Behind The Approval Matrix

Hiatus

2008-12-22T21:22:00.001-05:00

I'm going on hiatus until further notice. I will be back soon. Until then please enjoy the archives.

Malaria Vaccination?

2008-12-17T22:09:00.002-05:00

Martin Klimas @ Foley Gallery

2008-12-17T21:19:00.004-05:00

2nd\NE Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

Don’t cry—it wasn’t an heirloom, and it’s easily replaceable. And don’t get mad at Martin Klimas, the German photographer responsible for this soon-to- be mess: His images, which he creates by firing a small projectile into his unsuspecting, blossom-bearing subjects and then capturing the results with a high-speed camera, are as wickedly delightful as they are distressing.
— Miranda Siegel\via NY Mag

Foley Gallery
547 W. 27th St., 5th fl, New York, NY 10001
nr. Tenth Ave
Thru 1/17/09 Tue-Sat, 11am-6pm

Online-Only Reporting Eligible for Pulitzer

2008-12-17T21:04:00.002-05:00

2nd\NE Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

From Pulitzer

New York, Dec. 8, 2008 – The Pulitzer Prizes in journalism, which honor the work of American newspapers appearing in print, have been expanded to include many text-based newspapers and news organizations that publish only on the Internet, the Pulitzer Prize Board announced today.

The Board also has decided to allow entries made up entirely of online content to be submitted in all 14 Pulitzer journalism categories.

While broadening the competition, the Board stressed that all entered material -- whether online or in print -- should come from United States newspapers or news organizations that publish at least weekly, that are "primarily dedicated to original news reporting and coverage of ongoing stories," and that "adhere to the highest journalistic principles.”

Consistent with its historic focus on daily and weekly newspapers, the Board will continue to exclude entries from printed magazines and broadcast media and their respective Web sites.

Streisand Dubya (Bush) Kiss

2008-12-16T21:35:00.001-05:00

1st\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

Augusten Burroughs' Mom is Writing a Memoir

2008-12-16T21:15:00.002-05:00

1st\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

by Leon Neyfakh\The New York Observer

... literary agent David Kuhn is selling a memoir by Margaret Robison, the mother of Augusten Burroughs.

Ms. Robison, a poet and a writer in her own right, was portrayed brutally in her son's 2002 book Running With Scissors as a self-obsessed, negligent mother. That book created more than a few bad feelings within Mr. Burroughs' family—both biological and adoptive—not to mention a lawsuit...

Ms. Robison has spoken calmly about her son's book it in interviews since, insisting that she does not hold her son's book against him but making clear that she has issues with certain facets of his account.

"I've had to forgive myself for many things," Ms. Robison told NPR in 2006. "To forgive my son. I have worked a long time with forgiveness." She also said that Running with Scissors "offered [her] the opportunity to grow spiritually in a way that nothing had" before.

Bloomberg on East River Toll Idea

2008-12-16T20:53:00.002-05:00

1st\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

By Rich Schapiro\Daily News

A state commission is considering adding tolls to the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg and 59th Street bridges to ease the MTA's billion-dollar budget hole, sources said.

With nearly half a million cars and trucks crossing the four East River bridges every day, the proposed tolls could raise up to $1 billion for the cash-strapped MTA, sources said.

The proposal wouldn't go into effect overnight - or without a vicious fight.

Both City Hall and Albany would have to approve the wallet-busting plan because the city owns the four bridges and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is a state agency.

By Graham T. Beck\Gotham Gazette

Although Mayor Michael Bloomberg appeared at the press conference announcing the report, he has not issued a full-fledge endorsement, saying instead that it is up to the legislature "to come up with solutions."

Julian Schnabel Gets Hostile on "60 Minutes"

2008-12-15T21:38:00.003-05:00

1st\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

Schnabel gets hostile near the 8:00 minute mark in the clip when Morley Safer mentions the art critic Robert Hughes.

Nine Broadway Theaters Not Booked for Spring 2009

2008-12-15T21:08:00.005-05:00

1st\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

By Julia Boorstin\Seeking Alpha

The Great White Way is facing a long, cold, and very challenging winter. Broadway tickets are pricey and sure to be hit by the economic downturn. Ticket sales and attendance at Broadway shows started slipping in mid-October, no surprise.

A number of big, award-winning shows, including "Hairspray," "Spamalot" and "Young Frankenstein" are set to close in January. Though projections for the holiday season have remained relatively strong, the period between January and March, which is always a weak time, is only going to be bleaker this coming year.

The solution? Deep discounts. Today Disney is launching a "kids go free" promotion. If you buy a ticket to one of 200 performances in January, February and March, you get a free ticket for a kid age 18 and below. Disney's expecting this to give the shows a real boost during what's traditionally their weakest period. The Broadway League is launching its annual "Season of Savings" program on Broadway and Off Broadway shows in early 2009.

2008-12-15T20:23:00.000-05:00

The Approval Matrix: Week of December 22, 2008

The Monopoly Electronic Banking Edition

2008-12-04T17:38:00.003-05:00

4th\SW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

The Monopoly Electronic Banking Edition game combines the best of classic Monopoly with updated electronic transactions. As with the original version, players still operate with money, learn real-world economics, competition and strategy, try to stay out of jail, and try their best to get filthy rich. But this version has been updated to reflect changes in how the real world uses money: All transactions are conducted with Monopoly's new banking card system. Anyone from age 8 and up will enjoy this updated version of one of the world's most famous games.
-- Source: Amazon

TV Linked to Childhood Obesity and Unhappiness

2008-12-04T17:23:00.003-05:00

4th\SW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

From Science Daily

Are happy or unhappy people more attracted to television? This question is addressed by a new 30-year analysis1 of US national data of nearly 30,000 adults by John Robinson and Steven Martin from the University of Maryland in the US. Examining the activity patterns of happy and less happy people in the General Social Survey (GSS) between 1975 and 2006, the authors found that happy people were more socially active, attended more religious services, voted more and read more newspapers.

In contrast, unhappy people watched significantly more television in their spare time.

By RONI CARYN RABIN\New York Times

Banning fast food advertisements from children’s television programs would reduce the number of overweight children in the U.S. by 18 percent and decrease the number of overweight teens by 14 percent, economists have estimated in a new study.

The researchers used several statistical models to link obesity rates to the amount of time spent viewing fast food advertising, finding that viewing more fast food commercials on television raises the risk of obesity in children. The study appears in this month’s issue of The Journal of Law and Economics.

50 Cent vs Taco Bell

2008-12-03T20:49:00.002-05:00

3rd\SE Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

From 96WEFM

50 Cent is not too happy about an offer from Taco Bell, who wants him to adopt a new name.

To promote its new “Why Pay More” value menu, Taco Bell sent 50 Cent an offer letter, asking him to change his name to 79 Cent, 89 Cent or 99 Cent for one day this summer.

Taco Bell President Greg Creed, who made the proposal to 50 Cent's agent, also wrote that his company would make a ten thousand dollars donation to a charity of the rapper’s choice, if he accepts the request. As part of the deal, 50 Cent would also have to make an appearance at any Taco Bell location around the country he chooses and rap his order in the drive thru with his new name.

However, 50 Cent didn’t find any humor in the offer.

He said when his legal team is finished, Taco Bell is going to have a new corporate slogan: 'We messed with the bull and got the horns.'

Jon Stewart Pitches Hanukkah on "A Colbert Christmas"

2008-12-03T20:42:00.001-05:00

3rd\SE Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

Julia Christensen's "Big Box Reuse"

2008-12-03T20:33:00.003-05:00

2nd\NE Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

From Publishers Weekly

Since 1962, big-box stores of 20,000 to 28,000 square feet have dotted the American landscape, their bare-boned appearance, according to artist Christensen, promising bare-boned bargains. But after the box is vacated, sometimes after only a few years, a community is left with a decision about what to do with the structure.

Christensen focuses on empty Wal-Mart and Kmart stores to discuss 10 imaginative and successful projects converting boxes into a library, a Head Start center and a senior resource center, among others. Charter schools have moved into empty big boxes, as have churches, for whom, Christensen says, the big box may be the revival tent of the twenty-first century.

Christensen's stories can become repetitive, but the themes she draws from her investigations carry conviction and a sense of urgency. She argues that eventual reuse should be a part of a big box's original design, and that information on reuse should be disseminated so municipalities can make informed decisions. But she also questions whether we should want a future landscape of renovated big box stores: We are what we build, she says. 77 color photos. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Jumbo Trons in Central Park for Obama Inauguration?

2008-12-02T23:33:00.002-05:00

2nd\NE Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

Posted by Roy Edroso\Village Voice

[C]ouncilmember Eric Gioia has asked Mayor Bloomberg to "erect large, jumbotron-style video screens in City Hall Park, Central Park, or wherever feasible" so that New Yorkers can ... watch Obama get sworn in on January 20. He says the big TVs would be financed by private donations...

Gioia's office says this would be "in the tradition of New Yorkers celebrating historic achievements together like the end of World War II, the moon landings, and countless sports titles..."

"The Elegance of the Hedgehog"

2008-12-02T23:20:00.002-05:00

2nd\NE Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

From Barnes & Noble

Synopsis of The enthralling international bestseller.

We are in the center of Paris, in an elegant apartment building inhabited by bourgeois families. Renée, the concierge, is witness to the lavish but vacuous lives of her numerous employers. Outwardly she conforms to every stereotype of the concierge: fat, cantankerous, addicted to television. Yet, unbeknownst to her employers, Renée is a cultured autodidact who adores art, philosophy, music, and Japanese culture. With humor and intelligence she scrutinizes the lives of the building’s tenants, who for their part are barely aware of her existence.

Then there’s Paloma, a twelve-year-old genius. She is the daughter of a tedious parliamentarian, a talented and startlingly lucid child who has decided to end her life on the sixteenth of June, her thirteenth birthday. Until then she will continue behaving as everyone expects her to behave: a mediocre pre-teen high on adolescent subculture, a good but not an outstanding student, an obedient if obstinate daughter.

Paloma and Renée hide both their true talents and their finest qualities from a world they suspect cannot or will not appreciate them. They discover their kindred souls when a wealthy Japanese man named Ozu arrives in the building. Only he is able to gain Paloma’s trust and to see through Renée’s timeworn disguise to the secret that haunts her. This is a moving, funny, triumphant novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us.

"Dark Streets" Opening in New York December 12

2008-12-02T21:42:00.002-05:00

2nd\NE Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

From the New York Times

DARK STREETS Murder and music in 1930s New York, where a nightclub entrepreneur (Gabriel Mann) begins to suspect that his father, a powerful industrialist said to have committed suicide, might really have been killed. Meanwhile, he tries to juggle his affection for his star singer (Bijou Phillips) with his attraction to an up-and-coming chanteuse (Izabella Miko). With 12 original songs by James Compton, Tim Brown and Tony DeMeur, performed by Dr. John, Etta James, Natalie Cole, Aaron Neville, Solomon Burke, Chaka Khan and others. Rachel Samuels directed.

The $1500 Marc Jacobs for Bugaboo Stroller

2008-12-01T22:33:00.003-05:00

1st\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

From Daddy Types

[The $1500 Marc Jacobs for Bugabooa stroller is] special all-black Cameleon with a canopy and bassinet cover out of Little Marc signature fabric.

There are 15 of them. Starting Nov. 26th, four will be at Colette in Paris; Selfridge's and London and the Marc Jacobs boutique in Dubai get two apiece; One will be for sale in Amsterdam. And six will be for sale at Marc Jacobs NY.

Eric Clapton's $100,000 Hermes Guitar Case

2008-12-01T22:24:00.002-05:00

1st\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

By Jared Paul Stern\Luxist

... we now present Eric Clapton's ultra-luxurious, custom-made crocodile guitar case from Hermès (above).

Clapton's case was specially made to hold his Martin 00028 EC acoustic guitar, the rock star's signature model ("EC" are his initials) which he helped to design. The shell of the case, which is covered in the world's finest matte-finish crocodile skin, is handmade of poplar wood from Nazareth, Pennsylvania and the whole is lined in blue silk velvet. While we don't know what Clapton paid for the one-of-a-kind case, it is likely to have cost at least $100,000.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Not Acquiring Manuscripts

2008-12-01T22:06:00.004-05:00

1st\NW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

By Leon Neyfakh\The New York Observor

Publishers Weekly reports that editors at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt have been instructed to stop acquiring books until further notice ... the freeze is not permanent, though no date has been set for when it might lift.

"In this case it’s a symbol of doing things smarter; it’s not an indicator of the end of literature," he is quoted as saying in the PW item.

Whether or not the policy extends to books written by authors who already publish with HMH— or whether they're all going to have to find new publishers once they finish the books they've already been paid for—is unclear.

Reached for comment, Mr. Blumenfeld said he wants to stress that HMH will continue acquiring "some" manuscripts, but that projects will be subject to more scrutiny than before. "We still have an acquisitions committee," he said. "They're still considering manuscripts." Mr. Blumenfeld nevertheless referred to the new policy as a "freeze."

He said that "anything that's already in the pipeline that's already been contracted for or paid for will be published," he said.

2008-12-01T16:21:00.000-05:00

The Approval Matrix: Week of December 8, 2008

"Celebutards"

2008-11-28T18:08:00.002-05:00

4th\SW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

Synopsis: Celebutards. A compound of celebrity, debutante, and retard, this blunt term describes lazy and egotistical stars with too much money, fame, leisure time, and media attention, but too little common sense or knowledge, who love to spout off on topics about which they have zero expertise.

A longtime observer of the celebutard species, award-winning New York Post columnist Andrea Peyser warns us that, in an age in which fabulousness is too often mistaken for gravitas, we must be ever vigilant of the hypocrites who walk among us. With razor-sharp wit, she explodes the absurdities of the celebutard culture, showing how a dull thinker such as Madonna becomes a self-appointed sage on matters of faith; Rosie O'Donnell transforms from a shrill, gay mom into a physics expert who blames the tragedy of 9/11 on the U.S. government; singer Sheryl Crow urges us to use a single square of toilet paper per wipe while she racks up mileage in her gas-guzzling caravan of SUVs; and hothead Sean Penn morphs into an expert on international diplomacy as he brazenly breaks bread with enemies of his own country like Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

Always outspoken, never pulling any punches, Andrea Peyser shows why it's vitally important that these mental midgets and media whores are exposed for the often dangerous phonies they are. In these pages, she gives us everything we need to recognize and uncover celebutards in our midst.

-- Source: B&N

Forbes' Hottest Celebrity Infants

2008-11-28T17:47:00.003-05:00

4th\SE Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

By Lacey Rose and Lauren Streib\Forbes

To determine which tykes were tops, we looked at both press clippings and Web presence for more than 50 A-list kiddies (5-years-old and younger) over the course of a year. Then, with a whittled down list, we reached out to Los Angeles, Calif.-based polling firm E-Poll Market Research for both awareness data for the kids and consumer appeal rankings for their celebrity parents.

No. 1 Suri Cruise Age: 2 years
Parents: Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes

No. 2 Shiloh Jolie-Pitt Age: 2 years
Parents: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie-Pitt

No. 3 Zahara Jolie-Pitt Age: 3 years
Parents: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie-Pitt

No. 4 Pax Jolie-Pitt Age: 4 years
Parents: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie-Pitt

No. 5 Sam Alexis Woods Age: 1 year
Parents: Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren Woods

No. 6 Cruz Beckham Age: 3 years
Parents: David and Victoria Beckham

No. 7 Matilda Rose Ledger Age: 3 years
Parents: Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger

No. 8 David Banda Age: 3 years
Parents: Madonna and Guy Ritchie

No. 9 Sean Preston Federline Age: 3 years
Parents: Britney Spears and Kevin Federline

No. 10 Sam Sheen Age: 4 years
Parents: Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen

Overweight Women More Likely 2 B Criminals?

2008-11-28T16:46:00.005-05:00

4th\SW Quadrant: The Approval Matrix

By Jessica\Jezebel

The Department of Psychiatry at the University of Connecticut spent a year studying the detailed diaries of 41,218 adults, and they found that significantly overweight women suffer the highest levels of stress — including, perhaps, the stress of bank heists.

The Telegraph reports that "overweight women are more likely to lose their jobs, be a victim of crime and have money troubles. They are also more likely to be criminals themselves." And that's not all: "obese women were more likely to face the death of a friend or relative [and] be sacked or made redundant…the workplace was where women experienced the highest level of stress, saying that they felt more discriminated against than their overweight male colleagues."

...discrimination could play a huge part in these findings. "Discrimination leads to low self-esteem which means the victims do not stand up for themselves, losing out on promotion or being first in line when redundancies occur."

The overweight women were also least likely to break up with a longterm partner or get a divorce.