THE FUTURE « In Which We Sound The Airhorn For Molly's Very Last This Recording Post »
Friday, March 4, 2011 at 10:52AM 
<3
by MOLLY LAMBERT
One time Alex Carnevale asked me if I wanted to work on a website he was going to start. "What kind of website?" "A web magazine." "Ha ha ha." I said. "A web magazine." Like most human beings in the early 2000s, I didn't take the internet all that seriously, even though I had been using it since I was thirteen and it was certainly an integral part of my life. I agreed to write a couple of things and then we were off to the races.
new new new new media b/w old old old old guy b/w cat cat cat cat cat cat cat cat
Yearbook memories of my time at This Recording include: Alex's insistence on posting cheesecake photos for the first six months while I begged him to stop and tried to explain that it was like Caligula and nobody who wanted to see the nudity and sex in the orgy scenes would pay attention to the dialogue in the other scenes and vice versa. My insistence on submitting early posts to him in all lowercase (what the hell was that about lol), the Facebook movielike moment when we agreed to consistently use millions of pictures to illustrate text. When I saw the Facebook movie and legitimately felt like it was telling me the story of my life after graduating college.
The first time I realized the internet was more important than I had been giving it credit for was on 9/11, when I signed online and somebody told me I had to turn on the TV right away. After approximately a million other thoughts, including thinking that one of my media studies professors was a weirdly insensitive cynical asshole that her first reaction to 9/11 was to immediately throw a tape in the VCR and attempt to dissect how the media portrays catastrophe (narcissism of small differences?) I decided it was important that I had gone online first. "This is the fastest system possible for information delivery for disasters and everything else," I thought "It is going to render traditional newspapers obsolete because they cannot compete with its speed and ability to keep up." Ten million cat memes later, it sure feels like I was right.
an early editors meeting, screencapped for posterity
I only learned to take myself seriously through not taking myself seriously at all. When I think about blogging I think about this Bill Murray quote about how improv at Second City prepared him for SNL because he was so used to dying onstage that he no longer feared death. He no longer feared failure. He will just keep making jokes until one of them gets a laugh. It is incredibly hard to make every day meaningful. But you try!
I'm going off to work for Bill Simmons and his new website. You'll hear more about it soon. This Recording will continue to dominate the internet in the literary small press category while I go on to conquer new markets like large print internet and 3D. I'll continue to rain down tiger blood on inequality and petty mediocrity everywhere. Soon Charlie Sheen will be one of my goddesses and I'll make him paint his face and dance.
the Archie Comics and Charlie Sheen remake of Dennis Hopper's The Hot Spot
I am handing over the This Recording twitter to Alex and I will be twittering under my own name (mollylambert) from now on. I keep hearing "Sunrise, Sunset" in the sand dunes of my mind. Why is this post so fucking hard to write? It's hard for me to be sentimental because I am such an Agent Scully but I am also so sentimental (Irish).
I've been pretty sentimental lately because I knew this was coming and keeping secrets is hard. Seriously, thanks to everyone who reads This Recording and helped me become the blogger I was always meant to be. Thank you to Will Hubbard for building us such a nice house, and Alex Carnevale for filling it with beautiful interesting things.
omg so fucking mean and ageist, we <3 u John Ashbery
Thanks to Alex for making me write that pop culture column for the school newspaper originally. Alex Carnevale has a talent for finding good writers and helping them become great writers. He is somewhat aware of his power, but I'm never sure if he actually knows how hard people work to impress him or what a great writer he is.
I still live here in my archives. I'll always live at This Recording, trapped in the walls and murmuring softly but insistently about GIFs and serialized television dramas. There will always be Kenny Powers mixes and Mad Men reviews. I will float classically in the digital ether wherever I am. We didn't mean to invent new media (yes we did).
Molly Lambert is (was? fuck) the managing editor of This Recording. You can find her new twitter here. She tumbls here.
farewell, molly lambert
Reader Comments (42)
You are a beautiful genius and I wish you all the best.
I'll miss you here. You won't need it but good luck anyway on Simmons' new website.
Lambert! congratulations! wherever you go i will follow.
Congratulations!
Even more importantly, thank you for all the great posts here.
good bye and good luck. imma miss your mad men recaps/reviews. try to cover liverpool or arsenal, or the epl, in that new site. when shall we meet again? in tumblr, twitter, or in that new site?
Congrats and best wishes! I've loved reading your posts.
old monitor tell
I'm really sorry to see you go. I loved your work here. I stopped reading Bill Simmons years ago--he's pretty much one of the most misogynistic bastards out there (I'm not the only one who thinks so). I hope you'll rise above. Best of luck.
You are a true inspiration/totally kick ass in all the ways I hope to be someday. Good luck :)
Wow. Congrats on the new job. Working alongside Chuck Klosterman!
Motherfuck. Just as I became aware of this site and it's daily amazement. Good luck to all.
Oh Snipes. You know when you meet a new friend and you're all excited and talking all night at Denny's over coffee and cigarettes (when you used to be able to smoke) and you're just jiving on the idea of "how did this person come to exist independently of me but we're like the same brain in two bodies?" That's how I feel about your posts here. I literally started reading this website two (?) weeks ago and every.single.thing. you've posted has been so spot on I'm stopping each graph to do that thing where you get down on one knee and pump your arm from fist to elbow like a JTT would do during his all-too-brief film career.
I will continue to follow your work at elsewhere. Thank you for being so excellent.
Sadly, I have just discovered This Recording, and yesterday as I was reading, "In which I want to live...," I made a mental note to look out for articles by Molly Lambert. Foiled again! Good luck in your new endeavors.
Molly, your writing here has been so ON FIRE I can't even handle it. I'm going to miss your posts, but am stoked to see what you bring to Bill's new project.
(Also, "Sunrise, Sunset" is the perfect song to score your melodramatic endings/beginnings to. The part of me that clipped a picture of Conor Oberst out of Spin and stuck it in her math binder knows this.)
You have been awesome, and I'm looking forward to whatever comes next.
my world won't be the same w/out science corner. but I am behind your future endeavors 100% and wish all the success you can handle
nooo, but i love you. best of luck, you are always wonderful!
Congrats, and I can't wait for feminism talk on a site where Simmons is involved
I'm feeling a little teary about this. But I'll follow you anywhere Molly.
No more Mad Men review?!?!
I'm depressed...
I was listening to Simmons and Klosterman yesterday and when they said you were coming to the new site, I was really excited. 3 of my favorite writers in one place.Not that I won't keep coming back, but it they would only hire Molly Young, Zadie Smith, Chris Jones, emma Barrie, Wright Thompson, and Malcolm Gladwell, I'd probably never leave the site.
Best Blogger of ALL TIME!!!
Molly Lambert aka Horatio Blogger, aka Moopac Gingur, aka Molly Jordan aka Moodward & Gingerstein, aka Moogle! The GOAT!!!!
This is her MJ final shot vs. Utah. Don't come back and play for the Wizards sister. Go Forth!!!!!!!
This is her Makaveli the 7 Day Theory.
Lamberts Rule!!!
Your Lil Bro,
Benjamin William Harpo Cronin Lambert I
congrats molly!!
please still write mad men reviews?
x
I really like how Simmons is basically an overgrown adolescent, who is a sexist, and a great writer, and loves women and is afraid of them --- and he is championing you (I think) cuz he's realized you're the female him! from twenty years ago. On the podcast with Chuck Klosterman, they muse about how you don't realize when you're over the hill, and Simmons said, "that's why you get people like Molly Lambert." So the difference, and the challenge, for you, is that there are a) expectations and b) pressure once you're in the fishbowl. But I figure Simmons can be your guide... if anyone ought to respect the writer's voice... and too many pictures... it's him. I can't wait for the re-education of Bill Simmons via you. woo hoo. culture might be fun again.
oh, yeah, forgot the self-promotion. examiner.com is lame, but, hey, when between gigs...
https://www.examiner.com/classic-cinema-in-national/charlie-sheen-and-network-going-crazy-as-a-career-move-review-2
:( xxoo
Ah. Can't say I've ever read Simmons or Examiner and not thrown up whatever I was eating, but it might work for you. At least you'll be paid something, and in this recessionary environment, that's something.
nooooooo.but I love you so so much! 70% sports? Please give them hell.
So I remember reading the title of this post but I guess I didn't really read it because I did not realize you were leaving until halfway through. How sad I am Molly Lambert! Your writings have been a source of great entertainment and immense interest for such a long time and it's so sad to see you leave this favorite site of mine. But I look forward to your new venture and wish you all the luck in the world! Farewell!
No matter where you go or what you do, you'll always bring something amazing to the conversation, ML, and we'll be lucky to follow/read you, just as we were here. And I imagine that TR will continue on its great path, same as it ever was. Yesterday was great, today is okay, and tomorrow will be something to see.
Followed by some spam comments about hand bags.
baseball hats. get your baseball hats.
thanks for being preternaturally interesting and entertaining on this here web page molly lambert and best of luck sucker punching the rest of the internet.
Ah, this makes me so sad! When I saw this on twitter last night, I was a little too sick still to fully digest it. I'm happy for you of course! But I can't help but feel This Recording won't quite be the same without you. I was looking forward to more Mad Men reviews, kickass commentary on feminism, etc.
I do love sports though. So sports + pop culture could be interesting. I'm sure you'll bring a lot more kickassery to the table anyway. Congrats and good luck!
Does this mean thisrecording will return to writing and not a picture book with a few paragraphs strained over an entire post? Hmmm...
Molly, since I'd begun following your posts you've influenced me in immediate as well as unknown ways. Your mark has been made on me and I'm glad I'm more aware of the things you've pointed out.
great job molly PUM
I'll read what you write wherever you write it.
noooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hoping to hear more on Fleetwood Mac, Jack Nicholson, & Los Angeles!
Tweetered my best wishes and now I came to give them in person. :)
Here they are.
I have always enjoyed your writing, keep going and going.
wow, just discovered this recording and it's a shame to see ya go. in the meantime i'll be scrolling through archives.
this article very much reminds me of something i wrote on my own blog: ''why i can't take the internet seriously'': http://toorudemag.blogspot.com/2011/01/why-i-cant-take-internet-seriously.html
Sad to see you go. I discovered This Recording, which I liked, and then I discovered your Kenny Powers mixes, which I like (quite a feat, because outside of them I can take or leave 70s era southern rock), then I look to see what else you've written to find out you're leaving, which I don't like.
Reading the comments, this makes me not very special or unusual at all.
Best of luck with the new job, keep doing what you do.