Author Archive
21
Dec
Posted by NPI in Monday Medley. Tagged: around the horn, bill plaschke, brittany murphy, clueless, david simon, gossip girl, great taste less filling, happiness, hitfix, Jalen Rose, miller lite, netflix, new york, New York Magazine, nude scenes, pardon the interruption, roger ebert, Slate, social networking, the aughts (obvs), The Wire. Leave a Comment
What we read while frantically pushing Clueless up the Netflix queue:
Once again, Slate is about three weeks too late in asking, “What should we call this decade?“
Way back in October, Tim celebrated the anniversary of Pardon the Interruption by praising the show as a standout among sports debate shows, especially its [...]
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20
Dec
Posted by NPI in Aught Lang Syne, Culture, Food, comedy, economics. Tagged: Chuck Klosterman, In defense of Food, Dan Ariely, Predictably Irrational, Michael Lewis, moneyball, randy barnett, restoring the lost constitution, Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs, noam chomsky, A.J. Jacobs, Hegemony or Survival, The Omnivore's Dilemma, Blink, The Tipping Point, The Mystery of Capital, The Wisdom of Crowds, James Surowiecki. Leave a Comment
In case you missed Part I of our analysis of the decade’s best nonfiction, you can check it out here.
9/11, Pirates and Emperors, Hegemony or Survival, Failed States, et. al. – Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky has always been prolific in his political writings, but the aftermath of 9/11 saw an increase in the relevance of his criticisms [...]
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20
Dec
Posted by NPI in Aught Lang Syne, Literature. Tagged: Books, david foster wallace, consider the lobster, Richard Dawkins, Freakonomics, the Beatles, Jon Stewart, fox news, george w. bush, Aught Lang Syne, America: The Book, The Daily Show, Nonfiction, The Bottom Billion, Paul Collier, Everything Bad is Good for you, Steven Johnson, Steven Levitt, Stephen Dubner, The Game, Neil Strauss, Mystery, Generation Kill, Evan Wright, The God Delusion, Here There and Everywhere, Geoff Emerick, Howard Massey, Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell them, Al Franken, Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris. 1 Comment
Last week, NPI gave an overview of fiction (in two parts!) of the Aughts. Yesterday, Josh pointed out the popular economics trend in this decade’s nonfiction. Today, Josh and John are going over (in two parts!) what they believe are the biggest nonfiction books of the Aughts.
America: The Book – Jon Stewart and The Daily Show writers
I bought [...]
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16
Dec
Posted by NPI in Aught Lang Syne, TV, comedy. Tagged: Arrested Development, The Wire, Lost, The Office, Mad Men, Don Draper, Jon Hamm, How I Met Your Mother, dexter, 24, John Krasinski, Ricky Gervais, Jason Bateman, Kiefer Sutherland, Jack Bauer, Dexter Morgan, Michael C. Hall, tony shalhoub, adrian monk, monk, golden age of television, jim halpert, barney stinson, neil patrick harris, david brent, the british office, omar little, michael k. williams, michael bluth, john locke, terry o'quinn. 4 Comments
John S already called the Aughts the “Golden Age of Television.” Now, he’s joined by Tim to help further justify that statement by recalling some of the most original and memorable characters the medium has produced over the last 10 years. We had one criterion: The character had to debut this decade. Some notable characters [...]
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14
Dec
Posted by NPI in Monday Medley. Tagged: Sports, new york times magazine, behavioral economics, Health Care, contrarianism, the millions, Food, menus, blowouts, martha nussbaum, Al Gore, Sarah Palin, climate controversy, climategate, Atul Gawande, Health Care Costs, Year in Ideas, close games, restaurant menu analysis, cat ownership, empirical data, russian literature, richard pevear and larissa volokhonsky. 1 Comment
What we read while looking for a more suitable sponsor…
Has this climate controversy been blown out of proportion? But then what will Al Gore and Sarah Palin have to argue about?
With a few exceptions, we’ve more or less stayed neutral on this health care disaster. Well, Atul Gawande thinks the new [...]
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13
Dec
Posted by NPI in Aught Lang Syne, Literature. Tagged: No Country for Old Men, Javier Bardem, the Coen brothers, roberto bolano 2666, 2666, roberto bolano, ian mcewan, michael chabon, Aught Lang Syne, the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen, George Saunders, Pastoralia, Atonement, Junot Diaz, kite runner, Cormac McCarthy, literature of the Aughts, literature of the decade, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Khaled Hosseini, Kurt Vonnegut comparisons. 2 Comments
In addition to our Aught-themed Sunday Book Review, which we began last week, NPI is presenting a more general look at fiction of the decade in which we look quickly and some of the most significant works of literature published during this decade. This is Part I of a two-part series.
2666 — Roberto Bolaño
The epic [...]
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12
Dec
Posted by NPI in Aught Lang Syne, Film, Sports, TV. Tagged: 5, anger at the fundamentals of how fashion works, big red, bubble yum, bubblicious, Chuck Klosterman, critically praised comedies, culturally allusive t-shirts, dentyne, denver broncos, doublemint, elemental cobalt tastes great!, franchises, fruit stripe, gum, How many Saws have there been?, instant replay, ironic t-shirts, juicy fruit, laugh tracks, monochrome uniforms, opening credits, Paul Blart 2, seattle seahawks, sequels, stride, stylish glasses, the demise of hats, the demise of laugh tracks, the superfluity of movie theaters, the unwarranted acceptance of human error, TV, unoriginality in film, weird oedipal complexes hinted at but not confirmed. 2 Comments
In our latest installment of Aught Lang Syne, NPI is going to look at the best and worst trends in our culture from this decade. John S will tackle movies and TV, while Tim will explain sports and, of course, fashion.
TELEVISION
The Best Trend in Television: The Demise of Laugh Tracks
The slow, steady, not-yet-completed demise of [...]
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5
Dec
Posted by NPI in Aught Lang Syne, Culture, comedy. Tagged: Chuck Klosterman, Arrested Development, The Hills, The Wire, The Dark Knight, The Simpsons, Superbad, Barack Obama, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Kanye West, jonathan safran foer, dick vitale, george w. bush, september 11th, John Kerry, Politics, Samantha Power, Hillary Clinton, Isaac from the Real World, The OC, Bill O'Reilly, South Park, quotes, quotes of the decade, Allen Iverson, Dennis Green. Leave a Comment
To accurately and sufficiently summarize the Aughts, we at NPI have compiled and organized what we believe to be the defining list of quotes from this decade. Some of these were soundbytes, some were entire news cycles, some were quoted ad nauseam, some are poignant, some are sad, and most are hilarious.
“Either you are with [...]
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30
Nov
Posted by NPI in Monday Medley. Tagged: Chuck Klosterman, The Wire, Aziz Ansari, Judd Apatow, Funny People, Randy, Michael Lewis, moneyball, Bill James, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Alan Sepinwall, the millions, Food, thanksgiving, movie reviews, the blind side, infographics, Jason Woliner, j.d. drew, movie graphs, movie maps, jurassic park, lord of the rings, star wars, the cfl. 2 Comments
What we read while hiding our golf clubs…
Food is a big part of Thanksgiving. Which food that is, though, depends in part on what region of the country you’re from. Check out this “infographic” which shows where search queries for different Thanksgiving foods came from geographically.
Excellent news on the horizon for [...]
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Tim
John S
Pierre Menard
Josh
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