Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Patronize Me, Please!

Become a Young Israelite supporter today and write your name in the Book of (my) Life forever. I don't have the audience or demand Jason Kottke has, but I did recently lose my job, and if you donate at least $50, $35, $25, $10 (slashing expectations like Crazy Eddie) then I'll put an appropiately-sized ad button (the more, the bigger!) that links to your site (or any URL of your choosing) on Young Manhattanite, Young Israelite, and Blottered. Don't ask about CPMs unless you've got a roll of pennies and abacus handy.



Thanks and please try to keep the laughing as far behind my back as possible.

Monday, November 21, 2005

Gone Gefilte Fishin'


For one month, I'm leaving my rent-stabilized apartment on the Lower East Side for subsidized room and board in the Old City of Jerusalem where the environment is not quite as stable. Read all about it on Young Israelite where I may or may not write regularly about my experiences.

Bon voyage drinks and dreidel tournament at Lolita, Tuesday night, Nov 22nd, from 7pm onward.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

The Smarmier Way

Nick, can you really still say "fucking"? Of course you can if you don't mind taking it in the asterisk which I gather you don't when the price is right.

Moreover (ta-dow!), I'd like to see Jeff Jarvis just once take his head out of Denton's ass (a disturbing image that apparently continues to haunt me) long enough to comment on the shameless lack of transparency from Gawker Media in the last 6 months. Then again, when the shit is caked into your eyes as deep and hard as it is with Jeff, it's a little more than difficult to see what's happening around you.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Everybody Akwaaba Tonight

While I might be one of the last people qualified to comment on fashion, it doesn't stop me.

Looking at the Look Book [Gawker]

Also, read Lindsay's guide on Camera Etiquette for 2005. She didn't cover this, but I got confirmation that pictures of your sick girlfriend in the hospital are allowed, as long as she's breathing.

Monday, November 14, 2005

Sensitivity Chip On Our Shoulders

I'm glad we're not the only ones who think rape isn't a punchline.

Friday, November 11, 2005

TAN on TAJ


The Assimilated Negro (who, among other things, gives us white folk the guiltless opportunity to say "Negro") expands his hip-hop catablog to include a song about The Assinine Jew - me. His intro write-up is the most touching part of all and I'm flattered by his indie film analogy. I'm assuming Steve Buscemi will play me in the film, if he can gain 30 pounds. Thanks, Patrice.

This One Is For Krucoff (audio) [The Assimilated Negro]

Thursday, November 10, 2005

One Bryant Park: Coronation for Urination Innovation


Popular Science magazine names the construction of the Bank America Tower at One Bryant Park the top tech innovation of 2005 in the Engineering category.
Set to rise 54 stories above Manhattan, the crystalline Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park will incorporate an unrivaled number of environmentally friendly technologies, from its windows to its toilets. The building will supply 70 percent of its own energy with an on-site natural-gas-burning power plant. For climate control, One Bryant Park will rely on excess thermal energy from the power plant, a groundwater heat exchanger that is the first of its type, and an air-conditioning system cooled by ice made with excess power during off-peak hours. The building will even have waterless urinals and use water collected from the roof to flush toilets. Together, these systems are designed to earn the building a Platinum rating—the highest possible—from the U.S. Green Building Council when construction is completed in 2008 and, the builders hope, will also save the kind of green that matters to shareholders.
Do you see Little 4 Times Square, home of Conde Nast, in the background at the bottom of the picture? Here's pissing on you, Si.

One Bryant Park: The most ambitious eco-friendly skyscraper [Popular Science]

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Lacrosse Your Fingers, Hope to Get Into Middlebury

I keep trying to convince my oldest brother to blog but I think I've spooked every working member of my family from starting one. Still, he sends me news links all the time so I'll start proxy-blogging for him. This is what I imagine he would write, if he had the time or inclination.

"It's these terrible Baltimore public schools. God, I wish I lived in Connecticut!!" - Edith Massey as Cuddles Kovinsky in Polyester

The Lacrosse Hall of Fame is in Baltimore, Johns Hopkins is known for it almost as much as being a premier medical school/facility, and a state bill has attempted several times to make it the state sport but a bunch of historical purists continually fight to preserve medieval jousting, as if that has any relevance today except if you're talking about the "white horse" turf wars on the Western District's street corners. (Oh shit, the horsefly just bit my ass, looks like they amended it last year and made lacrosse the official "team sport" of Maryland.)

I guess it was a big deal growing up and while I was never the team sport type of guy, I did take lacrosse class in high school and broke my nose when Kevin Barrett windmilled a shot into my face. I feel that was my small contribution when the varsity team went on to win the State Championship that year. Primarily the province of private/prep school kids (though hicks with sticks was no strange sight), it's no surprise that when the NYTimes profiles the sport as a gateway to college, it quotes a couple of privies from Darien, CT.
Sam's friend Alex Yackery, 16, also of Darien, believes lacrosse can compensate for less than stellar grades. "It's a really good springboard if you're not the best student." Alex has been working all year with a personal trainer experienced in lacrosse skills. He is also working with an SAT tutor, and Sam plans to do the same. The boys are counting on their high school coach to put in a good word with college coaches. Meanwhile, they are dreading the admissions process. "It's a lot of pressure," Alex says. Sam adds, "We don't want to think about it."
Of course, a better springboard is their family income.

Ex-Lax Tidbit: Football legend Jim Brown was an all-star lacrosse player at Syracuse.

Monday, November 07, 2005

iSlap My Stunned Baby

* iPod My Baby has an impressive panel of "celebrity" judges for their World's Cutest Baby Contest. Enter, steal a baby if you must, to win a bunch of iPod shit.

* Vote for Karma Tsocheff in this Slap magazine poll (pop-up window) for your favorite 15+ year pro skateboarder. Don't ask, just do it.

* In other polling news, most Clevelanders say using stun guns OK

Thursday, November 03, 2005

"But It's Not Right and It's Not Nice to Try to Kill the Same Thing Twice"


Image from Hi-Fi New York

Now that last week's nauseating overexposure on Gawker (which amusingly suffered the inevitable backlash by post #2) is ancient history, it's time to sit back, count the job leads (one...two...all done!) and say thanks to everyone who showed support or at least feigned it.

And to those who didn't care or even grew to loathe Gawker's incessant coverage of the incident, I can't say I really blame ya but pardon me while I invoke the "Kottke Clause" here and ask you kindly, but not the least bit gently, to fuck OFF. Please use your own chainsaw and cleaning supplies.

So with that tilt-a-whirl around the maypole, let's take it from the top shelf and dive into a bottomless power sewer of shrinky-links...

Jesse Oxfeld should be last (or not even included) on the list but Sunday's dinner at Peter Luger's on his tab is still sitting in my stomach and thus passively providing me free lunch all week. While I ultimately forgive him, my girlfriend Rina still does not and for that she gets my biggest appreciation of all.

Lock/Nick/Jess, in no specific order because I'm not sure they specifically support me, for predictably and consistently being themselves .

Choire for being one of the first to cry at the joke and laugh through the tears. Sac for standing in the rain by the Conde Nast building entrance and humming Eddie Rabbitt. MT for immediately responding, "who do you want me to beat up?"

Spiers for the appropiate use of "they're assholes" and Clare for the inappropiate use of "get your midget digits out of my asshole." Kate Lee for graciously keeping an open mind and hopes of a book deal alive until I actually get her something on paper that will kill it.

Rachel Sklar of FishbowlNY for getting someone fired at CNN the very next day thus making it an official cool trend of 2005.

Harry Les Trade of Tempcity Bitchless Blog for offering to turn me gay which should in turn improve my marketability in New York media and possibly Hollywood, if I deny the whole thing.

Randy Kim for making this video (outdoing a previous one) and reminding us all, even if we already knew, that blog friends are not your real friends. Dennis, not just for Dodgeball tech support, but the rally cries too. Becca for the ice cream and Grellan for the offer to plant a special Soju-diuretic in the Conde Nast cafeteria. Tully who deserves more breaks than I've ever had or will possibly get in the future.

Doug Jaeger for graphical representation. Patrice Evans, I'm still waiting to be represented musically.

Bucky Turco of Animal Magazine for the buttons, party, and being a one-man cheerleading squad. Nick at Blogebrity who escalated the terror warning to Drudge Flashing Siren status. Jake for getting the first interview. Jason Calacanis who I think would pay me to blog about bathroom bacteria if I so desired.

Chris Gage who in a way is the root cause of it all and Rob Sterling who in a different way is really the self-fertilizing seed of everything.

To anyone (my mom, Cathy of Lost and Frowned, and this guy come to mind) for cancelling their Conde Nast magazine subscriptions in protest. KDunk for carrying my spirit and hopefully not a copy of Vogue wherever she goes.

Susan Mernit for comparing me to Toby Young which is nice and all but hey, the real Toby Young left a comment here. (To answer his questions, I really don't know about the evolution of any policies they have. I was freelance and everyone who freelances at Conde Nast goes through Career Blazers and signs a standard confidentiality agreement.)

Jeff Jarvis
, a ghost of Conde Past, for rattling old bones.

Will Leitch, Chris Mohney, Davey G. Johnson (Jalopnik and Gearhead) for sending condolences that don't amount to a hill of beans but dammit, this is our hill and these are our beans.

Chris Faile and his Crain's Business buddies (here's one of the two) for no good reason because they jinxed me with that damn quote I gave a week before the shit-canning. (I still stand by what I said because I never blogged about work nor did I intend any "leak" to be blogged by someone else.)

Jessica Mintz for breakfast the morning after at Clinton Street Bakery, originally scheduled to be at 4 Times Square but suddenly switched as a result of my office key card with $20 cafeteria credit being snatched away from me.

Jackson West and the others on Blottered for keeping at it; the mysterious person who made this comment for making me break an audible smile.

John Hodgman for helpful advice on running attack ads. Janelle Gunther for 1-lecture, 2-condolences, 3-gesture. John Darnielle for writing the Extra Glenns lyrics I used for the title of this post. My Uncle David who instructed me to "play it for all it's worth."

Select Bloglined/Technoratized/Icerocketed Bits: Tristam Shandy (technically I worked for Conde Nast corporate, not any specific magazine), Nichelle Newsletter (though I'm really Snoopy's water bowl), ThisIs14thSt (no idea what you're talking about), NYU's PressEthic, Jossip, Erin's PRblog, SpinachDip, Patsy Bluth, FunnyBusiness, Blog About Town, Il Pozzo di Cabal and sztahnova

Emails, free beer and lunch offers from: Dana, Andrew, Lindsay, Brian Van, Clay Shirky, Xeni, Dawn Eden, Scott L, Christie St, La D, Noelle H, Emily G, Kevin M, Marissa G, Dannielle R, Luke McG, Evan Co, Adrienne P, Aram F, Chuck S, Alli M, Alexa S, Shani F, Molly in Minneapolis, a transgender temp in SF, and various unnamed people within the Conde Nast and Fairchild organizations.

Tonight: Real Estate + Vespa + Alcohol


I don't know why Curbed edited out the location/time details of this event (isn't it just like them to not give the whole story?) but tall friend Josh who works for Elliman promises good times. With scooters, sushi, and fancy drinks it's only a hooker shy of an actual real estate porn shoot.

Smallworldly-related: former Jup co-worker Zach of Vespa Soho on Gothamist

You and I in a Little Toy Shop

Ah, every once in a blue mòõÀêòèâíîñòüòn, you get a spam email that sheds the skin of 1999 black dildo fascination street and provides something new and almost worthy to share with others. Perhaps the following suggests life on other planets or, more likely, a secret takeover plot by an underground army of bots now inhabiting Earth. I'm not saying Sac's long-argued assumptions hold more than a cup of water but if I could be a fly on the wall of this war room, I'd probably swat myself to death and hope to land in someone's soup.

> From: reviews@gridskipper.com
> To: tips@blottered.com
> Subject: Document [attachment]
> Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2005 11:12:51 +0000
>
> Important details!

See also: The Resurrection, Gawkerist

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Tonight: Girls + Music + Alcohol


The girls (Youngna, Janelle, Funlap, and a fourth who I believe goes by the moniker "Punk Rock Lawyer") are DJing at 12" tonight. From Joe the bar owner's weekly email:
Five babes banging out the tunes on the 1's and 2's at 9pm!! Join DJs Paparazzi, Double Barrel, Dunlap, Petty Cash and Kaz for the sexiest night on Essex St! The first 12 Essexy fans to whisper "Essexy" to bartender Cal (after the girls start spinning) gets a FREE Rheingold!
Unfortunately, Essexy's curator (and my roommate) Becca will not be attending since she's off to L.A. but I'm sure her "assprit de corps" will still manage to rock your pants off.