I was underwhelmed by Million Dollar Baby. There are all sorts of aesthetic gripes (and praises) one could parse, but one thing about the film that annoyed me was its dodgy class-regional politics. On the one hand, Maggie/Hilary Swank’s poor upbringing serves as guarantor of her integrity and goodness. On the other hand, we have […]
I can see why Code 46 might not be on someone’s top 10 list of the year (though given the competition, I’m not sure inclusion’s unwarranted), but why was this film so summarily overlooked when it came out? By critics, by the boxoffice, by art house goers. I guess it fell between two stools - […]
Well, this week has demonstrated that Boston just doesn’t function well after a blizzard. There’s been confusion from various authorities, but the biggest problem is that the city can’t handle the number of cars and transit commuters it needs to in order to function even at 2/3 speed. As a T rider, I like many […]
Despite the America-first flyover-zone music populism I’ve often advocated in this blog, I’m also slavishly anglophile in my tastes. I’ve championed Britpop one-hit wonders others ignore or brush off as derivative. I’ve held the postpunk imports dear to my heart. And I’ve lately been filling in the shoegaze and C-86 holes in my record collection […]
Proctor and Gamble looks set to buy Gillette. Dan Kennedy sees this as more proof of David Nyhan’s "Boston isn’t Run by Bostonians Anymore" thesis. And like other buyouts (Hancock, cough cough), this one seems to me at least to be another milking of longterm company value to extract short-term shareholder value before dumping the […]
Matt Yglesias takes issue with a Dan Drezner post on the Oscars and cautions us on weighing in on the technical awards.
I think it’s perfectly fair for a lay movie fan to decide that, say, Natalie Portman’s performance in Closer was neither the best performance in that film nor the best Natalie Portman performance […]
In the midst of the frivolity that this blog has become lately, let me give a minute of remembrance for local columnist David Nyhan, who died shoveling snow on Sunday. Dan Kennedy has a nice post over at Media Log. One thing that’s striking is that for a political columnist, Nyhan’s instincts at predicting political […]
Well, Oscar nominations are out. A couple of weeks ago I’d ruminated that Sideways had peaked too early and that some dark horse would over take it in the awards race. I’m just wondering why I didn’t see the Aviator sweep coming. People worship Scorcese, feel bad Gangs of New York lost out, and think […]
Over the holidays I had a semi-heated discussion with friend on the merits of Sex and the City. He hated and thought it just a half-hour of product placement. I defended it, not too articulately. In hindsight, I realized I don’t mind the show’s consumerism — unlike true product placement which tries to add glamour […]
Travis at Be a Design Group points out one thoughtful prediction for the next year’s graphic design color palette. Useful stuff. Like purple as the new pink, and browns replacing grays.
Source: Adam Polselli’s 2005 Color Forecast
I’d written before that an “iPodization” of music culture is chipping away at album integrity as a mode of music production and reception. Now that Apple is marketing its new iPod Shuffle by foregrounding the destruction of old ways of listening to music, the issue might be worth revisiting.
Anne Galloway does just that, considers […]
Chuck Tryon points out a new group blog of film lovers/bloggers called, appropriately enough The Conversation. My favorite, so far, is this post ruminating on the efffect of DVD on movies. But go read - what better time than the kickoff of Awards season with the Golden Globes tonight?
Despite the whiny, miserable people involved, I’m loving Wickedly Perfect. This week’s showdown involves synchronized swimmers! I will say for a bunch of would-be lifestyle mavens, their menu planning sucks - serving both lamb and lobster with white wine? or deviled eggs with red wine?
UPDATE: I should maybe expand a little bit, given that […]
From the Globe comes word of an odd development: South Boston residents are now feeling the need to lock their doors given the rise of burglaries. Odd if only because it hasn’t happened earlier, that the neighborhood was able to get through the 20th century with a tradition of keeping front doors unlocked. This is […]
Chuck Tryon has a tentative syllabus for his Intro to Film class up on his blog. It’s been a few years since I’ve taught, but it made me wonder how I’d structure an Intro class, and drafting a syllabus is not an entirely hypothetical requirement now that I’m putting an eye to the job market. […]