Archives for 2003

As end-of-the-year journalism starts rearing its predictable head, do you ever notice how “what’s in, what’s out” lists (yes, the fish I am shooting today do inhabit a barrel) tend to mix three elements in roughly equal parts: observable trends; embedded advertising; and attempts to instill good behavior in the gauze-thin guise of arbitrating coolness? I have last Sunday’s Chicago Tribune Magazine in front of me, with its six pages of Hots and Nots.

In the first category, the pairings more or less report what’s out there: “fitted little jackets” and Jake Gyllenhall are HOT, “oversized boyfriend jackets” and Josh Hartnett are NOT. This boils down to the media reporting on media-generated buzz, but it’s the kind of stuff one reads these lists for, and is fair enough.

In the second category, you can pretty much see the fashion industry’s lips moving as the features writers pronounce, “HOT: The fitted trench with a twist (like a grape purple Burberry); NOT: Plain beige.”

But it’s the third category–more Goofus and Gallant than Out and In–that kills me. It’s so priggish and Miss Manners, except that Miss Manners is doing her job, while hot lists are pretending to be something quite different. Much as I can’t argue with a lot of the implicit social and moral instruction dispensed in this category, it’s hard not to snicker at the attempt to soft-sell it as good taste, or all the rage. I have lots of examples from the Tribune, both because they are so plentiful and because they are so risible:

HOT: Making out at the bar

NOT: Going home with someone from the bar

Yep, don’t not go home with that stranger because it wouldn’t be prudent; don’t do it because it wouldn’t be hot.

HOT: Introducing friends to one another (www.friendster.com)

NOT: Keeping friends to yourself

Selfishness: so last year!

HOT: Docs who incorporate alternative medicine

NOT: Docs who have no clue

This one doesn’t really have the courage of its convictions, since if you’re just incorporating your alternative medicine into your conventional medicine, it’s not really an alternative, is it? But you have to be impressed by the bold stand against clueless doctors (if less so by the implication that conventional methods make them so). Maybe 2005 will be their year.

But here’s my favorite:

HOT: Judging for yourself

NOT: Critics’ reviews of films, books

This appears to be the silliest reverberation to date of the manufactured discontentment that is the Believer magazine’s police blotter, Snarkwatch, where you can write in to pillory critics you disagree with. What started as a (in my opinion, dubious and thin-skinned) manifesto against dismissively clever book reviewing has now devolved into the soundbite “critics not hot.” I think it’s safe to say that the hunt for snark has jumped the shark.

As end-of-the-year journalism starts rearing its predictable head, do you ever notice how “what’s in, what’s out” lists (yes, the fish I am shooting today do inhabit a barrel) tend to mix three elements in roughly equal parts: observable trends; embedded advertising; and attempts to instill good behavior in the gauze-thin guise of arbitrating coolness? I have last Sunday’s Chicago Tribune Magazine in front of me, with its six pages of Hots and Nots.

In the first category, the pairings more or less report what’s out there: “fitted little jackets” and Jake Gyllenhall are HOT, “oversized boyfriend jackets” and Josh Hartnett are NOT. This boils down to the media reporting on media-generated buzz, but it’s the kind of stuff one reads these lists for, and is fair enough.

In the second category, you can pretty much see the fashion industry’s lips moving as the features writers pronounce, “HOT: The fitted trench with a twist (like a grape purple Burberry); NOT: Plain beige.”

But it’s the third category–more Goofus and Gallant than Out and In–that kills me. It’s so priggish and Miss Manners, except that Miss Manners is doing her job, while hot lists are pretending to be something quite different. Much as I can’t argue with a lot of the implicit social and moral instruction dispensed in this category, it’s hard not to snicker at the attempt to soft-sell it as good taste, or all the rage. I have lots of examples from the Tribune, both because they are so plentiful and because they are so risible:

HOT: Making out at the bar

NOT: Going home with someone from the bar

Yep, don’t not go home with that stranger because it wouldn’t be prudent; don’t do it because it wouldn’t be hot.

HOT: Introducing friends to one another (www.friendster.com)

NOT: Keeping friends to yourself

Selfishness: so last year!

HOT: Docs who incorporate alternative medicine

NOT: Docs who have no clue

This one doesn’t really have the courage of its convictions, since if you’re just incorporating your alternative medicine into your conventional medicine, it’s not really an alternative, is it? But you have to be impressed by the bold stand against clueless doctors (if less so by the implication that conventional methods make them so). Maybe 2005 will be their year.

But here’s my favorite:

HOT: Judging for yourself

NOT: Critics’ reviews of films, books

This appears to be the silliest reverberation to date of the manufactured discontentment that is the Believer magazine’s police blotter, Snarkwatch, where you can write in to pillory critics you disagree with. What started as a (in my opinion, dubious and thin-skinned) manifesto against dismissively clever book reviewing has now devolved into the soundbite “critics not hot.” I think it’s safe to say that the hunt for snark has jumped the shark.

As end-of-the-year journalism starts rearing its predictable head, do you ever notice how “what’s in, what’s out” lists (yes, the fish I am shooting today do inhabit a barrel) tend to mix three elements in roughly equal parts: observable trends; embedded advertising; and attempts to instill good behavior in the gauze-thin guise of arbitrating coolness? I have last Sunday’s Chicago Tribune Magazine in front of me, with its six pages of Hots and Nots.

In the first category, the pairings more or less report what’s out there: “fitted little jackets” and Jake Gyllenhall are HOT, “oversized boyfriend jackets” and Josh Hartnett are NOT. This boils down to the media reporting on media-generated buzz, but it’s the kind of stuff one reads these lists for, and is fair enough.

In the second category, you can pretty much see the fashion industry’s lips moving as the features writers pronounce, “HOT: The fitted trench with a twist (like a grape purple Burberry); NOT: Plain beige.”

But it’s the third category–more Goofus and Gallant than Out and In–that kills me. It’s so priggish and Miss Manners, except that Miss Manners is doing her job, while hot lists are pretending to be something quite different. Much as I can’t argue with a lot of the implicit social and moral instruction dispensed in this category, it’s hard not to snicker at the attempt to soft-sell it as good taste, or all the rage. I have lots of examples from the Tribune, both because they are so plentiful and because they are so risible:

HOT: Making out at the bar

NOT: Going home with someone from the bar

Yep, don’t not go home with that stranger because it wouldn’t be prudent; don’t do it because it wouldn’t be hot.

HOT: Introducing friends to one another (www.friendster.com)

NOT: Keeping friends to yourself

Selfishness: so last year!

HOT: Docs who incorporate alternative medicine

NOT: Docs who have no clue

This one doesn’t really have the courage of its convictions, since if you’re just incorporating your alternative medicine into your conventional medicine, it’s not really an alternative, is it? But you have to be impressed by the bold stand against clueless doctors (if less so by the implication that conventional methods make them so). Maybe 2005 will be their year.

But here’s my favorite:

HOT: Judging for yourself

NOT: Critics’ reviews of films, books

This appears to be the silliest reverberation to date of the manufactured discontentment that is the Believer magazine’s police blotter, Snarkwatch, where you can write in to pillory critics you disagree with. What started as a (in my opinion, dubious and thin-skinned) manifesto against dismissively clever book reviewing has now devolved into the soundbite “critics not hot.” I think it’s safe to say that the hunt for snark has jumped the shark.

I let the mail pile up while I was sick. I’m still sick, but I decided I ought to empty the bag to enhance my peace of mind, and found therein about a hundred e-mails, all of which are now answered except for the ones I’m going to post on the site in the course of the next few days (of which there are several). Once again, I marvel at the sheer smartness of the readers of this blog….

While I’m at it, a long-overdue announcement: it is the overwhelming desire of the readers of “About Last Night” that we not change our default settings. Now as before, any link on which you click will continue to open in a new window. Nearly everybody seems to find this arrangement more convenient. Needless to say, thanks to all correspondents for expressing an opinion, whether pro or con.

One last thing. I got an e-mail from a fellow who says he finds my postings about the Great Cold of 2003 so amusing that he hopes I hang onto it for a bit longer. To this gentleman I say…uh, er…SNEEZE!!

To jazz buffs outside New York City, Frank Kimbrough is probably best known as the pianist for Maria Schneider’s big band. If you live around here, you’ll have heard him in any number of other contexts, both on his own and as an indispensable sideman. Either way, he’s one of my favorite jazz pianists, but I’ve never heard him play a solo recital, so it’s great news that he’s planning to do just that.

The date is this Sunday, Dec. 14. The place is the Blah Blah Lounge in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I’ve never been there, but Frank, who has high standards when it comes to clubs and their pianos, describes it as “a rarity, an intimate space with a good piano, minimal listening distractions (the bar is in another room), and a friendly staff.

(1) Since I fell ill on Friday night, I haven’t listened to a note of music. All I feel like doing is reading, watching TV, and looking at the art on my walls. Would anyone care to speculate on why music hath temporarily lost its charms for this sick blogger?

(2) The incoming mail is going unanswered. Sorry. I’ll catch up when I feel a little better.

(3) I managed to rise from my sickbed over the weekend and post a bit, so please take a look.

(4) Have you tried the new search engine yet?

I’m still sneezing and wheezing. I cancelled all my weekend performances (I can’t believe I was too sick to go hear Chanticleer’s annual Christmas concert at the Metropolitan Museum!), and I haven’t set foot out of the apartment since Friday night other than to buy food and drugs. All I’ve done is sleep, watch TV, and read.

The last of these has proved to be an unexpected delight, though, for my six-month stint as a judge for the National Book Awards left me next to no time to read purely for my pleasure, and it’s been fun to chew through a stack of books simply because they looked good to me.

No pleasure should remain unshared, so here are three books I read this weekend that I strongly recommend:

Somebody asked me what movies I’d seen since I retreated to my couch to tough out the Great Cold of 2003. I’ve mentioned a few, but here’s a more or less complete list: Yellow Sky, The Cincinnati Kid, Johnny Guitar, The Lady Eve, The Shop Around the Corner, The Gunfighter, Bringing Up Baby, The Tin Star, Passion Fish, and Holiday Affair.

All, incidentally, were plucked from cable TV by my trusty digital video recorder, for which I give much thanks.