short form

“I don’t have the strength to stay away from you anymore” “Then don’t”

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:27:21 -0800

“I don’t have the strength to stay away from you anymore” “Then don’t”:

I want to talk a bit more about Twilight, and why I feel weird about. Twilight is, no matter how you look at it, a pretty terrible movie that turns vampires into unicorns, but it still, at least…

Only One Englishman Per Gala

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:12:21 -0800

Only One Englishman Per Gala:

I was planning to write a longer thing about Twilight and my adolescence and the relations between the two tonight, but I was busy with other things! High culture things.

I maybe somehow went to…

Holding out for that teenage feeling

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:04:02 -0800

Holding out for that teenage feeling:

I’m sorry, I can’t even write anything contemporary or even coherent. I just finished watching Twilight.

Did you know vampires play baseball?

“You’re my own personal brand of heroin”

Blair would befriend a call girl named Brandeis

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:56:35 -0800

Blair would befriend a call girl named Brandeis:

So I’ve been thinking about the deal with Gossip Girl this year. It’s not really suffering from the “high school show goes to college” Veronica Mars-type problems, more from “the first couple ofT…

RIP Levi-Strauss

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:30:50 -0800

RIP Levi-Strauss

Dressed smart like a London bloke, before he speak his suit bespoke

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:20:25 -0800

Dressed smart like a London bloke, before he speak his suit bespoke:

So today is one of my days where I have Things To Do, that I’m not even really focusing on. Last night I had a dream that I was in London walking around taking pictures, so in honour, I am posting…

How can Rihanna in an eyepatch still be lackluster?

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:27:36 -0800

How can Rihanna in an eyepatch still be lackluster?

Days like this, I wish I was MIA. via Jez

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:55:06 -0800

Days like this, I wish I was MIA.

via Jez

The September Issue

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:19:40 -0800

The September Issue:

Anna and Grace

Making a movie about putting out a fashion magazine — even a fashion magazine as spectacular as Vogue’s epic September 2007 issue — obviously requires some shaping…

Dancing vampires are still scarier than Twilight

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:40:11 -0800

Dancing vampires are still scarier than Twilight:

So remember how I used to post regularly to my blog? And then I graduated grad school and basically stopped blogging, because having a full time job makes it hard to devote an hour or two a day to…

I consider it my duty as a film critic and a human being to see...

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:26:21 -0800

I consider it my duty as a film critic and a human being to see this movie.

(There is an HD version of this scene at the Apple Trailers site that is even more destructeriffic.)

"He has been directing films at a rate of one every two or three years and is so far sticking to a..."

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:00:48 -0800

“He has been directing films at a rate of one every two or three years and is so far sticking to a vow that his onscreen alter ego makes in “Broken Embraces”: no sequels, remakes or biopics. That last category is a tempting one, especially when Mr. Almodóvar expounds on the life of Ernest Hemingway’s transsexual son, Gregory (later Gloria). Bullfighting! Gender-bending! Think of the costumes! Isn’t he at least intrigued? “No biopics,” he said firmly. “No biopics, no prequels, no sequels, no hero movies, no antihero movies, and definitely no superhero movies. Anything else I can handle.””

- Holiday Movies - Penélope Cruz and Pedro Almodóvar - Cinematic Soulmates - NYTimes.com

Oh, Willow. I’ll always love you.

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:36:53 -0800

Oh, Willow. I’ll always love you.

"Rand’s particular intellectual contribution, the thing that makes her so popular and so American, is..."

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:33:32 -0700

“Rand’s particular intellectual contribution, the thing that makes her so popular and so American, is the way she managed to mass market elitism — to convince so many people, especially young people, that they could be geniuses without being in any concrete way distinguished. Or, rather, that they could distinguish themselves by the ardor of their commitment to Rand’s teaching. The very form of her novels makes the same point: they are as cartoonish and sexed-up as any best seller, yet they are constantly suggesting that the reader who appreciates them is one of the elect.”

- Adam Kirsch, Ayn Rand’s Revenge, NYT (via barthel) (via tylercoates)

From the same piece:

Rand labored for more than two years on Galt’s radio address near the end of “Atlas Shrugged” — a long paean to capitalism, individualism and selfishness that makes Gordon Gekko’s “Greed is good” sound like the Sermon on the Mount. “At one point, she stayed inside the apartment, working for 33 days in a row,” Heller writes. She kept going on amphetamines and willpower; the writing, she said, was a “drops-of-water-in-a-desert kind of torture.” Nor would Rand, sooner than any other desert prophet, allow her message to be trifled with. When Bennett Cerf, a head of Random House, begged her to cut Galt’s speech, Rand replied with what Heller calls “a comment that became publishing legend”: “Would you cut the Bible?” One can imagine what Cerf thought — he had already told Rand plainly, “I find your political philosophy abhorrent” — but the strange thing is that Rand’s grandiosity turned out to be perfectly justified.

Serge Gainsbourg - Bonnie & Clyde

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:11:23 -0700

Serge Gainsbourg - Bonnie & Clyde

godiminbadshaperightnow: danmeth: Halloween Week: STEELY DAN...

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:52:51 -0700

godiminbadshaperightnow:

danmeth:

Halloween Week: STEELY DAN

There’s nothing so terrifying as how smooth they sound.

(via tylercoates)

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:05:13 -0700

(via tylercoates)

Lady Gaga Talks About Collaborating With Beyonce

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:16:49 -0700

Lady Gaga Talks About Collaborating With Beyonce:

Arlo Weiner in GQ

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:27:46 -0700

Arlo Weiner in GQ

Ah, this is yay. merlin: A Tribe Called Quest - “Scenario” I...

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:10:01 -0700

Ah, this is yay.

merlin:

A Tribe Called Quest - “Scenario”

I can get how this probably sounds really dated to to a lot of people, but it still sounds incredibly fresh to me. Every performance is superb. And Busta Rhymes just buries the needle on that last verse.