Pieces, Particles XII
The following media-related stories recently spotted in print publications might be worth a look. Heads and decks, only. Heads and decks. Apologies for the long entry, but it's a 2K2 blowout!

2002: A Cell-Phone Odyssey by Rebecca Weider, Boston Phoenix, Aug. 30, 2002
We're intoxicated by new inventions. But sometimes progress can be problematic.

9-11 Amateur Radio in New York by Bart Lee, Popular Communications, September 2002
A private citizen's eyewitness report on ham radio's finest hour

Advertising by Jane Levere, New York Times, July 31, 2002
A dishwashing liquid capitalizes on cutting the grease on dishes -- and the oil on ducks.

Analyze Disk by Franz Lidz, Sports Illustrated, Aug. 26, 2002
Frisbee designer Ed Headrick left behind one beloved piece of sporting equipment -- and a strange last wish

Are We Still Bowling Alone? by Christopher Shea, Boston Globe, Dec. 15, 2002

The Attack of Stealth Pitches by Leonard Pitts, Chicago Tribune, Sept. 3, 2002
Advertisements by people we would never suspect

Book Reviewing, African-American Style by Wanda Coleman, The Nation, Sept. 16, 2002
It is incumbent upon any reviewer to grasp the diverse happenstances of what was once simply summarized as "the Black Experience."

Brand New Jag by Rob Walker, Boston Globe, Sept. 15, 2002
The Clash sell luxury goods

Case-Sensitive Crusader by John Schwartz, New York Times, Dec. 29, 2002
Who owns the Internet? You and i do.

Comic Book Clubs by Don Allen, Comics & Games Retailer, June 2002
Start your own literary discourse on comics

Comic Strip Uses Clip Art As Antiwar Ammo by Cary Darling, Boston Globe, Jan. 1, 2003

CrossGen Makes Comics Returnable... from the Readers, Comics & Games Retailer, January 2003

Dear Orphan Annie by Jeet Heer, Boston Globe, Sept. 15, 2002
Why cartoon characters get all the best mail

Draw What You Know by Nick Hornby, New York Times Book Review, Dec. 22, 2002
Graphic novels are never dull -- try saying that about most works of prose fiction.

Drive Small by Jane Mayer, The New Yorker, Sept. 2, 2002

Dropping Logos That Shout, Luxury Sellers Try Whispers by Tracie Rozhon, New York Times, Sept. 15, 2002

Eggers Goes It Alone by Malcolm Jones, Newsweek, Oct. 7, 2002

Encyclopedias Still Speak Volumes by David Mehegan, Boston Globe, Dec. 30, 2002
People are going back to the source in print form

Ever Been to a Public Supper? by Brooke Dojny, Down East, July 20002
Some weekends the finest dining in town is at the local parish hall.

Extraordinary Details by Mike Cotton, Wizard, December 2002
Alan Moore's "League of Extraordinary Gentleman" packs in more Easter eggs and cameos than any DVD -- and Wizard points out and analyzes what you might have missed

Finding Black History's Lost Stories by John Fountain, New York Times, Dec. 29, 2002
Project aims to fill in gaps by moving beyond familiar faces

From Fan to the Man by Dave Marshall, Wizard, December 2002
JSA fan club founder gets crack at writing


Me, hardly working

Gay Old Times by Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, Sept. 2, 2002

Ghostwriting the Law by Karen Olsson, Mother Jones, September/October 2002
A little-known corporate lobby is drafting business-friendly bills for state legislators across the country.

Group Think by Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker, Dec. 2, 2002
What does "Saturday Night Live" have in common with German philosophy?

He Lit up HBO. Now He Must Run It by Bill Carter, New York Times, Dec. 29, 2002

Hold That Cell Phone, Chicago Tribune, Dec. 27, 2002

In Battle of the Band, Some Like It Low by Kathleen Brill, Boston Globe, Sept. 15, 2002

In Nod to Vinyl, Some Reject CD's Sound of Silence by Randy Lewis, Boston Globe, Dec. 28, 2002

In Whose Interest? by Ian Donnis, Boston Phoenix, Nov. 22, 2002
Broadcasters use a public asset -- the airwaves -- to make their money. So why do we let them take in millions in political advertising when mandatory free air time for candidates could raise the level of debate in political campaigns?

Israeli-Palestinian Battles Intrude on "Sesame Street" by Julie Salamon, New York Times, July 30, 2002

It’s Time to Turn off Those Bells and Whistles by Matt Richtel, New York Times, Sept. 8, 2002

The Joy of School Supplies by Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune, Sept. 3, 2002

Justices Call on Bench's Bard to Limit His Lyricism by Adam Liptak, New York Times, Dec. 15, 2002

"Kirk, Honey. It's Me, Spock!" by Julie Madsen, Utne, September-October 2002
Women's fantasies find a powerful outlet in these strange stories about odd couples

Laddie Come Lately by Seth Mnookin, Newsweek, Sept. 16, 2002
Has Maxim's babes-and-beer formula finally grown old?

Like the Song, Love the Car by Phil Patton, New York Times, Sept. 15, 2002
Music sells cars. Now car commercials are selling the music.

Look Who Shrunk the Computer by Jeffrey Zygmont, Boston Globe Magazine, Dec. 29, 2002
Wisecracking rebel Harold Koplow was a pharmacist before landing a job at Wang Laboratories. Then, on the verge of dismissal, he designed the first microchip-loaded, user-friendly desktop unit.

Mis-Fortune's Child by Maximillian Potter, GQ, December 2002
Since John Huey took over as the editorial director of AOL Time Warner's magazines, he has presided over an editorial bloodbath. In the space of one year, he has replaced the top editors of People, Sports Illustrated and Entertainment Weekly. In doing so, he has jeopardized almost $5 billion in revenues -- and spread fear through a traditionally sedate corporate culture.

Morphing Magalogs by Greg Lindsay, Folio, July 2002
With third-party ads and oh-so-subtle sponsorships, custom publishing spin-offs are posturing to look and work like traditional magazines

Music to Repulse Loitering Teenagers By by Shari Rudavsky, Boston Globe, Sept. 15, 2002
At Forest Hills, the T has new tack to extract youths: piped-in Pops

My Generation by William Upski Wimsatt, Utne, September-October 2002
A young visionary sizes up the emerging youth movement and tells us there's more where that came from

New Saint Reflects Lay Group's New Influence by Frank Bruni, New York Times, Oct. 3, 2002

The New Weeklies by Jeff Clark, Down East, October 2002
From York Harbor to Mount Desert Island, a flurry of newspapers is sweeping the coast.

Online Uprising by Catherine Seipp, American Journalism Review, June 2002
Many in the mainstream media dismiss the screeds of bloggers -- people who post their views on their own Web logs -- as so much blather. But to this Los Angeles writers, these maverick sites are well worth exploring.

"Operator, I Demand an Automated Menu" by Ron Lieber, Wall Street Journal, July 30, 2002
More companies train staff to aggressively pitch callers seeking customer service

Peeling the Onion by Kathryn S. Wenner, American Journalism Review, September 2002
With its often hilarious pitch-perfect parody of newswriting conventions, the Onion has attracted a dedicated audience for its print and online incarnations. Kathryn S. Wenner takes a behind-the-scenes look at how it all comes together.

Police Scanners May Be Headed for Morgue by Carl Sullivan, Editor & Publisher, Nov. 25, 2002
Memorial scheduled in Caddo Parish?


The out basket

The Puzzle Guy by Raoul Mowatt, Chicago Tribune, Dec. 27, 2002
Man spends life keeping people gsues, er, guessing

Report on a Malfunction in the Zucker Unit by John Richardson, Esquire, October 2002
The man who saved television (i.e., NBC's "Jeff Zucker") is brilliant, decisive, and laconic, but is otherwise quite lifelike. All was well until we initiated a "humanizing" profile. We take up the story at this critical juncture.

The Revolution Will Be Televised by Jefferson Reid, Utne, September-October 2002
The top 10 counterculture characters in TV history

Rock and Roll Report Card by Ivan Kreilkamp, Boston Globe, Dec. 29, 2002
Critic Robert Christgau turns the capsule review into an art form

The Slow Lane by John Seabrook, The New Yorker, Sept. 2, 2002
Can anyone solve the problem of traffic?

Sublime Decay by Lawrence Weschler, New York Times Magazine, Dec. 22, 2002
Martin Scorsese and others may plead for the preservation of decomposing film stock, but a radical new film shows that there's unexpected beauty in those self-immolating archives.

Superhero Status Quo by Aaron Schatz, Boston Phoenix, Dec. 20, 2002
Marvel's gay cowboy changes nothing

Televisionary by Don Aucoin, Boston Globe, Sept. 7, 2002
Decades after the fact, the world is just tuning into the work of TV inventor Philo T. Farnsworth

Temporary Beauty by Christopher Hayes, Chicago Reader, Aug. 30, 2002
Poetry guerrillas hit the pavement.

That '80s Show by Mike Rubin, GQ, July 2002
Pulsing keyboards, vocoders and styles straight out of "Liquid Sky." The curious return of electro -- from Berlin to Brooklyn -- drags Reagan-era nightlife back to a club near you

That Guy Showing off His New Phone May Be a Shill by Suzanne Vranica, Wall Street Journal, July 31, 2002
New campaign for Sony Ericsson puts actors in real-life settings; women play Battleship at the bar

The Touch of Brian Graden, Rolling Stone, Oct. 3, 2002
The man behind South Park and The Osbournes seeks to reinvent VH1

Treehouse Residents Receive an Eviction Notice by Patricia Leigh Brown, New York Times, Sept. 8, 2002
A county decides that parks are not for residences.

Tribulations at the Trib by Seth Mnookin, Newsweek, Oct. 7, 2002
Now it's Bob Green's old employer that's being questioned about the columnist's scandalous downfall

Twisted Sister Frontman Still Wants to Rock by Richard Harrington, Boston Globe, Jan. 1, 2003
There's more than music to Dee Snider

Was Romenesko Built in a Daze? by Greg Mitchell, Editor & Publisher, Nov. 25, 2002
Forget Iraq, Osama, and the ad-revenue blahs: When a favorite Web site gets redesigned, all hell breaks loose in media land

When "Gangs of New York" Author Got Mencken Banned in Boston by Carol Schoettler, Chicago Tribune, Dec. 27, 2002

Where Did All the Womyn Go? by Loren King, Boston Phoenix, Nov. 22, 2002
Two local feminist standard-bearers survived almost 30 years of cultural upheaval and technological change. New Words bookstore and Sojourner newspaper have finally succombed, but they're looking to reinvent themselves.

W.S.J.: G.O.P., R.I.P. by William Safire, New York Times Magazine, Dec. 15, 2002
Newspaper war of initialese.

You've Got Mail by Simon Dumenco, Folio, July 2002
A meditation on the lost literature of letters to the editor of In Style -- and why such a letter may actually be a cry for help.

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Soundtrack: The Flaming Lips, "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots"