Why Nobody Can Build an Email KillerWe don’t invest in new open standards, specifications, and protocols of the kind that made email the dominant method of communication online.
‘Thursday Styles’ Today: Let’s Talk About Sex, BabySo apparently there’s a new etiquette problem facing New York’s Stylish class: People have become too willing to talk about porn in public, and sometimes their offhand pornversations can be embarrassing to their friends and loved ones. These people talk about porn as though it’s socially acceptable (maybe it is?) — and in a mere two days you’ll be able to learn all about them in the “Thursday Styles” section of the Times. How do we know this? Because a few folks here, and several people we know elsewhere, received an unsolicited, self-promotional mass e-mail from a certain “Styles” reporter looking for sources to talk on the subject, with a near-immediate deadline of tomorrow. In a subsequent “Thursday Styles,” by the way, we suspect you might learn about the new trend of reporters scooping their own work by e-mailing a good chunk of their competition about it. But that’s just a hunch.
Style [NYT]
gossipmonger
Back and to the LeftA new book by Salon.com founder David Talbot claims that the JFK assassination was the joint work of the CIA and the Mafia. Philadelphia TV reporter Alycia Lane mistakenly sent risqué e-mails intended for NFL Network anchor Rich Eisen to his wife. Pete Wentz wants his new East Village bar, Angels and Kings, to be a place where people can have sex in the bathroom. A lot of bankers can no longer expense meals at Hawaiian Tropic Zone. Alec Baldwin skipped the premiere of his new movie to go to Canyon Ranch in the Berkshires. Good move: The screening — of a movie in which he plays an estranged father after a messy divorce — would have been awkward. Penélope Cruz bought the wait staff at the Waverly Inn a round of shots. Rosie O’Donnell dropped a subtle hint that she may be headed to CBS. Boy George was arrested in London for keeping some guy chained to his wall. Tom Cruise and Brooke Shields gambled together in Vegas.
intel
It’s Hard Out Here for a Public-Radio Fund-raiserIt’s not easy soliciting money for a good cause, and, indeed, a recent e-mail exchange among execs at WNYC, New York’s public-radio station, exposes the delicate art of not-for-profit fund-raising. Under discussion was a press release to announce a fund-raising campaign for the station’s new Varick Street headquarters. The first draft of the release lacked a statement from Dawn Greene, widow of philanthropist Jerome Greene, whose $6 million gift was the largest ever made to a public-radio station. “Why not include a quote from Dawn?” wonders Laura Walker, WNYC’s president and CEO, in a leaked e-mail. “[It would] allow someone else to say nice things about us.”
the in-box
In the Mailbag: I Want to Be a Producer!Here’s what landed in our in-box today, as reality-TV finally begins to eat itself:
My name is Danielle and I am the casting producer for Magical Elves which does Project Runway, Project Greenlight, Last Comic Standing, Top Chef ect [sic]. We are doing a new show described below looking for the best producers nationwide to compete for a huge prize. Please read the show description below and let me know if you would ever be interested in trying out for something like this or if you know anyone that would be great! If so, please send me your resume, a picture, and your current contact information. Thanks!
AMERICA’S NEXT PRODUCER
Think you have what it takes to be the next Jerry Bruckheimer, James Brooks, JJ Abrams or Mark Burnett? Then we want to hear from you!
intel
New E-mail Service Tips You to the Hip Products of YesteryearVery Short List is the latest entry in the daily-email-tip-sheet sector, yet another competitor for DailyCandy (for former sorority girls), Thrillist (for former frat boys), UrbanDaddy (for slightly more refined former frat boys), and the like. What’s the VSL* niche? Sophistication. It “points to excellent entertainment, media, and other cultural things you may not know about because they haven’t been hyped to within an inch of their lives,” the introductory e-mail explained. Herewith, four of those rarefied bits of undiscovered genius the cultural spelunkers at VSL have been diligent enough to suss out in the six workdays since the service’s public launch:
• The Hill, a reality show airing on the Sundance Channel.
• Preston Struges: The Filmmaker’s Collection, seven classic films released from 1940 to 1944.
• Police Squad, a television show from 1982.
• The Conformist, a Bertolucci film from 1970.
We can’t tell you how pleased we are they’re letting us in on these secrets.
* VSL’s creators include New York contributors Kurt Andersen and Simon Dumenco, plus several other guys we know.
Very Short List [Official site]
intel
Looking for Love on a Listserv (Or, in All the Wrong Places)We’re all familiar with the almighty alumni listerv — that source of mild e-mailed irritation, delivering a steady stream of requests for apartment leads, neighborhood advice, and, inevitably from a onetime rush chair, attendance at a really! fun! drinks night. For j-school alumni — like, say, those who attended Northwestern University’s Medill — that standard stew is further flavored with discussions of journalism ethics and occasional pleas for help finding sources. Which is why an inquiry to that list yesterday stood out:
From: Mandy Stadtmiller
Date: Nov 1, 2006 2:35 PM
Subject: Looking for love in NYC, okay on the apt situation
To: [MedillNY listserv]
Any leads send them my way — thanks!
Mandy Stadtmiller
BSJ ‘97
Was Stadtmiller — a features writer at the Post — really using her alumni list as a no-fee Nerve personals? (Online dating is sexy; online dating with journalists is sexier?) Or was this maybe — please! — just a gimmick for a story?
