Ready To Friday: Slow Ride Edition

Wait. What? Is that really a thing?

The Edit

The Essential

• This might be considered by some as more of a political thing, not really relevant to everyone. But I think it's essential that people watch Stephen Colbert testify under oath to Congress on the issues of immigration reform in character.
• I also love it when 4chan does things. Albeit they pride themselves on being a destructive force of unrestrained chaos. But recently it seems they're more focused on vigilante justice on terrible human beings in real life and being snotty to large groups of dickheads than anything sinister. I think this is a good thing?

The Politic

• To start, these are the best thoughts on the anger of a wealthy nation.
• With the midterm elections coming up, a sharper focus is being drawn on the effectiveness of our Congress members, and as it turns out, even with a largely dissatisfied opinion as a whole, Americans are still convinced that Republicans are doing a worse job. While I agree with this, it's hard for me to think any of them are doing good when…
• …This week the Senate fucked up again. I don't know what to do other than bring this guy back every week. Hell - just cue Jon Stewart.
  
• Speaking of Jon Stewart. Last night he appeared on The O'Reily Factor again, where they discussed his new book and his upcoming rally. Though what discussion there might have been was overshadowed by O'Reily being terrible at hosting an interview. Though Stewart's self-deprecating wit and generally not putting up with the Fox News talking points never gets old to me (especially when I hear Bill's staff laughing at Jon's jokes on set). O'Reily is also meant to appear on The Daily Show this upcoming Monday, so be sure to catch that for a fair juxtaposition.

The Style

• The Street Etiquette recently put together a clever style toss-up in the form of a musical slide show called "The Black Ivy" (a play off of Take Ivy). This is basically the best thing someone like me can see after living in Columbus for so long, but still I know that no place will ever live up to this representation.
• This week Esquire spoke with Frank Muytjens where he talked about how he came into J.Crew and his influence on the company after he came in 2008. I know this is the second week in a row I've brought him up, but just look at him. I can't help but smile ear-to-ear when I see this guy.

The Culture

• Today, most of the good burns are found on Twitter.
• And it seems McDonalds will be getting a facelift in the near future. Though the whole thing seems mostly cosmetic, and likely won't help their burgers from tasting like the grey, dried coster-sized leftovers that they are.
  

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.

I am plugging Pomplamoose here again. By now you should be familiar with their Video Song style, and recently their more collaborative efforts. In their latest release, the couple teams up with songwriter Allee Willis (who took notice of them after they covered a song she wrote, "September" by Earth, Wind and Fire). So they perform together and it's fantastic and adorable and wonderful. Do yourself a favor and watch it - and so I don't need to keep reminding you (don't kid yourselves, I will anyway) follow them on your own.

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?)

• I know I can't make my new favorite websites as relevant to everyone as I'd like it to be, but I hope that people will at least find it aesthetically pleasing, even for a minute or so. We Love Typography is just that kind of place. It felt so good just to dive in and process all these creative applications and bizarre presentations that even if I don't find myself returning in the near future, it was worth it for the cascade of pretty shit that washed over me for that brief period of time.
• I need to get better at suggesting websites I think are GREAT - and not just OKAY.

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.

I don't feel like you have the intelligence to criticize me, nor the wit cover it up.

You'll need at least one of the two.

On Your Way Out

You've all been good to stick around so long, so I don't want to ask much of you while you're hear. As it turns out, I've been having a pretty mellow time lately and I get the feeling there's more where that comes from. I surmise it's a result of having people around me that I can trust. Which is a relaxing state to be in. Paranoia is stressful, as are most varieties of uncertainty. So chill out and keep things simple. Or keep things simple to chill out. Just trust me, you can work it out yourself.

Fleece.

-stg