Downtown, Media, The Daily Feed

Goodbye Vertigo. You will be missed.

The Bookstore, by petite corneille

The Bookstore, by petite corneille

Last days.  Going out of business.  Everything 20% off.

In the current economic climate, it isn’t hard to find a sign like this on stores all over the region.  It’s certainly hard to miss companies like Circuit City going out of business, but big-box stores leaving is just as impersonal and disconnected as their “sales” staff was when you walked in the door.  I can also try to avoid the obvious – and sappy – trap of saying how “sad” it is that a local business is leaving the DC area.

There is only one problem: it is sad.  A bookstore is a amazing thing.  It is a repository of knowledge, and living proof that our First Amendment is a powerful and empowering (and often frightening) statement of rights.  Local bookstores are the embodiment of our desire to constantly better ourselves.  And so we should miss them when they leave us.

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Business and Money, Life in the Capital, Media, The Daily Feed

The Post and Tech Crunch

Photo courtesy of
‘IMG_3957’
courtesy of ‘nrkbeta’

There’s some consternation going on about TechCrunch, and their reporting style, and Jon Gruber has a pretty interesting response: “The Washington Post must be so proud to have such high-quality bullshit running under its name.”

I had forgotten, The Post does rebrand Tech Crunch, which makes it’s the Post’s problem, too, when Michael Arrington goes out on a limb and the branch snaps off. How’s that got to feel over on 15th street when one of the people that’s not under their control wrecks a story like that?

Business and Money, Media, News, Technology, The Features

Geek Corner: The Kindle and Local Newspapers

Photo courtesy of
‘Kindle 2 Homepage’
courtesy of ‘tbridge’

I fell in love the Amazon Kindle 2 when I visited my folks in Arizona this Spring. Reading a book on the svelte device was remarkably similar to grabbing a nice paperback, and settling in on the beach. I didn’t think that it would be so easy to read a book in any other format, but the Kindle’s proved me wrong. In addition to being a book reader, though, it’s also a portable terminal for a number of newspapers and magazines. The issues are delivered silently overnight via Whispernet, the cell network attached to the Kindle, which never fails to deliver an issue, never drops it in a puddle or forgets to the tie the bag shut, and always remembers where you live. So, what’s available for your average DC person?
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Inaugupocalypse, Life in the Capital, Media, News, Technology, The Daily Feed, The Hill

Senators Byrd, Kennedy Taken to Hospital

Photo courtesy of
‘Ambulancia’
courtesy of ‘Daquella manera’

CNN is reporting that Senators Robert Byrd (D-WV) and Teddy Kennedy (D-MA) were both taken from the Luncheon at the Capitol (see, Kaspar, got that one right.) after suffering medical emergencies. CNN suggests that Senator Kennedy was having a seizure, and that it was unclear the extent of the medical difficulties that Sen. Byrd was experiencing.

Fun & Games, Life in the Capital, Media, News, The Daily Feed, WTF?!

Want a geeky Obama keepsake, in D.C. you’re SOL.

Spiderman Obama issue from Marvel

Spiderman Obama issue from Marvel

It was announced last week, and for industry insiders, it may have been a bit longer, that Marvel Comics, purveyors of The Hulk, Fantastic Four, and “Geek-in-Chief” Barack Obama’s favorite, Spiderman were issuing a special edition of the latter for the inauguration. This 5-page story was to center around an impostor taking the oath of office this coming Tuesday and Peter Parker, while covering it for the Daily Bugle, helped Spiderman save the day and democracy as a whole. However, unless you’re a subscriber at a local comic book store, you may be out of luck to catch a first printing in D.C.. Fantom Comics in Union Station and Tenleytown were somewhat caught unawares and only had acquired 9 copies total to split between the two stores. However, there is a second printing, albeit with a different cover, coming this Wednesday the 21st.

Life in the Capital, Media, The Daily Feed, WTF?!

Post’s Managing Editor Steps Down



The Washington Post
Originally uploaded by krossbow

Well, I didn’t see that coming on a Monday Morning. The Post’s managing editor for print, Phil Bennett, is stepping down effective Friday. It was previously announced that their managing editor of WashingtonPost.com was stepping down after the inauguration, but it now seems that both of the major editors at the Post are out the door in the same month.

What’s cooking over at the Washington Post that’s got people running for the exits? Is circulation really that far down?

Media, The Daily Feed

Kiss my ass, Pearlstein

Photo courtesy of *0ne*

arrogant bastard ale, courtesy of *0ne*

I don’t know exactly when Steven Pearlstein started his transition from a good writer into some kind of pod person, but the metamorphosis of WaPo’s finance writer is apparently complete. Salon writer Glen Greenwald has written a few times about Pearlstein’s odd combination of smug “I told you so” and ever-changing positions and just today has posted a highly detailed article titled Steven Pearlstein and the strange pro-bailout justifications. (No, this is not a rerun of when I mentioned his last assault on his readers a month ago.)

When a questioner today attempted to call him out on this pattern of shifting, Pearlstein responded.

This is pretty indicative of the bloggers view of the world. They write about what other people write about. And the mainstream media writes about what’s going on in the world.

I sometimes get a little peeved at the letters to the editor in the WaPo bitching about bias in editorials and analysis, for reasons that a letter-writer expressed perfectly here. However it seems that the people who need lessons in the different kinds of writing includes some of the people writing it. Maybe Pearlstean has forgotten that he’s an analyst, not a reporter, and what he is doing is described perfectly as writing about what others write.

To his credit, he also says “And if you decide I’m not someone you want to read, then don’t read it,” Okay, if you’re that cavalier about whether or not people believe you to be a credible source of information then that’s your right. Just don’t mistake an interest in knowing whether any given statement from a person as a “bloggers view of the world.” That’s what a media-savvy view of the world, and if you’re not interested in having those people as your readers then perhaps you should consider who that leaves you with.

All Politics is Local, Media, The Daily Feed

Oh God, It’s Pledge Week

1572723837_f3177c53bd_m.jpg
No More Cash by Wednesday181

There are few things I live in fear of quite as much as Pledge Week on any NPR Radio Station. WAMU’s week to extort their listener base fundraise for their local efforts is this week. You can donate via their website (my personal choice) and pick up any number of their support premium items. Coffee mugs, tote bags, and radio bookmarks are all part of the package this year. So, get out your wallet, you skinflint public radio listeners, and buy a membership.

But in the meantime, set your radio alarm to WTOP or something, it’ll help with the blood pressure.

All Politics is Local, Business and Money, Fun & Games, Media, Technology

The City Paper Whines, “It Came From Planet Blog!”

monster.jpg
Chloe the kitten monster! by faeryboots

If you haven’t noticed, the City Paper’s in a bit of a bind. Their parent company has entered bankruptcy, staff cutbacks were threatened, and then rescinded, and now the City Paper’s cover story is in mortal danger.

How does the City Paper respond?

By dissing their readers in a 5,000 word cover story about why their reader-base is forcing them into the poor house. Or the pour-house. Their argument? People prefer blogs and new media to their extensive stories based on their crack investigative team. Shocking. Case in point, their Livingston-award winning story on the arsonist who terrorized neighborhoods in DC over a series of months getting just 5,000 pageviews while a story on Barack Obama’s spittle got them 13,000 pageviews.

No one knows this better than us. The Coffee Kerfuffle back in late July? 16,000 pageviews. Several of our great features? Under 3,000 pageviews. So, yeah, we understand how unpredictable the web is. That’s the joy of it all. Now, I recognize that the City Paper is a business, and it’s their job to make money. That’s our challenge, too. While we’re ad-free now, it’s not going to be that way forever. We just haven’t decided how to do it, yet.

I feel kinda bad for them. They seem to think that the internet came busting on into their office and crapped on their perfectly nice business model. To some extent, they’re absolutely right. But, this is the modern era, and when someone craps in your house, you have to clean it up. So, I suspect this is just the bitching phase from Wemple and his cadre of entitled journalists, upset that they’re being displaced a bit by new media that hasn’t figured out their own business models just yet.

What I can tell you? Four clickthrough pages of faux legalese blaming the readership? Yeah, that’s not going to play well. That’s a pretty shitty underhanded tactic to get you to click through several of their ads and pump their pageviews numbers up even higher. It’s not like the City Paper’s any different from all the other newspapers trying to figure out how to make money online.

Welcome to the club, guys. May the best publication win. And recognize that your competition isn’t who you think it is.

Media, The District

Len Downie Loves DC, Too

nova
nova by PhillieFan99

Been a rough week on the Hill, and for those who live there. The rescue/bailout/whatever-it’s-called has left America wondering what good could possibly remain in her Capitol. The pandering & the pork, the self-congratulation over the oversight of the demise of commercial lending, it leaves America with a bitter taste in her mouth.

But then comes Len Downie Jr, former editor of the Post, with an editorial to prop us back up again, despite what all the media says. A taste:

For all its partisanship and jockeying for power and influence, Washington’s culture — with roots in the New Deal, World War II, Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and the Reagan Revolution — is receptive to new ideas and new people. It is steadily refreshed by idealistic young professionals who come here to work and learn for low wages in the backrooms of power. And it readily assimilates waves of older hands who arrive with each new administration and member of Congress, and then stay in the public arena here.

“The truth is that many newcomers stay forever, secretly at home in the city everyone loves to hate,” [Marjorie] Williams has written. “As each administration departs, it leaves behind a layer of flotsam on the shore — lobbyists, lawyers, public relations people — all too smitten or too connected to ever move away. The city happily absorbs its quadrennial infusions of new blood. But Washington always does more to change its newcomers than the newcomers do to change it.”

Thank you, Mr. Downie. We needed that.

Downtown, History, Media, Penn Quarter, People, Special Events, The Daily Feed

Why Spy?

Photo courtesy of handwrite
this is why i am a spy, courtesy of handwrite

The world today is as volatile a place as we’ve ever known. So how does the U.S. maintain its intelligence assets against the faceless enemy of terrorism and extremists? In his latest book Why Spy?, Frederick P. Hitz, former inspector general of the CIA, draws on his extensive experience to suggest how the U.S. can rise to the challenge. Hear from this insider’s perspective on the safety of America and why it depends on how well—and why—we spy. In this lunchtime conversation, he’ll discuss the pitfalls of the past and share suggestions for successful U.S. intelligence in the future.

Meet and greet the author at the International Spy Museum on Friday, 9/26 from noon – 1 p.m. This “debreifing” session is free and open to the public.

Business and Money, Media, The Daily Feed

Watch your credit for free

Photo courtesy of christaki
Love…, courtesy of christaki
I’ve got mixed feelings about Michelle Singletary’s personal finance column in the Post; we just don’t see eye to eye on a number of basic positions. I take back every under-my-breath grumble I ever did over her articles, however, after her recent one talking about the TransUnion class action settlement and what it can do for you. If you’re not aware of it – and you’re not, based on the miniscule number of eligible people who have signed up – the proposed benefit to you 6 to 9 months of free credit monitoring, depending on if you opt yourself out of a possible cash payment.

Personally I went for the 9 months. While there might be a shot at a noticable amount of money if the number of signups stays so crappy, it’ll take about 2 years to pay out anyway. I’d rather have the monitoring in that time. It’s not something I’d pay for myself but for free just having the ability to lock my report is worth it. If you also need help saving for the future and specially your children future, visit thechildrensisa.com they will for sure help you get your finances in order and besides that they will help you save for the future.

If you can’t be bothered to read Singletary’s article you can just go straight to the List Class Action website and sign up directly. If you don’t do it by the 24th you miss your chance.

Media, The Daily Feed

WAMU is No Longer Welcome in my Twitterverse

I was an early skeptic of Twitter, but I’ve become a convert to the 140 character way of life. I follow several different crowds of friends on Twitter, and have even started to follow some Twitter identities that aren’t human beings. These vary from the Mars Phoenix to CNN Breaking News and tend to deliver news up-to-the-minute and in small chunks, the way I like to consume it. Some assume an anthropomorphic identity, but others just write concise, less-than-140 character posts that give me an idea of what’s going on in the world.

When I saw that WAMU 88.5, DC’s public radio station, had a Twitter account, I signed on right away. I was hopeful they’d engage with other users, and provide great local tidbits. Instead, every now and then they post a bunch of unintelligible links with truncated first sentences from the same stuff they put on their website. There’s virtually no readable content, no idea what the link is to, and 5-10 of these useless posts all in a row.

This isn’t the way Twitter works. At the very least, they need to write 140 character summaries with a short link to the article. Ideally, they’d let their reporters post from their cell phones throughout the day as they report on DC, MD, and VA. They’d allow followers to reply and engage with them. Twitter is not just a place to republish an RSS feed (poorly). It’s an ecosystem that encourages conversations and interaction, and until WAMU learns how to do that, they’re no longer welcome on my follow list.

All Politics is Local, Media, The Daily Feed, The District, WTF?!

That Time of Year Again Already?

So according to this WaPo video, Hizzoner the righteous Marion Barry, Lord and Master of Ward 8, had a “how to” instructional on approaching voters at the District’s primary polls tomorrow. As in, block and annoy the crap out of people who just want to vote.

I’m never in favor of candidate supporters clogging the entrance to polls. I want to vote in peace and quiet, not listen to last-minute pitches and bullcrapola. (Hence my recent run of absentee balloting.) Heck, I’m all for a half-mile “exclusion zone” centered around each polling place.

I’ll give Marion this; he’s persistent. Probably why he’s re-elected…

Life in the Capital, Media, Night Life, The Daily Feed

Lifestyle Article About DC: Out of Touch, Dismissible

photo from W Magazine

Thanks to our blog-friends at YESORNO, I read about this silly article that appears in the current issue of W Magazine.

One of the worst pieces of writing about D.C. ever to be drafted on napkins in the Condé Nast cafeteria, it claims that nightlife in Washington is cleaved in twain, with young republican prepsters at Smith Point on one side and “hipster” (by which, oddly, they seem to mean “ethnically diverse,” but that interesting use of poetic license may be among the least of the factual errors in the piece) progressives at Local 16 on the other.
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Media

DC Print Media: Alive and Well

Newspaper boxes stretching from Dupont Circle to the Balitmore Sun

Newspaper boxes stretching from Dupont Circle to the Balitmore Sun

I’m sitting here in Dupont Circle looking at the newspaper stand and I’m amazed at the plethora of print available to the interested reader. Just on this side of the block alone, we have 15 different periodicals to choose from. Everything from the Wall Street Journal, to the Falls Church News-Press, to The Creek (a fiercely independent newspaper), to Bash Magazine (a monthly comic alternative).

All these paper-media options tells me that while we at WeLoveDC embrace the Internets, there’s still much offline reading going on.

It also indicates that there is strong competition to the Washington City Paper’s dominance of local alternative news. With Politico, The Examiner, and the Express, WCP no longer rules the free weekly roost like it did in the 90’s.

But it does make me wonder: what’s your free newspaper paper choice?

Media, The Daily Feed, Travel

Your personal information is cleared for takeoff

Photo courtesy of [phil h]

Commenter Mary pointed out a link to the Slashdot story on the CLEAR data breach over here, and I’d been pondering whether to mention it or not. It’s not really DC related, but we did just write about the program and its express lines at DCA and IAD.

As it turns out, however, there is a DC related angle I wanted to point out. Namely the WaPo coverage about this loss of the personal data of 33,000 customers of Verified Identity Pass… headlined as “Missing Laptop Keeps Firm From Registering New Fliers.” Run on the very last page of the business section.

It’s a wire story from Bloomberg, so WaPo can’t be faulted for the ho-hum reporting of VIP losing the data of over 15% of their customers, but who felt this was such a non-story that they’d bury it on the back page and give it such a misleading headline?

It’s funny – just last night over dinner I caught some flack for beating up on the Post and I said I really do like WaPo, it’s just that I expect better from them. This is a perfect example.

lost, courtesy of [phil h]