Dan Kois: “How does the site, with its small staff of young writers and editors tucked around a few tables at the Onion‘s Chicago offices, generate so many stories that make me laugh really hard? And why do so many of these stories also make me feel bad? And what does it mean to make a website that does both of these things – that makes extremely viral media, while ruthlessly satirizing the world of viral media?”
Author: Matthew Westphal
This New York Post Headline Writer Was Surely The Patron Saint Of Clickbait
“HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR” was only the most famous of the front page come-ons that Vinnie Musetto produced for the love-to-hate-it tabloid. He also wrote, among many others, the deathless gems “500LB SEX MANIAC GOES FREE” and “GRANNY EXECUTED IN HER PINK PAJAMAS.”
Is There Any Subject That Is Never Acceptable To Joke About?
Curtis Brown: “No. There isn’t. It might be a bit more complicated than that but not much. I was about to write ‘child molestation’ when I remembered the comic novel generally regarded as America’s greatest after Huck Finn (which, for its part, joked about slavery).”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 06.11.15
Being the Sea
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2015-06-11
Trashing Tranquility: Pierre Huyghe Invades Oases at Metropolitan Museum and Museum of Modern Art
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-06-11
Ornette Coleman returned music to freedom and basics
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2015-06-11
Getting Happy With Lester Young
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-06-11
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Ludvik Vaculik, Influential Czech Writer And Dissident, Dies At 88
“Mr. Vaculik was a key figure in the Czechoslovak underground publishing world in the 1970s and ’80s, helping to give voice to other dissident writers in the country who were banned by the government. He himself was censored for more than two decades, but still managed to write a series of influential articles, books and novels” – as well as the famous Prague Spring manifesto Two Thousand Words.
Judge Rejects Claim For A Pissarro By Heirs In Nazi Art Case
“The ruling came after a decade-long dispute over ownership of the 1897 canvas, Saint-Honoré, Après-midi, Effet de Pluie, a Paris street scene by Pissarro, which is in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid.” In 1939, the work’s owner, a Jewish woman, was forced to sell it to a Nazi art appraiser for the equivalent of $360.
Egypt’s New History Museum Isn’t Even Open Yet, And Already Staffers Have Been Caught Stealing Objects
Two curators at the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation “were arrested while replacing a pharaonic statue of (fourth dynasty) King Menkaure, discovered in Luxor’s Karnak temple, and an ancient Islamic lantern with fake ones.”
How Disney Saved Itself: Buying Other Studios
“On his second day on the job as chief executive, Robert Iger steeled himself for a crucial presentation to the Walt Disney Co. board of directors. … At the Oct. 2, 2005, board meeting, Iger floated an idea that would become a hallmark of his tenure. He made a risky, even audacious, proposal: What if the company bought Pixar Animation Studios?”
England’s Arts Funder Sees Budget Cut By £1.2 Million, Says “Oh, Thank God!”
Upon receiving word, Arts Council England chair Peter Bazalgette tweeted that it’s “good news for arts and culture for this year at least.”
If ‘Ulysses’ Were Published Today, What Would Folks Make Of It?
Charles McGrath: “By the standards of today’s dirty books, Ulysses seems pretty tame, and it’s hard to put yourself back in the mind-set of those who took such strenuous offense in the 20s.”
Rivka Galchen: “I can report that in my research I did not come across a single contemporary reviewer describing the book as obscene. Perhaps this accounts for why there aren’t really that many raves out there.”