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28.2.10

OMG. The Spiers Newsletter 

so, this is what blogging has come to: university classes, entrepreneurship lectures, advisory board positions. When Spiers started out with and endgameresearch email address no-one knew what would come of this frenzy. Now Spiers has signed up for the Calacanis newsletter approach doing her own. First edition:

...your resource for all things Spiers. Or at the very least, an update on
what I'm doing professionally at the moment.

Eventually, I'd like to add some newsletter component that actually adds
some value above and beyond my SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION. Unfortunately, I
haven't figured out what that's going to be yet. But I'm taking suggestions!
If you have one, contact me at espiers AT gmail.
-WHAT I'VE BEEN WORKING ON: -

_SITE LAUNCHES: CRUSHABLE.com _
I launched a new site last week called Crushable.com for b5media, a
Toronto-based blog network that's in the process of re-tooling its editorial
offerings. I'm an advisor and consultant to the company and am helping them
with a few new site launches--conceptualizing, hiring and developing
editorial content, with some light business advisory work around
monetization and advertising on the side. Crushable is an entertainment and
lifestyle site that targets women ages 15 to 25, and it's helmed by Erin
Carlson (formerly an entertainment reporter for the AP), assisted by deputy
editor Amanda Ernst (formerly of FishbowlNY.com) and associate editor Jean
Bentley (formerly of EW.com.) Some first week features:
An interview with Rob Kardashian (the "nice" Kardashian):
http://crushable.com/entertainment/rob-kardashian-kisses-and-tells/
Erin's replication of Mena Suvari's bizarre fashion week hairdos:
http://crushable.com/entertainment/get-inspired-by-mena-suvaris-crazy-hai
r/

Jennifer Wright on Being The Wingwoman:
http://crushable.com/relationships/memoir-winging-it/

_TEACHING: SVA & DUKE _
I teach two classes for SVA's Design Criticism MFA program. This
semester it's a 15 week blogging workshop for first-years. Next week I'll
be publishing all of their blogs, where you can read about everything from
Brunch in Brooklyn to the deconstruction of ad campaigns to reviews of dog
parks from the perspective of a dog. This week, I also guest lectured two
classes at Duke University (my alma mater), which is developing a new
program in entrepreneurship and expanding its journalism offerings. I also
took the drunken-student-late-night shuttle van from East Campus to West.
Just for old times' sake.
http://dcrit.sva.edu

_NEW ADVISORY WORK: COUNSYL & WALL STREET CHEAT SHEET_
Most people who know me know I'm very interested in genetics and at one
point (pre-Gawker) contributed to a genetics blog that's now owned by Seed.
So I'm happy to be an advisor to Counsyl, a relatively new San
Francisco-based genetic testing company that makes genetic testing for rare
diseases accessible and affordable.
Here's a recent _New York Times_ profile of the company:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/business/29gene.html
http://www.counsyl.com

Wall Street Cheat Sheet is a finance site that has some Venn diagram
overlap with Dealbreaker, but is far heavier on market analysis and
commentary. It's a fairly new site and is looking to expand. It got a nice
honorable mention from David Weidner in his "[10]Ten Wall Street Blogs You
Need to Bookmark Now" feature in last week's _Wall Street Journal_:
http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2010/02/25/best-wall-street-blogs-that-didnt
-make-the-cut/

http://wallstcheatsheet.com

_BOOK REVIEWS: DANIEL PINK'S "DRIVE" FOR CBS MONEYWATCH_
I just started reviewing business books for CBS Moneywatch. First up,
Daniel Pink's Drive:
http://moneywatch.bnet.com/career-advice/article/review-drive-by-daniel-
pink/388030/?tag=content;col1
Next up: a fairly atrocious how-to investment
book by ... oh, you'll just have to wait for it. If anyone has relevant
books to send me, email me and I'll give you my mailing address (assuming
it's not showing up in the footer of this email, as annoyingly and
anachronistically required by ICANN.)

_HIRING: TBD MEN'S SITE_
I'm casually looking for an editor-in-chief for a potential men's
site--preferably someone with blogging experience who knows how to write,
edit and conceptualize stories. If you have recommendations or know someone
who'd be interested, send them to me at espiers AT gmail.

-UPCOMING: -

I have a few more site launches in the hopper and will be talking about them
shortly.

I also just agreed to write a column for TheAwl.com from the perspective
of Choire Sicha's cat, which is descriptively if literally named "Cat." For
this I will be paid the ongoing Awl freelance rate of $0.00 a word. Which is
almost what I got paid at Gawker. Cat welcomes topic suggestions, which can
also be sent to espiers AT gmail.
http://www.theawl.com

-RANDOMLY: MY BEST FICTION OF THE DECADE LIST: -
I get asked for book recommendations pretty regularly, so I just condensed
my favorites into one post:
http://spiers.tumblr.com/post/300537739/best-fiction-of-the-decade-in-my
-amateur-opinion


OTHER PEOPLE'S STUFF:
My pal _Sloane Crosley's_ second book, HOW DID YOU GET THIS NUMBER? is
coming out in June and is now available for pre-order at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Did-You-This-Number/dp/1594487596/ref=sr_1_3?i
e=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267385896&sr=8-3


My boyfriend is on a board of a theater company called _Curious Frog Theatre
Company_ that has a mission "to present new, modern and classical works with
the goal of showing a new, multicultural perspective through non-traditional
casting" and they're doing a spring production of Jean Genet's "The Maids."
You can get tickets here:
http://curiousfrog.org/index.php Last
spring they did Sam Shepard's "True West" with an all-Asian cast and it was
excellent.

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