Hand biting: Blender Magazine gave a ho-hum review of a CD produced by the magazine’s owner, Felix Dennis. He tells (jokes with?) the NY Times’ David Carr, “Those (year-end) bonuses are not earned, they are dispensed entirely at my whim and there may be some payback.”
Vote for Tookie’s lillies: My mother-in-law’s close friend, Tookie (all her friends have names like that), is a finalist in the national competition to determine which lily paintings will appear on next year’s Easter Seals. My mother-in-law asked me to vote for Tookie’s painting, and I always do what she asks. And then I started thinking, hey, what would happen if everyone who visited the rexblog voted for Tookie? Heck, we could generate something like 3 or 4 more votes. And then if we were all to e-mail some friends and ask them to do the same, we could generate a couple dozen votes for her. It could be like a chain letter for Tookie. (I understand if you vote for her lily and then ask 11 people to do the same then something really good will happen within 24 hours. Mort in Toledo won the lottery just 6 hours after voting for Tookie’s lillies. But Betsy in Baltimore didn’t vote or forward the e-mail and she choked on a soft-shelled crab. )
So please vote and forward this note: Dear friend, vote for Tookie’s lily’s (#4) in the Easter Seal Art competition! You can vote at http://www.easter-seals.org/seal2004 . I understand if you vote for her lily, you may win the lottery. But if you don’t, you could choke on a soft-shelled crab.
All kinds: This dude needs a weblog. He’s a (or should that be “an”?) habitual letter to the editor writer and claims to have had over 1,000 such letters published. I can recall writing four letters to the editor: two to the Tennessean and two to trade magazines. Three were published. One generated a letter to me predicting I was going to hell. The second led to the creation of a successful national trade organization and the third was probably never seen by anyone. (via romenesko)
Hometown hero: Tom Wylly announced the formation of the Nashville Capital Network, an effort to match angel investors with early-stage start-ups. Tom is a special person in so many ways. Believe me, I know.
Natalie, I take it all back: If Natalie Maines can write like this then she’s my kind of chick. It’s even funnier in german.
Urbane & witty: George Plimpton, the New York aristocrat and literary
journalist, died yesterday at his home in Manhattan (NY Times, registration required). He was the unpaid editor of The Paris Review for 50 years. Anyone who grew up in the 60s and 70s, however, can recall him being famous for his “paticipatory journalism” for Sports Illustrated and others. For that, and for his ubiquitous self-parodying appearances on programs like Mike Douglas, Dick Cavett, Hollywood Squares and even The Simpsons.
Vaporzine Hall of Fame: The first inductee to the forthcoming (?) Vaporzine Hall of Fame has to be Stu: For the Adequate Man. Canadian humorist Jesse Brown announced he was working on launching, what else, a Maxim for good ol’ boys. Some members of the media took him seriously and hilarity ensued. (via romenesko)
Weird: Astonishingly strange news about a person I once knew a long time ago, former Nashville Banner managing editor Bracey Campbell. When this story first broke I hoped it was some type of misunderstanding. In reality, it appears to be good fodder for an A&E unsolved mysteries episode.
Banned at Wal-mart? I wonder if Wal-mart will make its stores place the current Business Week cover behind those “blinders” it uses to hide the covers of women’s magazines.
Does advertising work? A “new ad industry model for validating the effects of advertising” should, I believe, help validate the relative (to other media) effectiveness of magazine advertising. (via mediapost.com)
