Richard Cohen is (for some reason) employed as a professional opinion columnist by the Washington Post. He is paid to write columns—featuring his own opinions—about the issues of the day. This is the entirety of his job. Yet Richard Cohen has a wondrous talent possessed by few in his rarefied sphere: he can write an entire opinion column with zero actual opinion.
Perhaps you've heard that Facebook is going public this week in a massive IPO that values the company at over $100 billion. There's an apocalyptic air about the frenzy to be the first to invest in Facebook, as if this is the last chance we'll ever have to throw our money into an overhyped tech company stock. And here is a story that perfectly captures the dread and sadness I feel when confronted with so many people's boundless money-related optimism.
It's that time of the year again, when students and teachers come together in harmony to delight in the pleasure of not giving a fuck anymore because it's practically summer already anyway.
The deliciously slow-falling dominoes of the News Corp phone hacking scandal continue to falllllll: Rebekah Brooks, former News of the World editor, News International boss, and Rupert Murdoch bestie, is going to be charged with "conspiring to pervert the course of justice" for attempting to conceal documents and data in the hacking case. Brooks' husband and several others are being charged as well. Brooks denies the charges.
A brand new (as-yet-unconfirmed) Banksy piece has been spotted on the outer wall of a Poundland near the Turnpike Lane Tube station in London.
The new Obama ad "Steel" targets Mitt Romney's Bain Capital by focusing on a Kansas City steel mill bought by the private equity firm — the mill later went bankrupt.
Today is the first day of network upfronts, the week when the networks trot out the stars of their shows and do a little dog and pony show for advertisers and TV critics alike. Both NBC and FOX went today, unveiling their fall schedules and releasing trailers for the new shows. Let's take a gander at what NBC will be offering and, since it's NBC, speculate on which show will be first to go.
Peter Berg was recently in Israel to promote his upcoming/recently released big-screen adaption of the Milton Bradley board game Battleship. As it turns out, the half-Jewish auteur has some pretty strong opinions about the whole Israel and Iran being on the precipice of starting World War III thing.
Candice is a 31-year-old New Yorker. She met a nice lawyer at a bar and agreed to see The Avengers with him. When she arrived for the date, he was wearing a fedora. The date did not go well.
There are a slew of young, talented rappers coming out of New York these days, but none of them sound very "New York." The A$AP crew of Harlem, which recently toured with Toronto's Drake and Compton's Kendrick Lamar, have a "placeless and universal" sound that seems more influenced by Houston's chopped and screwed beats than DJ Premier's horns; Azealia Banks has a distinct enough flow, but her tracks are more electronic than anything practiced by New York's hip hop gatekeepers. And out of Brooklyn, Kilo Kish has outsourced beats for her casual, monotone rhymes to The Internet, Syd the Kid's spaced-out L.A. duo.
