About A Young Manhattanite
"I'm the lonely wildebeest...
Proud yet frail
From my nose to my tail.
But here's the good news,
I've got wheels -- on my shoes!"
Asked by videographer [Glenn] Reynolds whether there's a business model for blogging, Dan Gillmore offered this poignant response: "There better be a business model, or it will be community theatre for the whole world." [BlogAds]
Just to be perfectly clear, when it comes to blogging, my model is the Get a Life "Zoo Animals On Wheels" episode..
# # #
Online Profile/Blogging Bio
Winter 2001-2002: Kept a journal on HiFiNY of my 3 month trip around South America. Was it blogging? Probably not.
Summer 2003: As an infrequent Lasagnafarm contributor, I finally caught the deadly blogging bug with Confessions of a Friendster Dropout when Gawker, and subsequently Philadelphia Weekly, dangerously validated its insanity. Also, this is where the shot heard 'round the Good World Bar that started the "feud" with Lockhart Steele was fired and the first official documentation of my Conde Nast obsession can be found. But hey, we almost won a Bloggie for this type of shit.
December 2003 to Present: With L'farm friend and former co-worker Chris Gage by my side (but far enough away to avoid accidental touching) I launched my own blog -- The Other Page -- which alternately lived under the domains Krucoff.com & TheOtherPage.com and covered the usual tenement-worn topics pertinent only to the small New York underclass of Lower East Side sloths and amateur media muckmouths. It ended when we tried to turn the blog into a print 'zine. "Retarded" was the description we beat into the ground like a 2 year old with a hammer and peg blocks. Gawker founding editor Elizabeth Spiers wrote about it in a book that probably exists solely in bargain bins today. Now the site is an MP3 blog.
February-October 2004: Daily Young Manhattanite Interview debuted on Gothamist. Shortly after posting the 100th interview we jumped through Q's and landed on our A's at Gawker, in a move that bonded me eternally with the evil blog empire, where it lasted all of two months before we bowed (and bottomed) out with strippers at the Hustler Club.
May 2004: I got a shaky start at "paid-blogging" with my first week-long guest editor stint on Gawker. I swear I was only trying to top Choire Sicha's advertiser-fleeing "Ryan Seacrest needs a good skull-fucking" post, but at least I found a fan in MemeFirst's Felix Salmon.
April-September 2004: Produced a weekly "Data Dump" feature on Gawker (as well as a few for Defamer and Wonkette), involving real-time stats and faux-pro graphs of New York/media bits, which if I'm to be honest is probably my favorite of all the stuff I've done online.
August 2004 to Present: Sporadic "Team Party Crash" and "Walking Tour" reports which I've done pro open bar.
December 2004: Gawker Guest Editor: The Sequel. I had more fun the second time around, even if most of the week's traffic was inflated by tsunami-related news.
January 2005: Guest-edited Gawker Media's sex blog, Fleshbot. Don't be fooled by the glossy travel brochures, porn is the toughest road to walk in blogging.
February 2005: With Nick Denton's blessing (or curse) I was the "launch-editor" for Gridskipper, which is a nice way of saying I crapped-out within 3 weeks.
April 2005: Because blogging is an incurable addiction, I launched Young Manhattanite without really knowing what to do with it.
June 2005: Because almost anything can be justified by an incurable addiction, I launched a crime blog called Blottered.
October 2005: That whole Conde Nast thing happened. Vanity Fair chimed in with a caricature.
November 2005: YM spin-off Young Israelite was branded as a means to make new friends on a trip to the Holy Land and guilt/trick family members into giving me money.
December 2005: Fresh back from Israel on Christmas Day and off to Maryland to spend the holidays with family, I was mysteriously called to be a last-minute Gawker replacement for December 29-30 because the regular editors went on "strike" until 2006.
February 2006: Did some "consulting" for Jane magazine's website. Ask me about their fashion closet.
April 2006: Organized Frank Portman's King Dork blog book tour and follow-up party at Gawker HQ.
May 2006: Miraculously got hired by the 92nd Street Y where I'm a full-time "web content developer" and contribute to the 92Y Blog.
Always: ...dreaming of Bloghaüs.
Proud yet frail
From my nose to my tail.
But here's the good news,
I've got wheels -- on my shoes!"
Asked by videographer [Glenn] Reynolds whether there's a business model for blogging, Dan Gillmore offered this poignant response: "There better be a business model, or it will be community theatre for the whole world." [BlogAds]
Just to be perfectly clear, when it comes to blogging, my model is the Get a Life "Zoo Animals On Wheels" episode..
# # #
Online Profile/Blogging Bio
Winter 2001-2002: Kept a journal on HiFiNY of my 3 month trip around South America. Was it blogging? Probably not.
Summer 2003: As an infrequent Lasagnafarm contributor, I finally caught the deadly blogging bug with Confessions of a Friendster Dropout when Gawker, and subsequently Philadelphia Weekly, dangerously validated its insanity. Also, this is where the shot heard 'round the Good World Bar that started the "feud" with Lockhart Steele was fired and the first official documentation of my Conde Nast obsession can be found. But hey, we almost won a Bloggie for this type of shit.
December 2003 to Present: With L'farm friend and former co-worker Chris Gage by my side (but far enough away to avoid accidental touching) I launched my own blog -- The Other Page -- which alternately lived under the domains Krucoff.com & TheOtherPage.com and covered the usual tenement-worn topics pertinent only to the small New York underclass of Lower East Side sloths and amateur media muckmouths. It ended when we tried to turn the blog into a print 'zine. "Retarded" was the description we beat into the ground like a 2 year old with a hammer and peg blocks. Gawker founding editor Elizabeth Spiers wrote about it in a book that probably exists solely in bargain bins today. Now the site is an MP3 blog.
February-October 2004: Daily Young Manhattanite Interview debuted on Gothamist. Shortly after posting the 100th interview we jumped through Q's and landed on our A's at Gawker, in a move that bonded me eternally with the evil blog empire, where it lasted all of two months before we bowed (and bottomed) out with strippers at the Hustler Club.
May 2004: I got a shaky start at "paid-blogging" with my first week-long guest editor stint on Gawker. I swear I was only trying to top Choire Sicha's advertiser-fleeing "Ryan Seacrest needs a good skull-fucking" post, but at least I found a fan in MemeFirst's Felix Salmon.
April-September 2004: Produced a weekly "Data Dump" feature on Gawker (as well as a few for Defamer and Wonkette), involving real-time stats and faux-pro graphs of New York/media bits, which if I'm to be honest is probably my favorite of all the stuff I've done online.
August 2004 to Present: Sporadic "Team Party Crash" and "Walking Tour" reports which I've done pro open bar.
December 2004: Gawker Guest Editor: The Sequel. I had more fun the second time around, even if most of the week's traffic was inflated by tsunami-related news.
January 2005: Guest-edited Gawker Media's sex blog, Fleshbot. Don't be fooled by the glossy travel brochures, porn is the toughest road to walk in blogging.
February 2005: With Nick Denton's blessing (or curse) I was the "launch-editor" for Gridskipper, which is a nice way of saying I crapped-out within 3 weeks.
April 2005: Because blogging is an incurable addiction, I launched Young Manhattanite without really knowing what to do with it.
June 2005: Because almost anything can be justified by an incurable addiction, I launched a crime blog called Blottered.
October 2005: That whole Conde Nast thing happened. Vanity Fair chimed in with a caricature.
November 2005: YM spin-off Young Israelite was branded as a means to make new friends on a trip to the Holy Land and guilt/trick family members into giving me money.
December 2005: Fresh back from Israel on Christmas Day and off to Maryland to spend the holidays with family, I was mysteriously called to be a last-minute Gawker replacement for December 29-30 because the regular editors went on "strike" until 2006.
February 2006: Did some "consulting" for Jane magazine's website. Ask me about their fashion closet.
April 2006: Organized Frank Portman's King Dork blog book tour and follow-up party at Gawker HQ.
May 2006: Miraculously got hired by the 92nd Street Y where I'm a full-time "web content developer" and contribute to the 92Y Blog.
Always: ...dreaming of Bloghaüs.
