Media

August 3, 2005

Sinking Faster than Tom Cruise's Credibility

Now that editors have mandated that all clichés used in newsrooms have to mean something (no more occult hands, thank you very much), journalists have had to start looking for other similes to sprinkle on their prose. In this profession, the possibility of sneaking in well-worded and slightly absurd imagery into an otherwise boring piece is almost enough to make up for the lack of respect, poor pay, and heavy drinking that invariably accompany the job. Most recently, this has manifested itself in the form of random pop-culture references. Here are a few of our favorites:

Media

August 3, 2005

Strangers in a Strange Land

Wonder what happens to news when a Luxembourg-based company starts writing your local paper and those in 80 other cities? What should be a savvy guide to your city starts sounding like a lost tourist. Consider this recent item in the free commuter-daily Metro New York: "Tell us about where you live. If you live outside Manhattan and commute into the city, we would like to hear more about your life outside New York City and profile your home. … write us at home@metro.us"

Media

August 2, 2005

Samir Husni strikes again!

What is a journalist's job? Talk to people; read stuff; write about it. It's why many doubt that it's actually a real job. But there's a bit of a conundrum when the people one talks to can themselves write. Unless the journalist really adds something, might as well just go straight to the source, on the information superhighway. Or, in the case of Samir Husni, the self-proclaimed "Mr Magazine" to his eponymous website, which he proclaims the "real information superhighway" (emphasis, and apparent lack of irony in the original).

Internet

August 2, 2005

The Truth about the Transsexual Shaving Gel

Last week, the folks over at BoingBoing linked to a fascinating photo set that seemed reveal the true nature of a travel-sized can of Gillette Series shaving gel. The can's label started to peel and revealed an underlying sticker for Gillette for Women Satin Care gel. (Here are the before and after shots.) Had Gillette simply repackaged a poorly-selling female product for the men's market?

Media

August 1, 2005

Sun to rise in morning!

We here at Gelf can't hope to compete with CNN. The network's 25 years of experience chasing down hard news and bringing you the story that matters, when it matters is something we aspire to. CNN, with the deep pockets of a major network can cultivate sources, and so get news you just can't get anywhere else.

For instance, if it weren't for the ground-breaking cable network, Gelf certainly wouldn't otherwise, by, say, having a pulse, be able to know that despite the King's death, Saudi Arabia will still sell oil.

Media

August 1, 2005

From Playstation to NASCAR

In this week's edition of Zooming In, Gelf's quasi-weekly round-up of undercovered local stories from around the world: Baseball scandals; a curious (and sort of sexy) Chinese woman; and family planning, Cold War-style. One of our favorite stories this week concerns a Hungarian man who made the unlikely jump from videogame geek to racecar driver.

Education

August 1, 2005

America's Energy Problem

The Washington Post (The SAT Grader Next Door) has a brief profile of a retired hi school teecher who now grades SAT essays online. The whole thing is fairly disturbing; the fact that an essay written in 25 minutes and graded in too has any emportance at all is not adrest by the Post, whose toan says: "Look, isn't it nifty that this guy does his work over the internet?" (Dan Verner, the teacher profile, grades the essays by logging into a site on the World Wide Web!!)

Media

July 31, 2005

Sensationalizing Suicide

A politician kills himself. A journalist is fired. And the New York Times, demonstrating why the American press is beloved for its fair and tasteful reporting, begins its account like this: "It seemed like a throwback to 'Miami Vice.' " This reality-TV entertainment has a "storyline," the second paragraph tells us. The fired journalist is a "twist" to a "tale of sex, politics and suicide," the headline says.

Sports

July 29, 2005

When Candor Means Cliché

Stephen A. Smith, the Philadelphia Inquirer columnist and ESPN commentator, is getting his own ESPN show called Quite Frankly. From the name, you might guess the show would cut through the sports-talk blather and express original and controversial views—something Smith is good at, even if he expresses those views with too much stagecrafted anger and is sometimes incoherent. You might further guess that when the network set out to promote the new show, relentlessly, it might select an especially interesting and prominent Smith argument; or maybe, should we be so lucky, more than one, so we wouldn't be subject to the same promo over and over again, until any edge gets worn off into dullness. You would be wrong; so grievously wrong that your punishment is to be smacked upside the head over and over again with Smith's astute observation that the New England Patriots are good (a radical explanation for their three Super Bowl victories in four years; truly a paradigm shift in football analysis).

Internet

July 27, 2005

The Cowbell Meme

I don't really like the word "meme." It has so many definitions now that Richard Dawkins himself is probably confused. But I do like to see funny stuff on the internet, like this video of a martial-arts exhibition gone awry. (It's the third one down.) As it turns out, appreciating funny-stuff-on-the-internet is a meme, or at least individual funny stuffs are memes. (Like I said, it's hard to go wrong with that word.) At any rate, now that the World Wide Web is in its second decade of existence, it's cool to see which memes have caught on. One that took a particularly interesting route is the phrase "More Cowbell," which I wrote about in this month's issue of Wired Magazine.