November 2011
49 posts
We Are All 'Closing Time': Why Semisonic's 1998... →
“Closing Time” wasn’t an exceptional song in terms of its chart performance (it peaked at no. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100) or impact on culture; there were way bigger hits that year. It was just a catchy, moderately rocking track by a journeyman Midwestern indie band that peaked in popularity as the alternative rock boom was hacking out its final, phlegm-y death rattle. And yet for several...
Please Chuckle Here: The Return of the Sitcom... →
Bickelhaupt, whose formal title is “re-recording mixer,” is one of just four or five craftsmen hired by showrunners to perfect the sounds of laughter. He spends his days traveling from mixing stage to mixing stage, carrying a custom-built computer that can quickly adjust the tone, volume, and even gender of an audience. If need be, he can transform complete silence into a 21-minute symphony...
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In case you want to get in on your own sleep charts, the Jawbone Up is part of Apple’s Black Friday sale.
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So You Think You Can Be a Morning Person? →
For those who fantasize about greeting the dawn, there is hope. Sleep experts say that with a little discipline (well, actually, a lot of discipline), most people can reset their circadian clocks. But it’s not as simple as forcing yourself to go to bed earlier (you can’t make a wide-awake brain sleep). It requires inducing a sort of jet lag without leaving your time zone. And sticking it...
And the winner is ...
dcwomenkickingass:
Last year’s final match in the “Most Kick Ass DC Woman” tournament between Oracle and Wonder Woman was all day battle with Oracle staging a Cinderella win to beat Wonder Woman by just 7 votes!
This year Barbara Gordon’s protege and successor Cass Cain took on the Amazing Amazon and again we had an incredibly close day of voting. Would another Batgirl beat Wonder Woman?
I’d...
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Rhetorical Rock Questions Answered →
Q: How do we dance when our earth is turning?
A: It is important to remember that the earth’s apparent rotation is only relative to the sun, sentimentally and erroneously referred to as a “true solar day,” that in a cosmic void (i.e. this goddamn universe) without an absolute center, it is merely an unqualifiable speck hovering in infinite space. Let’s not even get into the axial tilt (or,...
Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy to Begin Writing Third... →
Hawke said that he thought it was just about time he, Delpy, and their director, Richard Linklater — the threesome who co-wrote the previous films — got started on a third. “I don’t know what we’re going to do but I know the three of us have been talking a lot in the last six months,” Hawke said. “All three of us have been having similar feelings that ...
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The Recessionary Charms of American Horror Story →
Why is it so gratifying to see these characters sucked up in a cyclone of misery? Maybe because for the first time in a long time it doesn’t seem so improbable. It hints at newly recognizable anxieties, not just the stranger knocking on the door after dark but the stranger knocking on the door and demanding a thousand dollars that don’t exist (whether for head shots or the cable company); Vivien...
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Interview with the Occupy Wall Street "bat-signal"... →
jaybushman:
Seeing this today gave me chills. An awe-inspiring display of the power of art.
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Madewell: Behind the Design: My Big Love for... →
madewell:
by Dana Lee (Madewell)
Ever since I sketched the design for our Llama Love Sweater, people have been asking me why I chose that funny little animal. And now that it’s just hit Madewell stores, you may be wondering about it too. So here’s the story: I’ve always really, really, really…
I am wearing this sweater right now!
Kick ass tournament: Final Four, match 1
dcwomenkickingass:
It’s here. One goes to the finals; one doesn’t.
It’s Batgirl vs. Batgirl.
In one corner, Cassandra Cain.
Read the case for her to win here.
And in the other corner, Stephanie Brown
Read the case for her to win here.
Voting is open until 9pm EST.
One vote per person.
// ]]]]>]]> http://micropoll.com/t/KEcOAZEbLS
Vote Steph!
Ryan Gosling Fans Protest Outside People Magazine... →
liztellsfrank:
In which a childhood favorite takes a beating. Liz Tells Frank What Happened in “She-Ra: Princess of Power” http://t.co/yDBTtrNM
I’m rooting for Catra.
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BREAKING NEWS: Ernest Hemingway Never Died, He... →
But you sit there and try to tell me that Pulitizer Prize winning author Ernest Hemingway is dead. Go ahead, do it. I won’t believe you. While reading a book of Hemingway’s short stories, I couldn’t help but notice the striking similarities between Parks and Recreation character Ron Swanson and Hemingway himself. The truth is out there, folks, and I’ve compiled the evidence:
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Kick Ass Tournament Final Four: The case for...
dcwomenkickingass:
We are down to just four women and three matches. To help people make their choices I’ve brought in some guest posters to plead the case for each of the Final Four to be name “The most Kick-Ass Woman in DC Comics.”
The case for Stephanie Brown is by Jessica Plummer. Her thoughts follow.
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Let's not mince words here:
spytap:
The PROTECT-IP Act is the death of the Internet. Referring to it as anything less is incorrect and naive.
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“In short, you’re not just another suit. You have gone out of your way to nurture...”
– Mo Ryan’s Open Letter to the Head of NBC Regarding ‘Community’s’ Future
Take the time to read the entire letter.
(via tvhangover)
The Fertility Denial Complex →
Our mass refusal to accept the dwindling of our eggs may be due to the fact that, as of right now, we are generally able to do what we want with ourselves, and it’s hard to imagine otherwise. It’s massively unpleasant to grasp that in spite of all the social advancements that women have made in the last 50 years, our reproductive systems still think it’s 1946 — the...
Jimmy & Justin shoot shit →
Jimmy Fallon: Dude, I was just talking to [Ryan] Gosling about that. Did Gosling really live on your couch when he was a kid?
Justin Timberlake: So he tried to make it seem like he was bohemian even back then?
Jimmy Fallon: Definitely, man. He said he was struggling and you helped him out.
Justin Timberlake: Ryan’s mom had to stay back in Canada and my mom was his guardian for a year...
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Sonic, America’s Drive In Or Epic Conspiracy? →
Our dreams were crushed by discovery that the nearest Sonic was 70 miles away, but our hunger remained. We found ourselves constantly slipping Sonic into everyday conversation. We, to our surprise, could not find a single person who had eaten at a Sonic. After winter break we reconvened, each having failed to find a Sonic near our hometown. Something was sketchy about this Sonic thing. What...
Patient BW, DOB 2/16/1971 →
(Note to clerical staff — please exclude the following note if there are future record requests. An alternate explanation, more plausible than the histories associated with many of patient’s injuries, is a series of industrial mishaps. As head of Wayne Enterprises, patient presumably takes a very active role in the company’s various subsidiary R&D departments. These subsidiaries...
Hairpin Costume Drama Club: Sleeping With Kings... →
I have never seen The Duchess of Duke Street, but it sounds like it really wants to be seen in tandem with a rewatch of The House of Elliot!
Can You Trust the Editorial Integrity of Personal... →
One popular blogger we spoke with, who wished to remain anonymous, told us, “Right now, all brands are doing the same thing: They’re sending free product to bloggers or to online fashion publications and having them feature the product. It’s a slightly vicious cycle of bribery.”
The Brutal Truth About Penn State →
If that blights Joe Paterno’s declining years, that’s too bad. If that takes a chunk out of the endowment, hold a damn bake sale. If that means that Penn State spends some time being known as the university where a child got raped, that’s what happens when you’re a university where a child got raped. Any sympathy for this institution went down the drain in the shower...