Culture

So here’s what I’d like, please: I’d like an recording of Sondheim’s Assassins as sung by a quality a cappella group. See if we can’t make this happen, okay? Thanks.

Robert Altman died yesterday night (original). He was one of the very best. On his last film, A Prairie Home Compansion, Paul Thomas Anderson stood in as the backup director just in case — so this doesn’t come as a huge surprise. But it is hugely sad.

I thought this review was interesting as a sample of flawed political discourse. Also fun for those who want to hear about how Happy Feet is a dangerous, offensive movie, but I’m gonna shine a flashlight on the clever rhetorical trick. Or, in this case, probably not a clever rhetorical trick — it’s probably just a guy who doesn’t realize exactly what kind of hyperbole he’s engaging in. The trick is this: you take someone generally considered to be offensive on your side of the political spectrum, and you take a behavior you disapprove of on the other side of the political spectrum, and you say “it’s OK to disagree with me, but that behavior is exactly like this offensive person!” It gives you this veneer of reason, cause you’re being all rational and bipartisan and admitting there are slimeballs on your side of the fence. However, it also irrationally conflates what may be perfectly reasonable behavior with behavior that is generally accepted as slimy. ...

There’s a really funny painful video here in which one Brian Atene explains why Kubrick should cast him in Full Metal Jacket. The followup is here; someone claiming to be Brian does a great job of snarking at the original. After watching ‘em both, through many winces, I’m making the unfounded bet that this is a publicity stunt of some kind. Some random Youtube guy who’s never posted a video before happened to get his hands on a 20 year old videotape, and took the time to digitize it? Maybe, but more likely not.

While I have done a number of fairly embarrassing things in my life, I have never… No, I don’t think I can describe it. Go here. (original) For another view, try this. Perfectly work-safe. The words “forty million dollar elbow” are involved, but it’s not a sports story. Wow.

It’s time for the Lost Badass List to reappear. We last examined the question of the island’s badassery after the seaon finale. This list categorizes badasses over time, but is heavily weighted towards the current storyarc. This year, since the Others are regulars and since I cannot deny the force of nature that is Benry (credit for neologism to S.), Others are eligible for the list. Without further ado! 1. Benry (aka Ben Linus, aka Henry Gale){{ double-space-with-newline }} 2. Sayid{{ double-space-with-newline }} 3. Jin{{ double-space-with-newline }} 4. Sawyer{{ double-space-with-newline }} 5. Juliette Comments and spoilers after the jump.

As of September 24th, the first two Skylark books by E. E. Smith are listed on the Distributed Proofreader site’s list of Silver E-Texts. This means that they’re gonna hit the Project Gutenberg (original) archives soon. This is awesome. Sadly, the Lensman books look like they’re still a few decades out.

I’ve talked about Lost badassery, but I’ve never created a comprehensive list of film badasses. That’s why I’m not Vern. Here it is.

That whole remixed movie trailer thing is here to stay, I’m thinking. Which is OK by me as long as it’s always this clever. (Via Dave Kehr, thanks to Lance Mannion, albeit somewhat indirectly.)

Last week’s list is here. This week’s list: 1. Sayid{{ double-space-with-newline }} 2. Mr. Eko{{ double-space-with-newline }} 3. Sawyer{{ double-space-with-newline }} 4. Jun{{ double-space-with-newline }} 5. Kate Commentary and spoilers after the jump.