ONLINE EXCLUSIVES
STOP SMILING BLOG
- Nobel Controversy Hits Crescendo
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Just a moment -- I have to put down the latest page-turner by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio before I can finish this post (you're doing the same, right?). The latest winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature was announced today after a firestorm: Last week Horace Engdahl, the permanent secretary of the Nobel prize jury, announced that no American writers would win the award because the US is "too isolated, too insular" and its novelists "don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature -- that ignorance is restraining," which prompted a one-word rebuttal from the Guardian and one from Charles McGrath of the New York Times, who wrote: "Critics are always pointing out that the list of writers who never won, which includes Tolstoy, Proust, Borges, Joyce, Nabokov and Auden, is far more impressive than the roster of those who did." Which roster would you choose? Search the complete list here. [Read Post] - Posted: 10 | 09 | 2008 // Posted by: Stop Smiling
// LIT WORLD
- HAL 9000 by 2009?
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A few recent breakthroughs in the study of artificial intelligence might have HAL 9000 reaching for a stress pill: First off, meet Repliee R-1, a five-year-old Japanese girl "built to help pensioners and disabled people move better"; the Observer reports that "next Sunday, six computer programs -- 'artificial conversational entities' -- will answer questions posed by human volunteers at the University of Reading in a bid to become the first recognized 'thinking' machine; and last Monday, scientists at MIT in Cambridge announced that they have "moved closer to creating 'artificial noses,' after finding a way to mass-produce smell receptors in a laboratory.
Artificial noses could one day replace dogs that sniff out drugs and explosives, and could have numerous medical applications including identifying diseases that have distinct odor." [Read Post] - Posted: 10 | 08 | 2008 // Posted by: Stop Smiling
// HAPPENINGS
- Pardon the Interracial Interruption
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Amid the backlash from all the bungling this week on Capitol Hill, one interesting item slipped through the cracks: Last Friday, the House of Representatives recommended that Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion, "should be granted a presidential pardon for a racially motivated conviction 75 years ago that blemished his reputation and hurt his boxing career" (read more at ESPN); Johnson, who was convicted of violating the Mann Act, which outlawed the transportation of women across state lines for immoral purposes, was the cover story of our Boxing Issue, released in 2005 (click here to read an excerpt of our interview with Ken Burns in support of his film about Johnson, Unforgivable Blackness). [Read Post] - Posted: 10 | 01 | 2008 // Posted by: Stop Smiling
// MARGINALIA
- Paul Newman (1925-2008)
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The Cleveland-born actor and anti-hero who passed away this weekend after a battle with cancer is being remembered in many ways: as a film legend (the Guardian); a humanitarian (Time); a race car driver (ESPN); a friend (Robert Redford's tribute) and a living landmark (reflections from his hometown paper, the Connecticut Post). [Read Post] - Posted: 09 | 29 | 2008 // Posted by: Stop Smiling
// OBIT
- Odd Construction Site Findings
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No golden shovels here. Crews excavating the World Trade Center site "have uncovered features carved into the bedrock by glaciers about 20,000 years ago, including a 40-foot-deep pothole"; in downtown Chicago, Donald Trump found he has no tenants in the four floors of commercial space at the base of his 92-story Trump International Hotel & Tower, which is still under construction (though this interactive page on the Tribune site does reveal some stunning panoramic views); and residents in California have found that their newly installed solar panels are vanishing from their rooftops in a bizarre rash of burglaries. [Read Post] - Posted: 09 | 26 | 2008 // Posted by: Stop Smiling
// HAPPENINGS
AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATH
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- 10 | 02 | 08
- 09 | 24 | 08
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- 09 | 19 | 08
New York Times: When the New York Sun ceased publishing last week, "it became the fifth newspaper to exit Albany in less than two years. The Staten Island Advance, the Post-Standard of Syracuse, the Daily Gazette of Schenectady and the Times Herald-Record of Middletown have all removed their statehouse correspondents from the Capitol since the beginning of 2007."
Journalism Major 101: Name a newspaper
John McCain's campaign goes on the attack against the media then calls for postponement of Friday's presidential debate due to the current financial crisis.
Bloomberg: Ex-anchorman Dan Rather can sue CBS over firing.
Chicago Tribune: Tribune Company names new publisher.
USA TODAY: Bloviation factored into Bill O'Reilly's youth.
NY Times: The Politico makes plans to expand its operation after the election; the New York Sun finds itself in a financial crunch to keep publishing.
Wired: O'Reilly hacked for comments about Palin hack. Also: Todd and Sarah Palin given softball treatment by Fox News.
MarketWatch: Why aren't more people buzzing about Harper's?
Portfolio: Al Gore to buy stake in environmental magazine, Plenty.
The Chicago Reader: Michael Miner: Internet values are seeping into print journalism, and Internet values reward instant punditry, the more flamboyant the better. Simple, solid reporting is OK, but flamboyance is what attracts page hits, and page hits attract advertisers -- enough of them, in a theoretical tomorrow, to keep journalism afloat.
NY Post: Pat O'Brien is out of a job. The former host of "The Insider," who was demoted to a correspondent after several stints in rehab, infuriated his bosses when he sent out an ill-advised e-mail Monday to his "Insider" co-workers, which boasted of his own popularity. The e-mail also said one of "Insider" host Lara Spencer's segments on the show makes viewers "want to vomit."
SET LIST: THE STOP SMILING MP3 BLOG
Click Here for MP3 Download Instructions- Jay Reatard - Tiny Little Home
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Jay Lindsey has been making music in Memphis for over a decade in various projects: the Reatards, the Lost Sounds (if you haven't heard Memphis is Dead, please remedy that immediately), Angry Angles and so on. His solo career under the moniker Jay Reatard, however, has produced the most critical acclaim. [Read Post] - Posted: 06 | 25 | 2008 // Posted by: Stop Smiling
// SET LIST
- Phil Cohran and the Artistic Heritage Ensemble - Frankiphone Blues
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What's a frankiphone you ask? A good question, especially if you're not familiar with Phil Cohran, as he invented it. Essentially an electric thumb piano, Kelan Phil Cohran developed the instrumenet and used it to anchor the recordings on the album this song was pulled from, Singles. [Read Post] - Posted: 05 | 29 | 2008 // Posted by: Stop Smiling
// SET LIST
STOP SMILING MEDIA BLOG
- BMC on the DNC
- From his writing in the Village Voice in the 80's to his film industry debut as the screenwriter for the monumnetal New Jack City, Barry Michael Cooper has been a cultural commentator of the highest order for over two decades, a eloquent and outspoken voice of the hip-hop generation and beyond. His most recent writings on the DNC continue on the same path, linking political commentary with pop culture references; particularly insightful is his most recent entry which pairs Michelle Obama's moving speech with Jay-Z and Beyonce's hit song '03 Bonnie & Clyde. [Read Post]
- Posted: 08 | 28 | 2008 // Posted by: Stop Smiling
// MEDIA
- Printers Ball Afterparty Tonight in Chicago
- If you're in Chicago tonight, we're throwing an afterparty for the Printer's Ball, an annual celebration of printed literature from Chicago. The party will be thrown in conjunction with Superfunk, a monthly soul & funk party with world-renowned DJs / record collectors. Your DJs will be Supreme Court (Sheer Magic, aka Soul Night @ Danny's), Jeff Parker (Tortoise) and Joe Bryl (Sonotheque), playing the best soul and funk records that you're going to hear anywhere in Chicago. [Read Post]
- Posted: 08 | 22 | 2008 // Posted by: Stop Smiling
// MEDIA
