Pieces, Particles XIII
With the onset of winter in Boss Town, I've been spending some real quality time on the Big Blue Couch at Church Corner. I hope to keep up with my clip file more frequently, and I apologize for the daunting entry that follows. That said, the following media-related stories recently spotted in print publications might be worth a look. Heads and decks, only. Heads and decks.

Alternative Voices on Campus by Emma Ruby-Sachs and Timothy Waligore, The Nation, Feb. 17, 2003
Progressive journals are key in creating a movement, but they lack support

Are You Addicted to TV? by Martiga Lohn, Natural Health, January/February 2003
You can turn it off whenever you want, right? Or can you? Find out what TV is really doing to you and how altering your habits can change your life

Big Brother Is Also Being Watched, with a New Alarm by Eleanor Heartney, The New York Times, Jan. 26, 2003
Even before 9/11, artists were looking at issues raised by a society of surveillance

Blabberwocky by Scot Lehigh, The Boston Globe Magazine, Feb. 9, 2003
We've all begun to talk in media-driven stupid-speak, clipped cliches and solecisms that amount to a verbal virus

Bone: The End, Wizard, February 2003

Boston's Logan International Airport by Douglas Corrigan, Airliners, September/October 2002
Gateway to New England

Cable TV System Uprooted, and Some Russian Immigrants See Vestiges of Totalitarian Past by Andy Newman, The New York Times, Jan. 5, 2003
A building manager cuts off reception of a Russian-language channel

Charles N. Brown: The Joy of SF by Jennifer Hall, Locus, September 2002

Community Rallies to Aid Creator, Wizard, February 2003

Copyright Monopolies by Andrew Shapiro, The Nation, Feb. 17, 2003

Culture Change by David Goodman, Mother Jones, January/February 2003
Does the selling of Stonyfield Farm yogurt signals the end of socially responsible business -- or a new beginning?

Dial Again by Roger Angell, The New Yorker, Feb. 10, 2003
On the Ameche

Doctor, My Eyes by Joel Achenbach, National Geographic, February 2003
How we watch TV ads

Doing Their Own Thing, Making Art Together by Holland Cotter, The New York Times, Jan. 19, 2003
A new movement of collectives, with names like rock bands, harks back to the 60's (an uncool notion for these digital-age multitaskers).

E-Epistles by Anjula Razdan, Utne, January-February 2003
A letter-writing revival

Fear of a Punk Planet by Ivan Kreilkamp, The Nation, Jan. 13-20, 2003

Flash News by Geoff Edgers, The Boston Globe, Jan. 26, 2003
Call them reality videos. They show young women willing to life their shirts, and 4.5 million were sold last year

The Forest for the Trees by Michael Ackerman, The Big Takeover, No. 51

Game School's Finest Minds by Mark Schone, Rolling Stone, Feb. 20, 2003
Meet the young stars of a university devoted to video games -- they're the happiest dorks in college

Get Ready for the Blogs by Leif Utne, Utne, January-February 2003
Making good on the Internet's promise of a global village

Getting Your War On by Camille Dodero, The Boston Phoenix, Oct. 25, 2002

Here at GQ by Martin Beiser, GQ, September 2002
Notes on forty-five years of ascendancy

Here Comes the Fuzz by Richard Linnett, Advertising Age, Jan. 13, 2003
Bat Boy crosses the line

The Hidden Life of Art Supplies by Sara Zaske, Sierra, January/February 2003

Holy Rock 'n' Rollers by Lauren Sandler, The Nation, Jan. 13-20, 2003

How to Write a Catchy Beer Ad by Chris Ballard, The New York Times Magazine, Jan. 26, 2003
Footballs, guitars -- and twins -- turned a commercial into a phenomenon

The Hush of History by Cate McQuaid, The Boston Globe, Jan. 26, 2003
Not all at Quabbin is a watery grave; relics of people and towns remain

Just Plain Folks Write Songs, Too by Jon Pareles, The New York Times, Feb. 9, 2003
For decades, song-sharking has preyed on naive, hopeful amateurs. But sometimes the racket can turn up winners

Ladder to Success by Joanna Weiss, The Boston Globe, Feb. 9, 2003
Step by step, publicists help turn shabby area into hip new district for Boston's martini crowd

The Lost Art of Reading the Newspaper at Night by A.J. Jacobs, Esquire, February 2003

Major Labels' Century-Long Abuse of Artists (and Customers), and Why Things Are Finally Starting to Change by Jack Rabid, The Big Takeover, No. 51

The Man Who Wasn't There by David Wild, Rolling Stone, Jan. 23, 2003
Being the director of Adaptation and the skate-punk husband of Hollywood royalty is one thing. Being able to talk about it, well, um...

A Meter Man with a Mission by Marilyn Berlin Snell, Sierra, January/February 2003

Mexico City's VW Bugs Are Headed for Extinction by Tim Weiner, The New York Times, Jan. 5, 2003

Mobile Afterlife by Katie Fehrenbacher, ReadyMade, No. 5
Where do cell phones go when they die?

New Plaque Marks the First Home of the Globe by Karla Kingsley, The Boston Globe, Jan. 25, 2003

Not So Funny by Mike Miliard, The Boston Phoenix, Feb. 7, 2003
"Comic" strips get serious about life

Online Treachery by Lazlow, Playboy, February 2003 (?)
Net gaming has become a sinister playground for lurkers and assholes

Orville Poundridge's GQ by David Kamp, GQ, September 2002
A scrapbook of the century past

The Power of Music by Ann Powers, The Nation, Jan. 13-20, 2003

Practical Publishers by Phil Hall, The Hartford Courant, Oct. 17, 2002
Online magazines succeed by holding down startup costs, sometimes to zero

The "Public Interest" by Bill O'Driscoll, The Nation, Jan. 6, 2003

Real People by Jenn Shreve, ReadyMade, No. 5
In advertising's new reality, the ultimate sales pitch is you

The Reconnection by Chris Wright, The Boston Phoenix, Jan. 24, 2003
Two years after his break-up with WBUR, Chris Lydon is back in business

Scientists Make Music with DNA, The Boston Globe, Jan. 19, 2003

Social Climbing by Blaize Wilkinson, ReadyMade, No. 5
How to be an urban tour guide

Spambusters by Jacqueline White, Utne, January-February 2003
How to rid your inbox of penis enlargement offers

Spammers ISO Respect by Brad Stone, Newsweek, Dec. 30, 2002/Jan. 6, 2003

Straight to Video by John Mankiewicz, The New Yorker, Feb. 10, 2003

Tangled up in Spam by James Gleick, The New York Times Magazine, Feb. 9, 2003
Those unwanted messages have become the bane of the Internet. Why we can't just say no

Teen Beat by Mark Singer, The New Yorker, Jan. 13, 2003
What happens when a high-school weekly is the only newspaper in town

That Sucking Sound by Neal Pollack, GQ, February 2003
Gimmicks, antics and ironic distance. Who needs real talent when you've mastered punk-rock foolishness?

TV on DVD: A-OK by Matthew Gilbert, The Boston Globe Magazine, Jan. 26, 2003
Several television series are now available on disc, meaning a longer afterlife and maybe even better programs in the future

Urban Legends by Michael Azerrad, The New Yorker, Aug. 12, 2002

Utopia 2.0 by Leif Utne, Utne, January-February 2003
Play games, build a future

Video Underground by Mike Miliard, The Boston Phoenix, Oct. 25, 2002
Indie film finds a home

Voices of America by Tom Sinclair, Entertainment Weekly, Feb. 14, 2003
For 50 years, ordinary folk have paid to have their verse set to music. Now song-poems are being hailed as art

Wall Street Journal Bigs Up NME!, New Musical Express, Jan. 4, 2003
Financial bible acclaims our role in breaking new talent on both sides of the pond

Was Romenesko Rebuilt 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

What It's Really Like... to Give Birth on Television by Stephanie Karp, Parents, February 2003
We agreed to let a camera crew videotape my labor and delivery and broadcast it to millions

When Uncle Sam Wanted Us by Paul Rauber, Sierra, January/February 2003
To Vice President Dick Cheney, conservation is just "a sign of personal virtue." In World War II, it was every citizen's duty

Why Information Will No Longer Be Free by Michael Scherer, Columbia Journalism Review, January/February 2003

Zen Is Not a Perfume by Jan Chozen Bays, Buddhadharma, Fall 2002

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