Topix Weblog

January 19, 2006

Tabitha Soren Interviews Wonkette

by tolles at 11:28 PM

The Commonwealth Club of California hosted an interview of Ana Marie Cox -- Wonkette -- by Tabitha Soren this evening in San Franicsco.

While I'm kind of burned out hearing about Web 2.0 -- it was cool hearing Tabitha Soren talk to Wonkette about the blog, her new novel and life in DC -- figured even though that this wasn't Topix related it was too good not to blog...

Some of the highlights of the interview, to the best of my recollection:

AMC: "The novel means my parents finally know what I do for a living"

AMC: "Wonkette gave me a second row sea at the 2004 election..while I wasn't in the bubble, I was close enough to smell the Bourbon on the breath of the people who were in it"

On Jessica Cutler and the interest of the DC audience with the Washingtonienne:

AMC: "The combination of blogging and women being paid to have sex was very exciting"
TS: "Didn't you have a role in this"
AMC: "I linked to her"
TS: "Didn't you also put up pictures and have people guess who she was sleeping with"
AMC:"Well, after I linked to her, she ended up getting a book deal bigger than the one I got..."

On sex in DC:
AMC: "It's the Special Olympics of Sex, where everyone's a winner"

On policy & Gossip & DC
"Gossip is easy, politics is hard...knowing policy does help make the gosip more understandable"
"Caring about policy is important...people in washingtom forget the line item you leave in our take out has a real effect, and it becomes just a game"

On the success of Wonkette:
"I'm surprised and disappointed in American culture"
"I've been told I'm a player, but people still don't always return my calls"
"When I was a freelancer, I *thought* that this journalism thing was a racket, and now that I'm where I am now, I *know* it's a racket."\

Tabitha's Proustian Quiz of Ana:
Her personal hero: Joan Didion
Favorite politician: John McCain
Colbert or Jon Stewart: tie
Jennifer or Angelina: Angelina
Art or Commerce: Art
Woody or Scorsese: ewwww
Least favorite way of being described: Saucy or snarky
Favorite blog: BoingBoing

Her next project will be a non-fiction anthropological study of young conservatives. (Tabitha remarked that "they're cute and they bathe"). When asked why, she responded that "they fascinate her", and that she would treat the subject seriously, but that "there would be mocking when mocking was appropriate".

She spent some time talking about how being a blogger was like playing the piano with one finger "one note over an over", and that her work on the current book was like" using the entire orchestra".

It was also great to see Tabitha Soren, who know lives here in the Bay Area. She seems to be involved mainly in her photography lately, and it wa s treat to see her back in the interviewer's seat this evening.