Has There Already Been A Thread On Krystal Grow's Sad Spin Magazine Tale?

http://www.slate.com/id/2117752/

I had an actual job at Spin, albeit years ago and under different management. The magazine ultimately is, let's face it and I hate to use such language in a family publication, "rock criticism" -- just wanky opining about what is hip or hep or whatever kids today call it. (Is the word 'rock' dead, by the way? The cool kids are all listening to this hippity hop mess, aren't they?)

Being a journalist is finding stuff out, talking to people different from you, thinking hard about tricky things -- not strutting your tastes and pretensions. l didn't know that when I was in my twenties either. After 18 months of Spin, I couldn't get out of there fast enough. So shattered was I that working for Steve Brill at The American Lawyer seemed like a good idea. Another interesting case study and frequently not fun to work for, but he (and the many smart people who worked for him) beat the 'rock critic' out of me and made me a reporter."

http://poynter.org/forum/?id=letters

HOP

MESS

Unlike Hans Eisenbeis, I'm familiar with Spin only as a reader, and so I can only defend the magazine by saying that it has employed and published plenty of outstanding writers and editors (even if it has also gotten rid of some of them as well). But I have to object to Peter Carbonara's offhanded dismissal of the whole field of pop music criticism. I won't argue whether it counts as "journalism," a pseudoprofessional weasel word for college grads who are vaguely ashamed they ended up as mere writers or reporters. But is Carbonara trying to claim that Lester Bangs, say, never "thought hard about tricky things"?

Hey, I'm glad Carbonara left Spin, where he was unhappy, and got the
reporting training he wanted at Mr. Brill's School for Respectable
Journalists. That's a legitimate line of work. But not the only one. Perhaps he meant to distinguish Spin's brand of music criticism from some unspecified, better kind. Or maybe he was trying to say that "rockcriticism," however he defines it, is a lazier, less worthwhile enterprise than other kinds of criticism. Otherwise we need to add Pauline Kael, Susan Sontag and, oh, Samuel Johnson to the list of those who "strutted their tastes and pretensions" and never "found stuff out" or thought hard about tricky things. But if Bangs et al never did any real work, then the rest of us can only aspire to be nearly as fake at our work as they were.

haha XPOST

DAVID R!!!

Ease up on the pain and grief from the sissies. Like every job in America, even those that pay zero, the line of applicants is astounding. You want to be a journalist, apply to 500 newspapers in the 50 states? Hope to start by getting a reporter's assignment to cover local sewer meetings. Be prepared to get rejected by all of your targets or be selected by blind luck if you don't have a networked in. Prepare to have your sincerity, "credentials" and work history offhandedly insulted by utter strangers.

"I assumed I was a shoo-in and started looking for apartments in the East Village in my spare time."

xpost

When I was in college and the internet was a fairly new phenomenon (pre-Google) some fairly embarrasing stuff I wrote wound up online and remained google-able for years after I graduated. Luckily I think most of it has slowly disappeared over time.

Conclusion: N. Adams is a cultural hothouse, and if she can make it there she can make it anywhere.
(xpost!)

Link please, Sundar.

(i'm guessing her love for Interpol has been nipped in the bud)

"My friend Amy is moving in a few weeks, and I found her a job at a hip vintage store in the East Village. At least it worked out for someone."

she's no hick from stix!

(unfortunately doesn't work anymore)

I wouldn't hold any of this against her (though I bet she's a real joy to work with, particularly since she's back at the Transcript). Being 21, having six published pieces and hearing your mother tell you you're the greatest writer in the world can't help but have an effect.

Only if you know someone who's hiring this summer!

Michael Chabon's Holocaust Hoax