Congratulations to Barry Blitt, whose Ahmedinejad/Larry Craig cover from October 2007 is “competing”:http://www.mediabistro.com/unbeige/magazines/marc_jacobs_eliot_spitzer_mahmoud_ahmadinejad_battle_for_cover_of_the_year_95340.asp against two worthy efforts: Todd Eberle’s pic of Mark Jacobs for _Interview_, and Henry Leutwyler’s cheeky photo of Eliot Spitzer for _New York_. Good luck, Barry!
Monthly Archives: September 2008
Twitter Your Way Through the Festival!
For this year’s New Yorker Festival, we’re going to try a little experiment, and it will work a lot better if some of you join in. We want to have a special Emdashes Twitter dedicated to the New Yorker Festival.
If you are not acquainted with this micro-blogging technique, I recommend that you learn about it at the Twitter website. The essence of it is like writing a blog that consists of text messages. People can post messages of 140 characters or fewer to a blog from their cellphones (and also from a browser). Here’s a look at Jason Kottke’s Twitter.
Our goal is to have people attending events at the Festival contribute spontaneous “tweets,” or messages, and have them appear on a common page accessible to everybody. There’s a minor difficulty that most people will be doing this from a cellphone, and user cellphones have a strong tendency to default to their own Twitters. For users in the United States, the number to dial from your cellphone is 40404.
There is a service called Twemes that makes it easier to aggregate messages from multiple people onto a single Twitter. It’s very clever—users exploit the pound (#) sign to create a kind of tag that they append to the start of each message. So all users have to do is send a tweet as they normally would, but put the string “#nyfest” at the front. If that tag is there, the message will end up on this tweme page.
It’s as simple as that.
Emily’s username is (what else?) Emdashes, and mine is wovenstrap.
So if on Festival weekend, you see Stephen Colbert call David Remnick “papa bear” or witness Clint Eastwood gun down some muggers, Twitter it (after calling 911) by typing #nyfest!
Request to Readers Fluent in Japanese
A Japanese magazine called Courrier Japon printed a photograph that I took of David Remnick during the New Yorker Conference in May. It appears in the October 2008 issue. The article is written by likely Englishman documented Irishman Trevor Butterworth.
I can’t read Japanese. Perhaps someone who can could have a look at the text and give us a very brief indication of its contents? We’d appreciate it!
Update: In a comment, the author himself writes in to explain that it is a Financial Times article in translation. Here is the original, it is well worth a look! It is that rare combination of informational and witty that only Irish journalists laboring for the FT ever attain with regularity. The original photo, by Lorena Ros, is far superior to mine.
The “Mad Men” Files: Introduction
“That story was good enough for The New Yorker. And don’t act like those magazines do everything on merit.”
—Pete Campbell, Mad Men, season 1, episode 5 (“5G”)
As is often the case with really good TV shows, that line only improves with context.
I’m watching Season 1 of Mad Men, enjoying it very much. I take little notes as I watch (“Volkswagen Lemon ad, year?”), minor matters I can look up on Wikipedia and, more to the point, The Complete New Yorker.
Doesn’t it seem likely that Matthew Weiner, the creator of the show, owns a copy of The Complete New Yorker? I bet he’s worn Disc 5 (1957-1964) down to the nub. I expect to do the same.
It’s difficult to think of a show that better lends itself to CNY supplement. Based on a few preliminary searches, the CNY yield on terms like “advertising” for that era is too rich to be covered in a single post, so I’ll add occasional posts over the next few weeks. The ad man really does appear to have been an object of especial interest at that time, and the CNY reflects that. I hope you’ll … tune in.
Here’s a starter, a Dana Fradon cartoon from the October 1, 1960, issue, a commentary on the literary ambitions of the gang at Sterling Cooper (an alternate title for the episode quoted above might have been “All the Sad Young Literary Men”). Enjoy.
The Wavy Rule, a Daily Comic by Paul Morris: Horrorshow
The other day on Letterman, Chris Rock called Alaska “The Road Warrior with snow.” Today Paul adds chellovecks and moloko to the vast expanses of Alaska. Click to enlarge!
More by Paul Morris: “The Wavy Rule” archive; “Arnjuice,” a wistful, funny webcomic; a smorgasbord at Flickr; and beautifully off-kilter cartoon collections for sale (and free download) at Lulu.
¿Winners? We’ve Got Winners! And Coming Soon, a New Contest!
Paul Morris, who also drew the triumphant illustration above, writes:
In a village of La Mancha, the name of which we have no desire to call to mind, a lone upside-down question mark polishes off his newly granted escutcheon. He had been invited to appear at the royal palace at Aranjuez the night before. There, he had jostled with his worthy and eminent rivals: second-place winner The Qué Mark, submitted by Liesl Schillinger, and third-place winner Quiggle, proposed by Carolita Johnson.
With a sultry clickety-clack of Sevillean castanets, the strumming of veteran vihuelas, and the Mediterranean thumping on the adufe, the upside-down question mark received his name: Interroverti, proposed by Nadine and Chris LaRoche. The Spanish kings smiled gracefully at their faithful servant, who was treated to a glass of sherry and a display of fireworks that illuminated the Tajo on the hot September night. Interroverti’s rivals were also bedecked with medals hammered from fine silver and cinnabar from the mines of Almadén.
The newly named punctuation mark will now sit proudly on his lean hack, and tilt at grammatical windmills with lance and buckler.
We here at Emdashes would like to thank all who submitted entries to our contest, and we invite you all to participate in our upcoming contest, to be announced soon. It, too, has a punctuation theme!
And, as before, there will be prizes. For their winning entry in this contest, Nadine and Chris LaRoche will enjoy either dinner for two at the Spanish, Mexican, Ecuadorian, Dominican, &c., restaurant of their choice, or a beautiful copy of Pablo Neruda’s immortal The Book of Questions. Nadine and Chris, let us know your choice, and we’ll get it to you by something faster than the existential-pony express.
No Doubt the Jury Was Packed with Messaien-Heads
Emdashes extends warm congratulations to Alex Ross for his richly deserved McArthur Grant, announced today.
Susan Orlean Reads to Kids This Sunday
Martin Schneider writes:
Those who crave the intelligent presence of Susan Orlean are invited to attend a special reading of her new children’s book Lazy Little Loafers, which also feature G. Brian Karas’s busy streetscapes with babies of all shapes and sizes.
Orlean’s first picture book tries to resolve the questions of a world-weary older sister who wants to know, Why don’t babies work? Sleeping in strollers, lounging on blankets in the park, lolling on shoulders as they are carried from place to place—what a great deal! It’s enough to drive an older sibling batty! Orlean treats us to a few hilarious theories on the subject (tinged with disgruntlement, of course).
Sounds like fun! I greatly enjoyed Orlean at last year’s Festival, and she has no events scheduled for this year’s Festival (excepting the book signing at 4pm on Saturday, October 4), so you ought to take advantage!
The reading is on Sunday, September 28, 2008, at 4pm, and the location is the powerHouse Arena, 37 Main Street, Brooklyn.
The Wavy Rule, a Daily Comic by Paul Morris: Seward’s Icebox
Impressed by Philip Gourevitch’s recent piece on Alaskan politics that examined the role of Ted Stevens in finagling congressional pork and earmarks, Paul dedicates today’s edition to the origins of the state. Click to enlarge!
More by Paul Morris: “The Wavy Rule” archive; “Arnjuice,” a wistful, funny webcomic; a smorgasbord at Flickr; and beautifully off-kilter cartoon collections for sale (and free download) at Lulu.
The Wavy Rule, a Daily Comic by Paul Morris: Celesteville, Texas
Paul writes: Adam Gopnik’s “Freeing the Elephants” is a fascinating analysis of the Babar children’s books. Is Babar a symbol of French colonialism or “a self-conscious comedy about the French colonial imagination,” as Gopnik argues?
The destruction wrought by Hurricane Ike in the Caribbean has reignited the debate over American trade sanctions on Cuba. According to one report, “Cuba says Ike and Gustav caused US$5 million damage this month, but the embargo has been far more damaging, adding up to US$93 billion over nearly five decades.”
More by Paul Morris: “The Wavy Rule” archive; “Arnjuice,” a wistful, funny webcomic; a smorgasbord at Flickr; and beautifully off-kilter cartoon collections for sale (and free download) at Lulu.