Perez Hilton ... IDIOT

Excuse me while I rant...

I am so sick... of Mario Armando Lavandiera Jr. (more commonly know as Perez Hilton). I was never really enamored with his website (it actually really annoyed me), but he always had some interesting gossip and the graphics were funny at times. [I made my own little Perez graphic for this post] Anyway ... as I said, I never really actively read his website, like I did the NYT or Engadget, but if something pointed me there - I would go and look around for a bit.

When I started using Reader I decided that I would monitor Perez and see what stuff he had - so I added him on a trial basis. I don't remember what was occurring around that time, but I recall him breaking a few things that no other blog had for at least 15-20 minutes -- so I was impressed. Things were good, life was good, no complaints. Perez remained.

Of course since my start with Reader, I've added much more - growing from a few feeds, to way too many. Of late I've picked up the Daily Intel (a NYC based blog), which I really like - and I suggest you check out (here). They usually have any gossip that I might otherwise get from Perez. But I've gotten ahead of myself -- why did I start hating Perez.

Well for one, he slams my Reader with entries - probably like 40-60 a day, which is too much for a non-legit news source. I just don't care about celebrity gossip that much ... and apparently his readers do. But aside from that, scrolling through garbage gossip doesn't really bother me ... but two things he does do bother me.

ONE. Perez seems to think it is his right to out every single person he thinks might be gay. Now calling someone gay who isn't actually gay is one thing - that's just like making fun of them. But calling someone gay who is actually gay but has not come out yet - that's a problem. As a gay man Perez should understand exactly what he is doing - if someone doesn't want to be out, it is not his right to tell them that they should be. He's just a jerk in that sense.

TWO. More recently, as you may or may not be aware, we have been in a recession. Companies have been laying people off, and there has been a lot of news about the economy. I get really pissed off when Perez posts a layoff (often times a few days after it has been through the media cycle) and lists the title as "R.I.P." ... I'm sorry, the company is dying, no one has died ... these people have lives and futures - no one is dead. It really bothers me that he does that - even more so than the fact that it is often quite late. Additionally most of his news regarding said companies is misconstrued - if not blatantly incorrect.

THREE. I know I said there would only be two, but sue me - there's a third. This goes along the same line as the first two in that Perez doesn't know what fact checking is. I get it - he runs a gossip blog and feeds off gossip ... that's fine. I don't care if you report that Madonna had a baby if she actually didn't. What bothers me is when he reports on the news and current events - more times than not he does not seem to understand what is going on and completely misstates the situation.

This third reason finally reached a culmination yesterday when I saw a post Perez made regarding Facebook. First off, the rest of the world had the story on Sunday/Monday - so please don't make it seem like you are breaking the news on something when you know you aren't. Not only that, but Perez basically made it seem like Facebook was evil and stealing things from you. While I agree that Facebook's modified ToS were quite dangerous, Facebook wasn't stealing content from you. So shut up Perez. Please just shut up. After reading that post I went into my Reader settings and immediately deleted the feed. It had been a long time coming - and I will still see anything 'important' that Perez decides to post because people will share it, but I'm personally glad to be rid of him.

In writing this post I went to Wikipedia to do some research (and to get his real name ... and this CC-licensed picture). As I suspected Perez has a lot of lawsuits pending against him - not only for defamation of character, but also for stealing images. The wiki page is here. But it seems that not only does Mario know nothing about current events, he doesn't quite understand copyright law either. While I'm sure his lawyers could make a great case that his stolen images fall under the category that he is using them to achieve humor or satire ... I'm not sure how it would hold up that a good portion of his website (and income) is based around these images that he steals and then writes in Paint on. Stop Stealing.

I'd also like to say that PerezHilton.Com media player is the WORST media player on the web. I would compare it to my disdain for any of RealMedia's players - even though it is built in.

So that's it ... I'm over my rant, but take what I wrote into consideration. If you are a Perez reader, just pay attention and make your own judgement as to if you think this is a website you really want to be supporting. And if you are not currently a Perez reader, I wouldn't recommend starting.

Food Coma

Here is what is making news this afternoon (or a few days ago - depending on how far I get in Reader):

* Mike Riggs over the CityDesk took PC Mag's 100 Best Blogs list and narrowed it down to 6 that he thinks are the best of the best.  While I'm not so sure about that, I don't have the time to go look at 100 blogs and decide which are the best, so I'll have to take his word on it.  Go check out his list here; and PC Mag's full list here.  (Conrad, you should check out Riggs' list, there is a cool medieval blog that I can just picture you sharing on a daily basis)

* Good news ... The great Italian restaurant formerly located in ... the Golden Triangle-ish, Galileo, is coming back!  Executive Chef Roberto Donna has signed a letter of intent with the owners of the former Butterfield 9 space.  WaPo Going Out Guru Blog has the full story - here - I don't want to just copy everything they said ... but this is really exciting.  I remember Brandon Sherr used to rave about Galileo - In fact when Friend and I came to visit him/GW in the February 2004, HomeZone @ old J Street was featuring Galileo food - it was delicious.

* Good news again ... and old news.  On Christmas Eve (I had left the post unread in Reader and just read it) the MoCo Planning Board enthusiastically endorsed Light Rail for the Purple Line.  This just a step in the right direction to making sure that the Purple Line actually gets built - and that it is LRT instead of BRT.  Via DCMud - here.

* In other LRT news, BeyondDC brings news that yesterday the Phoenix Valley Metro light rail system officially opened for business!  Finally the Phoenix metro area has rail train sit ... yay!  Excitement!  Here.

* BestBites has a post about how some restaurants including one of my favorites, Poste, have taken to bottling their own sparkling/still water.  It is a little bit more expensive, but in the end they don't have hundreds of cases of empty bottles to throw out - and they can even customize the 'sparkling-ness' of the water.  Here.

* City Room says that NYC had a record 47 million visitors last year - up 1 million from a year earlier.  And they spent $30 Billion in 2008 as well.  Cool.  Here.

* History of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree - here.  (Via City Room)

* An interesting article in The Paper of Record over the weekend about a bar that is moving - and if its patron will follow.  I had to think about this for a while, as I certainly have a good number of bars and restaurants that I frequent because they are good - and fairly close.  If they moved - even if only a few blocks - would I still go?  If they moved closer to me, of course - haha, but there are definitely one or two that I would probably go to much less often if they moved 4 or 5 blocks further from me.  Here.  Your thoughts?

* A Vegas casino with a smoking ban ... hmmm.  This is only one of two casinos in Nevada which has a ban on smoking - it's actually in Reno, not Vegas.  And people are hoping it survives - to show the major casinos that smoking is not necessary for business.  Here - via The Paper of Record.

* The Paper of Record's Motherlode blog (here) wonders what age is it okay for a child to ride the train alone?  A reporter sparked a nationwide debate when she let her 9-year-old ride the subway alone, sent her daughter on the train this Christmas - now 10.  A conductor on the train did not like this, and had the police called - though the officer eventually agreed with the mother and let the child go on her way alone - it makes you wonder ... what is an appropriate age.  The MTA says the minimum age is 8, so clearly the conductor was out of line in his concern - but still ... thoughts?  I think it all depends on the kid, but 10 seems legit - especially in the age of cell phones and constant communication.  

* The Phantom of the Opera: Part 2 -- are you kidding me.  Via Perez, here.  This sounds like crap.

* Crystal City 2.0 ... check it out at DCMud, here.  Maybe we can finally have a Crystal City that is actually friendly and is easy to drive around and walk around - and doesn't look like such a mess.  Even thinking of Crystal City upsets me.

* Do you like Narnia ... too bad.  Disney said no to the 3rd film, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  Via Reuters, here.

* TUAW (here) has some lovely information from Engadget ... while Apple has yet to answer my prayers HP has!  The new HP MediaSmart centers are able to act as a centralized storage server for your iTunes library ... which is necessary now that I have AppleTV.  Oh this is exciting.  Unstoppable.  It is based on Windows Home Server and has storage expandable up to 9TB, and comes standard with 750GB (599$), or 1.5TB (749$).  Amazing, but slightly expensive.

Rejoice: It's over.