Know Your Meme: Balloon Boy — Media Frenzy Fail.
While the country’s faulty unemployment surveys should take some major blame for taking us further away from what is considered “real” in this economy, New York Post reports that the latest unemployment rate for young Americans is at a new record high. I’ve never been a big “number” person, but 52 per cent sounds like a really bad number for unemployment.
The unemployment rate for young Americans has exploded to 52.2 percent—a post-World War II high, according to the Labor Department—meaning millions of Americans are staring at the likelihood that their lifetime earning potential will be diminished and, combined with the predicted slow economic recovery, their transition into productive members of society could be put on hold for an extended period of time.
MTV’s everlasting pursuit of mediocre stupidity disguised as comedy continues
Earlier today, I got this e-mail via NYU Journalism career service. Whoever made this pitch over at MTV genius lab must have confused “funny” and “crazy” with the word “shitty.” Timely as it may be, I think some things are not meant to be made into reality television and this is one of them.
NYC’s Bohemian Theme Park Gone Broke
While it takes no neighborhood survey to see the sad, sad sight of burst bubble that is Williamsburg’s waterfront development, NY Magazine ran a lengthy feature on the staggering reality of Brooklyn’s much-hyped real estate biz.
Woody Allen settles for $5 Million
You may have heard about Woody Allen’s recent copyright feud with American Apparel. Well, he won the battle yesterday and walked away with $5 million in settlement. And so the case is over, but questions still remain as to what exactly prompted the multinational “alternative” clothing company to assume that Allen wouldn’t make a fuss about his face being copied & pasted on their billboards. Did the AA marketing directors feel some vague sort of empathy/indie-connection with the celebrated filmmaker? Or did the copyright laws just slip their minds when they right-clicked on “Save and Download Image As”?
Which brings up the real question and the point that I want to over-stretch from this episode: are copyright laws still “real” in the year 2009? I am just saying, I think Woody is great and all, but I seriously doubt that $5 million he scored will leave any permanent lessons to be learned. Just saying.
