I've read those Englsh dramas to-OO, they're Cru-OO-l

Lou Reed is a very grumpy dude when it comes to money vs. art. Understandably so.

I went and saw him on 4/20 in Northampton, and he did a GREAT job.

+++

I'm hypothetically on Spike's side in the Clint vs. Spike debate, but I'm not sure he needed to point to Clint's films to explain his own. Eastwood's films did focus on the white-only battalions, which were still segregated during WWII, but I'm not sure that the law of "presence of an absence" so much applies to Clint's film as it does to the photography of the War, which is what Clint's first of the two films (Flags of Our Fathers, that is) was inspired by.

I'm in favor of free speech and artistic dialogue, so Spike's my man. Plus, it's not like Clint has been especially gracious about other people's films.

Remember when he criticized Peter Jackson for using special effects in a FANTASY film? And when he tried to act as though Mystic River, as a star-studded melodrama, was somehow handicapped at the Oscars? PUH-LEEZ.

Just a thought.

Nate

duh nu nu nu nuNUH du nu nu nu nu nu NUH DuNUhNUHNUH...that's the original animated series' theme song, by the way

I haven't been excited about an animated series in years, but next year's Wolverine and the X-Men is going to rule. I'm excited that the writers appear to be exploring the recent developments in the X-Men, and actually making use of the comics' extensive ensemble. In the trailer, we can see Emma Frost, Polaris, Scarlet Witch, Domino, and several others that never played big roles in the original series.

Hell yeah. Can't wait.

Nate

a link you guys will like

Okay. This is the best gimmicky blog since Stuff White People Like.

It's Things Younger Than John McCain.

Nate

oh ps

Oh, and, just so I don't forget this, here is the most comprehensive list of the most acclaimed movies of 00s I've seen yet. The IMDB can suck this list's left nut.

Nate

No, look, it's exactly what you said the other day: "chocolate! chocolate! chocolate! aaack!"

I promise that I will soon be posting my actual thoughts and reviews of pop culture-ish items. In the meantime, enjoy various links and time-wasters. The internet is chock full of 'em.

***
This will drain hours from your existence, if it hasn't already. It's called Line Rider, and it is deadly.

Kalei pointed me toward this one: This is some CUTE. ASS. SHIT.


Yeah, fuck me for never checking out Google Scholar before. I'm an idiot. [Yeah, I left the 'f' out of the hyperlink...I'm challenging preconceived notions of internet communication. How bout that...I just messed up, actually. I'm very lazy, and would rather type all this than fix the link. Moving on.]

A brief post on how YouTube has resurrected all the "lost" racist Looney Tunes cartoons. Includes a debate on the implication of the availablity of such material.

+++

Oh, and I'm two episodes away from finishing a complete viewing of the first season of Flight of the Conchords, and I'm really impressed by how much the show developed over one season. The same can definitely be said of 30 Rock.

I saw a thread on favorite current TV characters over at AwardsDaily. After careful consideration, my vote goes to Murray Hewitt of FotC. Too good. Benjamin Linus of Lost is a close second.

Lost has been kicking ass, no? The last two episodes have been phenomenal. I'll have more detailed thoughts soon. Promise.

Nate

If this wasn't enough Nate...

If you do not scan the right-hand sidebars every time you enter the site, you may not have noticed the addition of a couple of "wings" of the Hollow Chatter.

Other than my running 'Best of 08', you can now take a look at my new projects, The Hollow Pictures and The (Less Hollow) Lists. They are both pretty self-explanatory, but I must mention that both blogs are exercises in fun and entertainment, not anal-retentive, masturbatory stuff, so you shouldn't be afraid to check it out.

Nate.

I LINK I love you, so what am I so afraid of?

FILM

Maryann Johanson, the Flick Filosopher to you, has a disappointing review of Tina Fey's new comedy, Baby Mama. I kinda was getting nervous about this one.

And, because I'm always a sucker for a list, here's the British Time Out Film Guide's readers list and critics list of the 100 Greatest Films of All Time.

INTERNETS

The Flick Filosopher also informs us of a new Joss Whedon internet project. As if I wasn't already life-threateningly excited, here's the best part...it's a fucking musical. Starring Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion. Fuck yeah.

GENERAL

Nat Rogers celebrates "the gayest day of the year" over at The Film Experience (if you didn't know, today's the b-day of Barbra Streisand, Shirley Maclaine, and Jean Paul Gaultier).

Nate

Gossip Girl: Best Show Ever...according to New York Magazine

This is a great, great, great article. It certainly makes me wanna watch Gossip Girl.

Nate

The perfect set of links...when you're stoned

Happy 420 everybody! Have fun with some links. Guaranteed funny content when high.

Movies

Some beautiful soul has adapted Juno into a much funnier screenplay, courtesy of Cracked.

Here's a (somewhat) controversial list of the ten most most dissapointing Star Wars characters.

Film of the Year, an interesting new blog discovery for me, has a great post (with an even better title) about a seminal piece of early film-making: "Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory."

Other

Hollwood Elsewhere blowhard Jeffrey Welles has a decently interesting post on the new generation of "Millenial voters." Worth a gander just for what he cites.

What the dude up there did to Juno, this article from 23/6 News does to the Philly debate. Pretty funny.

Nate

For those curious about Action Awareness Week

Here's some background, and here's some disappointing media coverage of Action Awareness week here at Hampshire College:

Bad

The "Chronicle of Higher Education" displays thinly veiled contempt, but decent control of their sentiments.

Boston.com explains how students "cut class" for demands including "anti-oppression training."

Our local NBC affiliate has a tiny little story.

Worse

This under-informed article over at Villainous Company blames failing educational standards on all those rude Hampshire students among other unrelated news stories.

Other

Some LJ drama regarding the whole thing.

Nathaniel Tyson

I may not know art, but I know what I link

This website will make you sad. It is about Puppy Mills. You can't say that I didn't warn you.

I thought of all of my friends from MD's trip to California when I read this.

Here's a time-lapse video of a dude stuck in an elevator for 41 hours. It's fucked up. You're basically watching someone go insane.

Race & Such...

My Politics on Pop Culture teacher referred us to this really, really, really well-done blog post about the eternal question: What constitutes racism? The ensuing comments are some of the better ones dealing with the subject that I've ever seen. Not all 100% positive, but not the usual ignorance pageant.

She also pointed out this (hopefully) eye-opening essay about the wide acceptance of "Racism 2.0" in America. Unfortunately, the article doesn't tackle less obvious examples like message boards and review sites.

The Racism Review also tackles a terribly ironic story in which white nativists get all huffy about some images in Mexican ads for Absolut vodka. Gosh. It's just a joke guys. Get over it.

Oh, and for good measure, here's an article about the controversy from the Absolut site. Take a look at all those level-headed Americans in the comments section. Thank God the internet is so colorblind.

[I am very happy, however, to see that Absolut is refusing to apologize. That heartens me.]

Nathaniel "Nate Tyson" Tyson

two cool pictures from movies I'm kinda dreading

(image from here)


(image from here)

The top one is from the X-Men spin-off Wolverine:Origins, the second one is an encouring from from the Watchmen adaptation directed by Zac Snyder. Snyder's done two movies and is batting 50/50 right now; he did 300 [bad] & the Dawn of the Dead remake [good]. You should check out the link for the Watchmen picture, because there are a ton of other cool ones there.

Anyways, both will probably suck, but these photos kinda get me a little excited anyways.

Nate

Burritos, waging the War on the Middle [class] of Lou Dobb's body

I was thinkin' about how a few months ago, CNN.com ran a piece about how Lou Dobb's should run for President. I read the piece, only to discover, to my shock and awe, that Lou had not written the op-ed himself.

This got me thinking about The Good Ol' People's Champion in detail. Today, you are subject to a Lou Dobb's oriented HollowChatter. Previous promised material will just have to wait.

++++

John O'Bryan has written the very funny What More Does Lou Dobbs Have to Do to Prove He's Not Racist over at 23/6. Lou Dobbs can never be made fun of enough. I really would like to take him and Glen Beck out to a desert island and leave them there to battle to the death. Then I would nuke the island to make sure there were no survivors.

23/6 also has the best headline I've seen in quite some time:

"Eliot Spitzer Leaves his Resignation on the Dresser"

Mercy.

++++

Here's a little bit of weird, Lou Dobbs related irony for you.

Lou Dobbs is obviously racist, but he, like many famous racists, makes the argument that because his wife is Mexican-American, he cannot possibly be prejudiced. Now, Dobbs loves to talk about the crime, poverty, disease (?), and the general dirt and mud that will be spread by "illegals", but this isn't racism...clearly.

It's just journa-...no, it's not that. It's good, old fashioned public polic-...no, not that either.

Xenophobia! That's it.

So, the irony? Debi, Dobbs' wife, was arrested for trying to board a plane with a LOADED GUN in 2006.

Fuckin Mexicans, right Lou? It was brave of you to marry her, even though you knew that, as a Mexican, she would bring crime, poverty, and disease into your marriage. Self fulfilling prophecy, right, Lou?

I don't mean to beat up on Debbi...oh, wait, yeah I do. She totally deserves it. She married a racist prick who's trying to incite political violence and oppression against impoverished immigrants. She can burn in Hell.

Sorry about that.

++++

Another strange fact? Lou Dobbs won a Peabody for journalistic excellence in the 80s for covering the crash of 1987.

Hmmm.

Nathaniel Tyson

The awful feeling of electric heat...

My Politics in Pop Culture course is pretty amazing, and one particularly great thing about taking it is my professor's selections of topical links for the week's readings.

This week, our class will focus on the representations of Latinos in modern pop culture, especially in the context of the political scapegoat issue of immigration. Susana (my prof) has some choice links for the topic, two of the best appearing on the MediaMatters website:

Boortz: Non-English-speaking Latinos are "the ones with sombreros" and "bandoliers full of bullets across their chest"

Savage called Latino advocacy group "the Ku Klux Klan of the Hispanic people"

I don't read MediaMatters enough, but I think I'm gonna start checking in there more often. Seems like they've got some articles to really get a gentleman's gorge risen high on up there.

(Speaking of the whole "makes my gorge rise" turn of phrase: the first few times I ever heard the term, it was being used to refer to sexual criminals or pedophiles, so I also thought that the speakers were saying that pedophilia rocked their world. Funny, huh?)

++++

So, tonight, hopefully, I will have my review of the series finale of The Wire. I might just save it for tomorrow, though. I don't want to accidentally spoil something for both of you guys reading this. I also plan to do some major Lost writing.

As for my non-TV blog plans, I want to do a brief review of Persepolis soon, as well as a look at The Best Years of Our Lives (which I'm watching for da SOMB). I am also considering some retrospective looks at the 2000-2007 movie era. Some greatest performances stuff, maybe. Who knows?

I also want to start posting more new, more up to date, music stuff...maybe even a podcast?

++++

There are also some upcoming projects of mine that are based in, get this...the real, physical world. Not the internet!

What could these ventures outside of the USS Blog possibly include?

I am glad you ventured to question my truth voice. My responsibilities are as such...

I should have a music column in the upcoming issue of the school paper, The Climax. That means that this week, both The Climax and Nick's Blunder Bust shall be stained a putrid shade of awesome by my pen. I am considering submitting some photography to The Omen as well. Might as well get some of my stuff out there.

In one of my first LJ posts ever (I have looked back through em a few times...they date back to 2002 or 2003), I declared my intentions to spread across this great globe like a charming, red(-headed) death. I just want my longterm fans to know that the whole project is still in the works. No worries.

++++

In another case of an awesome heads up from a friend: a few weeks ago, my mom pointed my towards the National Portrait Gallery's new Hip-Hop portrait exhibition/showcase, the interestingly (not sure how I feel) named Recognize!

This is why I rule so hard. In case you've been wondering. I got raised by that lady.

The exhibit is definitely worth looking at.

So do it.

++++

I just remembered about a fun time waster I read about maybe a week ago. It's called The Black Cab Recordings. It's a British internet venture in which a strange (but awesome) assortment of lesser known artists ride around in the back of a British taxi cab. Playing their strange assortment of lesser known hits. The passenger/singers include Daniel Johnston, Spoon, Okkervil River, St. Vincent, Bill Callahan (Mr. Joanna Newsom, formerly Smog), Langhorne Slim, The New Pornographers, and a myriad of really not famous British artists who seem like they could be neat.

I have yet to watch any of the videos on the site, but if I discover in the future that one of these is particularly awesome, I will let y'all know.

I don't know about ch'all, but I know that I'm excited to see the St. Vincent one the most.

Nathaniel Tyson

homework nights lead to a small wave of posts

From now on, Monday nights (as often as I remember to do all this) shall be the night in which I move the Weekly Links (on the sidebar) into an archive I'm hosting over here. This way the section doesn't get out of control, but there will still be an easy way to get to old links.

So, there will now be a direct link to the archives from the sidebar of the main page. Enjoy the useless minutia of the internet.

Nathaniel Tyson

Garfield as absurdist existential theatre

All courtesy of Garfield Minus Garfield.

Nathaniel