Categories
Shallow

Jennifer ’98 Lee

8lee.jpgJennifer 8. Lee is the New York Times comer known for her networking skills the New York Sun has gone so far as to suggest that Lee is the second coming of Katharine Graham. And though the comparison may be apposite, it’s unlikely the legendary Washington Post editrix ever used Yahoo Groups to help report her stories.
While the Harvard98 Yahoo Group typically traffics in less-than-rousing political banter and questions about housing in Dallas, subscribers are occasionally met with queries from Jenny 8. herself.
Most recently Jenny inquired about people scared to eat fish because of mercury levels; it’s fair to assume we can expect a Times article on that very topic in the near future.
Don’t believe it? Well consider the following email sent to the Harvard98 group on April 12, 2003:

From: “Jennifer 8. Lee”
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2003 08:06:03 -0700 (PDT)
To: [email protected]
Subject: [harvard98] SARS: affected by sars in seattle (SF/LA)
this has to be one of the stranger requests i have made to this list
does anyone know of people in seattle (most likely with links to asia) who is thinking of/affected by SARS. that is (not in parallel structure), family there, school exchanges that were cancelled, business trips that have been cancelled, local tourist business that is down, quarantined etc.
and if not seattle, people in San Fran and Los Angeles would be good too.
thanks,
jenny

And then treat yourself to her article in the New York Times four days later, In U.S., Fear Is Spreading Faster Than SARS, datelined April 16, 2003 and reported by Jennifer 8. Lee. From the article: Back in Seattle, though, concerns among co-workers led several employers to ask the participants to work from home
Still don’t believe it? Well screw you.
This is not the first time Jenny 8.s Harvard cronies have assisted her. Wonkette has bravely exposed the shadowy cabal of former classmates who have helped make Jennifer 8. Lee the heir to D.C. royalty. The master’s house continues to burn.

Categories
Shallow

April Fool’s “Hipster Fuck-for-all”

lc_april_flowers.jpgThings we gleaned from various comments, here and elsewhere, after posting our super-special, super-personal, and perhaps all-too-misguided, April Fool’s Day edition:

“i was getting kinda up in arms at the vacuousness of the posts”
“when did this delicious blog turn into a hipster fuck-for-all, replete with cat blogging and musical faves?”

And then there was an exquisitely enjoyable comment, which we’re paraphrasing here, after its having been apparently deleted from the relevant Gothamist post, explaining the author’s thesis that

“April Fools jokes, by their very nature, need to be funny, and unfortunately, Low Culture is not funny.”

Seriously, though, “hipster fuck-for-all” is the best-ever grouping of words we’ve ever come across.

Categories
April Musings

Correction on that last post

It’s not the Guy Sigworth-produced track, but the Moby one, where Britney sings about ‘early mornings” or whatnot. And I don’t think Moby has worked with Bjork, ever, so I recant what I said before. Maybe if Bjork were roughly 20 years old and looked like Natalie Portman or Nelly Furtado, then Moby’d work her over, if you know what I mean, but from what I can tell, she’s devoted to the video artist Matthew Barney now.
Incidentally, Spike Jonze, wunderkind uberdirector, did a delightful music video last year featuring a very pregnant Bjork, which leads me to believe that she is no longer “with child.”

Categories
April Musings

Toxic for Toxic

My co-worker in the next office over is listening to Britney Spears’ “Toxic” again…again!. Then when the CD gets to the Guy Sigworth-produced track with the harpsichord, he rewinds it again, and it’s “Toxic” once more. I think he has an aversion to producers who have worked with Bjork, perhaps.

Categories
April Photos

I think God, were He to exist, would be a “cat person”

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Two cuties in one photo! Vincent peers out from the basket atop the bookshelf, while the topmost portion of our stuffed Murakami doll creeps up behind him. Who will win this fight? I’m going with the cat.
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Uh-oh, battle of the hipster cats! Here’s Emmitt, about to get into some trouble with the turntable…let’s hope he can “scratch” better than that documentary by Doug Pray!
The seven-inch on the decks, meanwhile, is a Team Doyobi release on SKAM. Judging by Emmitt’s disapproving facial expression, I’d wager he can’t stand the distorted electro-grunge of Manchester’s best. “Take that, Coolfer,” he seems to be saying! 🙂
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Vincent, again seeking trouble in high elevations…Believe it or not, this door is 38 feet off the ground, and I was standing atop a gigantic ladder while taking this excellent shot. When Vincent tried to descend from the precarious perch onto which I’d placed him, all in the name of artistic photography, he ended up ricocheting off my own perch, causing me to fall and black out for four hours.
The F-stop on this photo was 3.0. Or is that shutter speed?
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I pulled this photo from my December 2003 archive of cat snapshots. I really like the way Emmitt appears to be contemplating something of great import: “O, this life of mine! Shall I leap from the balcony, and strike pavement below? And will I live, or die? What is death?”
There’s a reason my ex-wife called Emmitt “our four-legged philosopher friend.” 🙂
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Nap time! Did you know cats sleep all day and night? (Well, at least when they’re not listening to white labels or reading Kierkegaard dissertations.)

Categories
April Musings

Calm, Supercool and Collected

jack_white.jpgJack White (not to be confused with Jack Black, natch), aka The Coolest Man Alive, has apparently caught the acting bug. First came his appearance in the Acadamy Award nominated film Cold Mountain, now he’s appearing in the new movie from Jim Jarmusch, another cool man alive. Cigarettes and Coffee is coming out this spring. From the trailers, it looks like White is hanging out, smoking the aforementioned cigarettes and drinking the aforementioned coffee with his sister/ex-wife (which is it?) Meg White, one of the hottest indie rockers this side of Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, a truly Buzzworthy band.
Speaking of which, another supercool band *stellastar (that’s not a typo btw, that’s the way it’s spelled) seems to be gathering a lot of steam themselves. They haven’t hit the Buzzworthy tip yet, but it’s definitely going to happen soon. After getting a glowing writeup in yesterday’s New York Post, could a glowing review from New York Times tastemaker/supercool midget Neil Strauss be far behind? It’s only a matter of time, kids.
And speaking of uncool, I had another dream about Alan Alda last night. How uncool is that?

Categories
April Musings

WTF Alert

Did you see this thing in the New York Press about the 50 most loathsome New Yorkers? For some reason Choire Sicha of Gawker was listed as the 15th most annoying New Yorker in the world. I couldn’t believe the entry after I read it either. His name is pronounced Corey?

Categories
April Musings

Super Dave

chappelle.jpgAnother Wednesday night, another Chapelle’s Show. Has anyone else seen this thing? It’s insanely funny. Truly nothing is sacred for this guy. His liberal use of the N-word (that’s n***er, or *igg**), the sexually explicit content, and lots of laughs — this guy is definitely not Politically Correct. Chapelle is apparently a man from the streets. And he takes that voice of the streets and he puts it on Comedy Central. Except he takes that urban sensibility and makes it both funny and non-threatening.
On last night’s episode he made fun of Nelson Mandela and Sally Jesse Raphael all in one sketch. I’d like to see the Harvard geniuses/pussies (white) over at Saturday Night Live manage to do that one. This guy is the definition of edgy with a capital E, which I guess makes him Edgy.
For me actually, some of the stuff Chapelle does occasionally make me pretty uncomfortable. If I were watching last night’s episode with my gay, black, or gay black friends, I might not have laughed quite as loud as I did. But damn I laughed (I was alone). This is one guy who’s still flying under the radar but won’t be for long. My prediction is that Dave Chapelle’s going to hit big and hit soon. You heard it on low culture first.

Categories
April Musings

Suprise, Surprise

mitchell.jpgSpeaking of black people, did anyone else realize that Elvis Mitchell, the New York Times film reviewer, is black? That’s a picture of him to the left — definitely black, right? When I heard that, I was just as surprised as when I learned that another New York Times film reviewer, A.O. (aka Tony) Scott, is actually film director Ridley Scott’s brother. And that Tony Scott is a director himself!
While the New York Times is busy forcing harmless food critics to reveal that Jean-Georges Vongehsomething blurbed her book, why isn’t anyone making Tony Scott reveal that he’s the guy who directed The Last Boy Scout and is now making presumably conflict-of-interest-less reviews? And, he’s English. Clearly, the master’s house is still burning.

Categories
April Musings

Apple of My Ass

hungover.jpgEcch, I’m so hungover at my cubicle right now, I don’t think I’ll manage many posts today. I’m not even sure how I’m going to manage today’s workload at the anonymous investment banking firm where I am employed. At this point all I know is, when you’ve had four apple martinis, you should never opt for the fifth. That’s the last time I go out with Jeep and his friends on a school night. I think I broke something in my brain.