December 2009
27 posts
Waiting for 2010 →
The AV Club lists their top 32 movies/books/video games/records they’re looking forward to in 2010.
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Derek: You'll never believe this. I'm on the same cruise ship as Howie Mandell.
me: Wait, as a traveler or as the entertainment?
Derek: I think just as a traveler. God, I hope he's not the entertainment.
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The Real Festivus
Today is December 23rd, the day of Festivus as address on the famous Seinfeld episode. However, the holiday was not invented for the show. Writer Daniel O’Keefe based the episode on the holiday his father, Dan O’Keefe, created.
From the New York Times:
O’Keefe, a former editor at Reader’s Digest, said the first Festivus took place in February 1966, before any of his...
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And the 2009 Christmas number one single is... →
Apparently, having the number one single in the UK the week before Christmas is a big deal. The Beatles did it four times, Queen twice, etc. And the last four years have produced winners from The X Factor, a singing competition run by everyone’s favorite grinch, Simon Cowell.
With yet another X Factor winner, Joe McElderry, expected to cruise to Christmas #1 with yet another cover—this one...
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Old Signs, take two
Tumblr friends: I’m working on a new project in which I am taking pictures of old signs (think: Twin Donuts or the Arcand sign). Besides Rt. 1 north of the city, does anyone know of any locations in Allston/the greater Boston area?
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This American Life: Ep. 371 - Scenes From a Mall →
This American Life seems to come through every year with a good Christmas episode/special. Last year, Josh Bearman’s (awesome name) “Santa Fight Club” tells the following amazingly true story:
A tale of two Santas. There’s Tim Conaghan, a full-time professional Santa with a big belly and a real flowing white beard. And there’s Santa Nick—he too has a belly and real white beard....
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Nabokov's The Original of Laura →
Even by the standards of genius, Vladimir Nabokov’s work habits were odd. He wrote much of Lolita in the backseat of the family car, a black 1946 Oldsmobile. (He said it was the only spot in America where he wasn’t plagued by noise and drafts.) He didn’t use regular paper. Instead he wrote in pencil on index cards, which his wife Vera later typed up for him.
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“The generalizing writer is like the passionate drunk, stumbling into your house...”
– George Saunders, The Braindead Megaphone
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The Thermoses - Christmas in Allston
kfowler:
...
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The Greatest Movie Never Made →
The history Kubrick’s never-made masterpiece, Napoleon, has been captured in Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon: The Greatest Movie Never Made, the epic, 2,874 page, 23 lbs, $700 book edited by Kubrick aficionado Alison Castle. It’s the perfect stocking stuffer this holiday season for the literature/film nerd in your life.
Yes, Michael Jackson Did Work On Sonic The... →
The ending to The Squid in the Whale. I wish the video went a little longer, Noah Baumbach lets “Street Hassle” play through the credits.
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