State & Main

"Blogging continues to splinter into many different categories, providing an incredibly rich ecosystem of self expression tools and compelling content for readers. The prototypical personal blog, where a single writer simply writes their daily thoughts on their life and/or topics that interest them, will always be hugely popular. But multi-author blogs will continue to thrive as well. And a huge percentage of blogs focus on single topics of interest, from tech news to wine to knitting. Whatever it is you are interested in, it's likely to have a...

The Sky is Falling?

"The demise of publishing has been predicted since the days of Gutenberg. But for most of the past century -- through wars and depressions -- the business of books has jogged along at a steady pace. It's one of the main (some would say only) advantages of working in a 'mature' industry: no unsustainable highs, no devastating lows. A stoic calm, peppered with a bit of gallows humor, prevailed in the industry.Survey New York's oldest culture industry...

Burn After Reading (2008)

The Coen brothers are responsible for some highly acclaimed movies over the years. They've won multiple Oscars, they've made cult classics and mainstream classics, they've pretty much done whatever they've wanted. While I admire their career and their penchant for creating wacky characters and movies, I've decided I don't like them. The only movie of theirs that I'd say I truly enjoyed watching the whole way through was Fargo. Everything else...

The Women (2008)

There's not one man to be found in the entire film. That's the first thing that stands out. I mean, when they titled this thing "The Women," they really meant it literally. Of course, there might have been a guy or two in the background but seriously, I can't recall one male anywhere. Apparently the original version of the movie did the same thing. I'm not sure what kind of statement that makes but it surely didn't add anything to the watching...

Where in the World Is...

We're all (Internet) stalkers, admit it. Why else would Facebook suck up so much of everyone's time? Well, let's kick it all up a notch and start tracking our friends' movements. I've been trying out this new iPhone app, Loopt, which basically allows you to update your physical location and when your friends do the same, you'll be able to see where everyone is on the map. You can add a little text update, a picture, or just simply ping/pong your...

Tweet Tweet

"For many people -- particularly anyone over the age of 30 -- the idea of describing your blow-by-blow activities in such detail is absurd. Why would you subject your friends to your daily minutiae? And conversely, how much of their trivia can you absorb? The growth of ambient intimacy can seem like modern narcissism taken to a new, supermetabolic extreme -- the ultimate expression of a generation of celebrity-addled youths who believe their every utterance is fascinating and ought to be shared with the world....This is the paradox of ambient awareness....

Frozen River (2008)

A small movie set in upstate New York with a no-name cast and a slow moving plot. Sounds like a winner right? Well, that's what all the critics led me to believe. Frozen River won a Grand Jury Prize winner from Sundance this year and started life there two years ago as a short film.While I like movies about nothing, or movies that can take a while to build, I was mostly confused about the point of Frozen River. Sure, the acting was good, the...

Stuff I've Been Reading 9

BOOKS READ:Fortress of Solitude - Jonathan LethemThe Big Three - Peter MayKing's Gambit - Paul HoffmanI've been traveling all month and had ambitious plans to finish a few books. I figured I would have some down time waiting for trains or planes, or have moments when I had nothing do to. Instead I was always out and about and with people, dramatically cutting down on my time to read anything. Mainly I whipped through half of Fortress of Solitude during the plane ride to New York and a train to Washington DC. I took the opportunity to buy a...

Dirty Birds

My NFL team had a great 2008 debut on my birthday. While I have no misconceptions about how good the Atlanta Falcons will be this year (they're clearly rebuilding), it's exciting how they broke out of the gate. They gave running back Michael Turner a huge free agent contract this summer and he responded by running for a franchise record 220 yards, leading the way for the Falcons to grind out a ridiculous 318 yards rushing. "Grind" isn't really...

Mongol (2007)

I've been hearing a little bit of hype for this movie and was expecting a pretty great time. Instead I left feeling like I'd been taken for a ride. There were plenty of good things, such as the cinematography, the acting, and the basic story line, but there were an equal number of ridiculous things. First off, where was the motivation? In films like Gladiator or Braveheart, we see the hero acquire skills, get motivated, and then kick some ass....

Fathoms Below

I'm not gonna lie, I just went to the Little Mermaid Sing-a-long at the Castro Theatre. It's going to easily be a front runner on the top ten things everyone should do before they die list. Out of all the Disney musicals, this is the perfect one for a sing-a-long. Who doesn't know Part of Your World, Under the Sea, and Kiss the Girl? Even the (arguably) B-sides are well known, such as Poor Unfortunate Souls, Les Poissons, and the opening number,...