Archive for September, 2009
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. Leave a 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: Unabated to the Quarterback, week 3, week 3 nfl, john herrera, rich gannon, tim kawakami, the raiders strike again and hilariously so, more than one "i told you so"s, more than one "i told you the opposite"s, darrell green, aeneas williams, deion sanders, darrelle revis, champ bailey, clinton portis, references to two heartbreaking giants' losses (one's a bit more opaque), the 2000 ravens, nnamdi asomugha: remember the name, antonio cromartie, corey webster, chris gamble, great nfl cornerbacks, cover corners, shutdown corners, michael lombardi blue chips. 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 running [...]
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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 I [...]
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28
Sep
Posted by NPI in Monday Medley. Tagged: fire joe morgan, espn, Brody Jenner, Derek Jeter, 2666, roberto bolano, deadspin, scott van pelt, scott boras, this is sportscenter, the millions, quantified looks at the decade, fernando perez, jersey guys, poetry magazine, south carolina cheerleaders and what they do in their leisure time that involves crossbows, crossbows, mean girls references, sultan kosen, world's tallest man, guinness book of world records, shots at the already-down mets. 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 [...]
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27
Sep
Posted by Tim in Literature, Sunday Book Review. Tagged: james joyce, asterios polyp, david mazzucchelli, ulysses, hana, function of form, graphic novel, what IS the plural of deus ex machina?, experiments with eyes. 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 weeks [...]
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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 be [...]
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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. 3 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 was [...]
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24
Sep
Posted by John S in TV, comedy. 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. 3 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, I should [...]
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Tim
John S
Pierre Menard
Josh
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