ICYMI - 8/23

Let's Be Real (Grantland)

Grantland film reviewer Wesley Morris says in no uncertain terms that the new movie "Let's Be Cops" is not especially good, but he also begs us to draw parallels between this silly comedy about two guys who pretend to be cops and the situation in Ferguson, MO.

Great criticism doesn't tell us whether or not to watch, read or otherwise consume art: It doesn't tell us what to think. Great criticism does the opposite: It stimulates and inspires us to take our escapist passions and bring them back into our lives.

People Keep Getting into People’s Cars Because They Think Its Uber (Valleywag)

People are getting into strangers' cars, assuming they are the Uber/Lyft rides they called. The funny part? These people don't seem the least bit embarrassed...

The 16 Most Buzzfeed Facts of All Time (Gawker) 

The most shocking, astonishing, insane list of random bullshit that will blow your mind.

Kanye West’s Samples: A Listenable History (The Verge)

What's better than an oral history? A history of Kanye beatz.

Putting Together The Most Fun Fantasy Football Team Money Can Buy (Grantland)

In honor of the fantasy football team I drafted this week, I bring to you the first article I've about the hobby that actually makes it sound like a good time.

Who Invented The Ice Bucket Challenge? (Slate)

No one really knows who invented the Ice Bucket Challenge, but it definitely wasn't created to raise money for ALS.

ICYMI - 8/2/14

Test footage for a potential Deadpool movie leaked this week. Like everyone else on the internet, I really hope they make this movie.

Repeal Prohibition, Again (NYT)

The New York Times compares the government's position on marijuana to prohibition in a proclamation that, at times, reads like the editorial equivalent of flexing your muscles in front of a mirror and posting it on YouTube...

I guess that's nice? At least they made a neat background to go with it.

The Down-and-Dirty History of TMZ (Buzzfeed)

TMZ creator Harvey Levin sounds like a 21st Century reincarnation of Howard Hughes or J Edgar Hoover. Armed with a vault of Hollywood's deepest, darkest secrets, Levin will apparently do whatever it takes to reign in celebrity privilege, even if it means disregarding journalistic ethics and human decency.

Yes, There is an Uber for Weed (Motherboard)

There was a "Grindr for weed." Now there's an "Uber for weed." One of these days somebody is going to make one these things and they're actually going to work.

I'm a Lesbian Marrying a Man (Salon)

EJ Levy writes out the most confusing, esoteric splitting of ideological hairs I've ever been privy to... Which is why it's kind of awesome.

The Comic-Con Talk Back is a Real-Life Comments Section (Vox)

On the last day of Comic-Con there's a panel, the Comic-Con Talk Back, where people can go and complain about having the organizers did wrong, which sounds like it could be the most excruciating thing you could possibly do.

ICYMI - 7/26

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Chuck Palahniuk is writing Fight Club 2 as a 10-part comic series, Dark Horse Comics announced ahead of Comic Con 2014.

As you can see, I haven't put one of these out for awhile. Writing blog posts, even quick, listy ones, don't serve as a good distraction from J-school work. Still, I did have the presence of mind to note a few stories this week, so you should read these:

My Summer as a Professional Party Girl in The Hamptons (New York)

A cautionary tale in the first-person details the social life of New York models. By the time you finish reading it, you'll probably need a hug.

I Tried to Find Love by Sniffing Strangers' T-Shirts at a Pheromone Party (Vice)

I can't decide whether pheromone-based dating events, where people bring sniff each other's lightly soiled clothes to figure out who they're chemically attracted to, is a sign sociopathic practicality, utter desperation, or just a great way to isolate a city's crazies from the rest of the population. Regardless, it's too weird not to read about.

These People Know What You're Going to Eat Before You Do (Vox)

Culinary Illuminati! Culinary Illuminati! Culinary Illuminati!

Seriously, though: Food, like fashion, is a largely trend-based industry. Dishes and ingredients championed as haute cuisine get picked up by celebrity chefs, then by food bloggers, then foodies, then chain restaurants and will eventually be available at McDonalds and Taco Bell.

Barb Stuckey works for, Mattson, a food and drink innovation firm, which means she helps most people pick what they're going to order, cook and crave without them even knowing it.

The Pickpocket's Tale (NYT)

Wilfred Rose was one of the top 50 pickpockets in New York, hunted by every plain-clothes officer in the whole city. For better or worse, that doesn't really mean what it used to: Nobody carries cash anymore. Finally caught, this loose account of the old-fashioned pickpocket's life likens Rose to a grand-master, rather than a petty crook.

Quit Twitter Before You're Hard. Quit Instagram Before You're Soft (Polygon)

Editor-at-Large Chris Plante compares the realities if his digital life on Twitter to the realities a living in New York. Twitter is a different place for "media professionals" than for the average person. If you aren't one of those people — a media producer or a Twitter user — the piece will probably make Twitter sound terrible, which is why his analogy is 100 percent right.

As a news-blogger/digital journalist, I spend most of my day reading stories online. "In Case You Missed it" (ICYMI) collects some the best posts and stories published this week (or at least the ones I saw) so I can say all that aimless reading was good for something.

ICYMI - 6/21

This week's ICYMI has a theme of sorts. Monday will be my first day of Journalism school, so these stories are all related to school and change... And World Cup. We can't forget about World Cup.

The Clever Stunt Four Professors Just Pulled to Expose The Outrageous Pay Gap in Academia (Slate)

Brandeis graduates know better than most that school presidents make too much money. A group of professors at the University of Alberta decided to let the school know their stance on the matter by applying for the presidency as a foursome. With more than fifty professors following their lead, what started out as a joke has become a statement about how universities are run.

Taskrabbit is Starting Over to Become The Uber of Everything (The Verge)

I've never met someone who's actually used Taskrabbit: Who wants to get in a bidding war over a dog-walker? The new system sounds interesting, but we'll see if it's enough to get more people comfortable with hiring strangers to run their errands for them.

PewDieDie, YouTube's Most Famous Gamer, Makes Four Million Dollars per Year (WSJ)

PewDieDie is not a new name to anyone remotely aware of the video game streaming sub-culture on YouTube and Twitch. Still, I no idea he was making that much money.

Interactive World Cup Odds infographic (FiveThirtyEight)

World Cup is confusing. Even if you like sports, the tournament is hard to follow if you aren't a soccer fan. FiveThirtyEight's visualization doesn't really make it any easier to understand the group system used in the first round, but at least you'll know who's supposed to win.

New Sensors Will Scoop "Big Data" on Chicago (Chicago Tribune)

The city of Chicago is at the forefront of the "smart city" social experiment, and the next step will be tracking traffic on city streets by "counting" cell phone signals. Privacy issues aside, after two weeks of relatively crappy internet service, I have to ask; How the hell does the city think it has bandwidth to support this?

ICYMI - 5/31

Jathan Muthar, 2014 commencement season MVP.

Working at Vice Media is Not as Cool as it Seems (Gawker)

Vice, once a harbinger of counter-culture and alt-journalism, is now a billion dollar brand with an HBO show and the attention of the entire media world. According to Vice employees, however, the money and success is made off journalists working below the poverty line. The Wal-Mart of media has apparently lied through its teeth regarding its stance on paid content, where its been toeing the line for awhile now.

Looks like we're gonna need a new Vice.

Does Wolfenstein: The New Order go Far Enough in Its Depiction of Nazi Brutality? (The Daily Dot)

Released last week, Wolfenstein: The New Order may be the surprise hit of pre-E3 2014. The alternate history, where Nazi Germany wins WWII and controls the planet, has "comic book" villains and a retro-future aesthetic, but doesn't hold back on depicting of a world built on bigotry. Still, The Daily Dot's Dennis Scimeca questions if the developer's should have taken more steps to remind future generations that the Nazi wehrmacht was a real villain.

Amazon's Tactics Confirm Its Critics' Worst Suspicions (NYT)

Amazon has long been a de facto monopoly in the book business, to the point where people don't even think of it as a "bookstore" any more. After years of nothing but helpful for customers, the company is taking advantage of its position, punishing uncooperative publishers — namely Hachette — by raising prices, not offering pre-orders on upcoming titles and holding off on shipping books to customers, sometimes for weeks. NYT tech critic Farhad Manjoo reminds those of us surprised by the conflict after buying into Amazon's consumer-friendly mythos maybe should have known better.

At the same time, Slate's Julia Turner suggests that Amazon's been tightening the reigns in general. While not being able to get free two-day shipping on a five dollar purchase has made the site a less effective universal procurement service in general, that isn't necessarily such a bad thing. (In case you aren't aware, Amazon is still referred to as a "start up" in some business circles because of its almost non-existent profits. Also, get off your ass and go buy toilet paper from a store.)

How to Dig Up a Landfill: The Search for E.T. (Polygon)

Atari's semi-secret New Mexico landfill stuffed with hundreds of thousands of copies of the Atari adaptation of E.T. is one of gaming's most infamous urban legend. Last month, a documentary crew tracked it down, dug it up, and found that there is, in fact, a dump full of Atari games. (Contrary to the rumors, they weren't all E.T. cartridges, though.) This is not the story of the landfill or the recent dig, but of the people that decided it was time to put this argument to bed and spent more than two years fighting for the opportunity. 

How Katz's Deli Makes Their Perfect Pastrami (Serious Eats)

Lastly, Jake Dell, Katz's current owner, gives a step-by-step explanation of how Katz's makes the best Pastrami in the world. (Shut up. It is.) They don't actually tell you how to make it, but you get a sense of how much work goes into that sandwich, which goes a long way to explaining why it costs almost $20.

I went to high school with Jake, so part of me is pretty pissed I wasn't the person to get this story. Then again, I never asked, so that's my fault.

ICYMI - 5/24

Aubrey Taylor Experiment is hip-hop group from Cleveland, Ohio. Music rights and lyrical content are licensed by the Aubrey Taylor Experiment. ESPN content belongs to ESPN.

The news that Johnny Manziel was drafted by the Browns last week has sparked a wave of creativity in the extremely excited residents of Cleveland...

Conflict Bubbles: Behind SodaStream's Occupied Territory Factory (The Verge)

Remember that hubbub about SodaStream's Super Bowl commercial? Peter Sandovik investigates the company's West Bank factory and the controversy it started. While the story spends a little too much time talking about the importance of Scarlett Johanson's sponsorship, it also scratches the surface of the web of conflicts affecting economic opportunity in the West Bank.

The Kentucky Route Zero Guide to Film (Venus Patrol)

Indie darling Kentucky Route Zero, a surreal interactive narrative with more in common with Blue Velvet than Super Mario Bros, is one of the few positive examples of the creative interplay between games and other media. Supplementing to his lecture at this year's Game Developer's Conference, creator Temas Kemenczy lists a bunch of the theatrical influences that inspire his drawn-out development process.

Seventeenpeople.com

The best possible byproduct of overzealous TV fandom, visual designer John White created this beautifully illustrated website to showcase his dissection of a single episode of The West Wing.

Forgetting for a moment that I was predisposed to loving this website — I love The West Wing and "17 People" is one its best episodes — the site shows the amazing potential of using Web Apps to create amazing magazine-style longform "experiences" applies to criticism, as well as reporting.

The Life and Times of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (The Awl)

What does this Emoji mean? Where did it come from? Should you care about it at all?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

ICYMI - 5/17

Zach Snyder released the first image of Ben Affleck sporting his new Batman outfit.

Teaching Greg Oden How to Be a Benchwarmer (Grantland)

Oh Greg Oden. Once a college basketball prodigy, now serves as lineup-dressing for the Eastern Conference Final-bound Miami Heat. Oden talks to Mark Titus about what it's like to go from being the number one draft pick to being "momentarily paralyzed" by the thought of getting put in a game. He's surprisingly upbeat about the whole thing, which is apparently one of the keys to properly warming an NBA bench.

Plus, the article is chock-full of cheeky Grantland-isms, including this gem:

"I’m not sure of the precise details of Greg’s process, but with his history of injuries, it’s presumably something like this: He has to live with a tapeworm in his intestine for a month to cut weight, spend a week in a cryogenic chamber, and then sacrifice a baby lamb to the basketball gods so they will continue to allow his broken-down body to play."

Slate's blanket coverage of the NYT/Jill Abramson fiasco (Slate)

Slate has published seven articles about the New York Times announced the departure of executive editor Jill Abramson. While controversial, and therefore open for speculation, there are only so many ways you can cover a single story, right? As it turns out, there are at least six, because each one offers a slightly different perspective.

Over-covering a single event, especially a media criticism story, seems like one of the biggest dangers for a news salon-style outlet like Slate, but this performance shows that, with the right people, you can literally have every writer do their own take on the same story and have a meaningful reservoir of insight.

Vladamir Putin's War (Time - Subscribers Only)

Time's cover story on the military ambitions of Vladamir Putin suggests the Russian commander hasn't let go of the ideals of the Soviet Union, and that he may be willing to risk a war with the west to bring it back.

For those of you who don't have a magazine subscription, Time's profile on the Wolves' Hundred, an "unsanctioned" Russian militia spearheading the pro-Russian rebellion in Eastern Ukraine, is a more focused, but equally frightening, story about what may be the prelude to a much larger war.

Here's How The Military Would Actually Fight Godzilla (Business Insider)

Business Insider isn't afraid to ask the important questions: How would the U.S. deal with a giant monster attack?

The funny part is that Sgt. Maj. James Dever, military consultant for this week's Godzilla reboot, alludes to the fact that the movie doesn't show a "realistic" military response: Dever says all four branches of the military would get involved, but the movie focused on a Navy-centric response.

ICYMI - 5/10

Vice "Call of Duty" Trailer Blurs Line Between Advertising and News (Poynter)

Q: How often do we get a well-reported article critiquing video games and academic Journalism?

wNo matter how you come down on it, taking that Call of Duty cash shows just how close Vice has gotten to "the man," which its readers once loved to despise.Activision slapped a ton of Call of Duty branding on an abridged Vice report about private military companies (PMCs) to promote this year's entry in the series, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, which will come out this November. According to Poynter, both the process of making the report and its presentation fall into some ethical gray areas. 

Twitter is Not Dying (Slate)

In response to The Atlantic declaring Twitter a soon-to-be platform of the past last week, Slate's Will Oremus explains why everyone who's tried to quantify Twitter's success, including the company itself, is doing it wrong. If you don't "get" Twitter, you will after this.

Ten Best Sentences (The American Scholar)

The snootiest listicle around. We've got ten out-of-context sentences from fiction and non-fiction. The list is a little definitive for my taste, even if they are all very nice. As NYT's Farhad Manjoo points out, a lot of these were picked out because of their length, rather than their power or elegance.

The Blue Album at 20: Looking Back at Weezer's Debut 20 Years Later (Grantland)

Once upon a time, I couldn't leave my house without a Weezer album on hand, so I couldn't help but fawn over Grantland's track-by-track meditation on their first album.

Nerd Shirt of The Week — Revenge

Via OtherTees

Who knew Dexter was a Game of Thrones fan?

I know a lot of people started hating Dexter by the end, but at least this shirt is still clever.

You can purchase Revenge for $11  on OtherTees.com until 4PM Eastern on May 5th, 2014. The shirt may be available from another retailer at a later date for a different price.

ICYMI - 5/3/14

It seems fitting that, on a week when I've made a major life decision, this week's reads feature a surprisingly large number of callbacks to my personal life. One story is about my high school, another is written by an old friend, and a third is from somewhere I used to work.

There's also one about getting unfriended on Facebook... Something which I know nothing about, of course.

The Tale of Two Schools (NYT Magazine)

My high school, the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, represents all things wealthy and privileged in a series of portraits of its current students with students from University Heights High School,  a nearby public school in the South Bronx.

The piece gives a shallow account of the two schools' ongoing collaboration. Personally I would have loved a little more meat in the article, but the package does paint an interesting picture.

Peter Parker and Clark Kent: Very Unethical Journalists (The Atlantic)

My friend Dan Snyder points out that comic book heroes really aren't cut out to be journalists. Spider-Man and Superman, two of the most virtuous superheroes around, don't seem to have any problem breaking every rule of ethics journalists hold on to. 

I Played 45 Minutes of Destiny, and it Was Kind of Boring (Kotaku)

The video game preview is a tough nut to crack. Having written a fair number of them now, including a few for Kotaku, the hardest lesson I learned about the form is that you don't always have to put a positive spin on your report. Since preview subjects are still works-in-progress, it's easy to allow these stories — which are pitched to readers as advance critiques — to read like vehicles for hype.

Kotaku's preview of Destiny, the upcoming game from Halo series creator Bungie, is an example of what happens when a preview manages illuminate and inform honestly. Patricia Hernandez doesn't tear the game down, but expresses concern that the game may not be the groundbreaking experience that fans are expecting.

High as Balls: Live From The Cannabis Cup (The Verge)

It's a couple weeks old, but this year's "Medical" Cannabis cup in San Bernardino, California was the breakout event for the now selectively-legal recreational Marijuana market. Weed vape-pens,  silicon Valley-style start ups, and crack-esque "shatter" crystals tease the many paths Big Weed may be going down.

Here's Why You Just Got Unfriended on Facebook (Vox)

Do you like talking politics, religion, your job, your pets or your kids? That's cool, but don't complain when people start dropping you from their Facebook feeds.

While the studies this article draws from admit their means of collecting data is flawed, it still paints a pretty good picture: Most of us want the same kinds of social boundaries on social media as we would when speaking in person.