Sorry Will, I know one of the tenets of this blog is refusing to post something that is being done everywhere but this is infuriating.

A few weeks ago, photo manipulation in a Times magazine article called “The Second Gilded Age” was discovered by programmer Adam Gurno and proven in this little gif. Edgar Martins, the photographer, had apparently mirrored one side of the image, making the whole photo a bit more ascetically pleasing. Obviously outside the allowed color correction and levels, but the story was not impacted by the photographer’s generous photoshopping. The photos were redacted and NYT apologized. In the grand scheme of things, not a huge deal.

However, instead of stepping up and admitting fault, Martins unloaded this crock of shit on us. Citations in what should be a short apology? Really? I haven’t read the whole thing as it runs at 2600 words, more than triple the length of the article the photos accompanied.

A choice selection:
Symmetry helps to map the parameters of human existence

The hardest part of travelling across Europe before and during the Mongol Rally has been the clinging feeling of uncertainty – we don’t know whether our journey will be cut short in a matter of days or stretch for another month. We all still crave the latter, to roll into Ulaan Bataar in late August is still a magnificent dream to us. But as the days have turned into weeks and after a month of seeing the insides of many of Europe’s ancient cathedrals as well as its DMV-equivalents, and watching the rolling countryside through the window of our cramped yellow car, it is harder and harder to say we haven’t accomplished enough. I’m not sure we don’t already have enough stories to tell and that, given some of the difficulties we’ve experienced, we must push ourselves even further to reach some sort of catharsis, to feel like we’ve gone far enough.

I am coming across a boatload of writing and/or photo contest today and I thought it would be nice to share and really drum up some competition (that is, if I can get over this heat induced laziness).

This writing contest has an Oasis theme and was put out by nycgo.com, Jet Blue, Trazzler and AKA. Winning this gig could get you a two week “residency” in NYC working on 10k worth of assignments for Trazzler or a freelance contract worth some loot. I for one am particularly inspired by the poetry of the contest description.
Modern life can often feel like a trek through the desert. For this contest, we want you to write about a place that not only satisfies your thirst for a change of scenery, but goes beyond this, breaking the spell of everyday existence and providing the “refuge, relief, or pleasant contrast” that we all crave, especially in the summer.
You have to sign up for Trazzler, which so far seems pretty innocuous. Deadline: August 17th.

Narrative Magazine is seeking “short shorts, short s

Latest update from Will came in on Saturday, who knows where he is by now. Team Great Job!’s Twitter is now randomly updated (international texts don’t cost so much, eh?), so make sure to follow that if you are as desperate for new updates as I am. – Jackie

The Polish mechanic’s hoisting a slab of metal underneath our car to protect it from rocks and debris once we get on the dirt roads in Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

Two days ago, we were in Lodz, Poland and on every side of us were miles of dismal Polish highway, two lanes and seemingly the entire stretch under some sort of construction.  The city offered respite from the unyielding semi-trucks on the narrow roads, and we were scouring Lodz (pronounced Woodge) in search of a mechanic willing to weld a generic slab of metal underneath our car – a measure greatly endorsed by previous and current Mongol Rally participants to combat the roads in Kazakhstan.  Driving aimlessly around Lodz, our first stop was at a Mercedes service station.  The youn

Will sent a quick update yesterday from a couple’s home, where he and Team Great Job! stayed in Poland. The team was off to see a mechanic to make some upgrades on the Nissan Micra they are driving to Mongolia. From Will:

A quick hello before we go out to find supplies for our journey in the city of Ludz (pronounced oudge), the second-largest city in Poland.  We are staying with a super-nice couple who have written in Polish some explanation of what we need and why we need it that we can show to people today.  For us, it’s a very welcome respite from camping.

We drove from Munich to Prague and explored the city with one of Ryan’s friends two days ago and put some serious mileage on our feet getting through the city.  Then we left our campsite yesterday morning and took some wrong turns out to the city before making it through the forested mountains of the Czech Republic.  The resort towns along the way reminded me a bit of California’s national parks, and we stopped for pizza in a P

It is no secret that I am a fan of David Alan Harvey and Burn Magazine, but the photo essay, “States of Identity,” published a few days ago is blowing my mind even more than usual. Guillem Valle documents people without a homeland-Palestinians, Albanians, etcetera etcetera- and made one hell of a beautiful and cohesive photo essay despite covering so many struggles.

His website is worth a look, too.

Youtube recently rolled out Reporter’s Center, a selection of videos for journalists on topics such as developing a story and tips for interviewing from some of the biggest players in the game including Katie Couric, Nicholas Kristof and Ariana Huffington.
From the page’s profile:
The YouTube Reporters’ Center is a new resource to help you learn more about how to report the news. It features some of the nation’s top journalists and news organizations sharing instructional videos with tips and advice for better reporting.
While it might be geared to “citizen journalists,” it couldn’t hurt to look around and brush up on how to do investigate journalism by one of the greats, eh?

jackie and i are working, slowly but steadily, on our most ambitious project to date:

a feature-length historical documentary/where are they now?/social investigation about the international phenomenon that was/is FMILLEST.
what’s an FMillest, you say? it was/is our crew from our more formidable years, a group of people brought together by rollerblading. but it turned into much more than a skate crew.

so when jackie was down here a few weeks ago, we decided to:
A) see where everyone was, and what they’re doing
B) see if we can scare up as many old photos/videos/letters/etc. from that time as possible, and
C) put it all together as a documentary

we are now in the interviewing and old-media-gathering phase of the project, which we expect will last a long time. my conservative estimate for completion is one year. each interview, thus far, has been at least an hour. we’re looking at the possibility of acquiring THOUSANDS of stills, and HOURS UPON HOURS of old skate/party video.

Wesside

In the past few months, I’ve thought a lot about work—working to live as we all do to sustain ourselves but also the concept of working to work. By this I mean the creative pursuit so many artists undergo: to work just enough to meet one’s basic needs but also reserving enough free time to realize one’s true ambitions. In a perfect world, we’d all get paid a living to do what we love, but in case you haven’t noticed, this is not a perfect world and many fields—especially those artistic in nature—require talent and notoriety, which fruit from years of practice and climbing the ranks.

Journalism is not unique in this regard, although we like to victimize ourselves, particularly amid the current economic climate and media transformation. But actors, fine artists, designers, musicians, models as well as creative writers and the like all have to start at the bottom, working random jobs or unpaid internships–living on couches or in closet-sized apartments–until they build up their skills and

Yesterday I smelled like rancid sour dirt, incubating underneath a hot laptop and a rolled up sleeping bag in a 1.0 liter Nissan Micra with a broken ventilation system, windows rolled up to lower drag, a surf board on top, and a loose cigarette-lighter powering my laptop as I edited as many photos as I could on the long drive from Dunquerque, France to Munich, Germany.