Looks like I am getting a free drink tonight! So...

Looks like I am getting a free drink tonight! So proud of Foster.

————— Forwarded message —————
From: Foster Kamer
Date: Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 1:12 PM
Subject: i need you to call me
To: Joe Coscarelli

office: 212-475-1900. we have the opportunity to do something very exciting.

And so this thing started. Tony came over to my desk, asked me if I had anything, and that was the first thing I did when he walked away. More on that in a second.

Why gossip? Because it was interesting to us, we were writing what we know, and we felt like we could

(A) Get it correct,
(B) Do a story that would satisfy people who were already familiar with the topic as well as — and more importantly — reach a wider audience with a topic that’s often in their periphery without much thought to it otherwise while
(C) Making it pretty entertaining, too. You can’t do a story about gossip without a little gossip in it. I mean, you could, but it wouldn’t be as much fun as this.

The main aim of the story wasn’t necessarily to declare anything “dead” though — because those pieces are more often than not, wrong — and in fact, not really to declare anything anything so much as just let the people who make these things speak for themselves, and then take stock of it. I’ve personally experienced the not-great sensation of fucking up some story or reading someone else’s half-baked trend piece with anonymous sources that everyone writes off because it begins with the same conclusion it’s going to end with, and everything in that story is dedicated to reach some grand proclamation. What emerged was, what we think of at least as a pretty accurate picture.

There’re some leftover questions, mainly, Why should I give a shit about gossip? and What does gossip even mean any more? among others. We’re gonna be taking some of the awesome interview material we have still - and there’s plenty - and churning some blog posts out of it. This thing isn’t done yet. That’ll be fun, too. Bloggers and print, mixing! It happens.

Anyway, back to that email: I’m happy with this, but Joe, I mean, Joe fucking killed it, here. This wouldn’t have happened without him. The soul and balance and intelligence of this piece was him. Joe talked me off the ledge one night early on after something we thought we had fell through (when we thought our deadline was a week earlier than it actually was, ha) from basically going into Tony’s office, curling in the fetal position, and telling him to run a five page crossword puzzle (still a decent idea, but glad we went with this). Joe’s also just turned 23 22! Which is insane.

Between this, Meagan’s name on bookshelves, Lilit’s name of bookshelves, Stelter with the A1, and Adam Frucci’s new digs, it’s a pretty exciting week for young writers/mediapeople in New York City. Oh, and also: It’s the first day of September, the best month of the year. On an oversharey note, five years ago this month, the day before my 21st birthday, I moved here after dropping out of college and basically was told my life was fucked by everyone but four people, and as much as I loved them, I was pretty sure everyone else was correct. Don’t want to tempt fate, but I’m pretty sure those four people turned out to be right.

And to celebrate this, I’m buying one of them a drink tonight.
And then getting blackout drunk with Joe.
Happy September.