Idolator

I feel the sadder for having read that.

Anyone who says they've got as far as they have without talent lies like a rug (and probably has a pretty face and a strong pelvis)

On Sarah's Wikipedia entry, all I did was re-edit it after someone "defaced" it, hence "maintain" it. There's some stuff there I didn't even know about. More importantly, I never "repped" Ultrafemme. Rather, I was an analyst at a hedge fund and Ultrafemme was a company I was analyzing. Ultimately, I realized the product was no good (in part because Sarah tried out the product and said, "No one in their right mind would ever use this thing!") and recommended the stock get shorted.

Two things:

1. I don't "maintain" Sarah's Wikipedia entry (that's someone else's job). However, I did clean it up after someone "defaced" it with insults.

2. (More importantly): I never repped Ultrafemme as the article states. Rather, I was an analyst at a hedge fund and Ultrafemme (the product was called "Instead", I believe) was a company I was analyzing. I ultimately recommended the stock get shorted, in part because after Sarah tried out their product she screamed, "No one in their right mind would use this!". The company later went bankrupt.

Gee, Lawrence, Instead is still on the market, and Ultrafem, Inc., is still doing business.

Do you and your sister share some kind of folie a deux thing where you don't bother to check your preconceptions (or spelling) against the real world?

StupiderPluvius:

I don't care. All I needed to get right was the ticker symbol ("UFEM"). It was one of my favorite shorting stories ever. My guess is that the woman who created the product ultimately got back the rights to it (don't quote me on that). Nonetheless, the company was a disaster and I'm happy I got to profit from it.

Witnesseth:

http://www.businessweek.com/1997/04/b351191.htm

Better yet:

ULTRAFEM FILES CHAPTER 11 BANKRUPTCY PETITION
New York, NY, April 1, 1998 -- Ultrafem, Inc. (Nasdaq: UFEM) announced today that it has filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition. They also
announced a lay off of 45 employees in their Montana and New York facilities, shutting down business operations in the two locations, while
maintaining personnel necessary to administer the bankruptcy proceedings. In addition, Charles D. Peebler, Jr. resigned from the Board of
Directors on March 2, 1998, according to Joy V. Jones, chairperson.
The Company also announced that two purported class action lawsuits have been filed against the Company, certain of its officers, directors,
and former directors. The Company believes the allegations in these complaints are without merit. These actions will be stayed as a result of
the Chapter 11 filing.
Ultrafem is a women's health care company. The Company's business strategy is to develop, manufacture and market proprietary products
based on its patented SoftCup (Registered Trademark) technology.
* * * *
-5-

i dont understand what a listening machine is. what is it, exactly, that she does? picks music that young people with too much cash will pay to buy/see/listen to?

Yeah well, who looks stupid now?

@lawrence:
@LVLweitinn:

So which one of you is the sock puppet?

I believe the reason Sarah never landed an editorial job is because she is a mediocre (if not sometimes poor) writer. This doesn't mean that she is talentless in other areas, so don't try to pin me as jealous.

I believe an "organic listening machine" is any mammal with ears.

LVLweitinn. I typed my log-in name too fast and the page didn't reload, so I retyped it. Hey, rewriting the same exact thing isn't easy when you're multitasking. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go on Curbed, the only Gawker site I read religiously.

My apologies, I misread the quote. Rather, Sarah fully accepts the fact that she isn't a great writer, which makes her pretty cool and pretty damn unpretentious.

ooo lawrence you maaaad

Wow, that was a fun read.

(Apparently her brother can get people kicked off message boards, so watch what you say.)

@lawrence: What are you, six? "StupiderPluvius"?

Yeah, so Ultrafem filed for bankruptcy in 1997. As did many other companies that are operating today. They're still in business, and the Instead's in every drugstore in the US. OH SNAP!

And people wonder why there's so much hate for i-bankers out there.

Last I heard the curly-haired Pepsi girl was working on a screen play too.

And yes I'm jealous.

Something about Sarah doesn't make me like her.

Maybe because I have always assumed that in, I forget which book now, Chuck Klosterman makes fun of her.

heathermylove: Maybe it's the multiple pictures of a sweaty, wasted-looking Sarah that have turned you off. Every time I see one, I swear I catch a whiff of armpit sweat and ass cheese.

Dude, that article was so long. Mein Gott. Why does anyone care? She's repping bands I couldn't give a big dump about and she's thoroughly boring. I'd rather argue about Fergie.

"I used to be that girl, up in the front row, jumping up and down," Lewitinn says a little wistfully. "Now I'm in the back."

The writer forgot to add, "as a solitary tear rolled down her mascara-stained cheek."

Honestly, who says that? Ever?

@JupiterPluvius: Read up top, ninny. The part where I said, "My guess is that the woman who created the product ultimately got back the rights to it (don't quote me on that)."

There is no longer a company called "Ultrafem".

According to the Austin Business Journal (Feb 7, 2003):

"The Austin test is the first Instead marketing initiative since the company acquired the rights to the product in 1998, the news release states.

Instead Softcups were introduced in 1996 by San Diego-based women's health care company Ultrafem Inc. and were distributed nationally. But Ultrafem filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1998, and the company's assets were sold, according to the news release."

So, there. There's no company called Ultrafem. It went bankrupt after it was delisted from the NASDAQ. Its assets were sold. The successor company revived the product. It sells a paltry $3.5m/yr, a fraction of what Ultrafem's initial projections were (the company's market cap was at $250 million at one point, before going bankrupt).

What's the bottom line? It's funny that you're a douchebag talking about a feminine hygeine product.

Oh man, I'm going to give her a day-long pass, even though I thought I'd never forgive her for Louis XIV. If either of my brothers ever went around to message boards starting flame wars in my name, I'd be mortified.

Lawrence seems very involved in his sister's life. You know, beyond that healthy point.

Wha??? So now that's *TWO* gushing-praise articles written about her by her friends?

Message to my writer friends: you guys suck. *I* want a 10,000 word defense written about me! I'll pick up the tab for our interview meal at Clinton St. Baking (but be a pal and give me a bite of your french toast, yeh?)

hey, im just hapy to see a girl from tenafly, nj do something other than spend daddy's money.

she's the new millenium dawn eden

None of the bands she has signed to Island are selling. I predict that Rob Stevenson and Island will pull the plug on that "incubator" within the next year or so.

So, the Voice has fallen far enough that the editor thinks that Spitz is a good source for this story. That's fucking rich. As if the very idea of a story on her (after one ran in...Vanity Fair) and her unsuccessful signings is newsworthy to begin with.

The skill in A&R is not discovering talent, it's developing talent. And so far, Sara hasn't shown any of that.

@JupiterPluvius: And people wonder why there's so much hate for i-bankers out there.

There's so many reasons.

Jesus wept.

dear catbird:
I'm not friends with sarah in the sense that i do more than exchange air kisses in clubs when i see her. I don't and haven't ever hung out with her alone outside of writing this article.

@shuffler: YOu are having flashes of Papa Joe Simpson, yes?

If more people believe in her taste than don't, why do we need an "In Defense of" story? She's already winning!

I'm surprised no one has mentioned that she ruined her tastemaking reputation by championing mall punk, Good Charlotte and Hillary Duff for a good 18 months, just because she became pals with some third banana Madden brother.

Plus, Mark Spitz? That Smiths novel thing...I actually threw it across the room in the midst of reading. Just couldn't take it any more. Hadn't ever done that with a book before, and I've read all the Bret Easton Ellis books.

And I believe he must be older than 15, so by "scary good" I *think* he means either "scarily good" or "frighteningly good."

Attention music journalists: Beginning your celebrity profile with a detailed description of what the subject is eating and the restaurant he/she is eating in is a TIRED CLICHE. Please stop!

Also, I liked the well-placed "perhaps" in the following passage: "There's also the "groupie" label, perhaps not helped by the title "Making Out With Ultragrrrl" or blog posts like this one: "OK. My lunch with Cappa [Cappadonna of Wu-Tang Clan] went really well. We had pasta, talked about how you don't need drugs or alcohol to have fun, and he said I had a good aura. Then I sat on his lap for a picture."

Also, Chuck Klosterman is (probably) making fun of ultragrrl in "Killing Yourself to Live" when he talks about the Interpol/cocaine people vs. the CCR/pot people in the Spin office.

"If either of my brothers ever went around to message boards starting flame wars in my name, I'd be mortified."

I ever so innocently clicked back on the Ultragrrrl link, and found this gem of a thread:

http://idolator.com/tunes/top/if-an-ultragrrrl-comment-fal...

Larry, dude, you are such a prick. Are you seriously arguing over douche? Are you seriously getting people executed for repeating a comment someone else posted about your sister's looks? Are you seriously accusing people of not having a life as you argue ever-so-seriously about douche on a music message board?

To quote the man himself: "Yo, Lock and Mahoney: I think we have a candidate for execution."

Get. Over. Yourself.

Bro Goes Captain Save A Ho.

Well, now I've seen the cover. Burning at the stake? Is that really the equivalent to not being universally loved? After a little more time to think, particularly about the music writers I've met and all, I think the problem is that people sometimes forget that not everyone is a member of the tastemakers' club. Many people live entire lives without being a music writer, A&R, or DJ, or whatever. Your job is to get enthused and excited and find new things and hype them.

My only job, more of a hobby really, is to find music that I like now and believe I'll like in 5 years. This also means quite a bit of weeding out and postponing some listening until later. It also means that I spend quite a bit of time identifying things that I'm UNenthused about in order to save myself time and focus on listening closely to stuff I like.

What does this have to do with this story? Well, I can not like Ultragrrl's stable of bands or tastes and that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with me or her, as this article tries to imply. That fact gets lost nowadays, since all I see is a huge echo chamber sometimes.

I am almost charmed by the frank no-talent admission - so very Half Japanese. But then I remembered the difference between Ultragrrrl and Half Japanese.

When the Fair brothers make hyperbolic statements about their music, they're pushing a sophisticated point about individuality. They know they're not skilled players or singers: they'd be laughed out of the American Idol auditions or David Geffen's office. But they also know it doesn't matter; they don't need six tuned guitar strings to blow other bands off the stage.

Ultra, OTOH, is trying to directly engage with mainstream culture. No art statement or proud incompetence here; just a whole lot of self-promo. And it's worked, but what kind of recognition is it? Were I Ultra, I'd be mortified by a Village Voice cover story titled "In Defense Of..." complete with a cover story portraying me as Satan. Reading the article and the various quotes, you realize that it's not serious recognition she's getting; rather, it's Paris Hilton in miniature.

I don't know Ultra. I've never met her. I was on a mailing list with her once, and she seemed nice - certainly not the publicity monster she's portrayed as and, to an extent, feeds into. But then maybe there's a separation between "Sarah Lewitinn" and "Ultragrrrl."

I was going to say leave Sarah alone, but then I read this much better response.

I'll just add that while i don't dig every, or even most, bands she champions, I honestly can't see anything wrong with someone doing something they totally love doing. How is she hurting anyone there?

Guys, we do know that even talking about Ultragrrrl is so inside baseball? I know many intelligent, cultured people who do not know who she is, do not care to know who she is, and will never know she is. Why do we even bother? So she's got an A&R job. Big deal. So do a lot of people. So she's mildly annoying and self-admittedly talentless and yet still successful. So are a lot of other people.

Someone compared her to Paris Hilton and I agree. She's definitely the Paris Hilton of the music blog world: there is nothing to stare at and yet we all keep staring. I recommend we all stop staring. I call a Dohertorium on Ultragrrrl!

I would like to hear more about the Orthodox Jewish thing. As someone who tried keeping Shabbat for a few years - and who missed a lot of shows as a result - I'm curious to know how that works for her.

The Mozfather is right. I really have no idea who she is, and I'm just more confused now that I've read 12 posts about feminine hygiene products (Instead verdict: great while you're waiting!).

Cheers to Mozfather. You said it. Even people who supposedly care about this woman care more about flame wars best reserved for yahoo stock chat rooms.

What's funny about the article is the pretense that Sarah isn't as corporate as the many people who pursue careers at Goldman Sachs, the Department of Justice, Halliburton et al.

She's very mainstream and corny in her pursuit of fulfilling her American Dream.

Even if it is as a DJ and the music industry mogul.

Sigh.

Actually the article should have been titled:
In Defense of Pretending Your Cutting Edge When You're Not.

Attention music journalists: Beginning your celebrity profile with a detailed description of what the subject is eating and the restaurant he/she is eating in is a TIRED CLICHE. Please stop!

Something bugging me about this...

Attention music journalists: [...] Please stop!

Fixed!

@mike a: "Goddamn you Half Japanese Ultragrrrls..."

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