Lord of the Rings, Indy & Han Solo

I showed the freshmen I was babysitting during state testing:
The Lord of the Rings, Raiders, and Star Wars.


They are all still wonderful.

Pushups

I've been following this One Hundred Pushups plan.
I was up to 36 by 3/16.

Grain Fed Beef

Just down the road:
Goose Pond Farm and a review. We ordered some chickens.

Catching up March for the facebook agnostics

So hang on.

Justified, If Only By Its Leading Actor's Coolness

I have recorded, but not yet watched, FX's pilot for Justified. The hero is a federal marshal who returns to his home town after a questionable kill in a fight, and the hero takes up defending the town from the lawlessness that has consumed it. The hero is played by Deadwood and The Crazies veteran Timothy Olyphant.

I have the premier saved, but I must urge all reading to give the show a try for the following reason:

Timothy Olyphant is one of the coolest, shot-out-of-a-cannon weirdo actors ever. He agreed to be a guest on Sirius XM OutQ's Frank DeCarro show, and he was--hands down--one of the sweetest, weirdest, obscene heterosexuals ever to be on the show and get it. Near the end of his stint, Frank asked if he would stay on until the end of the hour:

"I've got nothing else better to do, let's go!"

Olyphant is as cool as Bullock, but in contrast he is crazed and educated and honest, like Tarantino...

And us, so we aspire...

Zombie Roommate, Demon Girlfriend, Wizard Co-worker, And Oppressed Squids

Comedy Central has a new cartoon series that can only be described as lurid, intellectual sickness. Behold the enlightened debase glory of Ugly Americans:

Ugly Americans	Weds 10:30pm / 9:30c
Sneak Peek
www.comedycentral.com
Joke of the Day Stand-Up Comedy Free Online Games

I laughed until it hurt, and that felt good...

We Love You Gamera

From Godzilla Haiku:

Son of Precious

Exquisite Trash: Mo'Nique and Divine

I had little interest in seeing Precious until I read this critique:

What director Lee Daniels has done (quite deliberately, it appears) is take Dawn Davenport, the larger-than-life delinquent played by Divine, as a source of inspiration for Precious's tantrum-throwing, cha-cha heels-wearing mama Mary (Mo'Nique). Then he tosses in a beautiful light-skinned lipstick lesbian fairy godmother (Ms. Rain, played by Paula Patton), some cheesy escapist glamour-fantasy sequences (featuring a handsome boyfriend character the credits identify as "Tom Cruise"), and a comical all-girl chorus of wise-cracking GED English students who are assigned to write fairy tales. (Correction: One of the girls is a transsexual/transvestite, but it was unclear to me which direction she's going at this particular moment in her life.) Daniels' directorial sensibility is more garish and flamboyant than Waters' (this isn't kitchen-sink melodrama; it's everything plus the kitchen sink melodrama), but he displays a similar affection for his oversized female characters. Whatever its other ostensible subjects, this is a movie about drag queens acting out.

And then I saw this from John Waters:



Hell, if someone had told me it was a raunchy violent comedy and not some affected tear generator for Oprah's cult of mediocrity, I would have gone to see it twice.

And John Waters is America's most treasured sicko.

The Milky Way over Hawaii

The White Mountain from charles on Vimeo.

Read It And Weep

Virginia's newly elected governor actually sent this outrageous tripe to that great commonwealth's internationally recognized universities. This sickness from the state that gave us Jefferson should make any enlightened human give pause.

I must remind you that this grotesque was ceremoniously knighted by the Republican Party to respond to Obama's State of the Union address. He is not a marginal, hysterical yokel or some slack-jawed charismatic populist of the boondocks; instead, he's one of the Republican's touted up-and-comers who is now governor of one of our republic's most important states.

One party cowardly drags its feet concerning my rights (while cynically and cautiously extoling them). The other celebrates, relishes, and promotes my second-class citizenry and would remorselessly vote it down to no-rights status if they thought they could get away with it.

How cold is Montreal? Learning French and riding trains sounds really, really good right now.

The New Acropolis Museum

I want to go to Athens, as the New Acropolis Museum (go to that link to gasp) is near completion.





Just to stand in this room might complete my life.

Learn Through Rolex

Switzerland's Rolex Learning Center is now open. What a beautiful place to learn...







But how practical is this? I understand curving the outside , but shouldn't the inside be tiered? And as stunning as masterly poured concrete roofs are, shouldn't this one be partially covered with greenery to accentuate--rather than contrast--the courtyards?

Frank DeCaro Oscar Special

Before the Academy Awards this Sunday, tune into Frank DeCaro's touted "deranged" Oscar special featuring a strange diversity of guests: from Barbara Walters to Bruce Vilanch to Faction's great Jason Ellis (whose afternoon radio program is equally debase and brilliant).

6 pm CST on OutQ Sirius 109, XM 93

Great Design Wins; Why Isn't It Here?

A truly modern residential skyscraper: Aqua

Chicago's Aqua is Emporis' "skyscraper of the year." I'm sure other awards will follow.

Members of the jury praised Aqua for its fascinating shape, whose appearance changes dramatically depending on the perspective. It was also cited as a brilliant technical achievement for the precision of its construction, and lauded as an application of green design innovations to an extremely large building project.

As someone who lives among the sad attempts to recreate bigger versions of contemptible copies of outdated designs (and which have no respect for even past-modern aesthetics or craftsmanship), I say, "Hoorah!"

Why are people so easily herded into ugly, inefficient, and poorly designed homes?

Forget Chicago, I'm Going To NYC This Summer

Green Day is turning their epic album American Idiot into a Broadway play.

Architecture, history, art, great food, martinis, and a punk musical...who's with me?

Anyone?