WHAT THEY DON'T GET ABOUT PRINCE HARRY and HIS TESTIMONIALS : the STIFF UPPER LIP and TOXIC POSITIVITY

 I just listened to a video of a broadcast out of Britain in which an unrepentant journalist admitted that he and his peers at a particular newspaper DID INDEED HACK and PERFORM OTHER ILLEGAL TACTICS TO MONITOR - STALK - AND GET INFORMATION ON THE ROYAL FAMILY.  Further, a "journalist" from another such tabloidish paper said, in so many words, the battle was already won because these papers are extinct or on their way out, based on sales of the publications and WHY DOESN'T PRINCE HARRY GET ON WITH IT.... These two are not part of the court hearing.  They are unashamed of their illegal behavior and took to slinging at Harry.  SHAME ON THEM.

Journalists MUST hold to professional standards - not stalking, not spying, and not hacking - or there will be no more HONOR in being a journalist.  Their illegal and unpunished behavior lowers the standards for privacy in society as a whole.

I've heard the criminals blame the victim for the damage done to them in many situations and basically, if nothing else, Prince Harry is processing the damage to his psyche, which he likely stuffed to survive for many years. Perhaps the British "stiff upper lip" is all about emotional repression.  Think about what you have stuffed in order to appear unhurt.

Further the Get On With It and ignore the crap, is very much part of TOXIC POSITIVITY.  Is British culture all about toxic positivity?

C 2023  Christine Trzyna

I STAND WITH THE HOLLYWOOD WRITERS STRIKE (WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA) and WITH PRINCE HARRY

Enough is enough.

It's time that the public stand for professional standards.

Think about this:  You need to know about politics, national, state, local, because DECISIONS MADE EFFECT YOUR LIFE.  You do not need to know anything about celebrities who are not in your life.  If they are friends they will tell you themselves about themselves; at least what they want you to know.  Unless you are among them, working for or with them,what is happening in their personal lives, IS NOT LIKELY GOING TO EFFECT YOUR LIFE. 

So should you be reading about politics or celebrity gossip?

The studios and most actors make extreme incomes.  It is the writers who provide the scripts, and give them the dialogue, who are essential to film-making.  Maybe every writer has a script they're working on in a drawer of their desk at their "real job," so I was told years ago when I typed my creative work on a laptop at a coffee house where I heard one of these Hollywood writers call me "the girl who types."  I was an adult woman who had just graduated from a writing program that was not easy to get into and there was this sexist jackass trying to turn me into a secretary.  He was there hoping to get my ideas having run out of his own.  Those guys are everywhere.

A script writing hopeful one showed up at my writing round table and took everyone else's work home with him to critique and never showed back up.  We thought he was a script thief.  That was why I told the group we should never admit anyone who didn't first submit their work to us - to prove they had some.

I have reason to think a couple of my ideas were stolen over the years.

 That or there is a collective consciousness.

Women and the work of women creators in all the arts do not at all enjoy equality with men.  It's still very much a boy's club and the boys in the boy's club are still playing the "if you have sex with me I'll get you the break you need," card with women.

Someone who worked for Steven Spielberg said writers called him Thieven Steven because, they said, he was fond of claiming, when being pitched, that he had already had that idea...  I have no idea if this is actually true as I never wrote a script in my life to that point and did not have a script in any drawer, but I heard it more than once.  The script writers would show up at one coffee house or another and when they chose to move to a new location to write - well you never knew why they showed up or vacated a location.

One said that if you did it right, you could even sell a shitty script, just so someone else could have your idea more legitimately. 

There were stories of certain writers taking a script and spilling coffee on it and stamping it with dirty shoes to make it look like it had been sitting around a while...  

A man who told me about Thieven Steven, sent me an e-mail that said, "I know you're writing naked. I know you do." I was appalled.  I e-mailed back, "Never contact me again." 

I remember going on a walk in the Hollywood Hills with someone who told me to sell a novel and likely someone would buy the film rights for $40,000 which they called "bathroom remodeling money."

Pay for writers in Hollywood is often a joke.

But the cost of living is no joke.

So though sexism and sexual harassment is very much Hollywood, I stand with the writers on strike.  

And I note that Prince Harry is taking a beating in the British media for speaking up about his own experience with privacy invasion and being spied upon. They are circling the wagons but if it did or did not happen is not so much the point.  It should NEVER happen.  Journalism had standards and that was WHY it was an admired and proud PROFESSION.

Like other professions, it's up to the PRO's to keep it PRO.  So rather than focus on beating up Harry for speaking out, check into your own tactics.

C 2023  Christine Trzyna

PS: Re true crime on YouTube.  Avoid NewsNation. They are shit stirrers. 

Listen to Surviving the Survivor! Best guests in true crime, owned and hosted by a Journalist who has guests from many points of view.

YEVGENIA ALBATS - INDEPENDENT JOURNALIST IN RUSSIA - STAYING IN RUSSIA TO REPORT

VEVGENIA ALBATS, an Independent Journalist, recently decided to stay in Russia and report on YouTube, even though CNN pulled out. I will leave it to you to search YouTube with her name to get to her channel. She is broadcasting in Russian. You may be able to get the Closed Caption working if you don't speak Russian. In an interview she said that she is being careful, that she does not want to be arrested. Protesters including television broadcasters and journalists, who felt or knew that they were providing false information as news, have quit, or fled, or been arrested.

Update April 2, 2022  

Youtube STATION ALBATS

GABBY's DEATH SOCIAL MEDIA and UNFAIRNESS ABOUT MISSING PERSONS

Gabby Petito made headlines in the worst way possible, through her death.  And since then, because of her presence on social media - specifically YouTube - as she and her boyfriend attempted to document a carefree "van" lifestyle, citizen activists and citizen sleuths have been trying to help law enforcement solve the mystery.  I watched dozens of these videos, much of them repetitive without much new to say.  It helps to use the filter "last hour" to make your way through some of these. 

A criticism that I think is unfair is that Gabby got all the media attention because she's a blond, blue eyed White woman.  While I do suspect that Black missing people might not get the same attention as White in some places, the reason this story - one of an easy half million missing people a year in the United States - grabbed our attention was:  

That the couple did seek attention in the first place.  Like others who document their van life hoping to gain a following and enough interest to get paid by YouTube, the couple set out to depict their travels to National Parks.

The irony of their happy together photos and the reality that there was domestic violence taking place.  (The Titanic was not the only steamship that sunk but we are riveted by that story because this was the ship that was marketed as unsinkable.)

Our ability to inspect the photos and judge.  I think they did have many a happy moments together. I think it's difficult to fake such happiness in photos.  We are all examining photos and making judgements about what has been Photoshopped or otherwise altered, be it happy photos or UFO photos.

Perhaps the racist idea that White women are so advantaged that they don't have domestic violence issues in relationships. (I've been told to my face that I'm advantaged for being born White and I think that's ignorant. People who say such things don't know the history of an individual or that White people come from various ethnicities and cultures. It would be like thinking all Native Americans have the same ethnicity or culture.)

The knowing that if this couple had therapy or learned anger management, the outcome could have been so different.

I'm writing this a few days ahead of some of the information that will be forthcoming such as the cause of death in actuality, the timeline, and the whereabout of boyfriend Brian.  At this time I'm open minded enough to think it is possible that Brian, who is being tried and convicted in the media, might not have killed his girlfriend.

C 2021  Christine Trzyna

MARK SHAW's BOOK DENIAL OF JUSTICE : DOROTHY KILGALLEN STORY

I heard this author speak on a radio program and then listened to this YouTube video of his presentation another time.  I think Shaw is a well organized speaker and the story about Dorothy Kilgallen is interesting.  Because of him, an investigation of her death which had been called a suicide was opened.  He thinks it was murder.  He thinks he knows who did it too because of a POEM his suspect wrote. Kilgallen was a journalist who was onto something about the President John F. Kennedy assassination.  More famous for her presence as a game show player on "What's My Line," a television show, I had no idea that she had been known in her time as a respected investigative journalist.  This one take about an hour, but if any of that interestes you, it's worth the listen. 

WORD CHOICES THAT ARE JUST SO NOW ... OR WAS THAT YESTERDAY?

1) CONVERSATION : As a result of social media, such as Twitter, these days we suppose that ideas, notions, controversies, and news, is all up for discussion.  Some "conversations" go on for years, but most fizzle.  Like my favorite TA once said, "Sometimes it's good to let a conversation go."

"Are we still having a national conversation about the Democratic Candidates Debates?"

2) SEX PEST : This one is pre Jeffery Epstein scandal and Harvey Wienstein scandal. I personally believe it is United Kingdom lingo gratis Daily Mail UK.  SEX PEST is an umbrella term to describe everyone from the over-compliment-er who keeps "noticing" what you wear to work or whose eyes linger noticeably too long, to a hands on sexual harasser, to a stalker. There is however, a slight sense of humor to the term, so that Epstein and Wienstein are overqualified for it. 

"That weird guy at the coffee house is such as sex pest, he should get a life."

3) CLOSURE : Closure is B.S.  It is assumed that the most horrific losses that result in grief will end when you have "closure" but this is rarely so and puts a false expectation that you will be done already with it.  One of my personal most hated terms, probably spawned by an overly psychobabble-effected culture.

"They lost everything, their house, everything in Hurricane Dorian. When they get a roof over their head again, they'll get closure."

4) GET A MOTEL : Used to let people know their Public Displays of Affection are making you uncomfortable or that if they don't want you wish to join in.  Upgraded to the more posh GET A HOTEL or locally, CHATEAU MARMONT.  Best delivered with deadpan intonation and raised eyebrow.

"Ah, you three should really go to the Chateau."

C 2019 Christine Trzyna

IMPLODE OR EXPLODE : IS IT ME OR IS IT THE WORLD?

I'm trying to remember how it is that I got addicted to reading DAILY MAIL UK. It's been a while now since I started reading it.  It might have been about the time I was having withdrawal from the end of Art Bell's second or  third incarnation, his long awaited but brief MIDNIGHT IN THE DESERT show. I believe it had to do with trying to read around EDWARD SNOWDEN and JULIAN ASSANGE. These men and those like them are important to the question we need to ask, and that is the role of journalists and journalism in society, in a time of fake news (sorry to say there really is a lot of it) and skepticism. Though sometimes DAILY MAIL UK gets it wrong, more often they get it right and their news breaks across the ocean first, meaning that by the time you get up to listen to KFI and the obnoxiously funny BILL HANDLE well, you will already know what news they are going to be mentioning on the radio as you sit in traffic on the freeway because it sounds to be right out of DAILY MAIL UK!  You know that because you checked when you got up to pee at 3 am.

Currently I barely read about Snowden, who I actually feel has had his Andy Warhol Fifteen Minutes of fame over and over again and will live out his life in Russia. He raised his finger in that ayatollah kind of way and I thought, this is not good!  I suspect Assange and WikiLeaks is going to be story for a long long time, unless he dies, and I think he might.  He's being made an example of. Got to give Snowden credit for years of faithfulness to his pole dancing exhibitionist girlfriend; there's someone for everyone? 

I don't feel so bad about the way I have to hit the DAILY MAIL UK site at least twice a day - sometimes more - sometimes when I wake up in the middle of the night - yesterday every hour - when I hear that it's the second most read news media site in the world. 

I don't know what media site is supposed to be number one. I kind of hope The New York Times. I read the San Jose Mercury News... I read The Guardian... I read Vanity Fair.

I currently make dog poo bags from the LA TIMES though yes, it does have some good coverage.  I hear it's printed with soy based ink and I'm just so eco. I have respect for journalist Steve Lopez there, who I feel sure already has his private island estate in heaven being built by the angels.

LINK HERE TO A JOURNALIST I RESPECT STEVE LOPEZ  He will not quit writing about our housing and homeless crisis.

So, about DAILY MAIL UK; I know some of you are disappointed in me for this, but I'm not alone in making my way past the Kardashians, who I knew nothing about when I started reading it, and so many other desperate-for-attention women showing off their bodies in swim suits, if you can identify these strained patches of fabric as such, who take pouty selfies of themselves using mirrors to look down their own pants, to some terrific coverage of what we used to call HARD NEWS, such as the hideous Jeffery Epstein Sex Trafficking scandal. And the Miley Cyrus scandal, a trivial bisexual fling of a scandal which, when it comes right down to it, has not an iota of impact compared to what the now dead sex addict Epstein's scandal will.

I really CAN be LITERARY and also be into POP CULTURE.

DAILY MAIL UK also promises daily coverage of VIOLENCE, from gross pimple popper videos to mass shootings, mothers who put babies they just gave birth to in dumpsters and people who put their dogs in freezers, innocent people wrongly convicted and criminals running free, boating and helicopter accidents, riots in front of movie theaters and more seriously in Hong Kong, wackos gone crazy and crazies gone wacko, every form of violence.  

I'M OVEREXPOSED TO VIOLENCE.  
I don't want to be ill informed or ignorant.  
I want to understand. 
I feel stress.
I am anxious.
I feel overloaded.
It feels hopeless.

WE NEED HELP.  

Can the Republicans find ANYONE to run against TRUMP?  Can the Democrats who refused to eat some form of Pig in IOWA or who actually do not have a realistic PLAN for how this Reparations thing will work (I suggest national DNA tests) please step out of the race for the Presidency. 

Go Bernie Go!

Sometimes I feel like imploding or exploding.

You might too.

Just don't do it all over my blog.


C 2019  Christine Trzyna  All Rights Reserved.  Internet and International Rights Included. 

JOURNALISTS AGAINST JOURNALISTS?

video expired.  Taken down December 2024

Have been reading around Edward Snowden since the first reportage in newspapers, on the Internet, and in YouTube videos, I chose this video which expresses some of the concerns I have about the effect of both the NSA / U.S. Government monitoring electronic communications of everyone who uses cell phones and/or computers as well as the legal issues involved from all angles.

Having studied Journalism in college at a time when anyone with any ambition wanted to be the one who got the most important news out to the public, at a time when hard news, not soft, was important, it concerns me that a journalist who wrote about Snowden and the information he wanted to leak would be considered criminal for doing so.  Let us not confuse Journalist who are doing their jobs and the people and events they cover.  A news EZditor also has a great role in determining what will be printed and thus influence history by choosing what to print or not, but a good editor is on the side of the Journalist. A  Journalist relies upon and reports to the Editor.

Was it Edward Snowdens intent to shut down Journalism, Newspapers, and the Media?

Just the opposite.

TRIED TO GIVE A TIP TO THE LOCAL NEWS : I ADMIRE ACTIVISTS

(This will be my last post until after the Easter/ Passover Season!)

Have you ever called a newspaper or tabloid to give them a Tip on a Hot News story?

Last week I encountered what I considered to be a very newsworthy local story with national and international interest. 

I met someone who was a few days into a HUNGER STRIKE for a social justice cause.  He had written a book too - about human trafficking - though his hunger strike was to protest the President of the United States, President Obama, from recognizing the newly (corruptly) elected Armenian who has some human rights violations on his resume.

The HUNGER STRIKER was my kind of human being. 

I realized this: I have been the FAN of so very many MUSIC MAKERS and WRITERS.  I've co-author a blog about music of a certain era with Wes Bryan since 2007 !, and I'm the first to read the latest bios/memoirs books and about music makers. 

But what I really admire - my heroes and heroines - are always people who STAND FOR SOMETHING.  I actually admire people who STAND FOR SOMETHING even when the something is not something I agree with than people who DON"T STAND FOR ANYTHING.  (Example. As a kid I was a total Beatles FAN but my HEROINES were Leaders of the Feminist Movement.) 

(To meander here amoment, I recall a College class I took about poetry during which the question of separating a human being from the work came up.  It seemed to be that Literature expected the work and the person to stand alone.  Thus you could get a Doctorate in Literature Deconstructing someone else's work without ever Interviewing them.  I had enough Journalist in me to be very bothered by that.)

So, I decided this man needed some press as he weakened.  I sent two e-mails to local television news programs, one of which got an automated "Thanks!" message.  Then I called three local news providers.  The only live person I encountered was at a community college news paper where a man was said they would "Look into it."

The absolute worst was when I called Fox News.  The man I spoke to was condescending, impatient (even though I had written out what I wanted to report in one small paragraph).

I said "How many people actually sit inside an RV and HUNGER STRIKE to make a point to a U.S. President?"  This Fox news guy didn't even fake he cared.  He answered a few other calls coming in, and if he wasn't the tip line, he sure wasn't transferring me to one.  He said, "It doesn't matter because I have no one to send out to cover that."

On my way home I was hungry. On my way home I was concerned about my fat gut rather than HAVING MORE GUTS! 

As I pondered what I might cook for dinner, I wondered what it must be like to go several days without food.  Lately it seems I've been so afraid to feel hunger pangs that I eat before I can feel them.

I hoped this man had done his research and taken medical science on how to HUNGER STRIKE into as much consideration as inspiration by others who have done so.  I started thinking that I WANTED HIM ON NATIONAL NEWS if only so HE COULD EAT AGAIN!

And I was glad I had left the Journalism program I was in years ago to Major in Creative Writing instead.

INTERNET JOURNALISTS PIGGYBACKING COVERAGE ON THE MISSONI MYSTERY : INACCURATE HEADLINES : LAZY JOURNALISTS

LAZY JOURNALISTS PIGGYBACKING COVERAGE ON THE MISSONI MYSTERY : INACCURATE HEADLINES : UNTOLD STORY

By Christine Trzyna

Once in a while I get hooked on a news story and follow it closely. 

Recently I started reading everything I could find on the MISSONI MYSTERY.  

As a recap, on about January 3rd/4th 2013, a small plane carrying the so called "iconic" Vittorio Missoni and five others disappeared in a cloud not long after take-off from a resort island off the coast of Venezuela.   Missoni has been the world brand ambassador of this family owned Milan, Italy,  fashion house which began about a half century ago and has had great impact on the design of knits and fashion.  Though not inexpensive,  in the last year they made a deal with Target and the less expensive products were sold out so very quickly and started appearing on e-Bay for more than they were priced.  This is how well loved the designs the Missoni family makes are!

Not one article I read suggested that a fashion house enemy or perhaps the Italian Mafia were involved but I wondered.  When the children of the presumed dead began to reach out to (unnamed) enemies and Twitter for help to find their parents, I really wanted more story.  The idea of kidnapping was mentioned but hey, no mention of a ransom asked for. 

Cell phone "anomalies" indicated that calls were sent from cell phones that would be underwater unless the passengers and plane had been hijacked by drug dealers, which apparently happens a whole lot in the area. Venezuela denied this as a possibility. 

Just the cell phone anomaly story had me hooked and for days I watched the press for some explanation, which to this point I have not found.  I tried to research this myself.  How long can a cell phone withstand being underwater?  Friends said some models can work though they have fallen in a swimming pool or toilet, but not thousands of feet under the sea. 

I read dozens of articles that piggybacked on others, looking for the original source or the best source for information. 

Then began, it turns out an inaccurate report that the pilot was not licenced. Even when this proved to be untrue it continued to be reported.  I checked the publishing dates and there are a whole lot of so called journalists who should be ashamed of themselves.  Are these journalists even researching, asking questions, or just reading each others articles and using new, inaccurate words as well as information over and over again for a month now? 

The pilot was healthy, licenced, and well regarded in the area. 

A fellow pilot thought maybe a thunderbolt felled the plane!

In the last few days it was revealed that a sports bag was found a couple hundred miles away from where the search had centered.  It had been stowed away on the plane the Missoni party hired because there wasn't enough room on another plane.  Nowhere in the press have I read that this sports bag was empty, wet, full of sand, found on a beach.  The word ROCKS was used.  It was apparently in good enough condition that the German Tourist who found it took it home and contacted the owner because the name tag inside was still intact.  (Would you take home a soakinig wet empty bag?

Lazy journalists and HEADLINE WRITERS, started reporting this single sports bag as "Missoni Luggage" and "First Debris" of the plane!  I see no reason to speculate like that in a journalistic article.

In dozens of articles journalists are confused as to whether the woman Missoni was traveling with was his "Wife," "Life-Partner," or "Companion." Apparently their relationship is so secret dspite the international fame of Vittorio that journalists can't find a marriage license, church record, or ask the family, before publishing.


It is a MYSTERY as to why no bodies, no luggage, no  nothing - but the sports bag - has made its way up and over the sea after a month.  Theories are that the plane is so far down that it cannot be detected by the usual means and so the family, Italy, and Venezuela have sent a submarine to look around the sea floor. 

The sports bag found on rocks in good enough condition has lead the search to 200 miles away, perhaps the flotsam and jetsam moved with fast tides.

Meanwhile, as the show must go on, you can see the spring Missoni show that took place for Fashion Week in Milan recently on YouTube.  However, you will be very lucky to find any speculation in the press on what the Missoni family's plan is if, indeed Vittorio is dead.  I can understand, given the problems with the plane crash theory, the family is hesitating to be conclusive!

Meanwhile it is clear to me that in order to be FAST about POSTING AN ARTICLE / DEADLINE PRESSURE, accuracy is no longer a consideration!

C Christine Trzyna 2013  All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights.

FEDS WANT TO "REINVENT" JOURNALISM

JOURNALISM is in trouble...
WOULD YOU LIKE TO WORK FOR THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO STAY EMPLOYED?

Today I found this article about how the FEDS are looking at the way journalists can barely make a living, newspapers are having trouble making revenue; a long article but take a look because it's PROVOCATIVE.

ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE REPORTS on THINGS THAT HAVEN'T HAPPENED YET

Looking through the November 27th 2009 edition of Rolling Stone magazine. There is reportage on a concert that has not happened yet...

I had to check the magazine twice to be sure it didn't say October 27, 2009.

A magazine subscription used to come about a week before the news-stand. This was the advantage of a subscription. Now some are coming a good month before they hit the stands and seem to be PREDICTING THE FUTURE rather than reporting JUST BREAKING NEWS.

PULITZER PRIZES ANNOUNCED ! LAS VEGAS SUN CONGRADULATIONS ALEXANDRA BERZON !

" The Las Vegas newspaper was cited for the "courageous reporting" of Alexandra Berzon, whose stories about lax enforcement of safety rules on the Las Vegas Strip led to changes in policy and improved workplace conditions.The death toll on the Strip had reached nine in 16 months as casino giants undertook a $32 billion building boom, including the largest private commercial development in U.S. history. Berzon described how the rush to build quickly and at highly congested work sites led to safety shortcuts that contributed to deaths."

MEDIA and CELEBRITY and MADONNA

MEDIA and CELEBRITY and MADONNAby Christine Trzyna
You may not think much of me for this, such a literary person I am, but I am absolutely interested in the Madonna - Guy Ritchie divorce which is making all the news in Britain and the Internet. At the end of my computer time I go check Yahoo news for the latest. I want to know if Madonna will be generous. If she will leave England. If she has a man waiting in the wings. And of course, how she will recreate herself for the next act of her life since she gets the PRIZE for BEST CHAMELEON. For all that, I recently read the book about his life with her by her talented in many things but for writing brother Christopher Ciconne. Click on the title above to be taken to "How Liz Rosenberg is Killing Christopher Ciconne's Book Tour" with her control of some television media...

Thanks to David Hauslaib's Gossip on the Internet

Q When does someone become public property?

A When they become famous - a celebrity.

Easily this means movie stars, but it can go like this. One day you talk to a reporter about your life, the article appears in People or another magazine, now "everyone" knows you, and so you are now public property, and so your life is not legally protected as private. If any NEWS happens to you, if you become NEWS, reporters and researchers and writers might find you and write about you in the media. Of course you might decline to comment or hire a Public Relations person to do a "spin" on you to help you fix an impression that you feel is erroneous even if it is the truth.

The truth is the key here because people are not committing libel or slander if they tell the truth and further, and getting at the truth is a fetish, and at least in America it is assumed that everyone is entitled to an opinion. Now adays there is even something called ADVOCACY JOURNALISM in which the journalist is not assumed to be able to keep his or her own opinions out of the story. Or let's face it, as an editor just the bit you choose says something about you after all. For instance if you pick and publish information that makes Madonna seem like the greedy and materialistic person she is - cheap with her family and hardworking sibling Christopher for instance - which is what he says - you might be expected to be a fan of Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who in his book, reviewed here, spends pages using her as a bad example. So much for her leanings towards Kaballah.

Of course a way to become famous is to write your own memoir when in a sense you have no control over what you've lived but you do have control of what you want to say about it. If it gets on the best seller list people may be asking you about your life from then on. Or you will find your own book at a garage sale being recycled. I like to read the disclaimer statements some memoirists start out with.

Years ago journalists respected public figures like U.S. Presidents by not reporting what they knew about their private lives while celebrity oriented movie magazines did more than put a spin - they fabricated stories about their stars that were barely if at all true to give an impression.

Madonna, I feel, is probably not capable at this point of giving an interview or really saying anything spontaneously (even if it sounds like she is) and without an agenda. I believe she is quite the PR expert and knows how to play the media better than anyone. Which is why maybe it's exciting to see what actually makes it into the press about this divorce and wonder if she planted it there and what she's up to or if she and Liz Rosenberg are actually loosing some control!

I really loved that one article that said Madonna sleeps wrapped in plastic !

ARE YOU STUCK WITH A GENRE ?

As a writer, are you stuck with a genre without meaning to be?

This morning I was thinking about how pleased I am to read obituaries in Publishers Weekly and learn that a particular writer was published in several genre, or moved between Journalism and Novels. Sometimes, but not always, this was accomplished in part by establishing separate identities and names of the plume to write behind. Sometimes the writer left one form of writing behind and never returned to it. Whatever the case, children's book authors have written grants, and grant writers have written novels, and novelists have written poetry and poets have written hard news, and tabloid journalists have written poems. But, I think, once you have arrived on the literary scene with a successful book project, it may be more difficult than ever to become more expansive in range. After all, the wealthiest writers are often not those who spent 10 or 20 years on THE BOOK, but the ones who develop a strong character or characters and take them through adventures book after book with a regular publishing schedule that allows maybe a year to go by between books.

Any experiences or opinions?

AFTER THREE DAYS WITHOUT READING

"AFTER THREE DAYS WITHOUT READING, TALK LOSES ITS FLAVOR."

I thought this quote was rather interesting. I think many people - especially those who do not see talking as sharing "personal" information- do rely on the MEDIA for information that sparks them, and which they pass on to others who they imagine are interested in the same subjects. For many, the reading is the newspaper, or the news posted on the Internet. The public libraries are full mostly of people who are using the Internet for e-mail, blogs, and websites, job search, resume building, and informational resources. But while journalists for pay pride themselves on the accuracy of their reporting and take some responsibility, many websites that are contributory are about rumor mongering, or even have dark agendas.

Evaluating the usefulness of a web site is important.