Times Reporter Learns to Recycle

Did anyone else notice the remarkable similarity between Times reporter Melana Ryzik's story today on underground, exclusive, secret music events in Brooklyn and the story she published last spring about underground, exclusive, secret music events in Brooklyn?

We got it last time. Brooklyn hipsters are "alternative" and like music. Exclusivity is cool. Booking real venues is expensive. Ipso facto, off-the-map shows in kooky places in Brooklyn.

Is any of this news anymore?

Book Cover Deception at Vintage Publishing

Fun! South Beach! Time Travel!

These are just a few of the things I associate with the cover for the paperback edition of Philip Roth's award-winning novel Everyman. Now this wouldn't be a problem if any of these things remotely related to the "candidly intimate yet universal story of loss, regret, and stoicism" the back cover describes it as. Basically, Everyman is a story concerned with death, which makes the cover highly strange (and kind of disturbing). My interpretation as follows:


Imagined conversation between the PR/Marketing Team behind this cover

A: Okay, so the critics love it, but the thing is people don't really like "death."
B: He's right, our polling shows 90% of book readers don't want to die.
A: How can we spin this so it ends up being a Cold Mountain and not a Thirteen Moons?
C: Orange Mocha Frappacinos?
A: Quiet C. Well one thing that has to go is that horrendous cover from the hard copies.



B: Yes, all that black is a problem. People associate black with death and...well...you don't even want to know what our polling says about red squares.
A: Hmm...what about a nice teal. Teal makes people happy.
C: Yes, we have have seen successes in the past with distracting from depressing content with flashy covers.



A: So we dump the black and go with the teal. How about a nice icon too?
C: A Grandfather clock?
B: No grandfathers equal old, old equals uncool.
C: Maybe a pocket watch then? They're cooler and younger. What do you think?
A: I think I've got cocktails with Bret Easton Ellis in twenty, go for it.

Not Exactly the "Times"

While I don't expect much from free daily newspapers that are handed out at the entrances to the subway, we should still expect some semblance of knowledge sharing, news of some sort, or dare we say investigative journalism. Today's subway circulation featured a story entitled "Guns Linked to Risk of Suicide" isn't this the type of stuff we read about in Dare class in 5th grade along with marijuana usage leading to robbery and living in the Bronx. Does there even need to be an article following this statement or maybe instructions on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. To add insult to injury this article was in the health section. There is little to no involvement of health when it comes to killing yourself with or without a gun. One moment your alive and the next moment you aren't. It should be noted that this is an article that AM New York picked up from The Washington Post and Shankar Vedantam. Wait a second isn't the Washington Post supposed to be a real newspaper?