Rushfield Babylon

Peggy stepped closer, close enough that he could feel her warm breath waft above his forehead.  

“Tell me again,” she purred, “How you convinced Conrad Hilton to come back?’

He wrapped his arms around her and drew her down to his lap. "If there’s one thing Hilton respects, it’s brilliance.  There’s no trick to it; just be a genius.”

“Don’t let Don hear you say that,” she giggled.  "When he finds out you are better than him, the you know what is going to hit the you know what.“

"It’s about time he did figure that out.” They kissed and then he pulled her away. “Peggy, you don’t just like me because I remind you of Pete do you?”

“For the thousandth time, you are nothing like Pete Campbell." 

"Say that again.”

“You. Are. Nothing. Like. Pete. Campbell.”

As she said it over and over he carried her over to the couch. Don’s couch. While wearing Don’s fedora and smoking Don’s cigarettes.  "I just hope Joan will forgive me" he said as he…. 

The recapper awoke, in the same place in the dream where he always awoke.  He could still smell her, Peggy, her fragrance wafting over from the dream, mixed with Don’s cigarrettes and Don’s fedora.

He looked at the clock.  11:30 AM. Seven and a half hours until he met his destiny.  Seven and a half hours until he entered the ring for the first time in nearly two years with Mad Men itself.

The recapper’s mind was flooded with thoughts. Compare it to Proust.  No, to Italo Svevo and the nature of memory. What if Roger Sterling is Leopold Bloom?

Stop it! He yelled at his unruly subconscious. Just stop it. 

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EXCLUSIVE!  DOUBLE TOLDJA!  MUST CREDIT! 

This afternoon I had a conversation with a very important executive in the frozen storage industry who confirmed that by his analysis Nikki Finke’s Deadline blog is being prepped for a sale as insulation lining in October of 2014. On that date, he believes, the Deadline site will be used to seal the cooling vacuums for thousands of slices of raw beef and poultry destined to feed the greater Los Angeles region.

Of course, this executive wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t know.  I have been reporting this conversion of Nikki’s work into storage insulation for over a year now and have been writing frequent reports telling my readers that. If you didn’t see those reports it’s only because our computer fix-it idiots had our servers down when I tried to file them and then I had to go to surgery and then had to take a week off to work on a MAJOR MAGAZINE ASSIGNMENT that you’ll be seeing soon.  But all the same, I have been reporting this for a year. October 2014. Frozen storage. Exactly. TOLDJA!  Do you hear me, TOOOOOOLDJAAAAA!

Anyway, this extremely powerful executive said to me today when we were talking about this, “Let’s face it Richard. You’re the only writer anyone in Hollywood or frozen storage listens to anymore.” (I hate it when they tell me that, because frankly, I’m much too busy to care what people think of me, but they keep saying it.)  The executive went on, “The problem that Nikki is having is that she is running out of half-truths to tell.  You know Zeno’s Paradox?”

“Of course I do! I was the first person to report on Zeno’s Paradox!”

“I know you were. Just joking. It was you who first said that which is in locomotion must first arrive at the halfway stage before it reaches the goal, wasn’t it?”

“Of course it was. Whodya think?”

“But as you of course know, there is a reverse of that, by which if you’re trying to retreat you can’t do that either because the distances keep getting chopped up into smaller parts.  The journalistic corollary is that the half-truths you tell keep getting smaller until the amount of truth they cover collapse onto itself and literally can create a negative space that can literally swallow up a site itself.  By our analysis, in November 2014 the site’s negative space will have gotten so small that it will threaten to take down all of PMC’s sites with it.  By that point, the only option they’ll have is to sell the old entries at three cents a pound for frozen storage lining.”

“But can a whole site’s value collapse just like that?  I mean, as toxic and awful as Nikki Finke is, surely there’s got to be a medical experimentation company that would like to get a look at her?”

“Well, that’s the other problem.  The thing is by mid-2014 she’ll have kissed up to so many big Hollywood suits that the damage will be permanent.  Her mouth will have literally caved in and she and the site will be no good for medical experiments.”

“Well that’s a shame!” I said, cackling madly to myself as I hung up on the moron for wasting my time. 

Of course, what the executive missed but everyone else sees is how badly Deadline has fallen behind Rushfield Babylon in every metric that matters on computers.  Just look at these statistics for the past year:

Cat Videos:
Rushfield Babylon: 175
Deadline: 0

Blingeed Gosling Gifs:
Rushfield Babylon: 47
Deadline: 6

Smash Fan Fiction:
Rushfield Babylon: 83,000 words
Deadline: 150 words

Given all this, it’s shocking that Deadline is still around at all!  But that’s the power of being an old media brand like Nikki; you can run on fumes for a long time before you realize you’ve run off the cliff.  Rushfield Babylon, by the way, is NOT for sale. 

It’s mid-century a go go here on the podcast of the decline of civilization as we talk of Mad Men and of James Brown.

First we talk with RJ Smith, author of , the new critically celebrated definitive biography of the Godfather of soul music.  We speak of his journey putting together the life of James Brown and how Brown

Then we speak with the bravest panel ever assembled on the internet: two entertainment experts who do not like Mad Men. Author , and blogger  discuss how the hype on the most beloved show by media in history leaves them nothing but cold.

And reflections on the nature of truth amidst the collapse of civilization.

Download direct right here. 

Or available shortly on iTunes here

Or on Stitcher here 

This week’s Smash smashing podcast is ready for your consideration.

The New Rushfield Babylon Podcast is Here!

We talk of entertainment disasters and the foodie Tower of Babble with our guests this week.

First, our roundtable of entertainment intellectuals look at why, with all the money and expertise in Hollywood, do things so often come out so bad. We hash out the case study of Smash with our guests Rushfield Babylon stalwart Jim Gibson and TVguide.com's .

Then we take a visit into the farthest reaches of foodie culture with the co-inventor of the McNuggetini , co-host of the Cooking Network’s Unique Sweets show, and expert in food exotic.  We discuss her journey as a viral food sensation, the annoyingness of Foodies and whether carrot cake is a dessert.

And as, ever, big thoughts about the collapse of civilization from your host, Richard Rushfield, editor of RushfieldBabylon.com.

Download direct here

Or on iTunes here

Or on Stitcher here 

This is what the winners lof the first six seasons of American Idol looked like:

Then something changed and this is what the winners of the following four seasons looked like:

Give you one guess which of the below will be the winner of this season of American Idol:

Prepare yourself for weeks when we can all be shocked and heartbroken and incomprehending as one by one the every contestant who is not Phillip Phillips is mysteriously eliminated.

There are many out there in Idol Nation who are already saying, no, no, no.  It’s not going to happen a fifth time.  This is a woman’s year for sure.  "It’s not going to happen a fifth time" is the clinical definition of insanity.

The tweenage dictators of American Idol will have blood on their hands.

AMAZING TALES OF AMERICAN IDOL

This week we look at the secret world of American Idol and the importance of singing competitions in the fabric of our society.  Our guests from across the vast spectrum of Idoldom:

• : Veteran Idol chronicler for MTV and backstage correspondent of the XFactor.

• : American Idol’s famed Crying Girl, now a grown up Crying Woman. 

• Leesa Bellesi: The stunning tale of the founder of AI Ministries, which has served the needs of a scores of Idol contestants and their families.

Plus: profound thoughts and interstitial music!

Download direct here

Or on iTunes here (available shortly)

Or find us on Stitcher here

If the person did even worse than you are doing.  I don’t care if you think he “had it coming.” I don’t care if you think it serves a cause, or he started it, or this shows them what they do to people…

12 hours ago, four very young children found out that their father who just went out for a walk was never coming back to them again.

If any part of you celebrates that, if any part of you feels like you are justified in not being horrified by that, if any part of you adds a “yes, but” to the sentence above, I really am in horror at what has happened to your soul and I hope you can find some way to make yourself feel better one of these days. 

You are free to disagree with who he was and by all means, if you think he was terrible for the country, absolutely let that out.  But to take glee in a man’s passing in these circumstances…nothing can express how twisted you’ve let yourself become if that is your first instinct to feel that way.