85841 items (0 unread) in 24 feeds
Related tags: the [+], internet [+], back [+], you [+], with [+], pill [+], it [+], denton [+], chill [+], cant [+], and [+], a [+]
So the New York Times has a Twitter account. (Twitter is the internet thing that tells everyone in the world what you're doing so they can make fun of you properly.) And it's an embarrassment! More embarrassing is the Twitter account for "The Moment," their new... blog-thing that is tied to T Magazine, the content-free style supplement to the Times Magazine. This Twitter is weird and aggressively friendly! But... who is behind it? Whose far-too-casual first-person Tweet are we even following? (Probably "Jonathan S. Paul," who posted about Twittering about posting this Art Party.) Whoever it is got drunk at an Art Party last night and peed next to Sean Lennon. Right now T twitter is following all the other Times Twitter accounts that just link back to things at the Times. If they really wanted to get all Webby they'd start a Tumblr that bitched about Gawker. [Twitter via Radar]
Novelist Keith Gessen, having been ridiculed here and elsewhere on the Web over the past week, is still trying to take back the internet from mean people. But he just had a sudden, happy epiphany, in which he realized that these vicious critics are not really being mean to him but toward their own caricature of him. They're just "bored at work" and are trying to have fun, so they imagine Gessen to be the juicy target they crave and lash out. "So, it's cool," the very important intellectual wrote. (He later rephrased this as, "You know, whatever.") Gessen is so relieved that the internet meanies don't hate him (just the distant, imagined "him") that he's invited us all to his place, or at least his workplace, for a big Friday night bash! Our nice, in-person selves will "take back the internet" from our anonymous-behind-a-keyboard selves! Bring your kittens and so forth!! Time/place, along with a longer explanation of why Gessen is so totally over you, after the jump.
I had always imagined the commenters as a pack of wolves… and if they smelled blood, my blood, because there I was with them, they would pounce. And then we could have it out.
Instead, the commenters wanted me to leave. It was as if I’d misunderstood. Dude, said the commenters, in effect: We weren’t talking about you. We were talking about “Keith Gessen.” You’re just a name to us. Kind of a funny name, actually. And an author photo. Kind of an obnoxious author photo. But we don’t mean you, personally. We’re bored at work. Come on.
And that was really strange. I have a friend who occasionally makes the argument: You’ve put yourself out there, now people can take their shots. I have another friend who puts it a little differently: You manifest yourself in public, and then people will make of it what they will. But this didn’t feel like either of those things. It was more as if I’d given up my name and photograph as an offering, for people to take shots and interpret those things—not me. That was the deal.
And, if you look at it that way, it’s kind of hard to argue. I have no interest in ruining other people’s fun. I like fun.
So, it’s cool.
... Enough! Ultimately the battle for the internet will have to take place somewhere OUTSIDE the internet, that is to say in the world of flesh and blood, and toward that end, readers of this Tumblr, I announce a TAKE BACK THE INTERNET PARTY.
This Friday night. 8 pm until midnight.
n+1 office in DUMBO
68 Jay St. #405
York St. F stop closest stop
Entrance on Jay St. a little past the intersection with Front
All Tumblr readers welcome! And others. Even if you’ve said terrible things about me on the internet, I forgive you. I know you didn’t really mean me. Even if you did.
[Keith Gessen]
(Image via Titlepage)
Bottledservice: banned for being rapey. We are accepting nominations for anyone else who thinks a girl who goes to a dude's apartment "under false pretenses" has it coming!
Leona Helmsley's dog, who was willed $12 million when the wicked hotelier passed away last summer, will now only receive $2 million. Helmsley's disinherited grandchildren will get $6 million of the remaining sum. When reached for comment, the dog sniffed the reporter's hand and made a cute little snuffly sound.
Beloved brilliant genius intellectual novelist Keith Gessen seems a little stressed out! He freely admits that he's losing, or has lost, his mind. (Just when the world needs it most!) He wants desperately to take back the internet, from the geighs, and he speaks for the elite trees. But he promised, last night, to do some things that will help. He will live an admirable life, and he will "adopt the kittens and date everyone." Ok, Keith! Here is your kitten. She is a stray from beautiful Ocean Hill, Brooklyn, right off the J. She lives on your Day Editor's stoop and loves people. Right now her name is "Sammy Davis Mewnior" but you could name her "George Meorwell" or "Mrs. Keith Gessen" or whatever if you wanted to. More adorable photos after the jump!
So! Keith Gessen! If you would like to start living a more admirable life right now, please email us to set up a date with Sammy. Like we said, Sammy loves people and is very friendly. She is kind of scared of other kitties, especially boys, but that could change with time and love!
(If Keith doesn't want the kitty, anyone else is welcome to pick her up! She needs a loving home, as she is not as street-smart as the other kittens of Bed-Stuy.)
Photos: Allyzay
From the mailbag: "A little bird told me today that the Maxim people are freaking. 1/3 of the company's staff has been cut (the Stuff side) and most of the editors who have UK passports have already been informed that their visas will not be renewed."