Clint Eastwood Sings? Guess So.

(Photo Credit: http://lickerish.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/clint-eastwood.jpg)

I LOVE Clint Eastwood. I always have. It's awkward to admit this publicly, because he's old enough to be my dad (or, uh, grandfather), but to me, he's timeless. He's old Hollywood. A man's man. And, in my defense, this weird affection was born from watching Eastwood's spaghetti westerns when I was a kid – movies originally released in the 1960s when he was only in his 30s. Yeah….it's still creepy, isn't it?

Anyway, Eastwood is back, in his first major acting role since Million Dollar Baby. It's this movie called Gran Torino, which I haven't bothered to learn that much about except I gather it will be released early next year. But as I read on Gawker this morning, Eastwood sings on the score. Apparently this is becoming some sort of trend, with Ed Harris pulling a similar stunt. Whatever, I only have eyes and ears for Clint.

You can listen and judge for yourself on the film's website – play "Gran Torino." Suffice to say, I'm going to pretend this song doesn't exist in order to preserve the illusion that Clint is still the young outlaw I fell in love with all those years ago -- rather than this rasping old man who has obviously plunged headfirst into senility. I'll be watching this trailer for the rest of the day if you need me.

~Ashley Herriman (Stark contributing writer)

Hipster Artists v. MTV Blockheads - Round 1: McKibbin Lofts

This week I learned that MTV plans to film the 21^st season of The Real World in Brooklyn. Like most shows on MTV, Real World seems almost exclusively populated with some combination of attention-seeking/racist/arrogant/homophobic/drunken/sexist /painfully stupid excuses for human beings. (I generalize, but if you’re over the age of 17 and you’ve watched this program or any of its asinine spin-offs lately, I suspect you’ll agree.) They haven’t picked a location yet, but The New York Observer speculated about both Carroll Gardens and Williamsburg as possibilities.

Gawker was quick and clever to outline their own plan, calling for the series to be filmed in the McKibbin Lofts, which brings me to my point. Profoundly uncool non-hipster that I am, I first read about McKibbin last week in The New York Times, which presented the two-building complex as a squalid haven for New York’s most recent generation of struggling artists, akin to “Greenwich Village 60 years ago, or SoHo 30 years ago, or the East Village in the 1990s.” Fascinating, I thought, scanning the related slide show of artsy black and white photos depicting the trendy, creative-looking folks who live in these sprawling industrial relics.

Then I read the story. According to the Times, these kids are effectively sleeping in cubbies, sometimes windowless, often with bedbugs. It’s loud, and occasionally people steal your stuff or piss outside your door. There are lots of parties, but some of them are lame. This is the new Utopia for starving creative types? The music/art/film that defines my generation may be spawned in these massive former industrial buildings barely suited for human habitation? I mean, I get it – artists are supposed to starve and this probably just a stop along the way and fodder for the craft, but it all seems a bit homogenous to me.

Together, the McKibbin buildings house about 600 of what the Times terms “mostly white hip young things.” Located in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the surrounding neighborhood is a rough and different demographic. These buildings are effectively islands, and one resident interviewed in the Times story says: “You don’t have to leave this building, with the exception of food. I don’t really speak to the locals.”

If art is borne of originality and imagination and McKibbin is home to a bunch of carbon copy hipsters who don’t see much reason to leave the compound, just what brand of creativity does this environment foster? I’ve never been to the lofts, and surely a few Gawker posts and a Times article don’t tell the whole story. Based on what I’ve read though, I’m all for tossing the next group of Real Worlders into McKibbin and seeing what happens. Even if no one learns anything from their differences, hipster artists v. MTV blockheads would make for damn entertaining TV.

Ashley Herriman - Stark Contributing Writer

Photos: Christian Hansen for The New York Times

Gawker Media to Sell Sites

On Monday, Gawker Media announced the sale of three sites, including Gawker music blog Idolator. The site will join ex-rival Stereogum, at Buzznet, which is a musically-focused social networking site that doesn’t like to adhere to the “social network” label. Buzznet may or may not be trying to orchestrate a mass grab of existing music blogs.

In a widely circulated internal email announcing the sale, Gawker publisher and acting managing editor Nick Denton said simply, “Why these three sites? To be blunt: they each had their editorial successes; but someone else will have better luck selling the advertising than we did.”

Fair enough — Idolator was one of Gawker’s two poorest performers and the sale was first rumored late last year. Denton further noted, “…We've been waiting for the internet bubble to burst. No, really, this time. And even if not, better safe than sorry; and better too early than too late.”

Denton’s reasoning seems sound and his conclusion logical, but it begs all kinds of questions about the future of new media and Internet advertising. According to a New York Times article published last November, ad spending on social networking sites is growing rapidly and expected to continue. These issues are bound to be explored further in the coming weeks as rumors of a Yahoo-AOL deal continue to swirl in the wake of other high-profile acquisitions, like News Corp’s purchase of MySpace. The underlying point seems to be that no one quite has this game figured out yet, and in the face of widespread-financial uncertainty, Denton’s circumspect decision to enter “the bunker” may prove a wise one.

Reference:

CNET

AlleyInsider.com

- Ashley Herriman (guest contributor to Stark)