"I wanted to (choke Ariza) because he hit me with the elbow, but I thought about David Stern and thought I wasn’t going to do this."
— Ron Artest
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Hello. I'm studying journalism at Northwestern University. E-mail is to the left. Websites are to the bottom.
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"Not perfect. The plots often creak. But the dialogue is wonderful and the characterisation is as almost as good. Apparently Joss Whedon starts from emotion. He asks what emotion does the viewer need to feel? and what emotion does the character need to feel? These are very good questions for any writer in writing any fiction. Get that right and your readers/viewers will want to keep reading/watching."
— Susanna Clarke on Buffy, and I guess art in general
"
You cannot enter into this shit until you have:
-fought with each others’ parents
-been to the hospital with each other
-seen each others’ doody
-taken a clump of her period-soaked discharge-laden public hair out of the drain
-Sat in front of her on the couch with your shirt off and squeezed your belly flesh together so that she has to view the Hairy Bagel
-talked about which lies you want to tell your children
-talked about whether if you have a boy you’ll cut the tip of its dick off
-talked about Christmas and America
-disclosed whether either of you is gay
-broken up and gotten back together or at least been on the ropes
-Picked your nose in front of her while listening to her boring stories
-made a joke about her grandma blowing you
-Lived with her and seen what a cunt she is
-…and the fuck FARTED in front of her MANY fucking times.
I met Dan Rather tonight.
In the reporter bullpen on the red carpet, a few correspondents gathered following the entrance of the celebs into the theater we had been positioned outside of. The three reporters, all from major magazines, launched into a quick conversation about how the print industry was dying and how everyone was screwed, opinions delivered with the right amount of insouciance such grand statements require. I wanted to interject but didn’t have the right opportunity to do so.
One of the reporters asked me earlier, “Are you in J-school?” When I said I was, she asked me if I was “freaking out.” When I delivered a mini-sermon about how I was happy to be doing journalism and would find my way no matter what, she didn’t seem to believe me. No - she absolutely did not believe me, her eyes narrowing as she said, “Really?” before turning to some other subject.
I shook Dan Rather’s hand and asked him a few questions, all totally unrelated to anything I might have been supposed to be asking him about, and instead, relating to journalism. Of course. I asked him whether he saw himself quitting, and he said, never. “Never because I love it too much.” That’s why someone like Dan Rather, at his age, continues to do it - not for the money, not for the acclaim, but for the allure of one more story.
When he was talking about the things he’s writing about in his new book, he said something that sums up how I feel: “Objective, truly objective journalism is the heartbeat of democracy.” On one hand, you might think, “Jeez, what a generic thing for an old man to say,” but on the other you would see that Dan Rather has seen enough and covered enough and knows enough that when he says this, it is something he believes in. And more than the format or the medium or the way it is done, good journalism will thrive because it is important. People want to read good stories - they’re just smart enough to know when it’s all bullshit. Convention and habit will not work any more - giving a shit, like Dan Rather does, must undergo a revival in j-school classrooms and red carpet bullpens.
Dan Rather is tall. I had to look up to meet his eye, even though I’m 6’1” (like the Liz Phair song). I told him my name, shook his hand, and wished him well; he told me to have a nice night, then walked away.
"that laughable period in music where being female developed into its own genre"
—
The Quietus | Features | A Quietus Interview | Florence Welch Interviewed: Rage Against The Machine (via desnoise)
This interview/piece is really interesting because after the first few grafs, the writer takes the opportunity to slam the artist every time she can, turning it into a hit piece extrapolated from what was probably a short interview. While any good journalist/writer is able to pull insightful things from their observations, jumping to such conclusions like,”Her total lack of cultural awareness makes it seem all the more probable that she’s a spoilt posh girl with a host of “yes” men at her disposal who’s been allowed to put the metaphorical interest pony up for sale when she inevitably gets bored of it,” which is, um, jumping pretty far.
Does this kind of opinionated attack have its place in modern music journalism - do we need writers to stoke the fires of fan dissent and agreement, no matter how intellectually disingenuous the process might be? Also, does the writer have a responsibility to edit their transcripts and make the interviewee sound not so spacy? And what is the writer’s beef, anyways?
"
They sure aren’t going to bemoan any lack of civility between opponents. Not when the book (which was co-written by Jackie MacMullan) contains page after page detailing how much the Lakers and Celtics despised each other in the 1980s. So they didn’t harp on LeBron James walking off the court without shaking hands after the Orlando Magic beat his Cleveland Cavaliers in the playoffs.
“I can remember when I played, I wouldn’t shake anybody’s hands after a loss,” Bird said.
Said Johnson: “The Celtics and Lakers, we never shook anybody’s hands.”
"Bob Dylan - One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later)
What a complete jam.
I couldn’t see when it started snowin’ / Your voice was all that I heard / I couldn’t see where we were goin’ / But you said you knew an’ I took your word
There’s that thin wild mercury sound.
(via natashavc)
J-schools need to start teaching MMA or boxing or something, I don’t want to look stupid when my editor tries to punch me out and I recoil like a little baby (I want to be able to smack him in the gobber).
"
New York City is supposed to be a haven for people like me, and I am still getting my ass kicked by the same goons who were kicking my ass in high school. They probably want to kick my ass because they see what huge assholes we all are, with our cocaine and our cameras and our annoying music. I also wonder why it was that so many thousands of people wanted to stand for hours in the rain to get hot and filthy and have their pictures taken by strangers and probably get their asses kicked to boot. I was there too, and didn’t want to leave despite any of these issues, and why? Because I am no better than anyone I despise and couldn’t stop chasing the green monster. I degraded and debased myself for a few bucks, and yes, we all know where that money is going.
The whole thing is fucked. VICE is a perfectly fine magazine, and the people who work there are decent folks, but they really are bad at not getting mixed up with the wrong people and inspire my generation to really weird and troubling behavior. Tight Security Inc is raking in the big dollars by pointing fallen high school football superstars in the direction of easy targets. We are being choked and beaten and sexually assaulted, and all the while, my peers dance and snort cheap coke and photograph each other for the hundreth time. I scoff at it all now from atop my high horse, but I was there too, because I am poor and when people want give me money to play my guitar, I can’t ever say no.
Kids, we are blowing it. Everything they say about us is true.
"
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