Because I'm caught up in so many other things, I may as well try for one more:
• A couple belated posts: a very interesting remembrance from Mark Evanier about the late Soupy Sales and his expertise in TV pies; and a good overview of Guy Fawkes by Allison Kilkenny at HuffPo.
• Also at HuffPo, a couple of baseball fans who can't quite let go of the season: Tony Sachs on Yankees withdrawal and Michael Kay's Twitter page (he gets spot-on everything that irks me about Kay); and Ron Shandler on the secret of the AFL.
• Val D'Orazio's been posting some really primo stuff lately. Go read about her Kali Yuga moment, as it were, and her discovery that the cultural pendulum seems to be swinging back again. Heck, one look at what's currently on Broadway (Mad Men-era musicals are making a big comeback now) convinced me of that.
• I love this table of how we interact with old media (TV) versus new media (internet). Very Marshall McLuhan, hot-v-cool media... Via Cory.
• Looks like a lot more people (males this time) are starting to ask why more late-night female comedy writers aren't being hired.
• Annalee Newitz thinks part of New Moon's appeal is its subtle cultural meta-subversion. I don't entirely discount her interesting analysis, but I think most girls and women who see it repeatedly aren't really looking for or appreciating that stuff. I think it's yet another case of male-run Hollywood discounting and marginalizing the oft-unreplicable tastes of the female moviegoing public. They do it every time - Titanic, Mamma Mia, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and on and on... Why are there no excuses made whenever a "two-quadrant" boys-and-men-centered movie tanks, and no analysis forthcoming when it does well? Also on io9, Charlie Jane Anders thinks Men Who Stare at Goats is a much better Ewan McGregor-featured Star Wars movie than at least three others.
• A couple Firesign folks at tonight's chat mentioned they liked the Beatles 3000 video I put up earlier this week, so I wanted to mention another Fab Four-related link: Lauren Davis at io9 links to an alternate-universe essay of what the world might have been like if the Beatles had reunited on SNL for a gag like many of us at the time wished they would have.
• In health news, Barbara Ehrenreich plays up her current them of blind optimism being bad for us using the H1N1 vaccine as an example. I don't know if that's a "blind faith in corporations" screw-up as much as it is a total capitulation to everything corporations say. Politicians are neither stupid nor blind, they're pretty savvy, I think most of them probably figured there wouldn't be enough vaccine to go around. It's par for the course, innit? Digby has an immoderate proposal about a medical procedure with which she personally disagrees being covered in the health reform bill. Archcrone, Amanda Marcotte and Susie Madrak all seem happy with the new mammogram recommendations; I only wish they'd come out ten years earlier so I wouldn't have gone through all that yearly pain and those false positives. This is not a fun procedure to undergo, and if you aren't high-risk it ought not be mandated until about the time you get your first colonoscopy (speaking of non-fun procedures).
• Why can't other media people learn how to actually examine TV ratings like Eric Boehlert? Maybe they all feel it's in their best interests not to?
• What Digby Said about some cops going for the jugular with their tasers when someone looks at them funny. You can't legislate politeness, dude.
• Amanda details a nice bit of political performance art.
• Ragnell has an interesting coworker.
• Susie points to some lovely NatGeo photos.
• Lance remembers his break with religion. Mine wasn't nearly as dramatic nor heartbreaking.
• The Rude Pundit wants to know, What's with the new backlash against women? (Part 1, Part 2) I'm assuming someone will mention to him that rape jokes are part of that backlash?
• Heaven forfend a holiday like this go by without me expressing my profound thanks for the writing of Melissa McEwan. Here she is on her reaction to hateful discourse directed her way and the revelation that childhood so-called obesity does not seem to have any relation to how much exercise kids get.
• Lastly, PZ Myers denounces a perfectly nice harvest festival, John at Archy has a good observation about so-called Black Friday, and No2Religion warns about the War on Thanksgiving.
Woo-hoo, that's all my bookmarked pages cleared! Happy Thanksgiving once again for the last time this year, everyone!
• A couple belated posts: a very interesting remembrance from Mark Evanier about the late Soupy Sales and his expertise in TV pies; and a good overview of Guy Fawkes by Allison Kilkenny at HuffPo.
• Also at HuffPo, a couple of baseball fans who can't quite let go of the season: Tony Sachs on Yankees withdrawal and Michael Kay's Twitter page (he gets spot-on everything that irks me about Kay); and Ron Shandler on the secret of the AFL.
• Val D'Orazio's been posting some really primo stuff lately. Go read about her Kali Yuga moment, as it were, and her discovery that the cultural pendulum seems to be swinging back again. Heck, one look at what's currently on Broadway (Mad Men-era musicals are making a big comeback now) convinced me of that.
• I love this table of how we interact with old media (TV) versus new media (internet). Very Marshall McLuhan, hot-v-cool media... Via Cory.
• Looks like a lot more people (males this time) are starting to ask why more late-night female comedy writers aren't being hired.
• Annalee Newitz thinks part of New Moon's appeal is its subtle cultural meta-subversion. I don't entirely discount her interesting analysis, but I think most girls and women who see it repeatedly aren't really looking for or appreciating that stuff. I think it's yet another case of male-run Hollywood discounting and marginalizing the oft-unreplicable tastes of the female moviegoing public. They do it every time - Titanic, Mamma Mia, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and on and on... Why are there no excuses made whenever a "two-quadrant" boys-and-men-centered movie tanks, and no analysis forthcoming when it does well? Also on io9, Charlie Jane Anders thinks Men Who Stare at Goats is a much better Ewan McGregor-featured Star Wars movie than at least three others.
• A couple Firesign folks at tonight's chat mentioned they liked the Beatles 3000 video I put up earlier this week, so I wanted to mention another Fab Four-related link: Lauren Davis at io9 links to an alternate-universe essay of what the world might have been like if the Beatles had reunited on SNL for a gag like many of us at the time wished they would have.
• In health news, Barbara Ehrenreich plays up her current them of blind optimism being bad for us using the H1N1 vaccine as an example. I don't know if that's a "blind faith in corporations" screw-up as much as it is a total capitulation to everything corporations say. Politicians are neither stupid nor blind, they're pretty savvy, I think most of them probably figured there wouldn't be enough vaccine to go around. It's par for the course, innit? Digby has an immoderate proposal about a medical procedure with which she personally disagrees being covered in the health reform bill. Archcrone, Amanda Marcotte and Susie Madrak all seem happy with the new mammogram recommendations; I only wish they'd come out ten years earlier so I wouldn't have gone through all that yearly pain and those false positives. This is not a fun procedure to undergo, and if you aren't high-risk it ought not be mandated until about the time you get your first colonoscopy (speaking of non-fun procedures).
• Why can't other media people learn how to actually examine TV ratings like Eric Boehlert? Maybe they all feel it's in their best interests not to?
• What Digby Said about some cops going for the jugular with their tasers when someone looks at them funny. You can't legislate politeness, dude.
• Amanda details a nice bit of political performance art.
• Ragnell has an interesting coworker.
• Susie points to some lovely NatGeo photos.
• Lance remembers his break with religion. Mine wasn't nearly as dramatic nor heartbreaking.
• The Rude Pundit wants to know, What's with the new backlash against women? (Part 1, Part 2) I'm assuming someone will mention to him that rape jokes are part of that backlash?
• Heaven forfend a holiday like this go by without me expressing my profound thanks for the writing of Melissa McEwan. Here she is on her reaction to hateful discourse directed her way and the revelation that childhood so-called obesity does not seem to have any relation to how much exercise kids get.
• Lastly, PZ Myers denounces a perfectly nice harvest festival, John at Archy has a good observation about so-called Black Friday, and No2Religion warns about the War on Thanksgiving.
Woo-hoo, that's all my bookmarked pages cleared! Happy Thanksgiving once again for the last time this year, everyone!
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