Posts Tagged New York Times
Typo of the Day: NYT’s Media Decoder
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on December 5, 2011
How hard is it to spellcheck the headline before posting? (From earlier today at NYTmes Media Decoder blog [it has since been corrected]:
- NYT Typo
Errol Morris: Umbrella Man
There are few cultural obsessions that annoy me more than the public’s fascination with finding out the so-called truth about the JFK Assassination. Was the event a tragedy? You bet. But a sure fire way to get me to flip a channel is to be a documentary about the event. There’s only one person that could get me to watch a JFK Assassination-related documentary: Errol Morris. Damn you, New York Times, you sucked me in with this OpDoc.
Here’s hoping Morris dedicates himself to a larger related project on the subject. In the interim, I could watch Tink Thompson tell stories all day long. The man can work a camera.
Frank Sinatra: Photographer?
So, in the New York Times obituary for the late fighter Joe Frazier, I learned a few things. The obituary was far too focused on Muhammad Ali. In 1971, he “became the first black man since Reconstruction to address the South Carolina Legislature”. And at the March 8, 1971, match between him and Ali, entertainer Frank Sinatra was tasked by LIFE magazine to photograph the fight.
In looking to see if I could find the photos in the LIFE archive at Google Books, I found something even better. A former LIFE photographer castigating his former employer for running Sinatra’s photographs. Here’s a snapshot of that letter (please be sure to visit the whole letters page, as it makes for a great time capsule and fun read).
Letter panning Sinatra's photography
Almost Missed: Christopher Hitchens on His Mortality
Posted by admin in ideas, philosophy, politics, religion on October 10, 2011
Thanks to a tweet by Reuters Bureau Chief in India, Paul de Bendern, I was made aware of a new New York Times article about writer Christopher Hitchens. As I noted when I first wrote about his announcement that he was battling esophageal cancer, while intellectually I have not agreed with Hitchens since about 2001, I still respect him. I sometimes find it odd that I respect him, considering I believe in a God, and he does not. But what the hey, fortunately as I get older I seem to be getting more open-minded.
Anyways, you should go read the piece. Consider this excerpt.
But in most other respects Mr. Hitchens is undiminished, preferring to see himself as living with cancer, not dying from it. He still holds forth in dazzlingly clever and erudite paragraphs, pausing only to catch a breath or let a punch line resonate, and though he says his legendary productivity has fallen off a little since his illness, he still writes faster than most people talk. Last week he stayed up until 1 in the morning to finish an article for Vanity Fair, working on a laptop on his bedside table.
New York Times on Coney Island
Posted by admin in pop culture, streaming video on July 18, 2011
I have never been to Coney Island, and now I wish I had gone there sometime in the 1980s or 1990s. There is a do-it-yourself quality (seemingly intentional toward the end) on the audio to this New York Times piece on changes for seven businesses at Coney Island.
NY Times: Favorite Book Story of the Year
Posted by admin in Literature on July 8, 2011
So I just stumbled across this New York Times coverage about rock stars who write books, and then the unique chaos of their book signings. Consider this hilarious snippet.
And nervous bookstore employees pleaded with eager female fans not to lift their shirts in front of Mr. Hagar when they reached the signing table.
Stephen Battaglio on David Susskind Biography
Posted by admin in episodic TV, Film, talk show on March 16, 2011
David Susskind: A Televised Life
Very rarely a great interview opportunity lands in my comments section. Such was the case when Stephen Battaglio, author of David Susskind: A Televised Life, posted a comment in a recent Susskind post of mine. From there, I contacted Battaglio and he agreed to do an email interview about the book (here’s its official description): “David Susskind was the first TV producer to become a TV star. His freewheeling discussion program, Open End, later known as The David Susskind Show, brought the turbulent issues of the 1960s and the wild and often wacky social trends of the 1970s into the nation’s living rooms at a time when viewing choices were scant. Susskind grilled everyone from a Mafia hit man to transsexuals to a famously hilarious Mel Brooks. His legendary interview with Nikita Khrushchev at the height of the Cold War inflamed both the political and media establishments and would have made his name if nothing else did … David Susskind: A Televised Life is as much a chronicle of a glamorous time in the entertainment industry as it is a biography of one of its most colorful, important and influential players.” My thanks to Battaglio for an immensely enjoyable and insightful discussion about Susskind.
Tim O’Shea: This book grew out of a piece you wrote for the NY Times back in 2001, what motivated you to grow it into a book?
Stephen Battaglio: I had wanted to write a book about the history of television. When I researched the story about Susskind, I realized that he was a great vehicle to tell the story of the medium in its early years. What I didn’t realize until I researched the book, was that his personal story was so dramatic. I think it will surprise readers who thought they knew him.
So Long: NYT’s Paper Cuts Standalone Blog
Posted by admin in Literature on February 1, 2011
As noted at Galleycat today, the New York Times has folded its book blog, Paper Cuts, into its ArtsBeat blog.
That saddens me in a sense, but to be honest, I had not visited the site as of late and it seems that I was not alone. Hopefully as part of the ArtsBeat gang it can regrow the audience that it deserves.
New York Times Covers James Comtois’ The Little One
It’s turning into a Crystal Skillman weekend (in a manner of speaking) given that she gave me the headsup on this latest item. Honestly, I think this is the first time where someone I covered at the blog would go on to be interviewed by the New York Times. Let me clarify, the fact that James Comtois, the playwright behind The Little One (who I interviewed a few weeks back) has nothing to do with my coverage.
Comtois is a talented and intelligent fellow (and quite easy to interview), so it makes sense he would be included in this June 22 piece by Jason Zinoman regarding the growing popularity of the horror genre in New York theater. The Little One opened its run on June 18. I never would have made a connection between Edward Albee and horror, but Comtois connects the dot for readers in the story.
Memoir: Norris Church Mailer’s A Ticket to the Circus
Posted by admin in Literature on April 14, 2010
I have yet to get a hold of the memoir to verify, but one has to imagine that the memoir of Norman Mailer’s final wife, Norris Church Mailer, makes for one heck of a read. Anyone that could stay married to a character like Mailer for more than 30 years clearly has a strength that must be read about. Here’s a link to the book, A Ticket to the Circus. For those looking for more immediate insight into Church Mailer, here is a recent New York Times Magazine profile where she discusses the memoir.
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