I dare Arnab to remove this. No, wait: I dare Arnab to leave this up. One of those dares is reverse psychology. The other is psychology.
I write a brief note to recommend the funniest book I’ve read in years. John Hodgman’s _The Areas of My Expertise_ keeps sidetracking my grading.
If only to read the Seven Hundred Hobo Names (Stick-Legs McOhio is my favorite) or “How to Win a Fight” (rule #2, “Go Ahead and Use Henchmen”). But perhaps for your spiritual health; perhaps for the health of us all.
By the by, David Edelstein calls Munich the best movie of the year. I think I’m going to try and catch it tomorrow.
I saw Hodgman on Jon Stewart. He had great deadpan delivery.
from now on all non-movie/tv related conversation (and all movie/tv related conversation i disagree with) will be dumped into this “not a movie” thread. i’ll show you who’s boss.
There is an ongoing project for artists to draw all 700 of Hodgman’s named hobos. It had been hosted on flickr, and was then removed. A search on boingboing.net should find it again.
I saw one of my favorite real hobos today: No-legs McShiny. The joker in my current deck is Smokey McFilthy. He seems calm enough, but I stood next to him for a good 3 minutes yesterday and it seemed he could snap at any second. Guy has talons two inches long that probably pack a more toxicc wallop than a komodo dragon bite.
I downloaded an mp3 file of this guy reciting all 700 hobo names in a lovingly wry deadpan (complete with folksy guitar). I had no idea what the hell was going on but it made me laugh.
The novel that is making me laugh out loud at this very moment is Walter Kirn’s Mission to America. Find a library and check this book out for the holidays.
“Who’s the Boss?” was a great, great TV show. And that Katherine Helmond! Va va voom!
thanks to the onion’s avclub i now know that the guy who wrote this book that mike posted about also plays the “pc” in those annoying apple mac/pc ads, which have oddly made me sympathetic to the pc.
Definitely not a movie: though I will suggest Russell Crow as the all-powerful Top Hat.
fuck all of you for making me read this thread. I wish I hadn’t had that third vodka and tonic. or do I?
Psst… Michael….pssstttt. I’m over here.
Speaking of Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe, ‘Body of Lies’ is profoundly mediocre. You’d think that anything attached to those two and DiCaprio would at least be competent, but the movie is just plain silly. DiCaprio continues to mistake screaming at the camera for acting, and the apparent core of the movie — the relationship between the agent (DiCaprio) and the handler (Crowe) — is played borderline slapstick. And of course it shows the usual cultural sensitivity that one has come to expect from American movies about Middle Eastern terrorism. What a waste.
mmm..picture of a drink. I scream at the camera all the time and all I ever get is citations. Hey, Bethlehem PD, do I look like I’m made out of freakin’ money??!