Cool Reads: 10/31/11

Here are the articles caught my eye today:

- Mona Simpson's eulogy for her brother Steve Jobs (The New York Times)
- "Desperate Housewives: The Reinvention of the Main Line Mom": Proof that motherhood just isn't enough -- even if the jobs they take on don't involve curing cancer (Philadelphia)
- This piece about fiction writer Wells Tower's week spent working in a marijuana coffee shop in Amsterdam, titled "My Kushy New Job." Has the makings of totally fantastic gonzo (or ganja) journalism! (GQ)

(Above image from weheartit)

Cool Reads: 10/30/11

Some of the stories I'm reading (or will print out so I can read them):

- Frank Rich on Occupy Wall Street
- An interesting Q&A with Rich on Sarah Palin's political career
- This article about Adam Gopnick's new book The Table Comes First: Family, France and the Meaning of Food. I definitely want to check out the book!
- "Gravel Pit" by Sasha Frere-Jones about "The voice and times of Tom Waits," a musician revered by one of my favorite musicians, Jessi Teich.
-Published back in September, I just got around to reading Jonathan Safron Foer's piece, "Speechless," for The New Yorker's The Talk of the Town section. It's a fantastic, if brief, exploration of how we're capable or incapable of discussing difficult things.


The coolest thing I've read all day?

Johnny Depp's recollection of his friendship with Hunter S. Thompson, author of the novel which The Rum Diary is based on.

The COOLEST Read

I die. There are very few times when I quote reality TV stars, even such a popular stylist as Rachel Zoe, but this is one of them. A friend of mine, Peak Johnson, wrote a profile of me for The Huffington Post.

Enjoy!

Cool Reads: 10/14/11

Journalism students should read all the time. Here are a few suggestions in case you're in training like me, or are just looking for something interesting to read.

Blog Posts & Short Articles:

"Why You Can Thank Modern Family for the Sitcom Renaissance" by Josef Adalian: This blog post over on NYMag.com investigates the resurgence of the half-hour TV sitcom. It's not a sociological thing as some might think; it's really just good business following the success of Modern Family.

"Google Said to Be Planning an MP3 Store" by Ben Sisario: The New Yorker's Media Decoder blog reports that Google is planning to sell music. Why did they wait so long? "Google may be hoping to announce its store before Apple opens its latest cloud music program, iTunes Match, which was unveiled in June and is expected to be operational by the end of October," writes Sisario. My guess is it's also connected to the recent death of Apple's Steve Jobs. But why his death is expected to affect business in a negative way is beyond me...

"Occupy Wall Street: Art Meets Politics in Zuccotti Park" by Zach Pontz: Really captures the mood of the movement's artists and protestors. "This is something that is rare for me. I’m a creative guy, not a political guy, or a business guy, but at some point it became clear that there’s no way to get around this issue anymore," artist Wolf Geyr told Pontz.

Longer Pieces:

"The Hunter in Johnny Depp" by Nick Tosches: You learn something new every day. Like the fact that Johnny Depp loves the word "Fuck," and all of its forms. (To read the full article, pick up a copy of the November 2011 Vanity Fair issue.)

"Why Me?" by Ian Parker: Based on his roles in 30 Rock and It's Complicated, I've had a crush on Alec Baldwin, who's about as old as my dad. Sadly, this article -- proving that he's far removed from the cocky man I found attractive -- killed that weird crush, but I really enjoyed the writing.

Two Pulitzer Prize winners visited class today

Neal Santos of Philadelphia City Paper took this
picture of Wendy Ruderman (left) and Barbara
Laker in their workspace at the Daily News.

Can you spell the word "AWESOME"? It truly is the best descriptor of today's Magazine Article Writing class, during which Pulitzer Prize winning journalists Barbara Laker and Wendy Ruderman from the Philadelphia Daily News. Here are some highlights:

Wendy: It's a really fun job. [On talking to strangers:] That's the best part is going to the streets. It's a pain but then once you start, it's really fun... [But] People want to talk to you.

Barbara: People in the neighborhoods want to talk to you.

Wendy: Some stuff -- door knocks [as in seeking to talk to the families of the victims of tragedies] -- I hate.

Barbara: You'll give whatever it takes to get the story. Be empathetic and connect [to your sources] on a personal level... Once you give someone your word as a reporter, you have to keep it.

Wendy: There's always the police version [of a story] and the other guy's story and everything in between.

Barbara: People are gray and you learn that the more stories you do.

Wendy: The older you get the more thing start to bother you [she said, referring to cases such as the story you write setting free a drug dealer].

Barbara: [On getting someone to talk who doesn't want to] You have to appeal to them and think, 'Why would they want to talk to me?'

Sometimes our political future really terrifies me

Admittedly, I'm not very politically savvy -- certainly not as savvy as a Philadelphia committee man and journalist should be -- so I occasionally turn to my favorite media, magazines, to shed some light on the fuzzy stuff.

Today, I'm reading "Debt and Dumb" by Simon Johnson and James Kwak over on Vanity Fair's website. It discusses the Tea Party's attack on Alexander Hamilton's legacy. According to the following quote, it's also attacking institutions and agencies that help citizens. "Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, and the rest of the Republican candidates are running for president on the idea that today’s federal government is far out of line with the original intent of the Founding Fathers," write Johnson and Kwak. "The Constitution, in Perry’s view, permits only a narrow and specific list of activities to be run out of Washington—and Social Security and Medicare are definitely not on this list."

The writers go on. "With their steadfast resistance to taxes, their hostility toward central government, and their willingness to risk a national default, today’s Republican candidates tap into a different American tradition—one that begins not with tea but with whiskey: the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794."

Excuse me if I'm wrong, but aren't all of these insane Republicans also filthy rich? I'm sorry, but they can pardon with some of their wealth to support the health and well-being of senior citizens (if these wingnuts will support no one else, why not the senior citizens? Do these Republicans wish everyone to work until they die?).

The article goes on with an interesting history lesson that I think these Tea Partiers should pay close attention to...

Cool Reads: 10/9/11

As you should know by now, I'm studying magazine journalism at Temple University. While I've had some experience through internships and running M.L.T.S. Magazine, I still have a lot to learn. As often as I can, I'm going to do a post like this with a few good stories I've read. Here's one for today:

This New York article about the NBA owners calling for a bailout. It illustrates just how murky the basketball league's finances are and adds something else to the list of things Occupiers should fight.