Friday, March 30, 2007

I have many leather-bound books

Herewith is another one of our relatively infrequent round-ups of things we have neither seen, eaten, nor read but still feel obliged to have an opinion on.

1. Trying to explain why things are funny is a fool's errand. However, the video clips in this Slate piece on why Will Ferrell is funny are probably worth watching, though perhaps not.

2. Here is a nice post--I actually read this one--by Steven Postrel on the paradox of design puzzles--design problems that you encounter in your daily life with obvious fixes that never seem to get fixed. I can't say I lose a lot of sleep over condiment packets, but wobbly tables are a menace to Western civilization.

3. Via Bob del Grosso at Michael Ruhlman's weblog (which is, btw, an excellent food blog, if you're into that kind of thing), some suggestions on how to screw up your red sauce.

4. Last week we learned that David Sedaris is a fabulist. This week, Foucault. Zut alors!

Posted by jwb at 11:25 AM  · 3 Comments   

Cna yuo raed tihs?

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it.


Hmm. I can.

Via MaxSpeak.

Posted by jwb at 8:04 AM  · 3 Comments   

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

About your father ...


1. Rome, alas, is no more. As with Deadwood, I can't help feeling it has ended prematurely. I also can't help feeling that they tried to jam a little too much stuff into season two. The finale disappointed slightly. The treatment of Actium was particularly bad--Did they run out of money? That said, all things considered, it was extraordinarily well done. The decision to focus on Pullo and Vorenus as the center of the story was quite effective. The sets and costumes were top notch. The casting was great--in particular, Max Pirkis as the young Octavian (I didn't like the actor playing the older Octavian quite so much), James Purefoy as Antony, Polly Walker as Atia, and Ray Stevenson as Pullo were brilliant. As costume dramas go, it was certainly one of the best.

2. We watched a double feature on Friday evening. We started with Marie Antoinette. Whaddya know! I really liked it. For me at least, the contemporariness of it (all that teen angst) really worked. Also, Kiki Dunst, who I usually find severely annoying, was quite lovely and effective. Jason Schwartzman--who, come to think of it, can also be really annoying--also does a nice job as the boy king, Louis Seize.

Next was The Prestige, part of the current fashion for magic movies. It is of course utterly preposterous but also quite well done, a bit better, I think, than the one with Ed Norton (another former resident of Columbia, MD) and Jessica Biel. However, "the prestige" (the magical part of a magic trick) of the movie itself was kind of week. (I'll not ruin it here, in case you haven't seen it.) However, I will suggest that there wasn't enough magic (i.e., actual magic tricks) in either movie. Why bother having Ricky Jay involved if your not going to have some really cool tricks? Also, David Bowie is very cool but who shall rescue the reputation of Tesla from this travesty?

Speaking of magic--I think I've probably mentioned this before--but somebody ought to make a movie of Susanna Clarke's brilliant Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell.

3. Breaking news: Piven is an a-hole. I am shocked! Truly shocked! Also, Entourage premiers April 8.

Posted by jwb at 4:00 PM  · 3 Comments   

Thursday, March 22, 2007

A dialogue


Herewith is an imaginary dialogue inspired by this little newsicle:

Roger Federer: Hey, Tiger.
Tiger Woods: Hey, Roger.
Roger: What's it like to be so great at what you do?
Tiger: It's great.
Roger: Oh, OK.
Tiger: What's it like to be so great at what you do?
Roger: It's great.
Tiger: Oh, OK.


That is all.

Posted by jwb at 12:17 PM  · 0 Comments   

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Mistakes were made

1. So is "300" crap, as I put it the other day? I find A.O. ("Call me Tony") Scott generally reliable on such things, but Bram politely points us to some more measured criticism here.

2. I've never gotten into the whole David Sedaris thing. It's mainly that I don't find him very funny. Anyway, I'm sure this'll come as a shock to you, but it seems he's been making shit up.

3. I see that Spielberg is one of the prime movers behind that Tintin movie I mentioned the other day. It's interesting--in a bad way--that they still don't seem to know whether it'll be a cartoon or live action. Either way, still dubious.

4. We're off to Sin City for a few days. I was watching MSNBC last night--I can't get enough of this Purgegate story--and Joe Scarborough had this incredibly hard-hitting story about the Vegas casinos. I was shocked to discover that the house always wins. Next they'll tell us there were no WMDs in Iraq.

Posted by jwb at 10:00 AM  · 1 Comments   

Friday, March 09, 2007

Lovely evening, until Sting played the lute


1. It appears that the answer is "not interesting". "300" is crap.

2. Yikes! Someone should tell Tom Brady to wear one of those little rubber things. First, a hot actress. Then a supermodel. Who's next?

3. Jean Baudrillard est mort le 6 mars 2007 à Paris. [Insert silly postmodernist joke ici.]

4. I also see, via this morning's Times, that some nitwits in Hollywood are working on a Tintin movie. I'll submit to you now--two years out--that this will not come out well.

5. "Clatterford" starts tonight. The Times has a review that I suppose one could describe as complimentary. 9PM on BBC America. DO IT!

Photo: Vyvyan and Eddie.

Posted by jwb at 6:18 AM  · 2 Comments   

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Karma's a bitch


1. Zoiks! Tough news day yesterday for the Cheney Administration. First, the shit hitting the proverbial fan (or perhaps it should be "the proverbial shit hitting the fan") over the canned US attorneys. Then, more news tumbled out about the abysmal conditions at Walter Reed. Then there was our daily dose of reality from Baghdad. And, of course, the Scooter Libby decision. Then I learn that the US is now more hated around the world than North Korea. Quite an accomplishment. Finally, to top it all off, Jenna Bush is writing a book.

2. It was also a tough day for the food crowd. In its infinite wisdom, the US government has apparently decided that the naturally occuring transfats in butter and beef are as bad as man-made transfats. Remind me not to buy croissants at Starbucks--the paper bag it comes in tastes better. In unrelated news, McDonalds is testing out a one-third-pounder. WTF! Oh, wait. It's made from Angus beef. Never mind. I guess it's OK then.

This reminds me that Michael Pollan--of "Omnivore's Dilemma" fame--had a very interesting essay in the Times magazine a few weeks ago about the rise of "nutritionism" and its consequences. He notes that the rise of nutrition science began roughly at the beginning of the obesity epidemic. Surely a coincidence. The long and short of it is: eat whole foods; avoid processed foods; eat plants; eat meat in moderation. Q.E.D. He says in there somewhere that a pretty good rule of thumb is that if food comes in a box and the box has health claims on it, do not eat it. It is not good for you.

3. Shannon reports in from Chicago--the city of the big shoulders--that the Boring Store is very cool, and apparently not boring. She and Tom bought a "nerd-a-tron usb led," though (as with many things Shannon says) I have no idea what that means.

4. Finally, in case you were wondering, Buzzy is still cute.

Posted by jwb at 4:35 PM  · 0 Comments   

Monday, March 05, 2007

Would it surprise me to tell you that I am 1/8th Mighty Choctaw?


Normally, I'd say something apologetic here about not having blogged in while. But what, really, would be the point of that. Life is short. Blogging isn't all that important. Ergo, we haven't been doing it very often lately. Sorry. Now move along.

Welcome to another episode of "Short Attention Span Theater," in which, in several short profanity-laden items, we mention things we've seen, read, eaten, etc., and comment on whether we liked them or not. We usually conclude with a pointless but really cute picture of our puppy. Now lets get started.

1. It was a big movie watching weekend in the jwbblog household. On Friday night, we watched the Oscar winning extravaganza known as "The Departed." The performances were just about uniformly good--Leo was great; Damon was pretty good, playing against type, as a baddie (though I thought that his accent was a bit much); Baldwin, such a legend, was his usual solid self; Jack, of course, can be annoying when he's in a movie where they let him get away with chomping on the scenery, but he was quite restrained (though I kept thinking he looks nothing like Whitey Bulger); Wahlberg was hilarious. The movie itself was excellent. If you've seen the movie it was based on, the oddly titled "Infernal Affairs," you know that they changed the ending, which gave it (for me) unexpected suspense. It was also cool for this Bostonian to see all the local scenery. Overall, a very high quality movie watching experience.

2. We also finally watched "Brick"--recommended in comments here some time ago by Bram. Jenn was a bit baffled by the whole thing, but I thought it was really entertaining. It is completely preposterous, of course, but to say that is to sort of miss the point. I love the rat-a-tat dialogue and the kid from "Third Rock" (but not "30 Rock") was excellent in the lead.

3. I was under the impression that Christopher Guest is a comic genius who can do no wrong. After sitting through "For Your Consideration," I'll amend that by saying that Christopher Guest is a comic genius. "For Your Consideration" isn't really all that funny, which is problematic since, you know, it's, like, a comedy.

4. On to more serious matters: Arthur Schlesinger, RIP. There was a nice essay by Sam Tanenhaus in the Sunday Times that places Schlesinger's distinguished career as an academic historian nicely in context.

5. Note to self: Next time in Chicago, stop at The Boring Store. Seems like my kind of place. Oddly, there are lots of shops in Boston that don't sell "anything of utility," but none of them sell "Watergate Fingers". (Via Crooked Timber.)

6. Speaking of comic geniuses, Jennifer Saunders, the brains behind the much beloved (at least by jwbblog) "Absolutely Fabulous," has a new show called Clatterford that is set to premiere on BBC America on Friday. I'm sure it'll be funny, but I must confess a little trepidation about this. This trepidation results at least in part from my observation that other recent British comic geniuses have had a very hard time following up on the shows that made their reputation with anything even remotely funny. The Young Ones is the classic example, but I'm sure there are others.Incidentally, did you know that Jennifer Saunders is married to Adrian Edmondson, who played Vyvyan on "The Young Ones"? I thought not.

7. In other movie news, David Fincher's "Zodiac" got an absolute rave from Magnolia Darkness in the Times. Joe Morganstern didn't like it so much in the Journal, but, of course, Joe Morganstern is an utter mediocrity.

8. New York Times bla bla bla Arcade Fire bla bla bla So hot, so hot bla bla bla

9. We are clearly running out of steam and will leave you (for now) with a picture of Buzzy, who turned five months old on Friday.

Posted by jwb at 3:31 PM  · 0 Comments