February 2011
23 posts
January 2011
74 posts
links for 2011-01-29 →
Language Log - Annals of word rage Jezebel’s piece earlier today was OK, but you can count on Language Log to have the best comment thread (“literally literally”).
The Rumpus.net - From Today’s Daily Rumpus If you haven’t already subscribed to the Daily Rumpus, you really ought to. All I do with my iPhone anymore is check my junk mail folder for missives from Stephen...
He shared some stuff that was really important, and now that I think over it, I shared nothing important at all. I think I feel guilty. I know I feel nervous. Maybe I am so uncomfortable in my own skin that I am usually trying to claw my way out of it, but maybe here I am feeding myself a line of my own bullshit and I really am a closed book with a lot of misleading writing on the cover
links for 2011-01-27 →
In Which We Pay Mind To Author Photographs And Facebook – Home – This Recording Hilarious rambling essay about authors’ bookflap photos and all they aspire to convey
Mike: yes it's his arrogance that really sets him apart from most celebrities, who are humble and self-abnegating
me: FINE
me: point taken
Mike: hugs
me: :/
Mike: turn that dirty Jenn frown right upside down
me: what's weird about :/ is that upside down it's the same facial expression
Mike: oh wow
Mike: so it is
The Atlantic - Ask a Woman Who Knows →
I watched this interview the night it aired, and I became furious during a particular line of questioning—especially when Morgan capped it by asking Rice, professor, onetime politician, and accomplished pianist, if she wouldn’t like to date a hunky football player. What?
Take a moment to consider this. We live in a world where it’s okay to badger brilliant and accomplished...
Jenn rated 'Antichrist' 4 out of 5 (oct 24, 2009)
Jeff: really? everybody else i respect hates it! you just being contrarian or whut?
Mary: i'm going to echo jeff's surprise here... i hear nothing but bad things about this film.
Me: Really? Wow. Um.
Me: I'd wanted to see it -- mostly because I'd like to play the VIDEO GAME SEQUEL -- but my friend Jason really twisted my arm when he told me von Trier dedicated it to Tarkovsky AND directed the leads to watch The Mirror a lot. So I had to go! I had to!
Me: After, I said, "I think I liked it, but not the way I think The Wedding Singer is funny." And I explained that, at one point during the movie, I consciously thought to myself "Well, I guess I don't disagree," and then I actually spent the rest of the movie worrying about myself and my worldview. I think von Trier is saying that the universe is arbitrarily cruel and kind, in turns, and therefore heartless and generally unconcerned with human well-being, and that humans are just the same way. But he conflates that idea with people-in-love needing to ensnare or trap and consume each other -- 'Eden,' I guess, is supposed to be 'Walden,' in this awful Lord of the Flies way -- and while I agree that this behavior is an unhealthy human tendency, I'm not sure I agree it's 'natural' or our human 'default,' or that we are inherently evil (or, if you really chose to read the movie misogymystically, that women are inherently evil).
Me: It helps, too, that the movie itself is gorgeous, and its leads are very deliberately and gruesomely sinewy, so that in coitus they resemble gnarled trees. It's really terrifying. Jason pointed out that the filmmaking was "very confrontational," and maybe on the whole it really is needlessly so. And, maybe, needless confrontation comes across as schlock if it isn't also duly challenging: this movie isn't that challenging to watch, and maybe it is only gruesome. But I wasn't opposed to the gruesome parts, because I appreciated that the story began boringly enough -- like a cable drama, even -- then established the main characters' tendencies for baseless cruelty and blame (and hatef**king!) and, finally, bore those tendencies to their natural, organic extrapolation which, in this case, was explicit sexual violence. And that was fine, and I was kind of impressed by how many audience members sprang out of their seats and bolted, but more than that I was impressed by how seldom the main players wore pants.
Me: After, I spent some time listing movies that were the opposite -- movies about baseless human kindness instead -- and thinking I should go watch those. In the end, I thought maybe the movie wasn't great, per se, but definitely remarkable.
Me: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/5895270/Antichrist-review.html
Mike: http://www.filmlinc.com/fcm/so09/antichrist.htm
Mike: I'm still recovering. Great Caesar's ghost.
Mike: Also, "misogymystically" is not, and cannot be, a word. You totally made that up. :P
Me: I DID make it up! To describe lady-pagan stuff when it's antifeminist! Like witch-burnings! I did contemplate googling to see whether anyone had already coined my portmanteau, but I just couldn't bear to know for sure either way.
Me: P.S. I shouldn't have worried! The only thing that comes up is a WoW site.
Me: P.P.S. I feel less self-conscious now that I've seen the word "gynotheological" in writing.
Me: P.P.P.S. Eavesdroppers: do not read Mike's link if you haven't seen Antichrist, or if you do not want every single plot point and image revealed and dissolved
Mike: Ai, sorry! Yes, what Jenn said! But to those who have seen it, a strong analysis, no?
Me: Yes.
no Blue Valentine
Mike: as of today i have to pretend to care about the Oscar nominations with my girlfriend
me: oh oh is there a list
Mike: announced today
me: i heard there's no blue valentine
me: and it's like, GOOD
me: LESS CHANCE OF ME ACCIDENTALLY SEEING IT
me: AND COMMITTING SUICIDE IN THE THEATER
Mike: haha
Mike: though M. WIlliams got best actress nom
Mike: which makes me happy as she is a Montanan
me: i like her
me: i saw the trailer
me: just the one of ryan gosling playing the ukulele
Mike: yeah
me: and i burst into tears uncontrollably
Mike: oh shit
Mike: you need to skip that fuckin' movie
me: because i was just like oh my god oh my god i see where this is going oh fuck me oh no i am so sorry i am so sorry help
Mike: oh honey
me: i saw eternal sunshine once, and cried uncontrollably
Mike: oh mercy
me: and then like a FUCKING FOOL watched synecdoche ny
me: i was like "i am never watching eternal sunshine ever again"
me: LIKE A FOOL
me: OH I'LL WATCH SYNECDOCHE NOW
me: i'll just sit and let everything i've ever done wrong just stab me through the television screen
me: this is great
Mike: hahaa
me: oh my god that prick charlie kaufman does it every time
Mike: he's got a mainline into your heart
me: seriously
me: like john cusack begging his own eyes to look away
me: why do i keep going to see his movies
hottest of men
me: like some kind of weird russian ruse?
Mike: exactly
Mike: they are trying to lure me into their web
Mike: i friend them and then they send me an email going "hey sexy you are the hottest of men give me credit card so i can tell the world how crazy hot you are"
1 tag
Out of The X-Factor/American Idol and equivalents;...
I’ve had more conversations about Jersey Shore than I’ve ever had about Idol or Talent or Call of Duty, and while these are all legitimate cultural milestones, OH MY GOD, don’t get me started on all the million reasons Jersey Shore is my heart and soul.
I love these earnest people earnestly, without a wrinkle of irony—I do!—and I love their passion for life and their...
1 tag
Is there anyone you follow on Twitter who you wish...
Maybe everyone should have a Formspring, because it’s liberating and vulnerable and nice to get all the anonymous writing prompts, but even if someone I were really curious about were to have an account, I am not too sure I’d ever bring myself to ask him anything.
It isn’t that I’m not inquisitive. I managed a couple questions right at the beginning, in fact, when the...
On Rat Swarmed Babies At The Rainbow's End
mollylambert:
The Sexual Cost of Female Success, Molly Lambert at The Hairpin
You might or might not have read that awful (Salon?) piece of unironic gender hooliganism about how Successful Women need to learn how to “marry down” if they don’t want to die alone, especially since men marry down—but never up!—all the timesies. There were Science Numbers recorded...
“I found myself spending literally a half an hour, 30 minutes, in the cereal...”
– One year ago this week: Jonah Lehrer, on the pathologies of decision making. (via nprfreshair)
Watchthedailywhat:
a promo for Funny Or Die’s “Is This Thing On?” art exhibit at G1988 (now through 1/29).
(sNSFW, horseplay.)
[fod.]
Martin Starr’s fucking a horse!
going to mars
Me: speaking of purging
Me: i am thinking about volunteering for nasa's one-way voyage to mars
Me: i can't stop thinking about it
Conci: Um... I'd miss you?
Conci: It would be pretty cool. But then, how would you get your novella to [professor's name redacted] for his [secret nonprofit charity]?
Me: what
Me: is he doing that?
Conci: Yeah, it's happening.
Me: wow!
Me: i still want to go to mars but that's cool
Me: see i can't stop thinking about it because i have this recurring nightmare, right
Me: where i am on a space shuttle
Me: and as we break out of the atmosphere
Me: i realize i've been an idiot for being scared of crashing my whole life
Me: because even scarier would be to be lost floating in space
Conci: Fair enough.
Me: recurring nightmare
Me: seriously
Conci: I believe you.
Me: so how cool is it
Me: that NASA is making a list of volunteers
Me: who want to live my recurring nightmare
Me: and how cool would it be to face it!
Conci: It's close to being a Gabriel Garcia Marquez short story.
Me: things I have thought about
Me: - i would probably burn up
Me: - if i lived into my 60s, they would have to send a different guy up to shoot me dead like a horse
Me: (they obviously do not expect the astronauts to live into old age)
Me: and most of all
Me: - we would all die of weird viruses or bacteria or skin diseases in the most face-meltingly horrific ways
Conci: You're a little twisted. You know that, right?
Me: and this is the other thing i keep thinking about
Me: is one-upping [our friend tim]
Me: "tim went to spain"
Me: "tim's getting a doctorate in neuroscience"
Me: FUCK ALL Y'ALL JENN FRANK WENT TO MARS
Conci: No one should one-up Tim.
Conci: It's a dangerous endeavor.
Me: you're right. it is honestly the only thing i can think to outdo him
“I had a dream, and you were in it.”
– is the lie my friend Scott tells to convince people to sit through his really long anecdotes
“I’m going to leave a key outside for you. You will know it’s my...”
– a friend is in favor of my “mental health break” vacation at her house
“I’m sorry, may I also ask how old you are?”
– Oh, sweet Jesus, I phoned my new landlord (and I think he said he is a year older than I am)
“I also know there are big, big things I bungled. I originally hoped this would...”
– the same email I sent
“As the piano plays—usually a hammering march, “Onward, Christian soldiers!”—a...”
– Things I deleted
“The woman who owns the jazz bar usually wears her hair up, but sometimes she...”
– Things I deleted
“Do be sure that you’re sitting on it. Otherwise the pastor might interrupt the...”
– Things I deleted
“So we tried getting married instead.
In Second Life, this equal-opportunity...”
– Things I deleted
“Still, I tend to be a flip-ahead flip-back flip-ahead reader, too, and I...”
– an email I sent
“So are many prefabricated homes (which you can buy from a lot and, later, unpack...”
– Things we deleted #8. Oh my God! No one is going to read this article if I don’t make him!
“This next thing doesn’t add anything to my story about Nikolaus or Second Life,...”
– Things we cut from the article #2048509386908. “Who are you in love with these days?” I asked him. “Uh, probably my girlfriend,” he replied, right before letting me know I was a big drunk mess. “Just tell me where to email this,” I concluded
Look, maybe I don’t want to be done writing.
Maybe I want to keep writing this article forever!
It’s a good thing loose deadlines are in place, so that I can stop being crazy.
tpdsaa (Things [Real] People Don’t Say About Advertising):
Would you Boldly Go?: A One-Way Mission to Mars... →
