The European competitive bridge circuit is in an uproar because of the presence of Fulvio Fantoni, who does lots of cheating, at a tournament. You can read more in The Defector (subscription required) or The Telegraph (must provide email) or you can just trust me. The media sure is fun these days.
Three Point Four Media would never cheat at bridge. Mostly because we don’t know how to play. I’d like to think if we did, we’d concoct a much more complicated system than these dopey Italians.
An Article
If you’d like to know why Bill and I run the burgeoning empire of Three Point Four Media rather than continue to be freelance writers, this piece is your answer: Over the decade-plus when I made my income mostly through online writing—here and there were a few short-term gigs, like P.A. work on commercials and odd-jobs like writing entrance exams for rich people trying to get their three-year-olds into illustrious pre-K schools—there was always the lingering idea that as long as I stayed afloat, it’d all work out. All I needed was the right piece to go viral, and with that would come a staff job, enough notability for a book deal, or maybe just a few more editors showing up in my inbox.
Treadmills are fine, but they sure do go nowhere.
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A Book
Sensation: The Madonna, The Mayor, The Media, and the First Amendment
Arnold Lehman took time out from being The Loop’s most prolific commentator to write a book about Sensation, the art exhibit he brought to the United States in 1999-2000 when he was director of the Brooklyn Museum. There were bomb threats! Rudy Giuliani got v. mad! So did the Catholic Church! The holy trinity indeed!!!
This book is very fun, a wonderful portrait of a moment in time. Highly recommend. I also told Arnold one million people subscribe to The Loop, so we’re going to need everyone to pre-order to hit our numbers. #sponcon*
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A Project
We’ve been reworking the corporate site for a large, multi-national conglomerate. (Is there any other kind?) It’s fancy. Very high level. Technical. Detail-oriented.
Can we tell you what the company is? No. Do you care? Also no. Do I know how it’s going? No. (I’ve been on vacation, only popping back in to write The Loop because the newsletter game does. Not. Quit.)
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A Show
If all the relationships in The O.C. resulted in children and all those children moved to a small island off the North Carolina coast where everyone made the worst decisions possible at all times regarding class warfare and life in general and also there may or may not be $400 million in gold—in 1880s value; imagine how much this fictitious gold is worth today—buried in a ship that sunk somewhere offshore, you’d more or less get Outer Banks. The first six episodes, which is all I’ve watched so far, could take place over a period of 36 hours or four months. Excellent show, although the name of one of the groups on the island sounds very much like a racial slur even though it’s not and I wonder what, exactly, the producers were thinking.
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A Run
Training Camp: Aegean Sea has consisted mostly of feta, wine, and olives, but also a couple lovely runs in Milos and Paros. Very hot. Very hilly.
The sound of the incoming ferries do nicely to drown out the tiny violins.
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Back in couple wks.
* Not actually sponcon. The Loops recommendations cannot be bought, only provided by our own questionable taste.