February 2009
17 posts
“Certainly, by refusing to take herself too seriously, it seemed that Winslet had...”
– Brian Viner, in the article Get a grip, Kate, you’re embarassing us. I don’t agree with the meat of the article at all (it’s about Kate Winslet’s Golden Globe acceptance speeches, which you can watch here and which I found refreshingly charming), but I liked this line a...
January 2009
24 posts
Ashlee Simpson blogs about weight obsession →
This is actually really awesome. Last week I wrote about Spike Online’s “Butterbodies,” fat women in Hollywood. This week, Ashlee Simpson took to her MySpace blog to ask, “How can we expect teenage girls to love and respect themselves in an environment where we criticize a size 2 figure?” Word up.
“The contours of Frank’s Massachusetts district have shifted over the years, but...”
– Jeff Toobin’s profile of Barney Frank in the New Yorker.
This sums up my town remarkably well.
2008
I made a playlist for 2008. There’s a song for each month, the song that most fully encompasses that month for me. Probably it’s the song I listened to the most, or most associate with what happened that month. I’m probably going to upload the mp3s at some point in the near future, but for now I just thought I’d share with you my year in music:
January: Old Crow...
This is a time for American heroes
I really enjoy reading the news right now because it reminds me of all the awesome people who actually got elected. And it’s not just about Obama. I just read about Jeff Merkley (D-OR) getting Senate committee assignments…I remember when he was a long-shot candidate. I remember voting for him in the primary. I remember running into him in an Italian restaurant in Astoria. And now...
http://www.whitehouse.gov/ →
This is officially my new favorite website. I keep going to it just to make sure Obama really is the president right now. Spoiler alert: HE IS!
I've got a crush on Obama
Every so often, I remember that Barack Obama’s going to be our next president (holy shit, three days!) and I get really happy.
The Top 7 "Butterbodies" →
Really? I mean, really? I understand the objectification of people of both genders. I understand the idea of attractiveness. But this article really goes above and beyond stupidity. Not only does it try to argue that a bunch of normal, healthy looking women are FAT simply because they are in Hollywood yet refuse to conform to some unrealistic standard of beauty, but it also botches the...
The impact of the recession on the Classes of '08... →
Matt Yglesias tells me (us?) that my (our?) future prospects are frightfully dismal, that the effects of graduating in a recession may last between ten years and forever, and that I should be applying to grad school right now. Well, fuck, man, couldn’t you have told me that before I decided not to take the LSATs this time around? Please, someone, hire me.
Hipster confessional
I confuse Prefuse 73 (the musical artist) with The Crying of Lot 49 (the Pynchon novel) more often than I like to admit.
“You simply cannot name the intolerable and not do something about it. Actions...”
– Ken Butigan
The latest in the Not Dead Yet files
Portland really doesn’t do winter well, at least not winter-as-affected-by-climate-change. Everyone scurries to buy chains for their tires (as a Bostonian, I’m a pretty experienced snow driver [Christmas Eve fender bender aside], and I had never heard of these chains ‘til I got out here); there are infamous YouTube videos of Portland drivers trying to brave the flurrying white...
The first ten Senate bills →
It’s been so long since Democrats have been in power that I was shocked to read this description of the first ten Senate bills of 2009 and find that I *agreed* with them, liked them, was excited by the policies. I’m so used to the bitching and moaning mindset that comes from being in the disappointed minority (man, this draws so many parallels to my life as a Red Sox fan. I still...
Milk
I saw “Milk” last night. Now, I’m always one for a good Hollywood experience. Crying at movies is one of my favorite activities, and I love to get my emotions manipulated. So I would have enjoyed “Milk” if it were just a run-of-the-mill biopic. But Gus Van Sant’s masterful linking of real footage and recreation was so much more powerful than that. Anita...
Resolutions dump
Here is my list of resolutions, 2009 edition:
Stop the social smoking
Less caffeine
Floss daily
Keep checkbook balanced; don’t overdraw checking account
Start the job search in February
Gym twice a week; weights, not just jogging
Be more responsible re: thesis
I’ve been hearing that concrete, measurable goals are the key to making resolutions stick (hence “daily”,...
