I was going to post about how unsatisfying Zack and Miri Make a Porno is; and how Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist is infinitely sad; and I was going to describe, (partially) tongue-in-cheek, what the discipline of Armpit Studies would look like, if such a thing existed; and I was going to talk about two modes of stealing from the East, as ( Read more... )

Maybe it's just me, but this bit to me sounds like Woody Allen's writing, especially in the final twist from the mathematical metaphysical to the mundane:"If you desire to have two parallel lines meet at once or even in the near future," he said, "it is important to make all the necessary arrangements beforehand, preferably by wireless."--from ( Read more... )

Happy New Year, everybody!

Do you have any plans or resolutions for the new year?

Last time on "Look on my works, ye Mighty," I showed you how I made whatever it was I was making at the time--was it my LED firefly honey jar light? This time I'll show you one of many photos of the finished gingerbread (graham cracker) house my s.o. Sarah and I made this past week for her mother ( Read more... )

Seriously, it wasn't totally worked out, but I dreamed a book proposal last night for a book tentatively titled "How to Argue with a Geek," a title which, in the snow-dimmed light of day, I think I would change to "How to Argue with (not like) a Geek." That's not quite right either--my gut impulse is to say it needs a gut-churningly cute, catchy ( Read more... )

I am very tired from a long day playing Star Wars: Force Unleashed on the Wii and helping to make sure that my nephew's bris went okay, which it did. Since I am so tired, I will only write that I am now uncle Ben, and I am my nephew William Stanley's godfather. If I had to choose which cultural icon I would rather be associated with--Uncle Ben or ( Read more... )

So, what good tv shows are you guys watching now? Or, what shows are you re-watching? What shows reward rewatching? Or, if not whole shows, what episodes reward rewatching?

I'm going to go make a big salad for lunch, and while I do that, I'm going to watch this week's 30 Rock--again. What are you watching--again?

That's it--Happy Obama Day!

Voting today in Chicago: no line at 10am at the St. Augustine College polling location in south Logan Square/north Humboldt Park--in fact, maybe 6 people voting, max, which is equal to or less than the number of poll-workers there. No older black women in tears about living to see the day. No college kids voting for the first time because now they ( Read more... )

It's a question that's easy to answer in terms of Barbossa and the crew of the Black Pearl in Curse of the Black Pearl: they want to feel alive again--which means, very simply, that they want to feel.

With Davy Jones and the crew of the Flying Dutchman in Dead Man's Chest, the answer is the opposite: they want to not feel anything, whether that ( Read more... )