Remember the days when the world of fashion used to be a scary place run by thin people in big sunglasses screechier, bitchier, thinner, and just better than you? Those days: gone. Fashion's now being run by bloggers. It's official/awful.
Greg Lindsay comes across as an uptight guy. But that doesn't stop him from appearing on television again and again. Indeed, he's the poster boy for go-getters who try on every form of media until they find one that fits best. The former WWD gossip columnist and author of a book about sleeping in airports landed a "memorable" appearance on Martha Stewart's TV show earlier this year. And last night, he was a contestant on Jeopardy! The secret to his publicity, he advised a youngster long ago, is to remember "it's all about the brand called you." And how! Click to watch the clip of Lindsay's, um, uphill battle. And we'll let former Deadspinner Will Leitch finish the story of watching the show with Greg himself:
Greg Lindsay, the former Women's Wear Daily gossip columnist, was dragged by his wife onto Martha to talk to the homemaking maven about their wedding preparations. (He discovered a fabulous naval dockyard in Bermuda in which the wedding party took shelter from the storm.) A savvy media operator, Lindsay knew he'd come to regret the appearance, and he has. The clip, shown here, gave publicist Reggie Cameron an opportunity to mock the neatnik newlywed: "Greg is married. That never stops being funny to me." Greg responded in the comments, but that wasn't the end of it. As the following email exchange shows, scratch any relationship between media and public relations and you'll discover this: barely concealed mutual contempt.
Party planning, magazine editing and TV appearances blur into eachother for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, the homemaking maven's media conglomerate. Writing in 2002, media reporter Greg Lindsay was impressed by Stewart's multiplicity of talents: "Soccer moms and magazine execs alike revere homemaking doyenne Martha Stewart for her WASPy Zen approach to decorating, entertaining and blazing the celebrity editor trail." Greg, and his new wife have learned well from the mistress of synergy. Their wedding in Bermuda last year was nearly rained off, but they turned near-disaster into a joyful celebration, and a television appearance on Martha. Here, after the jump, is the clip of plain Greg and Sophie being interviewed by the homemaking queen: Greg explains how he found a "fabulous" naval dockyard in Bermuda to host the wedding after a storm forecast disrupted plans for an open-air ceremony, sounding like any other touch-fey husband. Incidentally, Sophie is Sophie Donelson, who was a senior editor at Blueprint, a Martha Stewart title, before it folded two months ago. The moral of this story? There are no real people in Manhattan: only media people playing real people for other media people who play real people.
I have never paid, and I will never pay, for an "AvantGuild" membership to "freelancer-helping website" Mediabistro. (Also, I hope that I never have to say "AvantGuild" aloud. What the HELL construction is that?) So I will never read this story by Greg Lindsay about how hard it is for him to write his book. The story's deck is: "From borrowing from John McPhee to 'guarding his headspace' our writer fights to pass the 25,000-word mark." All of those things sound really bad! Unless he's in Princeton, borrowing John McPhee's pencil or something? Anyway, if anyone would like to read and summarize, please do. Also, I would like to meet him some time. Mr. McPhee, not Greg Lindsay. I've already met Greg. He wears nice clothes and is friendly. I gave my mom "Oranges" over Thanksgiving, and guess what? She loved it too. Now I am trying to read that one about the bark canoes and also the one about cattle-rustling. But reading, Greg Lindsay, is almost as hard as writing—I say that as someone who actually finished "Annals of the Former World," and where is my medal?—and don't you forget it.
Writer, former chunky and journo-everyman Greg Lindsay has sold a book! Evil agent David Kuhn has sold his "Aerotropolis" for six figures to fancy yet 18th-century-living house FSG, notes oddly-named local blog Fishbowlny after a careful reading of Publisher's Marketplace. News of this sort can only mean one thing: It's time to update the Greg Lindsay Career Trajectory!
Frank Bruni drops by Porchetta, our friend Jason Neroni's Carroll Gardens pig emporioum. Frank gives the place a respectable one star (which should count as two on the Brooklyn curve) and even enjoys the famous pork crackling margarita. And why not? The food sounds terrific, the preparations astounding, and if this photo accompanying the review is any indication, folks are clamoring to the establishment from all over the city, including metro airports. Nice vest, Greg!
• Katie Couric gets her nun on. [Tabloid Baby]
• Seth Mnookin wants some context from the press. Here's some context for ya: Seth Mnookin rides a scooter. [Seth Mnookin]
• "When we launched For Me a little over a year ago, we thought that there was a market for a young woman's lifestyle magazine which was not focused on gossip." Well, that's your problem right there. [FishbowlNY]
• Jodi Kantor gives you the angle on airports that Greg Lindsay couldn't. Don't try and do everything on your first day back, Jodi. [NYT]
• How much do we love Slate's "investigation" of brunch? Um, a lot, actually? Almost as much as we love their look at Chuck Klosterman? Slate, we're sorry we've been mean lately, full stop. [Slate]
• Chuck Roberts has apologized to Ned Lamont for calling him the "al Qaeda candidate." No word on the goat thing. [C&L]
• Tony Kornheiser refers to Washington Post Style reporter as "putz"; each WaPo Style reporter secretly convinced he's talking about them. And rightly so. [WP]
• Greg Lindsay just got $954.70 from the folks at Absolute. Drinks at Shannon's Bar (JFK Terminal Four, A Concourse) are on him. [NYO]
• Graydon Carter reveals mission statement: "Any criticism of me is absolutely ridiculous." [NYP]
• Katie Couric doesn't need to go to Iraq just to impress you. That's the president's job. [AH]
• Remember that crazy uncle who knew more about obscure Scottish watch-making techniques of the 1880s than anyone else in the world? Remember how he'd always buttonhole you at family gatherings, talking about lathes? Well, Greg Lindsay's kind of like that, except with airports. [FC]
Good news: The Times reports that even though media as we know it is dying, demand for a degree in journalism still thrives among the nation's wealthy, aimless kids who aren't smart enough for law school. This month, j-schools "will churn out more graduates than ever into a job market that is perhaps more welcoming to entry-level multimedia-taskers than it is to veterans who began their careers hunting and pecking on Olivetti typewriters." Speaking of taskers, the article includes all the usual tropes about new technologies and varying content platforms, and, of course, lots of self-justificatory talk about "callings" and "sacrifices." In fact, the only thing this piece is missing is the obligatory quote from noted j-school expert Greg Lindsay. Apparently, taking a trip out to the airport is a little too much to expect from Kit Seelye.
Today is a momentous day in the history of medialand: It's our first day without founding 'Bowler and rabid Canadian Rachel Sklar manning Mediabistro's FishbowlNY. We naturally wish all the best to Rachel — undoubtedly the kindest person you'll ever meet at some blogger party at 2 in the morning — but we also must use this opportunity to take care of some business. That's right, folks, it's time to update the Greg Lindsay Career Trajectory. As it now stands:
• More cuts at Time Inc.: This time, Time's London bureau! [WWD]
• Angry Simon Dumenco hates pay-per-use media content, and he thinks you do, too. Also, he hates the electronics industry for not being as smart as Tim Berners-Lee. [Ad Age]
• Today was Stern's first day on Sirius. Did you listen? We didn't. [NYT]
• Ah: The Observer listened, and discovered he said "fuck" a lot. [Media Mob/NYO]
• Media's still a man's world, says David Carr. (Though, of course, it wouldn't be nothing without a woman or a girl to buy the shelter celeb mags.) [NYT]
• People like snark, says Jon Friedman, who snags this delightful dek: "Commentary: Accent is on commentaries, not reporting." [MW]
• Big media sometimes doesn't credit blogs, and that makes Greg Lindsay sad. [MB]
• Oprah gives Dave biggest audience in a decade. [Newsday]
• Kurt Andersen wonders: Whither Harper's sans Lapham? [NYM]
• The Week, says Jon Friedman, is "Godfather of the Blogosphere — or the first blogazine." And it just wants to be loved. [MW]
• Today is Viacom's first day as two companies — one high-growth, one low-growth. Sorry, CBS and friends. [WSJ]
• Did Trump hire a P.I. to dig up dirt on authorized biographer? Who knows. [NYM]
• Greg Lindsay, who knows of what he speaks on such matters, fears for the future of airline magazines. [MB]
In today's Black List over at the Black Table, wandering media reporter Greg Lindsay divulges his connection, or lack thereof, to accused sexual assaulter and former Women's Wear Daily reporter Peter Braunstein:
Prepare for a glaring lack of Paul Smith stripes at any and all media parties you'll attend in the next few months: Greg Lindsay has left town. Everyone's favorite itinerant media reporter yesterday became even more so, embarking on a three-week trip through what he's termed "Airworld" on assignment for Advertising Age magazine.
Greg Lindsay's latest "Media Uncovered" column for Business 2.0 posted online yesterday.
The Black Table's Greg Lindsay on P. Diddy's new women's line: "I am still trying to decide if I know of any women who might wear a leather dress with a train, and am still wondering what the final pulsing image of the showthe drawn climax of Scarface, such an original and daring homage now that everyone has the DVD in their 'Cribs'has anything, but anything, to do with women's clothes."
Puffy and bloated: notes on the fashion week that was [BlackTable]
