Archive for September, 2009
30
Sep
Posted by Tim in Comedy, Literature, TV. Tagged: alan blair, Bored to Death, bored to death jonathan ames, HBO, henry harrison, Jason Schwartzman, jeeves, jonathan ames, Kristen Wiig, louis ives, olivia thirlby, pretty remarkable instances of my imagined concept manifesting itself in reality (kind of), ted danson, the extra man, wake up sir!, Zach Galifianakis. 2 Comments
The following is an entirely true and somewhat amazing cascade of events: Sometime early this decade, probably right around when I finished reading Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, I decided I wanted to write my own detective novel. It was to be nothing short of a blatant rip-off of Christie’s concept—people dying one [...]
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30
Sep
Posted by John S in TV. Tagged: Audrina Patridge, Brody Jenner, cowboy boots, great costumes for Spencer, Heidi Pratt, It's On Bitch, Jump the Shark, Justin Bobby, Kristin Cavallari, my way or the lame way, Spencer Pratt, the delicate balance of contradictions that is The Hills, The Hills, Winston Wolf. 1 Comment
The appeal of The Hills has always been its delicate balance of a few very key contradictions: the show is “real life” but quite obviously staged, these characters are on a very successful and invasive TV show that they can never explicitly acknowledge, the people on the show constantly talk about how much is going [...]
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29
Sep
Posted by Tim in Unabated to the Quarterback. Tagged: aeneas williams, antonio cromartie, champ bailey, chris gamble, clinton portis, corey webster, cover corners, darrell green, darrelle revis, deion sanders, great nfl cornerbacks, john herrera, michael lombardi blue chips, more than one "i told you so"s, more than one "i told you the opposite"s, nnamdi asomugha: remember the name, references to two heartbreaking giants' losses (one's a bit more opaque), rich gannon, shutdown corners, the 2000 ravens, the raiders strike again and hilariously so, tim kawakami, Unabated to the Quarterback, week 3, week 3 nfl. 8 Comments
“Stick with him! Think of chewing gum … if he’s chewing some, by the end of the game, I want to know what flavor it is!” —Coach Norman Dale A few years ago, the Washington Redskins traded young but established star cornerback named Champ Bailey to the Denver Broncos for a young but established star [...]
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29
Sep
Posted by John S in Education. Tagged: Arne Duncan, Barack Obama, David Gilmour, different systems of education, Education, expanding the school day, expanding the school year, gratuitous classic rock references, high school, our long-forgotten agricultural economy, Roger Waters, school, tutorial. Leave a Comment
Contrary to the opinions of Roger Waters and David Gilmour, we do, in fact, need education. In fact, according to President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, we need more education. This weekend, the two of them floated the ever-unpopular ideas of expanding the school day and eliminating or shortening summer break. Now, since [...]
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28
Sep
Posted by NPI in Monday Medley. Tagged: 2666, Brody Jenner, crossbows, deadspin, Derek Jeter, espn, fernando perez, fire joe morgan, guinness book of world records, jersey guys, mean girls references, poetry magazine, quantified looks at the decade, roberto bolano, scott boras, scott van pelt, shots at the already-down mets, south carolina cheerleaders and what they do in their leisure time that involves crossbows, sultan kosen, the millions, this is sportscenter, world's tallest man. Leave a Comment
What we read while Google Earth-ing the rest of the Middle East: Our friends over at The Millions got a jump start on decade-in-review countdowns, ranking the best novels of the last 10 years. For those who, like us, enjoyed Roberto Bolaño’s 2666, No. 4 on The Millions’ list, they offer a complete “Bolaño syllabus” [...]
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27
Sep
Posted by Tim in Literature, Sunday Book Review. Tagged: asterios polyp, david mazzucchelli, experiments with eyes, function of form, graphic novel, hana, james joyce, ulysses, what IS the plural of deus ex machina?. Leave a Comment
Back when I was a hard-working student, I took two very different classes. One was high school biology, and the other was on James Joyce. I got through the former by remembering one of the life sciences’ simplest platitudes: Form equals function. I got through the latter by pretending I understood what that meant when [...]
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26
Sep
Posted by Pierre Menard in The Sports Revolution. Tagged: fedex cup, jack nicklaus, pga championship, the barclays, the ill-conceived notion that fans are clamoring for an improved golf playoff system, the masters, the open championship, The Sports Revolution, the tour championship, tiger woods, u.s. open, vijay singh. Leave a Comment
Let me set the scene for you: It’s the final week of the golf season, except nobody notices because the most important tournaments have already been played. Let me reset the scene for you: It’s the final week of the golf season, and everybody’s* attention is riveted as the most important tournament wraps up six [...]
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25
Sep
Posted by John S in Sports. Tagged: aspersions of athletes, contract negotiations, Curt Flood, dystopias, free agency, Juwanna Mann, Michael Crabtree, NFL, NFL Draft, salary cap, san francisco 49ers, Scoop Jackson as a source of credible journalism. Leave a Comment
ESPN ran two stories yesterday about Michael Crabtree and his contract situation. For those unfamiliar, Crabtree was selected tenth overall, by my own San Francisco 49ers, in last spring’s NFL Draft, but he has not, as of yet, signed with the team. The dispute stems from the fact that the team feels that Crabtree should [...]
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25
Sep
Posted by NPI in TV. Tagged: 24, ABC, conversations, fall tv season, Flash Forward, flashforward kangaroo, friday night lights, Heroes, high-concept shows, Jack Davenport, John Cho, Joseph Fiennes, kangaroo, ken jeong, Lost, multiple uncalled for references to pirates of the caribbean, time-travel, TV, your anti-maya agenda has been clear for quite some time now. 5 Comments
JOHN S: FlashForward premiered on ABC last night (with an encore for those who missed it tonight at 8), and Tim and John S watched–we weren’t lying when we said FlashForward was the #9 reason to be excited for the Fall TV Season. So Tim, what did you think? TIM: First off, you said it [...]
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24
Sep
Posted by John S in Comedy, TV. Tagged: 18th century agrarian business, Arrested Development, bad writing, Ben Franklin, criticisms of things that were once great, Dwight Schrute, Dwight's Speech, Gay Witch Hunt, insulting comedy, Michael Scott, Michael/Oscar kiss, NBC, Rainn Wilson, Spartacus, Steve Carell, stupid jokes, the demise of The Office, The Office. 22 Comments
It’s always easier to analyze things in retrospect, and the demise of The Office, my one-time favorite show on television, is no different. In retrospect it’s easy to point to the third season premiere as the moment when things went south, but at the time I didn’t feel that way at all. First, though, [...]
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Tim
John S
Pierre Menard
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NPI
Jake
