Journalists spend a ton of time bitching about PR reps; some of it is even justified. So it’s always encouraging to find a successful attempt at PR cluefulness, like this dispatch from the Public Relations Society of America about how to pitch to weblogs and their authors.

The other day, Olivia, the twins, and I were making an expedition to the marvelous Fairway up in Harlem. While she was attending to a call of nature, I was charged with keeping an eye on our two carts, each containing an 8-month-old boy strapped into a car seat.

Those of you who have met them are aware that the twins are adorable young men, even on their infrequent bad days. This particular day was not one of those bad ones, and they were being especially engaging and charming. As we waited, by the coffee kiosk at the west end of the Goya aisle, a procession of five extraordinarly attractive young women passed by, stopping to ogle and coo at the kids, who were more than happy to ogle and coo right back. (The women spared a smile for their dad, too — who also was more than happy to ogle and coo right back.)

Observing this thoughtfully from a few feet away was a 30-ish Fairway employee, his white smock  covering his jeans to mid-calf. “Hmmm,” he said, not quite to himself, after the crowd had moved on. “So that‘s what they’re into these days…”

 “When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.”
                                         — P. J. O’Rourke

This may be true, but it’s pretty clear that legislators — on the national level, anyway — are being bought and sold anyway.

Bell-ringer of a piece by Todd Purdum in today’s NYTimes. Nominally, it’s about a master class given by Broadway legend Barbara Cook. More deeply, it’s about what means to stand on stage and sing — and it’s a complete bullseye.

Best graf is the last, which I need to post on every surface that I ever look at:

“To be as authentic as we know how to be at the moment, so that we can be more and more present in what we do.” she said in the interview. “The more we can do that, the safer we are. The problem is it feels most dangerous, because what I ask people to do is in effect undress emotionally, so that’s very frightening and new. But this very thing that seems most dangerous is where safety lies.”

 

A New York City Councilman wants to pass a law to force people to turn off their cell phones while they’re in a performance space, like a theater.

From the NY Post:

Council staff cited reports of movie star Laurence Fishburne’s profanity-laced admonition of a patron whose phone went off during his performance in “The Lion in Winter” and a similar incident involving Kevin Spacey during his turn in “The Iceman Cometh.”

Maybe it’s just me, but the prospect of being bitch-slapped in front of an audience by Laurence Fishburne or Kevin Spacey is a whole lot more of a deterrence than the prospect of some fine.

The man who perfected the Frisbee died recently. His ashes will be incorporated in a special edition of Frisbees distributed to friends and family. From Reuters via CNN.

How long before one shows up on eBay? The clock starts …. NOW!

I’m part of a fascinating new experiment called blogcritics.com. It goes like this: there are tons of recording artists with no access to mass media to help promote their products. There are tons of good writers who love to write about music. How about using weblogs to bring them together?

A perfect application of the Internet. You bet I’m in. So are about 100 other writers.

The brainstorm of producer Eric Olsen, blogcritics.com goes live Tuesday morning.

I’m starting with two reviews: “Elaine Stritch: At Liberty,” and Bruce Springsteen’s “The Rising.” You’ll be able to find them on my site and at blogcritics.com. But remember: the point isn’t to review such major releases; it’s to get at the good stuff that’s under the radar. There’ll be submission guidelines published soon. Right now, Eric has his hands full getting the site launched.

You are 38% geek

You are a geek liaison, which means you go both ways. You can hang out with normal people or you can hang out with geeks which means you often have geeks as friends and/or have a job where you have to mediate between geeks and normal people. This is an important role and one of which you should be proud. In fact, you can make a good deal of money as a translator. Normal: Tell our geek we need him to work this weekend. You [to Geek]: We need more than that, Scotty. You’ll have to stay until you can squeeze more outta them engines! Geek [to You]: I’m givin’ her all she’s got, Captain, but we need more dilithium crystals! You [to Normal]: He wants to know if he gets overtime.

Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com (Thanks, Dawn!)

The NRDC is going to sue the U.S. Navy over a new kind of sonar. From Reuters via CNN:

Reynolds cited Navy estimates that the LFA system generates sounds capable of reaching 140 decibels more than 300 miles (483 kms) away….

But the fisheries service, a division of the U.S. Commerce Department, said it approved the Navy’s use of the sonar after determining that marine mammals were “unlikely to be injured.”