February 2009
Some happy news to pass on about Carl Wilson « Ned Raggett Ponders It All
Congrats! And I’ll echo what Ned said: It’s well-deserved, too.
(via offnotesnotes)
BALLIN
Early 90s Cultural References:
Hannah wears an outfit composed entirely of DayGlo neon colors.
Reinforcement of Negative Stereotypes Alert:
The city’s Chief Postal Inspector threatens twelve-year old children repeatedly that he will go after them with his shotgun.
R.L. Stine Shows He is Down With the Kids:
Knocking over mailboxes, stealing ice cream cones from local parlours, these are some James Dean-level shenannigans.
Official Dream Sequence Tally:
3.
Memorable Cliffhanger Chapter Ending:
Ch. 16/17:
Hannah goes up to her room to go to sleep when suddenly the shadowy figure is by her bed! Oh, by shadowy figure she means her jacket. What a spooky jacket, Hannah!
Apparently blogger beware has been active since March 2006, but I only today discovered this loving, encyclopedic tribute to the Goosebumps series.
Sonic to open up in Ulster, NY
It is a solid 2.5 hours from Brooklyn, but at least now I won’t feel mocked when I see those commercials.
(via amandalynferri)
There are already several Sonics closer to Williamsburg, including one on the Jersey Shore, one just outside Philly, and one a straight shot west on 78. (It’s, uh, possible I’ve considered a Sonic road trip in the past.)
icanseenewyorkcityfrommyhouse:
From today’s NY Times:
New York to Spend $45 Million to Retrain Laid-Off Wall Streeters
30 Rock “Generalissimo” (Season 3, Episode 10):
The former banker interns have “zero real world skills, but God they work hard.”
“The plan is intended to stem the exodus of talent from the rapidly collapsing financial services industry, which has been the city’s economic engine for decades, and speed the industry’s recovery, which may take years, officials said.”
I’m pretty impressed with these “officials.” Personally, I can’t handle that level of cognitive dissonance.
Some have called Slumdog “poverty porn”. Presumably, by this they mean that it exploits the horror on which it feeds to provide audiences with a degrading and illicit thrill. Director Danny Boyle might reasonably point out that plenty of his peers have opted to peddle privation. Must La Haine and City of God, he might ask, also go under the counter?
On-screen sex seems to be considered pornographic when its purpose is to arouse rather than enlighten. By this test, Slumdog doesn’t come out too well. It certainly seems more intent on turning its source material into voyeuristic entertainment than on seriously exploring its complexities.
Perhaps that’s why in India posters for the film have been torn down, pictures of Boyle have been burned and a cinema has been vandalised, while the other two films seem to have prompted no comparable protests in the Paris banlieue or Rio’s favelas.
file under: the ever-present complexities of globalized culture (sigh)
I’ll give Cox La Haine, but I don’t think the contrast with City of God is particularly instructive, mainly because I had the same problems with that movie. I wasn’t paying a ton of attention to film criticism in 2002, though. Did City of God really get a free pass on this issue?
(via perpetua)
I guess we know which side Grant Morrison favors in the Nick vs. Carles showdown….
“Combined, the pair account for about 50 percent of the magazine market.”
“There were some publishers who felt Anderson and Source would back down from their initial demands. It appears now they were not bluffing.”
WHOOPS
