"You can do legal scholarship as performance art, like Ann."

Jack Balkin said that at the conference, making an impressive play for a spot in the banner... and winning it! He was talking about the different ways of doing law blogs:

"You can do legal scholarship as performance art, like Ann. I sometimes regard what she does as a kind of art. She's performing in a certain way. It's aesthetic and there's a certain high style to it."

(Here's Jack's blog.)

Liberals ideate furiously over the black-and-white McCain website.

John McCain has an aesthetically pleasing website, which is distinguished by the very low color level. Instead of the usual florid blue and red, it uses elegant, crisp black, white, and gray. Perhaps that calls to mind some beautifully photographed black and white movie. Bring on the liberal commentators, and what movie do they think of? Of course, it's "Triumph of the Will," which, admittedly, is a film known for its crisp black and white photography (to go along with its Nazi propaganda).

Here's Atrios:

Imperial Stormtrooper Chic

And here's Ezra Klein:

But to get the full flavor of the terrifyingly martial undercurrent, watch the video "stand up," which is currently the default clip on the front page. It looks like an over-the-top parody of fascist campaign propaganda from a movie, and sounds like Triumph of the Will. It's also worth noting that in an effort to shore up his conservative credentials in a particularly pandering and ghoulish way, the next video is simply called "Reagan Tribute," and the weird shoehorning of McCain's time as a POW into his admiration for Reagan really has to be seen to be believed. I don't know how many cults of personality one web site can foster, but props to the McCain team for trying to find out.

What bugs me the most about their reaction is not the usual conservatives-are-Nazis business, it's the thoughtless tainting of the aesthetic of black-and-white design, this eagerness to score political points, with no feeling for art.

Klein does have a point about the film clip. The music is over-the-top. Visually, I think the film -- Errol Morris? -- and the website are excellent, but the music is off-putting. It announces the intent to manipulate you emotionally. That makes it a less effective effort at manipulation, though. I don't think Leni Riefenstahl would have done something so crude.

ADDED: I've amused Kevin Drum.

NYC morning.

Yesterday was the "Writing About the Law" conference and the first deadline for the NYT column, and now, it's Saturday in New York. Time for a little blogging. I've got my tiny tray from room service, a small carafe of coffee and an orange juice, for which I signed the bill for $18 without joy or regret. I want to be in my room, I need coffee, and that's what it costs. I'll do some NY things today, and at 5 I'm doing the meet-up with readers of this blog. (Email me if you want to be included.)

I still have some notes from the conference which I'm going to use in a few posts. You'll have to wait! (Unbloggy, I know.) I'll do a pretty substantial post on the lunch talk from John Jay Osborn (the author of "The Paper Chase"). For now -- because I want to get to the morning news -- let me post some photos from the dinner the night before the conference. We were in a cool basement room at the City Hall Restaurant... honoring Jethro K. Lieberman's book "The Litigious Society":



At my table, the glamorous and charming Nadine Strossen (of ACLU fame):



Also at the table, two very nice New York Law School students, John Indeck (left) and George Esposito (right):



I expect big things of these guys.

Jeremy overhears something contextless...

... hilarious ... and scary. Now, I'm thinking of things I feel I would never have done if I'd overheard that myself years ago.

A nice diagram.

It represents exactly why I chafed at a "billable hours" job... not to mention a 9 to 5 job.

More discussion (from Bradley Wright) here.

I'm a guest columnist at the NYT this month.

The first column is up. It's about Justice Kennedy's confrontation with the Senate Judiciary Committee over judicial pay and cameras in the Supreme Court. You'll need TimeSelect to read it here. Or you can go out and buy the paper.

At the "Writing About the Law" conference.

I'm watching the second panel at the conference now. My panel -- about law review writing -- is over, but you can read about it over here on Larry Solum's blog. The second panel are all people who write about law for the popular reader: Dahlia Lithwick (of Slate), Adam Cohen (NYT), Jamie Heller (WSJ), and Richard Sweren ("Law and Order").

Here's a picture of me -- arranged randomly -- with Dahlia Lithwick:



I think that's Jim Lindgren's thumb. Here is the possibly dangerous and unlawful Lindgren:



And David Lat is here too. Here he is explaining something to conference organizer Cameron Stracher:



Here's David's description of my panel. Hey, he gives me a quote for the banner! And here he is on the second panel.

And here's some idle chatter before the panel starts: