The first Smorgasburg Upstate weekend came and went and people mingled and ate and browsed crafts and funky furniture and old toys and tried to park. It was a well-attended affair and I'm curious to see how it fares on subsequent Saturdays. There were lots of familiar Kingston faces and venues at the event, and the food part of the fair had most of the attention from attendees. If you are interested, Brian has the deets.
It was a bit too hot for my little one, so we ended up going to Kingston Point shortly afterward, where you could see the Hutton Brickyard while bathing. It is a great little beach on the Hudson and its water quality is fine, and I suspect, from my anecdotal conversations, that some locals avoid it out of fear of either water quality or mingling with the proles. More beach for us.
One of the guaranteed ways of getting journalists sharing things is to talk about journalism, and Sunday's John Oliver ode to newspapers was all journalists needed to get the sharing going.
Fun fact: One of the valid criticisms of web journalism is the quick takes you see around all the time about the same thing (hello #phelpsface) and embedding John Oliver videos and describing what he said is one of those things web publications do all the time, so much so that The Awl once keep tabs on how much it was done, a pervasion of the "digital-first" ideals that are ripe for parody, which include that very term (which you might have noticed is the very name of the parent company of my employer).
And just as there's hamster-wheel churnalism there also is the now classic web cycle, where a story is reported, then aggregated, properly contextualized and/or faced with vapid criticism and/or contrarian takes, which can sometimes end with an "Open Letter To" (usually on Medium) and the open letter to the open letter. Once the story devolves into a meme or is mixed with an existing meme (like Harambe, which itself illustrates the quickness of the cycle), the cycle is ready for another go.
I really hope this is very confusing for you, because if it makes sense then you're likely way too much into media and probably need a break.
Anyway, this particular cycle took its usual path. John Oliver posted a video about journalism, which caused innumerable posts about it (media critics and industry pubs are exonerated because that's their beat); and then the president of the News Association of America took issue with some of the jokes; which itself caused ridicule and even further media criticism.
TL;DR: What about a business model?
via GIPHY
This is an industry, after all, where even dumpster fires are examined thoroughly. *makes #phelpsface*
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One video: This is me eating my cake.
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The Four:
* Chicken law revised to be exclusively about chickens, because chickens.
* A thing happened one weekend in August some time ago.
* "Don't take selfies while driving" is a thing that apparently a thing that needs to be said.
* Kingston has an Ethics Law, so of course people can't work, because hyperbole.
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One cat:
response to @Sulliview's response to @NAAupdates response to @iamjohnoliver: pic.twitter.com/0wLsRHbcFr— Digital First cat (@DFNewsCat) August 9, 2016
Yesterday's Internet, Today! has opinions about things, and also a cat. It's also a newsletter!
