Dogged Blog

Can't Go There

Gina sent me a Crooks and Liars link this morning to Dogged Media God Keith Olbermann's blistering smackdown of Donald Rumsfeld's propaganda spew speech to the American Legion yesterday. It was brilliant and Murrowesque and intelligent and dazzling and you know the kind of thing it was:  Genius.

And it got me thinking about journalism and my days as a j-school student, all wide-eyed and "All The Presidents' Men" and excited about changing the world. Like, you know, Keith Olbermann and .... then it hit me. The next name on that list was going to be JON STEWART. Who, as he keeps assuring us, does FAKE news. Because fake media like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, and bloggers/citizen journalists like John Aravosis and Markos, have done more to goose the mainstream media into acting like actual journalists than anything else. They've broken stories, asked hard questions, and done investigative work no one else would do, raising the bar on professional journalists and turning up the heat while they were at it. Which the idealistic j-school student in me loves.

And that reminded me of this rant from columnist Simon Dumenco wherein he sees some link between crazed fans of his semi-famous boyfriend taking their photos with camera phones in a cafe, and the end of the world as we know it destruction of real journalism by "citizen journalists."

I have no problem with the equivalency he makes between slimy professional paparazzi and the "citizen paparazzi" who stalk his boyfriend. I know that fans can be scary people, and I even know some freaky stories about fans stalking his boyfriend. (Although that fan video of said boyfriend doing drunken karaoke in Stockbridge is priceless. I'm just saying.)

I just think trying to extrapolate that out to citizen vs professional investigative journalism - or even legitimate entertainment journalism - is way off base.

Dumenco first acknowledges that citizen journalists have raised the bar for professional journalists in some ways, and cites the London tube bombing as one example where the footage obtained with cell phone cameras "bettered" the media - albeit, he says, "momentarily." He goes on, though, to say that "citizen journalists" are putting themselves in harm's way to obtain such coverage, which is true enough but really, no different from any journalist who chooses to put herself in harm's way for a story or photo. Then he writes:

(M)y larger concern is with the way that citizen journalism—and wannabe journalism—erodes the market for professional journalism. If 2005 was a signal year for the emergence of the cell phone as a newsgathering tool, it was also the year that presaged the death of newspapers and the further rapid contraction of traditional newsgathering operations.

He  totally lost me there.

He thinks 2005 was the year that presaged the death of newspapers and the contraction of newsgathering operations? Where the fuck has he been for the last decade?

As to eroding the market for professional journalism, well, if some college student with a camera phone does a better job than a pro, that's to the shame of the pro, and not something the pro should be trying to stop. The pro should, instead, try to be better.

And that applies to both political journalism and to entertainment media. You can't put the genie back in the bottle, cell phone cameras will be with us always, as will blogs, Gawker, and MySpace. The professional media will just have to suck it up and work harder.

Or quit their  jobs and get a LiveJournal.

Don't Tell Anyone, But...

I watched Celebrity Duets tonight, because Lucy Lawless (Xena) was on it. I love me some Xena. This isn't a secret. And there was even a tie-in to my other favorite show of all time, Queer as Folk, although in this case it was almost a drawback instead of an asset... because the tie-in was Hal Sparks, and I'm not a fan of Hal Sparks due to his inability to EVER give an interview about QAF without making sure to let everyone know HE'S NOT GAY.

He didn't actually suck, although he does have a chin rat and that's just wrong. His first duet was with Smokey Robinson on "Tracks of My Tears," and his second was with Gladys Knight, doing "Heard it Through the Grapevine." He looked a lot better on the second duet, I liked his little vest thingy. But he still must shave. And he's playing out of his league.

I have always known Lucy Lawless  could sing, since Xena featured a number of musical episodes. Her first duet, doing a song I'd never heard before with Michael Bolton who I can't stand,  was just OK, but her second, "Ooo Baby Baby" with Smokey Robinson? Judge Marie Osmond called it when she said it was hard to focus on the song because Lucy was "deadly beautiful," but Lucy's voice was also just gorgeous. Producer and judge Richard Foster said it might be the best TV moment of the year, and third judge Little Richard woo-wooed and said, "Girl, you got it goin' on!"

I do think Lucy was the prettiest and the best, but Queer Eye for the Straight Guy's Jai Rodriguez was amazing in his first duet with Gladys Knight. Until Lucy's second duet he owned me. But my Warrior Princess got me back in the second hour, although his next duet, "Say My Name" with Destiny's Child's Michelle Williams, was the next-best-thing-ever.

And now I have to watch this stupid idiotic show again. Groan.

[UPDATE:] The Malcontent ("Real Gay. Straight Up.") has VIDEO! And snarky commentary! And they loved Xena and Jai just like I did! OMG! Here.

Big Move

I'm almost scared to post this, because nothing in life is ever final and it could all fall apart, but... I think I've sold my house in Sonoma, and found a house in San Francisco, and will be moving Sept. 28.

I'm incredibly excited and incredibly freaked out. Big change does that. I know it's the right next step for me, and even the dogs tell me they're looking forward to being city dogs - Kyrie especially is excited to think of being paraded around and admired, because she IS the most glamorous thing ever, and I told her we'll let her coat grow in so she'll be like, woah beautiful. (I keep her clipped down here in the country as she has a tendency to drag the forest in on her coat.)

I offered on a house in the city once before, when I was in contract on my existing house, and while I liked it, I didn't love it - but this one I love. I walked in and felt, this is it. I need to live here. It's in the neighborhood I wanted the most of all, it's small but suits me perfectly, it's one house away from a wonderful park, the area is quiet and pretty, and it's walking distance to both my brother's houses, two parks, and lots of public transit.

The only flaw is that there isn't a commercial area within walking distance - even to grab some half and half or a cup of coffee, I'd have to drive. That sucks, because if you're going to live in the city, you should have some of the urban goodness to outweigh the badness. But I don't care, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks in every other way.

So, since I want this - for all those inclined toward the saying of prayers and the thinking good thoughts and all that kind of stuff that I can't explain or defend but do apparently believe in - me and the dogs would appreciate the help.

Friday iPod Challenge, the Most Embarrassing Moments in Music Edition

It's time for the Friday iPod Challenge, but this week I'm going to restrict my shuffle to my "Just Embarrassing" playlist because I'm tired of sitting here chewing my nails worrying that "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" is going to come up and I decided just to get it over with in one big orgy of humiliation.

This listing reflects songs I find corny, stupid, idiotic, ridiculous, over-produced, schmaltzy, or otherwise just freaking humiliating that I like. And yet I do.

You can play by the usual rules - totally random selection using any MP3 player or software such as iTunes, shuffle your entire music collection and post the first ten songs that come up - or you, too, can list only songs that embarrass you.

Commentary is optional but I love it! As always, stolen from Roxanne, who is doing a YouTube version with an Andy Warhol theme this week, and stolen by JeffB, where you can post your list and maybe win an iPod! So go there next.

Here is my Friday iPod Challenge, Most Embarrassing Musical Moments Edition:

1. Don't You Want Me - The Human League. I never liked this in the 80s when it first came out, but I love it now. No idea why. I'm just sick.
2. Gold - Spandau Ballet. "Always believe in your soul."
3. Dancing Queen - ABBA. Do you even have to ask? This is probably on everyone's list of guilty pleasures.
4. Stayin' Alive - The Bee Gees. I LOVE IT. I have no idea why!
5. Careless Whisper - George Michael. *is big sucker for George Michael*
6. I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor. Probably not embarrassing. I love it so much.
7. Leather and Lace - Stevie Nicks & Don Henley. This is some kind of weird lesbian thing, I think.
8. The Highwayman - Stevie Nicks. *is big sucker for Stevie Nicks*
9. True - Spandau Ballet. No excuse. Just lame pop from the 80s.
10. I've Never Been to Me - Charlene. Might be the single most embarrassing thing on here. Drag queen song from Priscilla: Queen of the Desert soundtrack. Just awful and I love it. I sing along with it in the car.

Your turn!

The Littlest Nazis

The world we live in is too strange and sad to contemplate sometimes.

JeffB blogged about a somewhat popular teeny-bopper group over on clubkingsnake. A Nazi teeny-bopper group. It's the most perverse and disgusting thing I've ever seen.

Nazi Blonds Fuck Off

Vanished Mini-Review

Because I'm writing an article on Gale Harold (Queer as Folk), I watched the TV premier of his new Fox series, Vanished, tonight.

I liked the part where Gale Harold's character is trying to save a kid from a kidnapper and the kidnapper gets shot and just as he goes down he blows the kid up and Gale Harold's character rolls around on the ground in agony.

I liked the part where he tells the priest trying to get him to talk about the incident that he's "all talked out."

I liked this quote:

"Faith scares me. Blind faith must be terrifying."

Everything They Say About Old Dogs is True

Once upon a time there was a tiny little newborn puppy. She was the only female in her litter, which had been carefully planned and anticipated by her breeders. She wore a little pink ribbon around her neck, because even though her breeders were staunch feminists, they were also total suckers.

Even before her eyes opened she must have known she was special, because she spent almost every waking moment, and probably most of her sleeping ones, cradled in someone’s arms.

By the time she could see and started running around outside, she knew her name was Rosie and that she was “our only girl.” In fact, she thought her name really was “Rosie, our only girl.”

She had a new collar with pink roses embroidered on it. Unless she was playing, her feet never touched the ground. She was her dog mother’s favorite puppy, too. Everything in life was wonderful. The sun came up every day, it was never too hot, the people loved her, the dogs loved her, and really, the whole world was her oyster and that’s just how it was.

And this isn’t a cautionary tale, because while Rosie did have a few rough patches in her long life, basically it continued just the way it began. She finished her show ring championship before she was a year old, racking up quite a few nice wins. She had a little trouble with her first litter, but she was a stellar mom. She never broke a leg or had a serious illness, although there was a rattlesnake that bit her once, and that kind of sucked.

Her dog mom died, a very old deerhound at the age of 12. She was very sad to see her go, but her people seemed to love her even more then, so life kept being good. Sometimes other old dogs would die, and she always felt sad, especially when it was one of her brothers, or her friend Scarlett, the little brown dog. And the worst was when Colleen died, because Colleen was queen of everything, and shouldn’t ever have died, no matter how old she was.

Well, the worst until Rosie’s puppy died, when he was four years old. Rosie was philosophical, though, because by now she’d figured out that sometimes these things happened, one day the dogs would die. First it would be hard, and then life would be good again.

And one day, after a lot of really nice things happened and everyone kept loving her, she was old. Older than any deerhound at her people’s house had ever been. A very, very old deerhound. When she turned 13, people she didn’t know sent her birthday cards and emails, and the deerhound list was all excited about her advanced years, and the people who’d lived with her brothers when they were alive all got teary-eyed and called to wish her a wonderful day.

And Rosie had a little trouble getting up, although once she was up, she could happily go for short walks. She loved her meals and her people and the other dogs, and really, life just couldn’t have been better.

And every night she followed her human mom into the bedroom and curled up on her big comfy bed and fell asleep, only to do it all again, just as happily, the next day.

And I meant it when I told you this isn’t a cautionary tale. We’re still living happily ever after, for however long we have.

Old dogs are love.

Friday iPod Challenge, Cat's Away Edition

So, nearly everyone from club.kingsnake.com  is at the big reptile show in Daytona this weekend, leaving me, yes ME, in charge. And the first thing I did was post about dance music! That'll teach Jeff to go out of town.

This is my stolen iPod challenge. Stolen away from Roxanne, who is currently doing it as a YouTube thing that's very very cool. But then karma got me because JeffB stole it from me and one-upped the hell out of me, because he gives a free iPod away every month to some lucky poster. Jerk. So after you post your random ten here, go post it there so you can get stuff.

Where was I? Oh yeah. The rules of the challenge are simple: Using any kind of MP3 player or program, such as iTunes, shuffle your ENTIRE MUSIC LIBRARY (no cheating) and list the first ten songs. Did I mention NO CHEATING? We all have shit on our iPods we'd rather no one knew about. That's kind of the point, to totally embarrass you. Oh, and maybe to find some wonderful new music.

Feel free to give a commentary about the songs, or just list them - your call.

Here's mine:

1. Come Back from San Francisco - The Magnetic Fields
2. It's No Game (Part 2) - David Bowie
3. Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On) - Talking Heads
4. I Don't Want to Get Over You - Magnetic Fields
5. Summer Calling (DJ Tiesto Remix) - Andain
6. Ask - The Smiths
7. Human - Jason Walker
8. Take a Chance on Me - Erasure
9. Shelter (Boris & Beck Dark Mix) - Ann Nesby
10. Jolene - Melissa Etheridge & Dolly Parton

Your turn!

Totally Bestselling Author

So, Gina's so much cooler than me, she not only blogs ALL THE TIME, she has written a bunch of books. She's my hero.

She has not one but TWO new books out today, and I actually did a teeny smidgeon of work on one of them, nothing to speak of really although no doubt if she wins the Pulitzer she'll thank me.

I logged into Amazon and there were her books being promoted on the main page!

I want to be Gina if when I grow up.

Just Blog

"You need to blog EVERY DAY."

This is the type of thing I heard from serious blogging types at BlogHer, and that my friends say to me on the phone and in email, imploring me for, I guess, something to read.

I write for a living. I know that's no excuse. Gina manages to blog her fingers off, and she not only writes for a living, she writes more than I do. And lots of authors and columnists and reporters blog daily. I'm clearly lesser stuff.

So my profound thought for the day: I hate deadlines. I hate their relative lack of malleability. I hate the painful aching feeling they give me in my gut. I really hate missing them, and try not to, but sometimes, well, I just do.

Given that I hate interviews and deadlines, do you find yourself wondering: WHY exactly did she become a journalist?

And on that happy bloggy note, I leave you to go write an article about old dogs, that perhaps I'll post here and bring light to the life of all those people who keep asking me sadly, "Are you ever going to blog about dogs again?"