Ready To Friday: Responsible Edition

Ready To Friday

I am easily impressed with my ability to do something two weeks in a row. I take it your are less blown away by my achievement so I will have to try harder to dazzle you. With that in mind, I think this is very important.

Now I'll keep this short, because I didn't do so with anything else this week.

The Edit

These here are the specific interests and perks of the weekly adventuring. Everything from news to editorials or almost-lost files can be found below. Hopefully some of it will be recent, whereas some of it will be less so. But all of it I think is worth sharing with you; which is my gamble that you'll like it as much as I did.

• Remember when Reagan proposed the START treaty in Geneva on June 29, 1982? No, I don't think you were alive then. You might remember when it was ratified in 1991 though, if you were one of those babies. Well that plan to cut back on Nuclear warheads and clarify the rules on how we ought to use such weapons expired last year. So this week, President Obama, with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, signed the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty—New START, for short. I hear it's a good thing.
• So last week I told you all about a very cool indie-game called Sleep is Death. Well, it's out now, so if you weren't excited by the rundown last week (or, I guess, more so if you were) people have been uploading the stories they've crafted playing the game with their friends. Most of them are absolutely ridiculous, but some of them are absolutely ridiculous.
• Speaking of death – everyone needs to be alert as of this week. Protect your digestive track, KFC's Double Down sandwich-monster-thing is now more real in your vicinity. Beware.
• Taking another gander at indie-game experiments, Run, Jesus Run, a ten second game (yes), is probably the closest you'll ever get to being a savior. Which is alright with me. As it turns out, the real gig is much more demanding (SPOILER: he got crucified).
• If you're like me, you're probably in hell now. But if you're not you still might find the book Exercises For Gentlemen interesting, which sports a section titled "50 Exercises to Do With Your Suit On." Still not rolling your eyes? The New York Times did a photo shoot demonstrating, in detail, the execution of a few of these techniques.
• Here's another treat for people who are myself, since I can't think of anyone else who would be interested. But in case such a person exists, all plaidout did an excellent tour of one of the greatest (and a person favorite) clothing manufacturers in America, Oxxford Clothes. It's a heartwarming reminder, even if you're not interested in the craft or style of clothing, to "Always Be Faithful to Quality." Amen.
• The film scene has been a-bubbling about Marvel's plan to put together an Avengers movie for a while now. Chris Evans was cast not to long ago as Captain America, simultaneously filling the last slot in the four-hero parade and burying my interest in the project past Iron Man 2. But this week, a story broke that caught my attention: Joss Whedon is set to direct the Avengers movie. Now this was interesting enough, given that it's certainly a choice that will excite a lot of fans, similar to when Sam Raimi was signed on to direct the Spiderman movies (too bad how that ended). But it seems that Marvel has even more confidence in Whedon's abilities, as he will also be rewriting both movies. Now, before I sell myself away just on a director's name, this is pretty encouraging to hear, and probably enough to get me to check out both movies when the time comes. And with Avengers in mind, we know that Whedon is a great writer who knows "team dynamics" in genre fiction inside and out and can direct action. Nevertheless, it's still very impressive that Marvel would trust him with what's prospectively the biggest superhero movie ever made.
• And finally, The Library of Congress is going to be archiving the entirety of Twitter (well, the public tweets, at least). I'm not sure what this will mean to us, other than how hard it's going to be for anyone to run for president in 15 years.

Hearing Things

For my own reasons, I've decided to process the music appreciation of my weekly culture bomb into its own section. Hopefully this means you won't miss out on whatever I feel like highlighting here. But it also means it will be much more obvious when I don't have any musical suggestions.

• Last week I endorsed an artist that hadn't released much for a while by pointing out a song I didn't know that I loved until recently. This week, I'm going to endorse an album that hasn't even been released yet. "I'm Afraid of Everyone" is a track off of The National's new album to be released May 11th. It's called High Violet, and if this one powerfully haunting track is any indication, you should be marking your calendars accordingly (and don't forget that LCD Soundsystem's new album, This Is Happening comes out the week after (Holy cripes)).

Tumblr that Mattr

Assuming you scour the minimal blog oasis less than I do, here are my picks for the most bizarre, relevant and clever Tumblrs on the web. Satisfaction is not guaranteed.

• If you wanted a blast of nostalgia, Songs You Used To Love has the sounds you could be looking for to bring a sparkle back to your eye. Or you might just be wondering why you, or anyone else, liked these songs to begin with. Something like that.
• I think White Whine understands, as I do, that white people are the best at complaining about shit.
• Home Sweet Home is probably another one of my personal tastes that other people aren't really going to click with. But there's a really pretty way to lose an afternoon (or several) in this cataloguing of beautiful home architecture and furnishing. Kinda make you wanna be a home owner, doesn't it?

English Language of the Week:

This segment is based around my personal love of the modern english language, where, each week, I'll nominate my favorite phrase, sentence or paragraph that I have personally heard spoken in that time.
This week, I ran across this softly reminiscent conceit. There's no clever wordplay here, it speaks for itself.

"The children know something we don't know."

On Your Way Out

I'm sorry that it's a long one this week, but I was just so excited to share everything I could with you. Initial anxieties might have resulted in a little more than you wanted to know. But I could be wrong, maybe this is exactly the direction you were expecting this to flow.

So I'll open the floor to you guys, briefly: Do you prefer my extended rambling each week, or would you like things to be as concise as possible? What do you want me to report on more – less? What's your favorite part –least favorite? Let me hear your thoughts. Let me know who's out there.

On that note, I'll leave you with some profound Carl Sagan. Have a great weekend.


-stg