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May072008

Designing Woman Tina Brown

Filed under: Eds.   Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

From today’s New York Post (via MediaBistro): “Tina Brown has turned to legendary avant-garde design firm Number 17 to handle her new yet-to-be-named Web venture, a news-aggregation service that is being backed by her longtime friend, media mogul Barry Diller.” I can attest both to No. 17’s design acumen and their laudable foosball hosting and playing skills.

Elsewhere in design, journalism and political science double major (and keyboard player) Teddy Applebaum, given the challenge of a mock blow-in card, struggled among various versions of Rea Irvin’s New Yorker typeface and their cost (“oodles of cash”), and had to settle for a poor imitation. Occasional spelling oversights aside, I think the kid’s got something, don’t you?

Speaking of blow-in cards, there was an eloquent defense of them in Wired some months ago that I keep thinking about, and not just because of the witty execution. It seems the cards really bring in the dough, and in these uncertain times, that’s something we’ve got to support (as this Jack Ziegler cartoon suggests), right? Or at least not judge too harshly, especially when in the forest, which could probably use more edifying reading material, anyway.

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April112008

Maybe We'll Witness Tony and Tina's Wedding After All

Filed under: Eds.   Tagged: , , , ,

Martin Schneider writes:

So they want to turn Tina Brown’s biography of Princess Diana into a musical. Over at Gawker, readers are busy casting the musical—mostly with people who never stray from film or TV. (I love that “NOOOO!” department.) It would be the first time a New Yorker editor has inspired a musical since Andrew Lloyd Webber’s legendary flop Ross!

I think the only rational response is to think up silly song titles. I came up with a few to get us started:

“Royal Love Train”
“Balmoral Hazard”
“Shy Di”
“Squidgygate”
“Raine, Raine, Go Away”
“The War of the Waleses” (medley)
“The 42 Longs”
“I’m Just Looking For a Guy with a Gulfstream”
“Hasnat Khan a Lovely Smile?”
“The Royal Oui”
“Mama and Paparazzi”
“That’s an Awful Lot of Flowers”
“The People’s Princess”

Got any to add to the list? (And just kidding about Ross!)

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January162008

Doesn't This Law & Order Guy Look a Little Like David Remnick?

Filed under: Looked Into   Tagged: , , ,

I know how this sounds, but I was watching a few minutes of that dreadful but hypnotic Taxi TV the other day, and there was a Law & Order promo on; the faces of a bunch of actors flashed by, and I could have sworn one of them was the jazz-appreciating editor himself. Once you really look at the guy (it’s got to be Jeremy Sisto as Detective Cyrus Lupo), it’s a little less doppelganger-y, but there’s something to it.

OK, enough silliness for today! (Here’s Remnick calming down Elizabeth Kolbert after a particularly dire climate-change report.)

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January142008

If The New Yorker Isn't Published on Paper, Put Me on an Ice Floe

Filed under: Headline Shooter   Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

There’s a video interview with David Remnick at BigThink.com; Women’s Wear Daily did a wrapup. In the interview, Remnick talks about (among other things) an intriguing lunch conversation he had with Roger Angell, and the future of print:
Remnick also spoke at length about the survival of newspapers. “I think newspapers are going to be with us in one form or another. They may just be completely on a screen. And if they’re not, I’m conservative enough to think that’s a gigantic tragedy….And all that said, I couldn’t care less if it’s no longer on paper. I mean, I have an atavistic affection for that, but even I at 49 see this as semiludicrous.”

But he contrasted his own predicament with that of newspaper editors, speculating: “The best technology so far for reading a 14,000-word piece might be that thing you roll up, shove into your bag and take with you on the train that you can’t with the Web. I don’t see many people reading long New Yorker pieces on a PDA in the subway, or on commuter trains or airplanes.” He added, “Now if you told me in 50 years The New Yorker won’t be on paper, I wouldn’t be shocked. I’d be sad, maybe. I don’t think that’s [going to be] the case but, again, prediction is the lowest form of human endeavor.”
By then I’ll be pretty old, anyway…oog. Say it ain’t so! Maybe that flexi-digital paper (continued)

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January112008

How Much Do They Pay Her If Obama Wins?

Filed under: The Squib Report   Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

In this political season, we note with interest that former New Yorker editor and recent Princess Diana memoirist has signed a deal with Doubleday to write a book about the Clintons. Her last book was called The Diana Chronicles; this one is tentatively titled The Clinton Chronicles. Judging from the title, we may have another Sue Grafton on our hands! (I’d certainly pay to read her Rick James Chronicles or Chuck Norris Chronicles.)

It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. On the one hand, Brown was uniquely qualified to write a book about Diana,

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November212007

O Princeton, Do Say You Made a Recording of This Remnick Event

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November172007

Tina Brown on The New Yorker: "I Would Probably Redesign It Again"

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September042007

Joe Keenan Is a Finalist for the Thurber Humor Prize, and Other News

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July172007

The People's Handsome Prince? More Tina Brown Topics

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July112007

"The Stakes Were So High With The New Yorker": Tina Brown's Second Act

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