What are you going to see at the movies this weekend (if you're not being held all weekend by the LAPD for exercising your First Amendment rights): the one with the dude with the giant schlong or the movie about the girl who gets paid to be unconscious while old dudes fondle her? USA! USA! Or have you seen Melancholia yet? Apart from the first five minutes, which are A+, and maybe the next 45, which are sinisterly hilarious, it's pretty much like these nine things, which include but are not limited to "overdosing on cement mix and diet tonic water" and "listening to a radio play that was originally written in Swedish, then translated into German, and finally into English. In the dark. With a stranger who won’t stop weeping and touching your leg. In a room that smells like cigars." Meanwhile, about an hour ago, people emerged from today's critics' screening of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (But With Extra Rape And In English This Time) and you probably didn't. Someday! Like growing up swishy, December gets better as it merrily rows along. Stay strong! Tinker Tailor Soldier See You Next Weekend I Guess!

What is the actual future of going to the movies? Anthony Lane asks, as "video on demand" begins to bully the poor besieged theater-owners of America. "Showmen like James Cameron, I suspect, will continue to haul us off our couches for the grand, marquee events, but smaller fare may be streamed to us direct, and new films whittled down into just another channel on TV"—and this is a bad thing, he thinks. His argument is unusual, and it's not one that has ever crossed my mind before. READ MORE

As we like to do every October, Stephen and I recently drove to Brewster, a small town in Westchester County, about an hour north of the city. Our first destination was the company ____, which you will no doubt recognize as an importer of fine ceramics, glass and textiles-not to mention garden statuary and urns. They were holding an 'outlet sale' at their office-park warehouse. READ MORE