Have You Seen...? A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films by David Thomson (Alfred A. Knopf, 1024 pp) For a thinker with writerly titles (Warren Beatty And Desert Eyes), this literalism goes kerplunk. And the organizing conceit (1,000 films sequenced alphabetically by title, 1200 thoughtful words per), is even more humdrum. But conceits are for shredders, and Thomson cheats with glee: he's not recommending each and every film, he's listing a body of work worth talking about even when popular taste eludes him (like The Graduate). Typically … [Read more...]

Tim DeChristopher (best header: LAST AUCTION HERO, Grist magazine) now represented by former Better Land Management lawyer Patrick Shea. … [Read more...]

I have two new obsessions: twitter, and all its flotsam, and I forget the other one. This NYTimes article ran WITHOUT LINKS, making it that all-too typical "norm" in newsprint "web coverage," good reporting that doesn't get you where you want to go: BuzzTracker addictomatic buzzfeed readburner rssmeme blank … [Read more...]

"Something very vital indeed, something revolutionary happened to American culture during the 1930s..."--Francis O'Connor … [Read more...]

First, a comment: Does anybody really think the economy would be in this much trouble if we HADN'T been spending $10b/month in Iraq? How come nobody's asking THAT question? ARTICLES OF THE WEEK Ed Ward reviews Ted Gioia's Delta Blues in Truthdig Anil Dash on music industry, Dylan Tom Carson on Veep "Angler" Cheney AD LINE OF THE WEEK: TIE Colon Cleansing A Scam ? - www.ColonCleansingDiaries.com - Read this Colon Cleansing Review Before WastingYour Money. (Google email ticker ad) WHOPPERS VIRGINS AGREE: BURGER KING WINS (Burger King TV ad) GAG … [Read more...]

"In his adivce to the players Hamlet says that the purpose of playing is to hold 'the mirror up to nature' (3.2.20). But the metadrama of modernity does, in a way, the opposite. It holds nature up to a mirror, and it believes the mirror. Never more than when it juxtaposes stage death and real death on the stage--and real death wins. --Marjorie Garber, in Shakespeare and Modern Culture, a way-too-literal title for writing this ideas-per-sentence rich. … [Read more...]

True, the damage wrought by the Weatherpeople is trivial compared with the war itself and has arguably been more thoroughly denounced. After all, John McCain most likely killed civilians while bombing Vietnam, and he got to run for president as a war hero. Henry Kissinger is fawned upon wherever he goes. I'd be happy to forget all about the Weatherpeople, many of whom have done good things with their lives since. But if we're going to talk about them-- and Ayers can't leave it alone-- let's tell the truth. Of all the sectarian groups from that … [Read more...]

Sasha Frere-Jones Culture Bully's Top Ten Music Vids … [Read more...]

I. Greil Marcus returns Real Life Top Ten to The Believer, where it originated in its imaginary early issues. (Trail of broken dreams: Village Voice, artforum, Salon, City Pages.) Snake in the grass. B. notes on The Shield finale: Chiklis as skilled actor who takes on a magnificent character and doesn't let Vic dwarf him, while dwarfing everybody else on screen. That bullet baldie look is so symbolic you forget about it while constantly questioning you own sympathies for this monster. (Two autistic kids, that's as rich as one of Woody Allen's … [Read more...]

...A 1929 editorial ridiculed the fact that a statue erected in Grant Park to honor American Indians had given them horses of a sort that never roamed "over the plains that are now Illinois, or anywhere else on this continent." And throughout its run the magazine took it upon itself to defend Chicago from those who claimed it was overrun by crime, it stank, its government was corrupt, its streets were wind-beaten. So went the litany at the time. "Chicago," declared one editorial, "happens to be, by common consent of the writing gentry, the … [Read more...]