Salon.com > Twitter http://www.salon.com Fri, 04 Jan 2013 12:45:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Arizona is trying to ruin Twitter http://www.salon.com/2013/01/03/arizona_is_trying_to_ruin_twitter/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/03/arizona_is_trying_to_ruin_twitter/#comments Thu, 03 Jan 2013 17:56:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13160870 OMG, you guys! It's a Twitter emergency! If Tea Party darling and Arizona House Republican Michelle Ugenti has her way, you can say TTYL to parody accounts like @SilentJimLehrer and @HologramTupac.

I know. It's awful.

Proposed House Bill 2004 would outlaw online impersonation without permission and make it a felony to create a website or profile in someone else's name with the intention to "harm, defraud, intimidate or threaten." Supporters say it will help stop online bullying. Critics argue that it could violate the First Amendment and (more important, duh) effectively end the national pastime of creating faux Twitter accounts to provide meta-commentary on the ups and downs of our public figures!

"The problem with this, and other online impersonation bills, is the potential that they could be used to go after parody or social commentary activities," Electronic Frontier Foundation senior staff attorney Kurt Opsahl told the Arizona Republic. "While this bill is written to limit 'intent to harm,' if that is construed broadly, there could be First Amendment problems."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/03/arizona_is_trying_to_ruin_twitter/feed/ 1 Talking with Daniel Mendelsohn about the year in literary criticism http://www.salon.com/2012/12/31/talking_with_daniel_mendelsohn_about_the_year_in_literary_criticism/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/31/talking_with_daniel_mendelsohn_about_the_year_in_literary_criticism/#comments Mon, 31 Dec 2012 20:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13157545 "Waiting for the Barbarians," Daniel Mendelsohn's new collection of criticism (much of it originally published in the New York Review of Books and the New Yorker), testifies to the author's wide-ranging and omnivorous tastes. With his background as a classicist and his track record as a one-time weekly reviewer for New York magazine, he's as authoritative (and as happy) writing about Herodotus and "Avatar," pop culture's fascination with the Titanic and Susan Sontag, Noël Coward and Jonathan Franzen. There could be no better partner for a conversation about the surprisingly tumultuous arguments about the state of book reviewing in 2012.

Our theme is the year in criticism, and there's plenty to talk about, but first I have to express my astonishment over what we didn't see this year: I can't recall any memoir being exposed as partly or wholly fictional!

I know! It's very disappointing. There was a while there when it seemed like every time you opened a newspaper there was a new one. There was the girl in L.A. who said she grew up in a gang when she really went to a prep school, and the lady who fled the Nazis and went running with the wolves. I've decided that the phony memoir is my favorite genre.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/31/talking_with_daniel_mendelsohn_about_the_year_in_literary_criticism/feed/ 12 Ermahgerd! The year in memes http://www.salon.com/2012/12/31/ermahgerd_the_year_in_memes/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/31/ermahgerd_the_year_in_memes/#comments Mon, 31 Dec 2012 17:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13156154 To be honest, any year that doesn't have a Nyan cat in it is a bit of a comedown. But 2012 nevertheless provided its own special viral charms — some of which didn't even involve felines. So we say thanks to Ridiculously Photogenic Guy and Overly Attached Girlfriend, and to all those other viral stars we couldn't get out of our heads if we tried.

Shit Girls Say

It began as a Twitter feed in 2011, but it was in 2012 that Graydon Sheppard and Kyle Humphrey's devastating drag parody of feminine phrases truly took over the world. Though blowing the lid off the Twinsies!-peppered world of chick vernacular earned Sheppard and Humphrey their share of critics, it also inspired a treasure trove of witty imitations, notably Chesca Leigh's also-gone-viral Shit White Girls Say to Black Girls. It even went old school and became a book. Shut UP! 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/31/ermahgerd_the_year_in_memes/feed/ 6 10 pivotal moments for digital art in 2012 http://www.salon.com/2012/12/31/10_pivotal_moments_for_digital_art_in_2012/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/31/10_pivotal_moments_for_digital_art_in_2012/#comments Mon, 31 Dec 2012 14:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13157434 Hyperallergic 2012 was a great year for digital art. As Tumblr rocketed over 25 million hits a month and Instagram became a new venue for creative expression, artists continued to traverse the internet’s sprawling landscape and confront us with the weirdness of our own experiences of virtual space. In this end-of-year roundup, I’ll look at 10 events, moments, and trends that marked these past 12 months in digital art.

Here’s my top 10, in no particular order.

Exhibitions at 319 Scholes
As Brooklyn’s premier technology-art space, 319 Scholes knocked it far out of the park this year. Following up on late 2011′s excellent Notes on a New Nature from Nicholas O’Brien came Big Reality, critic Brian Droitcour’s intensive look at video game-influenced art, and editor Francesca Gavin’s E-Vapor-8, a celebration of rave culture that launched with a fittingly awesome opening party. With 319 director and curator Lindsay Howard refining her work through a residency at Eyebeam, the year ahead should be even better (if that’s possible).

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/31/10_pivotal_moments_for_digital_art_in_2012/feed/ 0 Dumb tweet: Hopefully they forget about guns http://www.salon.com/2012/12/28/dumb_tweet_hopefully_they_forget_about_guns/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/28/dumb_tweet_hopefully_they_forget_about_guns/#comments Fri, 28 Dec 2012 22:32:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13156966  

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/28/dumb_tweet_hopefully_they_forget_about_guns/feed/ 7 “Thelma and Louise,” Waylon Jennings: The best fiscal cliff tweets http://www.salon.com/2012/12/28/thelma_and_louise_waylon_jennings_the_best_fiscal_cliff_tweets/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/28/thelma_and_louise_waylon_jennings_the_best_fiscal_cliff_tweets/#comments Fri, 28 Dec 2012 16:17:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13156504 With the fiscal cliff approaching, confused panic, intransigent realpolitik and "Thelma and Louise" references abound in Twitter's snarky corners:

 

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And the BBC's Paul Mason gets to the point:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/28/thelma_and_louise_waylon_jennings_the_best_fiscal_cliff_tweets/feed/ 0 The 10 best (and worst) tweets of 2012 http://www.salon.com/2012/12/28/the_10_best_and_worst_tweets_of_2012/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/28/the_10_best_and_worst_tweets_of_2012/#comments Fri, 28 Dec 2012 15:09:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13150073 You can learn a lot in 140 characters. Twitter, for all its tyrannical and inflexible brevity, unfailingly reveals the gamut of human nature, the wonders and horrors of the world. There are now a mind-boggling 200 million or more tweets going out every day. But these 10 represent our choices for the ones that, for better or worse, sum up the year 2012.

 

After years of playing coy, the dapper newsman Anderson Cooper finally officially came out of the closet in an open letter to Daily Beast writer Andrew Sullivan on July 2. But though it came as zero surprise, a few remained undeterred by the news.

When Aetna informed doctoral student Arijit Guha, just as he was in the midst of stage-4 colon cancer, that he'd reached his insurance coverage cap, the 31-year-old took his story to Twitter and found himself engaged in a public conversation with his insurer's CEO, Mark T. Bertolini. He wound up getting full coverage – and making the debate over health care intimate and urgent.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/28/the_10_best_and_worst_tweets_of_2012/feed/ 2 Go on, tweet from your seats! http://www.salon.com/2012/12/27/go_on_tweet_from_your_seats/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/27/go_on_tweet_from_your_seats/#comments Thu, 27 Dec 2012 16:48:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13155710 In a world where no meal can go un-Instagrammed, no departure from a plane unremarked upon with the phrase "wheels down" and no status un-updated, when the houselights go down, does an entertainment venue beat 'em or join 'em?

On Thursday, the Minneapolis Guthrie Theater is launching its first experiment in offering balcony-level Tweet Seats, "allowing social media users an opportunity to interact" during its production of "The Servant of Two Masters." Guthrie External Relations Director Trish Santini explains, "This cast is an incredible ensemble of comedians, and night after night they're riffing and improvising  — it's the kind of show that makes you ask, 'Did they just say that?' Usually they did — and tweeting should be a great way to talk about it."

"Should" being the operative word. As Jezebel's Laura Beck ponders, the move will either "encourage friends and families to check out fresh-ass local theater," or "just lead to people compulsively checking Facebook and Instagramming the backs of people's heads." Because while you can invite the audience to participate in "an opportunity to interact" in the hopes of creating buzz, there's zero guarantee it won't instead just idly play Temple Run instead.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/27/go_on_tweet_from_your_seats/feed/ 8 Drake does not own YOLO http://www.salon.com/2012/12/26/drake_does_not_own_yolo/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/26/drake_does_not_own_yolo/#comments Wed, 26 Dec 2012 20:15:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13155026 Drake is not a man who backs down from a dispute. Just ask Chris Brown. So watch your backs, Walgreens and Macy's.

On Christmas, the Billboard-chart-dominating star took to Instagram to vent his spleen against retailers with an image of a groaning shelf -- unironically designated "beauty" -- full of caps emblazoned with the acronym YOLO. "Walgreens....you gotta either chill or cut the cheque," he wrote in Canadian, adding a "Macy's...same goes for you" warning under a photo of a YOLO-themed Charlie Brown and Snoopy shirt. Coming soon: Morgan Freeman getting huffy every time someone mentions a bucket list, and Robert Carlyle issuing an injunction against all forms of Full Montyism.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/26/drake_does_not_own_yolo/feed/ 5 Facebook ruins Zuckerberg Xmas http://www.salon.com/2012/12/26/mark_zuckerbergs_sister_is_angry_that_a_family_photo_posted_on_facebook_became_public/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/26/mark_zuckerbergs_sister_is_angry_that_a_family_photo_posted_on_facebook_became_public/#comments Wed, 26 Dec 2012 18:13:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13154991 It seems that even Mark Zuckerberg's older sister, Randi, has become a victim of Facebook's totalitarian privacy settings. Forbes "30 under 30" media honoree Callie Schweitzer tweeted the above photo of the Zuckerberg family, writing "@randizuckerberg demonstrates her family's response to Poke #GAH."

Zuckerberg responded, saying, "Not sure where you got this photo. I posted it only to friends on FB. You reposting it on Twitter is way uncool."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/26/mark_zuckerbergs_sister_is_angry_that_a_family_photo_posted_on_facebook_became_public/feed/ 37 “30 Rock’s” Kevin Brown tweets the last photos from the set http://www.salon.com/2012/12/20/30_rocks_kevin_brown_tweets_the_last_photos_from_the_set/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/20/30_rocks_kevin_brown_tweets_the_last_photos_from_the_set/#comments Thu, 20 Dec 2012 18:48:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13151094 Kevin Brown, aka Dot Com, aka Walter Slattery, from NBC's "30 Rock" has been tugging at America's heartstrings, sharing what he calls (sadly) the last photos of the show, ever:

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The series' hour-long final episode will on Jan. 31, 2013.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/20/30_rocks_kevin_brown_tweets_the_last_photos_from_the_set/feed/ 0 Ke$ha says that her song “Die Young” is “now inappropriate” http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/keha_says_that_her_song_die_young_is_now_inappropriate/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/keha_says_that_her_song_die_young_is_now_inappropriate/#comments Wed, 19 Dec 2012 19:56:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13150011 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Ke$ha says she understands her hit song "Die Young" "is now inappropriate" following the shootings in Newtown, Conn.

The pop singer said in a Twitter post Tuesday night that she's "so so so sorry" for anyone affected by the tragedy.

Earlier Tuesday, Ke$ha tweeted that she had her own issues with "Die Young" due to the lyrics, but that she was "FORCED TO" sing them. That tweet was deleted a short time later.

Ke$ha's spokesman said the 25-year-old had no comment Wednesday morning.

"Die Young" is intended as a party anthem and is No. 3 on this week's Billboard Hot 100 chart. But radio stations began to pull it and other songs with potentially upsetting lyrics after 27 people, including 20 children, were killed Friday at an elementary school.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/keha_says_that_her_song_die_young_is_now_inappropriate/feed/ 2 Obama pretends to be caught in Spider-Man’s web http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/obama_pretends_to_be_caught_in_spider_mans_web/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/obama_pretends_to_be_caught_in_spider_mans_web/#comments Wed, 19 Dec 2012 18:04:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13149847 President Barack Obama maintained his Internet-cool image when his team released this official White House photo, also featured in the online Time Magazine spread that named Obama Person of the Year:

[embed_tweet id="281419850553896961"]

The photo was taken in the Outer Oval Office on Oct. 26, 2012. In this case, Spider-Man is a White House staffer's son.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/obama_pretends_to_be_caught_in_spider_mans_web/feed/ 11 Bret Easton Ellis apologizes to Kathryn Bigelow for sexist tweets http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/bret_easton_ellis_apologizes_to_kathryn_bigelow_for_sexist_tweets/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/bret_easton_ellis_apologizes_to_kathryn_bigelow_for_sexist_tweets/#comments Tue, 18 Dec 2012 21:45:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13148961 Prickly author Bret Easton Ellis issued a lengthy apology to "Zero Dark Thirty" director Kathryn Bigelow yesterday for his series of sexist tweets earlier this month, in which he said that "Kathryn Bigelow would be considered a mildly interesting filmmaker if she was a man but since she's a very hot woman she's really overrated." What he really meant to say at the time, according to his letter in The Daily Beast, was this: "I hadn’t seen 'Zero Dark Thirty' but thought, in the Twitter-moment, can it really be that good? Marc Boal and Kathryn Bigelow and another war film?" It was meant in the spirit of one oppressed minority to another, you see: "[The tweets] ultimately revealed a much more layered sexism that, I guess I thought as a gay man, I could get away with since my supposed vitriol about Bigelow was coming from another 'oppressed' class. But in 140 characters it didn’t land that way."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/bret_easton_ellis_apologizes_to_kathryn_bigelow_for_sexist_tweets/feed/ 10 Colin Quinn is excited about Martin Scorsese’s Bill Clinton documentary http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/colin_quinn_is_excited_about_martin_scorseses_bill_clinton_documentary/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/colin_quinn_is_excited_about_martin_scorseses_bill_clinton_documentary/#comments Tue, 18 Dec 2012 20:55:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13148916 Like many of us, comedian and "SNL" veteran Colin Quinn is amused by the news that legendary director Martin Scorsese — he of "Mean Streets" and "Taxi Driver" and "Gangs of New York" and all the best gritty New York films about mobsters and violence and guilt and redemption — will be directing an HBO documentary about former President Bill Clinton. What would a Bubba in "Goodfellas" kind of movie be like? Quinn and friends have a few ideas:

From Quinn's Twitter feed:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/colin_quinn_is_excited_about_martin_scorseses_bill_clinton_documentary/feed/ 1 China up in arms over Newtown coverage http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/china_up_in_arms_over_governments_newtown_coverage/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/china_up_in_arms_over_governments_newtown_coverage/#comments Mon, 17 Dec 2012 19:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13147704 Global Post HONG KONG — On Dec. 14, the same day that Adam Lanza shot up Sandy Hook Elementary School, there was a rampage at another elementary school in China's central Henan province that left 23 young children bleeding and wounded.

Amid that horror, Chinese netizens gave an outpouring of condolences for Americans affected by the Newtown tragedy. Throughout the weekend, thousands of Chinese shared online images of lit candles and heartfelt expressions of sympathy for the 20 children and seven adults who were killed in Newtown, Conn.

“Today is a sad day for the entire world,” wrote Weibo-user Zheng Yuanjie, one of many who linked the Connecticut attack to China’s own tragedy.

On Monday, the hashtag “Honoring Ordinary Heroes” stayed at or near the top of the most popular topics on Sina Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, with many users praising the teacher Victoria Soto, who died saving her students from the gunman. Little gloating or schadenfreude over America's loss was anywhere to be found.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/china_up_in_arms_over_governments_newtown_coverage/feed/ 5 Even Rupert Murdoch wants tighter gun control http://www.salon.com/2012/12/15/even_rupert_murdoch_wants_tighter_gun_control/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/15/even_rupert_murdoch_wants_tighter_gun_control/#comments Sat, 15 Dec 2012 02:01:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13125680 Twitter user @InsoOutso sums things up nicely: "Who are you and what have you done with Rupert?"

Here's Murdoch's original tweet:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/15/even_rupert_murdoch_wants_tighter_gun_control/feed/ 15 I quit! Now fork over the Twitter feed http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/i_quit_now_about_that_twitter_feed/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/i_quit_now_about_that_twitter_feed/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2012 19:20:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13124010 When an employee and a company split, who gets the Twitter feed? Nobody knows.

A lawsuit that might have clarified this increasingly important question, PhoneDog LLC vs. Kravitz, has settled out of court, Fortune reports:

The mobile device and app review site sued former employee Noah Kravitz in federal court, claiming that, when Kravitz quit and took 17,000 Twitter followers with him, he was in effect stealing a client list. According to PhoneDog's calculations, each follower was worth $2.50 per month over the 18 months Kravitz tweeted on the company's behalf. So, the lawsuit said, Kravitz owed his erstwhile employer $340,000.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/i_quit_now_about_that_twitter_feed/feed/ 1 Aziz Ansari is the person behind the “Homeland” Twitter parody account http://www.salon.com/2012/12/12/is_aziz_ansari_the_person_behind_the_homeland_twitter_parody_account/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/12/is_aziz_ansari_the_person_behind_the_homeland_twitter_parody_account/#comments Wed, 12 Dec 2012 22:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13123220 The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that "Parks and Recreation" star and stand-up comic Aziz Ansari is the voice behind the popular "Homeland" parody account. THR notes that it suspected as much when one of Ansari's tweets was quickly deleted and appeared minutes later on Nicholas Brody's Twitter account. He often retweets from the character's account, as well.

Here are some of Ansari's recent tweets as the show's ex-Marine congressman:

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Ansari, a fan of the show, told EW last month, "The turns are unexpectedly sharp, and the season’s plot has been aggressively paced in the best way. To put it bluntly, crazy s— just keeps happening."

 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/12/is_aziz_ansari_the_person_behind_the_homeland_twitter_parody_account/feed/ 0 Nick Offerman returns to Twitter, but only to “disseminate information” http://www.salon.com/2012/12/12/nick_offerman_returns_to_twitter_but_only_to_disseminate_information/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/12/nick_offerman_returns_to_twitter_but_only_to_disseminate_information/#comments Wed, 12 Dec 2012 18:44:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13122923 After taking more than a 6-month hiatus, Movember pioneer and "Parks and Recreation" actor Nick Offerman has announced his triumphant return to The Twitter:

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Although he warns us not to get our hopes up, Offerman has been tweeting steadily for the past 20 minutes. The most exciting of which is a picture (presumably) of him in character as staunch libertarian and expert hunter Ron Swanson:

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Offerman also announced that he will be taping a humor special on March 2 in New York. "There will be minor nudity," he warns.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/12/nick_offerman_returns_to_twitter_but_only_to_disseminate_information/feed/ 1