There's a new blog to send your secret worries about the world to. It's called i am neurotic., obeying the second rule of starting a blog just to get a book deal: Explain the entire blog in the title, as with "Stuff White People Like" and "Postcards From Yo Momma." But "i am neurotic." has an advantage: It's been done before.
Women do rule the web, Flickr cofounder Caterina Fake told the New York Times, but with a "crushing sameness." Loads of blogs aimed at the moneyed portion of the lady demographic are launching, including Jezebel (published, like Valleywag, by Gawker Media) — ostensibly part of the "sameness" Fake alludes to. A BlogHer study even deems blogging now mainstream among women. Fake is not swayed:
Here's an exercise in the Way We Live Now: visit some of our friends, the compulsive oversharers of the internet, and see how long it takes you to find a photo that they've snapped of themselves sleeping. Creepy, right? Click for the gallery!
In their endless quest for authenticity, marketers have latched onto bloggers as their new spokespeople. They're less demanding than celebrities, and far cheaper than copywriters. In this spirit, Bombay Sapphire, a brand of Bacardi Limited, which sold $5 billion worth of booze last year, has recruited bloggers for its Spirit of Exploration website. In exchange for writing paeans about exploration, Bacardi is allowing them to enter a contest, and linking to their blogs. At least Federated Media, the ad network, sold out its bloggers' credibility in exchange for a large Microsoft advertising buy; Bombay Sapphire's ad agency has cut out the middleman and persuaded bloggers to whore themselves out for free. Impressive!
Socialite and beginning blogger Emily Brill has "media strategist" representation for her blog chronicling the misadventures of a "Fifth Avenue Misfit." Who knew? It's DolceGoldin, who we reported on earlier re: their dealings with author James Frey. And "she's had one for a while now, surprisingly," we're informed. May we suggest the next strategy for Brill: earning actual monies from said bloggings! [Daily Intel]
We've heard all about the negative effects of blogging: there was the NYT-induced blogger-death panic, in which blogging created an unhealthy lifestyle, resulting in two heart attacks that would have happened anyway. And there are the people who have had relationships destroyed by compulsive blogging. Blogging also exacerbates narcissistic tendencies! But expressing your feelings might actually be good for your health, Scientific American finds: "Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery." Whoa. Four reasons why blogging is good for your health:
It's Day 8 of the Emily Gould saga, the former Gawker editor whose first-person blogging narrative that landed the cover of the New York Times Magazine. Our coverage of her is nothing personal, just business—she's officially a "person of interest"! Today's installment: some people, including Gould herself, seem to be offended by the article's accompanying photos, shot by fine art photographer Elinor Carucci. They're "intimate," like the text, but "intimate" also reads as "sexy," and God knows we can't have that. (Gould called them "vaguely cheesecakey" in a NYT Q&A.) Although the Observer wrote today that "the writer was involved in winnowing the photos to a dozen... 'when I saw the cover, I was shocked,' Ms. Gould said on the phone. Did she feel a tad exploited?"
The gossip has been coursing into our emails in various forms and tones for several weeks now: former Gawker editor (and newly minted NYT Mag essaysist) Emily Gould and n+1 editor and newly minted novelist Keith Gessen are no longer boyfriend-girlfriend. OK? We'll spare you the overlong analysis of possible root causes. So all you ladies who have been whispering about Keith's hotness from the back of his readings (I was there, I heard you!) can now say it to his face. Gessen's take on the situation? It was casually buried in his article in The Stranger last week:
Incarcerated Mobb Deep rapper Prodigy has another blog entry up today, this one about the history of Nelson Mandela and the South African struggle against apartheid. But he still finds a way to blame it all on "ILLUMINATI SECRET SOCIETIES." Message to P: THERE IS NO ILLUMINATI. Trust us. We're white, so we would know. [Vibe]
It's a long holiday weekend, so perhaps by Tuesday there'll be nothing left to say about former Gawker editor Emily Gould's extensive New York Times Magazine cover story about sleeping with people and blogging about it and having panic attacks on bathroom floors? No? Well, in any case, The Huffington Post's Rachel Sklar, a Canadian, provides a tasty summary of the essay and the ensuing media cluster-fuck. "This was an extended blog post, an overlong 'Modern Love' essay, 7,937 words that did not venture beyond the author's own experience; for some perspective, the NYT's investigative expose on the Pentagon's purported ties to on-air military analysts had 7,486). And for what?"
We live in an overfamiliar age. Why should our flacks be any different? Even so, Startup-PR consultant Renee Blodgett has raised the bar for the rest of her industry. Blodgett, PBS informs us, "is one of the PR folks who understands how to communicate with bloggers." A blogger who forwarded me an email from Blodgett begs to differ. Blodgett and said Web scribe have never met, and yet Blodgett feels perfectly comfortable proposing "social" time, planning a "small group dinner," and asking for hotel recommendations. All this with four smileys thrown in for good measure. The email:
Hey, bloggers! The countdown to the three-day weekend clusterfuck of examining and reexamining former Gawker editor Emily Gould's forthcoming New York Times Magazine piece may be cut short! Because The Observer has a copy, and it'll probably be online tomorrow. You are forewarned: there is a photo of a blogger at a laptop, blogging. It's just Emily's hands, though. According to Matt Haber, the piece is "heavily diaristic." Do you want to read about Julia Allison? Sure you do.
A tipster sent us a reminder today, calling us idiots and pointing us to a 2004 Modern Love column from the NYT, which we will refer to as "The Dangers of Blogger Love 1.0." A young female blogger named Heather Hunter met a boy-blogger, through their respective blogs. And the girl found out about another woman in her guy's life... through that woman's blog. Read on, for the blogger-love warning that went ignored.
In the wake of former entertainment industry exec Terrance Dean's gay-blind-item-filled book Hiding In Hip Hop, the hip hop community was split. Some reacted by saying, essentially, "Ew. That is so gay." But others basically yawned, and pointed out that of course there have always been gays in hip hop. Have you looked at some of these album covers lately?
When the Daily News needed to illustrate a story on karaoke bars, guess who appeared in the photo? Julia Allison, omnipresent media figure and karaoke aficionado! Her face is the mandated illustration for at least one-third of all breaking lifestyle stories within the confines of Manhattan. And her singing partner is none other than Tumblr founder David Karp, no doubt belting out "Ride of the Valkyries" as undercover PepsiCo advertising operatives furiously scribble notes. Though this song lasted but a moment, the blog debate over the song will surely consume hundreds of hours. Julia Allison's Tumblr'd question that night: "What are the top Geek songs of all time?" Oh, the synchronicity. [via NYDN]
Is Tumblr now fertile ground for stealing ideas? Sierra Mist has a new ad—a cross promotion with The Office on NBC—showing a bunch of office workers flying toy helicopters around their workspace as Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" plays in the background. "Is your office this much fun?" the voice-over asks. The Sierra Mist spot is amazingly similar to a promo video that the young blog wizards at Tumblr released seven months ago. The same helicopters buzzing around the office; the same background music. Tumblr founder David Karp tells us he came up with the idea on a lark, to show off life in the office of the young company, and that the musical idea was "the result of being raised by a composer with an appreciation for theme music." He also tells us he wasn't contacted by Sierra Mist's ad agency before their ad went up. Scandal? We've emailed PepsiCo. for a response. It could be an uncredited rip off—or just a case of both being inspired by Apocalypse Now. Click to watch the clip above juxtaposing the two ads, and decide for yourself. [Full original Tumblr spot here. Full Sierra Mist ad here.]
"The watershed moment for bodysnarking, Ms. Redd says, came a few years ago when Google introduced its advertising program AdSense. 'The program allowed sites to track pages viewed and make ad revenue based on the number of visitors. [Blogger] Perez Hilton realized that nobody cared about his personal shopping trips; they cared when he posted pictures comparing Britney's private parts to a roast beef sandwich.' The masses had spoken: Bodysnarking was now a revenue generator." [WSJ]
NYC blogger-about-town Cajun Boy was minding his business on a bench outside of an American Apparel store on the Lower East Side last weekend, when "a man with thick eyeglasses wearing a blue Member's Only jacket, carrying a denim murse, and generally carrying on like a crazy person" started pacing back and forth on the sidewalk, shouting into a headset. The man's erratic behavior had Cajun Boy convinced he was a maniac about to shoot up the store. Until he got a good look and discovered—spoiler alert—that it was just energetic American Apparel CEO Dov Charney, no doubt engaged in important corporate business! A scary, businesslike man. Not spotted: Dov's poor chihuahua. [Cajun Boy In The City]
