As far as I’m concerned, it’s a damned shame that a field as potentially dynamic and vital as journalism should be overrun with dullards, bums, and hacks, hag-ridden with myopia, apathy, and complacence, and generally stuck in a bog of stagnant mediocrity.

— Hunter S. Thompson’s 1958 cover letter
for a newspaper job (via BoingBoing)

As a devoted NPR listener and someone who works at an NPR affiliate station , I love this recent Slate piece by Farhad Manjoo about the comments snooty listeners make anytime anything remotely pop culture comes on the air.

But, I almost equally love this comment below the story:

“For proof that NPR letter-writers are the stodgiest, whiniest, most self-importantly insufferable snobs of all time…”

…Says the author who recently wrote an article on the imbecility of anyone who uses two spaces after a period.

Best be careful, you’re over 30 now. Self-important insufferability may just be sneaking up on you too.”

Hahahaha, while I agree with the double spacing lament (I fix that shit every day at my afore mentioned place of employment), it was a pretty insufferable article — one that, of course, all my NPR-listening friends passed around.

I messed my keywords up,
lets see if I can fix that
from page 1 to page 13, lets see if I can get back
lose traffic and lose money, you know that I can’t have that
social networks everywhere, where can I put my ads at
fix my SEO up
I’m trying to get back anything
fix google, no more Yahoo, they results come from bing
several profiles on ning
adding links to everything
sharing links on delicious, social bookmarking
expecting me to retreat
I won’t accept defeat
write a new blog post, put it on twitter, can I get a retweet
hashtag fb, selective tweet to facebook
hasttag blogtitle, you know what it is before you take a look
how much time will I spend, trying to make my topic trend
not too much if they don’t like it, well they don’t like it then,
more followers and more friends
haven’t reached my peek yet
checking all my social sites in one place, tweetdeck
pay per click on facebook,
include it in my marketing
cost less than google adwords and its highly targeted
locally, I look for deals, call me cheap, I don’t care
check me out on foursquare, if you want to go there
got so many profiles, sometimes I can’t stand it
bebo, myspace, virb, black planet
I stopped using all them years ago, they old and they outdated
never got into yammer, and google wave never made it
talk about what I do use
where do I begin,
facebook, tumblr, youtube, linked in
vimeo, yelp, technorati, flickr
stumbleupon, digg and I’m almost tired of twitter
you get the picture
I won’t say no more,
the internet changed its all about sharing, web 2.0
on the road or at home
mac book or on my phone
down with google android, no blackberry no iPhone
all my profiles updated
all my sites integrated
find me or my product easy I just demonstrated
this ain’t the game you should be playing if you can’t fade it
I ain’t made it yet, so don’t ask me how I made it
I do this everyday still on the hunt for my next check
mac book pro on deck
checking the web for the next tech
your best bet don’t fret yet
no sweat if its no threat
strategically planning all your moves, chess set
you add friends confirm, their interest in your project
link all your profiles to the site where they can buy that
go try that, and come back
make friends with who you’re targeting
get a buzz and it goes viral, social media marketing

— The SEO Rapper

And, if you have 10 minutes, please fill out my SURVEY.

Thanks!

T-minus 75 days until graduation (and a couple weeks after that, fulfilling every journalists’ dream of working at the New York Times … even if it is as a 32-year-old intern).

Barbara Boxer makes her way through a crust of people a little after 11 p.m. Nov. 2, 2010. Even then, her race for U.S. Senate with Carly Fiorina was too close to call. Fiorina conceded today.

I and a number of other members of KPCC’s Web team were dispatched all over the county to take photos of the election night madness.

Here’s a Flickr gallery of our shots:

Click for slideshow

And, of course, when I wasn’t shooting I was tweeting … especially as the night dragged on waiting for Barbara Boxer to come out and say something …

Ira Glass is glowing!

One of my favorite parts was when Glass compared USC’s campus to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer — Season 3.”

***     ***     ***

Larry Harvey

It’s always interesting for me to hear Larry Harvey talk. I’m so intertwined with Burning Man that, I suppose, it’s almost frightening to hear what the founder has to say — that perhaps he’ll burst *my* vision of what Burning Man is.

And then each time I do hear Larry, I instead reach a deeper understanding about what this whole crazy thing — that has become such an important part of my life the past nine years — is all about.

Last week, when he was here as part of a joint conversation with Lee Gilmore, author of “Theater in a Crowded Fire: Ritual and Spirituality at Burning Man,” Larry told the story about how in the early Baker Beach days of Burning Man, he and his “bohemian carpenter” buddies were building The Man in someone’s garage.

While not the 80-foot structure it is today, the project still spilled out onto the street. An elderly man stopped to watch for some time before asking: “Is that a gazebo?”

“No,” said Larry.

The man watched again for some time, then asked: “Are you sure it’s not a gazebo?”

“A lot of things,” summed up Larry, “get projected on that figure.”

***     ***     ***

I wrapped up the week with yet another cultural offering from USC, a free ticket (plus bus ride and lunch) to see the LA Philharmonic at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. (Ok, ok, going to a fancy private school does have its perks.)

The concert was Messiaen’s “Turangalîla-symphonie,” a beautiful 10-movement, 80-minute “love song” about the Tristan and Isolde story.

Our seats were actually behind the orchestra, which is something I’ve never experienced. It didn’t matter, though, because in the Frank Gehry-designed building the sound is just as good there. Plus, and perhaps best of all, we got to face maestro Gustavo Dudamel. Half the fun of the concert was watching him conduct and then get a goofy grin of satisfaction and pride after each flawless movement.

It is a whole different perspective to sit behind the orchestra.

He really is larger than life.

The performance was perfect and it was hard not to burst out clapping after the rousing fifth movement — and some people did clap after the touching sixth movement.

In the end, the orchestra received a standing ovation and three curtain calls for Dudamel, pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and Cynthia Millar, who played the electronic ondes martenot.

Bravo.

***     ***     ***

And now this week — Obama.