This is issue number 111 of The Loop, a production of Three Point Four Media. Good for us.
The links, please.
An article
Inside a Modern Murder-for-Hire in NYC. What a story from Joseph Cox. The headline pretty much sums this piece up, but it’s worth a read.
Here’s a bit more about the 404 team: 404 Media and the hopes of worker-owned journalism. Worker-owned journalism: having a moment. I’m a bit surprised it took this long, given the pretty immediate success of Defector but branching out on your own is also scary. Getting laid off can be a catalyst for action, it turns out.
Also, this quote from Margot Susca, a journalism professor at American University, which is a prevailing attitude but is really no longer true: “The best journalists in the world may not know anything about running a company. It’s a much different ballgame when you are talking about keeping on the lights, as opposed to making sure your FOIA doesn’t go years and years without an answer.” Yeah, the thing is, it’s not.
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A video
We are longtime dedicated fans of Bryson Dechambeau’s YouTube channel. Our resident golf-tinker-weirdo-in-chief (the dude 3d prints his own irons) is back shooting par with a set of clubs his intern bought at Walmart. (Feels like he should have gotten this sponsored.) Almost 700,000 views in three days. Not a new thought but how many people are first learning about Bryson through his channel, thinking he’s some YouTube golfer, only to learn that he’s one of the best players in the world? A fascinating path.
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A project
We did a little thing about Anne Rice’s Interview With The Vampire Season Two, coming soon to AMC and AMC+. It involved a chat with Jacob Anderson (above left, not his natural eye color), who was lovely and on a train going home to somewhere in the United Kingdom. In Interview, his character travels primarily in a coffin, so commuter rail is preferable. We had a jolly good laugh about that, we did.
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A coffee shop
Laurel Bakery is the type of place that gets a write up even before it opens. (Increasingly, everything in New York gets a write up before it opens. Gotta collect those clicks.) According to the website, “Laurel Bakery is not just a bakery; it’s a celebration of both community and craftsmanship.” Sure.
We went on a Tuesday morning a couple weeks after it opened. There was a line of half a dozen people out the door and an equal number of people walking by asking what the line was for. “A bakery,” we told them, rolling our eyes but also happy that we were third in line and not last. It was both fantastically expensive yet less than I thought it would be.
This is much more negative than I intended. The pastries and coffee were both very very good. If you have to stand in line on a weekday morning on Columbia Street, this would be the place to do it. That said, anyone who goes here on a weekend is out of their mind.
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A run
Silly name, fun run. 10K on Governor’s Island on a morning that was sunny and rainy and hailing and cloudy and sunny again. I ran two minutes slower than a couple years ago, which was fine considering it was the fastest and the furthest I’ve run since late last year. I highly recommend NYC Runs for all your New York City racing needs.
Birthday Boy Billy will be back in two weeks.