Note to self
16 December 2008The fundamental thesis behind every blog is really that it’s supposed to be written for the reader but is really only written for the writer to amuse themself, so I don’t feel too badly about using this space to remind myself of things that are going to continue to amuse me down the road. You know that feeling when you change your winter clothes out for your spring clothes and you find a shirt that you loved that you forgot existed entirely? That’s how I feel about most of the internet. I’m constantly finding things that I love, that make me happy to live in this ridiculous world where people have the free time and resources available to do things like lay a Soulja Boy song over a montage of SpongeBob clips, and then I forget about them only to find them again a few months down the road and be all “ohmygod I LOVE THIS SO HARD.” They say goldfish have no memory/ I think their lives are much like mine/ and the little plastic castle/ is a surprise every time/ and it’s hard to say if they’re happy/ but they don’t seem much to mind… and that Ani di franco quote was brought to you without googling and gets points for both its relevance to this topic and to proving that I can only ever remember things that don’t really matter. Anyway.
I love this so much that I’m going to give up the moment of re-remembering Pure Joy that I just described in order to have the slightly more subdued but more frequent joy of enjoying it every day:
Okay, so, if you don’t live in New York, you don’t get New York 1, which is our local news channel which, frankly, I think kicks a lot of ass. The first week I was in my apartment when I didn’t have internet or cable, the main thing I missed was being able to watch NY1 in the morning. I feel like people in this town usually reject automatically anything targeted specifically at them– I can think of several subway ad campaigns that start out with something like “We get it, New York!” but sounded like they were written from Austin for all of their actual relevance that made me want to walk in front of the train– but I’ve never heard anyone say anything disparaging about NY1. In fact, if it ever went dark or anything, I think people would panic. I say the sentence “Oh, that was on NY1 today” only slightly less than I say “Oh, that was on NPR” or “Oh, there was that article about that in the Times,” and I think those statistics are probably skewed considering “that article in the Times” is my personal code for “I overheard this somewhere but can’t remember where.”
The best part of NY1 is Pat Kiernan. You might also know him as the host of VH1′s World Series of Pop Culture competition as well. Every morning Pat does “In The Papers,” which is a segment where he reads the NY-based newspapers for you on television. It’s amazing. They made fun of this at one point on How I Met Your Mother, but even that was done in such a loving way that I knew the writers must also love In The Papers. He focuses on large national news and NYC based “news” items that you might only get from your iGoogle page if you have the app for “ridiculous inhabitants of the 212.” I love In The Papers. When I hear him intro it I frequently drop my hair dryer and run out of the bathroom to stare at my TV in rapt fascination while Pat tells me what’s important for that day.
AND NOW: He started a website where he does In The Papers for OTHER CITIES. He’s covering THE ENTIRE COUNTRY, people!! Is there nothing this man can’t do?? He’s like a human RSS feed of AWESOMENESS.
Just as I was thinking “This might become my primary news scource,” I scrolled through today’s headlines and noticed that he included an article from the San Francisco Chronicle about how the dinosaurs died.
Thank you, Pat. I love you!
4 Responses to “Note to self”
December 16th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
I hate when I wake up too late to see Pat! Roma Torrey just doesn’t do it for me.
December 17th, 2008 at 9:37 am
i like it that he judges how the papers place their stories. also, he always picks the correct best headline between the post and the daily news. i watch CNN in the mornings, but i always change over for in the papers and weather on the ones.
pat is the bestest.
December 17th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Sometimes when I’m Googling obscure technical editing problems I end up finding the answers on my own blog.
Also, DirecTV doesn’t have NY1.
December 18th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Pat is awesome, and while years ago we started an unofficial Bobby Cuza Fan Club at work, I think a Kiernamaniacs club may not be far behind.
Our mag ran this photo of Pat Kiernan that I just love. Doesn’t he look like a superhero?
http://www.timeout.com/newyork/articles/40th-anniversary/61041/mayor-michael-bloomberg-interview-with-time-out-new-york-time-out-new-york