Nerdshares

"Dudes — all of us supposedly smart people, in fact — should think about being a little more careful..."

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:20:23 -0500

“Dudes — all of us supposedly smart people, in fact — should think about being a little more careful about this stuff. Like AJ’s unfortunate mustache in the above photo, it might be meant ironically, but eventually it just becomes your look.”

- thank you.

We all get that this is JUST FOR THE PAGEVIEWS and TONGUE-IN-CHEEK and IF YOU GET MAD YOU ARE JUST PLAYING INTO IT. Anger is engagement, blah blah blah. Anger at the columnist? Hatred for the publication? That’s just “how it’s done,” huh? Well, it is your ironic journalism career. You’ll have to live with it. I, for one, think it is pathetic.

(via meaghano)

The “an angry reader is an engaged reader” theory Ham Nolan was peddling just strikes me as really disingenuous. So…women get angry over this cheetah business. Mission accomplished! Except…wait, Spencer Morgan actually doesn’t care about cheetahs or cougars or pumas. So he’s intentionally pissing off readers to engage them on a topic he does not care about? That doesn’t seem very useful.

I can buy that the NYO article was satire (!) aimed at the obsession with “cougars.” It succeeds there. But that has, to me, a far less interesting purpose than simple reporting or commentary, because Spencer Morgan isn’t engaging his readers. He predicts (and hopes) they will be annoyed so he (and others who understand the piece) can point and laugh at the people WHO SO TOTALLY DON’T UNDERSTAND, OMG YOU GUYS.

I’ve tried to understand why this bothers me and I think it’s that these types of pieces are inevitably kind of directed back toward the author. About the AUTHOR’S intent, the AUTHOR’S cleverness. There are no ideas; there is only the authorial voice, announcing its superiority at every turn. And if your standard of success is whether your rhetoric-based prank pissed people off, then this would be a coup, no argument. But, for me, it’s hard to understand writing (in a professional capacity) when you have no point to make other than “Dumb People Will Think This is Serious; I, The Author, Will Laugh.” Rile people up, certainly, but can it be about shit that actually matters? Or even something that actually matters to you?

(Note: I would accept the argument: “But Regina, pissing people off = pageviews. Pageviews = money. Money = me, a writer, not living on the street (this month).” Because if I had to take sides between the abstract idea of professional integrity and real human life and day-to-day concerns about keeping a roof over one’s head and trying not to die, I would have to go with human beings.)

Today is too insane even for Insanity Wolf. (He went on a...

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:36:41 -0500

Today is too insane even for Insanity Wolf. (He went on a pleasure tour of our country’s mental institutions.) Sir Courage Wolf, Esq. needs to sub in.

"I can’t help thinking oh my goodness, I know some of those girls. They’re horrible. They’ll snatch..."

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:42:55 -0500

“I can’t help thinking oh my goodness, I know some of those girls. They’re horrible. They’ll snatch your date out from under your nose…”

- Caroline McCarthy: I’m a horrible person. I’m a horrible person.

People are not things. They cannot be snatched or stolen. Any date or boyfriend or whatever who leaves you for someone else has not been “lured” away. And the asshole is — as you might suspect — the person you were dating. And now he (or she) is someone else’s problem.

"VF has a monster story on #Blackwater’s Erik Prince—he describes personal role in CIA..."

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 11:39:21 -0500

“VF has a monster story on #Blackwater’s Erik Prince—he describes personal role in CIA assassinations: http://bit.ly/8tctjq”

- jeremyscahill

Too bad we have more important articles to read today.

(via skybarn)

(via inothernews)

This story should be front and center in the news and that’s what’s wrong with the news: it’s not.

(via dailyhuff)

(via joecoscarelli)

FUCK YOU, NEW YORK OBSERVER

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 11:14:20 -0500

FUCK YOU, NEW YORK OBSERVER:

charitini:

fuckyeahthirties:

That. Is. All.

So fucking steamed.

I’m confused as to why an article about “cheetahs” begins with an anecdote about a date rapist. Because, assuming that Spencer Morgan isn’t just yukking it up and that is a true story, that woman is quite literally a sexual predator. I started skimming after I realized he was just using it as a segue to some cutesy bullshit about sex between actual consenting adults.

"I sacrificed an entire day and a lot of sleep for it, it had to be good. I didn’t realize how..."

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:45:00 -0500

“I sacrificed an entire day and a lot of sleep for it, it had to be good. I didn’t realize how incredibly haunting and isolating his words were until I would put it down to take a pesky break for class/work or food and I was just surrounded by all this stuff. Not in a “we have too much stuff” kind of way, though we do, but in a “I can’t believe I’m actually warm and comfortable and full of life, I was so convinced I was living in this doomed world” kind of way.”

- it’s only life: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

In the first 80 pages of Blood Meridian, there is: arson, corpses being sodomized, a tree of dead babies, a decapitated head, a militia leader who shoots cats and goats to test his gun, and some (light) scalping. McCarthy is a heavy guy. (Reminds me of a quote from one of Woody Allen’s films, “Well, he’s a fun guy. He’s a light guy. I’m a heavy guy. Ted would be fun on a scavenger hunt. Ted’s the guy you want if you have a really heavy scavenger hunt. He’s your man.” You don’t take Cormac McCarthy on a scavenger hunt. Unless it’s literal scavenging. On the frontier. And you plan on shanking people. Or children.)

“I’ve grown less sanguine and more than a bit detached about guys this early stage – it’s like...

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:23:00 -0500

“I’ve grown less sanguine and more than a bit detached about guys this early stage – it’s like a pregnancy before three months. ;)”

Really, lady blogger? Cluelessness is not an adequate defense for insensitivity. You are almost 30. Get a clue (or crowdsource it, whatever).

AP: Manny Pacquiao will run for Philippine Congressional seat

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 08:58:00 -0500

AP: Manny Pacquiao will run for Philippine Congressional seat:

inothernews:

Please don’t let politics ruin this man.

Reblogged for Dave (I still haven’t watched the HBO ep(s) but it’s on my mind!).

” ‘and for some inexplicable reason I find myself willing to take a gamble on...

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:56:32 -0500

” ‘and for some inexplicable reason I find myself willing to take a gamble on you.’ For ‘some inexplicable reason’ indeed: Auster anxiously confesses his own creative lack.”

…

“A narrator who trades in such banalities is difficult to credit, and the writer who lends him those words seems uninterested in persuading us they mean anything. But, once again, here is an Auster character keen to urge us on, in words of air, the gravity of his motives, the depths of his anguish: ‘This failure to act is far and away the most reprehensible thing I have ever done, the low point in my career as a human being.’ This shame supposedly determines the course of Walker’s life.”

— “Shallow Graves” - James Wood reviews the novels of Paul Auster in the New Yorker.

Disclosure: I have not read Invisible. But I do not find much to admire in writing that needs the characters to explain their feelings. Is someone ashamed? He needs to act ashamed. The reader should feel ashamed. Lure me in, show me his side of things, make me complicit, make me root for The Shameful Thing, and then allow me to realize why it’s shameful. Do not tell me your character feels shame. I should know.

So,

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:32:38 -0500

jakec:

generic1:

nerdshares:

there are many things that could be (and have been) said about John Carney’s “Annual Guide to Holiday Romance [For Dudes]” but I don’t have as much time as I’d like. So, in bullet form:

Carney’s list is heavily ironic; the “author” (or authorial voice) is clearly meant to be a DudeBro douche of the highest order.

Some people, not always women, will not get the irony. Some DudeBro douches of the highest order will laugh at the inherent “truth” in these bon mots.

Those DudeBro douches think John Carney is on their side.

Even people, not always men, who get and enjoy the irony, might be laughing at the inherent “truth” in these bon mots.

Those people are Stealth DudeBro douches.

They also think John Carney is on their side.

He might be.

It is possible to understand but not appreciate the irony, or the idea that irony is free from criticism even when it (and our enjoyment of it) is problematic.

So: rah rah to freedom of speech and all that, and to holiday lists that are essentially an excuse to flex one’s comedic muscles and exhibit biting, up-to-the-minute insight into gender politics (except it’s ironic! so it’s not really saying that any of those 54 (?) points are true, except maybe a little bit).

That’s all.

Way to confuse irony with satire. I pity the fool who doesn’t “get it”, but regardless of how genuine the list was, the fact is that it was amusing. I certainly won’t put as much stock in it as I do in Cosmo’s boyfriend quizzes (which I get Perfect scores on, FYI).

Satire is inherently ironic and I am talking specifically about claims that people didn’t get “it,” — it being the irony that is a necessary part of satire. I don’t understand how “clarifying” that it’s (ironic) satire makes any kind of material difference. You found it humorous. Great. You know what I enjoy? No, not Cosmo quizzes (nice satirical snap, tho). Dune. But! In Dune, Frank Herbert really closely associates extreme perversion and evil with homosexuality in the character of Baron Harkonnen. So that’s a little problematic. But I can still like Dune!

I can also still enjoy Judd Apatow movies, like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, wherein Kristen Bell is Evil Girlfriend Archetype and Mila Kunis is I-Exist-Only-To-Validate-Your-Man/Child-Feelings lady, and Russell Brand/Jason Segel basically have high-five smile-times over Kristen Bell being an awful bitchy whore. But? It is funny. It is entertaining. I laugh. Some of that laughter is problematic, which is understandable but doesn’t make everything a-ok.

So,

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:26:24 -0500

there are many things that could be (and have been) said about John Carney’s “Annual Guide to Holiday Romance [For Dudes]” but I don’t have as much time as I’d like. So, in bullet form:

Carney’s list is heavily ironic; the “author” (or authorial voice) is clearly meant to be a DudeBro douche of the highest order.
Some people, not always women, will not get the irony. Some DudeBro douches of the highest order will laugh at the inherent “truth” in these bon mots.
Those DudeBro douches think John Carney is on their side.
Even people, not always men, who get and enjoy the irony, might be laughing at the inherent “truth” in these bon mots.
Those people are Stealth DudeBro douches.
They also think John Carney is on their side.
He might be.
It is possible to understand but not appreciate the irony, or the idea that irony is free from criticism even when it (and our enjoyment of it) is problematic.
So: rah rah to freedom of speech and all that, and to holiday lists that are essentially an excuse to flex one’s comedic muscles and exhibit biting, up-to-the-minute insight into gender politics (except it’s ironic! so it’s not really saying that any of those 54 (?) points are true, except maybe a little bit).

That’s all.

"I just don't think I'm cut out to be a writer."

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:01:00 -0500

— every writer in the history of everything.

(But most recently a friend of mine who is a very successful reporter — she grew up in the south Bronx, earned a scholarship to Yale, now gainfully employed at a prominent publication; also may receive a smack on the mouth.)

“Most academic philosophy is just a big word game. The game is played with pensive looks and...

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:40:00 -0500

“Most academic philosophy is just a big word game. The game is played with pensive looks and jargon and claims to have read improbably large amounts of ever more obscure philosophical writings. (‘You can’t possibly understand unless you’ve read 14c Laotian philosopher Pa Vong’s obscure unpublished early work which has never been translated from the ancient Lao and which you need a $100 a month subscription to Lao Philosophy Today to read…’).”

- Comment on Philosophy Bites’ podcast on “What You Can Do With Philosophy.”

I DIE.

Also, I’ve found that every philosopher has her own language, which does not necessarily correlate with the meanings of words as normal human beings understand them, so: good luck conveying truth(s) about life, academic philosophical dialogue.

Italian group asks MTV to cancel 'Jersey Shore'

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:14:34 -0500

Italian group asks MTV to cancel 'Jersey Shore':

As an Italian-American, I support the push for cancellation. Also, as a human being.

"I don’t think racially about everything but I always find myself fascinated by old white..."

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:44:45 -0500

““I don’t think racially about everything but I always find myself fascinated by old white dudes. What do they eat? Where do they come from?””

- Okay, you may hate Community (BMichael!), but the fictional characters’ real-life Twitter feeds are kind of awesome.

Lady Gaga “Bad Romance” Parody (featuring LORD...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:55:47 -0500

Lady Gaga “Bad Romance” Parody (featuring LORD Gaga).

The stuffed shark on a leash…can’t stop laughing.

"Davis denied forcing the woman to have sex, but admitted in court that he used a “lock down..."

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:03:44 -0500

“Davis denied forcing the woman to have sex, but admitted in court that he used a “lock down maneuver” to pin her to the bed when she said she wanted to stop. He told the court he backed off when she kicked him, though he said he muffled her mouth with his hand when she began to scream after he demanded his money back.”

- US Marine Acquitted Of Raping Prostitute

Real quality quote from the guy’s lawyer: ”He is glad it’s over,” Macedone said. “It has been very stressful for him.”

(via spreadmagazine)

(via abbyjean)

So according to U.S. law, sometimes “no” means “yes,” and now we know that it’s not possible to change your mind during sex. Especially if you’re a prostitute being put into a “lock down maneuver” by a member of the U.S. military.

Wait: so why do Foster Kamer's articles enrage people?

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:04:00 -0500

Responding with anger assumes that his pieces require or invite dialogue. They don’t. I’m not being sarcastic when I say that in his universe, “I don’t give a fuck what you think” is a valid response to even the most cogent rebuttal. Dude is not trying to convince you of anything. He is talking (writing) at you.

The tone of his articles/posts remind me of a certain cousin. I love this cousin. We have grown up together. But listening to her — whether she’s sharing good news or bad — is the aural equivalent of being garroted. “I GOT INTO GRAD SCHOOL, CAN’T STOP ME NOW, BITCHESSS” “Oh, that’s great, I’m really happy for —-” “HATERS TO THE FUCKING LEFT!” “…okay.” And I think it’s all right that some people employ a rhetorical style that is essentially a knee to your (fuckin) jugular, but…I’m old? And I find unapologetic hostility kind of wearying? So I just avoid things or people or pieces of writing that make me feel like I’m being assaulted. But I think, maybe intentionally, those kinds of pieces, ones that are more monologue than anything else, shield themselves from criticism because it seems so ridiculous to argue, as an adult, that “hey, London IS, TOO, AWESOME!” Does anyone really believe they could persuade Foster? His entire body of work is an encomium to the art of insult, not argument. (Not necessarily a bad thing, depending on what gets you hot.)

So, yeah, the outrage: why? Either you enjoy his gleeful viciousness or you don’t. But there’s no argument to be made.

"See? I can take care of myself all by myself. I’m not afraid to be alone, I know my way to go,..."

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:06:10 -0500

“See? I can take care of myself all by myself. I’m not afraid to be alone, I know my way to go, AND I’m not afraid of Sharp Tooth… I hope he doesn’t eat any of you!”

- Oh, Cera, you are wise.

(Thanks to The Curvature for bringing this to mind.)

I just think we should agree that some days, the Internet should be turned off.

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:14:54 -0500

I can’t read one more piece of constantly-updating information.