I hate the New York Times, (aka the Big Grey Pack o' Lies) so when some guy tried to hand me a free copy of a “special edition” last Tuesday, I almost refused to take it. Usually the free ones are sponsored copies, with a big ad wrapping the outside. But this one just had a headline that said, “Iraq War Ends.” So I took it, and walked away reading it, and every story was about how Condoleezza Rice was apologizing for lying about the weapons of mass destruction, and President Bush had been indicted for high treason. The whole thing was a brilliant, 14-page parody. I turned around and went back. “Who are you guys?” I asked.
“We’re the New York Times Special Edition,” one guy said. Well, I knew they weren’t from the real NYTimes because even though they spelled Condoleezza wrong, the rest of the writing was really good. Then some guys with a video camera stopped me and asked what I thought of the paper, and I told them how fantastic I thought it was. It wasn’t until a few hours later that it occurred to me that I didn’t know who the video guys were either.
Today I finally got around to trolling Youtube for footage of me holding the Special Edition, and I didn’t find any, but I did find a pretty funny video called “Killing Time with Bronwyn C.” by Listener Devtrash. I watched a bunch of Listener Devtrash’s videos and really liked them, and not just because of the Bronwyn C. one.
Listeners still send me notices about their upcoming events and shows, although all I can do is pass them on to the station’s “Upcoming” list or tell you about some of them here. Listener Bill K. let me in on the Kim Deitch retrospective at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA), and Sluggo and I went to see it on Saturday. (It costs $5 and is there until Dec. 5.) We’re old fans of Kim’s and it was nice to see work from various points in his career all on display in one place. But the real revelation, for us, was “Dial M for Monster,” the silent monster movie he and his brother and friends made when they were kids. Mummies! Aliens! Vampires! Giant rubber lizards! The H-bomb! It was pretty great.
Then, as long as we were having Art Day, we stopped by Spencer Brownstone Gallery on Wooster Street to see the new Tessa Farmer show. Farmer’s sculptural installations, made up of dead things and crap she’s found lying around, hover on the rusty tin-can edge of kitsch. We were looking at the skeleton of a Whippet dog with a dried-out wasp nest inside it and an upside-down roadkill frog sticking out of a hole in the side of its skull. “Like a turducken!” Sluggo said. But then there are all the insects, and the itty-bitty skeleton “fairies” made of bladderwort fiber and termite wings, incredibly tiny, and some with horse-skull heads. In 2007 Farmer had a residency at the Natural History Museum in London, and the best of her work is like the specimen’s revenge. At least it makes you look, and think. We liked it a lot, and I recommend you see it if you get the chance. The show will be up until December 13.
Thanks for reading my blogpost this time, and may God bless.
Why so anti-Times, Bronwyn? I very much enjoy the Weekender!
Is this just something I'll grow out of, like Sublime?
Posted by: | November 17, 2008 at 06:34 PM
When I want the truth I always go to the WFMU blog. The news there is always hard hitting, but fair.
Like that sap to the head you know you deserved.
Posted by: Tracy Dick | November 17, 2008 at 07:16 PM
"There's the week, the weekend and The Weekender" - that commercial makes me want to grab the nearest latte-sipping, fusion-cuisine eating, loft-owning, double stroller-pushing goofbag and wallop 'em one but good. Plus, as an editor, it irks me that NY Times style uses apostrophes for things like "CD's" and "1980's"—they're plurals, not possessives or contractions. Only The Times would do that on purpose, attempting to rewrite English grammar. That said, I do enjoy the puzzle. Nice post, Bronwyn.
Posted by: WmMBerger | November 17, 2008 at 10:01 PM
The Valley Girl-type voice that starts off that Weekender commercial IS the annoying part. The other voices do not raise my blood pressure. I wonder if the market research has any feedback about that voice and the intense pain that it causes.
Otherwise, among myriad news sources that I read for free online, I do check the NY Times as well. I say get over this paranoid aversion.
Posted by: Krys O. | November 18, 2008 at 10:31 AM
Bronwyn, I'm just curious, aside from the Jayson Blair scandal, which we're all aware of, the Judith Miller fiasco which we are also all aware of,
and the other occasional bad reporting incidents (like the time I saw a huge picture of Dave Davies of the Kinks in the Arts & Leisure section
with a caption that identified him as his brother Ray), is there something else that happened at the NY Times that maybe I'm not aware of that I should know
about? There appears to be something extremelly personal between you and that newspaper that makes me think I should also be hating them...but to me it's
just another imperfect newspaper, albeit one that has an overinflated sense of itself...I buy it occasionally, knowing that it's not necessarily the gospel
truth, any more than any other paper (well, maybe more than some, but also less than others), but I'm not one of those pretentious people that
loves to buy the Sunday edition and pull everything out and roll around in it (like my mother)...
Was there some sort of piece where they attacked you personally, or someone you know and love?
Posted by: Listener Bill | November 18, 2008 at 11:23 AM
"I'm not the kind person that says 'call now', but you should call now" Krys, I dislike that WHOLE ad, despite your earnest conviction that it's only the girl that's annoying. I don't have a "paranoid aversion" to The Times—that's taking it a bit far (can't speak for Bronwyn.) Aspects of their editorial style do truly irk me on a professional level. I also object to the elitist snobbery that subsumes the whole image of the paper and its readers; I'm not a fan of the numbnuts hucksterism of The Post either. Generally, I read The Nation online; at least their bias is on the table. The BBC news is also stellar.
Posted by: WmMBerger | November 18, 2008 at 02:37 PM
Maybe these videos have you in it?
http://www.nytimes-se.com/2009/07/04/video
Posted by: reid | November 18, 2008 at 02:43 PM
G_d I love Lily Taylor!
Posted by: WmMBerger | November 18, 2008 at 03:30 PM
Incidentally, these are the guys who did it. The movie is hilarious, and worth finding.
Posted by: ml | November 18, 2008 at 04:23 PM
HUGE props to the Iowa Firecracker; the Times is worthless shithouse rag who's only fealty is to ** POWER **. There are some good reporters there but, by and large, they are beat down by beyond clueless editors. That a nation of ersatz "liberal" (cough) white people hangs on to this as a lifestyle totem is embarrassing. If this isn't as apparent outside NYC as in it, that's only because of the relative lack of competition.
The Times' editorial page is vile (most recently their endorsement of the term limits putsch in City Council) the art, lit and music coverage beyond goddamn trite, it's knowledge of all of NYC is minimal except in the case of a few reporters who ONLY report.
Rhetorical Q: what was the last major NYC scandal the Times broke? Serpico, maybe?!
The Times LOVED Giuliani too-- 'nuff said, and let them rot. They're even worse than the worst of the Post, which is at least blunt and dumn, whereas the Times is oh so mannered, right Mr. Jones?
Posted by: Ghost of Jack Newfield | November 19, 2008 at 12:23 AM
The only paper I can believe in anymore is the Pennysaver.
They have lots of good deals there, and who can resist the lovable puppy pictures?
Posted by: Undisclosed Recipient | November 19, 2008 at 01:26 AM
Evidently the NY Times prank was by The Yes Men:
http://laughingsquid.com/the-yes-men-distribute-fake-new-york-times-iraq-war-ends/
This is just their latest triumph: http://theyesmen.org/
The feature doc about them is worth watching.
Posted by: Brian | November 19, 2008 at 05:05 AM
The Times once recently called Charles & Ray- the "Eames brothers"!!!
'Nuff said for me.
Posted by: elisabeth | November 19, 2008 at 08:59 AM
Aside: Wm., the paranoia reference was directed at The Firecracker "a cause de" her belief that there are no truths inside the Old Gray Lady.
And regarding errors, I'd love for anyone to name a news source that DOESN'T make mistakes. Editors are human after all.
Posted by: Krys O. | November 19, 2008 at 10:07 AM
C-SPAN.
Posted by: Listner Jim | November 19, 2008 at 11:13 AM
A number of years ago I saw a joint presentation at NYU of films by both Gene Deitch {dad} and Kim. Gene Deitch was the artist (along with writer Jules Feiffer} of the Tom Terrific cartoons on Captain Kangaroo as well as the creator of the "I want my Maypo" cartoon ads. Kim and his brother showed the monster movie you mentioned. I really loved seeing familiar village sites as they looked in the early 60s
Posted by: Todd Norlander | November 20, 2008 at 08:47 AM
Even though (or maybe because) I live thousands of miles away from NYC, in a region where you can't even get the paper version on the same day it is published, I have to admit that I still like the NY Times.
As to recent scandals the NY Times broke, they won a Pulitzer for investigative reporting in 2008 for the story about toxic ingredients in drugs from China. Another Pulitzer 2003 for reporting about "abuse of mentally ill adults in state-regulated homes". And despite Judy Miller and everything they had their role in uncovering secret CIA prisons and government-condoned torture.
Maybe you need more distance to appreciate the value of a paper like this. Just imagine a place with mountains and cows where even latte-drinking liberals don't run around with the NY Times.
Posted by: Lukas | November 24, 2008 at 08:59 AM