Bruner Blog
All Bruner, All the Time
Mean New Yorker, Nice New Yorker
We FON (friends of Nick) had a bit of a fright this evening. (I told him I wouldn't scoop him on this, but what the hell.) Around 10:30 this evening, I got a call from a guy named Tony with a thick NY accent asking if I knew a Rick Denton (a boring little detail that he got our names mixed up, but the hyper-realism helps the story telling, no?). Anyway, the guy says he's found Nick's wallet, address book, passport and other papers on the street up by his place at 110th St. and 3rd Ave, and he had come all the way down to Nick's apartment in Soho to return it to him (he's the nice New Yorker), but Nick wasn't there. He'd found my name in Nick's address book, could I help.
Well, I helped as much as calling Elizabeth to get her to go meet the guy, because she lives a lot closer to Nick than I do. (Real manly thing to do, getting a young single woman to go meet some stranger on NY's Lower East Side at 11pm under dubious circumstances.)
Elizabeth meets the guy and gets Nick's stuff. Meanwhile, lots of phone calls to various friends to see who has last seen Nick. One fact seems most ominous: Nick hasn't blogged all day. Elizabeth and I agree that is indeed creepy. Adrienne calls Ildi and in hushed tones they contemplate: he hasn't blogged all day. I actually went so far as to call the police. Elizabeth and I agree it's probably not worth pointing out to them the significance of the fact that he hadn't blogged all day.
(First call to the number listed in the phone book for the police, strangely a 718 area code, which is Brooklyn, informs me the number has been changed and no more information is available about the party I'm trying to reach. You would think the NYPD would pop for call forwarding, but big city deficit and all. Next attempt I get a cop after 20 rings who seems to take me seriously but then disconnects me in an attempt to transfer me. I call again and after 20 rings the number disconnects itself. I call again and after 20 rings decide they're probably not going to find him tonight anyway, so we'll wait to see what the morning brings.)
The morning (around 12am) brings Nick, apparently safe and sound. Pickpocketed, I gather (that would be the mean NYer). All's well that ends well, I suppose, minus a few dollars. Moral of the story: blog every day. And send Tony a box of chocolates, or something. His uncommon kindness certainly outweighs the meanness of a run-of-the-mill pickpocket.
UPDATE:
What a melodrama. Here is Elizabeth's take on it. And Nick's (with lots of bonus link, including my nasal, anxious voicemail to him). It is quite amusing this was such an incestuous bloggy thing.
And for the record, I didn't actually file a missing person's report. I was calling to inquire what the cops advised (which Elizabeth agreed was a good idea, it wasn't just me being a worry wart), but I never got through anyway.
- 11/15/2002
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Free to Go Bankrupt
Ha, ha, ha, we can all still go bankrupt. I'm very glad to hear the bill supported by credit card companies to limit the ability of individuals to declare personal bankruptcy has failed. Sure, I'm up to my ass in debt personally, but I'm still optimistic I'll dig my way out when the economy picks up. It's not for my own sake (yet) that I celebrate this, but because the bill was so insanely unjust. Screw the credit card companies. They send me three direct mail pieces a day trying to entice me to ruin my credit, then they get upset when I want to reclaim my life?
- 11/14/2002
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Lucky Frog Films
So, Adi has been back since Monday, and life is goooood. :-)
More good news (beyond our being reunited after six weeks apart during her digital film editing course): she was recently invited by Lucky Frog Films to edit their new short film, currently in post-production. We just sat down to watch their earlier film "Jigsaw Venus," a 10-minute short that received an honorable mention at Sundance Film Festival 2000. It is really terrific, a sweet, wordless story of a chance romance. Check it out if you get a chance (unfortunately, I don't see it for free on anything like iFilms or AtomFilms).
- 11/14/2002
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Adults in Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood
Fred Rogers, aka Mr. Rogers, has written a new book titled Mister Rogers' Parenting Book, hence he's doing the promo circuit. I happened to catch a bit of the interview with him today on the NPR show Fresh Air (Real Audio file). There came a point in the interview when he started talking in the voices of the characters of his classic TV show, King Friday the 13th, Daniel Striped Tiger, Henrietta Pussycat, etc., trying to engage the interviewer to play along with him. I heard him do the same thing on an interview with the NPR show This American Life (Real Audio file) a few months earlier.
The result was the same in both cases. You can hear the interviewers positively squirming. How do you respond to a guy talking baby talk to you, particulary when you grew up with those voices from childhood? Answer: you giggle awkwardly and rush to change the subject. It was so painful I had to turn off the radio this time, laughing nonetheless.
- 11/13/2002
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404 Porn Not Found
This is amusing, doing the rounds of the Blogosphere today.
<duh> The page is supposed to come back 404. Read the text. </duh>
- 11/13/2002
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Cool Tool, Bad URL
I just discovered this: WhoRepresents.com. This must be a life-blood for journalists in the entertainment industry, as it tells you who are the talent managers for actors. The only drawback is that the domian can also be read WhorePresents.com. I guess it's appropriate either way.
- 11/13/2002
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Blogroll Blues
Amazing. Steven Berlin Johnson posts three things to his brand new blog, and Nick gives him a place on his coveted blogroll. I've been begging Nick for a spot on his blogroll for months, and nothing, despite the fact that we hang out on the weekends. These FT men and their damned integrity.
- 11/13/2002
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Pit Bull on the Pant Leg of Opportunity
I'm assuming this is legit. I recognize some of the quotes. (Via Mark Haas)
This poem is composed entirely of actual quotes from George W. Bush. The
quotes have been arranged for aesthetic presentation by Washington Post
writer Richard Thompson.
Make the Pie Higher
by George W. Bush
I think that we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses.
Rarely is the question asked,
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the Internet become more few?
How many hands have I shaked?
They misunderestimate me.
I am a pit bull on the pant leg of opportunity.
I know that the human being and the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope, where
Our wings take dream.
Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
What I want to know is when he said "I am a pit bull on the pant leg of opportunity," did he mean that he would bite the pant leg and voraciously cling to that opportunity, or that he would simply sniff at the opportunity and then piss on it?
- 11/13/2002
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Ms. Moxie: Vote for Toby!
Thanks to pal Glenn Fleishman for pointing out that our friend Toby Malina is a finalist for this ridiculous Microsoft contest:
The judges have chosen ten semifinalists, and now it's up to you to cast your vote for Ms. M.o.X.i.e. (Microsoft Office v. X Integrated Experience)! Ten entrepreneurial women from coast to coast have made it to the final stage and earned the chance to win $10,000 and a new iMac loaded with Microsoft Office v. X. All semifinalists will receive a copy of Microsoft Office v. X.
I'm just glad that the blogger Moxie isn't in the contest, or it might be a tough choice for me on voting. Anyway, please click and vote for Toby.
- 11/13/2002
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Woo Hoo!
Our new site MarketingFix got picked up on Blogdex! Yay! I feel like a proud dad.
- 11/13/2002
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Blogdex Gets a New Look
Shout out to my buddy Cameron Marlow. I have to say that even after befriending Cameron over the summer, I still used to check Daypop more often than Carmon's Blogdex, even tho they did similar things (namely showing you what are the most popular stories in the Blogosphere at any given moment) and Blogdex had been around longer. I think as much as anything it had to do with the previous black background on Blogdex that makes sites so hard to read.
Well, just in time for the apparent death of Daypop, Blogdex has a new look and seems to be better about getting titles right on features it points to (hmmm, actually on second thought, it could still use some improvement: the homepage for the new site Movelink comes up on Blogdex's list with the title "You Fucking Bastards!"), as well as some other new improvements (I love the "A Year Ago Today" feature, as if blogs were already historical markers). Well, Blogdex is now my primary stop for bloggy news (at least until Nick ever gets his thing together, still billed as due out Sep 02 on his homepage).
- 11/12/2002
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Ryze Bloggers
I'm no longer quite the Ryze fanatic I was when I first discovered the service, but I still find it interesting. Now Ross Mayfield did what I had at one time thought of: started a Ryze "tribe" on blogging. Tribes are an interesting feature on Ryze, letting like-minded folks identify their common interests, but it still leaves something to be desired. E.g., on this Blogger Tribe page, Ross has hand coded all the members of the tribes linked to their respective blogs, but not, unfortunately, to their Ryze pages, which should be an automatic feature of Ryze tribes in my opinion. Anyway, I'm sure most of you couldn't give a hoot, so I'll leave it at that. Just wanted to give a shout out.
- 11/12/2002
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MarketingFix.com
Just one of the things I've been busy with lately: MarketingFix.com. Four blog buddies and I have launched this collaborative weblog about Internet marketing. If that's your bag, check it out!
- 11/12/2002
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udaysaddamhussein@yahoo.com
Wired reports: "The U.S. State Department says Saddam Hussein's oldest son is a murderer, rapist, torturer and smuggler. He has also been known to send death threats by e-mail." Apparently from this email address: udaysaddamhussein@yahoo.com
- 11/11/2002
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