Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Some recognition of the work being done by Tara Sue Clark, Ross Myers, and Jerry McClough, from TeleRead's David Rothman... ...and a nice profile of Greensboro101 (with a sidebar on the N&R) from the good folks up at  J-Lab...plus more coverage of our online alt-media hub here. 5:42:11 PM    comment []

The N&R biz blog asks for story ideas. I suggested they at least piggyback the BizJournal's reporting on the Bostic Construction mess...and got a curious reply. So now we know, the paper is interested in the old Wachovia building, and Dell...but its business reporting has somewhat limited overlap with the Business Journal? Even online? So, what are the parameters, for print and the blog, of an N&R business story? 5:33:26 PM    comment []

My sister saw The Gates in Central Park, along with a lot of other people on a windy, cold morning this weekend. The wind, says Sarah, was "part the exhibit...and I, with thousands of others, was part of the design." Her report via email makes me regret missing The Gates in person: "I found that its greatest power comes from experiencing it, being part of it as thousands of others shared it from their unique vantage points. This work is designed to be explored. It beckons thousands of people to wonder through it and consider its existence in the park and by doing so, establishing the connection between the structure and the world around it..." "People strayed off the paths to see the gates from the side. Others climbed up on rocks to look down on the creation...People gazing at the Gates were part of every vista." "The thousands of saffron flags suspended above us were impressive simply due to their huge numbers. They bring perspective to the size of the park by drawing your eye around every bend, up each hill and off into the distance. The immense curtains are free to move with the wind. They catch the sunlight in some places and are shrouded in clouds in others. Despite the project's scale, the design creates inviting places for humans. The sturdy steel supports create an alley for pedestrians with the soft cloth waving gently above. The bright orange is reminiscent of sunlight, yet not a color found in natural landscapes. The golden orange was startling in contrast to the stark winter backdrop and the city's gray buildings. The gates are uniform in height but varied in the distance between them and their span across the path is deliberately altered in places." "The parade of bright fabric physically moved us through the park as we followed to see how far they reached. We were drawn out of the park by the desire to try to see the work from one of the tall buildings along the park. We shared a fourth floor window...with other curious observers. Certainly similar scenes were occurring around the parks entire perimeter. The city was drawn into the art." Then she got to see it from another vantage point: "As we flew home Sunday afternoon we had the great fortune to pass over Central Park. We saw the beautiful golden color woven through the trees of the park from above. We approached from the north and watched as the density of the banners appeared to change as we flew more directly above the park. Flying above the Gates we were not aware of any other humans observing the site. Only the leafless trees and brown ground framing the vibrant cloth. We were again struck by the immense size and saw true beauty in the startling contrast. Christo captivated me in by moving me through, around and above his creation considering how he enhanced, changed and magnified the environment." 12:43:26 PM    comment []

ACC Hoops asks if its OK to start hating Duke again. And over at College Basketball, YoCo has gone bigtime with a sophisticated new site. 9:06:46 AM    comment []

Monkeytime is back with a tribute to Hunter S. Thompson, a bracing counterpoint to Mr. Sun's simplistic response to HST's suicide.  Of course killing yourself is not romantic -- Thompson spat in the eye of romanticism --  but Mr. Sun's blanket statement that it's "cowardly, vain, and sick" seems a bit reductive. The Times reports that HST faced "a chronic series of physical infirmities - he had to use a wheelchair at times - left him feeling that he was finally being maneuvered by forces he could not medicate or write into obscurity." Mr. Sun, channeling a George Michael t-shirt, says "Choose life." Hunter Thompson chose the life he wanted, and he chose to end it on his own terms. Sick? Maybe. Cowardly? I don't think so. UPDATE: Thompson "was hurting real bad for a long time"; "wanted a church funeral and he had asked that his ashes be shot out of a cannon" (via Romenesko). 9:03:58 AM    comment []

Charles Davenport Jr. writes a book report for his column today (unposted), the subject being Founding Father, Richard Brookhiser's bio of George Washington. Give him extra credit for proximity to yesterday's holiday, and it's B+ work at any respectable high school. But Davenport Jr., though apparently unable to either defend or apologize for his previous Founding Father follies, works in a little dig at the end of his essay, reminding "legions of smug, modern secularists that the general and president we celebrate today was an overtly pious man." Well, duh. Who has ever argued that strongly religious people were not involved in building this country? Like an emailer who recently wrote me that he supposed I would deny that many of the founders were religious, Davenport Jr. seems not to understand the issue here. Of course there was a strong religious culture in the early United States (although not as uniform or universal as some would pretend). Thus the big lesson Davenport Jr. refuses to take -- that culture purposefully yielded a secular Constitution, and a non-sectarian government, and those have been critical to the evolution of a modern culture in which religion flourishes. That's why you don't have to be a "secularist" to support the secular government with which the Founders blessed us. 8:49:07 AM    comment []

Take some time and read carefully this article by Jay Rosen about the NYT and the business of web journalism. 8:16:48 AM    comment []

GoSkokie is a community site run by journalism students at Northwestern. 8:15:22 AM    comment []

Jinni Hoggard is not enjoying cancer. The costs are not all physical and emotional. Tough as the situation is, Jinni and David's courage and clarity in describing it is public-service journalism of a high order. 8:13:55 AM    comment []

NYT obit for Hunter Thompson: "Mr. Thompson's approach in many ways mirrors the style of modern-day bloggers, those self-styled social commentators who blend news, opinion and personal experience on Internet postings. Like bloggers, Mr. Thompson built his case for the state of America around the framework of his personal views and opinions." 8:05:59 AM    comment []