Rachelle's Reading List, Wednesday, Feb. 9th, 2011

by Rachelle Hruska · February 9, 2011

Online media mumblings continue. Will HuffPo beat out the NYT? Is Denton still living on his own planet? How much money is AOL losing? Will Rex Sorgatz be able to afford a summer house in Montauk this year? Things are really crazy. Plus, everyone in the fashion world is like "Tumblr this" and "Tumblr that." It's exciting!

1. "Why the NYT will lose to HuffPo." [Reuters] does an article, gets everyone fired up. [Benjaminstein]

Yes, "The NYT page is like walking into a library, while the HuffPo page is like walking through Times Square." [Soup]

For the record, I respect Arianna Huffington and think her and Kenneth Lerer have done a fantastic job online. They are especially good at SEO, mass content aggregation, and hiring - I legit enjoy the people that work there. That being said, HuffPo for me is like an unmedicated child with severe ADD. I want simpler media too!

2. Fashion is getting TECHnical. If the FABB conference put on by LUCKY yesterday (in which leading fashion ladies like Tory Burch and Jenna Lyons spoke at), is any indication of the power of the fashion blogger, the fashion world has only just begun it's journey online. Take this Fashion Season's Tumblr campaign. The blogging service snatched up 24 passes to more than a dozen shows, including big names like Oscar de la Renta, in order to send their highest hitting fashion users. Today's WSJ is on the story, and all of my favorite Tumblr friends are there! [WSJ]

3. Our kids are not fine. The Daily reports part 1 in a 5 part series on "Save Our Schools." The stats are startling: [Thedailyfeed]

One-third of American fourth graders can't subtract 75 from 301.

Sixty-five percent don't know how to tell if two cups hold the same amount of water.

One-quarter of all teenagers don't graduate from high school.

4. Apple's new iPad is in production. It's set to be thinner, lighter, and all around better. There will be a camera of course, for video chatting and the like. Anyone else starting to get a little bit sick of the marketing strategies of the consumer tech world? [WSJ]

5. Kenny Scharf has a series of giant Donut Paintings up at New York's Paul Kasmin Gallery. Check the pieces out here: [Flavorwire] Below, my favorite one for my favorite donut: the chocolate sprinkle:

[Kenny Scharf, Chocolate Donut with Sprinkles on a Lovely Day, 2011. Oil on linen, 24 x 24 inches, Courtesy Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York]

6. Dear Single Women of NYC: It's Not Them, It's You. The plight of the single lady is reworked by Jen Doll today for the Village Voice. [VV]

7. Esquire Magazine put together this pretty great 2011 Valentine's Day Package of advice for men, including a story on the "Bad Breath Problem" written by The Office's Ellie Kemper. [Esquire]

8. A members-only eating site is coming to NYC. 19 Charles Street is like the Gilt Group for the Gourmet foodies. It differentiates itself from other food delivery services like Fresh Direct by having members order specific meals rather than individual ingredients. Also, it's got a write up in super chic [WWD] today.

9. The Gawker Redesign Fail:

"Lost in the Gawker redesign: Valleywag, Defamer and Cityfile." whoops. [NickDouglas]

Gawker has modified the modified design to a cross between new and old (see photo below). [NyctheTumblr]

Take note @nicknotned, this is really how a redesign is done (@gothamist) [@krucoff]

10. Check out Bloomberg's list of America's Most Promising Startups. Their ventures range from organic baby food to commemoratives for the grieving to an online forum that transforms rants into Web Campaigns. [Bloomberg]

11. "Since Feb. 1, the price of AOL shares has dropped from $23.85 to $20.89 at yesterday's close. With 106.7 million shares outstanding, that means AOL has shed $315 million in value over the last five trading days--which happens to be exactly the same price AOL agreed to pay to acquire HuffPo." Yikes. [NYP]

12. Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, is finally taking his new project "Square" out of beta. (See photo of me trying the application in Jan '10!). He's also in WWD for his partnership with Vivienne Tam. [WWD]

13. Weird. The Ronald McDonald show apparently is still in existence. (Whaaa?!) And, the van is currently parked in our neighborhood. [@newyorkist]

14. A new study found that subjects with ADHD really do have enhanced creative abilities. Parents everywhere rejoicing. [DailyBeast]

15. Yep. "There's a app Tumblr for that." Hilarious Break Downs is a tumblr site that does all these casting calls around NYC. Apparently, a Charlie Sheen stand in is needed for GQ today! [Sheenstandin]

16. If it were up to Michelle Obama, Matt Lauer will never eat another tater tot again: [Today]

Matt Lauer: “You’re not gonna take my kids’ tater tots, though?” Michelle Obama: “Do you want them to have the tater tots?” Matt Lauer: “I want the tater tots.” Michelle Obama: ‘Life is about good food – at least in America’

17. Picasso's portrait of his teenage mistress sold for 25m Euros in a sale of impressionist and modern art at sale of impressionist and modern art at Sotheby's in London last night. [Telegraph]

18. Take a look at the 2011 ROFLcon going on @ MIT this year: [Slippy]

19. Meryl Streep undergoes an incredible makeover as the new "Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher. [NYP]

20. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords speaks! Her first words were spoken today asking for toast for breakfast. [MSNBC]

21. Check out this short and sweet analysis of N*Sync versus the Backstreet Boys. [Dische via KatieBaker]

22. The new diet pepsi "skinny can" is trying to live up to its name. PepsiCo is set to unveil a "taller, sassier new Skinny Can" for its Diet Pepsi Brand, which a press release says is meant as a "celebration of beautiful, confident women." [CNN]

23. Ashley Simpson files for divorce from Pete Wentz citing "irreconcilable differences." Oh noes! [TMZ]

24. This crazy woman tried to air-mail her puppy from Minneapolis to Georgia. It was supposed to be a birthday gift. Bananas. [StarTribune]

25. "Way to ruin all the fun, Vatican." The Pope approves social media but The Vatican says "Catholics cannot confess via iPhone, and technology is not a substitute for being present when admitting sins to a priest." [Today]

26. The New Yorker article on Paul Haggis vs. the Church of Scientology is getting considerable cred online this week. [NewYorker]

27. Impressive. Seventeen-year-old Bianca Passarge of Hamburg dresses up as a cat and dances on wine bottles in June 1958. Her performance was based on a dream. She practiced for eight hours a day to do this. So we're told. [WaPo]

28. I love this: "A book commits suicide every time you watch Jersey Shore." [Newsweek] I'm reading Fitzgerald's "Tender is the Night" right now...what is everyone else reading?

29. Finally, photographer Jason Lee is still up to his old shenanigans. Check out this photo of his daughters Kristin and Kayla as Angry Birds characters. The hats they're wearing you can score on Etsy. [LaughingSquid]