Jane Aldridge of Sea of Shoes - NEVER CEASING TO BE AMAZING - 25 Need-To-Know Bloggers | Online | Mediaite

Niche Experts

Jane Aldridge of Sea of Shoes

There is nothing the internet loves like precocity. The young — with their technological precision like second nature — are gawker at, admired and admonished in equal parts for their willingness to immerse themselves in a virtual world and overshare without a second thought. They captivate their peers and parents alike with diary-style prose and self-portraits while shrugging off any concerns for privacy or the death of introspection. On immaculate display as a pinnacle of online excess and cult appeal is teenage fashion blogger Jane Aldridge, the proprietor of Sea of Shoes.

Shy of her 2010 high school graduation, Alridge fields tens of thousands of hits per day on her one-girl shoe blog, featuring well-lit digital photos of herself adorned in the latest designer or thrifted threads with a focus on footwear. With a seemingly endless clothing budget, Aldridge embodies an aspirational fashion fantasy without pretension or condescension, favoring an “aw shucks” grin to a cold model’s stare. It’s voyeurism that doesn’t inspire intense jealousy and has resulted in numerous mentions in Teen Vogue, a fan letter from Kanye West and even her own shoe line, J. Aldridge by Sea of Shoes for Urban Outfitters.

In addition to wisdom and style beyond her years, Aldridge works another online inclination in her own favor: the fetishization of “The Real America.” Given that so much of blogging royalty is based in urban centers, especially New York City, there’s an insatiable longing for simplicity and an endless fascination with pastoral landscapes, especially in photo blogs. Aldridge lives in Texas, about an hour outside of Dallas, and her cosmopolitan sensibility — sparkling diamonds and leather boots — surrounded by foliage or dirt is an unassailable aesthetic online. But she’s too sweet to be contrived and too passionate to be mocked. And, oh yeah, she called her school’s heel height policy her “Waterloo.”

When Gourmet folded, Christopher Kimball, the publisher of Cook’s Illustrated, opined in a New York Times op-ed that “in a click-or-die advertising marketplace, one ruled by a million instant pundits, where an anonymous Twitter comment might be seen to pack more resonance and useful content than an article that reflects a lifetime of experience, experts are not created from the top down but from the bottom up.” Pastry chef David Lebovitz, who contributed to Gourmet a few times but is better known for his top-notch blog, proves that sometimes, the ground up gets it right.

The aptly named davidlebovitz.com is an old-fashioned personal blog that isn’t an old-fashioned personal blog. It devotes a lot of virtual ink to idiosyncrasy and reminiscence, much of it focused on Lebovitz’s experience as an American expat living in Paris, but in the midst of all that it’s about as good a food blog as you can find. It strikes the sweet balance between recipes (Breton buckwheat dumplings; idiot-proof chocolate cake), advice (how to prepare shelling beans) and food porn (mmm…burger). And the expert is rewarded by the instant pundits; even though it’s a one-man show, it gets comparable traffic to Eater and half as much traffic as gourmet.com and bonappetit.com.

Lebovitz also has a delightful Twitter feed. Sample Tweets: “wouldn’t it be great if OXO designed a bed?” “@divinacucina Maybe with the prize money Obama can buy some cooler jeans?”

Eskay of Nah Right

Over time, the writing of bloggers has delineated itself as a wholly unique style. Newspaper journalists, magazine writers, and amateur writers have all adapted to making content for the web. But what about the blogger as curator, forgoing original written words altogether? Such is the role of many of the internet’s primary tastemakers from fashion (see Jane Aldridge, below) to technology (see Jason Kottke, above). Carefully selecting links to worthy content elsewhere has become a niche of its own. For efficient tastemaking, acknowledgment is often enough and analysis or comment often distracts from work that could otherwise speak for itself.

Eskay, the pseudonym-cloaked rap blogger responsible for Nah Right, is one of the foremost examples of an online curator with king-sized influence. Despite all of the niche music blogs covering genres from Baltimore club to Brazilian favela funk, despite of the sway held by bastions of the indie rock internet like Pitchfork or Stereogum, the blog circuit has rendered the rap landscape almost unrecognizable. Nah Right, in particular — with its simple photo-plus-mp3 template and free-for-all, off-topic comments section — has made and mocked stars with seismic sway. As the defacto head of a rap blog conglomerate, New Music Cartel, eskay originally ran the show solo based only on his personal taste, but now he commands a small army.

The jewels of the major labels over the last two decades — even rapper behemoths like 50 Cent and Jay-Z  – are now subject to the whims of a former graffiti artist from Staten Island. And we’re all the better for it.

Fred Wilson of A VC

Somewhere behind the scenes, money makes the internet run. Those front and center in technology can often be mistaken for the ones who make things go, but there’s almost always another level of power — someone in the background pulling strings and putting up dollars. And then there’s Fred Wilson, who’s both.

As an eminent venture capitalist and principal of Union Square Ventures, Wilson has an immense understanding of technology investment. Luckily, he’s willing to share. A VC is Wilson’s relatively lo-fi blog, featuring, quite simply, “Musings of a VC in NYC.” But it’s not his Wharton MBA or twenty-plus years experience that fortify his online presence; it’s his humble ability to translate the market into terms we can all understand. He started in the mid-90s with investments in Alacra and Geocities, and now has his hand in numerous buzzy projects including Etsy, del.icio.us and Outside.in. He’s consistently insightful and though he has a reverence for big powers like Google and Apple, his good name comes from surviving failure and transcending the web 1.0 and 2.0. The Silicon Alley Insider put him at the top of their SA100 for 2008, but by now everyone — even outside of the techy fishbowl — should take notice if they care about the future of their beloved internet. Start by following Wilson on Twitter.

Ray Wert of Jalopnik

After a career in politics (including a stint as a campaign organizer for John Kerry), Ray Wert was tapped to run the automotive blog of record, Gawker’s Jalopnik. While Wert may fly under the radar at Gawker Media — the car beat doesn’t get the recognition of the flagship site, Jezebel, or Deadspin — but as the editor in chief, he has as much attitude as anyone there and might actually be their biggest hotshot. Along with being quoted often in the New York Times and regular television appearances, Wert also helped to convince General Motors to hold a full-on car race complete with its own website. And Jalopnik’s name for the Big Three implosion — Carpocalypse — was officially inducted into the lexicon by the Times and credited to Jalopnik. That’s pretty official.

Jalopnik’s traffic spiked as the Big Three crumbled, but they’ve managed to maintain growth and are consistently duking it out with sister site Jezebel — both with visitor numbers and in the comments section. The site knows how to make waves with stunts like aforementioned GM race or taking an electric car to drive around an auto show in Detroit and it all happens under Wert’s watch. Jalopnik also has an aesthetic appeal even to those unfamiliar with the world of cars and they know how to please the outsiders: just check out the Megan Fox gallery, their gift to the world.

And he’s still man enough to pose like this.

25 Need-To-Know Bloggers | Online | Mediaite

WHAT A GAL! Sea of Shoes: REUNITED AND IT FEELS SO GOOD!

Sea of Shoes: REUNITED AND IT FEELS SO GOOD!

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J. Aldridge By Sea of Shoes Lace-Up Skimmer Overall Rating 3.8 out of 5 (5 reviews) Looks Good 4 out of 5 Fits Good 3.2 out of 5 4 of 5 (80%) customers would recommend this product to a friend. $39.99(Was $58.00)

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UrbanOutfitters.com > Sale

People have long wondered what goes on in Bob Dylan’s mind

People have long wondered what goes on in Bob Dylan’s mind

But if you pay attention to what the recent Pulitzer Prize-winner says and plays on his XM satellite-radio program, Theme Time Radio Hour, you can actually get a pretty good idea. Here, by cataloguing the themes has chosen for the episodes, the artists he has favored, and Dylan’s other preferences and quirks, Vanity Fair has constructed a revealing portrait of America’s most enigmatic musician. Below is a near-exhaustive, up-to-date list, expanding on the version printed in our May issue.

The Themes

Weather, Mother, Drinking, Baseball, Coffee
Jail, Fathers, Wedding, Divorce, Summer
Flowers, Cars, Rich Man/Poor Man, The Devil, Eyes
Dogs, Friends & Neighbors, Radio, The Bible, Musical Maps
School, Telephone, Water, Time, Guns
Halloween, Dance, Sleep, Food, Thanksgiving Leftovers
Tennessee, Moon, Countdown, Christmas, Women’s Names
Hair, Musical Instruments, Luck, Tears, Laughter
Heart, Shoes, Color, Texas, Trains
Fools, New York, Death & Taxes, Spring Cleaning, Hello
Youth & Age, Days of the Week, California, Classic Rock, Cadillac
Head to Toe, Smokin’, Dreams, Party, Countdown
One, Walkin’, Around the World, Lock & Key, Mail
President’s Day, Doctors, Danger, Birds, Joe
Heat, Cold

Artists He Plays

Nine times: George Jones

Eight times: Tom Waits, Dinah Washington

Seven times: Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys, Louis Armstrong, Van Morrison

Six times: Buddy Johnson, Elvis Costello, Frank Sinatra, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Louis Jordan, Muddy Waters, Porter Wagoner, The Rolling Stones

Five times: Anita O’Day, Buck Owens, Howlin’ Wolf, James Brown, The Stanley Brothers

Four times: Bessie Smith, Big Joe Turner, Billie Holiday, Charlie Poole, Chuck Berry, Ella Johnson, Fats Domino, Fats Waller, Irma Thomas, June Christy, Little Walter, Loretta Lynn, Los Lobos, Prince Buster, Randy Newman, Ray Charles, Slim Gaillard, Smiley Lewis, Sonny Boy Williamson II, The Beatles, The Carter Family, The Everly Brothers, The Louvin Brothers, Wynonie Harris

Three times: Bo Diddley, Bobbie Womack, Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Elvis Presley, Ernest Tubb, Etta James, Hank Ballard, Hank Penny, Hank Snow, Harry Nilsson, Huey “Piano” Smith, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimmy Rodgers, Johnny Tyler, Joni Mitchell, Lefty Frizzell, Lou Reed, Memphis Slim, Merle Haggard, Milton Brown & His Musical Brownies, Otis Redding, Ricky Nelson, Roy Brown, Roy Orbison, Ruth Brown, Ry Cooder, Sam Cooke, Sir Douglas Quintet, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, The Clash, The Drifters, The Ink Spots, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Staples Singers, Wanda Jackson, Warren Smith, Webb Pierce, Willie Nelson

Brothers

The Allen Brothers, The Bailes Brothers, The Chambers Brothers, The Clancy Brothers, The Everly Brothers, The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Lebron Brothers, The Louvin Brothers, The Maddox Brothers, The Mills Brothers, The Monroe Brothers, The Neville Brothers, The Osborne Brothers, The Stanley Brothers

Sisters

The Andrews Sisters, The Davis Sisters, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Sister Wynona Carr, Sister Rose

“Little” People

Little Eva, Little Johnny Taylor, Little Junior Parker, Little Millette
Little Milton, Little Miss Cornshucks, Little Richard, Little Walter, Little Willie John

The Playboys

Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys , Vince Taylor & The Playboys , L.C. Smith & His Southern Playboys , Jimmie Revard & His Oklahoma Playboys

The Years

—50% the songs he has played were recorded before 1960.

—Only 9% of the songs he has played were recorded in the 1980s or more recently.

Guest Commentators

Six times: Penn Jillette, Tom Waits

Five times: Billy Vera, Deke Dickerson, Elvis Costello, Richard Lewis

Three times: Jack White, Jimmy Kimmel, John C. Reilly, Luke Wilson, Marianne Faithful, Matt Groening, Peter Wolf, Ricky Gervais

Poets References

Aesop, W.H. Auden, St. Basil, Bertolt Brecht, Gwendolyn Brooks
Charles Bukowski, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Gregory Corso, Stephen Crane
e.e. cummings, TS Eliot, Robert Frost, Ted Hughes, C.S. Lewis
Christopher Marlowe, Sylvia Plath, Alexander Pope, Rainer Maria Rilke
Anne Sexton, Shakespeare, Gertrude Stein, Jonathan Swift
Alfred Lord Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, William Butler Yeats

Authors Referenced

Cervantes, Anton Chekhov, Herman Hesse, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Joyce, Jack Kerouac, Marcel Proust, Edgar Allan Poe

Playwrights Referenced

Molière, George Bernard Shaw

Movies Referenced

As Good As It Gets, An Affair to Remember, The Ballad of Cable Hogue
Barfly, Blow, Blue Hawaii, Blue Velvet, Bonnie & Clyde
Casablanca, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Charlie Chan’s Greatest Case
Chinatown, Coal Miner’s Daughter, Coffee and Cigarettes
Cool Hand Luke, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, For a Few Dollars More
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Godfather, It’s a Wonderful Life
Life of Brian, The Maltese Falcon, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou
The Lost Weekend, The Night of the Hunter, Night Train, Paper Moon
Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, The Player, Raising Arizona, Rock & Roll High School
Rocky III, Runaway Train, The Shawshank Redemption, Sleeping Beauty
Snow White, Spinal Tap, Strangers on a Train, Streetcar Named Desire
Sweet Smell of Success, Taxi Driver, The Ten Commandments, The 39 Steps
The Wild Bunch

Television Shows Referenced

The Beverly Hillbillies, Chico and the Man, The Ed Sullivan Show
Hee Haw, Josie and the Pussycats, The Honeymooners
Leave it to Beaver, Lil’ Abner, Welcome Back Kotter
Sanford and Son, Roots, 60 Minutes
The Simpsons, The Sopranos, The Tonight Show, The Wire

History Lessons From Bob

Famous Electric Chairs (e.g. Old Sparky and Gruesome Gerty)

Famous People Who Were Cheerleaders (e.g. Ann Margaret, George W. Bush)

Famous People Who Were Valedictorians (e.g. Cindy Crawford, William Rehnquist, Weird Al – “I wonder if William Rehnquist gave the same type of speech as Weird Al. Somehow I doubt it.”)

Famous People Who Had Burials At Sea (e.g. Steve McQueen, Ingrid Bergman, Vincent Price, Jerry Garcia)

History of the Wobblies, the U.S. labor organization

People Who Died While Playing Cards (e.g. Wild Bill Hickok, Al Jolson, Buster Keaton, the gangster Arnold Rothstein)

Famous People Who Drove Cadillacs (e.g. Pope Pius XII, Teddy Roosevelt, Bill Clinton)

History of Constantinople

Useful Tips

How to Hang Dry Wall

What to Pack When You’re Traveling

How to Walk Like A Runway Model

How to Give Yourself Dreadlocks

One-Liners

“Hope all you listeners won’t accuse me of cronyism just because I occasionally play records by people I know.”

“The distinctive voice of Aaron Neville. A lot of people think we sing the same.”

Re: Gene Autry’s Cowboy Code—“I’m not ashamed to say that I live my life according to that code. Quite a man, that Gene Autry.”

“Fred Astaire, the smoothest dancer known to man.”

Re: Berna Dean—“Here’s a woman who sure doesn’t sound like she sleeps alone.”

“John Lee….one of those guys that always sounds better without a band. Thirteen bars here, eleven bars there, nine there. Doesn’t matter to him. Nobody can do more with less than John Lee Hooker.”

Re: Endless Sleep – “This next song is not for the faint of heart.”

Re: Johnny Hicks – “A man who sounds like he’s got a smile in his voice.”

“America is certainly the great melting pot. Where else could someone like Slim Gaillard sing a tribute to matzoh balls and gefilte fish? It’s the kind of thing that makes me proud to be an American. Sing it, Slim.”

“It’s a quarter of a million miles from earth to the moon, and there’s no one I’d rather go with than Dinah Washington.”

Re: Six Pack to Go – “One of the great beer drinking songs of all time.”

Re: Leadbelly – “One of the few ex-cons who recorded a popular children’s album.”

“A lot of people who play one kind won’t play with people who play another kind, but me personally, I never understood any kind of border patrol when it comes to music.”

“Some people call Bob [Seger] the poor man’s Bruce Springsteen, but personally, I always thought Bruce was the rich man’s Bob Seger. Love ‘em both, though.”

Re: Red Headed Woman – “Boy, you hear a record like that, and you wish more Rockabilly bands had trumpets.”

Re: How You Gonna Get Respect—“A political statement you can dance to.”

Re: Eddy Dugash and the Ah-Ha Playboys: “Sometimes you just play a record because you like the name of the band. I love the name of this band, but I also love the record.”

“Not all songs about crying are necessarily sad.”

Re: Robert Parker’s Barefootin’ – “The man who wrote the national anthem of shoelessness.”

Re: Jimmy Lewis – “He sounds as bad off as a rubber-nosed woodpecker in a petrified forest.”

“Willie Nelson’s tour bus runs on cooking oil….I’ve toured with Willie…sometimes late at night you can see us, I’m filling up my tank at the gas station and he’s filling his up at Denny’s.”

“I always liked songs with parentheses in the title.”

Re: Dinah Washington’s Manhattan – “If there every was a love song to a city, I’d say it was this one.”

Re: Prince Buster’s Taxation – “Like all great artists, he was able to turn things that bothered him into three minutes of musical pleasure. Like here.”

Re: Porter Wagoner’s Skid Row Joe – “Next up, a very sad song. A recitation. A sermon. A speechifying testification. From Porter Wagoner, telling a tale of a sad man down on his luck in the dirty part of town.”

Re: Tex William’s Brother Drop Dead – “Some people die too soon. Others, you’re kind of hoping. Tex Williams has a song for such a situation.”

Re: Sinatra singing Summer Wind—“West Coast weather is the weather of catastrophe. The Santa Ana winds are like the winds of the apocalypse. But the summer wind that Frank’s singing about may be a little lighter. Come on in, Frank.”

Re: Charles Aznavour—“The Frank Sinatra of France…sings in six languages – French, English, Italian. He’s written over a thousand songs…I only know about half of them.”

Re: Memphis Minnie—“Me and My Chauffeur Blues. One of the great blues songs of all time, one of the great car songs of all time, one of the great chauffeur songs of all time, sung by one the great old ladies of all time - Memphis Minnie.”

Re: Joni Mitchell—“Joni and I go back a long ways. Not all the way back, but pretty far. I’ve been in a car with Joni. Joni was driving a Lincoln. Excellent driver. I felt safe.”

Re: Howlin’ Wolf—“This next song is entirely without flaw and meets all the supreme standards of excellence.”

Re: Hank Williams—“One of the greatest songwriters who ever lived was Hank Williams, of course. Hank could be headstrong and willful, a backslider and a reprobate, no stranger to bad deeds. However, underneath all of that, he was compassionate and moralistic.”

Deep Thoughts

“I don’t trust a man who doesn’t tear up a little watching Old Yeller.”

“All of our shows are for truckers, if not about truckers.”

“They say the earth’s warmin’ up. Be careful of that global warming, and wear your sunscreen.”

“Music City USA – one of the only places where a banjo player can make a six figure income.”

“You know, every shut-eye ain’t sleep. Sometimes you’re sleeping in the ground, taking a dirt nap, saying the big Goodbye.”

“The Harmonica is the world’s best-selling musical instrument. You’re welcome.”

“Sometimes when you look at a menu, it’s hard to decide what to get. Life is like that, full of difficult choices.”

“Lipstick traces on cigarettes can get you in trouble or remind you of the wonders of the night before.”

“Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me…as opposed to when you grow up and you learn that…the pen is mightier than the sword. The world is fill of little contradictions like that.”

“I leave you with the words of Benjamin Franklin. ‘He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.’ Thank you, Ben. Peace out.”

Bad Jokes

“My friend’s wife is a really bad cook. I broke a tooth on her coffee.”

“I once had a friend who said liquor will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no liquor.”

“A giraffe can go a long time without water. But he wants to see a menu right away.”

“I gave a bald-headed friend a comb. You know what he said? ‘I’ll never part with it.’”

“I don’t condone [blonde] jokes. I just repeat them in the public interest.”

“I want everybody to go out and paint their cars red and white tonight. We want a PINK CAR NATION.”

Recipes

Mint Julep
Four mint sprigs
3 oz of bourbon
1 tablespoon of powdered sugar
1 tablespoon water
Put the mint leaves, powdered sugar and water in a Collins glass. Fill the glass with shaved or crushed ice and then add bourbon. Top that off with more ice. I like to garnish mine with a mint sprig. Serve it with a straw. Two or three of those and anything sounds good!

Rum and Coca-Cola
Let me give you my recipe for a rum and Coca-Cola. Take a tall glass, put some ice in it, two fingers of Bombay rum, and a bottle of Coca-Cola. Shake it up well and go drink it in the sunshine!

BBQ
1 cup tomato sauce
1 cup vinegar
5 tablespoons Worcestershire
1 tablespoon butter
?? small onion
dash black pepper
cayenne pepper
1 ?? teaspoons salt
half cup water
Mix it all together in a large pan. Bring it to a quick boil. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for 10 minutes. You can also figure out your own secret ingredient and dump it to the mix. I like about three fingers of Tennessee sipping whiskey.

Figgy Pudding
4 oz of plain flour
a pinch of salt
4 oz bread crumbs
4 oz shredded suet
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 oz dark soft brown sugar
8 oz chopped dried figs
finely grated rind & the juice of one lemon
2 tablespoon milk
2 beaten eggs
“Sift salt and flour together, then mix with all the remaining dry ingredients. Add the figs, lemon rind and juice, milk and beaten eggs. Beat them well. The mixture should have a soft dropping consistency. Put into a greased two-pint pudding basin, cover securely, and steam for three hours. I like it served with heated golden syrup topping, and a generous pour of custard. Makes me hungry just talking about it. My engineer Tex Carbone likes vanilla ice cream on it. I don’t understand that at all.”

The Perfect Meatball
3 minced cloves garlic
?? cup vegetable oil (for frying)
1 pound ground meat (equal parts beef, pork, veal)
?? cup grated Parmesan cheese
9 Saltine crackers, finely crushed
?? teaspoon salt
black pepper
oregano
dried basil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
?? cup water
1 egg
1 teaspoon tomato paste
“Heat the oil over a low heat in a large Dutch oven. In a big bowl, add the meat, garlic, cheese, crackers, and spices. Mix lightly with your fingers. Don’t be shy—get into it. In a small bowl, whisk the water, the egg, and the tomato paste. Add the egg mixture to the meat mixture. Mix it lightly with your fingers. Form it into drum shapes, or balls. Cook in batches, over medium high heat, until its browned on both sides. That will be about five minutes total. Serve ‘em up with some potatoes, or some spaghetti, or just make a sandwich out of them. You're gonna love 'em."