August 14, 2012
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The Daily News
WE'RE BAAAAAACCCCCKKKK!!!
1 Is there any better way to open up the school year than with an introductory by Hunter S. Thompson?
2 God did I miss this.
3 It's just this: isn't it WEIRD to have school opening on August 14? It goes against all things American if you ask me.
4 No complaints. I think it was Mark Twain who once said, "The worst day of summer is better than the best day teaching."
5 Or was it Mr. Feeny?
6 Some guy said it somewhere.
7 When in doubt about any quote, just attribute it to Mark Twain. Everybody else does. Nobody cares about accuracy in 2012.
8 Hey, lighten up. I pretty much say everything with tongue planted firmly in cheek.
9 Anyway, this August stuff is weird.
10 Welp, I guess it is just one of those things, a song by Buster Posey. At least I THINK it's by Buster Posey.
11 So here's the good ol' DN, comin' to getcha, even though it's still summer!
12 So...just what IS the Daily News? It's something that people tell me I write, but that I don't really believe I write.
13 It writes itself.
14 The DN is entering its sixteenth year beginning with this entry.
15 It began in 1996 when the Yerba Buena Performing Arts Department in East San Jose, California mounted the inimitable Guys and Dolls. Due to a lack of intelligence on the part of nearly everyone, I was chosen to be the director.
16 The name of the DN is stolen directly from the tune Guys and Dolls.
17 It started like this: I had directed a few musicals prior to Guys and Dolls, but I always had trouble trying to get information to all areas of the show: the band, the actors, the tech people, the house people, etc.
18 Rather than having tons of meetings with each body of the show, I looked to one of my journalistic heroes, Herb Caen of the San Francisco Chronicle, the delicate and stormy creator of a brilliant form of journalism which he deemed "three-dot journalism."
19 His job was just to hang out at all cool events in San Francisco, of which there were many, and muse about them, and eventually, to muse about his feelings of life, of love, of the City, of the Giants, of politicians, and so on.
20 I shamelessly stole Caen's basic style, put it numerically, and decided that the only name I could possibly adopt was The Daily News, right outta Guys and Dolls.I then posted it on the wall of the building in order to communicate with everyone in the company. It eventually morphed into this folderol.
21 The first eight years it had nothing but hard copies. I was pretty horrible at web building, because I couldn't get past this Egyptian technique called "html."
22 By 2004, technology stepped up and brought us template websites, one of which is the immortal Xanga. I was told that I could build websites with it, and the rest is history. Wiseguy journalism was born.
23 I had decided that I would arbitrarily send the DN to graduates and colleagues who would probably enjoy it, or at least be annoyed by it, but who would certainly get it.
24 I still don't get it, but I do know that the good ol' DN is somehow back, and will report yet another year in the life of this Old Brown Shoe.
25 So here we are, on the morning after the Washington Nationals obliterated my Giants. So it goes.
26 God, or Herb, or Joe-the-Bear, thanks for the spirit, and let's all buckle up for this rollercoaster, 'cuzz it's gonna be a ride. Oh, and Betty Boop.
27 Fasten your seat belts, and welcome back.
28 That's it for today.
29 Live life.
30 Love life.
31 Peace, and I hope you enjoy the ride.
~H~
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