January 2009
22 posts
If You Want Blood You've Got It
(Image: Justin Reed Art)
I’d be lying if I said that a couple answers in last week’s AVQ&A on “guilty displeasures” — pop-culture products that are generally well-regarded but you can’t stand — didn’t make me scoff in disgust. David Wolinsky and Emily Withrow’s shared opinion on There Will Be Blood, in particular, struck me as whiny,...
Xplosive
It’s been nearly six years since Dan Savage neologized the word santorum in honor of evangelical demigod Rick Santorum, successfully Google-bombing it to No. 1 on searches for the former senator’s name. And now Savage is back with another attempt to change the way we use language. The new word is saddlebacking — taken from walnut-brained minister Rick Warren’s famous...
I refuse to watch a minute of Fox’s new drama Lie to Me* for the same reason I oppose so many baseball ideas derived primarily from scouting: they reinforce the pernicious myth of the infallability of human observation.
Dressed to Kill
I couldn’t cajole Sandy into buying this t-shirt for me at Christmas, so I bit the bullet this evening and purchased it myself. In five-to-seven days I’ll be dressed to kill, and unlike some unfortunate souls, I’ll be able to use my left arm when celebrating on through the night.
If you can't find 'The Reader,' just keep...
Presented without comment: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 45 Best Picture nominees since 2000, ranked by MetaScore.
Title
Released
MetaScore
1.Sideways2004942.The Return of the King2003943.Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon2000934.There Will Be Blood2007925.The Fellowship of the Ring2001926.No Country For Old Men2007917.The Queen2006918.Gosford Park2001909.Letters From Iwo...
Lotto Jackpot Probability Simulator →
File this under Making Probability Come Alive: The next time you feel like buying a Lottery ticket, be sure to watch this simulator for 10 uninterrupted minutes beforehand.
Let us remember: the weekend that saw a historic celebration over our choice to elect Barack Obama President was the same three-day period that Paul Blart: Mall Cop made nearly thirty-fucking-four million dollars, taking the No. 1 spot at the box office. The road ahead is long, my friends.
The Onion | Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare of... →
Published eight years ago today.
“We as a people must stand united, banding together to tear this nation in two,” Bush said. “Much work lies ahead of us: The gap between the rich and the poor may be wide, be there’s much more widening left to do. We must squander our nation’s hard-won budget surplus on tax breaks for the wealthiest 15 percent. And, on the foreign...
“Atticus Finch was a creep and a scumbag. I’m serious. Read that book...”
– Malcolm Gladwell, at the Herbst Theatre on Thursday, alluding to his upcoming takedown of To Kill a Mockingbird in The New Yorker
FACT: The first return on a Google search for the phrase “12 Jewish bankers in Switzerland” — a reference to the batshit book The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which alleges a Jewish and Masonic plot to achieve world domination — is a New York Times article about Hall of Fame pitcher Steve Carlton.
I’d rather have a blind hobo remove my gallbladder with an oyster fork than have a daughter who was eager to see Confessions of a Shopaholic.
I can tell that we are going to be friends
Recent news items have been making me seriously consider my list of Indications That You And I Will Surely Be Good Friends. As it stands now, the list consists of these 21 facts:
If I asked you who your favorite music artist was when you were in the third grade, you would have answered: “Weird” Al Yankovic.
You don’t believe a salary cap would work in the best interest of...
Rosenthal: "Forget OBP, Dawson's still a Hall of... →
“People want to talk about his OBP? Please, someone call off the sabermetric police. And soon.”
—Ken Rosenthal, on Andre Dawson
It would be easy to devise an FJM-style takedown of Ken Rosenthal’s most recent column, addressing the “case” for Andre Dawson’s place in Cooperstown, but I’ll leave that to the silver-back Primates who are almost certainly...
“Let’s be frank: Norm Coleman doesn’t have much of a future in...”
– Nate Silver, effectively burying Norm Coleman
Savage Grace
I couldn’t be happier to see that The Savages (2007) has finally made it to HBO. I consider it a small, modern, underrated masterpiece. Writer/director Tamara Jenkins hits all the right beats, mixing comedy with a raw bleakness that always feels authentic. It’s an actor’s showcase, to be sure — Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney give stripped-down, vulnerable...
