Tag Archives: drinking

Fine, I guess I am a Blogger, and other thoughts on the BK Blogs meetup

Posted on April 22, 2010 | 5 comments

Brokelyn's Lauren Cannon gets blogged on at The Bell House (photo by jillysp)

New Yorkers, I have come to learn, never really need an overarching excuse to get together, tip a few drinks and be social, whether this be for business negotiations, quiet commiseration or just drunkenly arguing over the added societal value of increased usage of portmanteau (or increausortmanteau).

Yet still, I am, by nature, highly skeptical of organized media events — press briefings, journalism conferences, awards ceremonies, any sort of general charlie foxtrot breaking news situation, and the like.  All these have done little in the past to dissuade the adage of “hell is other journalists,” whether it be from being pestered for breaking news updates from TV reporters too lazy to do their own reporting or trying to get a question in edgewise to Seann William Scott during a roudtable interview when a woman kept pestering his time with non Bulletproof-Monk-related questions related to the anti-drug campaign.

So it is with this trepidation that I went into the BKBlogs event at Bell House last Wednesday night, knowing full well that any event that involved willfully immersing oneself in a sea of bloggerers and twitterers was a recipe for a hot mess of self-promotion stew.

But Brooklyn, as ever, is full of pleasant surprises. Brokelyn was asked to help host this event with Fucked in Park Slope and Brooklyn Based, with no other intended purpose than to get together at a cool bar and network the shit out of each other and see what the faces of those pajama-clad carpal tunnel-rocked wretches of the Brooklyn bloggerati look like.

People responded well to the event, and a few hundred filled the front lounge of the Bell House, far outcrowding the pink-haired, wallet chained, fedora-adorned Cherry Poppin’ Daddies fans (concurrent concert in the back room. And hey, Cherry Poppin’ Daddies are still around! Zoot!). Continue reading →

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Posted in brooklyn, writing

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Stop the presses (because my head is killing me)

Posted on May 29, 2009 | 1 comment

Well duh. From a story in The Independent (UK) on Monday:

People working in media, publishing and entertainment sectors are the heaviest drinkers, according to the Department of Health. They consume an average of 44 units a week, almost twice the recommended maximum amount of three-to-four units a day for men, and two-to-three for women.

Job by job: The alcohol league

*Media, Publishing and Entertainment sectors 44 units per week

*IT workers 34 units per work

*Service sector workers and retail 33 units per week

*Finance, insurance and real estate 29 units

*Education and transport workers 24 units

It’s from England, and it’s a bit of a broad category (does entertainment include everything Amy Winehouse has consumed?), but I don’t doubt it’s true for just media and similar in America too. I’ve been waiting for them to add “hard drinking” to the list at Stuff Journalists Like. I bet it’s on its way. Hard drinking and hard deadlines are like a test of your worth among seasoned press folk: “Do it without vomiting next time and then you can call yourself a reporter, kid.”

A hallmark trait of working at a newspaper is having to cover a fire, car wreck or plane crash with a hangover mocking and jabbing you from its comfortable perch in the back of your brain. I once was wrenched away from a sedate hangover-at-the-desk-day  to go stand in the rain for hours covering a major bank heist on Hilton Head (by the Bandaged Bandit, if any y’all remember him) until I couldn’t take it any more and had to slip behind some bushes to … you know … do what you do behind bushes on a hangover day. And the story was still pretty damned good, if I do say so myself (and I do).

Many reporters I know have stories about being called into duty after hours when they were already a few steps into their cups. This guy once came stumbling up to our newspaper office at GW at 2 a.m. drunk and in a mad scramble for a notebook so he could go report on the big frat/student

Journalists agree: drinking gets a thumbs up

Journalists agree: drinking has legs

government candidate party that was getting busted. We had sent him to the party undercover and he made sure to blend in by drinking lots of beer (why I was at the newspaper office at 2 am on a Saturday has nothing at all to do with not having any friends or being an irreconcilable newspaper nerd, btw). Now he works for Newsweek, has been to Iraq a few times and was interviewed on NPR and appeared on The Daily Show on the fifth year anniversary of the war. So, yeah.

It’s hard times out there for people in media and publishing, and “media/publish” is probably on track to overtake “professional alcoholic” in terms of highest beverage consumption demographics. But are things really that bad for you IT folks that you are not far behind? YOU HAVE ALL THE JOBS WE USED TO HAVE! Maybe it’s celebratory drinking?

I used to try to raise a glass in honor of every paper we’ve lost or significant layoff that is announced. Then I died from alcohol overdose and my doctor recommended I stop for a minute.

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Posted in newspapers

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My liver wishes newspapers wouldn’t close so quickly

Posted on March 23, 2009 | 3 comments

Err… so maybe my strategy of drinking one (or two) in honor of fallen newspaper comrades will result in alcohol poisoning quicker than I had thought.

The demise of the 174-year-old Ann Arbor News, announced today, is worth some special regard, as it is now becoming apparent the next few months will

RIP

RIP

likely be filled with dark red spots on the map noting where newspapers have shut down their print editions. The Tribune bankruptcy, crippling cuts and layoffs at my old paper in SC, the Rocky, the PI, etc etc., all seemed like sad reminders worthy of a beer in the gullet while contemplating the hundreds of unpaid “Writer wanted” postings on Craigslist (a recent highlight: “This position is currently an unpaid one, but will give you hands on experience in this medium. In addition you will be a member of our masthead, receive business cards, etc.” So, couldn’t you save the business cards and at least give offer the $20 they cost to print?)

I should probably find a healthier way of marking my condolences, I guess. Tequila shots followed by naked, screaming laps around Atlantic Ave? Done and done.

It seems that the Rocky shutting down may prove to be the dam breach. I wonder if it’s a psychological thing, like newspapers were holding out, not wanting to be known as the first to shut down the presses for good. Why it’s taken this drastic change for a paper like the Seattle PI to focus on a comprehensive web strategy, I also do not know. The SF Chronicle is still fighting off the possibility their closure would make SF the first major American city without a newspaper.

I’d link to the Ann Arbor Web site here, but I won’t put you through it. It’s … rough, to say the least. Go ahead and find it, if your head isn’t sore from slapping already. The main post on there today is announcing major revisions to the look and navigation of the news site. Under that, in the “latest news” heading: “Ann Arbor News to close in July.”

You can’t make this stuff up people. Pass the tequila.

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Posted in newspapers

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