Ready To Friday: Wait For It Edition

Sorry for the late post. Someone literally broke the internet in my town. Literally.

As the Fall term draws nearer every day, I have started to count upon the many things I'm anticipating outside of the scheduled educational process (not that there's anything wrong with that). And while change is inevitable, I'm not waiting with bated breath for what becomes of the status quo. I get more pleasure out of the path it takes to get to those ends. Maybe some of you can articulate a better real life comparison, like an analogy.

The Edit

These here are the specific interests and perks of the weekly adventuring. Everything from tunes to articles 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.

• This is the best thing I've read about black people all week, and the only thing I've read about Twitter ever.
• I haven't even read this yet, but I'm pretty sure it's important. Pretty much everyone who's politically inclined is going to have an opinion on the Bush Tax Cuts this fall, or has already made up their mind by now. From what I understand, they make up a large part of our current structural deficit as a result of back when Republicans like Cheney weren't too concerned with a balanced budget. Now there's sort of a mixed message going on coming from the right where they criticize President Obama for spending and not having balanced our national deficit yet, but in the same breath they think that letting the tax cuts stay is the only way to stabilize our economy. So the question comes to whether the Bush Tax Cuts should go, stay for people making over $250k a year, or stay for everyone. It's certainly something we should be thinking about.
• Anyone remember Life Magazine? They've been riding up and down on the quality scale for a few decades now, but every now and they highlight some good things. That's largely a subjective assessment on my part, but when something in Life comes along and catches my attention, I pass it along, like I'm wont to do. An example of such quality would be the recent publication of some NEVER BEFORE SEEN images of the Rat Pack, back stage and such. The photos are of a beautiful variety, representing the performers with wonderful character and depth. I would implore you to give them a look, but I frankly don't think many people still know Thing One about the Rat Pack these days.
  
• Gary Kurtz, producer of the original Star Wars Trilogy, spoke recently with the LA Times about how George Lucas' interest in the toy selling business brought doom to his own movies, even before the Episode I was made. This isn't really news to most people (who doesn't know by now that George Lucas has lost his mind), but it's interesting to hear it from Kurtz himself.
• Last week, I let you guys know that the 3D Justin Bieber Biopic (the world is not ready) needed a new director, because the pompous Oscar winning director, Davis Guggenheim, thought he was too good for our young pop star. Would his arrogance doom the project? It seems the answer is a shrieking, prepubescent "No!" The movie's savior comes in the form of Jon Chu, the director of the critically-somethinged Step Up 3D. It seems obvious now that they're together. Now the only question that remains is: Why do I keep covering this?
• My review of The Expendables: Watch this instead. Far more entertaining, and a better use of Stallone's talents and your time.
  
• I don't think it's wrong for as all to be pretty ashamed about this. Go America, right?

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.

If you're in the need of something good to listen to this weekend, sometimes specificity is a drag. Let's take a chance for a change, and who better to put our faith in than the fairer sex. 

Here's an idea: if you want a good playlist of your own, search the word "Girl" in music library, and play any songs that feature it in their title. Maybe I'm putting too much confidence in the breadth of your collections, but I liked the experience of going from Jessie's Girl to Girls & Boys to Drunk Girls. Thanks ladies, for the inspiration.

Blog of Our Lives

The blogs are the blood stream of my daily internet experience. They're the bread and butter of my clicks and links. Everything I know* I learned from the sources those bloggers provide. So here, I'll provide you with those sources that I have chosen to wrangle up for your benefit. Quality may rise and fall without warning. (*What do I know?)

• Sesame Street has a Tumblr. This is now the only Tumblr that matters.
• On the other hand, there still might be some other blog varieties that still deserve recognition. For example, Friends of Type is an excellent resource for inspiring typography.
• But if that artsy-stuff isn't your niche, The Momentum of Failure is a nice spot on the blogosphere for a preppier side of style (which you probably get a lot of just by reading these posts).
• And if none of that appeals to you, then maybe - if you're human - you like good food. Something that has stood as a welcome addition to my Google Reader is a little oft-updated website called the Kitchn, which gives me more than just recipes and cooking solutions, but a forgotten element of creative inspiration.

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.

You're all right by me, friend. I can count on you.

Who have you said that to lately?

On Your Way Out

I didn't really know where to put this one in the post, so I guess I'll just put it down here next to the exit.

I watched "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" again this week. I watched it for the first time in many years. When I was young, this movie was heartbreaking. But it wasn't until I saw it again as an adult (legally) that it felt relevant. It stars Jimmy Stewart as Mr. Jefferson Smith, who makes a painfully naive but honest stand against corruption in Congress. I don't want too get to deep into it right here and now because I want to ask you to watch this movie (all two hours and ten minutes of it) and think about it yourself. I don't want to feel like an instructor here, but there's a conversation under the dressings of this film that I don't want people to miss. Maybe the ending wraps up differently than my modern Coen Brothers proclivities would like, but it riles me up inside, politically and ethically, to think about the implication of something like this being so apposite to us today. And I want to have that conversation with everyone I can. Then I want those people to talk to other people about it, so that those people can keep it going on and on.

Here's a link to the full movie, hosted by Google. I know it's a lot to ask, but please to check it out. One of these posts takes about 10 to 15 minutes to read and examine, but a movie is a pretty big investment for busy folks. That's why I wouldn't suggest it unless I really felt it would be worth your time.


Thanks for reading.

-stg