Tribeca fest bolts to Philly for two nights →
philly.com
From the Daily News, April 29, 2012.
April 2012
36 posts
That's so Raven: The inspiration for Edgar Allan Poe’s raven is part of the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Dickens Exhibition →
philly.com
From the Daily News, April 27, 2012.
I’m, like, unnecessarily proud of this lede. It’s not even that funny but I keep giggling and patting myself on the back. It’s the little things.
Tattle: Giuliana and Bill Rancic are having a baby →
philly.com
From the Daily News, April 24, 2012.
Weekend Reading: Greatest Hits
- “Is Jaye J. Armes for real?: He says he’s the world’s greatest detective but…” by Gary Cartwright, Texas Monthly, ‘76: Emily sent me Gary Cartwright’s lifetime achievement award speech so I read this because that speech is awesome and because this is a story about a P.I. WITH NO HANDS.
- “Leading Mannequins” by Molly Young, GQ, ‘12: I want to be friends with Armie Hammer if by friend, I mean regular make out partner.
- “Some ‘Girls’ are Better than Others” by Heather Havrilesky, New York Times Magazine, ‘12: When I interned at Salon, I had to call Heather for something and I got starstruck because I’m a goober sometimes.
- “What Happened To The Baby Who Danced His Way Into America’s Heart?” by Tara Ariano, The Awl, ‘12: Is it weird I have a total girl/writer-crush on Tara Ariano?
- “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, ‘53: Damn.
Reading an article about the Barefoot Bandit in which he steals a boat called Lady BJ, thus inspiring me to name my next (fictional) boat Madame Fellatio.
Steve & Mia: Supervisor won’t stop flirting and talking →
philly.com
From the Daily News, April 20, 2012.
They let me do the advice column this week! It was fun!
Good Tipper: Steve Harvey’s book ‘Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man’ debuts in theaters Friday →
philly.com
From the Daily News, April 20, 2012.
“Writers hit walls almost daily, just part of the trade, but the hardest wall is the demand to explain what it is we do exactly. The How of it. So let me try again. Okay, say some thought or notion or wild dance of words pops into your head. If the moment makes you smile or in any way causes blood to rush to your brain, stop what you’re doing, take a shot of whisky, and write it down. Never mind that the odds of it being anything important are so staggeringly lopsided that only a crazy person would bother recording it. Having written it down, you will not be able to resist tinkering with the words, moving them about, standing them on their heads, turning them inside out until the combination seems satisfactory and maybe even pregnant with possibilities. At this point you will begin to wonder if it’s too early to make hotel and airline reservations to the National Book Awards. But first there is the problem of a second sentence. So you focus again on the task at hand and think of another batch of words. After a while, the process takes hold.
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Over many years I’ve discovered that the process of writing is an agonizingly slower, far more painful adventure than jotting random thoughts into a school notebook. By that time, of course, I was addicted to the process—the work, the loneliness, the panic attacks, the super highs, the soul-searing lows, even the crushing failures which educate the writer to be intolerant of shortcuts. It’s the life I cut out for myself, and I was stuck with it. Small comfort in discovering that I was right all along—only a crazy person would attempt it. Anyway, it worked for me. Just like breathing in and breathing out, only with a red hot poker stuck up your ass. The trick, if there is one, is this: Don’t lose your nerve. Don’t let the bastards know that you’re not in control.” —
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Over many years I’ve discovered that the process of writing is an agonizingly slower, far more painful adventure than jotting random thoughts into a school notebook. By that time, of course, I was addicted to the process—the work, the loneliness, the panic attacks, the super highs, the soul-searing lows, even the crushing failures which educate the writer to be intolerant of shortcuts. It’s the life I cut out for myself, and I was stuck with it. Small comfort in discovering that I was right all along—only a crazy person would attempt it. Anyway, it worked for me. Just like breathing in and breathing out, only with a red hot poker stuck up your ass. The trick, if there is one, is this: Don’t lose your nerve. Don’t let the bastards know that you’re not in control.” —
Thank you, Emily, I will now Google everything this man has done.
...And here's where I remind you that Dick Clark was kind of a sleaze
My story on how Dick Clark liked to pretend he integrated “American Bandstand,” when, in fact, he didn’t got picked up Poynter. Andrew Beaujon kinda undercuts the whole article by showing a clip of an integrated record review panel but the point of the piece wasn’t “Dick Clark hates black people” so much as “Dick Clark was a shrewd businessman who lied about his legacy to make him seem wholly progressive when he wasn’t.”
I didn’t put this in the article because I didn’t have space, but I asked Prof. Matt Delmont, who wrote “The Nicest Kids in Town: American Bandstand, Rock ‘n’ Roll, and the Struggle for Civil Rights in 1950s Philadelphia,” about some of the other civil rights pioneers from Philly who used radio and pop music to further their cause. Here’s what he had to say about the great Georgie Woods (he mentions another guy named Mitch Thomas, who hosted “The Mitch Thomas Show,” a/k/a “Black Bandstand,” from ‘55 to ‘58.)
Georgie Woods is a good counterpoint to Dick Clark. They were both tremendous entrepreneurs. They both cared deeply about promoting music and rock ‘n’ roll. Where they differ, though, was the commercial aspects of this. Dick Clark was a great entrepreneur and he made a lot of money and that was his goal. For Georgie Woods, he was more interested in the community aspects. He was more interested in using rock ‘n’ roll to advance civil rights in Philadelphia. The overlap between civil rights activism and being a media personality is right here. He was announcing new protests while playing rock ‘n’ roll records. He was putting on shows at the Uptown Theater to raise money for not only Philadelphia but for the South as well. In terms of what was possible in the era of ‘American Bandstand,’ Georgie Woods and Mitch Thomas provide a nice counterpoint for ‘American Bandstand. It was possible to get African Americans on TV because Mitch Thomas did it. It was possible to use music for more than just increasing one’s personal fortune. He was able to increase awareness in Philadelphia.
Also! Let’s not forget Racist things people have told me today about “American Bandstand”!!
