When writers attack

See Alice write. See Alice get a negative though not appalling review, one that says her latest doesn’t live up to her previous work.

See Alice trash the reviewer on her Twitter feed.

See Alice post the reviewer’s phone number and e-mail address, though the latter is also available on the review itself. See Alice misspell “Verizon.”

See Alice get called out by a book critic. See Alice respond with elementary snark.

Here’s what I find funniest: “Now any idiot can be a critic. Writers used to review writers. My second novel was reviewed by Ann Tyler. So who is Roberta Silman?”

Hmmm … five-second Web search … Roberta Silman is a writer.

Not sure how to proceed from here. Do I lament the capacity of social networking to spread ignorance whenever someone’s a little angry, or do I check to make sure my phone number is unlisted?

 

Testing a new approach

The tools for blogging are just getting better, even as the time I have to blog is greatly diminished. I’m also spending more and more time on Facebook, where I can just make a quick comment and move on.

So the tactic I’m trying now for Mostly Modern Media is to make a quick comment and move on. Not as quick as a Twitter tweet or Facebook update, but something short and easy.

I reserve the right to go on the occasional 2,000-word rant. Maybe even a well-crafted 2,000-word hypertext essay. But in the interest of posting here more frequently, I’m going to try this sort of thing more often, using ScribeFire to help out.

As a test case, I’ve included a good PopUp Video above. Enjoy.

 

Still here

Just really, really busy at work. That’ll wrap up in time for the holidays, at which time you’ll likely see a few more posts while I procrastinate on Christmas cards.

 

Lindsay Lohan sheds clothes, not cynics

This isn’t so much about the Lindsay Lohan nude photos (NSFW) as it is about the predictable blog reaction:

Spoiled Pretty: “what baffles me is why legendary photographer Bert Stern chose Lohan to recreate the shots that Marilyn Monroe made famous. Makes you wonder who turned him down before Linsday jumped at the bit.”

The FiveForty: “As we mentioned yesterday, probably everybody expected Lohan to pose nude eventually, particularly in light of her declining career—so the fact that she posed nude isn’t surprising.”

Feministing: “I am appalled. Not because Lohan is pictured nude – to each their own on that front – but because there seems to be no awareness whatsoever about how this spread fetishizes the death and downfall of women in the public eye.” (Some of the commenters in a rather intelligent thread point out that it’s not so different from James Dean and River Phoenix fetishes, and I’d add Jim Morrison to that list. “He’s hot, he’s sexy, he’s dead,” indeed.)

If You Write It: “As has been noted elsewhere, Lindsay Lohan is no Marilyn Monroe. Even a nude Lindsay Lohan is still just Lindsay Lohan. Except for that drugged out look of the-end-is-near in her flat eyes , she has none of Marilyn Monroe’s charisma.” (So, wait, the drugged out look was part of Marilyn Monroe’s charisma?)

Kottke (et tu?): “This photo shoot of Lindsey Lohan as Marilyn Monroe only serves to underscore how unlike (and inferior) Lohan is compared to Monroe.”

(OK, the Gawker limericks are pretty funny.)

Those of you who know me know that I love to tweak conventional wisdom. So here goes …

1. Two words for those who want to write off Lohan at this stage of her career: Drew Barrymore. And Drew hadn’t done half as much substantial work as Lohan before she went into her wild years. By the time Mean Girls came out in 2004, Lohan was a well-regarded teen actress. She was also damn good on Saturday Night Live.

2. Monroe, on the other hand, was a model who had some “work” done before she broke through as an actress.

To recap so far: Lohan was a well-regarded actress who became known as a “babe.” Monroe was a well-regarded babe who became a well-regarded actress.

3. Read the story, and you’ll see that Lohan is well aware of the Monroe history and is determined to avoid living the last few months of it.

4. If you ask me, the more control a woman has over her nudity, the less it bothers me. This isn’t a desperate Dana Plato turning to Playboy and some questionable films.

5. And it’s not quite as hypocritical as, say, Avril Lavigne on Maxim.

No, the Lohan portfolio isn’t some iconic piece of art, though it’s certainly the most interesting nudity I’ve seen since … I don’t know, some dance performance in college? But neither should it be an excuse to trot all sorts of overly romanticized notions of the past. This isn’t Tawny Kitaen reprising Meryl Streep’s role in Sophie’s Choice (or even the underrated Postcards from the Edge). It’s not Pink attempting Barracuda. It’s a troubled, frequently downloaded actress recognizing history.

And we say kids don’t care about history these days.

 

Popdose is here

The “supergroup” model never worked out too well in prog rock. Asia had a couple of good moments — the sheer musicianship of the former Yes, Crimson and ELP guys involved had to shine through at some point — but the songwriting was generally an afterthought. GTR quickly imploded. The eight-man version of Yes was never going to last.

But in blogging, the “supergroup” model is perfect. It’s working well for AOL’s FanHouse. And now we’ve got something even better.

Welcome Popdose. Everyone stop by and say hello.

 

Blogroll adds

I haven’t formally welcomed the newcomers, so here goes …

Py Korry is a regular at Jason’s blog and an entertaining music-and-whatever-else blogger in his own right, spanning several styles in his clever “Mix Six” features.

Wings for Wheels is Dave Lifton’s attempt (successful, I’d say) to prove that at least a few people in the Screaming Eagles, the boisterous D.C. United supporters group, have actual lives outside soccer. He does a good podcast, too, interviewing musicians and playing some selections from their catalogs.

At some point, I should add some TV and journalism blogs. In the meantime, get acquainted with these guys.

And yes, the blogroll reflects the hiatus for Down With Snark and Jefito, who is rumored to be making some sort of return like that female X-Men character. What was her name?

 

But I repeat myself

MMM, November 2006 on Janet Jackson: Every comedian for the next two years did some variation of the “Miss Jackson if you’re nasty” bit.

Sports Scope, May 2007 on UFC: Will Liddell finish avenging all his career losses or will Rampage (Mr. Jackson if you’re nasty) repeat?

When you do as much blogging as I do, I suppose such self-plagiarism is inevitable.

 

Post #350: A good Colbert-style joke

Yes, this is my 350th post. And to celebrate, I’m going to have a good laugh at the good and ugly — not bad — of the Internets.

Start here at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, which published a hysterical letter to the editor. It’s a conspiracy theory — the liberal Congress wanted to perpetuate the global warming hoax, so it pushed back the beginning of Daylight Savings Time so that March would be warmer.

(Stop. Make sure you read that — if not the full letter, at least my synopsis, which doesn’t do it justice.)

How would the blogosphere react to this?

A few people figured it was a lost cause to explain that Congress didn’t actually gain control of time and space, so they explained that the DST law was passed before the Democrats gained control of Congress. Some were a little hostile, at least at first. Even Boing Boing.

But some people figured it must be a joke. And Snopes, bless their hearts, gets to the bottom of it. Snopes also shares some of the livid reactions in subsequent letters but is kind enough not to print their names.

The story has a good subplot — the headline. As you can see, it’s misspelled – “Daylight exacerbates warning.” (As a former copy editor, I feel the pain here, especially because changing the “n” to an “m” would mean the headline wouldn’t fit.)

Among the snarky reactions (you’ll have to go to that “misspelled” link and pop open the comments — it’s #2):

“And I guess one of the first caualties of the new ‘journalism’ take of todays media was the proofreader/spellchecker. Which since most Writing Programs on the computer have them built in – should be a given.”

Accept that eye don’t think a spellchecker wood have cot “warning.”

 

Why you should read Mellow Gold

I don’t usually apologize for infrequent blogging because I’m not paid for it (not here, anyway) and people who want to reach me and inquire about my health can usually reach me with little trouble. But this week, I’ll apologize. It’s been the perfect storm of work and family concerns.

Whenever I find a bit of time, I’ll do my next song of the day (it’ll be Poe’s Haunted, in case you want to prepare in advance) or sum up just how utterly freaking brilliant the season finale of Friday Night Lights was.

In the meantime, if you haven’t been reading Jason’s Mellow Gold series, please start now. The guy takes forgotten musical artifacts and nails down the back story. If I were running VH1 and stumbled upon his blog, I would drive to his apartment (or house, I don’t know) and say, “Here’s $250,000. We’ll pay expenses. Please take over our prime-time programming.”

Enjoy.

 

OK — NOW I might switch to Google

The latest and greatest search keywords through which someone found this blog — “diarrhea milkshake poopoo.”

But alas, this blog is NOT one of the nine results you get when searching for those keywords at Yahoo, my search engine of the past 12 years. That’s because I spelled the last word “poo poo” rather than “poopoo.”

Google is more lenient with the spelling, which is why I’m on the first page of the 287 pages of results for the same search. But note that Google does NOT return MMM if you put the phrase in quotations.

In case you’re wondering why a blog that normally steers clear of the scatological would use such a phrase, consider the context.

(And no, I’m not actually switching over to Google. My Yahoo toolbar and My Yahoo itself are just too vital. If you’re reading this and did NOT arrive via search, chances are pretty good I’ve got your blog on the first of my SEVEN My Yahoo pages.)

(And no, I DON’T know why I think it’s so IMPORTANT for me to be EMPHASIZING certain words with ALLCAPS TODAY.)