Posts tagged as The Problem Of Conveying Tone On The Web
I Enjoy Being A Lesbian
From time to time, the Awl offers its space to members of the community with an interesting viewpoint on current events. Today we hear from a lesbian blogger who wants you to know what her experiences are like. READ MORE
Everyone Taking 'The Onion' Seriously in One Place
If you really like to feel bad about people, there's a website devoted entirely to people taking stories from The Onion seriously on Facebook. Warning: it's a dark path to walk. Maybe you should read a book or pet a puppy instead? (via, via)
How To Date A White Bitch (Advice For The Non-White Dude)
In her Huffington Post primer "How to Date an Indian (Advice for a Non-Indian)," Andrea Miller, the CEO of trusted relationship advice website YourTango, lays out a multitude of reasons as to why Indian folks-"innately gracious, social creatures"-make perfect spouses. Miller, you see, is married to a perfect hunk of brown male straight out of New Dehli, which thus gives her "pretty good perspective on the desirability of the people from the world's largest democracy-and how to woo them." READ MORE
Why Everyone Hates The New 'Sex and the City' Movie
As a mostly disinterested observer I've found the overwhelming backlash against the new Sex and the City movie to be somewhat surprising. After all, it's not as if there's any radical departure from the series' formula that fans might find upsetting: The show always trafficked in the most grotesque stereotypes of shallow femininity; what made it so culturally noteworthy was the willingness of women to not only buy into its overt misogyny but embrace it. Even the show's greatest detractors would grudgingly admit an odd fascination with it. And yet we seem to have reached a moment where a growing number of former fans find themselves disgusted with its underlying philosophy and aesthetic. What accounts for the sudden revulsion? READ MORE
Tweet-And-Run Reporting Results In Iced-Tea Tempest
It was one of those headlines crossing the transom yesterday that raised an eyebrow: A huff from the News, "Opponents of immigration law call for boycott of Arizona Iced Tea – but it is brewed in New York!," that was above a 151-word news-of-the-dumb item on "misguided tea fans" who were airing their grievances online. Total number of quoted sources in the piece: Two. The source for both those quotes: Twitter. You can probably see where this is going! READ MORE
The Battle Between The Sexes
"In evolutionary terms, and sometimes in real terms, males and females fight to get the maximum reproductive output for the minimum input. Identifying which sex wins has a long history and remains a highly controversial area of biology that is still full of surprises. Yet the question of who prevails in this particular battle of the sexes is too tempting to dismiss." READ MORE
The Balloon Boy Who Cried Wolf
Whether or not this whole thing turns out to be a hoax, enough doubt and suspicion has been raised about the whole thing that I think we're missing the most significant aspect of the event: The next time a little boy gets trapped in an experimental helium balloon his storm-chaser father is building in the backyard, I bet state and local authorities are going to be much less quick to initiate rescue proceedings. And that's the biggest tragedy of all.
Third Eye Blind And The Difficulty Of Critical Reading
"Third Eye Blind wasn't one of those crappy, non-cute rap-rock bands that proliferated in the nineties, wearing polyester shorts and chin beards. In hits like 'Never Let You Go' and 'Semi-Charmed Life' (remember how great that song was in Dirty Work?) they rapped and they rocked, mixing guitars and hip-hop. What singer Stephan Jenkins did is hard to describe – 'extremely fastly spoken lyrics' someone wrote on Wikipedia, which sums up how totally unique it is." Rob Tannenbaum's "defense" of Third Eye Blind is super on its own, but is made even better by the quality of the comments which follow it.
How Race Is Lived In America
So last night I was meeting a couple of friends for drinks in Brooklyn, which is always a dicey situation because I have no idea where the hell anything is in that borough and am reliant on cab drivers or bad directions from the subway to get to my destination. (Those of you from out of town should know that Brooklyn is laid out completely illogically, with bizarre and unpronounceable road names rather than an orderly set of numbered streets and avenues. There is also, excepting for a couple of bridges and a place that is famous for cheesecake, a distinct lack of local landmarks by which one might orient oneself.) Because of the sweltering heat and a recent bounty that fell into my lap via the good offices of the New York State Lottery Commission, Scratch-Off Card division, I felt both sweaty and flush enough to take a taxi. This was my first mistake. READ MORE
