You know what America is craving right now, post-recession and during a harrowing election? That's right: a very self-important drama about New York City gays, Fosse impersonators and their ladies who all love Broadway musicals and like to be mildly catty! That's why NBC is going big guns on its mid-season spectacular, "Smash," which premieres a week from today. It's supposed to redeem their fall season. Ahem. Not even kidding, about the plot: "Former 'American Idol' contestant Katharine McPhee stars as struggling actress Karen Carpenter, competing for the leading role in a new musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe."

Talk about doing it wrong. If [...]

Rookie began publishing yesterday; it's a magazine owned by Tavi Gevinson, who is 15 and fun and scary smart. It may be of interest to you if you are a teen girl or are like a teen girl. (I certainly sometimes am.) The most interesting thing to me about it though: the return of anticipation to the web. The three stories that'll be on Rookie's front page today aren't live yet; they'll go up later, starting at 3 p.m. And then there's the whole month lurking for you! I love it. Everything else on the Internet is so "OH THAT WAS PUBLISHED 28 MINUTES AGO." And [...]

Eleanor Friedberger's delicious album "Last Summer" now has a video for the song "Heaven," directed by Scott Jacobson. Hooray! Please to enjoy. (It's very gorgeous: put on your headphones and go full-screen with me!)

In other Eleanor news: she is guest-starring on the Portlandia Live tour, beginning February 19th in Philly. But before that, she's doing her very own West Coast tour, starting February 2nd, wending her way north from San Diego to Seattle. (More info here, and yes, that includes SF and Portland.)

Hey, while we are here: would you like to download her live EP, for free, simply in exchange for going on [...]

MyBlockNYC is pretty—it's a map populated by user-uploaded videos. I don't have a lot of other thoughts about it yet! But I appreciate it.

Hey hey, it's a book club! And this is how it works. There's a celeriac metaphor in there for you.