“What advice would Bennett give to a journalist considering a job at a brand-affiliated publication? “Decide if you’re comfortable feeling like a PR person, and if you’re not, make sure you can do content that doesn’t suck. Or just say fuck it and take that $$$$$$,” she says. “No, but seriously, I think it’s possible to create good, compelling content for a brand—and you’ll likely be given the resources to do so, but I think it all depends on the brand and the bosses. One thing to ask: Will your work have to be approved by PR?” Also, be aware that there is a significant culture gap between traditional media companies and tech startups—for better and for worse. “Tumblr has no phones,” Bennett says. “So we get there, and I’m all, ‘I need to do interviews,’ but everyone’s like, ‘Oh, we just use our cellphones.’ This was before they hired a sales team. So I’m conducting interviews on my cellphone, which cuts out constantly, in the hallway in the elevator duct, ‘cause there were also no phone booths. I had Aziz Ansari on the phone one time, and I couldn’t hear a fucking thing he was saying. My phone dies as I’m trying to record it. Ultimately we almost had to kill the interview because it was so bad.” If you do take the leap, don’t expect any more stability than you had at your old-media job. “In the end, Tumblr decided it didn’t work, for reasons we’re not sure of,” Bennett says. “The truth is, I don’t have any regrets about going to work for Tumblr. Getting to experiment in this space—even if it ultimately led to being unemployed after barely a year—was way more exciting than watching budgets shrink, ad pages shrink, and everything else that has happened at old media outlets like Newsweek over the past year.”
— #realtalk: Branded but ‘independent’ media
May. 2 2013
Via cjr.org
#content #advertising #tumblr #reading #work
“Grey, rainy days, how I hate you! I am almost twenty-two, and still unloved. You remind me that beauty is a brief thing. You remind me that death hovers over me on dark wings. You even make me want to think of death… I don’t for a moment suppose it’s the weather that ails me. Too much New York cheer, no doubt! I am exhausted, mentally and physically, unable to see things as they are. Straight normalities have a dark and crooked look when I am low and fagged. I cannot write anymore - it requires the living death of loneliness and solitude to make me write - and no writing ever done is worth it.”
— Winifred Willis, New York Diaries
Apr. 23 2013
#New York City #currently #reading #books
1 note
found at @theweekmag back walls, as if I needed more books to read! #chefs #food #reading (at Mental Floss)

found at @theweekmag back walls, as if I needed more books to read! #chefs #food #reading (at Mental Floss)

Apr. 5 2013
#food #chefs #reading
Apr. 5 2013
Via amzn.to
#writing #writers #reading #career #work #New York City
6 notes
Nellie Bly is my new hero: feminist, solo globetrotter, and New York journalist who didn’t let men or looks stop her from achieving her dreams. (h/t @collazoprojects for the #reading rec)

Nellie Bly is my new hero: feminist, solo globetrotter, and New York journalist who didn’t let men or looks stop her from achieving her dreams. (h/t @collazoprojects for the #reading rec)

Apr. 3 2013
#reading
1 note

if memory serves me right, I think I was watching the World Cup game when Spain had just won when this trailer began to show on the screen. at the time I was vaguely familiar with the name Pablo Escobar, but immediately interested in watching the film. 

now, I feel like I know too much about Pablo Escobar. but according to my UTorrent, I’m about to know more. 

it was less than a year after that trailer that I myself then flew to Bogota for the heck of it, even more curious to know what state Colombia was in given its legendary history only a short time ago. I remember entering Colombia with every warning sign but in the end roaming the city just as I would New York, more afraid of the cabs and buses than the people on the street. It turned out to be a place with some of the nicest people I’ve ever encountered. but I could see how the drugs and violence were still affecting the city and its people, yet how that past pushed a city and its people to move forward. 

tonight, after a long day, I finished this book on my train ride home. I sped through it in a matter of days. the suspense was killing me - how can one man and one country spiral out of control and make worldwide news? quite frankly finishing that book down right scared me. I’ve been at home with double locks on my doors and freaking out at every sound thinking someone’s going to barge in and demand why I’m suddenly Googling this guy so much. 

rewind to this afternoon when I caught this doozey of an article with my motherland front and center of a bloody narco civil war. suddenly everything came full circle. the epidemic that once plagued (and perhaps still does) Colombia has now reached Puerto Rico. as I read the stories of countless senseless murders and corruption, I kept geting angrier and more depressed. I went from having this weird curiosity about a drug lord to wanting to cry knowing I wouldn’t be seeing the place where I grew up anymore, and wondering how my family there is staying safe to avoid the conflict. 

I don’t really have a point to all of this. I just find it fascinating in the saddest way how one person, one act, one country can make an impact on so much around the world. 

I’m glad I didn’t get to see the bad side of Colombia, and haven’t seen the bad side of Puerto Rico either. and I really hope my family doesn’t either. 

really, I just pray that these wars end and that we find peace, because both places are incredibly beautiful with much grander stories to tell and people to be proud of.

Mar. 28 2013
#colombia #puerto rico #drugs #news #war #reading

you guys, I got a NYPL library card and I now feel like a true New Yorker. I have already sped through my first book and now am bookmarking a storm for my next set of checkouts. send me recommendations please! 

here’s what I like to read about (and don’t judge)

  • history/wars
  • specifically, drug cartels
  • more specifically, cocaine wars
  • food!
  • history of food
  • food culture
  • travel stories
  • but not like “I’m a girl who traveled the world and it changed my life!”
  • more like, crazy shit one experiences while traveling and isn’t pretentious about telling it after
  • so, story telling really
  • anything related to Spanish/Latin nations
  • definitely South America
  • especially Uruguay!
  • also, migration patterns
  • New York-y stories
  • preferably Brooklyn

thanks!

Mar. 28 2013
#reading #books

5. What websites do you visit on a regular basis?

Huffpo, Eater, Grub Street, Roads and Kingdoms, Bruce Elliot:Geriatric Genius, Roger Ebert, Gawker

catching up on some Bourdain news and wanted to remember the fact that he reads R&K and that is awesome. and I guess I’m late to the travel reads game.

Nov. 24 2012
#anthony bourdain #travel #reading
good: Colombia Has 100 Tiny Libraries in Public Parks The program was started more than 15 years ago, and it has continued to thrive, operating 51 mini libraries in Bogotá and more than 100 throughout the country. The libraries themselves are rather remarkable—they hold about 350 books each, and they’re operated by volunteer librarians who organize activities and help kids with their homework. Keep reading at GOOD.is si.

good:

Colombia Has 100 Tiny Libraries in Public Parks

The program was started more than 15 years ago, and it has continued to thrive, operating 51 mini libraries in Bogotá and more than 100 throughout the country. The libraries themselves are rather remarkable—they hold about 350 books each, and they’re operated by volunteer librarians who organize activities and help kids with their homework.

Keep reading at GOOD.is

si.

Jun. 27 2012
Via GOOD
#books #reading #library #parks #colombia #bogota
699 notes
my brain needs a break.

my brain needs a break.

Mar. 12 2012
#reading #books
if you look closely, this is my ideal day.

if you look closely, this is my ideal day.

Mar. 7 2012
Via instagr.am
#food #reading #coffee
2 notes
“Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.”
— Kurt Vonnegut 
Feb. 16 2012
#content #reading #writing
4 notes
housingworksbookstore: The next book for the Jauntsetter Book Group at Housing Works is Mark Twain’s travel-writing classic, The Innocents Abroad. Available at Housing Works for half-off thanks to a generous donation from Modern Library! Join us on Saturday, November 12 over coffee and quiche to discuss Twain’s tale of a 1867 journey to Europe and the Holy Land. PLEASE NOTE this meeting has moved to Saturday, November 12 (previously scheduled for 10/29). Jauntsetter Book Group: The Innocents Abroad — Events — Housing Works THERE.

housingworksbookstore:

The next book for the Jauntsetter Book Group at Housing Works is Mark Twain’s travel-writing classic, The Innocents Abroad. Available at Housing Works for half-off thanks to a generous donation from Modern Library! Join us on Saturday, November 12 over coffee and quiche to discuss Twain’s tale of a 1867 journey to Europe and the Holy Land.

PLEASE NOTE this meeting has moved to Saturday, November 12 (previously scheduled for 10/29).

Jauntsetter Book Group: The Innocents Abroad — Events — Housing Works

THERE.

Oct. 18 2011
Via housingworks.org
#travel #reading
5 notes
Budak gave me homework this fall.  thanks, Start Some Good!

Budak gave me homework this fall. 

thanks, Start Some Good!

Oct. 18 2011
#reading #books #social media

LitCrawlNYC ➔

there’s readings of nerdyness, sexual encounters, and trivia, and most importantly BEER. who’s in tonight?

Sep. 10 2011
#New York City #events #reading #books