February 2010
33 posts
“What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Putting eardrops in my dog...”
– Martin Scorsese, who is not allergic to fucking awesomeness
"Greatest. Indie-est. Band. Ever." by Chuck... →
“I barely think about music anymore,” [Malkmus] says, although somebody must have come up with the songs on those Jicks albums. “I have other interests now. ADD things, like fantasy sports.”
OU professor submerges laptop in liquid nitrogen,... →
The Quest for Innocence and the Loss of Reality in... →
The always-vigilant (and hyper-connected) Jay Rosen makes his return to PressThink with some wise words. Required reading for the journalistically-inclined.
Ten rules for writing fiction | Books | The... →
Two hundred forty-six practical — yet occasionally contradictory — rules from a couple-dozen titans of the form. Lots of great advice sprinkled throughout.
"Jump Into The Fire" by Harry Nilsson →
His-Panic
Research from The American Conservative suggests that “TV sensationalists and axe-grinding ideologues have fallen for a myth of immigrant lawlessness.” The truth is that crime rates in major cities have been dropping for 20 years, even in the face of an explosion in the Latino population. TAC publisher Ron Unz’s straightforward conclusion:
Meanwhile, the national debate...
"Roger Ebert's Last Words, con't." | Roger Ebert's... →
The John Wooden Pyramid of Success Meets... →
INITIATIVE: Cultivate the ability to make decisions and think alone. Desire to excel.
SHAQ: I’m goin to the alamo tomorro to get one of those daniel boone squirrel tail hats, I’m n san antonio, in case u didn’t kno were the alamo is
"Saved By The Bell" and the decline of ironic... →
Great Job, Internet!: Pop-culture time-travel... →
1 tag
RSS is More | The Bygone Bureau — A Journal of... →
The essential question of our time: How to mitigate the guilt from not reading everything in your RSS reader. What’s the optimal balance between staying informed and willfully submitting to an information avalanche?
The Early Woody Allen 1952-1971 | WFMU's Beware of... →
An absolutely exhaustive account of Woody Allen’s early days in entertainment.
Lens: Showcase: The Best in the World |... →
Foreign Aid Spending is Crippling Our Budget ...... →
James Surowiecki: The perils of economic populism.... →
First Person: Going Rogue at Werner Herzog's Rogue... →
An unnamed filmmaker, going by the pseudonym “Laszlo Brauning,” fakes his way into Werner Herzog’s Rogue Film School and lives to tell the tale. Something tells me Werner might approve of this type of ingenuity.
“[I]n order to land the rights, New Line had to sign a contract with John...”
– New York Magazine’s Claude Brodesser-Akner, on New Line Cinema’s alleged agreement with John Carpenter to reboot his 1981 “classic” Escape From New York
Blame the childish, ignorant American public—not... →
38 Years of Super Bowl Commercials | Adland →
A Brief Conversation With Someone Smarter Than Us:... →
Hollywood's Top 40 for 2009 | Vanity Fair (March... →
Vanity Fair provides its best estimates for the top 40 Hollywood earners in 2009. Three surprising details, buried in this listicle:
Steven Spielberg made an estimated $125 million in 2009, including $50 million from “Universal theme-park royalties and consulting fees.”
Owen Wilson, who briefly appeared in just two movies released in 2009, made an estimated $29 million —...
1 tag
Everyone Eats ... But that doesn't make you a... →
Robert Sietsema, in the Columbia Journalism Review, on the history of restaurant criticism. (Related: John Colapinto in The New Yorker on undercover Michelin Guide inspectors.)
Based on their product, I have to assume the people who made Spartacus: Blood and Sand liked Zack Snyder’s 300 okay, but thought it was mainly just too highbrow.
A dense, beautiful cover of Arcade Fire’s...
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Cleveland Plain Dealer: How soon after the U.S. Postal Service issues the...”
– Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson, in his first public interview since 1989, showing no love lost for print media.
Amazon.com sale: THE SOPRANOS Complete Series,... →
At 86 episodes spanning across nine years and six seasons — though really it’s seven seasons, because season six was ultimately split into two parts — that’s just $1.39 per episode, and basically $17 per season. You don’t normally see shows with that many episodes go on a full-scale sale. A great deal, if you’re into that sort of thing. (By that I mean...
