January 2008
112 posts
“What was I doing dating 20somethings through college and grad school? I was...”
– commenter noseriously on Jezebel. Love the imagery.
Wither MySpace →
My friend Monica’s take on ‘International Delete Your MySpace Account’ day. (Which is, incidentally, today.)
Sex, the City, and Our Inner Carrie →
Great blog post by Lena Chen on why Sex & The City is not real life (a shocker, I know, but it’s amazing how attached some people seem to be to the fantasy). An excerpt: …doesn’t this fashionable, unabashedly sex-loving feminist represent everything I stand for and others want to be? Not really — more like everything we should avoid. I’m sorry to say it, but I think American women...
The visionary vs the pragmatist →
squashed: The pragmatist is willing to safeguard national virtues through less than virtuous means. The visionary believes that the power of these national virtues should be enough to win over most of the country to protect them. For the past few election cycles, the Democrats have gone with pragmatists. This is why they are so good at losing. The conservative pragmatist will beat the liberal...
Oh, Gerard! →
He mentioned me in his column today: Rachel Hills, the associate editor of New Matilda who describes herself as a “wanker Diet Coke leftie”, has declared that she’s “not the most enthusiastic patriot around”. That’s OK provided she and her leftist colleagues do not sneer at some less educated types who like to fly the flag each Australia Day and who proudly go...
“And besides, she and Paul were already lovers. It didn’t matter that it...”
– Tom Perotta’s The Abstinence Teacher, which I just finished reading. It wasn’t as good as I hoped. Adequate, but not particularly gripping or insightful.
Taste
mister peace wrote: Guys reading this: one of the best things you can ask for is a girlfriend with good taste in art, books, movies, and music. It’s a sign of intellect and aesthetic discernment and what could be better than that? Interesting. I know that musical taste is very important factor in attraction for many people, but for me I suspect it’s almost the opposite — partly because...
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I’ve been thinking about butterflyeffect’s recent post about the girls who gave her crap for taking photos in a shopping centre. Erockappel made a post around a month ago about a similar incident in New York — in which an old man and woman loudly proclaimed he must be a tourist to carrying his camera around the city with him.
While there’s no question that digital cameras have turned us into a...
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Publishing tribes
Julia Allison posed some questions earlier today about marketing. One of the most interesting of which was:
Does an effectively marketed product/brand only have ONE dimension, by definition? In other words, do you just get to pick ONE thing that your brand or product represents? (Like - and this is bad word association, but go with me here - Trump: rich. Oprah: female empowerment. Martha...
As Australian as the Library Queue →
newmatilda.com republished my Sunday Age column today, for those of you who wanted to read it.
“You want to be your best self. And when you’re with certain people, that...”
– juliaallison’s dad, talking about her dating issues. This is absolutely true. In fact, one of my top signs that I really like someone is when I naturally start behaving like a better, more vibrant, witty, charming and generally all around wonderful self when I’m around them. It’s...
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Bye bye, The Bulletin →
That’s Australia’s version of Newsweek, for US readers. Apparently it’s closing because the internet took away half its readers, but I suspect it also has something to do with James Packer not being willing to put up with the occasional high profile loss leader the way his father was. It makes me sad - not just because I wrote the occasional piece for them, but because it marks...
New poll: U.S. more ready for black prez than... →
But the CNN poll today shows that 72% of whites and 61% of blacks believe the country is ready for a black president. That’s up from 65% and 54%, respectively, two years ago. (Both polls have a margin of error of +/-4.5%.) But asked if the country is ready for a female president, blacks and whites both are in agreement; they’re less sure - only 63% of both whites and blacks answer...
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“The history of the next fifty years will be about the relationship between...”
– Page 8 of Future Files: A History of The Next 50 Years by Richard Watson
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On the Bali Climate Change conference
Rachel: Why couldn’t they just run it via teleconference? Simon: Because you can’t get drunk with people via teleconference.
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“The Australian Youth Climate Coalition: Young people who fly a lot.”
– Simon, over lunch
Ouch!
Hillary: You talked about Ronald Reagan being a transformative political leader. I did not mention his name.
Obama: Your husband did.
Hillary: Well, I'm here. He's not. And...
Obama: Well, I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes.
Germaine Greer for Governor General →
Incapable of a boring public utterance, Greer’s tree-plantings would end in turmoil. The laying of foundation stones would become riotous and school fetes would be fated to be scandalous. And her initials are perfect. GG for GG. - Phillip Adams in today’s Australian.
“Some of these facts aren’t actually… factual.”
– [Redacted editor] on [Redacted writer]
I think there’s a ridiculous assumption among my peers that everyone wants a career and professional success. But I think that’s kind of a holier-than-thou attitude because let’s face it: “professional success” a lot of times means “financial security”. It’s about resenting easy money rather than resenting lack of ambition. A lot of people look...
“We need to change the whole election system in this country.
I suggest we do...”
– commenter newsbunny on jezebel. I was thinking this just today. The success of reality TV demonstrates that people clearly enjoy voting. So why not add some reality TV elements to our political process? Even I’m not sure if I’m being ironic here.
Note to self
It is not wise to Google oneself on days when one writes articles offending the national character.
“I was laughing when we had the debate a couple days ago…. People were asked,...”
– Barack Obama (via anthonydever) Gotta love an honest politician.
Media news
Two of my favourite editors that I work with announced this week that they’re moving on to new pastures. Sarah Oakes from Girlfriend is leaving to edit Cleo, and Charlotte Scott is leaving Russh after four years. Sarah, as I’ve written before on this blog, has quite subversive editorial instincts (although I don’t know if she’d describe them that way) when it comes to the...
un-Australian
I finished up my Sunday Age column this afternoon, which my housemate’s boyfriend (who shares a page with me from time to time) said would make me the whipping woman of the Monday letters page. Oh goodie. It was a fun piece to write, because it was on such a different topic to what I normally write about. And I got to use some of my favourite words. It will be interesting to see how people...
If I were an American... →
This article (about my obsession with the US primaries) is more “last week” than “this week”, but I thought I’d link it anyway. And let me just say that I am absolutely loving our redesign over at newmatilda.com. The site really does look so much more appealing now. Big kudos to the crew at Digital Eskimo.
‘Gossip Girl’: Too Beautiful for This World →
I feel the same way, New York magazine, although I don’t think that video really captures the show’s brilliance. If GG fans really want to enhance their viewing experience, I suggest reading Jacob Clifton’s recaps on Television Without Pity. A couple of choice excerpts: It’s awesome because this is the whole dynamic: Blair instinctively knows, correctly, that she deserves...
Clinton Allies Suppress the Vote in Nevada... →
Rachel: They’re saying she’s trying to ruin democracy. That’s a bit harsh! [Redacted]: Is that like ruining Christmas?
The Cruise Indoctrination Video Scientology Tried... →
AKA Gawker is a hit machine. Nick Denton says: Several indoctrination videos were available on Google Video, on Sunday, and showcased on Gawker, before being removed by the person who had originally posted them. Yesterday, for a few hours, the clip of Tom Cruise discussing his beliefs as a Scientologist appeared on Youtube, and was republished by Radar and Defamer. That video is no longer...
Check out the new look newmatilda.com →
Where I work. The site just went live now.
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