|
|
|
Media
 |
| This should be interesting |
The folks at It's Our Money, the WHYY/Daily News/William Penn Foundation government watchdog project (where Doron Taussig now calls home away from grad school) are channeling their inner Allen Ginsberg and launching a site this morning called City Howl.
Basically it's a place for you to post (or read) reviews of city services. If you've had a bad experience with the Department of Streets, you can post about it there. If you've had a good experience with Parks and Recreation, you can post about it there. The idea is to bring the private impressions we all get of city services into the public sphere, and to hold city government accountable for both its successes and its failures.
It seems a bit like a Rate My Professor for city government that attempts to harness the awesome power of the elite, astute group known as Philly.com commenters — which is to say that the PPA page should get real interesting, real quick.
 |
| esquire.com |
Esquire has been doing these really entertaining "75" lists to commemorate their 75th anniversary. Today, they blasted out a list of the 75 Best People in the World and they give it up for our very own Ed Rendell, who makes the list along with George Clooney, Britney Spears and Rahm Emmanuel.
About the Guv, they said:
Because he proves that not every macher need be a pig or a prick.
They forgot: If he had his druthers, he'd probably still being sit up at the 700 level.
Now tell him to pass a goddamned budget already and he'll really deserve that spot.
It's rare that we get comments on music previews â why would we? They're noncontroversial service pieces that are usually less than a hundred words. So, when we saw a comment on the Fruit Bats preview, it was much to our chagrin that it came from Phrequency.com, Philly.com's music/arts coverage site/bid at relevancy:
 |
C'mon, dudes, you're gonna link your review on our site? We know you're ailing and all, but this is like the big dog stealing from the little dog's food bowl because he's a bit peckish. And as BH pointed out, at least try to add something relevant to the conversation before you whore yourself on our bandwidth. You stay on your site, we'll stay on ours.
Looks like somebody at Philly.com went to an "improve your search rankings" seminar. It's smart what they're doing, but you're right, they could be more transparent and contributory about it. By far the best part? Philly.com doesn't allow links or HTML in their comments.
Funny. They tried this on our site as well. Luckily, Wordpress has a fun little "mark as spam" button.
wow...hostility much? i thought the philly music press was supposed to SUPPORT each other...
The good people at Grid are throwing a bash this Thursday to celebrate the release of their September back-to-school issue.
Be there or be unsustainable.
September Issue Release Party
Please join us at our issue release party on Thursday, September 3rd, from 5 to 8pm, at the Abbaye, 637 N. 3rd St., Philadelphia. That's right, another great opportunity for you to hobnob with the whole GRID gang, and be the first on your block to see the new issue. There will be happy hour specials, including 1/2 priced appetizers and $2 off draft beer.
We're really excited for you to see our September Issue, which has a back-to-school theme. It's our biggest issue yet, and features stories on school cafeteria food and eco-fashion. More soon!
GRID Magazine
gridphilly.com
 |
| The Pressure |
Remember this magazine? I thought its print incarnation was long gone, but publisher Tayyib Smith reported earlier today that it's in fact very much alive, and he'll be throwing a block party on August 15 at the Piazza to celebrate the fifth issue. If you're interested in getting a copy in your hands before then, there's this option. Also, when he was pressed about the fact that his block party is on the same day as Mad Decent's, Smith said via Twitter:
4 block parties, 1day Nocturnal, Clark Park, Mad Decent, 215, 100 bikers, Skaters, Runers..race to each!
Consider the challenge taken.
 |
| The man with the plan. |
| nymag.com |
I know the coverage of dying newspapers by other newspapers is getting tiresome (and perhaps, if I'm to believe other cynics in the media, something no one cares about but us), but David Carr's piece on the issue is worth a second look. In The New York Times, he details his fantasy of having publishers and editors across the country get together and scheme to save the industry. Their manifesto in Carr's wildest dreams would look something like this:
-No more free content. The Web has become the primary delivery mechanism for quality newsrooms across the country, and consumers will have to participate in financing the newsgathering process if it is to continue.
-No more free ride to aggregators. Google announced that it would begin selling ads against Google News, with almost no financial accommodation to the organizations that generate that news.
-No more commoditized ads.
-Throw out the Newspaper Preservation Act. Regulatory reform will allow the industry to consolidate to an economically feasible model and preserve newsgathering.
Among other things. So why is this common-sense approach impossible? Because of antitrust laws, which were rational when newspapers were the dominant medium for ads, but are out of touch in today's competitive market. Maybe if this article (which I recommend reading in its entirety) is circulated to enough people, it'll prompt a secret, possibly illegal meeting between editors and publishers across the land. Or maybe we'll forget about it once another blog post goes up. Wah-wah.
 |
To say nothing of its imperfect navigability and MTV-like video series like "Down the Shore," philly.com has seemingly failed to do what Brian Tierney had hoped — save the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Daily News from filing for Chapter 11.
But things didn't always look as bad. In 1997, Inquirer reporter Mark Bowden wrote a series of articles that eventually became the novel Black Hawk Down (which eventually became that movie with Josh Hartnett in it). The Web site that accompanied the pieces was badass — especially considering it's from 12 years ago — and featured a slew of audio, video and multimedia features. (Maps! Graphics! A who's who of characters! Am I still on philly.com?) More than a decade later, the site is still worth checking out.
I'm not trying to kick the Inquirer too hard when it's down, but this leaves me wondering: Why did philly.com abandon projects like this in favor of comprehensive Wing Bowl features?
CNN, take heed: Kids make terrible interviewees. I don't have anything against them (OK, maybe I think they're a little lazy), but c'mon. Did you really have to talk to little Victor about how he gave Prez-elect Obama a fist jab at 30th Street Station? Did you expect him to say anything other than "It was fun?" I especially hate how Wolf Blitzer is all, "We have a very special guest today." Yes, he's special simply because he's 5 years old! Ugh. OK, wait. I just watched the part where he's talking about the fist jab again. It's kind of adorable that he's taking back that gesture. Damn cute liberal kids.
- ActiVman
- adventures
- Arts
- Ask A Man-About-Town
- Award Tour
- Awards
- Bad Idea Factory
- Beer
- Below the Curve
- Bikes
- Booze
- Brian Hickey
- BRT
- Budget
- Budget Fuss
- Business
- Casinos
- City Council
- City Hall
- CouncilMANIC
- CP Abroad
- CP in the Community
- Criminal Justice System
- Day Tripper
- Death and Taxes
- Delaware River
- Design
- DROP
- Drugs
- Dubious Distinction
- Elections
- End of Days
- Environment
- Fashion
- Film Fest
- Financial Meltdown
- FrackTrack
- Free Library
- Gambling
- Gay Stuff
- Get Lit
- Greenstorming
- guns
- Hall Monitor
- Health
- Health Care
- Hello, Kitty
- Holidays
- Ice Cubes
- Iggles
- Immigration
- In Memoriam
- Labor
- Lawsuits
- Letters
- LGBTQ
- Maps
- Marcellus Shale
- Media
- MMA
- Mummers
- Music
- MUST READ
- Mysterious Mysteries
- Nation
- News
- Non Sequitur
- Opinion
- PA politics 2010
- Parking Wars
- Parks and Recreation
- People Send Us This Stuff
- Philadelphia Police
- Philadelphia Union
- Philaphemera
- Philly From Scratch
- philly madness
- Photos
- Poverty
- PPA
- President Obama
- Print Edition
- Prisons
- Protest
- Readers Write
- Real Estate
- Rock Bottom
- Schools
- Science
- Screwing Philly
- SEPTA
- snow
- So Lush
- Soccer
- Sporting Life
- Sports Complex
- State Politicians
- State Politics
- Street Art
- Strike
- Stuff We Like
- Taxes
- Taxi Drivers
- Tech Fetish
- television
- The Budget Crisis
- The City Paper
- The CLOG
- The Human Condition
- The Mayor
- The Phightin Phils
- The World
- Things that make you go hm
- Tinfoil Hats Off
- Under the Table
- Under the Tables
- Urban Development
- Urban Planning
- urban wildlife
- Video Poker
- We Call Shenanigans
- Weather
- Web Junk
- Weekend Omnibus
- White House
- What We've Found
- Women's Issues
- Flyered Up!
- How 'Bout That Weather?
- it's always sunny in philadelphia
- Stu!
- Shopping
- get out
- 10-track mind
- ArtsFlash
- Bloggity
- Bruce Being Bruce
- Colleges
- Comedy
- Gigantic Surprises
- Hello Canary
- Hello Puppy
- errata
- get lost
- Inside The Fishbowl
- Library Closings
- Local Support
- Movies
- Murder
- Night Moves
- Recycling
- radio
- Scientology
- Sex
- Sixers
- Skeeze Police
- State Politicians Screwing Philly
- That's a cool stencil!
- Theater
- Things We See
- This Week
- This Week in Oates
- University City
- WIN
- What we don't heart
- trailer!
- what we heart
- Feeling Guilty
- Askadelphia.
- Broke in Philly
- Contest
- Dance
- Dear Paper Doll
- Do A Good Thing
- Education
- Film Fest Schism
- G20-20 Vision
- Goodbye
- Gossip
- Great American Heroes
- PATCO
- Pearl Jam Week
- Puppy
- Stars of the Photostream
- sustainability
- Lower Merion Webcam-Gate
- The Cycle
- Equality Forum
- Bureaucrat of the Week
- Animals
- ElectionEar
- Photostream
