The National Magazine Awards are given out by the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME), and they're largely regarded as the Pulitzers of the magazine world. ASME announced the nominations today, and Salon has received a nod in the Interactive Feature category for some feature that goes by the… Read full post »

That's what's left of my parents' charming, windowed back porch after a tornado blew through their small Midwestern town Wednesday night, tearing off roofs, downing giant oak trees, and miraculously not harming a single person. In a few short seconds, a funnel cloud blew past, tore up the po… Read full post »

We're launching a new occasional feature on Open Salon  that we're calling Open Chats -- short, 5-minute or so interviews with Open Salon contributors -- and we're thrilled to kick it off with the site's very own Interplanet Janet, the great Saturn Smith. Aside from the occasional email, I only… Read full post »

There have been a handful of fascinating posts about Open Salon lately; what it is, what it needs to be, what it isn't. We're reading them all. And if there's a common thread that runs through them all, one that bubbles up periodically here, it's: Is this a community site or… Read full post »

Open Chat No. 2: Mortimer Hayden Smyth. 5 minutes. Transcript follows. Action! 

We're here with Mortimer Hayden Smyth on Open Salon's Open Chat. Hi, Mortimer.

Hello, Kerry. Very good to be with you today.

Very good to be with you. I think for a lot of our members… Read full post »

From Bill O'Reilly's personal site this afternoon. Read closely. Now he's REALLY gone too far with the personal attacks!

The boss lady braved a visit to Fox this afternoon to try and reason with Bill O'Reilly. She responded to a request for an interview, which he always tapes… Read full post »

If you were  kicking it with your socialist  or illegal immigrant friends today you might've missed the launch of Fox Nation, the Fox News online community for people "who believe in the United States of America and its ideals in the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Em… Read full post »

Like a lot of New Yorkers -- liberal, conservative, chimeric -- the New York Post is a frequent impulse buy for me. Some of the city coverage is exemplary, and its overt conservatism aside, it can capture the romantic, rough-and-tumble underbelly of the city (murder, mafia, midlist celebrities) in a… Read full post »

From a member's email to me today:

Is there any way to get rid of these spammy messages from members (usually going to a hundred different people) advertising their brilliant post? This is a way to get me NOT to read it, it's so obnoxious. I often can't tell… Read full post »

This week: Scott Rosenberg, Salon co-cofounder, and the man who first  got the ball rolling on Open Salon before leaving in 2007 to write his new, great book, "Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, and Why It Matters," (Crown). 

I'm publishing this now without a transcript… Read full post »

(Images from the News of the World.)

The photo above is causing quite the ruckus. Michael Phelps admits that, yes, it's real (and apparently happened in November). The Times (UK) says it "could spell disaster," and its near hysterical reaction is not alone. Me? Maybe I'm an incorrigible… Read full post »

We're rolling out some long-planned upgrades to the site today that we're pretty excited about. The two big changes:

• Our "Friends" feat… Read full post »

This sign, at the entrance of Salon NY headquarters, quite possibly strikes a poor first note.

Last night, we made a long-planned upgrade to give your blog an  individualized Internet address (URL) based on your display name. Gone will be the charmingly impersonal "user_blog.php?..."  replaced by: http://open.salon.com/blog/YOUR DISPLAY NAME

The posts on your blog will have more conte… Read full post »

Open Chat No. 3: The Squirrel. 5 minutes. A glimpse at the man (peeking, barely) out from behind those bright eyes and bushy, um, tail. And yes, that's a lovely black statue of a squirrel, recently purchased for the man himself by, as he calls her on the blog, the "Wife-asaurus."… Read full post »

We're rolling out integrated advertising on all pages today, for Open Salon and its members, to help you start profiting off of all your fine work here. You need to join Google's AdSense ad network to launch the ads and start earning money off of them. To do that, sign up… Read full post »

In recent months, as I've turned my attention to Salon and helping prepare it for a redesign and many new features, Thomas Rogers has nimbly overseen Open Salon, carefully choosing Editor's Picks and consistently building fascinating and entertaining covers for Open Salon. It can be a tricky, content… Read full post »

A friend was Googling former "Falcon Crest" star Lorenzo Lamas (ah, free time!) and stumbled upon this  -- which naturally has led to much speculation. I'll confess, I once hoped of being best buds with LoLa. Cruising around Southern California on our tricked-out choppers. Jamming to Queensr&yum… Read full post »

In the past week or so, Open has largely fallen into the capable hands of Thomas, who no doubt did a marvelous job. I'm back online full-time tomorrow, but see a small army of messages standing at attention in my inbox -- I'll get back to the urgent ones as soon… Read full post »

I suppose, if I were fishing for big traffic numbers, I should headline this EXCLUSIVE PICS! J.LO KISSING ANOTHER MAN!

Ah, but that's getting ahead of myself. You see, my block in the West Village of New York City is particularly charming -- or so says Hollywood's shoot scouts. It's… Read full post »

This sign, brought to my attention by a co-worker, is in our office's ladies bathroom, just inside a stall door. I took this pic while being chaperoned by the lovely Miss Sarah Hepola. 

I should take this opportunity to say that we adore the building staff here.

Read full post »

 It's a "Slumdog" sweep! Look at all those adorable little children! 

That's a rather lovely way of ending this little shindig. Thanks so much to all of you for chiming in and contributing, for Thomas and Marybeth for helping me, and to all those stars in Hollywood, shining so brightly and… Read full post »

Ole Salon pal Farhad Manjoo wrote an interesting piece this week on single-topic blogs, how they hold a particular allure with the publishing industry, and how many of them seem to originate on the blogging platform Tumblr. It's an interesting read to me for a few different reasons: 

• Ope… Read full post »

I''ll be interviewing the screen legend for Salon in the very near future, and I thought I'd probably benefit from a little Open crowdsourcing. So I throw the question to you:

What would you ask Meryl Streep?

Thoughtful responses most appreciated! 

(Below: Streep as Julia Child in the trailer f… Read full post »

So AFSCME has been hammering GOP leaders to support the stimulus package. When they went after Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va. and No. 2 House Republican, a reporter at the Politico apparently contacted Cantor's office for comment.

In step with the GOP's chronic tone-deafness, Cantor spokesman Brad Daysprin… Read full post »