September 21, 2010

that bandstand wasn’t double-bolted!

  • I live-tweeted Morning Joe earlier this morning, which I’ve archived here with some pictures since it’ll eventually dissipate into the ether.
  • Ok I didn’t pay attention to politics in the 90s because I was a kid, so I don’t really have a clear perception of who Newt Gingrich is* other than that he’s some guy from a billion years ago whose only job since then has been serving as a perennial possible presidential candidate for Beltway pundits to write down whenever they put together their little fantasy football teams. I’ve gathered that he’s perceived as “respectable” by the media or whoever, I guess because he’s articulate, wears a suit, and was important at one time. So why’s he trying to destroy this perception with all this jazz about Obama being an anti-colonial Luo tribesman and scaremongering 9-11/Left Behind snuff videos?? The Republican primary in the last election was already silly enough, with everyone jumping all over themselves to praise Ronald Regan and pledging to quadruple Guantanamo by throwing all the immigrants in there, but eventually GOP voters went with the least-silly guy amongst the bunch. Now, with all these birther and Tea Party and Sarah Palin shenanigans, things are bound to get even sillier, and none of the “possible candidates” have really stayed out of the fray to remain “respectable.” I DON’T THINK I’LL BE ABLE TO HANDLE ALL THIS SILLINESS!!!

    *yeah ok I know about the contract with america thing and shutting down the government and his marriagecrimes, etc., but what I mean is that I don’t really have a imaginary, media-constructed caricature of him in my mind, you know like “George Bush = folksy cowboy,” “Hillary Clinton = ambitious careerwoman,” “Al Gore = boring environment guy,” etc.

  • I’m not sure how I feel about Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s fauxtest thing. It’s annoying how much power Facebook groups seem to wield these days, like how they got Betty White to host Saturday Night Live (it’s FUNNY because she’s OLD!). Will all TV shows become entirely beholden to pandering to their fans and turn into televised Choose Your Own Adventure books in the process? Didn’t we all learn our lesson from Snakes on a Plane? Also, what’s up with Democratic consultants complaining that it will divert their apparently easily-distracted liberal activist minions from getting out the vote, as if Jon Stewart is supposed to be A Responsible Democrat or something? Oh man, if team blue loses, it’ll all be his fault, let me tell you…
  • The Social Network is apparently getting MAD OSCAR BUZZ. I wonder what Mark Zuckerburg must be thinking. Wouldn’t it be weird if a big-time, fictionalized portrayal of your life, in which you are portrayed as a villain, suddenly became picture of the year? What did William Randolph Hearst think when Citizen Kane became lionized?
  • While it’s my official policy to not give a shit about how much $$$cash money$$$ a movie made at the box office or how “shoestring” the budget was, it’s still disappointing Scott Pilgrim didn’t do better than it did. Once you get past its admittedly weird premise, I don’t think it was really as niche-y as the commercials made it out to be. Take the second scene, where Scott’s new girfriend shows up to see his band practice: he opens the door for her, the other guy slams it in her face, Scott opens it again and she’s only mildly befuddled, then he offers to take her coat, which he just drops on the floor. These are great, simple gags that don’t require any knowledge of video games, and the movie is chock full of them. They got to make the movie they wanted to make, and it still made way more money than I’ll ever see in my lifetime, so whatever.
  • For the record, I am pro-Michael Cera, though I’m ambivalent to the stuff he did between Juno and Scott Pilgrim. I always thought he was underrated when Arrested Development was on, so it was pretty suprising when his star rose higher than his fellow cast members.
  • I’m out of things to say, but I don’t want to end on Michael Cera. Hmm. How bout them Jets? Pretty good team, right? I’m assuming?