Media-Whore's D'Oevres



(image via nytimes)

"Did the RIAA really think that penniless, digitally-literate and smart college students — angel-headed hipsters — could afford to spend $20 on a CD? Or, worse, $100 on 5? Music is the soundtrack of the college experience; nothing is going to stop a kid from getting his music-on. Come on now. The 'cool' music industry should have caught that flavor. Did the ultra-litigious RIAA — suing a 12-year old? How 'assy' was that? — truly think that students wouldn’t find some way around the outrageousness of the pricing schema. Why pay $20 for a CD where the listener only wants 3 songs. And so here we are. A digital music universe. This time, Steve Jobs — not Napster's Sean Fanning — trumped the music industry. And so the industry is looking to Rick Rubin (Always more of a creative type than a suit), the coolest kid in the class, to save their hash." (RonMwangaguhunga)

"Tonight, for example, there are no fewer than eight fashion parties-and that doesn't include the likes of Trovata, Imitation of Christ, and Band of Outsiders, all of whom are hosting everything from a cocktail party to a late-night rager surrounding their new collections. Van Cleef & Arpels and Anna Sui are taking over 34th Street, hosting shindigs at the Hammerstein Ballroom and Macy's, respectively, while further uptown, Roger Vivier and Tom Ford reign supreme on Madison Avenue. Downtown, Preen and Topshop will host a pre-show party at the SoHo Grand while Alek Wek's new book is toasted by Diane von Furstenberg at Socialista and Glamour reels in the celebrities and newbie designers for its second-annual T-shirt charity project. Adding into the mix are a Condé Nast Media Group-sponsored concert featuring Carlos Santana and a Harper's Bazaar Fashion Week kick-off party hosted by Glenda Bailey." (Fashionweekdaily)

"Welcome to Fashion Week, boys and girls. We hope you had a restful Labor Day weekend, cause it's going to get crazy up in this piece. To capture the madness, insanity and general mayhem that goes down from now through Sept. 12, we here at PAPERMAG are trying something different this season: We've enlisted a trio of Fashion Week pros (whom you may have heard of) to blog for us throughout the week; to give you an inside look at the ins, outs, sashays and shantes of Fashion Week, the juiciness that really goes on under those tents. Allow us to introduce you to our first guest blogger, the one-and-only Fabian Basabe." (Papermag)

"By the way, are we the only ones who noticed that Clinton had a tough couple of weeks at the end of August? It started at the debate in Des Moines, where -- for the first time -- she didn’t stand out from her opponents. Then came her much-criticized statement that Republicans would benefit politically from another terrorist attack, and that she’s the best Democrat to deal with that GOP advantage. And finally, there was the Norman Hsu story, which not only put her campaign on the defensive, but also allowed the media to dig up their old Johnny Chung photos at the very time Clinton is stressing that she’s the best candidate for change. The good news for her is that all of this came at the same time Washington was fixated on Larry Craig and the Rove and Gonzales resignations. During her roughest couple of weeks as a presidential candidate, was no one watching?" (FirstRead via Politico)

"(Howard Stern went on to say that he went over to John Bon Jovi's party during vacation and had a good time there. He said he brought his 14 year old daughter and her friend there. John had a nice set up out on his lawn. He said there was one superstar after another out there. He said that the New Jersey Governor, John Corzine, was there. Robin said she's heard some not so nice things about him but Howard was saying he's very down to Earth. He said the guy was really cool and he thinks that Robin would like him. Robin said she probably would but she likes to distance herself from those people. Howard said he saw Matt Laurer at the party. He also saw Bryant Gumble and his wife. He said there's almost a regular crowd out there in the Hamptons at these parties. He said Billy Joel and Paul McCartney showed up and then he saw Roger Waters there and spoke to him for a few minutes. Howard said his daughter asked him to introduce her to Bruce Springsteen so the next thing he knew he was talking to Bruce for like 10 minutes. Bruce then pulled the 'I've got a phone call' thing to get out of the conversation. He said that was fine because they had spoken long enough. He said that he wanted to ask Bruce about doing American Idol but never got to it." (Marksfriggin)