My Social Life

Longtime LA photojournalist Gary Leonard celebrated his 60th birthday last Friday night at his gallery “Take My Picture Gary Leonard.” The place was packed. In the narrow confines of the gallery, it was basically impossible to move from one end of the room to the next. Your best hope to talk to anyone was to spin in circles and say “hi” to the person next to you. Those definitely in attendance: photographer Kevin Scanlon, Slake man-about-town Craig Gaines and LA Weekly‘s Erica Zora Wrightson. There were no doubt other journos of note sandwiched in the back of the room somewhere, but we suffered a mild crowd-induced panic attack and had to go outside to catch our breath.

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If there are any young, aspiring, social media mavens out there with the desire to thrust themselves into the middle of a full-blown media spectacle, we have good news for you: Charlie Sheen is hiring.

As you might have heard, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had his Facebook fan page hacked late Tuesday. This note was forcibly posted on Zuckerberg’s wall.

“Let the hacking begin: If Facebook needs money, instead of going to the banks, why doesn’t Facebook let its users invest in Facebook in a social way? Why not transform Facebook into a ‘social business’ the way Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus described it? What do you think? #hackercup2011″.

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Even though it’s the seventh most-trafficked website in the United States, Myspace is in big, big trouble. The Wall Street Journal is reporting the site is gearing up for huge cuts that could result in the downsizing of half its 1,100 person workforce. Since News Corp. owns both Myspace and The Wall Street Journal, we’re just going to go ahead and assume the reporting is accurate.

Myspace already cut 30% of its workforce last summer. But since then, the News Corp. division in which MySpace resides lost $156 million.

King Rupert was not pleased.

Myspace remains the go-to site to find music on the Internet. So someone should be able to do something with this thing. It remains to be seen if that someone is News Corp. The company is allegedly mulling a sale, but according to Reuters, there are no buyers at the table yet.

Yahoo!‘s social networking service “Delicious” may be on the outs, along with a number of other services like MyBlogLog, Yahoo Buzz, Yahoo Picks and Yahoo Bookmarks. Yahoo! is reportedly looking for further cutbacks after laying off 600 employees, or 4% of its workforce, earlier this week. Delicious was purchased five years ago by Yahoo! for an undisclosed sum. But now, with the preeminence of Facebook in the social networking realm, the company doesn’t appear to have high hopes for its future.

In a statement, Yahoo! said it would reveal more about Delicious’s future, “when appropriate.”

Previously on FBLA: Yahoo! Will Lay Off Five Percent of Its Workforce Before the Holidays

A new survey by PR Newswire reveals that the increased demand for online content, including Twitter and other forms of social networking, is occupying more and more of journalists’ time — while their regular workload stays the same.

Continuing a trend from the 2008 and 2009 surveys, over 70% of respondents in this year’s survey indicate a heavier workload as compared to last year, with the majority (58%) stating that the number of stories for which they are responsible has increased over the past two years. As in 2009, the primary cause of the increased workload is the need to contribute to online reporting. Of those surveyed, 62% are required to write for online news sections, with 39% contributing to their publication’s blog. 37% of US journalists also now must maintain a Twitter feed.

The study goes on to suggest that fear of losing their jobs seems to have stifled most journalists’ complaints about the additional work load.

This Fishie has worked with some salty, hard-nosed investigative journalists in his day. The thought of these folks taking even 30 seconds away from their phones for company-mandated Tweeting depresses him mightily. Then again, most of the salty dogs in question have lost their jobs and are now wildly underemployed — so it’s probably a moot point.

H/T AAN Wire

They ought to be showing this film in the public schools-

found via Neatorama

Bummed out about your bum seats to Greek Theatre and Gibson Amphithre shows? Our friends at fanscape have let us in on a little secret (OK, maybe it’s more of a “marking strategy” than a secret, but still…)

The Greek Theatre and Gibson Amphitheatre are preparing to launch the 2008 season of their unparalleled concert series — Premiere Marquee Club (PMC). The list to the right gives you a sampling of the world-class artists that performed at these two award-winning venues during the 2007 season. You can be assured that the 2008 season show line-up will be equally as stellar, and you can have guaranteed access to every one.

To become a PMC member, just purchase 3 or more shows from the season launch. There is no membership fee, no “mark up”, no forced combination of shows you must purchase…just choose 3 from the season announcement and you will have guaranteed access to seats for every show* coming to both venues all year long.

The Advocate celebrated 40 years with an splashy cover and a much splashier party last night at Republic.

Ann Cooper, Kimberly Pierce, T Cooper, and Felicia Limas posed for the camera.

Perez Hilton might think about dyeing the chin rug to match the drapes.

We looked around for Rex Lee, but no luck. And conspicuous by her absence was Margaret Cho–is she no longer gay-friendly?

Arts editor Corey Scholibo was easy to spot in an easily-spotted white suit. God we miss disco. Ashley Jones didn’t get our reference.

Jane Lynch told us about her VH1 pilot, her dogs, and her new film with Eric McCormick.

Greg Hernandez chatted with Marcellos Reynolds about evil Dick winning Big Brother. Or maybe an evil dick? Not sure.

Writer Deborah Behrens discussed the changes at Whole Life Times and we agreed that Abigail Lewis is sorely missed.

Katherine Heigl, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, editor Anne Stockwell and TR Knight were all suitable festive. Knight was like Prom King all night.

And TMZ got suckered by a Lance Ito lookalike.

(Photos from JPI Studios and Wireimage. Thanks!)

Slate V, the video branch of the online mag, threw a party at the cavernous Avalon last night, complete with open bar, roving waiters, and a big buffet. Infiniti provided the decoration, in the form of a car. No raffle, and the back seat wasn’t big enough for any Tommy Lee action.

Editor Jacob Weisberg looked a little too comfortable with that mic.

Virginia Postrel’s back in town, working on a new book, with her tall, dark, and handsome UCLA professorial husband, Steve Postrel.

People were talking about Iraq, the heat, why no one is watching the debates, the heat.

Mickey Kaus, temporarily blonde-less, Allen Mayer (dreamy, etc.), Slate EP Bill Smee, were all holding court in various power centers.

Investigative types asked us what rewards we’d reaped from the mediabistro.com sale. Perplexed as to how to respond, we looked for Dear Prudence.

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