Do Want: Oscar Cookies @11:20 AM
Aww, Best Picture nominee cookies in Chelsea. I do not see one with a Jew beating someone's head in? 8
"Dramatically speaking, Avatar is predictable and lacks imagination in plot development, as is expected of many others of its ilk conceived in Hollywood."
—That's the film critic for Diario Granma, the órgano oficial of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba. (The paper also claims there will be two sequels, if I'm reading it correctly? Also: Danza con lobos, I'm totally dying.) @1:45 PM 11
Jane Austen Starts Tomorrow! @4:16 PM
Ooh, you know what opens tomorrow at the Morgan Library? The exhibition of Jane Austen's letters! See you there, yo. 10
Two Weeks Out: Steal Penelope Cruz's Glow in Person, Your Last Trip Outdoors, Russian Photography, and One Really Big Diamond @4:20 PM
In a 1964 interview, Playboy asked Vladimir Nabokov about American sexual mores. Nabokov dismissed the question and said: "Sex as an institution, sex as a general notion, sex as a problem, sex as a platitude—all this is something I find too tedious for words. Let us skip sex." Couldn't the same be said about rock 'n' roll? Writing about music often feels akin to saying something interesting about sex; it's all so rooted in one's own neuroses that the subject is usually maddening to write and banal to read. Yet when Chuck Klosterman wrote that the Bob Dylan/Kiss collaboration meant that "rock 'n' roll reached its logical conclusion" it felt like a true statement (Klosterman argued that the genre's most genuine individual joining up with the most contrived meant that rock 'n' roll had been solved, and was now done). So while I don't exactly understand why the forthcoming Bob Dylan album of Christmas standards makes me sad, I can tell you about other things to listen to, see and do that don't make one all conflicted and weird and downtrodden in the heart. Well, sometimes. READ MORE 13
Two Weeks Out: Diablo, David Byrne, and The Brave Keep Undefiled Wisdom of Their Own. @3:15 PM
The problem with books that get adapted into movies, is that, well, if you've taken the time to read the novel then you've created an entire ecosystem of scenery, face and motivations in your head. It's a completely unique world that's precious and belongs only to you. But when an auteur armed with a budget and his own ecosystem comes along, all those images are forcibly replaced. It's like a referendum on your imagination. It's not even a matter of not seeing the movie; advertising and promotion are unavoidable. So while there is some thrill in watching fuzzy-wuzzy creatures come to life or some Victorian suitor resurrected, it most often feels like a transgression, like something is being taken, not given. And that's why I won't be seeing "The Informant," which is based on the Kurt Eichenwald book. (Ha, got ya.) But here's some stuff that you should see and do. READ MORE 17
Two Weeks Out: Motorhead, 'Obsessed', TIFF @12:24 PM
It's almost over! This awful summer of death and disaster will soon give way to a glorious season of overall pleasantness: we're of course talking about fall TV programing and prestige movie releases! By the autumnal equinox, our stiff souls will be kindled by the warm glow of really neat stuff on the screen. It's like springtime for the indoor set. So come, little seedlings, let the winds of quality carry us through what's two weeks out. READ MORE 12
Essayist/Philosopher/DJ Unpleasant @11:20 AM
Ya know, I completely agree about the incompatibility of total liberty for the gifted and powerful with the rights to a decent existence of the weak and the less gifted, and I can appreciate the differentiation between specialization compared to a broad worldview as underpinnings of expertise, but honestly? Isaiah Berlin sounds like kind of a dick. READ MORE 9
"Mona Lisa" Still Hot? @2:49 PM
A piece in the Journal this weekend wondered why seeing the Mona Lisa in person is such a disappointing experience. (The question has been asked before.) Critic James Gardner suggests one: "Unfortunately, like the dollar bill and the American flag, it has assumed a pall of such impenetrable familiarity that we no longer see it at all." READ MORE 26
Consider The Orchestrators For A Moment @9:10 AM
"Orchestrators are like 'good, high-priced whores. You're paid to make people look good.'" 5
