OMG, Hi!

Lately, I’ve really been in the mood to run into a few people. I’m not really friends with these people, so dinner, coffee or drinks would be too much. I just want to see these acquaintances for like five minutes at the gym or Duane Reade or something.

It’s too bad you can’t create coincidences.

Post Secret

Every time I travel, I always think that buying a postcard, actually writing it and finding stamps and a post office is more trouble than it’s worth. But every time one of my friends travels and I receive a postcard, I realize the pleasure of receiving one is worth all the inconveniences of sending one.

As you can imagine, I’m not the kind of person who writes, “Just got to Las Vegas, having a blast! See you when I return.” I try to write something sincere. Since sincerity, at least for me, involves quite a bit of rewording, I write out drafts of my postcards first.

In this age of text messages and email, there is something nice about the suspended communication of regular mail. You can send a long, thoughtful letter to a friend, and not be burdened with their long, thoughtful response immediately. And in a way you’re keeping a secret from them; they don’t know what you’ve said until they get your letter.

Anyway, when I went to Costa Rica this summer, I wrote four postcards to friends. As far as I can tell, all of these postcards got lost in the mail. To be honest, I know these postcards weren’t life changing, but I’m still disappointed. It’s as if all my good thoughts were also lost in the mail. Suspended communication is one thing; lost communication is another.

I'm on Team Sederais

I don’t mean to come off as pretentious, but when a person on a social networking site list their favorite books as The Da Vinci Code and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, I expect to see Maroon 5 in their favorite music.

Once a darling of the NPR set, David Sedaris became the writer equivalent of those Luden cough drops: sweet, but without much purpose. Sure, his writing was likable and engaging, but really, there was no substance to it.

But my opinion about David Sedaris has changed. I’m starting to see David Sedaris as a gay Philip Roth. In the same way that Roth’s religion is taken for granted in his work, so is Sedaris’s sexuality. In his last two stories for the New Yorker, Sedaris mentions Hugh without explaining that he is gay or that Hugh is his long time partner.

As Sedaris has moved away from (or run out of) hyperbolic stories from his youth, he has become a writer who represents a certain demographic but speaks to all of us.

Once Again

About a few weeks ago, I went through a phase. I listened to “Gospel” by The National on repeat about 100 times. “Gospel” isn’t the best song on The National’s new album Boxer or even the most interesting. But it has this mysterious quality, shared by songs such as “Let Down,” “Brandy Alexander” and “

The Sun Also Rises

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=rdWtpbuUEy4]

Roger Federer won his fifth Wimbledon today. Sans the French Open, he’s pretty much the best thing that happened to tennis since synthetic strings.

Rooting for the guy who has won seven of the last nine Grand Slams is easy and satisfying. He’s the Yankees of tennis, but instead of an exorbitant payroll, he has an arsenal of game winning shots. Like a Yankees fan, I feel entitled to wins and I’ll take them anyway I can get them. Nadal dominated Federer for most of the match, but the Swiss linguist pulled through in the fifth set, which was good enough for me.

During the tournament, Nike ran an effectively maudlin ad voiced by Tiger Woods that celebrated Federer’s career (see above). Sports reporters love this friendship, and I imagine that IMG, which manages both athletes, does as well. But really, what could these two have in common other than dominating their respective preppy sports? Well, for one thing, they’re all about the Francs.

Related: OMG, UR W/IMG? We’re BFF

Quick Hits

Wiki-what: One thing I like about Wikipedia is the chance for error. If you read something on there you wish weren’t true, like that you can’t ride the Staten Island Ferry back and forth without getting off, you can hope it’s wrong. I’ve embraced the ambiguity.

Pedicabs: Either you didn’t notice, or you get off on people suffering for your benefit. Either way, you’re a jerk.

iPhone: Seems like a score for AT

Don’t Stop (Believing)

In a history seminar my senior year, my professor asked the class if we thought ads were manipulative, and then asked if we felt manipulated by them. Sometimes self-awareness is useless: everyone raised their hands to both questions.

The story reminds me of my reaction to the Hillary Clinton ad.

For an official interpretation of why the ad works, I recommend The Washington Post. For me, the Sopranos references align so well with the country’s relationship with the Clintons. Hillary saying “remember the good times” echoes the Sopranos’s series finale, but also parallels how she wants Americans to think about the Clintons. Sure, there was Monica, health care, the lack of peace in the Middle East, but who didn’t have a great time in the 90s with Bill in office and Hillary on the wings? The Chelsea/Meadow parallel parking joke works in the same way. We’ve known Chelsea since she was 13. From braces to the gawker stalker, we’ve watched her grow up and she’s been a great first kid. Even Bill and Hill’s bad acting is winning.

The ad is supposed to make Hillary appealing to the average voter. And it does, but Clinton gets points from me for the ad’s artistry and understanding of the new importance of YouTube. Or maybe I’m just rationalizing just how well the ad has manipulated me.

Before this week, Barack Obama had almost accidentally been winning the YouTube campaign front with user-generated spots like Vote Different and I Gotta a Crush … On Obama. But in 90 seconds, Hillary reminds us how a Clinton campaign rolls. I hope they’re making The War Room 2.

It's Not TV

Looks like Team Hillary finally figured out how to use Bill.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=9BEPcJlz2wE]

Making Truth a Debate, Making that Debate a Joke

Remember the end of WarGames, when Matthew Broderick’s character makes the computer play tic-tac-toe against itself to distract it from creating a thermo-nuclear war?

Well, advocacy groups can do the same thing with news outlets by creating a debate where none exists. It’s hard for a newspaper to assess the validity of a claim without seeming biased. And in giving credence to something false, like creationism, newspapers get distracted from reporting the truth, like that creationists want to suppress scientific advancement.

Charles V. Bagli may have figured out a way to beat himself in tic-tac-toe so to speak, using humor to cover Joseph Sitt’s revised plans for Coney Island. The fact is, Sitt’s new plan isn’t that much of a change from the original. Whether he builds a hotel or a condo, Sitt’s high-rises will still loom above the Parachute Jump, and what’s the difference between a “shopping complex” and a mall anyway? Reporting all this, Bagli’s tongue is so firmly against his cheek, he seems to be miming an act unprintable in the New York Times.

I think Joseph Sitt’s plan to build-up Coney Island is wrongheaded—no matter how nice the condos or hotels are, Coney Island will still be over an hour away from midtown—and destructive to the area. Bagli’s approach was entertaining and well intentioned, but I think such sarcasm is inappropriate for the Metro section.

Suckers and Lazy Shoppers

Advertisers take note: I’m open to your pitch. Before college, I bought an Apple iBook for no other reason than its beautiful advertising campaign. I was completely aware that I had no reason to prefer Apples to PCs. Every time my iBook failed me, which was often, I had nothing to say for myself other than I had been a sap. After a few years of working on an iBook with a non-functioning mouse pad, I bought a Fujitsu laptop. Other than a brief problem with a virus that sent my Internet browser directly to a gay porn site upon login, I’ve been happy with my switch.

But after using an iMac for over a year at work, I’m thinking about switching back again when I need a new laptop. Along with their snazzy ads, I prefer their interface and search features. A new computer is the most expensive purchase I could make, my version of buying a home. Like perspective homebuyers, I would want to wait for a favorable market, except as Sean Cooper pointed out on Slate, Apple products don’t go on sale.

I think this has as much to do with Apple’s accessibility image as their bottom line. Do you know how much a 15-inch laptop with 1440 x 900 resolution and a 2GB memory should go for? Neither do I, and it’s not something I want to know. Apple says it should be $1,999.00, and that’s how much I would pay for a