lucky a lot.

See you later,
Megan

The Pinata Revolt

2010-12-05T07:18:00.000-08:00

Here's an old commercial from the director of the Old Spice "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" spot (Tom Kuntz):

Which reminded me of this old favourite:

And that got me searching for a really great Starburst commercial. And I found one:

I'M A SCREAMING MIME!

new cool thing

2010-12-03T20:31:00.000-08:00

Totally awesome! Hyperlinks game changer on Nytimes.com.

Like it? Get the WordPress plugin by Daniel Bachhuber.

Cautionary tales for kids that are too creative

2010-11-23T06:48:00.000-08:00

Want to teach your children not to make the terrible* life choices I have made (i.e. making career choices that involve magazine publishing and freelancing)?

For your ambitious, cultured daughters: All the Young Girls by Mary H.K. Choi
(/via @chantalbraganza)

"Being a new girl here is a lot to process. Your dopamine receptors are haywire from so much of what feels like the right kind of attention and you preen out of paranoia. Sometimes you tap-dance about books, music, movies, food and politics for complete strangers. For hours. You mind-meld with people you hope to never see again because they scare you a little. You get sick from the options and the sleep deprivation and the vodka."

And for your talented, confident--even cocksure--sons: Seven Years as a Freelance Writer, or, How To Make Vitamin Soup by Richard Morgan
(/via Michelle)

"Just this past Friday, I got an email at 3:38 a.m. from a Pulitzer-winning friend who wanted my help with a New Yorker assignment; I called their cell at 3:39. I never wanted to be one of those broken, bitter people. Why would anyone want to lose friends and alienate people? I was particularly struck-and maybe scared-by a story a friend told me after he snagged a great job at Condé Nast. He talked about how he shared his apartment with a married couple and their cat, and that the couple was on vacation and there he was, in his bathroom, trying to take a dump, and this cat was lonely and pawing at the gap under the door, and all he could think is that he had this glamorous job at this stylish magazine and he couldn't even manage a life where he could take a dump in peace."

*Actually, fantastic but limiting in terms of financing food and shelter

Favourite things: Oprah's audience

2010-11-23T06:15:00.000-08:00

I can't believe this is the last one ever...

If you enjoyed this, you might like these:
* Faces Of The Last Season of Oprah
* Holy Maury Mother of God

Distractions

2010-11-22T09:56:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: There is no thematic connection here. This is just me Internet vomiting a whole bunch of links.

Aretha Franklin - Ain't No Way

Hibernation Sickness/NARWHAL

Things I love from people I love

2010-11-22T09:12:00.000-08:00

Small Stunted Ways
"A collaboration between a new indie publisher and brilliant poet."

My dear, dear friends Kathleen Fraser, Tracy Hurren and Cynara Geissler (of the formidable publishing houses, Caitlin Press, Drawn and Quarterly and Anvil Press, respectively) are the forces behind this illustrated book of poetry due out in Spring 2011. Small Stunted Ways will be published under Hur Publishing and they need your help to get it made. Fundraising for the book is happening online. Guarantee yourself one of the first copies of the book with a $30 donation. If you want one of their children thrown in with a copy of the book, it costs only $5000 on IndieGoGo. Pretty good deal, no? These kids have good genes.

For a very good taste of Geissler's poetry, click over to hurpublishing.com

Shacs with a Pack
My best friend, Lauren Schachter, is travelling the world. I miss her all the time and wish she was in Montreal with me. Thankfully, she is regularly writing about her adventures on her blog. Lauren is usually shy about showing her writing, obsessively editing until you forget what you asked to read in the first place (though I'm positive that what is being produced is brilliant -- some of her work has appeared in Sad Mag). Her blog posts, though sometimes intimidatingly lengthy, are absolute treasures.

I'm thinking there's major blog-to-book potential here. Check it out and tell your friends if you like it.

Decoded

2010-11-22T08:42:00.000-08:00

I am loving all the activity around Jay-Z's new book, Decoded. First of all, the book: the cover is awesome. Secondly, the timing is great since it's a worthy distraction from the Yale University Press Anthology of Rap debacle. Since the editors at YUP managed to bungle up their book so badly, we could have lost an opportunity to talk--however briefly--about the literary value of rap, but thankfully Jay-Z released his book at the same time.

In promotions for the book, he's already appeared in conversation with Cornel West and directors of NYPL programs, Paul Holdengräber at the New York Public Library.

Then, last week, he was on Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Tracy and I were talking about how Terry is such a dork before I heard this interview; I love listening to her talk to pop stars and trying to have a serious conversation about *NSYNC. She may have an irritating voice, but she brings out the most polite and charming qualities in guests I never cared for before. The wide sociological gulfs between her and her guests can also be a recipe for hilarity, as demonstrated by the incredible mess that was her interview with Tracy Morgan last year.

All of this was evident in the interview with Jay-Z. Terry was like your mom (you're soooooo embarrassing!):

GROSS: I have to say some of those baggy jeans are so loose around the waist like they fall down to the middle of your behind and I think if you had a weapon in there they'd definitely drop to the floor because the weapon would like drag them right down.

and

GROSS: ...You know how a lot of hip-hop artists, when they're on stage they kind of like grab their crotch?

HOVA just takes it all in stride, dutifully answering the questions without a hint of impatience. It's all very endearing. And the later, I found out that he's also an investor in the Spotted Pig. Big pimpin' indeed (sorry, Terry's rubbing off on me).

Magical Dinners

2010-11-21T17:02:00.000-08:00

Illustration by Adrian Tomine for "Magical Dinners" by Chang-Rae Lee in the New Yorker Food Issue (November 22, 2010).

Read: "Magical Dinners" by Chang-Rae Lee in the New Yorker Food Issue (November 22, 2010)

Lee's writing in this piece is divine. Frank and vivid:

"[My mother] cooks an egg for me each morning without fail...there is always a fried egg, sunny-side up, cooked in dark sesame oil that pools on the surface of the bubbled-up white in the pattern of an archipelago; try one sometime, laced with soy and sweet chili sauce along with steamed rice, the whole plate flecked with toasted nori. It'll corrupt you for all time. But one morning I'm finally sick of it, I've had enough....I steal into her bedroom with my plate while she's talking on the telephone with Mrs. Suh...and drop it onto her best shoes, black patent-leather pumps. And here's the rub: there is no sound a fried egg makes. It lands with exquisite silence. This is the dish I've been longing to prepare."

Quoted: Zing! Liberal arts students

2010-11-16T10:28:00.000-08:00

"The verbal fluency [liberal arts] students attain will [not] necessarily led them to lead more selfless lives”; the most we can say is that 'holders of bachelor’s degrees tend to be . . . more adept at crafting paragraphs to justify what they want to do'"

- pulled from an op-ed about books about why the American university system is broken, too. I thought it was funny.

shocking, amazing, etc.

2010-11-16T08:19:00.001-08:00

A tumblr that compiles the most stunning Google Street view scenes ever: 9eyes

I don't understand technology

2010-11-02T20:41:00.000-07:00

food...warm feelings...

2010-11-02T20:40:00.000-07:00

Um, yes, hi. I'm looking to make all these recipes. Do you want to join me?

Prediction re: online stuff

2010-11-02T19:27:00.000-07:00

David Cho is going to take over your Internet. Carr beat me by a few days on this premonition but I'm taking credit because I just found his article.

I recommend: The Year of Magical Thinking

2010-10-26T18:57:00.000-07:00

by Joan Didion

Little and stunning in every way. Also, for Manhattan-philes, the memoir gives you a peak into what it's like to live that life you see in early Woody Allen movies (groceries at Zabars, weekend walks in the Park, coffee at the Turkish cafe around the corner, dinners at 11 uptown). I swooned.

2010-10-26T18:51:00.000-07:00

I just looked into my closet and found that I was storing things in boxes from Random House and Beefeater. Booze and books.

Our things tell so much about us.

The rate of consumption

2010-10-20T11:31:00.000-07:00

These are things I had when I left the house this morning at 11:

An empty backpack

These are things I now have as of 3:

5 pounds of apples
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Gone: The Last Days of The New Yorker by Renata Adler
The New Gilded Age: The New Yorker looks at the Culture of Affluence edited by David Remnick
The World to Come by Dara Horn
3 pairs of repaired boots
A new issue of Esquire

Shopping diet, anyone?

The Wrong Place

2010-10-20T11:13:00.000-07:00

Since Tracy works at Drawn and Quarterly, I get treated to new comics and graphic novels all the time. I don't take advantage of this perk often enough, but it pays off when I do.

Last night, I read The Wrong Place by Brecht Evens. The graphic novel peeks into the stories of people affected by Robbie, the town's Lothario and something of a king. It's hard to tell if he's real but his presence, whether true or imagined, is transformative. The exquisite details Brecht captures in his characters' joys and disappointments are shown so delicately (but not daintily). The book is absolutely, as the jacket blurb says, a deft capturing of "the strange chemistry of social interaction."

The watercolour illustration is so expressive. The Wrong Place is as satisfying as any good short story: economic, intense and vivid.

Here's a preview.

2010-10-19T19:28:00.001-07:00

Fashion trolling

2010-10-17T12:48:00.000-07:00

I love the cover for the upcoming issue of Vogue US.

Shot by Mario Testino, Anne Hathaway channels Eva Mendes and Audrey Hepburn. Best of all the fashion is reminiscent of Vogue in the 1990s, when Anna Wintour put every other cover girl in a prom dress, and made them look radiant and expensive.

Oh, and look at this amazing Glamour Italy shoot from 1991

proto-Rushmore

2010-10-15T17:15:00.000-07:00

Continue reading at Analecta

She's awesome.gif

2010-10-15T16:36:00.000-07:00

/via "Christina Hendricks on an Endless Loop: The glorious GIF renaissance," Slate.com

Endorsements - The October 6 Edition

2010-10-06T19:50:00.000-07:00

Whoops! I let this go, didn't I?

It's been such a busy time with a temporary full-time job, and so much happening in Montreal in the fall. It's very beautiful here and one day I'll get around to taking pictures of my neighbourhood with all the pretty colours. In the meantime, here are a list of things I like this week:

Katie Moore. This Montreal singer blew me away at the Ukrainian Federation on Sunday when she performed with (my fav) Patrick Watson and a motley crew of other local artists. What an unbelievable voice.
MySpace
This magazine cover:

(The New Yorker, October 11, 2010)
/via Tracy, my hairdresser and cook
... and this magazine cover:

(Candy, Issue no. 1)
/via @stitchtowhere
Raymond Biesinger. I met this illustrator at Puces Pop this weekend and bought one of his posters, a fine little piece of type and design. This new Montrealer, who hails from Edmonton, has worked for basically everyone who's anyone (read: Monocle, Wired, the New Yorker, Saatchi & Saatchi... shall I go on?). And he still sells some of his brilliant and original work for $5 a pop. Or check out some of it online for free (mosey over to Etsy afterwards) ---
Website
Homemaking. I am seriously domestic, and it tastes good.
Vulture on Twitter. I'm a massive fan of New York magazine and their website, but I didn't know that their culture blog, Vulture, was on Twitter (living under a rock, apparently). This changes EVERYTHING. Links to the need-to-know entertainment/arts/culture news of the day, good celebrity interviews, hot remixes, and enough viral video to take you through a day at the office and then some.
@vulture
My Second Empire. Everything by Chris Jones deserves to be mentioned until people start rolling their eyes. The Esquire staff writer is absolutely one of the best working journalists out there. And he's Canadian. He's not even one of those guys that left for New York. He lives in Port Hope, Ontario. Jones is currently renovating his new home in Port Hope. Read all about it on the "My Second Empire" blog on Esquire.com. It makes me laugh every day. Start with the time that Jones interviews George Clooney after major surgery.
Megan from Montreal. This Mad Men minx makes it fun to listen to Don Draper with my eyes closed. ("Megan, I don't think this is a good idea... I can't make any mistakes right now...[groaning and other sexy noises]...Do you want to grab a bite?")

(Trivia: Jessica Pare, who plays Megan, is actually from Montreal)

2010-09-30T22:22:00.001-07:00

Panda as Id

2010-09-22T19:49:00.001-07:00

2010-09-21T08:11:00.000-07:00

Photo by Kotori Kawashima, from her book “Mirai-Chan.”

Happy News about Sad!

2010-09-21T07:17:00.000-07:00

I will never forget that time at Our Town. My friend Deanne Beattie had offered me a chance to volunteer for a magazine she had in the works, Sad Mag. A few weeks before, she'd sent me an email about the first meeting of the art and editorial team:

"At the moment we have Brandon Gaukel working on the photography stuff, I'll be on the words, and a guy named Lon doing layout for us. Brandon, Lon, and some of the people they and I are recruiting are working professionals in the arts that really just wanted a project that would give us an amazing creative outlet — we're definitely excited and really committed to getting that first issue out by the end of this summer.

"We're eager to get creating, so we thought we would just go for it, and begin creating content for our first "issue." ....We also need to find places to drop off the print copy, to be available for free at record shops, clothing shops, etc, what have you.

"Would you want to get in on any of that?"

Why a magazine? Why now? What would make it special, I wondered. But it didn't really matter; I wanted to support people who were bold and brave enough to carry out a vision like this.

We met at the cafe at 7. First, I was introduced to Justin Mah and Lon Garrick, our managing editor and lead designer, respectively. Ten minutes later, Brandon walked in--on "Brandon time." And then we were all together, and wonderful, surprising things happened.

Over the next 16 months, guided by Deanne and Brandon's unbelievable passion and dedication to making a space for artists under 30, the Sad Mag family (which extends far, far beyond the five of us) has produced four issues of the magazine and countless events that have inspired and celebrated the arts community of Vancouver.

Sad Mag will be celebrating its first anniversary on October 9 at The Cultch with “Sad Mag Live.”

Hosted by CBC Radio 3’s Lana Gay, Sad Mag Live will showcase the ideas and talents of trailblazers in Vancouver’s arts communities—those who lead the way in music, theatre, fine art and storytelling. The event features interviews with:

CAMERON REED (Director, Music Waste)
GRAEME BERGLUND (Founder and Creative Director, The Cheaper Show)
LIZZY KARP (Co-Founder, Rain City Chronicles)
DAVE DEVEAU (Managing Director, Zee Zee Theatre)
With performances by:
BARBARA ADLER (Accordion, stories, poems)
JASPER SLOAN YIP (Singer-songwriter)
SAMMY CHIEN (With guests—New media artist)
ISOLDE N. BARRON (Drag sensation)

Tickets will be $18, with proceeds being directed to the Sad Mag Writers & Artists Fund. Tickets can be purchased from The Cultch, online at www.thecultch.com or at the box office.

Sad Mag Live is generously sponsored by The Cultch and CBC Radio 3.

For more information and to RVSP, see Sad Mag Live on Facebook

Request-URI TOO LARGE

2010-09-21T06:56:00.000-07:00

Some smart friends and a prof (also smart) left comments regarding my rant-y post over the weekend about the University system. I wanted to respond but I broke Blogger's comment feature because I had too much to say. Here is my comment:

Hmm... I see we all have something to say about this, as we all have an intimate encounters with The University.

Though in my post I was very concerned about job preparation, it's just one of the reasons I went to school. The idea that is a place for academics to wrestle with ideas was a large part of what I wanted from my university career. But I couldn't find that most of the time. And then there were the classes where the prof or instructor doesn't want to be there, the material is tired, and the students (even the most eager ones) are uninspired and nothing comes out of those four months together. Because of the individualistic reasons for going to school, and because of the larger, dysfunctional political climate, this stuff slides by.

Ask any undergrad student at the larger Canadian universities if they feel the ideas they put forward in their assignments matter, or if they feel like the people at the registrar's office care, or if they are engaging with ideas in their tutorials or seminars in a meaningful way. I think most will say no.

On the whole, high school doesn't prepare students to engage that way, the university doesn't expect them to in order to graduate, and the students who are at University to participate in academia lose out. It's all very messy.

John, as you pointed out, parents send their kids to school so that they can get ahead. But with the schools increasing enrolment so dramatically (traumatically?), what sort of advantage in getting a professional career do most students have when they graduate?

Enrolment in arts and humanities programs are down (no citation, sorry), funding and enrolment for business, economics and law programs are up. I think students are finding that going to university alone isn't enough to get them where they want to be in life. They now have to be strategic about what to learn, to the detriment of their own self-fufillment and satisfaction. Or, maybe that says something about this generation of middle-class youth and the economic climate that we're in right now. Maybe too many of us are too concerned about careers and money.... I'm going to have to think a little more on that one. There might be another rant/post in this.

Anyhow, it was the tenor of the discussion on CBC that was really rubbed me the wrong way. There were too many people on the panel that flippantly dismissed the students' concerns. The administrators felt like they were doing everything they could under the circumstances and therefore, the students had nothing to complain about. With a little distance between the anger I felt on Sunday after listening to that program, I fully agree that on the whole, students get a lot out of pursuing post-secondary education. It can't be reduced down to dollars and cents. We get to meet cool, like-minded people, sometimes we get to learn from some really wonderful, life-changing professors; and best of all, we get to devote time to reading and writing. Much of what we gain is intangible but will stay with us for the rest of our lives. (Is that what we pay for? Shouldn't everyone have access to that? Again, questions for another time... ) However, none of this disqualifies students' intense want for more from their schools.

I certainly haven't covered all sides of this because I don't see them all. So, thanks to all of you for sharing this post and for contributing. This is good. This is what I wanted.

[P.S. I take back that bit about NYU... I have no idea if it's a program that's any better than a leading-edge program in Canada. I just am having career anxiety.]

Shameless Self-Promotion

2010-09-19T14:16:00.000-07:00

Today, Cynara Geissler and I are making our premier on the Shameless blog--the best Canadian feminist blog around, says the Canada f-word blog awards. Our fellow bloggers include Stacey May Fowles, Zoe Cormier, and Anna Leventhal!

The column we're launching, "Shameless at Work," is a monthly mix of all topics related to women and work, with our own pop culture twist. We'll also be voicing our thoughts on the Shameless blog outside our column, if a work-related topic strikes our fancy.

Tell your friends! Leave us a comment! Watch clips from Mad Men!

Thank you!

To eat an egg, you must break the shell.

2010-09-19T10:08:00.000-07:00

/via ryanmcclan/found/

“Learning is not child's play; we cannot learn without pain.”

2010-09-19T08:48:00.000-07:00

As I near the end of my formal education (I don't see a Ph.D. in my future), I have been reflecting on the value of my post-secondary degrees. For me at 24, it's hard to imagine how I'll ever be able to have savings, own property or support a family with the skills and education I have right now. When I started university, I hoped that it would be the more practical and safe path, and that working hard would take me the places I wanted to go. Now I know that's not how it goes. Life has never been that simple. But, then again, no one before us had to pay so much for an education. There's no way of ignoring that what I've learned about myself and the knowledge I've (hopefully) retained from university is incredibly valuable. It tempers how mad I feel when I think about the disparity between what my family and I have invested into my education and what there is to show for it.

I got very upset this morning when I listened to a panel of administrators, professors, and government officials talk about the value of university education on the CBC's Sunday Edition. The second hour of the panel allowed the audience to put forward questions to the panel. The forum called "The Final Examination Question: Is a University Education Worth the Cost?" did nothing to dispel any idea that the University is not built to serve its students.

A good discussion is constructive but it was outrageous that no one could agree what the university was for. If the panel is at all representative of the people who make the decisions at universities, then I'm going to think long and hard about finishing my last course and coughing up thousands dollars to get my piece of parchment. What will I gain from it? According to the panellists, nothing but self-satisfaction. Not one school official said that going to university was going to do a good job of preparing you for the workforce.

Of course, a university is not a technical or professional school. Universities are also places of scholarship and research. But students are largely there because they feel that they have to be, because they can't get the jobs they want before they know they've written a paper that applies Foucault to Facebook. Schools advertise the quality of their teaching; the teaching is supposed to make us more intelligent, tolerant and giving members of society. Now, can they prove that their teaching will open opportunities for us to contribute to society that are more satisfying than working another McJob?

The CBC program was recorded at Dalhousie University, so there were students in the audience from King's College, Dal, and other nearby universities. Several students asked why they had to work several jobs, and sometimes had to go to the food bank, to survive the demands of getting a post-secondary education. Others were more accepting of the hardships that come with having to support yourself through university but asked why they couldn't expect a job after investing their time and money. The panel could only respond by saying that you should try harder and/or think about "the joy of learning." (Kudos, nonetheless, to Michael Enright for being the voice of mediation and reason, and standing up for the students.)

Later this morning, I was doubly sad when I read the education issue of the New York Times magazine, published this week. The issue covers some innovative new programs and initiatives in schools happening right now. I was particularly impressed by the joint journalism-computer science program at New York University covered in "Hacks Into Hackers" This is a program that prepares its students for working in more than one industry, and gives them unique analytical and problem-solving skills. Instead of shaping students who might be able to get by today, this NYU program could produce professionals with skills that will be valued ten years from now. I'm jealous.

NYU students pay tuition fees that would make most bank accounts weep, which explains why Canadian universities, which are partly publicly funded, mostly cannot offer programs like this. But how can the schools, in good conscience, accept students, take their tuition, treat them like suckers, and then go on national radio and talk about it like it's the students' problem?

In related news: The jackpot for Lotto 6/49 this week is $3.5 million.

2010-09-16T21:17:00.000-07:00

Where are you?

Click here.

Are they coming to where you are?

Buy some tickets.

See the show.

Thank me later.

Weekend plans

2010-09-16T15:28:00.001-07:00

I've working away at this thesis thingy so I've not trolled the computer tubes today. But in the interest of keeping up this blog (particularly for my no. 1 fan, VinBiscuit54), I've decided to share my wild weekend plans with you. Also, this is a chance for me to show off my incredible PhotoShop skills. Two birds...

Jacob forgoes photoshopping (kind of)

2010-09-14T18:43:00.000-07:00

This month, Jacob, popular retailer of very nice women's clothing, announced a "no-retouching" policy for photos of its models, to "promote an honest and realistic image of the female body."

Good news, but can you tell the difference between the three images below? The left is the original image, the middle an example of the kind of image Jacob will use for its campaigns moving forward (colour-corrected, scars and tattoos removed, etc.), and the one on the right is supposed to illustrate the degree of photoshopping in their past Jacob Lingerie campaigns.

The press release's title is a bit troubling... does it mean that other photos--those of non-models--would (and should) be retouched? And, as Jenna Owsianik pointed out on Shameless's blog, this lady doesn't exactly need a lot of photoshopping.

2010-09-13T21:02:00.001-07:00

Girl from Dawson's Creek and annoying skinny guy from Breaker High get together and it's hot.

/via W Magazine

Volcanoes Make Magazines

2010-09-13T19:10:00.001-07:00

Back in April, a bunch of folks who couldn't go home because of the volcanic ash cloud got together on the Internet and made a magazine. Said Andrew Losowsky, editor and publisher (and genius behind Stack America):

If there’s one thing my ol’ ma taught me, it’s that when life gives you volcanoes, make magazines. And so we shall.

Stranded is available to order on the magazine's website today via MagCloud.

T-Post: The "magazine" you can wear

2010-09-13T18:48:00.000-07:00

Promo video for innovative Swedish publishing project, T-post, employs mascot that is uncannily like Office Assistant, everyone's favourite paperclip!

My verdict: pretty OK T-shirts (some better than others), amateurish writing, awesome idea.

Is this a magazine? For me, T-Post shirts are just designer t-shirts with an artist statement inside. It makes me wonder if these days, positioning your product as some kind of answer to saving the publishing industry (or as as attempt to turn it on its head with an new business model, i.e. precious art project) is just an easy marketing ploy.

(P.S. Magazine ad sales are doing just fine these days, thank you very much)

Better Book Titles

2010-09-13T17:59:00.000-07:00

/via Better Book Titles

Ink on paper: MAGIC!

2010-09-13T17:32:00.000-07:00

McSweeney's Issue 35 is wrapped in an unbelievable disappearing-ink cover done by Jordan Crane.

This:

... with a little bit of elbow grease, makes this happen:

The fun continues inside!

/via Mr. Magazine

You rock, Martha Stewart!

2010-09-12T20:40:00.000-07:00

Charlie Rose: "You used to be a billionaire"
Martha: "I know. It felt so nice. I remember driving up Madison Avenue thinking, 'I can buy anything.' But I’m not a spendthrift!"

Watch the video

No, I haven't actually read Freedom

2010-09-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

... but I am loving the discussion that is happening around Frazenfreude! Franzen is trending online like a literary Lady Gaga--long after the discussion has gone stale, he's SEO gold! And yet, bloggers and commenters are still opening up a wider conversation about gender and writing -- I hope it goes on.

Inspired by the discussion about the male/female divide in American literature, Liza Mundy's piece on the Double X blog at Slate is one I wanted to share for its candour and hilarity.

Here she is on the gender divide on reporting trips:

"...in my experience, male reporters say something along the lines of "Bye, honey!" when they go out the door to the airport, while women reporters have to make 7,000 back-up plans involving not only spouses but primary baby-sitters, secondary baby-sitters, pet-walking services, and carpooling colleagues, just to make sure that while they are away, no child gets forgotten overnight at gymnastics practice. Women reporters take the earliest train trip to their reporting destination in the morning, and the latest possible train back, rather than spend an extra, leisurely night in a hotel room. Women reporters stuff breast pumps in their carry on bags and help with homework over the telephone."

--"Franzenfest"

In Related News: Olly Moss

2010-08-01T06:02:00.000-07:00

Young 'un illustrator-designer Olly Moss's posters for Alamo Drafthouse grace the Apple movie trailer website today to promote the Rolling Road Show, a series of outdoor movie screenings in the locations where they were shot (i.e. There Will Be Blood in Bakersfield, California).

P.S. (I think) This is another stroke of genius from the Levi's/W+K partnership

I'll take 10, thanks

2010-08-01T05:57:00.000-07:00

Bookmark by Olly Moss for Urban Outfitters
/via flickr

Why you need a copy editor

2010-07-25T06:21:00.000-07:00

/via The Awl, "What It's Really Like To Be A Copy Editor"

"...I can’t help it if I think unnecessary quotes are funny, as if signs are trying to be ironic. ...I’m turned off by guys who spell it 'definately.'"

Forever 21, Forever Poor

2010-07-20T19:44:00.001-07:00

Women's clothing store launches maternity clothing!

Says Salon, " [Forever 21's] maternity line [Love 21 Maternity] is premiering in five states, three of which carry the highest teen pregnancy rates in the country." The post goes on to suggest that the new XXII line glamorizes teen pregnancy:

"Of course they're not explicitly endorsing teen pregnancy, but by nudging teens and saying 'If you do find yourself pregnant, looking fashionable is one less thing you'll have to worry about!' the chain is going the Bristol route of unwittingly glamorizing teen pregnancy."

Can we be sure that these clothes are meant for teens? Not really. Forever 21's business has exploded in recent years because the store offers tons of fashions that look good on the rack (don't wash them if you want to wear them again!) for less than $20. H&M is great (read: where I get 90% of my clothes) but the price point is markedly higher.

That means, if I ever wanted a shiny leopard-print ruffle dress (highly unlikley) that won't break the bank, I'm going to Forever 21, even though I'm not 21 anymore. And if a woman is 26, she still hasn't got her first real job (highly likely) and she's pregnant with her first baby, she's probably going to get her maternity wares at Forever 21, too. Clearly the store reaching new demographics, tapping in the reality that twenty-somethings are living like teens -- we're dependent on our parents, emotionally needy and careless with what little money we have.

Kudos Forever 21, on your savvy move. Salon, you've missed the point: 1) Teen pregnancy isn't motivated by fashion. I was a teen girl once. If Forever 21 Maternity existed then, I don't think it would have given me any comfort to know that I could dress in sexy spring fashion trends. And 2) Cheap fashion appeals to consumers of all ages, including Justin Bieber and his mom. Don't be surprised when Forever 21 launches ForeverYoung: The Milf Denim line.

The Seinfeld Movie

2010-07-20T18:58:00.001-07:00

A couple of Canadians

2010-07-17T12:20:00.000-07:00

/via GQ, December 2007

Quoted: Women's Magazines

2010-07-14T06:25:00.000-07:00

Back in the old MPub days (so long ago...), we had a conversation about women's vs. men's magazines (which, incidentally, led to an obsession with James Franco—another story for another time). We tried for a long time to get down to what it was about women's magazine editorial that makes them different and frankly, less intelligent than men's editorial (in general). This quote from Margaret Webb explains part of what I've been trying to get at:

The thing that's always bugged me about women's magazines—not all, but 80 percent -- is their prevailing editorial attitude toward readers, women, is that they're imperfect specimens in need of fixing or are so emotionally fragile they require constant celebration. Advertisers, then, are the white knights riding in with the fix or pat on the head -- hair product, lipstick, weight-loss plan, speedy supper remedies -- and editorial generally panders to them with an excess of service stuff as well as editorial that's as vanilla as it is earnest (no irony or risky humour, please, women are too stupid to get it). For example, a while back, Chatelaine did a service piece on how to cope with fatigue, offering tips such as power napping, what to eat to avoid afternoon slumps etc. Heck, shouldn't the story be about why women are so fatigued and offer strategies on how to kick the fat butts of partners and kids who are shirking their share of the domestic load?

On the other hand, men's magazines like Esquire respect their readers no matter how imperfect, flatulent or drunk. It's the world that needs fixing, not their readers. Their nudge-wink pact with the reader is that every man coulda been James Bond if only James Bond hadn't gotten there first, the lucky bastard.

/via Canadian Magazines

Related: Cover Lies, Jezebel

Double Rainbow Love

2010-07-12T19:24:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I feel sad. And then I watch this video.
(You've seen it but you know you want to watch it again)

Insane Double Rainbow Guy - watch more funny videos

Hot and Bothered

2010-07-10T13:38:00.000-07:00

Hi there,

The hot weather here has made it difficult to think. I have been keeping my computer off so that it doesn't add more heat to the insufferable amount that just hangs in my apartment. The other night, Tracy and I phoned our favourite podcasters, Jonathan and Seth from "Uhh Yeah Dude," in a fit of heat-induced insanity, and let them know that we were possibly going to perish. Seth called us back the next day to check that we were OK.

And we are.

It's finally cooled down a little bit in Montreal. Yesterday's incredible thunderstorms drove some of the heat out of the city and it's now possible to sit in my place without sweating pouring down from all parts of your body. It's gross, I know.

I am just a week away from going to Toronto for a while and I have to make a decision about where I'll be in September. It's been wonderful here, though I miss you all very much. I like eating fancy cheese three times a day, riding bikes on the way home from the bar and unknowingly walking into concerts any day of the week.

Also, I've noticed that a lot of restaurants here serve water in wine bottles, to be poured into little glasses meant to hold scotch. Little pleasures, right?

It's also been lovely to have months off to do anything I want when I come home. My supervisors at Reader's Digest have discouraged me from putting in extra hours; overtime is a compulsion when you work in publishing. Now I come home and have to find other things to do with my life, which has been confusing.

Pie fans: I concocted a blueberry nectarine lattice pie last night - to die for.

I've also taken to listening to more music, taking time to catch up on Pitchfork favourites so I can talk the talk in this city of hipsters (Hey, guy, aren't you hot in those tight pants?). Also, my work with the web department led me into reviewing books so now I am reading some great stuff from Random House (thanks, RH), like The Golden Mean by Annabelle Lyon. I can't wait for more from Lyon.

I'm also reading:

Esquire - The Impossible issue
Maisonneuve - Music We Hate issue
Lush Life by Richard Price (highly recommended)
Greedy Little Eyes by Billie Livingston

Some food notes for those planning to visit (me in) Montreal:

Ripples on St. Laurent has some tasty, tasty ice cream. Surprising flavours, and dipped cones too.
McKiernan is a delight.
The best Chinese BBQ pork is not at the well known Toronto joint Kom Jug Yuen but Andy and Dobe on the border of Montreal's Chinatown. The pork is thinly sliced, tender and perfectly sweet. Takeout comes with a few pieces of bok choy, green onion-ginger sauce and a generous portion of delicious rice cooked in chicken stock and fat.
Picnics on Mont Royal with Cookies of Course, a round of crib and a large bottle of wine are a must.

Anyway, that's my dispatch. What are you up to these days?

Talk to you soon.

X-
M

(P.S.: Sad Mag is launching issue #4 at the Colbalt on August 4 - it's going to be HOT. The party will be hosted by the fabulous Terminal City Roller Girls!)

2010-06-28T18:11:00.000-07:00

Right On - The Roots (feat. Joanna Newsom)

2010-06-27T05:33:00.001-07:00

The Roots featuring Joanna Newsom and STS – Right On by Hypetrak

She said I am the one who will dance on the floor in the round

2010-06-26T23:31:00.000-07:00

Aloe Blacc ("I Need a Dollar") covers MJ's "Billie Jean." So good, it's another instant classic.

Agreed

2010-06-26T23:24:00.001-07:00

Gourmet Magazine Resurrected on the iPad

2010-06-24T05:29:00.000-07:00

2010-06-21T22:07:00.000-07:00

A tiny kitten eating ice cream. I mean, COME ON.

Endorsements (June 21-28)

2010-06-21T19:46:00.000-07:00

Hi! Endorsements today:

Today, I submit to you things I like for the week of June 21-28:

The Boing-Boing endorsed art blog, This isn't Happiness - smartly curated.
Slate's Culture Gabfest podcast - A weekly gathering of Slate editors. It's funny, it's snobby, it's eclectic (really).
Fatties on Ice - a podcast co-hosted my staffer, Cynara Geissler. No, she's really my master (I am the student). Cynara and her co-host, Jenny-with-the-best-voice, talk pop culture and media from a feminist, body positive perspective. I like.
Top Chef - Season 7, and it's still good! I like to watch the celebrity chefs make faces when they taste a bad ceviche. If you like this show, then you'll love Max Silvestri's recaps on Eater.com.
Every Person in New York - A sketch blog so lovely, so simple, it makes you forget how New York feels on most days: crowded and unnerving.
I've saved the best for last: I just heard "Send Me Some Loving" by Otis Redding on This American Life last week, and I was like, who is this person losing his mind over a woman? You could just hear his desperation, and the liquor, and the sweat in the 20 seconds that they played. Next, I'm on Grooveshark, and now I haven't stopped listening to Ol' Otis for days. Here's a video, I love. Watch the audience get their minds blown.

Vogue vs. Victoria, B.C.

2010-06-20T09:33:00.000-07:00

"Vogue's lawyers will not have their Fashion's Night Out trademark tarnished: They threatened to sue a fashion show in Victoria, Canada, for trademark infringement. Victoria Fashion's Night Out, which took place last night, was like a little Fashion Week where Victorian businesses showed their latest collections. Organizers had to scramble to change the name the day before the event after getting a letter from Vogue's legal team.

"It read:
'Our client did not consent to use of its Fashion's Night Out trademark by your organization or its members and is extremely concerned by this unauthorized use of its intellectual property.'"

/via The Cut, NYMag.com

Question: Is "Victorian" the appropriate adjective to describe things based in or from Victoria, B.C.?

Another question: Is it good PR to post tweets like, "Vogue sues fashion show in Victoria for using name "Fashion's Night Out." In other news, Victoria BC is excited Anna Wintour knows it exists," on the Fashion's Night Out (NYC) website ?

Mameshiba

2010-06-19T14:02:00.000-07:00

Mameshiba: talking beans with puppy dog faces (and a trove of intriguing trivia)

More tragic truth from Mameshiba on Youtube

2010-06-18T21:15:00.000-07:00

I just said, "Oh my fucking god, this poster is amazing."

This is the first official poster for The Social Network — David Fincher’s cinematic adaptation of Ben Mezrich’s The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal.

/The Daily What

2010-06-17T20:45:00.001-07:00

/via Section Design

Another publishing infographic

2010-06-16T21:09:00.000-07:00

Bottom right-hand corner: me.
/via FTPubW

Explain this to me: the Hanson edition

2010-06-16T20:18:00.000-07:00

I read today that there was a riot at South Street Seaport in New York City last night; overcrowding at a free concert prompted officials to cancel the much anticipated event. The throngs of fans got angry and things got out of hand. There were police spraying mace.

So why were emotions running so high? Who were this crowd so eager to see? One of the headliners was "the new face of hip-hop," Drake. So there's a lot of teenage girls, Degrassi fans, and/or Kanye West devotees--OK, I get it.

But guess who got almost equal billing? Hanson, meaning that this mystery musical act with a weirdly familiar name was intended to draw a similar sized crowd to the concert.

I was so flabbergasted by the possibility that it could be that Hanson, I went through the whole day thinking there was another indie band named themselves after the MMMbop brothers because it would be ironic. This was not the case.

The Awl confirms that it was in fact that band with Least Desired, Older Brother, Baby Brother, and Brother that Looks Remarkably Like a Girl that was scheduled to perform last night. This is blowing my mind. Who makes up their fan base? Are they the kind of people that still buy CDs? Who is backing this come back attempt? How do you describe Hanson's music now? Do people remember "MMMbop"? Explain this to me.

Meet the Lasandwich

2010-06-16T20:08:00.000-07:00

"Between two thick slices of white bread, you'll find a generous filling of diced beef in a tangy tomato and herb sauce, layered with cooked pasta sheets and finished with a creamy cheddar, ricotta and mayonnaise dressing."

--TESCO press release for the Lasandwich

/via the Guardian

In your opinion, how does this compare to the KFC Double Down? Comments on presentation, packaging, overall health concerns, taste, potential tastiness while stoned/drunk, and all pertinent characteristics of these two sandwiches are all welcome. Unfortunately, both products are not available in Canada, so most of us will just have to speculate.

Newspaper publishers: Read this article or you will die

2010-06-16T19:48:00.000-07:00

A great critique by Sara Williams at Made by Many (via Shannon) was the first blog post I've read that gives some very real instructions to the magazine and newspaper biz about how to survive in a world of free content. Williams doesn't miss a beat here in explaining why charging consumers for content that's not enhanced by curation or context has two central and detrimental consequences: first: content can be found somewhere else, and second: being the snobby kid in the playground that doesn't want to share is not going to make anybody like or admire you more. You are not being invited to any birthday parties. It's going to be awfully hard for me to link to you next year, New York Times.

Maaaybe though, you'll get that really awesome pool and the XBox,* and I'll suck up to you. We'll see.

*Someone has got to let me know if these metaphorical statements are getting out of hand. Just tell me, "Megan, say what you mean." If they strike you as humorous, well, if you said so, you'd make me a happy woman.

the relationship between feedback and morale in the publishing intern

2010-06-16T16:27:00.000-07:00

by Cynara Geissler, genius

Emwow and the Shampon

2010-06-16T04:39:00.001-07:00

Somewhere - thoughts on a trailer

2010-06-15T15:32:00.000-07:00

It's been four years since Sofia Coppola's last film, Marie Antoinette. (I've been digging the soundtrack for that movie, which I recently bought for 50 cents - value!).

Earlier today, the trailer was released for Somewhere (in theatres December 2010). It's entirely possible that Coppola recycled her Oscar-nominated script for Lost in Translation: the story begins in a luxury hotel, where an older actor (Bill Murray/Stephen Dorff) is regularly reminded of the loneliness that dominates his life, and the emptiness of his career. A surprise encounter with a much younger blonde (Scarlett Johansson/Ellie Fanning) prompts new excitement in life, punctuated with small moments--"real" and simple. They exchange knowing looks, share moments of affection while watching TV in bed and character development happens in a pool. The actor has loving feelings for the young woman and at the end of the movie, must make a decision whether to return to what is easy and familar, or opt for the life he wants. Pastel cinematography is set to the sounds of Phoenix.

Dogs in College

2010-06-14T18:52:00.000-07:00

by Michael Deforge

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

2010-06-11T14:39:00.001-07:00

... so this is like writing a 9,000-word blog post (plus captions), right?

Welcome to America. We almost got busted for having a salad that took up a quarter of the trunk.

Apparently, A&W is all-American food. I was not aware of this. Canadian burgers and American burgers taste pretty much the same but the ordering is different. This looks like a take-out window but you're actually not allowed to stand there, nevermind order.

This is Lake George, NY, which was, I later realized, a favourite summer spot for Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Steiglitz.

Welcome to our apartment. Those, over there, in the right side are 1,000,000-thread-count sheets, we're sure. While we made a mess of his house, our host, John, spent the weekend in the Hamptons. La-di-daa. (Oh, and there's nothing on Tracy's face. That's something on the lens)

Here we have Highline Park, barely a year old. It's on the edge of Manhattan in Chelsea, built on a defunct railway perched above the city. Beautiful wood features with concrete accents and lush landscaping. It's a very, very pleasant escape--and hip to boot.

The view from the 20th Street entrance.

Chelsea

If I never go Times Square again, I will be a happy woman. Here a middle-aged Korean woman poses with American tourists in her international garb.

A New York sunset. Hipsters line the boardwalk at Battery Park after being turned away from the ferry to Governor's Island (for the free Yeasayer concert).

Jetsetting

2010-06-08T19:13:00.000-07:00

Whew! I never thought that moving to a new city would mean living in many other cities at the same time. Four weeks after moving on Montreal, I've also done amazing things in Toronto and New York. In fact, it feels like I've barely worked, which is probably why I'm having some major career anxiety (where I am going?).

At least, I haven't had to get coffee for anyone. Sometimes people buy me coffee -- novel! In Montreal, Tracy makes stir-fry, we drink wine, we live on the Internet -- life is good.

Still, I thought it might be nice to reflect on the last two weeks and share things I've learned, read, and thought about while jetsetting between borders (provincial and national).

First, to answer the questions about whether or not I like my job: yes. I am learning lots about magazine publishing and I get to choose content for Reader's Digest, and edit without much supervision. Plus, I am being moved to a cubicle with next to the floor-to-ceiling windows in a corner. CORNER OFFICE, foooos!

That's next week. So let me recover the trip to Toronto, which was at the end of May. I headed to Canada's biggest city to visit friends from MPub, to hang out with old colleagues, new friends, and of course, my brother. William and I shared his tiny studio apartment, which is so small the bathroom and the kitchen share a sink. And since my brother is a hoarder (I might nominate him for the TLC show), there is barely room for one person to live. Guests staying over, such as myself, need to find room for a sleeping bag between stacks of Wallpaper* (he's a designer) on one side, the defunct toaster oven filled with interesting packaging on another, and snuggle up close to the overflowing laundry basket. Also, there was no Wi-Fi so I considered moving out (just kidding... kind of).

Anyhow, Toronto, I am told, has the highest rate from point to point for any public transportation system in the world. The price sort of confines you to staying within a familiar radius of restaurants and shops. Luckily, William lives in the Annex, where he's close to some of my favourite places in the city-I-love-to-hate: Kensington Market and the Annex. Unfortunately, that meant that I have been missing the wonders of Toronto west: Trinity Bellwoods Park on a nice day is actually nice. Plus, Type Books is a fantastic indie bookstore -- interesting curation and lovely attention to presentation/merchandising. Some points lost for obnoxiously loud staff but I would never complain about spending an afternoon browsing their shelves.

Toronto also offered some culinary treats: I sipped beers on patios, devoured jumbo empanadas, and slipped into small restaurants in Chinatown's basements for juicy dumplings.

Ultimately, the primary reason for coming to Toronto was professional. I came to see David Granger, the editor-in-chief of Esquire, speak about mags, ketchup (the squeeze bottle makes it easier for consumers to get the same content as the old form! Where's the squeeze-bottle parallel for modern magazines?), and wining-and-dining your staff (Oh, so American! Oh, so New York!). Granger was a charismatic speaker -- a salesman at heart and a gifted storyteller.

Inspired by Esquire's front-of-book section, "This Way In," here are some of my notes from the talk without any context:

All magazines and great things start from disappointment, depression and despair
The magazine is at its best when it is simply an expression of our love of life
Hates Dave Chappelle
...And it makes readers mad

OK, I picked up some great tips about making magazines, too. Granger noted that a pretty package was essential to bringing a reader into a magazine. When someone in the audience implied that the repackaging of the magazine four years ago meant less consideration for "content," Granger was quick to point out that no one remembers the writing (unless it's stunning), and no one will even approach it if the design is sloppy or boring.

He stopped short of saying that design and visuals are content. And I think that would've have been important to point out. Photography, typography and illustration are integral to the modern concept of magazines. They deserve equal recognition in magazine publishing. Give the art department some respect, please!

However cursory the 60-minute keynote was, I left feeling inspired to go to New York offer my own talents to the magazines I get excited to read each month. I felt that if I could be confident about offering my opinions, at least people would know who I was. Granger has taken risks over the years, even admitting that some of the covers he has signed off were "gimmicky." But even now, years later, he stands behind his decisions, able to offer convincing rationales for doing some very advertising-oriented work. For this, he's been highly criticized but in the end, he's one of the most recognizable faces in American magazine publishing, and a highly respected one at that. Also, have you really not read that Chris Jones story I endorsed? Seriously, what are you waiting for?

Right after the talk I whisked myself out of the fancy (hors d'oeuvres and wine, thank you) Yorkville Hotel and ran into the Annex to pick up my things. Perilously, I took the TTC, Toronto's public transportation system, and made my way to the airport. Some years back, I took this route in the middle of a snow storm and the journey took three-plus hours. I nearly missed my plane. This time, I made it to the airport with time to spare, and time to get thoroughly searched at security and lose my boarding pass.

...I was dead-tired... as I am now. So, part deux tomorrow: reflections on New York City.

A preview: "The Leap," the cover story from last week's New York Magazine about the sudden suicide of a gifted New York teenager with a mild form of Aspergers. This piece is not for the faint-hearted, but even if I step away from the phenomenal tragedy told, there is some deft, powerful writing here.

The Things She Read

2010-05-29T07:39:00.000-07:00

I had the great luxury of abandoning my computer for a few hours and jumping on a train. That meant more time than I've had in months to read!

And fortunately, I picked some amazing things to take with me. I read a piece by Chris Jones (Canadian author of the celebrated profile of Roger Ebert in Esquire) called "The Things that Carried Him." (Not to be confused with another fantastic piece from the Atlantic, "The Things He Carried") This piece earned Esquire and Jones a National Magazine Award. It's a phenomenal feat of journalism that tells how the body of an American soldier finds its way home to his grave in Indiana. The story is a few years old but its power hasn't diminished one bit.

You won't be able to put it down and you will not soon forget the story. If I sound hyperbolic, I'm not. It's really that good. Make sure you have Kleenex nearby.

On a lighter note, try the New Yorker's Parent's Guide to "Your New College Graduate"

Finally - I've just started Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman. I like this book because it was a winner for me in our book publisher "fantasy football" league (pick your list, order books, see how they sell), but also because it happens to be written in Friedman's signature lucid style. The book is a manifesto, calling America to step up and embrace sustainability as way of life-- and the its best hope for the future. Friedman's prose is urgent, clear, and persuasive. When I'm done, I'm sure I'm going to feel very smart.

What the hell, Toronto?

2010-05-29T06:14:00.000-07:00

I was really excited to visit my brother this weekend. For the first time in my (recent) life, I was looking forward to coming to Toronto. (Cue general dismay about past life at York University.) Five minutes after I arrive at Union Station, a respectable looking man comes up to me asking for 35 cents so that he can get home. I lend him the money and he promises me good karma. Ok, sure.

Only 10 minutes later, William and I are getting off the subway and, as passenger rushed into the car, HE KICKED ME.

Know your place

2010-05-24T17:34:00.001-07:00

Fifth Avenue and 22nd Street, New York city. Photo by Mark Armstrong.

/via The Awl

2010-05-24T11:59:00.000-07:00

/via Ish (aka where I get all the material for my blog)

Heffernan Laments the Death of the Open Web; the Times Props Up its Paywall

2010-05-24T11:33:00.000-07:00

The New York Times' media columnist Virginia takes something of an elegiac tone in her recent piece about "The Death of the Open Web":

"But a kind of virtual redlining is now under way. The Webtropolis is being stratified. Even if, like most people, you still surf the Web on a desktop or laptop, you will have noticed pay walls, invitation-only clubs, subscription programs, privacy settings and other ways of creating tiers of access. All these things make spaces feel “safe” — not only from viruses, instability, unwanted light and sound, unrequested porn, sponsored links and pop-up ads, but also from crude design, wayward and unregistered commenters and the eccentric voices and images that make the Web constantly surprising, challenging and enlightening."

Ok, cute. But the paper that you work for is going to charge its readers to read online in about 6 months. I wonder what the dialogue about the open web is like inside the NYT offices.

Heffernan's argument is confused, I think. Perhaps, not as honest as she could have been writing the piece for anyone else. Despite it's flimsy thesis, the essay has this gem of an analogy:

“The App Store must rank among the most carefully policed software platforms in history,” the technology writer Steven Johnson recently noted in The Times. Policed why? To maintain the App Store’s separateness from the open Web, of course, and to drive up the perceived value of the store’s offerings. Perception, after all, is everything: many apps are to the Web as bottled water is to tap — an inventive and proprietary new way of decanting, packaging and pricing something that could once be had free.

2010-05-22T14:18:00.001-07:00

More things I have collected

2010-05-19T18:41:00.000-07:00

To read:

"Marijuana Fuels a New Kitchen Culture," New York Times
"200 Moments that Changed Journalism, 2000-2009," Poynter
"What Startups Are Really Like"

To share:

"Sweetest at the End," Modern Love, New York Times (Your tears via Cynara)
The Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co.

For your convenience:

What The Fuck Should I Make for Dinner? (via Ryan)

To listen to:

For your information:

this