late nighte update in boston

Not much time to update, but today was pretty damned amazing. The sessions at today’s conference were with, in turn, Gay Talese, Rick Bragg, Jon Franklin, Tom French, and Ira Glass. As a journalism geek, those names probably mean a lot more to me than to most of you, so I’ll introduce them: (1) the man who basically invented modern magazine journalism, the man who wrote “Frank Sinatra Has A Cold,” maybe the best piece of narrative journalism ever, and a Joe DiMaggio piece that was not long ago called the greatest piece of sports journalism written in the last century, (2) New York Times correspondent, Pulitzer winner, best selling author (and, as Kim knows, someone I have a few problems with, but a very talented writer nonetheless), (3) two-time Pulitzer winner, the man who perfected the adaptation of the three-act structure of film to narrative writing, (4) a terrific writer of serial narratives from the St. Petersburg Times, a Pulitzer winner, and a great, great, great writer, and (5) the host and majordomo of This American Life, a genius at turning the lives of everyday people into beautiful drama.
That’s quite a lineup. They were collectively amazing — there are things I might nitpick with each, but they were terrific. Ira and Tom were particularly amazing, but they all had their strengths. I’m looking forward to tomorrow, the last day of this conference.
Important side note: Does anyone out there read W, the fashion magazine? I’m not sure how much the W demographic and the crabwalk.com demographic overlap, but I’ve been told that in the current issue (with Rene Zellweger (sp?) on the cover), my college roommate is listed as one of 10 people “to watch” in the future of Hollywood and/or America. I can’t find the magazine here in Boston, but I’d like to see it if someone out there reads it. (This roommate is now an agent in L.A. I lived with him for three years, years marked primarily by the fact that any girl I was interested in would invariably be more interested him than in me. Tom’s handsome, well dressed, charming, and — get this — French. I had no chance. If anybody has the article, I’d love to see it.)
More to come later.