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Anthony De Rosa: Five Longreads from 2010

soupsoup:

With a bit more time on my hands commuting a few stops on the subway, I need some reading material to Instapaper to my iPad. Longreads has been invaluable in providing me with a great selection of really interesting articles. Along the way, there were five particular stories this year that really caught my attention. Without further ado, here are my five favorite longreads of 2010:

1) Is James Franco For Real by Sam Anderson – New York Mag

I’m generally uninterested in celebrity culture but this was a really fun, creative article that is a sort of modern day “Frank Sinatra Has A Cold.” The author has some interactions with Franco but for the most part Sam Anderson creates a mythology around the actor and his career schizophrenia. 

2) The Wrong Man by David Freed – The Atlantic

Amongst all the anti-terror hysteria of 2010 was this story of Dr. Steven Hatfill who was wrongfully accused of being responsible for a series of anthrax attacks in 2001. David Freed recounts in a breezy but detailed story of the entire ordeal.

3) Seven Years as a Freelance Writer, or, How To Make Vitamin Soup by Richard Morgan – The Awl

Richard Morgan bears his soul about his struggle to make a living as a freelance writer. 

4) The New Gawker Media by Felix Salmon – Reuters

There have been so many articles written about Gawker and so few tell us anything we haven’t already read before. Felix puts together perhaps the most comprehensive piece on where Gawker’s been and where it appears to be headed, revealing some odd financial handling using offshore accounts. 

5) Probably going to piss off a lot of white people with this one by Matt Langer – Matt Langer’s Tumblr

Tumblr may be better known as a micro-blogging platform but there’s plenty of longform content being produced and Matt Langer provides some of the best. In this piece Langer discusses race, the Shirley Sherrod affair, Andrew Breitbart, and how we are still very far from living in a post-racial America.

Master of Play: Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo's Man Behind Mario

Master of Play: Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo’s Man Behind Mario

Can CollegeHumor's Ricky Van Veen Turn Viral Funny into the Future of TV?

Can CollegeHumor’s Ricky Van Veen Turn Viral Funny into the Future of TV?

Let Us Pay: On the Future of the Newspaper Industry

Let Us Pay: On the Future of the Newspaper Industry

If It's Tuesday, It Must Be the Taliban: Tourism in Afghanistan

If It’s Tuesday, It Must Be the Taliban: Tourism in Afghanistan

The Desperate Battle Against Killer Bat Plague

The Desperate Battle Against Killer Bat Plague

The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

The Worst Bathroom in New York

The Worst Bathroom in New York

Gangrey All-Stars: Top 5 Longreads of 2010

Gangrey All-Stars: Top 5 Longreads of 2010

Gillian Reagan: My Top 5 Longreads of 2010

Gillian Reagan is an editor at Capital New York. She does other stuff, too. 

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My rule was to steer clear of Capital articles (although you will recognize some bylines from contributors). These articles that weren’t necessarily the best writing of the year, but have frequently popped up and rolled around in my brain long after I read them for the first time. Sometimes it was because of the beautiful prose. But, mostly, the ideas are what stayed with me. 

Zachary Woolfe, “A Quiet Place of Dysfunction and Dystopia,” (The New York Times, October 21)

“As the motorcade carrying the body of Leonard Bernstein passed through Brooklyn on its way to Green-Wood Cemetery 20 years ago, construction workers removed their yellow hard hats and called out, ‘Goodbye, Lenny!’ It was a gesture of affection unthinkable for any other classical musician. In death, as in life, Bernstein was the exception: capable of anything and, almost, everything.”

Paul Ford, “Real Editors Ship,” (Ftrain.com, July 20)

“People often think that editors are there to read things and tell people ‘no.’ Saying ‘no’ is a tiny part of the job. Editors are first and foremost there to ship the product without getting sued.”

Sady Doyle, “Sex Offender Week: Rivers Cuomo Messes You Up Forever,” (The Awl, April 27)

“We speak not of the Rivers Cuomo that was, nor of the Rivers Cuomo that is, nor yet of the Rivers that shall be. We speak, now, of the Platonic ideal of a Rivers Cuomo: The Rivers Cuomo you have never met, nor ever can meet, nor can ever be sued by (subsequent to writing a blog post that uses his name quite a lot), but who lives, nevertheless, within your brain. Specifically, if you happen to have grown up in the 1990s, and are heterosexual, and also a girl.”

Steven Hyden’s entire “Whatever Happened to Alternative Nation?” series, The Onion’s AV Club

“I remember the ’90s, but it’s like I wasn’t there. Like many people of my generation—including practically every band that was originally associated with the term—’grunge’ for me has become something to live down, like cuffed jeans or bad Luke Perry sideburns.”

Josh Allen, Chokeville.

I swear, I was going to put this in before Paul Ford did. “The goal is to tell every single story of this city…The site will be frequently updated with new material. Sometimes stories, sometimes a song, a photograph, a movie, illustration, radio show, encyclopedia entry, comic strip, field recording, whatever, etc…A good place to start is Welcome to Feddema Global. It features Allison Hull, who’s from out of town and also has no idea what’s going on, so maybe you can relate to her.”

Additional shout-outs: Peter J. Boyer, “The Covenant,”The New Yorker; Camille Dodero, “Live From Insane Clown Posse’s Gathering of the Juggalos,” Village Voice; Natasha Vargas-Cooper’s entire “Live From Las Vegas election coverage” on The Awl; Timothy Garton Ash, 1989!, New York Review of Books; Zach Baron, “The End of the Story,” The Believer.