http://annfriedman.com/

"As a woman, people are going to ask you to write the kind of insipid shit they would never in a..."

Wed, 15 May 2013 19:58:36 -0700

“As a woman, people are going to ask you to write the kind of insipid shit they would never in a million fucking years ask a man to write. They’re going to tell you to make it lovable, to take harsh opinions out of your heroine’s head, to cut your pissy first-person essay off at the kneecaps. They’re going to run out and publish a million and one disconnected, crappy Deep Thoughts by some self-proclaimed boy wonder, but they’re going to read your perfectly delightful work and tell you that it’ll be just great, as long as you only include the stuff on the trials and tribulations of being a mom (Argh! Teehee!) or being a girl (Oh noes! Teehee!) or being a woman (Growl! Just kidding! Teehee!). They’re going to ask you to write about your recent weight gain, or your recent divorce, or your recent (insert humiliating story here), and what lessons you’ve learned from it. They’re going to want you to come up with a fucking moral to your story. Because you’re a lady, you don’t have the option of stomping around in a funk. Because you are a woman, and you feel feelings, you must draw some giant, oversimplified conclusion. You must have blandly down-to-earth protagonists, you must have lovable mommies hugging lost kittens, you must have rainbows and sunbeams spewing out of your ass. They’re going to coach you into writing something you’re not entirely sure about, something you would never in a million fucking years read yourself (if you had free will, which it sometimes seems like you don’t), and they’re going to tell you it’s pure genius. And even though you still might see your piece or essay or snippet of prose as “literary,” they’re going to stick an incendiary headline on it (“Help! I Ate My Own Vagina!”) and it’s going to be an internet sensation, and you’re going to feel Bad with a capital B about it.”

- Preach, Heather Havrilesky. This is bleak but #letsbereal, several of these things have happened to me already in my admittedly short career as a freelance writer.

center of my personal venn diagram.

Wed, 15 May 2013 19:32:29 -0700

center of my personal venn diagram.

"It’s only worth being the first woman anything if at the point you stop being executive editor there..."

Sun, 12 May 2013 22:31:56 -0700

““It’s only worth being the first woman anything if at the point you stop being executive editor there are other women, hopefully lots of them, who are plausible candidates to be the second.””

- New York Times Editor Jill Abramson Talks Boston and Female Editors - The Daily Beast (via nishachittal)

cityplanning: The Zombies - “Gotta Get A Hold Of Myself”“ Live...

Sun, 12 May 2013 22:15:04 -0700

cityplanning:

The Zombies - “Gotta Get A Hold Of Myself”“

Live from the Hippodrome during the summer of 1966. The only color footage of the band known to exist from this era.

WHEN A JOURNALIST COMPLAINS THAT THE GOOD DAYS OF MEDIA ARE OVER

Thu, 09 May 2013 10:09:09 -0700

editorrealtalk:

Why this—right now—is the best moment to be working in journalism.

Gettin’ my creative-destructive-productive optimism on.

Gloria = Anzaldúa, right? Right.

Wed, 08 May 2013 19:12:57 -0700

Gloria = Anzaldúa, right? Right.

"In order to change an existing paradigm you do not struggle to try and change the problematic model...."

Wed, 08 May 2013 16:56:07 -0700

“In order to change an existing paradigm you do not struggle to try and change the problematic model. You create a new model and make the old one obsolete.””

- R. Buckminster Fuller (via unequal-design)

CRUCIAL journalism advice in 2k13.

"I use two Moleskines: one (side-bound) as more of a personal journal, holding everything from little..."

Wed, 08 May 2013 09:59:38 -0700

“I use two Moleskines: one (side-bound) as more of a personal journal, holding everything from little drawings to lists to long-winded prose, and one (top-bound) for my pie charts. Though really, I make pie charts on just about anything. Backs of envelopes, cocktail napkins, receipts. I’m not particular about the pens I use. I do not draw the circles with a compass, I trace a round cardboard coaster. (Classy!)”

- I talked to The Setup about all of the hardware and software I use to do my job.

Tue, 07 May 2013 10:43:48 -0700

RuPaul on what makes a gay icon

Tue, 07 May 2013 10:12:00 -0700

“People always ask, ‘What makes a gay icon?’ People who have been ostracized or pushed outside of society relate to other people who have their exact same qualities and personality traits. The spiritual being having to dumb down to fit in.”

"She is not going to argue with you, but she’s going to do what she wants."

Tue, 07 May 2013 10:02:19 -0700

“She is not going to argue with you, but she’s going to do what she wants.”

- Fuck yeah, Megan Ellison.

Sign Language: What L.A. Neighborhoods Should Billboard About...

Mon, 06 May 2013 12:52:57 -0700

Sign Language: What L.A. Neighborhoods Should Billboard About Themselves - Los Angeles magazine

This week I published four things (NYmag, CJR, matrix, pie), was...

Fri, 03 May 2013 10:19:37 -0700

This week I published four things (NYmag, CJR, matrix, pie), was interviewed by three outlets (BBC, CJR, Publishing Perspectives), got reblogged by John Darnielle, conducted six or seven hours of interviews for an upcoming feature, and thrifted a vintage Amy Grant ‘House of Love’ tour T-shirt. ///C/R/U/S/H/I/N/G///I/T///

"I believe strongly in high and low brow, serious and funny–marrying them–not only reach more people..."

Fri, 03 May 2013 10:04:43 -0700

“I believe strongly in high and low brow, serious and funny–marrying them–not only reach more people but to have a greater impact. I think people who use GIFs most successfully are using them that way. But really when you ask, What is a GIF?, it’s essentially a punch line.”

- I talked to Publishing Perspectives about GIFs and the art of self-promotion.

fek: Barbara Kruger’s never really talked about Supreme, the...

Thu, 02 May 2013 20:20:00 -0700

fek:

Barbara Kruger’s never really talked about Supreme, the skate company who’s been ripping off her ideas and prints letter for letter, color for color, for their red-and-white logo, which you have seen, because it is everywhere.

I emailed her casually to ask her about this. And today, she got back to me, and gave a candid statement on the matter of Supreme for the first time, ever, really. By emailing me a blank email, with an attachment. Which you can see above.

This is SUCH a baller move.

"Alas, women’s evolved nature, along with their desire to avoid the dystopian nightmare of men..."

Thu, 02 May 2013 18:09:20 -0700

“Alas, women’s evolved nature, along with their desire to avoid the dystopian nightmare of men trying even harder to be funny, causes them to withhold the soul-crushing revelation of masculine jocular inferiority. But many more women now also will continue to follow bravely in the footsteps of those pioneering females who elicited laughter before them, risking societal harmony in the name of making the world a more hilarious place.”

- I love Paul Feig.

The Friday Night Pie - The Hairpin

Thu, 02 May 2013 14:03:26 -0700

The Friday Night Pie - The Hairpin

MUERTO.

Thu, 02 May 2013 14:02:09 -0700

MUERTO.

"We almost expect women athletes to not be classically beautiful or feminine, and therefore we’re not..."

Thu, 02 May 2013 13:39:05 -0700

“We almost expect women athletes to not be classically beautiful or feminine, and therefore we’re not surprised to learn they’re gay. Male professional athletes, by contrast, are thought to be our most masculine specimens. So when they come out as gay, it seems they’re playing against type. Even more than with femininity, masculinity and heterosexuality are widely perceived to be linked. For all the progress that’s been made, there’s still a perception that the bullied gay kid is spending his after-school hours curating a Lana Del Rey Tumblr, not practicing with the varsity basketball team. The bullied teen lesbian? She’s the one on the court.”

- On Jason Collins, Brittney Griner, and the need to decouple gender and sexuality - NYmag.com / The Cut

"I didn’t even realize how big the brand journalism thing had gotten until I got canned,” Bennett..."

Thu, 02 May 2013 08:44:03 -0700

““I didn’t even realize how big the brand journalism thing had gotten until I got canned,” Bennett says. That’s when other brands trying to do journalism started to ask for her thoughts on the matter. Consumers are getting smarter about traditional advertising and marketing, she adds, and some companies are taking the unorthodox approach of directly employing journalists—whose ideas and copy they don’t directly control—to cover their brand or community. “Sixteen-year-old kids can see through some rewritten press release bullshit in a way their parents might not have been able to,” Bennett says. “Consumers are savvier, which is where I think some of the drive to hire journalists for some of this content comes from.” For reporters and editors tired of layoffs and buyouts, these jobs offer a middle ground between journalism and copywriting, a way to take home a decent paycheck without feeling like you’ve sold out completely.”

- But how do you make independent journalism when your boss is a brand, not a media company? I had some #realtalk with Jess Bennett about the demise of Tumblr Storyboard.