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Temporary Conclusions: Dana Goodyear on Blogging
Filed under: Looked Into Tagged: Dana Goodyear, newyorker.com, podcasts
On newyorker.com and on the New Yorker Out Loud podcast, there’s an audio interview with Dana Goodyear about her piece in the Style Issue on Kim Hastreiter, Paper, and the L.A. downtown art scene (not online). The interview, with web editor Blake Eskin, wraps up with this interesting tidbit about a magazine writer’s experience with blogging; it certainly rings true for me. When getting things right for publication is a struggle between joy and fear (shout-out to my patient editors), getting things published right away can be a fearsome joy.
Blake Eskin: You were reporting on Kim Hastreiter as you launched your blog on newyorker.com. Tell us about your blog, and tell us how it’s different than writing a long article for the magazine.
Dana Goodyear: The blog is called “Postcard From Los Angeles,” a title that I like because it has a New Yorker-ish quality, and sometimes Talk stories from L.A. have that rubric, but also because it has the word “post” in it, so it feels—it’s internet-appropriate.
And they are posts, and what I am loving about writing the blog is that that’s a form that’s very responsive to the immediate, and I think that there are probably some dangers in that, but there’s a lot of freedom in that too. Because the city is still very new to me—I’ve been here two and a half years, but it’s a vast place—and it feels great to have a way of responding to it and a way of trying to process it that is part of my daily life. It’s not just that everything is fodder now, which is a bit terrifying as a way of approaching your life, but suddenly the thoughts that attach to what is going on around me—I am forced to, if I want to, come to a conclusion. Even if it’s a temporary conclusion.
About us
Hello! We're a small band of media enthusiasts, culture addicts, and journalists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, formerly a New Yorker fan site, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, politics, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
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We welcome tips, questions, comments, and corrections, and are always on the lookout for ardent, obsessive new contributors. Click here to email us.
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Tell me more
Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.
The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.
Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of our web comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The Emdashes pencil logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Writing on theater: reviews (for Time Out Chicago; imperfect but workable search results)
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Slide show: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for NYCgo.com)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
- Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
- Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)
Blogroll highlights
- Box Office Boffo
- World of Pollux
- Jonathan Taylor
- Carolita Johnson
- Songs for blogroll lovers (more links)
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- Get a t-shirt at the Emdashes store
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