In order to invest our resources in areas of development, today’s print edition will be the last and thisisbrandx.com will shut down on July 8th. Our Brand X talent will transition into similar roles elsewhere in the company.
1/3 of their “Brand X talent” is actually transitioning into unemployment, though I will still be freelancing for the Times. Also, it’s always gratifying to read the official news of your publication’s demise on L.A. Observed instead of being CC’d on the email.
nhersey replied to your post: Also
The article *does* make room for (sincere) whimsy. On the pancake front, my SO despises pancakes for ANY meal, not that that’s here nor there. Although, I just realized that stance alone may count as whimsical. A cheeseburger’s good any time.
Indeed. I’m having a particularly sensitive week.
It just seems sad to me, even in jest, that some people really think giant social groups/types of people/subcultures are manufacturing their behavior in some bid to impress people! We are all simultaneously doing and not doing that: only the percentage varies.
Eating pancakes for dinner isn’t whimsical! Eating a cheeseburger for breakfast, maybe.
I wonder how (500) Days of Summer would’ve been received if it’d come out before Garden State backlash ruined the word “quirky” for everyone.
Don’t Be the Worst: The Fight Against Whimsy
Julieanne kills this.
Yep, couldn’t agree more. On another note, when I first started dating my current SO, he said to me with complete sincerity: “I like you because you’re not whimsical.” Still unsure what to make of that.
(via nhersey)
Haven’t read the full article yet, but why is everything interesting suddenly a pose because it was in a Zooey Deschanel movie? Why can’t people like gelato because it’s better than ice cream? TEAM WHIMSY.
Essentially, I think we’re actually all on the same team here, which is Team Poseurs Are Terrible, but leading your life in an attempt to avoid bohemian cliches is a pose of its own. And really neurotic.
Hey all! I’m heading to Portland for the long weekend — I’ve never been, so if you have any suggestions for places I have to see, things I need to check out, or stuff I should do, let me know!
I was trying to look up any shows happening, but nothing really caught my eye. If there’s something I should try to see, I’d appreciate the heads up.
Hope everyone has a great Fourth! HOORAY AMERICA!
Voodoo Donuts. Deschutes Brewery. The Ace Hotel (get coffee downstairs and lunch next door at the amazing deli). Powell’s bookstore. These are all probably pretty obvious but wonderful anyway.
My fashionista roommate has been urging me to start tucking in my shirts on a more regular basis to step up my style game. And I was going to, but then I read this article by some guy who says different.
This article totally feeds into my predisposed attitude of remaining in the world of the untucked. I’m so confused!
My roommate brought this article to my attention and I think it’s worth discussing.
Pointing this out for LOLs, I guess. All serious style advice basically comes down to IT DEPENDS WHAT YOU’RE WEARING and ALSO WHERE ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING? With that in mind, arguing in favor of one absolute or the other — guys should never tuck in a t-shirt! They should always tuck in a button-down shirt! Or else! — is even dumber than writing about indie-rock and authenticity.
I wear a button-down sport shirt to work just about every day. Sometimes I tuck it in. Sometimes I don’t. It depends on my pants/shoes and how dressy I’m feeling that day.
If you’re looking for sharp, enthusiastic, thoughtful writing about pop music, I recommend checking out this Tumblr. His recent post about Justin Timberlake is a great place to start. It blows my mind that this guy is only 18. He’s like the Nitsuh of tomorrow.
Trying to remember if I was this good at 18. Probably not.
If you haven’t seen this movie since you were 6 years old, it’s pretty amazing! I can’t think of another movie that survives such gigantic tonal shifts between wrenching drama — death! adultery! — and Billy Crystal jokes. Also, baby Jake Gyllenhaal is in this with a spiked hairdo.
Looking forward to Jim Farber’s follow-up article, “How gay marriage is ruining my Rolling Stones records.” Get a life, dude.
Oy. Because there’s still a fake debate here about bloggers vs. journalists which this gentleman felt compelled to respond to: if you have some level of professional/academic training and adhere to journalistic standards, which is to say, you’re not copy-pasting press releases to your Tumblr, you’re a journalist! You may in fact be a journalist who uses blog software, or a journalist who, like me, works for a newspaper as a “blog editor,” but you’re still a journalist.
If people still don’t take “bloggers” seriously, that’s not the worst thing in the world — for every great one, there’s another who’s untrained, over-entitled, standards-free and an atrocious writer — but it’s foolish and hopelessly outdated to conflate, say, Andrew Sullivan with Perez Hilton. So either we need more journalists to stop calling themselves bloggers, more respect for the term “blogger,” or for old white men to stop railing against technology they refuse to understand. Probably No. 3.
Good piece, particularly the stuff about the tech-nerd audience and their ironically outdated ideas about “authenticity.” (And, like, actually ironically, not “ironically”!) I really like this band, particularly the singer, who has the sort of aloof-yet-magnetic timbre I prize. I don’t believe in guilty pleasures anymore but liking their Beyonce cover makes me feel embarrassed anyway.
This is what it would look like if a college bro’s style blog got married.
Mark your calendar. Pre-party at 7-Eleven, obvs.
To counterbalance two negative style posts, hey, I bought this tie yesterday! $20 at the J. Crew outlet.
