i thought that Toby Young would make a nice follow-up to my post Lost in Translation. In his book, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People the British author recounts his experiences in NYC working at Vanity Fair magazine. Yes Scaramouche, you'll find that phrases like "suck it and see" and "tits up" create momentary paralytic silence. (I must admit that since reading your comment, "suck it and see" has been bouncing around my brain like a BB in a boxcar, dying to get out.)The t-shirt that Toby wore to his first day at Vanity Fair didn't go over well either. It featured a shirtless Keanu Reeves and text that read "young, dumb and full of come". Someone had told him that the dress code was "real casual".

I am not actually reading the book. As part of the promotion for his new book, The Sound of No Hands Clapping; A Memoir, he is making the audio version of 'How to Lose" available, free of charge, on his site. (weekly installments) Its a great listen and Toby does a great reading.

According to NNDB: "Toby Young's two-pronged claim to fame is having been fired from nearly every newspaper or magazine he's worked for, and having largely nothing to say except blather about himself. In 1995 Conde Nast, Inc. lured Toby with $10,000 to New York for one month. That one month extended to a two and a half year career at Vanity Fair, Young wrote 3,000 words, for which he was paid $85,000 -- roughly $28/word. Nice work if you can get it."

Excellent work Toby! May the bridges you burn light your way.

Only the geekiest amongst you may know what I'm talking about here.

If the latest Superman movie isn't to your taste, maybe you should try this one for size.

click me you fool

For all those people who wrote me complaining that now PodGuide is no more, it'll be hard to find good stuff to put on your iPod - here's the answer "The TV". iLuv have just announced a dock for video iPods that lets you record directly to your iPod from any video source with one button.

In other news, the MPAA shit their pants.

After reading the Yahoo videologging group messages, it seems that Amanda Congdon has indeed left Rocketboom, the culmination of a complete breakdown in the relationship between her and her producer/partner Andrew Baron (who claims only to have heard about her departure from her video. All seems very dysfunctional). I guess this is the kind of news where most people will say "who left what?" whereas a small minority will be saying "holy shit!"

This comes at the end of a week where all I seemed to read was bad news about video podcast sites - obviously, I closed down my own PodGuide.TV, the traffic to which had flatlined for the last five months despite having a loyal core fanbase. Today is also the last day of operations for HungryFlix, a site that attempted to sell iPod video content (always an uphill struggle), and Podtropolis, the bittorrent tracker for iPod video has announced that it's on the verge of closure. What's more, Gawker is selling off Screenhead, presumably due to falling or stagnant readership, or possibly outgunned by the might of YouTube. And ABC have suspended their free online video service.

While I'm not sure this portends a bigger meltdown, it's interesting that despite growing interest in online video, many seem to be having trouble just finding an audience. I'm not sure why that is - actual video podcast downloads remain high, so it may be that people are just tired of READING about videos, although Screenhead has moved to a primarily video-embedded format of late.

Thoughts anyone? A tipping point, or a ripple?

If you've been around Brooklyn long enough to see Williamsburg transformed from an artist refuge from Manhatten to a Disney theme-park version of an art scene, then you might find the web sit-com "The Burg" amusing or annoying. If you're not from New York, I'm sure you could relate it to the hipster scene in your town, where the search for cool (and the hipster version of cool needs to have a social conscious, unless its ironic) is laughable. I call it ammoying, in that I'm not really sure if I can laugh at such an awful subject matter.

News is reaching us that Amanda Congdon has been fired as host of Rocketboom. And my instant gut reaction is that this is a hoax to get attention.

If not, I hear Dan Rather's free.

Good riddance See you in hell Ken. Of Course I will be in heaven looking through the 2-way mirror.

In this clip from Anthony Bourdain's "A Cook's Tour" he swallows down the still beating heart of a Cobra.

You might actually prefer that to a TOP HAT, a delicacy from the streets of Detroit.

To make a Top Hat you need 2 ingredients. Bologa and Pork and Beans. Cook the Pork and Beans as directed. Put a slice of bologna on the grill. As the bologna heats, the center will rise. When it achieves a nice bowl shape flip, pour in Pork and Beans and eat.

My apologies or not sharing this with you earlier. You could have made Top Hats a part of your Independence Day celebration.

- Haagen-Dazs flavored stamps. You see...that's why the Austrian postal service is kicking our ass...come on people.
- If you're an Entourage fan, Ari Gold is probably a big reason you're hooked. Check out some of his best work.
- Did you see the audience reaction when Star Jones announced she was leaving The View? Whole lotta love in the room.
- Ever seen a film made up entirely of still images? Neither had I. Yet another goal I can cross off the list.
- And once again, Kobayashi won Nathan's hot dog eating contest, and Keyser Soze couldn't be reached for comment.

Gnarls Barkley meets Supertramp thanks to Arty Fufkin.