I love food writing. I cannot say that enough. I read a book once called The Tomato in America: early history, cookery, and culture and I still talk about the randomness that I learned. Even more than food writing, I love eating and drinking (not to the excess that I once did in another life, far, far away) and talking about food. So of course, I was devastated when Conde Nast discontinued Gourmet magazine. And then, when Bon Appetit's first cover after the loss of Gourmet featured a skillet with a Taste of Home-esque meal, I was disappointed they did not step up to Gourmet's standards. However, this month's cover (a gorgeous chili-glazed Salmon with sugar snap peas and greens) is an improvement over the prior issue's homely skillet.
The gourmet-loving public does not need any more magazines with home-style suggestions. We've rediscovered a love of taste, of real food grown with real labor and prepared by real hands. We need region-specific articles, ads from local suppliers, and a way to communicate the difficulties and rewards of a locavore lifestyle. And now I'll conclude this post while I fantasize about establishing my own publication...
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Extra!
Extra! The Magazine of FAIR--The Media Watch Group, is the size of a newsletter. This magazine clerk wonders if the Media is becoming so exceptional that there is nothing to monitor and report or if this little mag is succombing to that ill economic wind.
Although I cannot for the life of me remember where I read it (my sincerest apologies), I recall an article about the mass layoffs of reporters and writers that have occurred in the past dozen years. One reporter noted darkly that the traditional media outlets (newspapers in particular) did not favor themselves letting loose experienced, savvy journalists "they should have cut our heads off..."
The Internet has given us access to nearly infinite sources of information, but we, the consumers of information, still need and should DEMAND ethics in reporting and dissemination of information. We need a Walter Cronkite of the Internet and I don't mean Wikipedia or digg-like masses monitored sites. A trusted source monitored by professionals with links for further exploration of information (biased and "unbiased").
Am also listening to the Emerging Mediascape as I am working, so I suppose that's where this rant stems from, too.
Although I cannot for the life of me remember where I read it (my sincerest apologies), I recall an article about the mass layoffs of reporters and writers that have occurred in the past dozen years. One reporter noted darkly that the traditional media outlets (newspapers in particular) did not favor themselves letting loose experienced, savvy journalists "they should have cut our heads off..."
The Internet has given us access to nearly infinite sources of information, but we, the consumers of information, still need and should DEMAND ethics in reporting and dissemination of information. We need a Walter Cronkite of the Internet and I don't mean Wikipedia or digg-like masses monitored sites. A trusted source monitored by professionals with links for further exploration of information (biased and "unbiased").
Am also listening to the Emerging Mediascape as I am working, so I suppose that's where this rant stems from, too.
Atlantic
On Saturday 2/13, I read the article "The Recession's Long Shadow" in the March 2010 edition of the Atlantic. Today, 2/16, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote "The Lean Years" which reflected on the Atlantic piece. Brooks' article focused on the disintegration of the American community mentioned in the Atlantic article and the effect on the American male.
I commented on the Brooks article, was not wise enough to copy and paste it here, and unfortunately submitted it after comments were no longer accepted. So it is lost in the Internet ether.
Read the Atlantic article, read the NY Times article, and think not of your place, who you are, where you're going or have been, and what you expected out of life. Read these articles and think about your children's children and see if you come to the same conclusion as I.
I'll refrain from positing my own, since I did not set this up to proselytize.
I commented on the Brooks article, was not wise enough to copy and paste it here, and unfortunately submitted it after comments were no longer accepted. So it is lost in the Internet ether.
Read the Atlantic article, read the NY Times article, and think not of your place, who you are, where you're going or have been, and what you expected out of life. Read these articles and think about your children's children and see if you come to the same conclusion as I.
I'll refrain from positing my own, since I did not set this up to proselytize.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Art Newspaper
Accompanying the article "Momentous sacred art commissions for London's cathedrals," Pope Benedict XVI's address to 250 artists in the Sistine Chapel November 2009:
"...An essential function of genuine beauty, as emphasised by Plato, is that it gives man a healthy 'shock,' it draws him out of himself, wrenches him away from resignation and from being content with the humdrum--it even makes him suffer, piercing him like a dart, but in so doing it 'reawakens' him, opening afresh the eyes of his heart and mind, giving him wings, carrying him aloft. Dostoevsky's words that I am about to quote are bold and paradoxical, but they inivite reflection. He says this: 'Man can live without science, he can live without bread, but without beauty he could no longer live, because there wolud no longer be anything to do to the world. The whole secret is here the whole of history is here.'
The painter Georges Braque echoes this sentiment: 'Art is meant to disturb, science reassures.' Beauty pulls us up short, but in so doing it reminds us of our final destiny, it sets us back on our path, fills us with new hope, gives us the courage to live to the full the unique gift of life. The quest for beauty that I am describing here is clearly not about escaping into the irrational or into mere aestheticism..." (Art Newspaper. Feb 2010. p. 4).
"...An essential function of genuine beauty, as emphasised by Plato, is that it gives man a healthy 'shock,' it draws him out of himself, wrenches him away from resignation and from being content with the humdrum--it even makes him suffer, piercing him like a dart, but in so doing it 'reawakens' him, opening afresh the eyes of his heart and mind, giving him wings, carrying him aloft. Dostoevsky's words that I am about to quote are bold and paradoxical, but they inivite reflection. He says this: 'Man can live without science, he can live without bread, but without beauty he could no longer live, because there wolud no longer be anything to do to the world. The whole secret is here the whole of history is here.'
The painter Georges Braque echoes this sentiment: 'Art is meant to disturb, science reassures.' Beauty pulls us up short, but in so doing it reminds us of our final destiny, it sets us back on our path, fills us with new hope, gives us the courage to live to the full the unique gift of life. The quest for beauty that I am describing here is clearly not about escaping into the irrational or into mere aestheticism..." (Art Newspaper. Feb 2010. p. 4).
Futurist
Ah, ok. Skipping through the Futurist is as alarming as skipping through Fortean Times. Evidently "Enhanced Singular Individuals" will make the rest of us "Norms" look like chumps in less than twenty years ( The Futurist. March-Apr 2010. p.20)
Perhaps.
Or perhaps the proletariat revolution mentioned in the Militant will keep this in line.
However. Humans are plagued by poor decision-making, including their inability to plan within budgets and timelines (The Futurist. p.24), so the ESI takeover may not happen for another century or so.
Either way, this stuff can be depressing on a Monday morning when you're dragging without any coffee in your system.
Perhaps.
Or perhaps the proletariat revolution mentioned in the Militant will keep this in line.
However. Humans are plagued by poor decision-making, including their inability to plan within budgets and timelines (The Futurist. p.24), so the ESI takeover may not happen for another century or so.
Either way, this stuff can be depressing on a Monday morning when you're dragging without any coffee in your system.
Linn's Stamp News
"Get rid of stamps?" That's the question posed by the USPS and the public is invited to contribute their opinions/ideas here.
Adweek
The best parts of checking out industry mags are the inside jokes and "best ofs" that aren't really mainstream. In Adweek, they do this on the back page with "Freakweek" which features their favorite freaky ads that have been put out in the prior week. Adweek posts these freak weeks online here
But the Walmart commercial is worth posting by itself:
But the Walmart commercial is worth posting by itself:
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