Image courtesy of alecbaldwin.com
NO ALTERNATIVE
Chances are this is the first you’re hearing of it, but there’s apparently a website that’s been farting on for months under the banner of being “an alternative guide to Boston’s music, nightlife, and culture.” In that alleged role, BDCwire has delivered such smoldering and relevant posts as “6 songs that prove Blues Traveler is better than you realize,” “8 awesome running events around Boston,” and a thoughtless piece on Boston hip-hop to rival even the most ignorant subculture smears ever vomited by cocooned Globe opinion troll Alex Beam.
Shallow beef aside, we’ve done like most young readers, and left this so-called alternative page to bleed quietly in the wilderness. Nevertheless, this week we have reason to give them a good fisting. It’s lame enough that the Globe-owned BDCwire is the blog equivalent of a flyover state mall rat in PacSun posing as the Big Kahuna; not even the most conservative Mormon imaginable would take offense at their most salacious of posts. What’s worse, though, is their grazing of state marijuana issues with the same adult dinner party condescension that mainstream journalists humiliatingly huff in every puff of coverage.
The word ‘alternative’ has been generally meaningless since 1993. But as far as media goes, the small bit of significance the term has left gets dimmer every time the likes of a BDCwire further bastardizes the ideal with quips like, “Were DPH officials high when they rated potential marijuana dispensaries?” It’s already embarrassing to have a mock alternative outlet run by editors who aren’t constantly under the influence of drugs and alcohol, but this sort of line-toeing banter is nothing short of shameless.
MUCK OFF
A quick salute to our allies at MuckRock, the Boston-based web tool that allows everyone from journalists to ordinary sober citizens to keep public officials in check. While the BDCwire’s coverage of bureaucratic ganja idiocy was childish, the information it was culled from–an in-depth analysis of Massachusetts marijuana dispensary applications–was actually revealing in terms of its shedding light on the state arbiter’s seeming laziness and stupidity. At the same time, other freedom of information requests filed through MuckRock–and with the support of operatives there–have recently spurred an overdue discussion in Somerville about that city’s lack of governmental transparency. Meanwhile, in another crusade, they landed a haymaker on the New York Police Department. As noted in a recent post by MuckRock projects editor and sometimes Dig contributor Shawn Musgrave:
From rejecting routine requests to claiming “inability to locate” documents even when provided with a form number, NYPD seems hellbent on obstructing access to its records … But this latest rejection beats all, and flies in the face of Commissioner Bratton’s numerous public statements since assuming office that “there should be no secrets in the NYPD.” … Last week, NYPD’s freedom of information squad determined that its own handbook is exempt from disclosure under FOIL, New York’s public records statute … In an interesting interpretation of the attorney-client privilege, NYPD claims that it has no obligation to disclose its methods of processing requests for public documents.
MARY SAID KNOCK YOU OUT
Even if you never stopped drinking Bloody Marys, and even if nobody you know ever stopped sipping them (for reasons other than their causing indigestion), go ahead and call it a comeback. That’s the word according to the New York Daily News, which recently declared that New Yorkers are suddenly “hungry” for this “meal in a glass.” With any luck, the trend will eventually hit New England, where the Herald can have some pun of their own with it. Until then, try savoring this most absurd claim in history by Stoli Vodka brand ambassador Lindsay Eshelman: “The Bloody Mary is not so much a cocktail as it is an experience … If you want a cocktail, get a martini. If you want an experience, go for the Bloody Mary.”
WILL BE MISSED
Alec. Fucking. Baldwin. We would say that we probably feel the same way about him as you do, but from what we’ve seen over the past few years, a lot of folks have a ridiculous and unfair view of the iconic actor and culture warrior. Turns out more than a few people think Baldwin was wrong to tell his spoiled daughter to fuck herself, and, that he’s a certifiable homophobe. To address those perceptions and a million others, last week Baldwin blessed New York magazine with a soliloquy dubbed, “Good-bye, Public Life,” significant snippets of which should be reproduced on giant sheets and wheat-pasted across buildings from Gotham to Manhattan Beach. Baldwin is absolutely fallible, and his puerile tries at both talk radio and blog polemics have at their lowest points threatened to compromise his brilliant deadpan legacy. This latest and last screed, however–admittedly written by a man who is more “bitter, defensive,” and “misanthropic” than he “care[s] to admit”–is about as proper a public exit as there ever was, even if he’s likely to return in no time, Hova-style. For now, some final Baldwin bombshells to savor …
In the pyramid of decision-making in New York City politics, rich people come first, unions second, and rank-and-file New Yorkers come dead last.
Now I loathe and despise the media in a way I did not think possible. I used to engage with the media knowing that some of it would be adversarial, but now it’s superfluous at best and toxic at its worst.
If MSNBC went off the air tomorrow, what difference would it make? If the Huffington Post went out of business tomorrow, what difference would it make?
Arianna Huffington accomplished what she wanted to accomplish. She created this wonderful thing. And what have they done with that? They want clicks, I get it. They’ve gotta have clicks for their advertisers, so they’re going to need as much Kim Kardashian and wardrobe malfunctions as possible. The other day, they had a thing on the home page about pimples.
Liberal and conservative media are now precisely equivalent … MSNBC, in its own way, is as full of shit, as redundant and as superfluous, as Fox.
Broadway has changed, by my lights. The TV networks, too. New York has changed. Even the U.S., which is so preposterously judgmental now. The heart, the arteries of the country are now clogged with hate. The fuel of American political life is hatred.
America’s more fucked up now than it’s ever been. People are angry that in the game of musical chairs that is the U.S. economy, there are less seats at the table when the music stops.
HERE COMES FUNNY DOO DOO
Frightening news here. According to a CBS affiliate in New Hampshire, “the website for L.A.-based Authentic Entertainment”–the sophisticated pop culture powerhouse behind such seismic milestones as Toddlers & Tiaras and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo–is casting for a “Hampton Beach Reality Show.” Media Farm can’t possibly make this look any stupider or white trash than CBS already has. With that, here’s a nugget for Dig readers to share accordingly with any worthless seacoast scum that may be interested …
Could Hampton Beach be the next Jersey Shore? A production company is currently casting for a reality show set on the popular summertime destination … According to the casting notice posted on Craigslist, the show is looking for men and women ages 18 to 30 who summer on Hampton Beach … If you spend your summers walking the boardwalk with your friends and getting into trouble we want to hear from you!” the notice says … Depending on your reality television show tastes, the production company’s portfolio may provide a glimpse into what a Hampton Beach-based show would be like.
SHAMELESS PLUG AND GOOD RIDDANCE
Two years ago this week, the world lost one of its most despicable blowhards to date, Andrew Breitbart. A slippery and vile snake of sizable renown and notoriety, it’s since taken an entire nation of conservative asses to twist his legacy into something ostensibly positive. Nevertheless, Breitbart built his actual web presence and web of influence alike on the blood and humiliation of poor and working class ideals, and should be remembered as the epic fraud he truly was. To help with that, be sure to check the dynamite web galley of DigBoston News + Features Editor Chris Faraone’s 2013 release, I Killed Breitbart … and countless other causes of conservative consternation, and to download the e-book on Amazon or iTunes.
[Media Farm is wrangled weekly by DigBoston News+Features Editor Chris Faraone]
