Oh, so THAT'S Carl Nolte

Speaking of the San Francisco Chronicle (see previous blog post), I told my girlfriend's grandmother Joann about how Carl Nolte's writing bothered me and how I theorized that the Chronicle needs to axe bad writers to stay alive.

She responded with something like, "Oh I love Carl Nolte! He's been a landmark staple of the Chronicle forever and everyone loves him!"

Shame on me. As I predicted.

Such a quintessential example of the battle between the old and the new, or the old and the young. Us young folk just want to kill newspapers with our iPhones and bludger old timer newspaper columnists with our immature wit.

...and eat babies.

Anyway, I explained to Joann that I wasn't trying to be evil, it was just that his writing was too embellished and reminded me of Pepperidge Farm cookie packages (and I'm supposed to be losing weight, so that doesn't help me at all).

Joann responded with something like, "Yeah, he does write that way. But we love him."

Fine. He can stay.

How I Spent St. Patrick's Day - I swear

My St. Patrick's Day didn't involve as much debauchery as it has in the past, but I did do a lot of walking. My travels on foot in San Francisco on St. Paddy's day took me past none other than the building at 901 Mission Street. Can you guess what is at that address?

Yeah, it's the offices of the San Francisco Chronicle.

I swear I was not drunk (I only had a beer and a half by that point), but I thought it would be so cool to take a picture of myself in front of the Chronicle offices doing a Trojan victory sign and put it on my class blog. Consider it my way of pumping the hurting Chronicle full of Trojan spirit to help them through these tough times (take THAT Cal and Stanford!!!).

But, woe as me, I forgot to transfer the damned picture off my girlfriend's camera and her internet is down so she can't e-mail it to me.

But I swear the picture exists.

I don't have it here right now but I swear it exists.

I swear.

Am I swearing enough?

Then I thought it would be really funny to get drunk at the bar we were heading to and then bang on the door of the Chronicle offices and yell, "Hang in there guys!!!" But I actually wound up not drinking much more that night --- probably for the best because I'm sure it would have gotten me thrashed by the Chronicle's front desk security guard. He looked really big when I peaked in through the glass door.

I also thought it would be cool to do the same thing to the Las Vegas newspaper (whatever the Las Vegas newspaper is called) once I went to Las Vegas, but I forgot.

This compelling blog post is brought to you by lethargy.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship I want to see!

I think our esteemed professor David Westphal needs to duke it out. His opponent would be Sree Sreenivasan from Columbia University.

In class, David has said that lack of readership is not necessarily the reason why newspapers are dying, but rather the lack of advertising revenue from classifieds (i.e. Craigslist kills newspapers more than online news sources).

Well, KCBS 740 AM in San Francisco was talking about the Chronicle's troubles on Saturday. They interviewed this Sreenivasan guy from Columbia. He's the Dean of Student Affairs and Journalism Professor there.



Here's a link to the interview:

http://www.kcbs.com/topic/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=3556800

To make a long story short, Sreenivasan says this to anyone blaming the demise of newspapers on Craigslist:

"That'd be like the train companies complaining that these new fangled things called airplanes came along and people stopped taking trains... I don't like it when people just blame Newmark (sp?) and Craiglist."

Woah! Those are fighting words! You gonna take that sittin down, David? Time to FIGHT!!!

This actually was just an excuse to paste David's head on a boxer's body. :)

Happy Early St. Patrick's Day!

So I guess I've been living under a rock for the past three years because I first saw this tonight...



Very relevant to my blog posting for this week because (1) it's a news report, (2) it's another example of Tom Sparks' theme of serious news being silly, and (3) IT'S ALMOST SPRING BREAK AND ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!

I refuse to be depressed about the pending demise of newspapers (even the San Francisco Chronicle) because I am f&*^ing stoked about Spring Break and St. Patty's day. I'm goin to the Bay Area, Tahoe, and then back to LA for a bit to work, then to Vegas. What you all doin?

And don't say, "Nothing because newspapers are dying and the economy sucks and I have to save my money."

Get tanked for god's sake. PBR is cheap and good. :)

Thank you.

Who is Carl Nolte?

I need help from the class. Who is Carl Nolte?

I am from the San Francisco Bay Area and will always have a huge place in my heart for that wonderful city.

But I pretty much never read the SF Chronicle because my family never subscribed to it. I grew up 40 miles north of San Fran, but feel free to blame it's pending demise on us.

This Carl Nolte wrote the following about the North Beach district of San Fran:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/01/BADS166I36.DTL&hw=north+beach&sn=001&sc=1000


I decided to share it with my friends who live in North Beach because his writing reminds me of the over-embellished writing on the packages of Pepperidge Farm cookies (which we were laughing at hysterically). This is how the Facebook conversation went:

-------------
Billy: Looks like the Pepperidge Farm guy wrote something about your neighborhood in the SF Chronicle...

North Beach exemplifies S.F.'s dreams, history

Source: www.sfgate.com
A drizzly night on the edge of spring at the Caffe Trieste on upper Grant Avenue. Not many people inside: a man in a dark suit and tie, maybe a lawyer, sitting by himself, a tall young woman writing the ...

Jonathan Ogan: interesting article, doesnt really end up saying much though

Billy: Indeed. Just like the pepperidge farm boxes.
-----------

Are we going to hell for criticizing this Carl Nolte? Or is he a writer they may need to axe to save money?

Just wondering.


Oh, and if you're curious, here's a delicious sample of the writing on the Milano packages:

-------------------
You've chosen a classic. Simple. Elegant. The perfect balance of two exquisite cookies embracing a layer of luxuriously rich, dark chocolate. A true masterpiece.

There's a whole world of Pepperidge Farm cookie temptations out there - reward all your senses. Lacey-thin crsip mint Brussells, sweet strawberry Verona, Geneva, with chocolate and crunchy pecans... Try them all and expand your horizons!
-------------------

Two thoughts: This sounds like Nolte's writing. Also, it makes you hungry don't it?

Just to let you know...

From this point on, if David and Geoff don't mind, I will no longer post anything on this blog related to my group project/paper topic. I don't want to spoil any surprises!!!

Thank you. :)

WRKC in Cincinatti and the Current Economic Times

So this one came from Joel McHale's "The Soup" blog...

Just watch it. It needs no introduction...



I see what Tom Sparks means when he talks about the pressure for "serious" news media to take on the guide of more entertaining forms.

Personally, I think I'm part of the problem. I'd rather watch this then listen to All Things Considered.

Shame on me.