Hotel guest Scott Prosterman, 58, was meditating on his bed when he heard the fire alarm go off.
Berkeley: 3-alarm fire at historic Nash Hotel
“Berkeley.”
Bachelor’s degree in a related field, or at least in something interesting.
Requirement in a job description I just read.
Going to assume these people are super chill.
“What was the happiest moment of your life?”
“When I left home and went to Hollywood.”
“Did you want to be an actor?”
“Nope, just wanted to go to Hollywood.”
imagine ur at a really fun asoiaf/got convention and then suddenly the staff closes the doors and the rains of castamere starts playing
My English teacher gave every one awards today because it was the last day of school and this was mine…
Mrs. Mullins sounds amazing.
Ramon Ortiz’s Final Pitch
On Sunday, while pitching against the San Diego Padres, Ramon Ortiz likely threw his final pitch, throwing his glove to the ground and crying after something clearly popped in his elbow. It was a startling reminder that not only are ballplayers human, but that no matter how much baseball is often run like a business, it’s still a dream for everyone who gets to play it.
Ortiz was never a star and for the last six years he was hardly even a Major Leaguer, but he clearly loved the game enough to put up with shuttling between Japan, AAA, and the Major Leagues, posting a 5.50 ERA since 2005. Still, ballclubs need warm bodies and Ortiz was a willing one with a low-90s fastball. At age 40 and with an arm surgery appearing likely, Ortiz’s career is probably over, finishing with 87 wins, 1,400 innings, and a World Series ring. And not too many players can ask for much more than that.
One of the most heartbreaking things I’ve ever seen.
Cronut Scalping Operations (CSOs) on Craigslist have expanded. That’s no surprise, because really, when there’s money to be made on such riskless pastry arbitrage, there’s going to be more than just one person doing it!
As we all know by know, cronuts are a trademarked croissant-donut hybrid, which Dominique Ansel Bakery debuted in New York a few weeks back. Black market prices started as high as $40 over the weekend (as we first reported, even though Fox News isn’t giving us credit), a whopping 635% markup above retail, but more affordable offers have appeared as competition grows among the scalpers. The lowest priced cronut on Craiglist is now $10, a more reasonable 83% markup from the base price (plus tax) of $5.44 per pastry.
Keep in mind that Dominique Ansel, per a receptionist, has cut the max order per customer to three cronuts, down from six. So what say you people of earth? Are scalped cronuts a BUY HOLD OR SELL at these prices?
Black Market Cronuts. Pretty sure this is one of the signs of the apocalypse.
From the New York Times, on the end of Karen Berger’s 30-year run at Vertigo Comics.
Mr. DiDio [co-publisher of DC Comics, which owns Vertigo] said it would be “myopic” to believe “that servicing a very small slice of our audience is the way to go ahead.”
“That’s not what we’re in the business for,” he added. “We have to shoot for the stars with whatever we’re doing. Because what we’re trying to do is reach the biggest audience and be as successful as possible.”
Vertigo comics, for those of you that don’t know, is the publisher of such groundbreaking pieces of fiction as the Sandman comics, Y The Last Man, Hellblazer, V for Vendetta, and a lot a lot more. It is a publisher who found its strength through *exactly the opposite thing* that DiDo is describing: Sandman’s 75 issue run had multiple storylines that were lifted from Shakespeare for god’s sakes.
These were not comics created to “reach the biggest audience and be as successful as possible,” they were comics created for very specific audiences. “Small slices” of people that loved those books passionately and who spread the word, person by person, until they rippled out past their four-color-printed pages and, in some cases, transformed society itself.
Of course, trying to “reach the biggest audience and be as successful as possible” isn’t a problem specific to comics (few problems actually are). It’s something I’m always hearing when talking with people making things:
Well, I’m really making it for everyone.
Well, then go ahead and stop because you’ve already lost.
“Everyone” isn’t an audience. “Everyone” is a byproduct of an incredibly successful thing that was made for a far more specific bunch of people. Don’t ever make something for “Everyone” make it for someone. And make that person love it.
I listened to an overwhelmingly amazing podcast the other day with Sam Simon, one of the original creators of the Simpsons. Most of the interview focused on his battle with cancer, but he also talked about when he and Matt Groening worked together creating the show. And he mentioned that there were two writers he wanted to bring on board, but they turned him down. And the rest of that season, he wrote the show for them—he wanted them to think it was funny. For Simon, that was the test: Did those two people think it was funny—not network execs, not focus groups, and certainly not “Everyone.”
Jesus, I *hate* Facebook, and you don’t get much more “Everyone” than that thing now, but it didn’t get gigantic building for “Everyone,” it got gigantic building for Harvard students, then Ivy League students, then more and more and more. Go ask all your friends on Google Plus how well building for “Everyone” from the start went
When you begin with “Everyone” you’re just stuck: How do you make any honest decisions? How do you solve any real problems? You don’t. You start to invent people and you start to invent their problems and it’s amazing because those people and those problems line up almost exactly with what you’re building and how you’re thinking about it—imagine that. Lying to yourself is amazing for productivity.
Real audience is hard. Solving real problems is fucking bananas. But it’s the only way you make something that lasts, because you made something that someone actually cared about.
Every amazing comic that Vertigo comics published wasn’t written for “Everyone.” Every person that read them knew what I knew when I read them myself: This comic was written just for me.
That. Do exactly that. You’ll be fine.
True Story: As an ex-boyfriend and I were breaking up, one of the insults he hurled at me was “You’re so fashionable!” I was, like, “Uh, thanks? And let’s just be friends.”