jwbblog

349-162

2008-11-05T07:12:00.000-08:00

What an extraordinary night! I'm not much of a gambler, but I actually bet money that this would happen. I'm a bit in shock that it actually did. President-elect Obama. Wow.

We do "high dudgeon" and "smart ass" with a fair degree of competence here at jwbblog. I'm not sure that we're really up to what's called for at this moment.

BTW, did anyone else think Berke Breathed was actually going to euthanize Opus over the weekend?

More later, maybe.

Aislinn

2008-10-23T08:39:00.000-07:00

Sorry for lack of posting. Been a little busy.

Allow me to introduce you to Aislinn Daniela Barry, who was born at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston on Sunday, October 19, 2008 at 10:03 PM, 9 lbs 3 oz. and 22 inches long. (She's gonna be a tall drink of water.) Aislinn (pronounced "ash-lin") is an irish name meaning "a dream" or "a vision"--which seems about right to me. She's a very sweet baby.

We've been at the Brigham since Saturday and, much to my relief, are finally going home tomorrow.

If you're interested, you can find a few videos at our Flickr page (pics to come):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64628547@N00/

Really?

2008-10-09T20:03:00.000-07:00

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio? Help me out here. Have I missed something? Is this a joke? No, really?

It was like watching Gidget address the Reichstag

2008-10-08T11:40:00.000-07:00

Just got a haircut (as opposed to a hair cut) at Sal's Barber Shop in J.P.--which is unrelated, so far as I know, to Sal's Barber Shop on Rt. 40 in MD. (RDR: Is Sal's still there?)

It looks like Baby B will be making an appearance somewhere between this and next Friday. I'll try to check in when I can with an update.

This Matt Taibbi piece about Lady Sarah of the Caribou is pretty hilarious except the parts that are terrifying. If you vote for these clowns, you really ought to have your head examined.

Any reading suggestions? I've had a tough time finding interesting things to read of late, and am re-reading some of the early Furst books, starting with Dark Star, about Pravda correspondent and accidental NKVD agent (and jwbblog commenter) Andre Szara.

One again, I promised to blog about Mad Men and I shall have to put it off for another day. If anyone really cares, I am sorry.

UPDATE: I see, on re-reading Mondays post--such as it was--that I must have promised to blog about Mad Men in my mind. Hmmm. I may be going slowly insane.

Happy Birthday, Buzzy

2008-10-06T15:01:00.000-07:00

Buzzy turns two today.

More tomorrow--including an update on Baby B and possibly some unoriginal musings on Lady Sarah of the Caribou.

On blogging

2008-09-19T10:52:00.000-07:00

Repeat after me: Blogger sucks. I've been trying to publish another post all morning and it seems to appear--in various forms of completeness--and then disappear with no rhyme or reason. Argh!

Spain--that's in Europe

2008-09-14T19:18:00.000-07:00

You've obviously not been blogging often enough when your mother-in-law complains that you haven't been blogging often enough.

In case you missed it, the new Bond trailer is here. Not bad, though--having seen "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" recently--I'm having a hard time seeing Matty Amalric as a bad guy.

Regarding Sarah Palin, this boyfriend stealing business is really the last straw. Just totally unacceptable.

Kevin Drum points out that a small upside of this AIG business is that you and I--as American taxpayers--are the principal sponsor of Manchester United. Alas, they aren't very good thus far in the Premier League season. I wonder what kind of seats that would get us at Old Trafford.

There were several other paragraphs--and a photo--in the original incarnation of this post, but Blogger keeps eating them, so I'll save them for a rainy day.

I was wrong

2008-08-28T09:31:00.000-07:00

Have a lovely Labour Day weekend.

We're off to Michigan for Shannon's wedding. She'll be getting married at Saarinen House at Cranbrook, where she and her betrothed, Tom Lauerman, went to art school and where she'll be teaching in the fall.

So it turns out that I was wrong about there not being a kick-ass DSLR that also takes good movies. Its the new Nikon D90. David Pogue has what can only be called a rave in today's Times. One (with a lens) can be yours $1,300. We've been very happy with our D60. I'm still not sure what to do--if anything--for video. The more I read about the Flip cameras, the more convinced I become that they haven't made much progress on resolution and clarity since the first generation of Flips.

Welcome back to the show

2008-08-15T07:30:00.000-07:00

Has it been almost a month since our last post? Yikes! Sorry about that. We've been really busy plagiarizing our dissertation from Wikipedia. (See here if you don't get this admittedly kind of lame joke.) We're almost finished, so blogging should be less sporadic, at least until Baby B arrives. After that, all bets are off. I'm not a very good napper, so it's entirely possible that I will die from exhaustion at some point a week or so after October 20.

In comments to my second to last post in July, Monica gave me a polite beat-down for my ignorance of gardening technique. It turns out that Massachusetts and New Mexico are in the same zone. I have to confess that I would not have guessed that in a million years. (I do know more about composting than you might guess, though perhaps we'll save that topic for another day.) In my own defense, check out my badass tomatoes (at right). Yes, they are a little too close together, but it doesn't seem to bother them very much as long as you clip back the more aggressive plants periodically. We've had cherry tomatoes for a few weeks now, and should have some other varieties any day now.

Some big news on the home front: Jenn got a promotion and will be taking a management position with her company in Chicago after she comes off maternity leave in early '09. We'll be moving there in February or March. The timing is pretty good all around, especially for Buzzy, who will have a whole new city to pee on. Though we will miss all of our peeps in Boston, we are looking forward to it.

On the camera front, it turns out that a good camera that takes good movies and a good camcorder that takes good still shots do not really exist. (I mean "good" as in "good", as opposed to "not good" or "bad".) After much indecision, I decided to buy a decent DSLR--a Nikon D60--and worry about the camcorder next month. The new generation of Flip cameras are out and we may just get one of those. (We have one of the original ones. The video quality is pretty good if you don't blow up the image too much. It is not good if you do--as you can see here in these cute but fuzzy videos of Buzzy. One imagines--though one ought to confirm this--that the resolution is somewhat better on the new ones.) Alternatively, we could spend some serious coin on an HD camcorder. However, you then are forced to navigate some very dangerous technical waters--tape versus hard disk or flash. Dave Pogue, ici--in his excellent "favorite gadgets of 2008" list--says that you are compromising on resolution unless you go with tape. But--sigh--who wants to deal with all those tapes? Anyway, thanks to Andy (in comments) for being a smart ass and to Susan (also in comments) for some genuinely helpful advice.

Anyone out there watch "Mad Men"? If not, that's OK. No hard feelings.

Camera bleg

2008-07-16T13:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of blogging here of late. I shall return shortly with something of more substance, but, for the moment, I want to pose a question.

With baby arriving in a few months, I am pondering investing in a new camera. I was an SLR person when young and have been a crap-little-digital-camera person for the last few years. I've noticed that the DSLRs are coming down in price as are the HD camcorders. I'm guessing that we'll be taking lots of pictures and videos of baby after she arrives.

So I guess the question is, Do I want a DSLR that takes decent movies or a camcorder that takes decent still pics?

Any thoughts from the photographers/people with children/gadget geeks in the audience?

We are getting off track here

2008-07-01T06:37:00.001-07:00

Are we in the midst of the summer doldrums? We think so, though, to tell you the truth, we are not sure what doldrums are, so we may be wrong or premature. However, today seems like the tenth day in a row in which my weather station is showing a picture of a cloud with a scary looking lightning bolt and some raindrops. From that we surmise that the weather will be changing every ten minutes all day long and there will be a ferocious thunderstorm this afternoon followed by a lovely evening during which I will not be able to mow the lawn because it is soaking wet. On the bright side, I cannot remember the last time I watered the garden.

Moving on, a somewhat dubious Bram sent us a link to the teaser trailer for the forthcoming Bond movie, "Quantum of Solace." Mark Graham (nee Uncle Grambo) is also underwhelmed. Ever the optimist, I think it looks like it could be pretty cool. Matthew Amalric was pretty incroyable in "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"--a much different kind of movie, obvs.--and I have high hopes for him as one of the better villains. The M-not-trusting-Bond business has perhaps gotten a little past its expiration date, though we shall see.

Speaking of movies, we watched "Semi-Pro" on Sunday evening. I thought it was probably the funniest Ferrell movie in some time, perhaps since the much-adored-in-these-parts "Anchorman", and certainly much better than the auto-racing movie and the ice-skating movie.

I don't suppose I should be surprised by this, but apparently gardening in New England is much different from gardening in New Mexico. Or at least I have not learned the cover-the-entire-garden-with-hay technique yet. Though they haven't produced any fruit just yet, my tomato plants are looking pretty bad ass. I'll try to post a pic when I can. We also had a pretty good strawberry harvest this year, though this had more to do with the fact that we shortened Buzzy's leash and he could no longer reach into the strawberry patch. (He thought it was a buffet.) Alas, the season is about at an end, but we've had delicious strawberries for several weeks now.

Speaking of Buzzy, I posted some old videos (and one recent one) on our Flickr page, which you can find here.

UPDATE: Oh, and a happy Canada Day to our Canadian readers. How does one celebrate Canada Day?

I blame society

2008-06-26T08:30:00.000-07:00

How can American Idol auditions be "underway" if they haven't started yet?

I too worry about the fate of the semicolon today.

That is all.

Get away from me

2008-06-19T08:57:00.000-07:00

What a week! We're one David Tyree TD pass away from having all three (if we exclude hockey, which, as far as I can tell, is mainly of interest to Canadians and people from Michigan) of the big pro sports championships in Boston. Some blogger I read--I can't remember which one--notes that this, like much else, is George Bush's fault. Boston teams, he notes, didn't win any championships under Bill Clinton but have won six under Bush. Depending on your point of view, more reasons to dislike Bush, Boston, or both. Anyway, congrats to the Celtics. This meditation on Boston fandom is well done. (If you don't get it, call me and I'll try to explain it.)

This is pretty hilarious. Conrad Black checks in from his extended holiday in Florida with a rather petulant review of Rick Perlstein's Nixonland. You'll recall that Sir Conrad is in the slammer for essentially stealing money from his shareholders. I imagine he's got plenty of time for reading and thus we'll be seeing more of this kind of thing. (He's due to be released in October 2013.)

REM was indeed pretty awesome. They played a lot of old school stuff, including some of my favorites from Life's Rich Pageant, including "Begin the Begin" and "Cuyahoga". Our friend who got the tickets had the foresight to buy a "premier" parking pass (at $40 an outrage), which, despite my fears, made the whole parking scenario fairly painless.

On Saturday, we saw Chris Rock at the humorously named Wang Center--Get it?--and he was pretty funny. However, if I were his mother, I'd wash his mouth out with soap. He has a really dirty mouth. Mario Joyner opened for him and had a very funny bit about Home Depot that rested on the insight, which I suspect may be familiar to some of you--that it's an enormous challenge to get someone to assist you at Home Depot. It's almost as if they have some sort of special training that they skip at Lowe's.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

2008-06-13T07:59:00.000-07:00

Man, the "Top Chef" finale was a doozy, no? I'll say no more for the moment, for the sake of the people I know who have not watched it yet. But wow!

In spite of my protestations here, we're off to see R.E.M. tonight at the Comcast (nee Tweeter) Center. I gather, from reading about, that they've been playing a lot of old school (read "IRS days") stuff. Aside from the probability that I will pee in my pants during the five hours it will take us to get out of the parking lot, it should be awesome.

Go Celts!

UPDATE: I see, on re-reading this post, that I am being rather casual with statistical jargon here. I should have said something along the lines of "the probability approaching one" or some such.

Those are some serious, serious dudes

2008-06-10T17:00:00.000-07:00

Surfing around in the seemingly infinite variety of the interwebs, I came across this documentary from Vice (though I am not sure what Vice is) about North Korea, a country that seems to be governed by crazy people. I intended to only watch one or two episodes (it has 14, though they're not very long), but got hooked. It's fascinating. I should admit that sneaking into a totalitarian society does not seem like a very good idea to me, but tastes will differ.

We watched the penultimate episode of "Top Chef" last night. Jenn was kind of angry that Lisa survived, though I think Antonia's lets-dump-everything-on-the-same-plate strategy was unwise. I still think Richard will win, though I'm rooting for Stephanie. If Richard makes any mistakes, the coveted title could be hers. Short of sabotage, I don't see how Lisa can win.

In violation of my policy of avoiding movies with Russell Crowe in them, we watched American Gangster on Sunday evening. I wasn't expecting a great deal, but it was actually a pretty good movie. Later, I googled Frank Lucas, but there doesn't seem to be much information about what he's been up to since, from which I surmise that he is in the witness protection program.

I was going to say something about tomatoes (apropos of this) and gardening (apropos of this), but I have to go mow the lawn. Maybe next time.

I went to a fight the other night and a hockey game broke out

2008-06-05T06:28:00.000-07:00

The first part of the two-part Top Chef finale was on last night. I was watching what ended up being the Stanley Cup finale and missed it.* I'll just say that I still think Richard will win it, though Stephanie has a real shot. I'll eat my shirt if Lisa wins. Antonia's a wild card. I don't have any actual data to back this up, but my impression is that she was among the leaders in challenges won, but I don't feel like she's knocked anyone's socks off. We shall see.

In comments here, Susan suggests that our commenters are intimidatingly erudite, though I think she's just being nice. Don't be shy, Susan. Comment away. We have rather .... um .... eclectic tastes here. If something strikes your fancy, please jump in. I'll admit that we occasionally make fun of our commenters--mainly Marty, though it's usually his own fault--but we try to keep things somewhat elevated around here.

* BTW, in hockey, after nearly killing each other for three period, the teams line up and shake each other's hands. I find that quite appealing. Perhaps I am wrong, but I can't think of that ever happening in the ultimate game of any other sport. Typically, the winning team goes crazy and the losers slink off to the clubhouse.

I am large, I contain multitudes

2008-06-04T16:39:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, I saw the movie I Spit on Your Grave somewhere--must have been at a friend's house; my mother would not have approved--and thought it was pretty awesome. As a mature adult, I now realize it was meretricious trash. (Roger Ebert called seeing it "one of the most depressing experiences of my life.") Anyway, I see that a remake is on the way. I think this is a sign of the decline of Western civilization, though I may be wrong.

The new Alan Furst book--which we may have mentioned before--arrived in the mail yesterday. I am in the midst of another book, so it'll be a few days before I get to it, but am pretty excited. Relatedly, you can find an interesting interview with Furst here, whence he talks about, among other things, how he doesn't like lemon meringue pie--though, again, I may be wrong.

You are about to embark on a great crusade to stamp out runaway decency in the west

2008-05-30T08:18:00.001-07:00

One of the peculiarities of Boston is that it's actually somewhat difficult to find fresh seafood around town (though it's somewhat easier than it used to be, thanks to Holy Foods, and, to a lesser degree, Roche Bros.). You'd think there would be little seafood shops in every village, between Starbucks and the local haberdasher, but you would be wrong. Sadly, James Hook, our favorite place to get fresh lobsters, burned in the early hours of the this morning. Pretty sad. We got a 20 lber from them last summer and had enough lobster rolls to feed the Red Army.

Is it possible that none of our readers saw IJATKOTCS over the weekend? Raphy, can this be true?

A package from Amazon.com arrived yesterday afternoon. Thinking I had perhaps gone too far in yesterday's post, I ripped it open. Blast--it was the new James Bond book, which I don't recall ordering. Alas, apparently it sucks. (Bram has links to a couple of reviews in yesterday's comments.)

RIP, Harvey Korman. Here's a clip from Blazing Saddles, the funniest movie ever made:

So, an adventure on a train?

2008-05-29T08:46:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone--all three of you--had a pleasant Memorial Day weekend. We were in The D, for a baby shower and a wedding. The parts of the weekend that did not involve Northwest Airlines were a pleasure. We will, apparently, be needing about 30 baby blankets, though I am not entirely clear about why.

Long-time readers will know that we think that Alan Furst is the cat's meow. Furst's new novel, The Spies of Warsaw seems to be out--though those rat bastards at Amazon.com have yet to send me my copy. Janet Maslin gives it what, I think, can only be termed a rave in today's Times. There's also a nice profile of the author by David Samuels in the current Men's Vogue--my current favorite airport reading--though it does not seem to be available on the interwebs. (Bad internet!)

Did anyone catch Indy over the weekend? What say you?

This place is crawling with Ninjas

2008-05-21T08:08:00.000-07:00

I was under the impression that little girls don't like Legos, but I was very excited to learn (from Katherine and Andy) that this is a particularly pernicious stereotype. Little girls in fact really like Legos. Awesome!

If you're into that kind of thing, there's a nice postmortem in this week's New Yorker by George Packer on what happened to movement conservatism. (Short answer: George Bush.) Sounds like we should be keeping sharp objects away from Davids Brooks and Frum. (Frum, as I'm sure Marty will remind us if I don't mention it, is Canadian. By the way, Canada, we don't want him anymore. You can have him back.)

As part of my growing disaffection with movie blogs, I've stopped reading the endless stream of crap from the set of the new Bond movie. However, Raphy pointed me to this interesting piece from the Times (by John F. Burns, one of the Times' heroic correspondents from Iraq) about all the recent interest in Ian Fleming, which has culminated in an apparently very cool show of Flemingiana at the Imperial War College in London.

There's an interesting interview here with Michael Chabon about, among other things, why he got mocked by his fellow students in grad school for being into genre fiction. I'm not really sure who the bigger dork in this story is.

I'd say something about the Idol finale tonight, but, to tell you the truth, I don't really care.

Lastly, we present you with a pretty funny interview between Ron Burgundy and Tom Brokaw:

Baby Barry

2008-05-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

Marty asked for an update about the new addition to our family. We actually went to the doctor yesterday for our 18 week ultrasound and checkup. It appears that we are having a girl. She seems to be fine--she's right where she should be at this point in terms of development. (Her little head has a nice round shape, no?) We are, of course, very excited. I suppose I ought to start preparing myself now for the avalanche of all things pink.

Nice try, Lao Che

2008-05-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

I had partially composed a post in my head last week but never got around to actually writing it. The gist of it was something like this: With all the movie-related information available on the web these days--constant updates about the cast, crew, and, sometimes, the plot; photos from the set; advance commentary of (how shall we put this?) uneven quality--much of the fun and surprise has oozed out of the process of going to the movies. (If you are not a reader of movie blogs, check out Cinematical and I think you'll see what I mean.) Case in point: How many of you were really, genuinely surprised that Speed Racer sucks as bad as it does? We saw that one coming from a mile off, no? In the case of an abomination like Speed Racer, I'm sure most of us are glad to save the ten bucks. However, I'm a little worried that all this information (of, again, uneven quality) will end up causing many people to decide whether a movie is worth seeing or not before it even hits the theaters and not really give it a chance.

Anyway, I was beginning to think that something like this was happening with IJATKOTCS. There has been tons of stuff floating about on the web for months now, much of it pretty negative. I was therefore somewhat surprised, and excited, to hear that the audience at Cannes gave it a standing ovation when it was over. (Magnolia Darkness says that the applause over the opening credits was much louder, but that's about what I would expect from her.) Now that some of the details have floated out, the verdict seems much more mixed. But I should say that I am much more optimistic that it will be a satisfying experience than I was a few days ago.

In preparation for IJATKOTCS, yesterday afternoon we watched (for the umpteenth time) Temple of Doom (TOD) and Last Crusade. I do not think this is a particularly controversial idea, but TOD is easily--it's not even close--the worst of the movies. It does not have any--as in none--of the features that I think are fundamental to a successful Indiana Jones movie: a slightly cartoonish image of mid-century academia (tweed suit, gothic, ivy-covered buildings, cute co-eds in cardigans, etc.); Nazis (if memory serves, there wasn't a single--as in not one--Nazi in TOD), a little--but not too much--slapstick (there was entirely too much slapstick in TOD), and a slightly plausible historical mystery at the center of the plot (Raiders? Check. Last Crusade? Check. TOD? Not so much.). (That's all I could come up with of the top of my head. Have I missed anything?) Also, I'd be remiss in not mentioning that Last Crusade is a really entertaining movie, much better than I remembered--and manages to include all of the essential elements.

Now back to IJATKOTCS. I don't care whether the kids like it or whether it makes a lot of money at the box office. I'll be contented if the story is remotely interesting and makes at least a passing nod toward all four of the above elements. That is, I think, not too much to ask for.

BTW, did you see that show on the SciFi Channel last night about the crystal skulls? Wow! Those people are batshit insane. Really, genuinely, should-be-in-a-straightjacket crazy.

We need pens

2008-05-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

So I was in the barber shop yesterday waiting to get my hair chopped off and I picked up the most recent issue of Maxim--for the articles, I swear--and there was a nice little piece about Death Cab for Cutie, who have an album coming out any second now. Ben Gibbard makes the point in the article that people have been generally surprised by the difference between their albums (which are sort of twee, in a good way) and their live shows (which rock). This point was confirmed for me over the weekend. We saw Death Cab on Saturday night at the Bank of America Pavilion (the BAP, to its friends). Aside from the frostbite incurred, it was a generally awesome experience. I can now attest that Death Cab does indeed rock. I am also reminded that--in lieu of giving Andy some shit about this semi-backhanded compliment--I ought to recommend that he go see them when they get to Berkeley on June 21. (Alas, no San Fran dates.) Sadly, I missed Bob Mould, who played before we arrived--though perhaps I will watch his DVD (of a live show at the 9:30 Club in DC, from 2007), which Jenn gave me for Christmas.

So what do you think is going to happen tonight on Idol? My guess would be that Syesha goes home, though, if by some miracle David Archuleta somehow goes, I'll pledge to give up golf for the rest of the war. (If President Bush can sacrifice, so can I.) An hour and a half after the show ended, Jenn tried calling in for David Cook and still could not get through.

I don't have much to say about Top Chef. The episode itself was pretty exciting. It was no surprise that Nikki went. She was just a disaster. Like Susan, I suspect that Lisa will go soon, though, of course, she was the least damaged by being on the losing team. (Her cake looked like Fort Knox, but apparently it was delicious.) Dale, on the other hand, is more hated than ever.

Rick Perlstein's Before the Storm--alas, out of print--is one of the more brilliant books of political history I've read in quite a while. It's a story about the origins of movement conservatism told from the vantage point of the 1964 election--whence Barry Goldwater got his clock cleaned by Lyndon Johnson. (If the previous sentence has made Perlstein's book sound boring, I assure you that it is the opposite of boring.) If you can find a copy in a used book store, I highly recommend it. Anyway, Perlstein's follow-up, Nixonland, is now out and I've been hearing the term "masterpiece" in reference to it a lot. So who does the allegedly liberal New York Times assign it to? George Fucking Will. Of course, Will didn't really like it because Perlstein says some things about movement conservatism that are true but that make Will uncomfortable. If you want to make Will even more uncomfortable, go buy a copy of Nixonland.

Finally, Barack Obama is not a Muslim. Glad I could clear that up. Move along now.

I can't talk now, I have to get my wallet out of the toaster.

2008-05-02T07:16:00.000-07:00

This will be a Reality TV only entry. If you do not watch reality TV, I apologize. Perhaps we will have something more to your liking next time.

First, lets talk about Idol for a moment. Our boycott has ended. (Jenn wanted to watch it and I was too lazy to get up and go do something else.) Regarding Paula-gate, now lets be honest: we've known that Paula is batshit insane for a while, right? Also, if we're to go by what we witnessed on the show, it was essentially Ryan's fault, no? He changed the rules midway through. (At the beginning of the show, he made a big deal about how they were only going to get criticism after they sang twice. Then, midway through, he asks for commentary about the first song.) In any case, this mini-scandal helps merely to distract us from the grim reality that the remaining contestants are a pretty tepid bunch.

Now lets talk about Top Chef for a moment. It seems to me that it was only a matter of time before Mark went. It is hard to think of a single challenge in which his food won praise from anyone--judges, kids, partygoers, William "The Refrigerator" Perry (who, according to Nick, lives in a van down by the river), etc.

The story of the week, of course, was Antonia kicking ass/taking names in both challenges.

I predicted last time that Stephanie would be in the final four, but it has since become clear that she better get her act together. Peanut butter and tomato? Yuck! Also, it's nearly impossible to overcook couscous.

Susan (in comments) made a bunch of good points. Short of divine intervention, it seems clear that Lisa will be leaving soon. Susan agreed with me about Nikki's consistent mediocrity, though I'll note that she finished in the top 3 this week. I still think that when the really talented people have the time to show their stuff, Nikki can't keep up. Susan also points out that Padma seems to have gained a few pounds since last season. Too much amuse bouche?

Its not just his gnocchi that were dense

2008-04-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to Nonsequitur Theatre.

Don't I feel like dork. It seems that I am the last guy on the block to have read Kavalier and Clay. To add further to my humiliation, unlike Raphy and Bram, my copy is not signed. (However, I do have a signed copy of DeLillo's "Underworld". Jealous?) I'll second Bram's comment: "Still one of the best books I've read in the past decade. And with much broader appeal than for just those with an unhealthy comic book habit." Yes indeedy.

Raphy admits in public to having watched Idol the last two weeks--with, it seems, equal parts enjoyment and horror. Relatedly, the Times reports this morning that Carly may have unwittingly offended millions of God-fearing Christians with her song choice, which reminds us, I think, that the controversies of the past were just as tedious as our own.

I noticed, in a comment several posts back, that Susan, Carson, and Ginger have requested some Top Chef blogging. I am happy to comply. I am slightly surprised that young Ginger is allowed to watch. The language on that show is just appalling. She's going to think that it's a normal part of human verbal interaction to have every third word bleeped out.

Anyway, we watched the last two episodes in a row last night and they were pretty entertaining. A few thoughts:

First, though he was, I concede, very annoying, I think I'm going to miss Ryan. I don't think there's a less self-aware person alive on the planet at the moment. I mean, it's 2008 and he's still using the phrase "metrosexual," and without even a hint of irony. (He's on the receiving end of some very funny abuse on Amuse-Biatch, the only interesting Top Chef blog I have found.)

The Jennifer/Zoi drama was kind of boring and I am not upset that Jennifer is gone. (The "I will avenge Zoi" plotline was kind of pathetic.) Plus, Stephanie has been in the top group a bunch of times and they couldn't bounce her. That said, however, I thought the "where's the polish sausage" scandal was a bigger culinary misdemeanor than the "there's more cheese than asparagus on my plate" scandal.

I am amazed that Nikki is still around. She seems to be in a constant state of mystification about what the show is about. (I too have bought pre-made sausages from Whole Foods. Perhaps I should embarrass myself on TV too.) I think her secret is that consistent mediocrity will serve you better, for a while, than excellence with an occasional, spectacular flameout.

It seems pretty clear at the moment that Dale and Richard will be in the top group, along with Stephanie and a contestant to be named later. I suspect Richard will win, unless they start docking him points for being a pompous twit (or for stealing Tintin's hairdo).

In some ways the most interesting thing about the show is all the sexual intrigue. However, I am hesitant to blog about it, lest I violate my main principle of blogging, which is to not write about things that I might be embarrassed about later in life. However, if you wish to read about such things, Amuse-Biatch is very funny.

Have I missed anything? I should note that my favorite part of the Top Chef website is the What is Padma Wearing page. (On the other hand, her blog sucks.) Also, I'm unclear about whether we are supposed to think that Tom is a prick or not.

Comics turned me to a life of crime

2008-04-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

So where were we?

Most of you probably know this already, but for those who don't: We're having a baby. We're 14 weeks in and everything looks good. Not much else to report for now, though, in a month or so, we intend to find out the sex. (It has always seemed kind of rude to me to refer to he/she as "it" or "baby" for nine months.) In any case, we are very happy, excited, etc. I'll undoubtedly have more to say about this anon.

In other news:

I've been boycotting Idol since the last time I posted about it, but I'll admit to checking the results on the interwebs. This may come as a shock to you, but I think we need to face some facts: Idol voters are complete idiots. There have been moments every season when this becomes pretty clear, but with less consequence than this season. Michael and Carly should have been in the top four. Can you imagine any of the remaining six actually winning this thing? And being excited about it? Does anyone really think David Archuletta is going to be a pop star?

I was bored on Sunday afternoon and started watching an archaeology/adventure movie with Dr. Carter from ER, but it was pretty horrible. After a few minutes of that, I had a hankering for the real deal and put Raiders in the DVD player. Some of the special effects are a bit archaic (e.g., the face-melting scene), but I would say that it holds up remarkably well. Relatedly, Cinematical lists their 10 most anticipated films of the summer. We don't get to the movies except for special occasions, though I think IJATKOTCS may qualify. (To give you a sense of how rare such occasions are, the last were Casino Royale and those silly hobbit movies.) As to the rest, I think we can wait to see them at home.

Herewith is an interesting review (by Louis Menand in The New Yorker) of David Hajdu's The Ten-Cent Plague, about the congressional investigations into the comic-book industry in the early 1950s. Hajdu's books sounds interesting, though I shall not be reading it. However, I did just finish reading Michael Chabon's Kavalier and Clay. I mention this because Chabon uses the congressional hearings for his own strange and wonderful purposes toward the end of that strange and wonderful book. I should perhaps note that Kavaier and Clay is the best book I've read in a while--and I try to read only good books. If you've been searching for a good book to read, here it is. It will be of particular interest to our readers who have an unhealthy interest in comic books--you know who you are.

Apart from the sanitation, the aqueduct, and the roads...

2008-04-15T03:23:00.000-07:00

Happy Tax Day! I hope yours was less painful than ours. Here are some not-entirely-comforting bits of wisdom from Monty Python:

Also, you can get yer "MILF Island" t-shirts here.

A bleg about Endnote

2008-04-11T11:46:00.000-07:00

I'm rather late to the game in terms of using software designed for research when it comes to my scholarly work. I'm wondering if anyone out there uses Endnote--or Zotero--and can explain to me in a few sentences what I should do so as well.

Thanks.

Idol voters, you are a fickle bunch

2008-04-11T09:08:00.000-07:00

Wow! That was a shocker. (Michael got booted off Idol, in case you missed it.) For me, he was the only interesting (or, perhaps I should say, the least mockable) one left. I fear it gets very boring from here on out. Sigh.

P.S. I should note that Ryan Seacrest is one cold-hearted mother-you-know-what. That "last year we didn't send anyone home" business was harsh.

Nazis. I hate these guys.

2008-04-09T17:45:00.000-07:00

Re. the Olympic protests, this was news to me, but apparently the torch relay was invented by the Nazis. I hate those guys.

No matter how you spin it, to be referred to as a "chucklehead" (or some variant) in the first line of a review of your new book is not good. This is apropos of our continuing fascination with how 9/11 caused one of our favorite writers, Martin Amis, to completely lose his marbles. In case you missed it, Michiko Kakutani puts the beatdown on him in yesterday's Times.

Books I will not be reading, part XXV: Speaking of chuckleheads, I will most definitely not be readiing Douglas Feith's "War and Decision". You know, it'll be nice when one of these clowns finally admits what, at this point in history, is pretty obvious to just about everyone--that they hadn't a clue what they were getting themselves and the country into. In the meantime, we get meretricious crap like this. No thanks.

Does anyone out there watch Top Chef? I was pondering blogging about it a little, though I don't want to blog about another show that no one cares about.

Idle thoughts

2008-04-09T09:43:00.000-07:00

A few idle thoughts about last night's Idol:

Randy must not have had his nap yesterday, because he was kind of a dick.

Unlike Simon, I've listened to the Izzy with the Unpronounceable Last Name version of "Over the Rainbow" many times, and Jason's version was kind of weak.

Our Lady Peace is/was cool and all, but, c'mon, they're no one's favorite band.

I realize that everyone thinks David is going to win it, but I am beginning to hate him.

That is all.

Allergies!

2008-04-04T14:04:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't been watching John Adams, some highlights:

In comments to the last post (along with a lot other mumbo jumbo), Marty posted a link to an interesting interview with our (though more his than mine) teacher, Laurence Lampert, who's a famous--as these things go--scholar of philosophical bad-boy Friedrich Nietzsche. (Marty: Lampert's Wikipedia page could use some work. Sounds like a job you were made for.)

Speaking of "bad boys," here is an interesting article from the LA Times about the "daunting challenge" various Hollywood nitwits have had turning Ellroy's books into completed movies. I really think they just need to try a little harder.

Three sheets in the pan

2008-04-02T06:54:00.000-07:00

Any McCainiacs out there? (Marty: I'm assuming you don't count, being a foreigner and all.) You'll be pleased to know that Heidi Montag is one of you. You must be very proud.

Regarding John Adams, in lieu of my own commentary, I shall point you to a moderately interesting discussion at The New Republic. I say "moderately interesting" because J.P. Diggins (an actual card-carrying historian) is pretty great and the other two (including one of the producers) are rather dull. I would be remiss in not also mentioning that it was nice to see the fetching Sarah Polley as JA's daughter, Nabby. Sarah, I believe, is Canadian. Nice work, Canada.

This here is a moderately interesting item from BoingBoing about several much-used idioms that, it turns out, come from "technology". How about that!

Yikes!

2008-04-01T06:19:00.000-07:00

In other news, according to Krugman, we have plans to invade Canada.

P.S. Today is April Fool's Day. If you read anything on the interwebs today that seems utterly preposterous, it is probably a joke. Unless, of course, it involves the Bush Administration, in which case it is almost certainly true.

P.S.S. Holy crap! Fafblog--the best blog ever!--seems to be back. However, as we noted in the paragraph just above, it is April. 1. Perhaps we should wait and see before we get too excited.

Has the world gone mad?

2008-03-31T07:58:00.000-07:00

In comments to the previous post, hoss explains how to say "shit heap" in Esperanto--should you ever need to do so. I should note that the title is one of many pitch perfect lines/moments from The Yiddish Policeman's Union, which was mentioned in said post.

John Adams was excellent last night. I shall possibly have more to say about it later. After JA, we caught the end of the new Tracey Ullman show. She does an Arianna Huffington impression--though, having actually known Arianna (though the last time I saw her she didn't remember me), I wouldn't say that it was a very good one. (She also does a very poor David Beckham.) Speaking of Arianna, rumor has it that she's about to get $200 million for the Huffington Post--which is read by no one I know. (Yeah, I know--selection bias. Still, do you know anyone who reads the HuffPo? Thought so.) Has the world gone mad?

I haven't had much to say about American politics of late, and, in the main, will continue to do so (or not do so). I would like to say, however, that there is something quite bizarre about Hillary playing footsie with Richard Scaife. This is the guy, after all, who accused her of murdering Vince Foster. And he wasn't joking.

How do you say "shit heap" in Esperanto?

2008-03-29T07:22:00.000-07:00

I don't have much to say about Idol this week. I found Chikezie kind of annoying, but with nothing like the red-hot intensity that I disliked Amanda. He was going to go sooner or later, so I guess there's no time better than the present. Ken Levine's roundup is pretty funny--especially the bit where he pretends that Jason is a girl (and was on ecstasy).

I'm starting to think this Tintin movie is going to be a disaster. A week or so ago, it was announced that Spielberg was going to direct the first one--which I interpreted at the time as good news. However, they managed to spoil it this week with the announcement (though it may be more of a rumor) that the annoying drum-playing kid from Love, Actually is going to play Tintin. Blistering barnacles! This will not do. Relatedly, the jury's out on whether Andy Serkis will convince as Captain Haddock, though I'm leaning toward no. No other casting just yet.

In happier news, the Coen Bros. are turning Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union into a film. As it happens, I am currently reading YPU, and it is simply overwhelming in its awesomeness. It's dark but also pretty funny, which ought to be right up the Coen's alley (so to speak).

Reporting in from our Canadian bureau, Marty has some really boring stuff in comments to the last post about human rights in Canada. He also taunts me with a link to a Mark Steyn article that I will not be reading.

Do you know how lucky you are?

2008-03-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

Didja watch Idol on Tuesday night? It was pretty brutal. I'm still unclear about whether the problem was that it's harder to do justice to the Beatles than it looks or that they all suck. For the moment, I'm leaning toward the former. Also, Simon and Randy are kind of annoying on this point, but it ought to be plenty clear to everyone how crucial choosing good songs is. Also also, in my opinion, turning Beatles' songs into country songs is a really bad--and I mean a really, really bad--idea.

I hope I won't say something mean about your favorite contestants, but here is what I'm thinking in the wake of this weeks fiasco:

I was beginning to really hate Amanda--to the point where I had to go upstairs and pretend I was looking for something while she was on--so I'm happy that she is gone. Goodbye, good riddance, don't let the door hit you on the way out, don't pass go, don't collect $100, etc.

Kristy is really cute, but I fear that she is doomed.

I agree with Ken Levine (whose Idol roundups, btw, are pretty hilarious--much funnier that anything you'll find here, much as we try) that there is something "unsettling" about David. (Levine comments: "It’s always the nice, sweet, perfect boys who get caught wearing their mothers’ clothes.")

Michael Johns is one of my favorites, but I agree with Simon that the "Day in the Life" medley was a horror-show.

I'm having a hard time deciding what to think about Brooke, though I'm leaning toward something along the lines of, "Meh."

I like grunge (or, as we now call it, emo) as much as the next guy, but David Cook has got to go. The Lionel Richie joint was pretty cool, but the last couple of weeks it wasn't working for me, dawg. (Sorry.)

Carly's tattoo fetish is kind of weird. (Levine comments that her "7" refers to Jason's IQ.)

Speaking of Jason, his Leon Redbone act is getting a little old. He also plainly started smoking weed at way too early an age.

Syeshaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Oh, sorry, I fell asleep for a minute. Where was I?

Chikezie is kind of painful. Also, see my comments above about Beatles songs as country songs.

Ramiele is cute but she keeps picking bad songs (for her) and she dresses like J. Lo. (which, for me, is not a good thing).

Unrelatedly, Scooter Libby has been disbarred. Couldn't have happened to a nicer dickhead.

Bow ties

2008-03-17T18:30:00.000-07:00

Regarding REM, it seems my fears may not have been as off-base as I hoped. I suppose I could see them myself and make up my own mind. Alas, when they arrive in Boston this summer, they'll be playing at the insipid Tweater Center and, unless someone offers to fly me there in a helicopter (which is unlikely to happen), I will not be going.

Boy, "The L Word" last night was pretty horrible. Every single plot line was either really boring or really annoying--or, in some cases, both. Make it stop!

We did, however, catch about 20 minutes of John Adams on HBO and it was pretty cool. I haven't been able to find much on the interwebs from actual historians about whether it is to be trusted--though there's some interesting background here--but the Thighmaster liked it.

Raphy: you'll be glad to know that bow ties are back--or at least that's what I took away from this Times article without actually reading it.

Oh, yeah. Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Girlfriend

2008-03-17T09:32:00.000-07:00

Like New York magazine, I think Ashley Dupre is way more adorable than I would have expected. Just sayin'.

Tim Weiner's big book on the CIA--which I may have mentioned once or twice--is coming in for some criticism. Clicky here if you're interested in such things.

Lastly, Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend was one of my favorite records as a kid--and it's still pretty awesome. Here he is on Letterman from back in the day:

[Via Tbogg.]

Supernatural Superserious

2008-03-15T06:15:00.000-07:00

Did I mention that the new REM single is pretty awesome? If not, consider this me doing so.

Where everyone talks like a squad car

2008-03-12T11:42:00.000-07:00

Did you ever notice that Eliot Spitzer has really big ears? They're huge! Also, I'm astonished that his wife--who, it has to be said, is kind of a hotty--hasn't stabbed him in the neck with a sharp object just yet. She has astonishing powers of self-control.

Since we're on the topic of ... um ... big ears, the Vatican has announced a whole bunch of new sins. I wonder where spending $400 on Italian leather shoes falls. (Vanity, I suppose, though that's one of the original ones.)

A while ago, I mentioned that I thought we were in need of a new take on the King Arthur story. (As I recall, I said some nice things about Excalibur and Bram expressed his disappointment with me.) In any case, more here from Cinematical. I too am sick of "revisionism" and would like an ordinary remake with some cool special effects and such.

Regarding Lush Life--a book, as I mentioned, that I will not be reading--James Wolcott has a funny line: "one of [Richard Price's] gritty urban novels where everyone talks like a squad car."

Finally, words to live by from Michael Pollan: Don't eat anything that won't rot.

The emptiness of our entertainment lives

2008-03-04T08:06:00.000-08:00

So "American Idol" is back. I've been feeling like I ought to blog a bit about it, though I'm finding the whole enterprise kind of boring. The question, I suppose, is: Is it the show (perhaps it's not as good as it used to be or it has run on past it's natural life span) or is it me (perhaps I've become too much of an old fogy)? What say you? One small piece of evidence that the show itself is lamer than it used to be is that even the scandals are kind of boring.

I've also been meaning to blog about "The L Word"--especially after raving to Raphy about it recently--but I'm also finding it hard to watch. I have to agree with James Wolcott, who finds himself:

docked in front of The L Word, hooked on the negative suspense of whether Bette and Tina, America's most boring lesbian couple, will get back together and spare us another season of Marlee Matlin's sign-language overacting, and when, where, and how the bratty, insufferable poseur Jenny will finally get hers. Oh, when will the long-postponed reckoning come? Well, not tonight, as the big dramatic payoff featured the annoying, nattering Alice reprising the climax of An Office and a Gentleman lesbian-style with her black lover. I recognize that if you're not a regular viewer of The L Word, it may seem as if I'm trafficking in obscurities, but to those of us who have watched The L Word from its pagan beginnings, these are matters of utmost doctrinal importance, testifying to the emptiness of our entertainment lives.

Empty indeed.

I'd like to add another book to the list of books I will not be reading: Master of Dialogue Richard Price's Lush Life. In fact, I've managed to not read any of Price's books, though--I should confess--I once thought about reading Clockers, but, in the end, did not.

I have jury duty tomorrow. As someone who studies American politics--with a particular interest in the courts--I ought to be looking forward to this. But, alas, I am not.

Oh, btw, Canada: Stop trying to mess with our elections. Haven't you learned anything the last eight years? We're allowed to mess around in your business, but stay out of ours. Got it?

UPDATE (9:30 PM or so): Re. Idol, it was kinda funny how Randy thought Simple Minds' "Don't You" was by INXS--and no one bothered to correct him. Also, Jason's version of "Hallelujah" was pretty awesome. Seacrest out!

Envy

2008-03-03T07:21:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to the show.

Reader's of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma (TOD) will know this already, but the US Department of Agriculture ought to be part of the AXIS OF EVIL. Also, if you liked TOD, you should check out Pollan's most recent tome, In Defense of Food (IDOF). It is designed for people like me who accepted completely his argument (in TOD) about various sundry problems with our industrialized food chain (but that might aptly be summarized thus: corn--or, as they say in southern Illinois, "carn") and want to know what then they should be eating. Also also, Jenn reports that Michael Pollan is the brother of Tracy Pollan. That's ... um ... really interesting.

Marty reports from our Canadian bureau (which is, oddly, located in Farmland, Indiana) that Oscar-loser Ellen Page is in fact Canadian. (It seems that she is from Halifax, Nova Scotia, which is a very cute little city that, for some reason, has no tall buildings.) Good for you, Ellen, though I wish you had been a little less forgettable on SNL. (Then again, post-strike SNL has been almost entirely forgettable, so perhaps I am being unfair. It has happened before.) Also, ex-Canadian Lord Black of Crossharbour (LBOC) reports to federal prison in Florida today. Marty points us to this piece about LBOC from the late William F. Buckley, though, as with many of WFB's columns, I'm not really sure what the point is (though it seems to have something to do with envy).

More anon.

Kiki and Booboo discuss neoliberalism

2008-02-17T14:32:00.000-08:00

O happy day. I finally figured out how to embed clips from the Youtubes.

This--a couple of sock puppets discussing neoliberalism--is pretty funny.

Marty: Don't let your kids see this or they'll become Marxists--and we wouldn't want that. (via)

The Green Light

2008-02-17T01:50:00.000-08:00

We usually don't do "serious" here--the tone is typically more on the ironic side of things--but this is pretty awesome.

Reading The Great Gatsby was one of the few things the Jesuits made me do that I didn't regret later.

NB: Why is that dork leaning on Fitz's grave? Seems kind of sacrilegious.

UPDATE: After some sober reflection, I should note that--unlike the girl who won't die if she doesn't get into Harvard--I don't find Gatsby admirable, though I do find "Gatsby" admirable. And it is indeed true that you won't die if you don't get into Harvard, though I wonder if anyone ever has.

"What a waste it is to lose one's mind."*

2008-02-15T22:45:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of posting, but I've been pretty bloggered of late.

I had some posts in the hopper about the fish/mercury issue and the continuing debasement of Martin Amis--one of my favorite novelists who seems to have lost his mind (or, more accurately, the capacity for critical thinking) over the GWOT(TM)--but my heart's not really into it at the moment.

I've also been meaning to post some Bond stuff, but it's hard to keep up. If you're interested, Cinematical has it covered. However, I can't let this one pass: Beating out some stiff--so to speak--competition, Denise Richards has been voted the worst Bond girl of all time. Congratulations, Denise. That's quite an honor.

I've been increasingly concerned that certain bands that I loved as a youth--I'm thinking mainly about U2 and REM--are starting to show their age (in a Tom-Petty-at-the-Superbowl kind of way). However, the new REM song is pretty kick ass.

I love Wikipedia. However, Dickipedia is new to me. Seems like a pretty good list--though Jenn'll be annoyed by Tom Brady's inclusion.

I discovered Dickipedia from a discussion about Roger Clemens' rather poor outing before Henry Waxman and company the other day. There's a good short piece by Josh Green at The Atlantic that nicely explains why Clemens doesn't seem to have understood what he was getting himself into.

*From The Comedy Stylings of Dan Quayle. Remember him? Yeah, me neither.

Sean Finnegan, RIP

2008-02-06T16:08:00.000-08:00

An old friend of mine from Columbia, Sean Finnegan, passed away last week from a massive heart attack. Sean was 43 and, as far as I know, didn't have any serious health problems. To describe the news of Sean's death as a shock doesn't seem to be quite adequate. I flew down for the funeral (which was yesterday) and it was one of the sadder experiences of my life. After an elegant and touching eulogy by Sean's friend Pete Wheeler, Sean's dad, Jack, spoke for a few minutes about how much he'll miss Sean and the entire place was in tears. I suppose outliving one's children must be one of the crueler experiences life can throw at you. His obit--from the Baltimore Sun--is here.

Among other things, Sean introduced me to progressive rock (as we used to call it) and beer snobbery.

Sean was in a punk band called Void is his late teens. I was a little young to go to punk shows in DC at the time, but I knew they were semi-influential, though I guess I didn't quite appreciate how much so. Googling around, I found a note about Sean's passing on Dischord Records (Void's label) and there were short items on (among other places) Pitchfork and Idolator.

He was a great guy and he'll be missed.

It was solace to see you

2008-01-29T13:00:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of blogging of late, but I've been pretty bloggered. Here are a few short items for now. Perhaps we'll try something more ambitious later in the week.

We saw Duran Duran up close and personal on Saturday night. I'll post some more pictures on Flickr later. Jenn almost lost her mind. (That's John and Simon, looking pretty good for old geezers, in the pic.)

U2 is more my kind of band. I've noticed, somewhat surprisingly, almost universal praise--even by people, like Andy, who aren't huge U2 fans--for the new U23D extravaganza. We'll have to go see it when it gets to Beantown next month.

Belated thanks to Raphy for sending me the link to an awesome parody about the name of the new Bond movie. Quantum of Solace? That's hilarious.

I sometimes wish Buzzy could talk--he's a little inscrutable at times--but having seen what talking Golden Retrievers might be like, I think I'm glad that he can't. (Don't click through if you have a low cuteness threshold.)

UPDATE: Zut alors!!! I see that that Bond story wasn't a parody. They've got the poster--which is actually pretty cool--here.

Books I Will Not be Reading in 2008

2008-01-11T09:43:00.000-08:00

So I just started reading Pierre Bayard's How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read and am a little perplexed. Will I discover on having read it that I need not have done so? If so, will I feel a deep sense of regret about the hour or two of my life--it's short book--that I have wasted? For the moment, I shall read on, though I feel as if I am betraying some kind of principle here, though I am having trouble enunciating what that principle might be. I am not unaware that this seems very po-mo (and, worse yet, that postmodernism is so uncool). Perhaps we'll revisit this topic when--or if--I finish reading How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read.

In other news, I recently finished reading Michael Chabon's Jews with swords book, Gentlemen of the Road. During the first few pages, I felt like I had gotten lost in the Sunday Times crossword puzzle. (Chabon is an obscure word junkie.) But once I got my bearings, I really enjoyed it. It had me hoping that he might publish more such books--what might be described as genre books that manage to transcend their genre. (In my mind, Alan Furst is an exemplar of this.)

Lots of new books coming out in 2008. Among the books I will be reading are: Furst's The Spies of Warsaw, Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, and the new Inspector Montalbano mystery.

Among the many books I definitely will not be reading in the new year are: the $7 million doorstop from Tom Wolfe, Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism, and anything by Jodi Picoult.

What books will you not be reading in 2008?

Lying

2008-01-08T23:55:00.000-08:00

So I'm watching the teevee tonight and everyone's wondering what happened with the polls (the polls, not the Poles). (In case you were in Arizona or at the movies or something, Obama was supposed to win and he didn't. News at 11.)

I will now put on my "professional political scientist" hat and offer some serious analysis in order to shed some light on this mysterious question.

The answer is, in a word: lying.

Thank you very much.

(If it helps, imagine me bowing, though I am actually sitting at my desk a little tipsy after drinking a few too many beers while watching the results come in.)

Also, Lou Dobbs yammering on about "savants" was pretty hilarious. What a douchebag! Lou, you should definitely run for president. Go for it!

Seacrest out!

The balcony is open

2008-01-07T13:19:00.000-08:00

I'm going to stop blogging about this Bond 22 business for a while. Its getting kind of annoying. Today's news is that the new "Bond Girl" is not Gemma Arterton but rather the heretofore unknown to me Olga Kurylenko. (However, I see that she was the vampiress--Is that a word?--who falls for Frodo Baggins in the sometimes interesting Paris je t'aime, which we watched over the weekend.) Arterton plays MI6 Agent Fields. I've posted a sexier picture of her for Raphy and Marty, who think I am being unfair to her. (And more ici.) I'll probably have to watch CR again one of these days. It seems that 22 is a continuation of events from that movie.

While were on the topic--of movies, that is--my second favorite childhood comic hero was Asterix the Gaul. (The first was Tintin, mentioned here before and the subject of another forthcoming movie--or three.) The Asterix books are great fun, but I've managed to avoid the movies until now. (Mainly because they're in French, though I'm not sure how I've missed this one--with Bellucci, who's pretty much the hottest woman on earth.) Perhaps I'll have to check out the new one. Cinematical reports that it's one of the most expensive European films ever made--which means, at the very least I suppose, that it'll be visually very interesting. There are a bunch of trailers and such here that--despite the presence of Gerard Depardieu--would seem to confirm my hunch.

Has anyone else out there seen Paris je t'aime? Some hits and some misses, but overall kind of interesting. I loved the bit with Nat Portman. I'll note that, while the bit from the Coen Bros. was kind of funny, methinks their heart wasn't really into it.

What's it called? While Nietzsche Slept?

2008-01-04T14:00:00.000-08:00

So Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and all that. Sorry for lack of posting. We drove to The D and back for Christmas and it was exhausting. Buzzy had a medical emergency while we were out there, but everything is fine. We followed the Christmas festivities with a very a nice New Years with H&M. I made a white chocolate creme brulee that was, if I may say so, completely awesome.

Congratulations to Senator Obama. It must have been Scarjo that put him over the top. The next few weeks ought to be very interesting. Speaking only for myself, it'll be fun to watch Mayor 9/11 and Saint John McCain continue evolving into a parodies of themselves.

It seems that Gemma Arterton is indeed the new Bond girl. Erik at Cinematical asks: "So, does Gemma have what it takes to become a successful (and memorable) Bond girl?" Now lets not get carried away.

Marty recommends When Nietzsche Wept with sexy Canadian Kathryn Winnick.

Apparently perpetual crossword puzzle answer Kahlil Gibran was kind of a dick. Who knew?

George Macdonald Fraser, RIP. As a fan of adventure stories, I feel like I should be much sadder about this then I am. But, to be terribly honest, the Flashman books weren't very funny and weren't very bawdy either.

More anon.

Merry Ludachristmas!

2007-12-14T10:05:00.000-08:00

I meant to blog about this Led Zepplin business earlier in the week, but it's sort of old news at this point. (But did you see this: "Supermodel flies into rage at Led Zeppelin concert"--kinda funny.) On Monday, Opie and Anthony were making fun of them, but from the few clips I've seen on the interewebs (most of which have now been taken down--though see here), they rocked. Looking forward to the DVD.

The heretofore unknown to me Gemma Arterton (and not Gemma Atkinson, who I have heard of) may be the new Bond girl. According to this story at Cinematical, she has that "modern look"--which means what exactly? She sort of looks like Juliette Binoche's younger sister, which is good so far as it goes, but I'm having trouble visualizing her as a Bond girl. Bond geeks--whaddya think?

Raphy must be jetlagged. It's hard to believe he doesn't have a thoughtful, carefully crafted view about whether "Bonfire" is one for the ages (or not).

What’s your favorite pizza topping? Mines plain. But I like others.

2007-12-11T13:35:00.000-08:00

I was being slightly smart-alecky in the last post. We were actually in Vallarta for the wedding of our friends Amy (known to jwbblog readers as the Krusser) and Nick. And it was pretty spectacular. See the photos--link in last post--if you have any doubts.

The weather was close to perfect--high 80's during the day, mid 70's at night. We arrived back in Boston last Monday to cold and ice, and it's been more of the same since. Argh! I forgot how long/miserable winters in Boston can be.

Random items:

* Despite all the hype, I actually sort of liked Toby Young's How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. However, there's a lot of "inside baseball" stuff in it--the sorts of things (like jokes about Graydon Carter's hair) that wouldn't make much sense unless you're a regular reader of, say, Gawker--and I was dubious that it would make for a decent movie. Well, the trailer, with Simon Pegg as Young, is out and it's pretty funny. You can find it here.

* So what are we to make of the Kindle? Is it going to change the world? I doubt it, though I'm old fashioned when it comes to these sorts of things (meaning, mainly, reading books). It seems to me that Chip Kidd gets it about right.

* "Bonfire of the Vanities" has turned twenty. I thought it was pretty close to brilliant when I first read it--which would have been not too long after it was published--but one wonders how well it has aged. (Raphy: Any thoughts?) The Times celebrates with some rather boring interviews.

UPDATE: I should note that one of the reasons I wonder about how well "Bonfire" has held up is that it was made into such a craptastic movie by Brian De Palma. It is now hard for me to think about Sherman, Maria, et al. without also thinking about Tom Hanks, Melanie Griffith, et al. I should note that, for me, this is not a good thing. (In particular, casting Melanie Griffith as Maria was a crime.) This is perhaps unfair since Brian De Palma is Brian De Palma and not Tom Wolfe and the movie is the movie and not the book. But there you are.

Hola

2007-12-05T09:38:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the extended hiatus. Been kinda busy. First, the Goffs were here for Thanksgiving. As far as I can tell, a good time was had by all.

Then, a few days later, we hurried off to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, for five lovely days, where, among other things, we celebrated my birthday. We got back on Monday to Boston--a cranky enough place even when the weather is nice--where it's 28 degrees and everything is covered in ice.

I'll have more to say about Vallarta anon, but, for the moment and for anyone who's interested, I posted some photographs here.

Legacy of Smoke, Tree of Ashes

2007-11-15T10:00:00.000-08:00

While we were home this past weekend, the latest issue of my Dad's subscription to The Atlantic arrived--the one with Andy Sullivan's ode to Barack Obama on the cover. I was flipping through it and came across a somewhat lengthy review of Denis Johnson's much discussed new novel, Tree of Smoke. The review, by somebody named B.R. Myers, is quite a thing of beauty if you, like me, appreciate a good hatchet job now and then. (If you've been missing Dale Peck since he became nice, you'll love Myers.) I've been looking forward to reading Johnson's book--an opus on, among other things, the CIA and the Vietnam War. It got a rave on the cover of the NYTBR and is the kind of book much discussed by people who listen to NPR and subscribe to Tikkun. (I mean that with only a hint of irony since I am, essentially, one of those people--except for the part about Tikkun.) I'm wondering if it can be as bad as (Ms.? Mr.? What's up with those initials?) Myers says it is. Anyway, I keep flipping around and come across the letters section. It appears that, in a previous issue, Mr. Myers has taken his hatchet to Michael Pollan's Omniviore's Dilemma. Mr. Pollan's book, as we have noted before, is pretty close to brilliant. I have not read the review since I am not a subscriber and it is not free on the interwebs for plebs like me, but I gather, from the letters I read, that Mr. Myers is accusing Pollan of being insensitive to the plight of animals. All I can say about that is that it pretty much the opposite of the truth. One begins to worry about Mr. Myers' sanity.

Anyway, I awake this morning to discover that Tree of Smoke has won the National Book Award for fiction. What are we to make of this? For the moment, one of two positions seems appropriate. First, Myers is right and the entire literary elite is suffering false consicsiousness (or, possibly, Bush Derangement Syndrome). Second, Myers is full of shit. I suppose the only way to really settle this is to sit down and read Tree of Smoke and decide for myself if it is any good. For the moment, however, we'll go with position number two.

Speaking of the National Book Awards, Tim Weiner's excellent book about the CIA, Legacy of Ashes, won the nonfiction prize. Concerned that most of our knowledge about the CIA came from spy novels, we read this book several months ago and meant to blog about it. Alas, it was not to be. However, if you are interested in reading an intelligent and not-very-long discussion of Legacy of Ashes, you might want to check out Scott McLemee's review ici.

This was supposed to be a shorter post that also talked about Weeds, Duran Duran, and our blogroll, but we have gone on too long. Perhaps more later.

Bush Derangement Syndrome

2007-11-15T09:50:00.000-08:00

Do you find it difficult to listen to the president speak without thinking that he's a blithering idiot? Do you find it difficult to discuss politics with your Republican friends without wondering if they have gone completely insane? Are you sick and tired of being hectored about foreign policy by an incompetent war monger who shot his friend in the face?

If you said yes to any or all of the above, you may suffer from Bush Derangement Syndrome. Like many Americans, after 7 years of lying and mendacity, I too suffer from Bush Derangement Syndrome. Alas, my doctors have been unable to do anything for me on this score. I guess I will just have to contine to suffer in silence* for the next year or so.

If you said no to all of those questions, you'll just love this piece in the Wall Street Journal from Hoover Institution Senior Fellow and Bush Cool Aid drinker Peter Berkowitz. (As Alicublog notes, "It's like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, only with worse catch-phrases.") I suspect you'll also love his comedy stylings on "Bush v. Gore"--absolutely priceless!

Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

* "Suffer in silence" is blogspeak for "posting occasionally."

We want a shrubbery!

2007-11-12T08:16:00.000-08:00

We just returned from a very nice weekend in Maryland. We spent some QT with my parental units and also headed out to Glenwood for a few hours with the Della Rattas. A nice time was, I think, had by all. (See the photo of Raphy, on the left, and some old guy.)

Thomas Wolfe said that you can't go home again, which is, of course, complete B.S. One thing I've noticed, on going home again, is that everything is smaller, except for the shrubbery. Think about it.

One of the eternal questions one encounters this time of year is whether to get a flu shot or not. (I typically get one if I can do so without much inconvenience.) Most of us, I would guess, would think of getting a flu shot in selfish terms (i.e., I'll get a flu shot to keep me from getting the flu), but Tyler Cowen suggests that it is actually an act of altruism:

I just had my flu shot. Please send your checks to my George Mason address. People who have the flu spread the virus so getting a flu shot not only reduces the probability that I will get the flu it reduces the probability that you will get the flu. In the language of economics the flu shot creates an external benefit, a benefit to other people not captured by the person who paid the costs of getting the shot. The external benefits of a flu shot can be quite large. Under some conditions each person who is vaccinated reduces the expected number of other people who get the flu by 1.5.

Norman Mailer, RIP. I've been thinking recently, given our obsession here will all things espionage, that I ought to re-read "Harlot's Ghost". (I say "re-read" because I read it shortly after it came out, but do not remember a thing about it.)

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T11:41:00.001-07:00

Free tacos!

2007-10-29T13:16:00.000-07:00

Congrats to the Bosox for winning the World Series and to fellow uni-baller Mike Lowell for winning the MVP.

After the game, we could hear the crowd celebrating (others might call it rioting, but what's a few broken windows between friends?) in JP. They sounded quite happy. And don't forget: Thanks to Jacoby Ellsbury, Taco Bell is buying America a taco tomorrow.

Susan asked me this afternoon whether I really hate the Dutch. (The answer, of course, is no. We love the Dutch and their naughty, naughty ways.) This reminds me that I probably ought to do more footnoteing (Is that a word?) when using old movie quotes for titles, lest our readers get the wrong idea.

According to these guys, Daniel Craig has signed on for four more Bond films, after Bond 22. Good news, methinks. Other will differ, of course. I'm sure there are still some haters out there. (I'll just say that it wasn't his fault that the poker scenes in CR were interminable.)

More later, maybe.

2007-10-26T12:53:00.000-07:00

Yikes! I don't really like those kind of games. The tension gives me heart palpatations. More blowouts please. Jenn e-mailed the attached photo--good seats, crap camera--of Manny Ramirez's posterior.

Gawker has a rather stupid and uninformed item today about the Sage of Monkton, Robert Parker. A woman who used to work for Parker in Bordeaux has a book out in France accusing Parker of all sorts of dastardly things. While Parker is no angel--I'll admit that I rather like him and am a subscriber to The Wine Advocate--the central issue here involves the "used to" in the previous sentence. Ms. Agostini no longer works for Parker because she is a crook and he fired her when he found out what she was up to. This is all discussed in semi-recent biography of Parker, The Emperor of Wine. I'm not quite sure why I'm mentioning this other than it pissed me off. Damn bloggers!

That's all for now. We'll try to bait Marty into defending the honor of his homeland again next week.

Shut up or I'm going to punch you in the throat*

2007-10-25T15:16:00.000-07:00

How about those Red Sox? Somewhere around the fifth inning, I started to feel sorry for the Rockies--they ran into a buzzsaw. I suppose we'll find out tonight if they'll be able to shake off those cobwebs or the Sox are going to keep beating them senseless. Jenn is going to tonight's game. Look for her on the teevee if you're watching from home--behind first base about 16 rows back. I will be home watching with Buzzy--where it's warm, the beer is plentiful, and there are no lines for the bathroom.

Marty was a little peeved (in comments) at what he took to be my suggestion that Canadians aren't funny--in the context of my opining that Seth Rogen wasn't funny on SNL (or, for that matter, in Knocked Up--made watchable for me only by the presence of the lovely Katherine Heigl and the actually funny Paul Rudd). I will note, in my defense, that I do think Canadians are funny--some of them anyway. The many Austin Powers quotes--written by Canadian Mike Myers--on this site ought to be testament to that.

Also, Myers new movie, The Love Guru, looks like it might be quite funny. On the plus side, it was written by and stars Myers himself. Its also features the awesome Romany Malco (who, despite the fact that he has a funny name, is not Canadian), Justin Timberlake (playing a villainous French hockey player named Jacques), and Mini Me. On the minus side, it's got Jessica Alba, who, while undeniably fetching, is, as we have mentioned before, a terrible actress. Overall, I think we've got the potential for some really high-quality Canadian comedy here.

While we're on the topic--of Canadians, not bad actresses--Marty also points out that the recently departed Lois Maxwell--known to immature boys and men everywhere as Ms. Moneypenny--was Canadian. He points us to this very nice piece by Canadian journalist Mark Steyn. The piece reminds me why I used to read and enjoy Steyn's stuff (mainly in The New Criterion)--before he became a rather shameless apologist for the most vicious and appalling stuff done in the name of the GWOT (TM).**

RIP Viva Laughlin. I watched about 12 seconds of it the first week and it was pretty bad. Still, more Madchen Amick please. (This may have to do for now.)

*Just found this site with memorable quotations from often brilliant "The Office"--from whence the title of today's post comes (in which Dwight is threatening the smartass pizza delivery kid).

**"Global War on Terror", for the uninitiated.

Happy Islamofascism Awareness Week

2007-10-23T06:08:00.000-07:00

Celebrate appropriately. More anon.

Hints from jwbblog

2007-10-19T07:58:00.000-07:00

As an ocasional (though probably not-to-be-repeated) service, we offer the following bits of advice:

How to wash your hands. I'm a bit of a germophobe and wash my hands quite frequently. Though, it seems, I haven't been doing it properly.

How to unsubscribe from all those annoying catalogs clogging up your mailbox--and giving the mailman a hernia. You'd think one J Crew catalog would be plenty. For some reason, they think we need three. Problem solved.

How to get a look at your DHS travel dossier. Does Dick Cheney think you're an "Islamofascist"? I have no idea and Dick's obsessed with secrecy, so you're unlikely to ever find out. However, if you'd like to find out what the Department of Homeland Security--sounds much better in the original German--knows about your travels, you're in luck.

How to become editor of a famous conservative magazine. The short answer, you'll be shocked to learn, is to have a famous, well-connected father.

That is all.

There's only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures and the Dutch.

2007-10-16T11:18:00.000-07:00

Pontificating about things we have neither read nor seen is one of our favorite activities here. (The others are cursing and being ironic.) Just in time for Christmas--or my birthday, if you're keeping track of such things--is How to Talk about Books You Haven't Read. This guy is an absolute genius. It's officially at the top of my list of books I plan to not read.

Have you ever wondered why philosophers are so scruffy? Well, neither have I. But the answer is here, in case you are now curious.

As part of our bachelor weekend, Buzzy and I saw several excellent films. (Jenn was in Vegas celebrating the Krusser's impending nuptials.)

The first, on Friday night, was The Lives of Others, which won an Oscar last year for Best Film in some inscrutable language other than English. It is about a Stasi officer in mid-1980s East Berlin who is assigned to spy on a playwright and his actress girlfriend by a thuggish government official who wants to get some dirt on the playwright so he can lock him up and shag his girlfriend. Over time, Wiesler, the Stasi officer, develops some sympathy for the couple and take some steps to protect them, at considerable risk to his future employment prospects, if not his life. I won't ruin the story for you, but it's as deeply affecting and suspenseful a movie--sorry, film (it's got subtitles!)--as I've seen in a long time. It stars the ruggedly handsome Sebastian Koch as the playwright and the fetching Martina Gedeck as the actress. Sadly, Ulrich Muhe, who's close to brilliant as Wiesler, died from stomach cancer not long after the completion of the movie. Highly recommended, as they say.

Sunday night while waiting for Jenn to fly in from Sin City, we watched Paul Verhoeven's Black Book. I'll have to admit that, while I really wanted to see this movie, I didn't have especially high expectations. It was directed, after all, by the auteur who's responsible for such aesthetic atrocities as Basic Instinct, Showgirls, and Starship Troopers. However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Black Book is a really darned good movie. It stars Dutch hottie Carice van Houten as a young Jewish women on the run from the Nazis (and, later, because of a misunderstanding, the resistance), and involves several inspired plot twists. It also stars the aforementioned, ruggedly handsome Sebastian Koch as the (mostly) goodhearted Nazi she falls in love with and a whole bunch of Dutch actors I was heretofore unfamilar with but who are uniformly excellent. I gather from from reading about on the interwebs--It's a series of tubes!--that Sebastian Koch and Carice van Houten are an item off stage as well. Anyway, also highly recommended.

That is all.

I'm here to educate you about the single biggest threat to our planet

2007-10-12T11:58:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Al Gore for winning the Nobel Prize for has brave battle against the Manbearpig. (Or is it Pigbearman.) (Don't click through unless you find "South Park" funny.)

On a serious note, should I feel any shame for knowing absolutely nothing about Doris Lessing? Raphy, help us out here. (Well, here's something: it seems that she's a Brit and she's kind of crabby.)

Apropos of yesterday's musings, it turns out that Stephen Fry (better know to watchers of public television as Jeeves to Greg House's Bertie Wooster) has his own blog, though he seems a little vague on the concept.

I was going to make some comments about a bunch of stuff from today's Times, but life's too short. I'll just say that I'm glad I didn't have a movie coming out this week. A.O. and company are really grumpy. (In sharp contrast, the ordinarily really grumpy Michiko is in a really good mood.)

If you ask me, Jeeves, art is responsible for most of the trouble in the world*

2007-10-11T06:09:00.000-07:00

A thousand pardons for the lack of bloggering this week. Been really busy waxing maple leaves.

In our house, we really like "House"--the show in which Bertie Wooster plays a misanthropic American doctor. However, I worry that it has become a wee bit predictable. Tom Watson, from NewCritics (an excellent blog, btw), has crystalized my thinking in the following (with a few amendments by yours truly): "strange accident/incident/collapse…a tough diagnosis…the first treatment…cardiac arrest and bodies flopping around like beached fish in distress…much angst…strange procedure…crash number two….angry family/friend/lover showdown usually involving hospital administrator [in low-cut blouse]…cure or death…pensive House looking into middle distance [or playing guitar]." Also, the weird sexual tension between House and Cutty is growing tiresome.

If one is going to name a movie after a Metro stop--for the uninitiated, the "Metro" is the subway in DC, much as the "T" is the subway in Boston and, as I understand it, the "FU" is the subway in NYC--this is not one of the better options. But perhaps others will differ.

I've been fascinated on occasion by various forms of "goldenageism"--in which one is given the impressesion by someone who doesn't really know what they're talking about that the grass was always greener in the past than it is in the present. Anyway, from this guy, we have a new variant--the SNL Fallacy: "The SNL Fallacy is when people look back in time at something, just see the highlights (since the lowlights and filler inherently fade away and are forgotten), and see that time period as superior to the current one. People always claim that Saturday Night Live "used to be better." And they've been saying that ever since shortly after the show started. But that's because what sticks out in their head is Eddie Murphy doing "Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood" and not the rest of the filler sketches that were on that night." So true. Also, Seth Rogen--not very funny, but, then, he's Canadian.

More anon.

*Here's the full exchange:
Wooster: "If you ask me Jeeves, art is responsible for most of the trouble in the world."
Jeeves: "It's an interesting theory, Sir. Would you care to expatiate upon it?"
Wooster: "As a matter of fact, no Jeeves. No The thought just occures to me, you know, as thoughts do."

Happy Birthday, Buzzy

2007-10-05T11:55:00.000-07:00

Buzzy will be a year old tomorrow. (He wasn't real thrilled about the hat.)

I am impervious to pain

2007-10-05T06:42:00.001-07:00

Famous Canadian Conrad Black is an asshole, but apparently he has a sense of humour. Via Gawker, he instructs us on how to wax a maple leaf--which is not nearly as kinky as it sounds. Gawker says: "this kind of dry, self-deprecating humor will serve Black well in the slammer." Or maybe not.

Speaking of assholes, President Asshole is happy to spend a trillion dollars on endless war but has some sort of moral objection to spending $30 billion to provide health insurance for poor kids. The moral calculus in which that makes sense is completely obscure to me.

Can I say here that I have absolutely no interest--not even a little--in a Britney Spears sex tape? Just wanted to get that off my chest.

I'm starting to pity Steve Speilberg and company. The making of the new Indy movie is turning into a huge shitshow. Leaked plot points, stolen photos from the set, Shia LaBoeuf--this thing is starting to smell like a disaster. (I'm kidding about Shia LaBoeuf--he's actually a pretty good actor.) Discuss amongst yourselves.

Scutube!

2007-09-29T10:11:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to Shannon and Tom, who got engaged on Friday. Nicely done, Tom. (That's actually Buzzy, not Tom, in the photo with Shannon. I don't seem to have any pictures of Tom on my computer.)

Kato! You have turned my apartment into a Chinese nooky factory!

2007-09-27T07:13:00.000-07:00

Missy Peregrym is Canadian, in case you were wondering. I'll admit that I actually know who she is. Jenn forced me to watch that gymnastics movie not so long ago, and it was more interesting than I might have guessed. Its got Jeff Bridges in one of those "I need the money" roles and also Julie Warner--not seen by me since "Tommy Boy" (though I haven't really been paying attention)--as a hot mom.

Speaking of Canada, someone with too much time on his hands has put together a page of Hot Famous Canadian Babes. Monica Schnarre--haven't heard that name in a while.

The Nine Worst Asian Characters of all Time. This is BS--what about Kato?

In a sign of something that is probably diagnosable--mental illness, dissertation fatigue, boredom--I occasionally check Amazon to see if any of my favorite authors has a new book coming. Yesterday, I was wondering what Alan Furst has been up to and--lo and behold--The Spies of Warsaw coming in June of 2008.

I'm a fan of the oeuvre of Wes Anderson, especially the perenially underappreciated The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Anderson's new movie, The Darjeeling Limited, opens this weekend. I gather that, when it was shown at various film festivals, it followed a short epilogue called the Hotel Chevalier, noteworthy, according to various sources, because Natalie Portman's buttocks make an appearance. I'll just note that Natalie Portman's buttocks don't really do much for me, but in case you were curious about said buttocks, you can watch Hotel Chevalier for free at iTunes.

Cop Rock with Shelly Johnson

2007-09-20T11:15:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to another edition of nonsequitur theatre.

Elisha Cuthburt--Canadian? Who knew? Also, Marty, you are correct. You are not very hip.

In other news from Canada, the US dollar and the Canadian dollar have reached parity. The horror! I used to think Canadian money was so cute. But no more. This means war!

I don't think it would qualify as a controversial statement to say that Jessica Alba--who, to my knowledge, is not Canadian--is pretty hot. However--in contrast, this may be controversial in some quarters--I've always thought she didn't have much presence on the big screen. Anyway, one of the dudes from Cinematical gets at this point in a review of Good Luck Chuck today: "As for Alba, she may be the dreamgirl for millions of teen boys -- or, rather, of pre-teen boys who sigh over their copies of Maxim and dream of one day being teens -- but on-screen she's deadly dull and exasperatingly stiff. Has Alba ever given a performance of any note? Or is she just a well-proportioned mammal whose fate and the insane nature of modern fame have mysteriously plucked her from a life of car shows and county fair product demonstrations?" Ouch! Discuss amongst yourselves.

So I read a review last weekend in the New York Times of Ben Macintyre's new book, Agent Zigzag. Like Macintyre's earlier books, it sounded very interesting--it's about a criminal turned spy during WWII--and thus I added to my Amazon wish list. I see on Cinematicalthat the dude's already got a movie deal. Holy cow! I'm not sure if this is good news, but Tom Hanks is involved. The guy from Cinematical asks a question dear to our hearts: "who do you think would make a good, womanizing double agent for this millenium?" We've touched on this type of thing before, but any suggestions?

I also see on Cinematical that some Hollywood pinheads want to remake one of my childhood favorites, The Wild Geese, with Roger Moore and Richards Burton and Harris as old geezer mercenaries involved in a war in Africa. This, I think, is potentially a good idea. However, until I see some evidence to the contrary, I'm assuming that they'll somehow fuck it up.

Oddly, Boston is currently over-run with movie stars. See here, if you don't believe me. Alas, no Eve Mendes sightings just yet.

And now to the question du jour: Are there any shows worth watching on TV these days? The short answer, sadly, is no. My original complaint about this was a response, to some extent, to the summer doldrums. At the time, the only shows we were recording on our DVR were new episodes of Weeds and old episodes of The Dog Whisperer--a very grim state of affairs, I would submit. Nick (cleverly disguised as "anonymous") and Raphy seem to agree. (Marty's problem is that he lives off the grid--which is hard to do in modern America. He needs a hand crank to get his DVD player working.) However, as Raphy helpfully points out, the new fall shows are about to start. Alas, the pickings are pretty slim--whatever that means. (There's a semi-helpful annotated list here at TWS.) I'm marginally excited about Viva Laughlin, but mainly because of Madchen Amick, who has been keeping a low profile since Twin Peaks (and who is not Canadian). Not so sure about the singing, however. And, like the Thighmaster, I heart Lucius Vorenus more than Titus Pullo did, but I'm not so sure about the time travelling reporter. Anyway, I've got to run, but I may have more to say on this pressing subject next week.

Bond 22

2007-09-12T15:19:00.000-07:00

My sources tell me that the latest and, thus far, untitled Bond flick has begun filming. Daniel Craig and company were seen at a horse race of some sort in Italy--that's in Europe.

Also, this guy reports that the old guy whom Bond shot in the leg at the end of CR will return for Bond 22. I tend to agree with his observation that, while CR was brilliant, the villains in it were on the forgettable side.

UPDATE: I should also note that, according to my new favorite website, the latest authorized Bond novel, by the British novelist Sebastian Faulks, is due out in May of 2008. You can preorder it now from Amazon, if you're into that kind of thing. Says CommanderBond.net, "According to Faulks, Devil May Care is set in 1967 when 'Bond is damaged, aging and in a sense it is the return of the gunfighter for one last heroic mission.'" We can hope that it's an improvement on "Brokenclaw."

Why doesn't Short Round call?

2007-09-10T12:34:00.000-07:00

So the New York Times has this glossy real-estate section on Sunday. I see that there's this article about an apartment building in San Diego in which young people hang out with each other and, like, sometimes date each other and such. This is all presented as some sort of revelation, which makes me think the writer is unfamilar with a little show called "Melrose Place." Just sayin'.

In any case, one of the residents of the building is a young woman named Bethann Barry--no relation to me, so far as I know. I think to myself, "Jenn's cousin Tony dates a girl named Bethann Barry. Must be a coincidence." But then I turn the page and find a photograph of Bethann Barry's fridge, prominently featured upon which are several pictures of her boyfriend, better known to us as cousin Tony, which I thought was pretty cool. Tony, who is in the Navy, is in Iraq (or thereabouts) shooting at bad guys. Good luck, Tony!

Unrelatedly, methinks that the title of the new Indy flick--"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"--has too many words in it. Matthew Duss, at TAPPED, has some additional comments:

I can only suspect that the plot of the movie involves the getting of said skull. I must admit I'm still quite bitter about my own script being rejected. I think "Indiana Jones and the Search for Tenure" dealt with some important questions raised by the first three films, such as: With all of his swinging around in temples and shooting Nazis and being dragged behind trucks, when did he find time to publish? Surely Jones' global adventuring on the History Department's dime made him some enemies in the administration? Think about it: The Ark's in a government warehouse, the Shankara Stone he gave back to the village, and the Grail fell down a big crack in the temple floor. What does Jones have to show for all his time away, other than enormous expense reports, various scars, and a thousand-yard stare?

More here.

UPDATE: A reader at TAPPED points us to Indy's Tenure Bid Denial Letter (at McSweeney's).

I'll have a hot dog. A low-fat hot-dog.

2007-09-06T10:06:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to nonsequitur theater.

In honor of the passing of John Gardner--among other things, the author of more Bond books than that Fleming guy--Raphy decided to read "Brokenclaw." The results were not pretty. (See the comments.)

Speaking of spies, in the wake of watching two-thirds of "The Company", I finally decided that the fact that most of what I know about the CIA comes from spy novels was slightly problematic for someone who likes to think of himself as at least slightly well-informed. Therefore, a week or so ago, I started reading Tim Weiner's Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA. I'll have more to say about this fascinating book when I finish it, but the story is basically one shitstorm after another. Truly terrifying reading.

Speaking of terrifying, I feel like I should be reading the new Robert Draper book about our boy king, but I am afraid that it might make my head spin off. However, if you're in the mood for that sort of thing, Slate has some depressing excerpts here.

The TV situation these days is pretty grim. I was deleting old shows off our DVR over the weekend and was dismayed when it sunk in that "Rome", "Deadwood," and "The Sopranos" are all no more. To make matters worse, the current season of "Entourage"--which, while entertaining, is not in the same league as the shows just mentiioned--ended on Sunday. When the best thing on TV is "Weeds," we're in serious trouble. We were in such dire straights last night that we watched most of "Cruel Intentions" (starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Reese Witherspoon, and Ryan Phillippe). My standards must be slipping, because I thought it was pretty good.

In related news, I've decided, against my better judgement, that Ryyann Philllipppe is actually a pretty good actor (see "Breach"--an excellent movie, btw--for one example). However, this does not seem like a very good idea.

In breaking news, chemcials in our food may not be good for us. Truly shocking stuff.

In other news, Canada becoming more war-like. Insert joke here.

That is all.

Even more on "The Company"

2007-08-23T07:21:00.000-07:00

Did anyone out there watch the final episode of "The Company"? All things considered, I thought it was pretty good (in B+ range). Having read the book, the hunt for the mole didn't have a ton of suspense for me, but it was still nicely done. I won't spoil any surprises for those of you who may not have watched the TV version and are considering reading the book (Note to Raphy: Do it! You'll thank me later.). I thought Rory Cochrane--last seen, at least by me, as one of the stoners in Dazed and Confused--was really good as Yevgeny/Eugene. He was also the only one of the younger actors who looked convincingly old at the end--as opposed to, say, O'Donnell, who looked like himself with a ton of makeup on. If you can imagine, Starik is a bit more creapy/disturbing in the book than he came off in the movie. And, though I said something similar the other day, I'll repeat that Michael Keaton was great as Angleton. I'll also repeat that it would have been nice to have seen the first episode, but the TNT programming people seem to be a bunch of nitwits.

Since we're on our favorite topic, I should note that I finished re-reading Charles McCarry's "Tears of Autumn" about a week ago. It's the first of McCarry's novels that I read and, after raving about it to various people over the last several years, I wanted to make sure that it was as good as I remembered. It was.

For spy-novel buffs, there's also a new Daniel Silva book out about badass Mossad agent Gabriel Allon. I'm only a few pages in, but it starts off very nicely.

In other literary news, apparently Paris Hilton is working on a new book. According to Gawker, "It's actually a strongly-argued polemic that defends cultural relativism against the anti-egalitarian attacks of conservative critics such as the late Allan Bloom." Wha? Oh, wait. It seems that they're kidding. Bummer, because I'd actually like to read that book.

Rhetorical question: Is there anything cuter than Golden puppies?

2007-08-15T17:28:00.001-07:00

More on "The Company"

2007-08-15T07:07:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to the show.

So we sat down to watch the first two episodes of "The Company" on Monday and I find that, for reasons I won't delve into, our DVR has deleted the first episode. No problem, I think. Surely they'll repeat it several times during the following week so fans who missed the first showing can still catch up, right? This is a three week extravaganza, people are busy, DVRs sometimes screw up, etc. Alas, no. I check the TV listings, but no sign of episode 1. I then check "The Company" section of the TNT on-line forum and some spokesbot reveals that TNT is apparently run by a bunch of morons. The only encore presentation of any of the episodes is immediately following the first showing. The spokesbot reveals, as if she's doing us a favor, that the previously shown episodes are available in their entirety on TNT's website. Now, I know that You-tube is all the rage, but lets be serious: Watching a two-hour movie on your computer is about as pleasurable as getting waterboarded by Dick Cheney. This is madness.

Anyway, We finally broke down last night and watched episode two. As our readers know, I've read the book, and I found jumping right in like that less disorienting than I think Jenn did. My overall response is: Not bad, but a bit disapointing. I guess I was expecting better production values from a project that the Scott brothers were involved in. However, the scenes in Budapest--which we visited in 2004--were very cool. Chris O'Donnell is a bit bland considering he has far and away the most screen time. In contrast, Michael Keaton does a nice job making Angleton suitably smarmy--you're not supposed to like him but he's the ony one in the room making fucking sense. Also, I guess I can understand what he was aiming for, but Alfred Molina's loud, blustery Torriti doesn't really work for me. I'll no doubt have more to say about this later, but my provisional verdict is: Meh! (Is that how you spell that, Raphy?)

The Company

2007-08-07T10:35:00.001-07:00

We've been putting our house back together after a near-summer-long construction project, so we've been remiss in mentioning this, but the TNT adaptation of Robert Littell's "The Company" began on Sunday. (I mentioned it a while ago here.) Did anyone catch it? We, alas, did not, but the first episode is saved on our DVR and I hope to get to it later in the week. There are, I gather, two more episodes in the coming weeks.

As I've mentioned several times before, Littell's book is one of the better--if not the best--fictional takes on the CIA that I've read. It covers similar ground as Robert DeNiro's "The Good Shepherd''--Ivy League pinheads get recruited into the OSS (later the CIA); said pinheads swashbuckle around Europe killing people and breaking things; a character without much personality loosely based on CIA counterntelligence chief James Jesus Angleton thinks the agency is chock full of moles; everyone else thinks said character is nuts; said character turns out to to be right and his colleagues look like morons. You get the picture.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to watching this. It's got to be better than the DeNiro movie, which I think was a missed opportunity.

James Ellroy

2007-07-26T09:38:00.000-07:00

A question in comments from RDR reminds me that the third (and final) installment of the great Ellroy's Underworld USA Trilogy is due at the end of the year, though there does not seem to be any evidence of that on Amazon (or anywhere else on the interwebs), so count me a little dubious.

RDR was asking about the proper order of the LA Quartet books. As you might have guessed, there are four of them, published thusly: "The Black Dahlia" (1987), "The Big Nowhere" (1988), "L.A. Confidential" (1990), and "White Jazz" (1992). A few comments: The first three are astonishingly good. I read them back-to-back over several weeks in the mid-90s. "White Jazz" is a different kettle of fish altogether. In terms of the way it is written, it is--how shall I put it?--experimental, an experiment that didn't work very well for me. As I recall (though, admittedly, it has been a while since I read it), it's mainly the rat-a-tat dialogue that Ellroy is famous for--though on a whole new level--without much of a narrative to hold the story together. Anyway, start with "The Black Dahlia" and see if you get sucked in.

Compared to what--bubonic plague?

2007-07-25T15:47:00.001-07:00

Note to self: Blog more about Canada. We managed to awaken Marty from his slumber. In defending Conrad Black, he invokes the "hot daughter" defense--though, surprisingly (to me), not the "hot wife" defense--though neither will get you very far, I suspect, with Pat Fitzgerald. In contrast, the Scooter Libby defense--"I'm tight with Dick Cheney"--might work a little better.

Note to Marty: Mark Steyn is an idiot.

Oddly, I keep coming across mentions in peculiar places of my alama mater. First, we've been watching the first season of the Sopranos. In episode six (I think), we learn that "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero has two children at Villanova. Second, Tim Donaghy--the disgraced NBA ref (and possible relation of Jack Donaghy?)--is also a graduate of that fine school. I trust there are some famous Villanova grad out there who aren't benefitting from criminal activity.

I'm a big fan of Wes Anderson's recent films, especially the (in my judgment) unfairly maligned "Life Aquatic." Therefore, I'm been fairly excited about the forthcoming "The Darjeeling Limited." However, the trailer they've just released is really boring. Methinks they've got some work to do.

This, in contrast, is completely badass. (To spoil the surprise, it's the trailer for the Coen Bros.' film of C'mac McCarthy's "No Country for Old Men.")

I appear to have unleashed a hornet's nest--yeah, I know that's a mixed metaphor, but it's the best I can do on short notice--with my comments about Camelot. I'll try to say something constructive about that tomorrow.

Other than that, he's alright

2007-07-17T14:46:00.000-07:00

1. So the Beckhams have arrived in America. I'm more interested in David than Victoria--and in David's exploits on the pitch rather than how hot he looks in a sarong--but Jenn made me watch the special about Victoria the other night on NBC and, I've got to admit, she's far more self-aware and funny than I ever would have guessed. Who knew? We should get our first look at Becks on Saturday when LA plays Chelsea. I'll admit to harboring no illusions about Beckham being the savior of American soccer (whatever that might mean), but, when he plays well, he is fun to watch. There's an entertaining debate of sorts going on at The New Republic--home of soccer dorks who also write about politics--on this very topic between Aleksandar Hemon ("Why David Beckham Sucks") and Alex Massie ("The Case for David Beckham"). Hemon's piece is more entertaining, but I think Massie wins the day.

2. In other sporting news, have you been watching the Tour day France? I have, though I'll admit to having some trouble getting in to it early on. (The Floyd Landis scandal, regardless of whether he cheated, has been dispiriting.) But I've been getting more into it as the race has gone on. It's still pretty wide open and promises to be pretty exciting right up until the end. I wish I could root for Levi Leipheimer, but he hasn't got much personality. I have a suspicion tha Andreas Kloden is going to take off in one of the stages in the Pyreneas and may arrive in Paris in the lead.

3. Speaking of Canada, there's a delightful essay in today's Times by one Will Ferguson about how Conrad Black's former countrymen feel about his recent conviction for various dastardly deeds. I say "former" because Lord Black--as he will soon be known by his fellow inmates in what I'm sure will be a very luxurious English prison--renounced his Canadian citizenship so that he could become a member of the British House of Lords. He's now trying to get it back so he can serve his time in a Canadian prison. Needless to say, but Canadians don't seem to have much sympathy for Mr. Black. (As Mr. Ferguson says, "there is nothing so frighteningly passive-aggressive as a well-irked Canadian.") In closing, I'll note that I usually don't by books with the word "dummies" in the title, but I may have to make an exception for Mr. Ferguson's "Canadian History for Dummies."

4. How marriage is like--and not like--tape.

5. As a kid, I loved "Excalibur" and have been disappointed with more recent efforts to do justice to the King Arthur story (especially this one). Don't you think it's about time we had a decent update on the King Arthur story? Is this it? I'm not so sure--though it seems promising.

That's it for now. More anon.

I'm constantly trying to better myself in any way that doesn't involve reading

2007-07-12T08:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry 'bout the long break, but, for reasons I won't go into here, we took June off from our (admittedly already rather unhurried) blogging schedule. So what did we miss? Paris Hilton went to jail and Scooter Libby didn't. (Apparently, Paris doesn't have as much dirt on Cheney as Scooter--though, of course, it's hard to blame Scooter for not wanting to rat out a guy who shot an old friend in the face.) Oh yeah, did you get yourself an iPhone? Me neither. Of course, "The Sopranos" is no more. All things considered, the ending was pretty good. I'll give David Chase an A-. Summer TV now officially sucks. When the best thing on the DVR is a bunch of episodes of "The Dog Whisperer," you know you're in trouble. Anyway, in no particular order, here we go:

1. Herewith a cool clip of the Smashing Pumpkins from Wednesday night at the 9:30 Club in DC. (Via Stereogum.)

2. Lohan has been reading Machiavelli. Let me suggest that this is not a good thing--sort of like giving the car keys to the family dog.

3. I'll assume that you, like me, have always wanted to have a secret compartment hidden behind a bookcase. Well, here's how to build one. (Via Boing Boing.)

4. This may be a wee bit controversial, but I'll admit to thinking in the past that Jessica Biel was a bit mannish. Let me take this opportunity to formally retract said views.

5. Speaking of hot chicks, is there anyone alive who's hotter than Monica Belluci? I think not. Check out the trailer for "Shoot 'Em Up", also featuring Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti. It reminds one of those great Guy Ritchie shoot-em-ups, though without the funny accents. Speaking of Clive (who, come to think of it, sort of has a funny accent), have you seen "Children of Men"? Rather dark I would say, but visually really quite stunning.

6. Since we're on the topic of movies/trailers, unlike this guy, I actually think the teaser trailer for "Get Smart" is kind of funny.

7. Also, Steven Soderberg's "The Good German"--much discussed on this here blog--arrived yesterday from Netflicks. I'll file a formal report about it next week.

8. The very cute Buzzy Barry is now nine months old. I, alas, don't have any recent pics of him. (I'll try to remedy that over the weekend.) In place of a cute Buzzy pic, here is my cousin-in-law Mark Kenny walking on his hands at the opening of the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum in NYC a few weeks ago.

UPDATE: I see I forgot to include the link for "Shoot 'Em Up". Here it is.

So what do you want me to get out of this show?

2007-05-30T07:58:00.000-07:00

1. So the Sopranos ends on Sunday. Any ideas about what's going to happen? Tony is killed or goes to jail? Too predictable. Meadow gets killed? Too Godfather III. A.J. goes to work for the Taliban? Now we're talking. I do hope it manages to come close to meeting everyone's (very high) expectations, but I think it's almost bound to disapoint.

2. In other high-culture news, didja catch Cormac McCarthy--"maestro of high-literary horse operas"--on Oprah the other day? Me neither. There's an entertaining--though very mean--discussion on Slate about it, in case you're curious.

3. Tintin seems to be all the rage at the moment. The usually brilliant Anthony Lane has a pretty good piece in The New Yorker from May 28 that will be of interest to all Tintinologists. It is, alas, not available on the interwebs, though you can read an abstract of the essay here.

4. You can find the trailer for Anton Corbijn's Control--about Ian Curtis of Joy Division fame here. I'll acknowledge that the subject matter is dark, but still, this is a bit much.

5. So I was in Brookline Booksmith in lovely Brookline, MA, a few weeks ago and discovered that, hidden away in the fiction section, they have a little section (sub-section?) called "Espionage". In said sub-section. amidst a lot of familiar stuff--Eric Ambler, Furst, McCarry--I came across a bunch of books by a guy I had never heard of before named Gerald Seymour. Mr. Seymour is a British reporter who has covered all sorts of messy stuff, including the Vietnam War, the Munich Olympics massacre, and the Italian Red Brigades. I finished my first one--Traitor's Kiss--a few nights ago and it is astounding. It tells the story of the efforts of MI6 to rescue a Russian double agent who's been compromised. Really good stuff--I couldn't put it down.

6. The latest of John Burdett's Bangkok novels, Bangkok Haunts, arrived in the mail yesterday. I started it as a dozed off last night and so far so good. I'll let you know how it goes, but, in the meantime, the earlier books, Bangkok 8 and Bangkok Tattoo are highly recommended if you like middle-brow police procedurals and don't mind a soupcon of Buddhism sprinkled on top.

Editor's Note: I apologize for any typographical errors in this post. I wrote this in a hurry and the spell-checker in the new version of Blogger blows. That is all.

Home is where the hardest

2007-05-23T13:00:00.000-07:00

1. So maybe this Tintin movie thing won't be such a clusterfuck after all. This story from the Times is moderately reassuring. Thankfully, they're going to keep it a cartoon.

2. Herewith is an interesting story from The New Yorker about the British "guerilla" artist Banksy. In other news, Banksy is no longer so mysterious.

3. The Office season finale was hilarious. I was particularly interested in reading Creed's blog. Now that I have, I have to confess that it's kind of lame.

4. So what do you think: Jordin or Blake? Though I was wrong about last week, I'll stick with my prediction that Jordin will win.

5. I see that The Good German--much discussed in this space--is just out on DVD. I suppose I'll have to give it a shot. Jenn has been reading the book, and I'm interested in what she thinks about it. In other similarly-named-spy-movie news, we watched The Good Shepherd over the weekend. I'll confess that while I enjoyed it, it was a bit of a mess. I gather that it is a semi-fictionalized take on James Jesus Angleton, the original counter-inteligence chief at the CIA. There's a ton of good material there, so perhaps we should hope that someone else will take another shot at it before too long.

6. I'm about two-thirds of the way through Christopher's Ghosts and it's quite excellent. (Among other things, there's lots of terrifying stuff about Nazi torture--sorry, interrogation--techniques in the first section that are no doubt intended to tell us somthing about things going on in our own world.) That said, I'm not sure I'd recommend it to someone new to the McCarry books. You're better off starting back at the beginning of the series (discussed here). Trust me on this.

I'm gonna wow you

2007-05-10T08:40:00.000-07:00

I heard through the grapevine that certain people think I blog too much, which, I imagine, will seem like a joke to our regular readers. Anyway, more of the usual:

1. Zut alors! It appears that the "Five Second Rule" is BS. But we knew that already.

2. We haven't had much to say about Idol here this year--You're welcome--but we're in the home stretch and I thought I'd ask our readers what they think about our final three. I think Blake goes home next week--the beat-box thing is getting old and he's simply not as good a singer as the other two. Melinda is a better singer than Jordin, but she's really boring. Advantage: Jordin. Though we'll see. Song choice is so crucial, you know.

3. Speaking of endings, only four more weeks of "The Sopranos". I've only recently discovered the massive amount of Sopranoiana on the interweb ("It's a series of tubes"). However, if you're interested, Sopranos Monday on The House Next Door is worth your attention.

4. I "heart" the movie "Wall Street," but have to admit that I'm a mite ambivalent about the idea of a sequel. I'll go out on a lim here and predict that it'll either be really cool or really bad. On the plus side, the hedge fund culture does seem ripe for some lampooning. (Tom Wolfe gave it a shot here, but the results are almost as boring as Melinda.)

5. This--the trailer for "Hot Rod", with Andy Samberg and Al Swearengen--is pretty funny. Sure, the movie will probably suck, but we can hope.

6. In case you missed it, Conan's visit to Lucsfilm/ILM is pretty funny. (Via TWS.) Part 2 is here.

More anon. Seacrest out.

UPDATE: I just got home from the vet with Buzzy--who, let's say, has a slight indigestion problem; in case you're eating lunch, I'll leave it at that--and found my copy of Charles McCarry's Christopher's Ghosts amongst the mail. Regular readers will know that I think McCarry's books about CIA agent Paul Christopher are unparalleled in the espionage literature. It's difficult to express in blogspeak how much I am looking forward to reading this book.

I will repeatedly kick and punch your henchmen

2007-04-25T10:23:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of ... what do you call it?... Oh, yeah ... blogging in this space of late. Been busy and all that.

1. Twas an interesting essay from the Sunday Times mag about Amises pere et fils. I read Martin's memoir a few years ago, so there wasn't much new here to me, but it's an amusing read all the same. Martin comes off pretty well. By just about any standard, he had a pretty horrible childhood (with Kingsley always hammered and sleeping around) and it's astonishing that he not only didn't hate his father but in fact they got on pretty well (despite that fact, pointed out by Ian McEwan, that Kingsley thought Martin's books were crap.) In any case, the new Zachary Leader bio of Kingsley sounds like it might be worth adding to my already rather tall pile of reading.

2. Speaking of things to read, here's a list of the best 100 books of the last 25 years, according to bunch of British bookstore employees. I went through it about a week ago and counted 11 that I've read. Considering some of the crap on the list (DaVinci Code? Mitch Albom?), I don't feel very upset about this.

3. On the list but new to me until a few weeks ago was Glen David Gold's "Carter Beats the Devil", recommended here in a comment (to one of my posts about magic movies) by Monica. I finished it in the wee hours a few nights ago and it's really an amazingly good book. I read somewhere that Tom Cruise and his producing partners own the film rights--which I think is probably not a good sign, but who knows.

4. The trailer is out for the new Bourne movie. I love these movies. However, this is spot on: "I, Jason Bourne, will repeatedly kick and punch your henchmen. Then, as I've been known to in previous Bourne outings, I will give you a mocking phone call when I'm right outside your headquarters. You will respond with shock and dismay. If you do not, I will continue to call until you do."

5. Find our mob nickname here. Mine, embarrassingly, is "Cedar Teath." If I was a character on the Sopranos, I would have been killed after about 12 seconds.

6. Buzzy was six months old a few weeks ago. He's now a strapping 52 lbs., though still very cute and puppyish.

Squirrel--the thinking man's chicken?

2007-04-05T13:10:00.000-07:00

1. So Keith Richards snorted his father. Though he has since recanted, I actually think he really did it.

2. Given my academic interests, I'm always delighted to find cases in which the government actually expresses interest in what normal people think. Alas, in this case it involves Star Wars postage stamps. You take what you can get, I guess. That said, I'm a little underwhelmed with the choices and will probably vote for Vader, though having Natalie Portman on a postage stamp would be kind of cool.

3. So, a coyote walks into a Quiznos ....

4. I'm a fairly adventurous eater, but this guy is fucked up. Brooklyn squirrel pot pie, no thanks. The Cod has more on how unhinged this guy really is.

5. Finally, anyone out there seen Babel? I intend to opine about it at length at some point, by am wondering if anyone else found it worth a damn.

UPDATE: This is kind of a bummer. Bob Clark, RIP. Most famous for directing the endlessly hilarious "A Christmas Story," as well as the T&A classics Porky's and Porky's II (and a bunch of aesthetic atrocities such as Turk 182), he was riding with his son in a car this morning in LA and both were killed by a drunk driver. Truly horrifying!

I have many leather-bound books

2007-03-30T11:25:00.000-07:00

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!

Cna yuo raed tihs?

2007-03-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

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.

About your father ...

2007-03-27T16:00:00.000-07:00

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.

A dialogue

2007-03-22T12:17:00.000-07:00

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.

Mistakes were made

2007-03-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

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.

Lovely evening, until Sting played the lute

2007-03-09T06:18:00.000-08:00

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.

Karma's a bitch

2007-03-07T16:35:00.000-08:00

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.

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

2007-03-05T15:31:00.000-08:00

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.

Breach

2007-02-16T10:00:00.000-08:00

Spy movies seem to be all the rage right now. Magnolia Darkness has a nice review in this morning's Times of "Breach", a new film about Robert Hansen, a creepy FBI agent who will spend the rest of his life in federal prison for selling secrets to the Russkies. Starring the always excellent Chris Cooper and the squinty-eyed soon-to-be-ex-husband-of-Reese-Witherspoon Ryan Phillippe, "Breach" sounds like it's worth netflixing. (As our regular readers know, we don't get out to the movies very often.) As a bonus, the review has a few snarky Dargisisms. (As a student of bureaucracy, I'll note that most jokes about bureaucracy aren't really very funny, but her comment that the FBI is like Microsoft, but with worse security, is priceless.)

Incidentally, the movie was directed by Billy Ray, whose best known earlier work was the interesting failure, "Shattered Glass." As a pure movie-watching experience, "Shattered Glass" is difficult to watch because the entire movie rests on Hayden Christensen's small, spindly shoulders. (Is there a worse actor who gets regular work in relatively high-profile movies? It's hard to think of one. Nominees?) However, it pops up on cable occasionally and I can't help watching it, mainly because I sort of lived through the experiences described in the movie. I was a sort-of contemporary of Steve's--I'm a year or two older than he is--in DC and met him a few times at parties. I also knew Hanna Rosin (played by Chloe Sevigny in the movie), who was Steve's big defender until end, and some of the other young editors at TNR at the time. I had just left DC for Indiana when the shit hit the fan (so to speak). If you're interested, Dave Plotz (who is married to Hanna) wrote about the surreal experience of watching the movie in Slate in 2003.

Democracy, whisky, sexy

2007-02-09T06:58:00.000-08:00

Aside from a little ocasional cursing, we usually run a pretty clean ship here at jwbblog. However, here's our first ever all-sex post. (I know. It's a little brief. We'll try to do better next time.)

1. Check out this entertaining and funny essay on the cultural phenomenon that is Playboy magazine, now celebrating its golden anniversary. He makes the nice point that, yes, Playboy was pretentious in an easily mockable way--lets invite some babes over for some cocktails and quiet conversation about "Picasso, Nietzsche, jazz, sex"--but such pretension--and the fantasies it gave rise to--seems vastly superior to the .... err ... lifestlye protrayed in Playboy's contemporaries, such as FHM, Maxim, and the like.

2. Breaking news: Sex in space--Not so great!

I'll just comment that it's a bit of a disapointment to find most of one's childhood fantasies--The Playboy lifestyle is mostly fiction? Those sex scenes in Moonraker were phony? No!--obliterated in a few minutes of reading!

Yeah, I know

2007-02-08T16:30:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of blogging of late. My computer finally melted down last week. The problem, it seems, was Steve Jobs' fault, so the "geniuses" at the Apple Store in lovely Burlington, MA, fixed it fairly quickly and (aside from not having a computer for a few days) at no cost to me. And things have been crazy busy this week. There have been a few items hither and yon that I've wanted to blog about recently, but most of them don't seem quite so hither as I think about it now. Here are a few:

1. Congrats to Jen Gadiel who now has a presence in blogistan. Check it out if your interested in the nexus of environmentalism and design.

2. Nelson Polsby, RIP. I only met him once, so I can't say that I really knew him, but he was one of the more distinguished political scientists around and he was also a very funny guy. I'll have to try that "entertaining without shoes" thing, though I imagine his wife did most of the cooking--hot food and bare feet--not so much.

3. I don't read Slate too often these days, but I just came across this astute take on Martin Amis's work (in the guise of a review of his new book). Like the author, I'm a bigger fan of early, Mean Amis--The Information, both brilliant and hilarious, is one of my favorite books--than the more recent neoconnish, moralizing Amis.

4. I watched Miami Vice last night and enjoyed it far more than I expected. Visually, it was quite remarkable and had me wishing I had a bigger TV to soak in all the high-def goodness. However, it had far to many preposterous elements--among them, the silly romance between Sonny (Colin Farrell) and Isabella (Gong Li)--to be considered a good movie. I'll give it a B.

6. The Fiddler was digging through his archives recently and came across the last installment of the late and lamented Bloom County. August 6, 1989 was a sad day, indeed.

6. Buzzy is growing like a weed. We took him in to see the vet on Saturday and he's 32 lbs. (He was 12 lbs. when we got him in early December.) He's starting to look more like a little dog than a puppy, but he's still very cute.

UPDATE: In other Jen Gadiel (nee Wulf) news, her boss, Sylvia Kwan--who we met at Jen's wedding--is on the new season of Survivor, a cultural happening that I have managed to avoid until now. I guess we'll have to watch. Good luck, Sylvia. And if you win, make sure you pay your taxes.

The 50 Most Loathsome People in America 2006

2007-01-26T14:29:00.000-08:00

In the early days of jwbblog, I blogged about last year's version of this list. This year's is pretty good too. My favorite is # 16: You. "You're Time magazine's person of the year. So was Hitler."

And I should say that, while I used to be an admirer of Senator McCains, given all his rather shameless (and, it's clear, pointless) sucking up to the President and the Religious Right over the last several years, I think he well deserves his status as the most loathsome person in America.