I'm Taking Over, kiddies.

I just have so much to say and how can I possibly deprive all 2 of you from my wisdom?

I'm off in search of fascinating info to share with you all. I won't be long, I promise!

Cheers!

Dammit, Everyone Needs A Kindle! Seriously.

Esquire editor David Granger loves the Amazon Kindle. Sort of. The e-book reader gives him hope that Internet-shortened attention spans will lengthen enough to spark a renaissance in books and magazines. He's utterly delusional. Television has been distracting people from the written word long before the Internet came along. And while the Internet has been good for reading, it's mostly encourage the consumption of short-form writing. Print is a much better way to read long chunks of text — fewer distractions, easier on the eyes, portable from room to room, etc. — and to the extent the Kindle replicates these technological advantages, it is basically a crippled laptop. But Granger imagines an e-reader that advances beyond the "crude" Kindle.

He thinks better technology will do the trick:

... as electronic readers improve, as they add graphics and design and, eventually, color, even more people will opt for the more sustained, contemplative experiences more often. And all will be well with the world.

What he forgets: The Kindle has a built-in Web browser, though few people use it because the Web is not particularly attractive in black-and-white. If it adds color, won't people inevitably use it to read websites, and thus fewer books, just like they do on PCs?
There goes Granger's theory out the window.

We suspect he has another reason for touting the Kindle, though. Hearst, the owner of Esquire is working on its own e-reader. By paying the Kindle such a backhanded compliment — right idea, wrong device — Granger is carrying water for his publisher's business interests. And not for the first time. Hearst has invested in E Ink, a Cambridge startup whose low-power screen technology is used in both the Kindle and Hearst's planned reader. E Ink appeared on a splashy, Granger-praised Esquire cover last year. Perhaps this E Ink-stained wretch has even handled the product he envisions killing the Kindle? If so, it's too bad Granger won't tell his readers how much he loves that, too.

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I LOVE MY KINDLE. There, I said it. LS

In Praise of the Blind Items

I can't even attempt to pretend to be remotely in-the-know in order to come up with this stuff. However and thankfully, other sites can and do. Too juicy to not repeat. Seriously, this is "whoa nelly" level shit.

1) "Which sleazy reality star is going to have a cow when he finds out there's a sex tape of him floating around? In it, he's having a threesome with his very best friend." [NYDN]

2) "Which rocker threatened to bottle a rival for getting too randy with his girlfriend? The fella in question had to be held back by pals as he saw his enemy cosying up to his girl." [Mirror]

3) "This happened at an Oscar party, but it involves a television actor. His face may be familiar to you because he has appeared on several other television shows. He he is just now getting his big break, as he will likely be cast in a big role in a new show on the Fall 2009 schedule of a big network. (We say "likely" because casts frequently get shaken up before the shows hit the air). Anyway, the network is hopeful that both women and men will view him favorably as a macho yet approachable handsome leading man. Only problem is he has a past that he would probably like to keep in the past. Another actor who was at one of the Oscar parties told several people that back before our new leading man started making ends meet as an actor, he was making ends meet as a male escort. For men as well as for women. No, it's not Richard Gere." [BlindGossip]

4) "This celebrity couple was on the verge of divorce. He is a guy. She is a B list television actress with A list name recognition who would probably kill her child to get into movies. Well, she almost did kill her child which is why she almost got divorced. Apparently the way it happened was that our actress was doing lines of coke off a glass table in the living room. The only people home were the maid and a child of the actress. A young child who had been watching mommy do lines. Well, the phone rang and mommy went to go get something out of a bedroom while she was on the phone. Five minutes later, the maid found the child imitating mommy at the glass table. Yeah. Apparently the child didn't do it exactly right, because when the family doctor made a house call he couldn't see any damage except for the white powder on the face. While the doctor was there and all this commotion, the husband walked in. He freaked out. Not only because of his child, but also because his wife had told him that she had stopped snorting months earlier. He left with the child after packing up a few things. The marriage was supposed to be over so don't know what brought them back from the brink." [CDaN]

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