James Lileks
Encyclopedia
James Lileks is an American
journalist
, columnist
, and blog
ger living in Minneapolis
, Minnesota
.
while he was a student at the University of Minnesota
. At that time, his byline was "James r. Lileks", with his middle initial, for "Ralph", in lower case.
After college, he eventually got a regular job writing for City Pages
, a Twin Cities alternative tabloid. He served as a general columnist for City Pages until 1988, when he was hired as a columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press
, which led to a columnist job with Newhouse News Service and thence the The Washington Post
for a period in the early nineties.
In the mid-nineties, Lileks returned to the Twin Cities for a job with the Star Tribune
, retaining his Newhouse column until late 2006.
The Star Tribune discontinued Lileks's column in 2007, eventually naming him editor of the now defunct community website buzz.mn.
In the mid-nineties, after returning from Washington DC, Lileks reappeared on KSTP with a new program, The Diner -- a less traditional show set in a fictional fifties-era diner. The program featured a running loop of kitchen sound effects in the background and verbal interplay with "cook" (and producer) Jeremy "Kodiak" Kienitz, and was in many ways a precursor of Lileks's later written ventures.
The show, unconventional by mid-nineties talk radio standards, lasted several years on weekday evenings and then a few more as a weekend-evening program before leaving the air in the late nineties.
In late 2006, The Diner was revived in podcast
form. Selected original Diner programs and new original Diners are available on Lileks's website. Lileks is also a weekly guest on the Hugh Hewitt
show, Pajamas Media.com's
weekly PJM Political'' show on Sirius-XM Satellite Radio's POTUS channel, and a frequent guest and guest host on the Northern Alliance Radio Network
program.
Lileks has also been a monologist for the public affairs program Almanac
, carried on Minnesota PBS
television stations.
). Known for dry humor and an engaging writing style, Lileks especially grew in fame in the blogosphere
following 9/11
and the subsequent explosion in the popularity of blogs for spreading both news and general punditry
.
Lileks's Web site also hosts a vast repository of vintage advertisements and other ephemera
from the 1920s to the 1970s. Lileks displays creative, irreverent and politically incorrect
(by today's standards) advertisements, photographs, pamphlets, comic strips, matchbooks, currency, postcards, cheesecake
drawings, and architecture, usually accompanied by wry analysis and commentary. His section dissecting the works of cheesecake artist Art Frahm
, for instance, observes the devastating effects of celery on the gravitational pull of women's underwear.
with Rob Long
and Peter Robinson
.
, either. This means I will start burning my share of hydrocarbons like a good American. Hell, I may leave the vehicle running all day outside the building just to make up for lost time. Maybe I will put a green roof on the car to balance things out. Some turf, some switchgrass. It's murder on the paint but we all must do our part.
The move, which was forced by cuts in other parts of the Star Tribunes newsroom, drew criticism from many, including Dave Barry
. Mike Argento, president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, said in reaction to the news:
On June 5, 2007, the Star Tribune changed course and announced Lileks would serve as editor of buzz.mn, a new community site featuring content from Lileks and members alike. Buzz.mn ceased publication of new content in July 2009.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, columnist
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
, and blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ger living in Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
.
Career
Lileks has had a wide-ranging career as a columnist, radio personality, author, and prominent blogger.Columnist
Lileks began his writing career as a columnist for the Minnesota DailyMinnesota Daily
The Minnesota Daily is the campus newspaper of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, published Monday-Thursday while school is in session, and published weekly on Wednesdays during summer sessions. Published since 1900, the paper is one of the largest student-run and student-written newspapers...
while he was a student at the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
. At that time, his byline was "James r. Lileks", with his middle initial, for "Ralph", in lower case.
After college, he eventually got a regular job writing for City Pages
City Pages
City Pages is an alternative weekly newspaper serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. It features news, film, theatre and restaurant reviews, and music criticism. It is printed in a tabloid format, and is available free every Wednesday...
, a Twin Cities alternative tabloid. He served as a general columnist for City Pages until 1988, when he was hired as a columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press
St. Paul Pioneer Press
The St. Paul Pioneer Press is a newspaper based in St. Paul, Minnesota, primarily serving the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Circulation is heaviest in the eastern metro region, including Ramsey, Dakota, and Washington counties, along with western Wisconsin, eastern Minnesota and Anoka County,...
, which led to a columnist job with Newhouse News Service and thence the The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
for a period in the early nineties.
In the mid-nineties, Lileks returned to the Twin Cities for a job with the Star Tribune
Star Tribune
The Star Tribune is the largest newspaper in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is published seven days each week in an edition for the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area. A statewide version is also available across Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota. The...
, retaining his Newhouse column until late 2006.
The Star Tribune discontinued Lileks's column in 2007, eventually naming him editor of the now defunct community website buzz.mn.
Radio personality
Lileks's first foray into radio came in 1987, while he was a writer with City Pages. He became a regular guest on the Geoff Charles show, an afternoon talk show on KSTP. When Charles left the Twin Cities, Lileks was tagged to fill the slot, and served as an afternoon-drive host on KSTP for a time in the late eighties; his show was a fairly traditional talk show, with topics, callers, and guest interviews.In the mid-nineties, after returning from Washington DC, Lileks reappeared on KSTP with a new program, The Diner -- a less traditional show set in a fictional fifties-era diner. The program featured a running loop of kitchen sound effects in the background and verbal interplay with "cook" (and producer) Jeremy "Kodiak" Kienitz, and was in many ways a precursor of Lileks's later written ventures.
The show, unconventional by mid-nineties talk radio standards, lasted several years on weekday evenings and then a few more as a weekend-evening program before leaving the air in the late nineties.
In late 2006, The Diner was revived in podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
form. Selected original Diner programs and new original Diners are available on Lileks's website. Lileks is also a weekly guest on the Hugh Hewitt
Hugh Hewitt
Hugh Hewitt is an American radio talk show host with the Salem Radio Network, lawyer, academic, and author. An outspoken Republican, evangelical Christian, he comments on society, politics, and media bias in the United States. Hewitt is also a law professor at Chapman University School of Law.-...
show, Pajamas Media.com's
Pajamas Media
PJ Media is a media company that uses the Internet to present and comment on the news.Founded in 2004 by a network primarily, but not exclusively, made up of conservatives and libertarians led by mystery writer, screenwriter, and blogger Roger L...
weekly PJM Political'' show on Sirius-XM Satellite Radio's POTUS channel, and a frequent guest and guest host on the Northern Alliance Radio Network
Northern Alliance Radio Network
The Northern Alliance Radio Network is an American radio talk show, the first in the world hosted entirely by bloggers. The show airs in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul on AM1280 The Patriot.The program is hosted by six bloggers:...
program.
Lileks has also been a monologist for the public affairs program Almanac
Almanac (TV series)
Almanac is a weekly public-affairs television series produced by Twin Cities Public Television in St. Paul, Minnesota and distributed to other channels around the state via Minnesota Public Television . It has aired weekly since December 7, 1984. Longtime hosts Eric Eskola and Cathy Wurzer are...
, carried on Minnesota PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
television stations.
Website
Lileks's blog, the Daily Bleat, began in 1997. The Bleat covers many topics in his personal life (including his daughter Natalie ("Gnat") and his dog Jasper), politics from a conservative viewpoint, and cultural points of interest ranging from art and architecture to movies and music (one perennial topic is the Minnesota State FairMinnesota State Fair
The Minnesota State Fair is the state fair of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Its slogan is "The Great Minnesota Get-Together." It is the 2nd largest fair in the United States, and the largest state fair in the United States in terms of average daily attendance, though the State Fair of Texas runs...
). Known for dry humor and an engaging writing style, Lileks especially grew in fame in the blogosphere
Blogosphere
The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community or as a social network in which everyday authors can publish their opinions...
following 9/11
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
and the subsequent explosion in the popularity of blogs for spreading both news and general punditry
Pundit (politics)
A pundit is someone who offers to mass media his or her opinion or commentary on a particular subject area on which they are knowledgeable. The term has been increasingly applied to popular media personalities...
.
Lileks's Web site also hosts a vast repository of vintage advertisements and other ephemera
Ephemera
Ephemera are transitory written and printed matter not intended to be retained or preserved. The word derives from the Greek, meaning things lasting no more than a day. Some collectible ephemera are advertising trade cards, airsickness bags, bookmarks, catalogues, greeting cards, letters,...
from the 1920s to the 1970s. Lileks displays creative, irreverent and politically incorrect
Politically incorrect
The phrase "politically incorrect" may refer to:* Someone or something which does not meet a standard of political correctness* Politically Incorrect, a late-night U.S. political talk show* Politically Incorrect, a German political blog...
(by today's standards) advertisements, photographs, pamphlets, comic strips, matchbooks, currency, postcards, cheesecake
Pin-up girl
A pin-up girl, also known as a pin-up model, is a model whose mass-produced pictures see wide appeal as popular culture. Pin-ups are intended for informal display, e.g. meant to be "pinned-up" on a wall...
drawings, and architecture, usually accompanied by wry analysis and commentary. His section dissecting the works of cheesecake artist Art Frahm
Art Frahm
Art Frahm was an American painter of campy pin-up girls and advertising. Frahm lived in Chicago, and was active from the 1940s to 1960s. Today he is best known for his “ladies in distress” pictures involving beautiful young women whose panties mysteriously flutter to the ground in public...
, for instance, observes the devastating effects of celery on the gravitational pull of women's underwear.
Other work
Lileks is a regular contributor to the center-right social networking and blogging network Ricochet.com, and co-hosts the site's podcastPodcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
with Rob Long
Rob Long
Rob Long is a writer and television producer in Hollywood, California, USA. As a screenwriter and executive producer for the long-running television program Cheers, he received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations in 1992 and 1993...
and Peter Robinson
Peter Robinson
Peter Robinson may refer to:* Peter Robinson , member of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada who oversaw emigration schemes* Peter Robinson , professor at the University of Cambridge...
.
Star Tribune controversy and resolution
On May 7, 2007, Lileks announced that his home paper, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, was ending his column in the interest of budget cuts and putting him on a straight local news beat:Telecommuting
Telecommuting or telework is a work arrangement in which employees enjoy flexibility in working location and hours. In other words, the daily commute to a central place of work is replaced by telecommunication links...
, either. This means I will start burning my share of hydrocarbons like a good American. Hell, I may leave the vehicle running all day outside the building just to make up for lost time. Maybe I will put a green roof on the car to balance things out. Some turf, some switchgrass. It's murder on the paint but we all must do our part.
The move, which was forced by cuts in other parts of the Star Tribunes newsroom, drew criticism from many, including Dave Barry
Dave Barry
David "Dave" Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author and columnist, who wrote a nationally syndicated humor column for The Miami Herald from 1983 to 2005. He has also written numerous books of humor and parody, as well as comedic novels.-Biography:Barry was born in Armonk, New York,...
. Mike Argento, president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, said in reaction to the news:
- It's just a reflection of the sad state of the newspaper industry. Many of the people running newspapers don't have a vision. They're concerned with dollars and cents, and the bottom line. They should look at the future, not just slash and burn.
On June 5, 2007, the Star Tribune changed course and announced Lileks would serve as editor of buzz.mn, a new community site featuring content from Lileks and members alike. Buzz.mn ceased publication of new content in July 2009.
Fiction
- Falling up the Stairs (19881988 in literatureThe year 1988 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Margaret Atwood - Cat's Eye*J.G. Ballard - Memories of the Space Age*Iain M...
, ISBN 0-525-24655-X) - Mr. Obvious (19951995 in literatureThe year 1995 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea is opened by Jimmy Carter....
, ISBN 0-671-73705-8)
Columns
- Notes of a Nervous Man (19911991 in literatureThe year 1991 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Douglas Coupland publishes the novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularizing the term Generation X as the name of the generation....
, ISBN 0-671-73701-5) - Fresh Lies (19951995 in literatureThe year 1995 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea is opened by Jimmy Carter....
, ISBN 0-671-73703-1)
Humor
- The Gallery of Regrettable Food (20012001 in literatureThe year 2001 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The film version of J. R. R. Tolkien's classic book, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, is released to movie theaters...
, ISBN 0-609-60782-0) - Interior Desecrations: Hideous Homes from the Horrible '70s (20042004 in literatureThe year 2004 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Canada Reads selects Guy Vanderhaeghe's The Last Crossing to be read across the nation....
, ISBN 1-4000-4640-8) - Mommy Knows Worst: Highlights from the Golden Age of Bad Parenting Advice (20052005 in literatureThe year 2005 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*February 25 - Canada Reads selects Rockbound by Frank Parker Day as the novel to be read across the nation....
, ISBN 1-4000-8228-5) - Gastroanomalies: Questionable Culinary Creations from the Golden Age of American Cookery (20072007 in literatureThe year 2007 in literature involves some significant new books.-Events:*November 19 - First Kindle e-book reader released.*December 11 - Terry Pratchett informs fans on-line that he has been diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer's disease.-Literature:...
, ISBN 0-307-38307-5) - RiffTrax: - Spider-man 3 with Mike Nelson - special guest riffer (http://www.rifftrax.com/rifftrax/spiderman-3)