Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Unfriggin' believable, man

I started my mediabistro internship on Tuesday. So far so good. It's a smallish operation, and the mood's laidback. (Jeans to work? In NYC? Score.) I've pretty much kept to myself thus far, but imagine they'll lift me out of my shell sooner or later here. I'm pulling a M-W routine, which means I have today and tomorrow to goof off/write my own stuff. Starting (late) next week, I hope to pick up semi-regular temp work--ideally one- or two-day assignments, and over the weekend if need be. Pea's found a decent agency in Vanguard, so I think I'll start there. (Fingers crossed, however, that I don't end w/ a toothbrush gig. Eek.)

Mediabistro offers various classes and seminars on craft, and they tape-record most every one. Some unfortunate soul transcribes the material, which on average, fills between 30 and 60 pages. Ouch. Whoever does this is pretty good, esp considering the length, but there's invariably a good deal of copyediting that still needs to take place. Enter moi. I spent Tues and Wed editing--the entire time. Ten hrs total, 50-odd pages. Weirdly, I didn't mind this, and actually found it quite entertaining. The speaker/journalist at this particular seminar/Q&A, called "Eight Million Stories in New York," is a regular kick in the pants. More than a little embittered (never been published in NYT, claims disinterest but I'm skeptical), he was full of, er, colorful language, most of which my editor gave me permission to keep in (hey, it's a style-thing). He also had plenty of stories to share--both personal and larger NYC-related. Editing all the while, I read about a fire, c. 1904, that engulfed the General Slocum ferry in flames, killing 1,000+ people; the fires that plagued the Bronx throughout the 60s and 70s; the Guardian Angels, of which the speaker himself was a part... on and on. Say, here's an excerpt, sans edits:

Q: This is all about print. What about websites, pitching websites?

A: Really not respected. I mean, I wrote for Rouse.com, which was like a men's thing, and they actually paid pretty well. After the NASDAQ crash—I mean, I left that alone because 1) they don't pay much, 2) uh… I mean, they're great. I love blogs. But there's no money there so I'm kind of…I look to get paid. And it's not—I mean, it depends, like Slate is good. What's the other one—Salon, I've done stories for them, they're impressive. There's not that many where it would be like, Wow, you know? They're written by one person. But Slate and Salon would be decent. I'm sure there's others. Does anyone know? I don't think it's the greatest thing, besides Slate and Salon, most things are hard copy. I don't like reading long stories on the internet. I can't, my eyes start to hurt. I like hard copy. That's a great question, I just don't really do it. I did it from 99 to 2000 and once the NASDAQ bubble crashed, Playboy closed the house down. I mean, it was great, they were paying a dollar a word and they wanted five stories a week. It was unfriggin' believable. Man, I loved Bill Clinton, I didn't care, he coulda shot someone I woulda voted for him again. But once that Mach of 2000, man, that just—so I'm not sure if you can…Salon paid pretty poorly the last time I wrote for them, and that was in 99. They were not paying that great. And I don't think, it's not as respected as a hard copy. Anyone else? Questions?

I've got a soft spot for non-sequiturs, much as I do for the word *unfriggin'.* Hee.

Posted by princess kanomanom @ 12:06 PM