"Last night, Andrew Johnston, Time In editor at Time Out New York (and former film critic for Us Weekly, and onetime head of the New York Film Critics' Circle) died of cancer. He was 40. Covering TV and film, Andrew championed the works that needed help ("The Wire", "Battlestar," "Torchwood") always with a slightly geeky edge (he called "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" "pure cinema") and was no less passionate in real life. In our office, there's silence where he once sang and we miss the noise.
-TONY Editor Michael Freidson
Time Out New York, cultural arbiter? That's sort of an interesting concept, given we generally use the magazine to find out where those free kayaks are stationed on the Hudson River this year.
But here's their new "No Sex!" cover, where they either got the film's four girls to pose for a photo shoot (unlikely) or took a Sex and the City press still (likely) and then Photoshopped duct tape over their mouths (almost certain).
You see, it's a photo illustration that's supposed to communicate New York is freakin' sick of these girls. And they might actually be right. CONTINUED »
Time Out New York, home to the delicious Eat Out Awards and the equally consumed Julia Allison, is making its latest play for publicity: user-generated nakedness. Hrmmm.
Because all attempts at cultural relevancy must include submissions from everyday folks and skin pics, TONY is asking New Yorkers to submit photos of themselves in some state of nudity. But there's a caveat! No "aspiring actors, models, porn stars, etc." Which means everybody below 23rd Street is disqualified.
And also: Time Out is now taking editorial cues from … the Post. CONTINUED »
• Improv Everywhere takes on Starbucks with a desk top computer rocking Windows 95.
• Brad Renfro got snubbed at the “In Memoriam” montage because he wasn't famous enough for three seconds of screen time of a four hour program.
• Hey, there just might be something to this whole blogging trend. CONTINUED »
MOVING ON OUT Starting February 15, Time Out New York will be brought to you by Michael Freidson. The current deputy editor has been promoted to EIC, following the departure of Brian Farnham to an online start-up. With event listings on the internet and the sex column being blogged in real time, Time Out New York should consider becoming an internet start-up itself.
Not to long ago, we received a letter in the mail alerting us that we were being given a free subscription Time Out New York. While we love all things free and all the free food Time Out New York gave us at their eat out event, we were pissed off at the news.
We already get the New Yorker and New York magazine, and two is our limit for magazines with “New York” in the title. Now there’s no way we could ever subscribe to the New York Review of Books. Plus, we get more than our fill of Julia Allison’s insights directly from her own relationship blog.
Anyway, Time Out Chicago’s editor-in-chief Joel Reese has been fired for allegedly breaching an undisclosed company policy. Whatever. Apparently there’s no company policy against subscription-rape to increase base circulation.
Anyone can be found online, but only a few people can be "Internet famous." And Jakob Lodwick (cofounder of College Humor) and Julia Allison (notorious bed hopper and self-made Gawker "celebrity") appear to be the online couple of the moment.
Along with running a Web 2.0 powerhouse and writing a column for a magazine that Gothamist made irrelevant, the two have a knack for documenting and digitizing every moment of their lives—which seem infinitely better than yours.
For starters, their sex life is better than yours. In this week's Time Out New York, Allison claims that geeks are the best in the sack. [Ed: We prefer swimmers.] In case you missed the first allusion to her boyfriend who designs Web sites, she goes on to make a reference to College Humor T-shirts. Oh, cross-promotional young love!
Meanwhile, while you went to see Superbad this weekend, they were off in Amagansett, having a pseudo-public lovers' quarrel and eating corn that tasted like "someone cumming". Sadly, despite footage of Lodwick lip-syncing and putting in eye drops, his videographer doesn't include the fight.
So how will this drama unfold? Who can say! Fortunately, it will probably be documented on Flickr.
Booted am New York dating columnist, Dave Zinczenko's sometime lady friend, and girl about town Julia Allison has herself a new, likely pitifully-paying gig: Writing the sex dating column for Time Out New York. To us, Julia may be the girl who runs over to the girls who created The Secret to get her photo taken at the Time 100 party, but for literally dozens of New Yorkers, she's a beacon of hope in a city of dating blight.
She's also ready to get personal. Says the news release:
A notorious figure with a notorious figure, Allison will maintain an up-close-and-personal relationship with her readership.
Draw your own conclusions.
CONTINUED »
• After seven years on Court TV, Catherine Crier Live is no longer. Must be something to do with those action-packed reality shows they're going after.
• Tom Ford gives private tour of new store to fashion editors, where even Cathy Horyn was welcome.
• More about FNC's Red Eye than you probably care to know.
• Time Out New York's Eat Out Awards honor the restaurants you've learned to avoid.
CONTINUED »
It's not every day Time Out New York gets to gloat. In fact, we can't recollect any moment in recent history where they did get to puff out their chest. Sure, they've got the TONY 100, but their niche – food and nightlife – manages to get trumped each year by New York's Taste of New York, even.
Cue today's press release, where it's all about the big-headedness. Time Out New York, at last, has reason to stand on a pedestal.
In a happy reversal of an oft-seen scenario, Time Out New York (TONY) has raided the ranks of Condé Nast as part of a spate of new hires that also includes that nabbing of a high ranking Metro NY staffer.
Too bad our attention span stops there.
After all, it's not like the WSJ stole an editor from Portfolio — rather, Time Out snagged a mid-level Lucky staffer. Oooh, we're shaking in our Awe Boots!
But TONY deserves its 15 minutes, and we're giving it to 'em. After the jump.
CONTINUED »
You know how we spend our day going after other media critics who go after media who give us reason to have this website? Time Out New York is about to totally steal our approach.
You know how TONY exists just to dish out criticism of food, nightlife, and events? Now they're going after other people who criticize! It's the only type of orgy – the meta kind – where Courtney Love isn't invited and everyone leaves calling the other guests "assholes" under their breath.
In the issue that hits newsstands today, TONY goes after those grand cultural influences with a pseudo-scientific grading scale. Says the press release:
TONY began the mission by first developing a grading system, using five categories: knowledge, style, taste, accessibility and influence. Next, the magazine enlisted panelists, from curators and artists to publicists—in other words, the people most likely to be directly affected by criticism—to use the system to rate the city’s toughest critics and to provide (anonymous) comments.
To maintain the integrity of the project, TONY contracted an independent proctor: Samir Husni, chairman of the department of journalism at the University of Mississippi and an expert on the magazine industry. Husni read and collated the submissions; consequently, nobody at TONY knows how the individual panelists graded or which comments were made by whom.
Not surprisingly, the critics who write for The New York Times were nearly universally deemed to be the most influential in their various fields, though some scored low in taste and knowledge. Also unsurprisingly: TONY held its own quite well in eight genres of criticism, against critics from various NYC publications.
At last, blind test results that show NYT critics are no wiser than Aunt Edna, the Village Voice, or Cindy Adams. And it doesn't hurt that test results from the weekly rag mean TONY gets to pat itself on the back for mouthing off the smartest.
• Time Out New York is trying to sex it up. You probably still won't read it … but it might start being good for the pictures. [FBNY]
• There are new lines being drawn in the frosting over at Conde Nast. Where once there were fights over sample Chip & Pepper jeans, they are now faced with a new reality: cookbook wars. [WWD]
• Seriously? Because we could actually go without so many photos of Katie Holmes. [Mollygood]
• CBS is bringing back the gays in full sitcom force. While nothing in the world could ever top Will & Grace, we really want a closeted gay magazine editor character to be on the air. [TMZ]
• Tom Scocca thinks Malcolm Gladwell is really full of himself. Perhaps even a little pompous. Basically, if they could afford him, he'd be writing for the Observer. [NYO]
• Time Out! Micky Rourke is screaming things like "fag" and "deformed douchebag." [Queerty]
• Gothamist is now chronicling every shooting, every fire, and every pedestrian hit by a cab with their real-time mapping technology. If you're bored … laughing at people getting stabbed is always entertaining. [Gothamist]
• The most frightening thing about Brooklyn? The squirrels that will attack your garden. And the fascinating microcosm that erupts when New Yorkers get two square feet of space they call a "yard." [NYT]
• Right here in New York, on Good Morning America, Mark Foley inadvertently called himself a "creepy old guy." Kind of makes Lloyd Grove look a little less COG-y. [Lowdown]
• Nobody told Michael Musto that Avalon closed down? Shame, shame. [Musto]
We love this shit. When the world of media and magazines expands into other realms, or when celebrity and/or media incorporated into the nightlife scene in New York, we get a little giddy. It's like Jimmy Buffett bars or Teen Vogue television. Except this time, it's the nightlife guide everyone should read but doesn't and the part of New York only tourists go to.
It's a Time Out New York lounge! And it's called Time Out New York Lounge. Or, of course, TONY lounge for short. It is set to open in the Theater District's New World Stages, on W. 50th Street, and will cater to all the people who truly long for the return of Fashion Cafe and are sort of over Planet Hollywood and Hard Rock Cafe.
The TONY Lounge "will be open daily to the public and offer happy-hour specials," including its own awkwardly-named signature cocktail: the MarTONY.
Freakin' fabu, y'all. We can't wait until Lindsay Lohan plays Ophelia in Neil Simon's Hamlet and we can stop by after for a real drink.
Time Out New York To Open Off Broadway Lounge [Fishbowl, NY]
• Manhattan chefs apparently hate their own cooking. (Then again, most of them are so much coke they can't feel their faces.) [Lowdown]
• Sascha Restaurant & Bakery on Gansevoort Street is chalk full of fake-eating celebs and their horrible children. [Page Six]
• This poor little town in New Jersey is completely empty. Ever since they made all the illegal immigrants (i.e. the entire town) leave, nothing has been the same. [NYT]
• The city wants to save from you from your obsession with water by water-proofing the subways. The only catch is, if there's a fire down there, you're totally screwed. [amNY]
• Time Out New York comes out with another battle issue, this time focusing on the super under-discussed topic of "Brooklyn Wars." [Brownstoner]
• Brian Farnham joins Time Out New York as EIC. Dan Peres is totally jealous. [WWD]
• Bertelsmann, a German company, is looking to create a MySpace type site for an older, lonelier crowd. Don't they know that all the old lonely people already stalk underage teens on MySpace? [Cnet]
• Jack Shafer reveals his thoughts on media bias: it sells big time. And he completely duped us into reading his long involved column while he was at it. [Slate]
• New York Women in Communications Inc. honored "eight ladies of renown" with its Matrix awards yesterday. The only place where Jill Abramson, Candace Bushnell and Geena Davis can receive the same level or recognition — except when it comes to their outfits. [Fishbowl NY]
• Michael Wolff's latest political rant pretty much rips Press Secretary Scott McClellan a new one. Again, we try not to agree with Wolff, but we just always happen to hate the same people. [VF]
Not that we're one for upholding ethical standards or anything, but this? On the left, this week's cover of Time Out New York, featuring the new Showtime series Weeds. On the right, this week's inside cover of Time Out New York featuring an advertisement for the new Showtime series Weeds.
We prefer adjacencies like Johnny Knoxville and Jessica Simpson, thanks.
Editorial Director
