Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj, "Up Out My Face" @2:30 PM
Just in time for Valentine's Day: Matching Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj softcore robot Barbie sex-dolls. Again, Nicki Minaj kinda weirds me out with the Marcel-Marceau stuff. But, in this track that came out early this week and has, unexpectedly, been growing on me ever since, she doesn't shrink an inch next to Mariah and her rhymes are good. And then, at the end, the video's director, Mariah's husband Nick Cannon, pays homage to his starmaking turn in 2002's Drumline. Hammy stuff. But… oddly and inexplicably? I like it. 11
And Barack Obama will ask Congress (ask!) to repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' in his speech tonight. @7:05 PM 8
Lifetime Employee Roger Hodge Leaves Harper's @1:23 PM
Roger Hodge, whose rise from the state of Texas to Harper's intern to, in 2006, the magazine's editor in chief was even heralded in a New York Times profile, is departing. Hodge generally held steady, and was present for a significant and extremely forward-thinking web overhaul, despite some early troubles in his tenure. Ellen Rosenbush—the managing editor since 1989, five years before Hodge was an intern—has been named the acting editor. 10
Jason Reitman's Press Tour In 2'27" @12:12 PM
This documentation of his endless press tour—which is a hideous, broken system of publicizing movies—actually makes me like Up in the Air director Jason Reitman again a bit! It's mostly meaningless, just like interviewing film directors. 12
The Sartorialist Speaks @4:43 PM
I had no idea. You know when in your mind you have a maybe-fond or at least neutral-plus impression of someone and then you meet them or see them talk and you suddenly have an overwhelmingly powerful aversion to them? (You know, like with Philip Johnson, or Jean-Paul Sartre, or Adam Gopnik?) Well, this did it for me. 57
Nick Denton: "A few cases recently where we've thought *way* too much before publishing." @9:40 AM
Today is that awesome panel at this magazine media thingy, at which Awl pals Nick Denton and Simon Dumenco will tell you what to do with your magazine. It is a great time to do this for two reasons: one of which is that, overnight, Gawker just digested and extruded Twitter in some weird hashtaggy way. And also, this Gawker memo from the other day! Subject line: "We're not running a newspaper."
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"How serious are the cultural challenges to the role and authority of magazine editors?" @2:10 PM
Today and tomorrow, for $699, you can attend panels at the Magazine Innovation Summit that include this one:
"The Decline and Rise of Magazine Journalism
How serious are the cultural challenges to the role and authority of magazine editors? Do readers prize the values and practices of journalism? What do the implications of citizen journalism mean for the business of magazines and the career path of journalists? Moderated by Jacob Weisberg, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, The Slate Group. Panelists include Nick Denton, Gawker Media; Simon Dumenco, 'Media Guy' Columnist, Advertising Age and Susan Morrison, Articles Editor, The New Yorker." 13
Harvard Endowment Manager Returns to Goldman Sachs @10:35 AM
Interesting! Edward C. Forst—who went briefly to the management of the Harvard endowment as it cratered—has returned to Goldman Sachs. He will be a "Senior Strategy Officer" at GS. This is fascinating; we'd assumed he'd settled at Harvard because he was booted from GS in 2008. But that is not the case. Harvard's endowment, for those keeping track, is still screwed. Goldman is doing totally great though! 0
