New Game!

Play different songs while watching this:

Best so far:

"Web In Front"
"Eleanor Rigby"
"This Charming Man"
"Bang a Gong"
"The Way We Get By"
"Crank Dat"
"Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa"

Try it! You'll like it!

Merry Christmas to me, and the Mandys of the world

This week's must reads

1) Dave Weigel, Why I Don't Write About Sarah Palin's Facebook Posts

2) Eric Wemple, WaPo Sits on Eyewitness Account on Snowball Gun Incident

3) Spencer Ackerman, The Guantanamo Gift Shop

Really. Read all of them. From start to finish.

These are a few of my favorite things, today

[via]



[via]



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[via]

Oh. And Avatar. F the haters, this movie is the coolest.

Guys, I have great news

The entirety of Smoky Mountain Christmas is up on youtube. It's the best movie about country stars and orphans and witches and letchy sheriffs and families and Christmas you'll ever see. Merrrry Christmas! Embedding is disabled, but start here. It's worth watching to see Dolly's impeccably tailored clothing alone.

Well, surprise surprise

Both Avatar and Nine look pretty terrible. I am saying this based on the impressi0n left on me by their trailers. But The Awl loves them both. And I love The Awl. So maybe I'll see them anyway. Man, what an enthralling post. It's like I took an observation and put it through a machine that sucked out all figurative language and excitement. Sorry guys, it's cold outside.

Also, I went to Komi. Here's what I thought about it.

UPDATE: Wow. Ian Buckwalter, DCist's extremely awesome and always right movie critic, also loved Avatar:

I was a skeptic. There was over a decade's worth of lingering bad taste in my mouth from my dislike of Titanic. There are the trailers and commercials that just look silly and visually flat. Blue-skinned aliens that were drawing comparisons to unholy unions of Jar Jar Binks and the smurfs. Heady proclamations from director James Cameron that he was going to change the face of movies. It all left me sitting in my seat prior to seeing Avatar expecting a big failure with an even bigger price tag. That's a lot of pessimism to overcome, but the fact is that Avatar really is a game changer. No, it's not perfect. Far from it. It's overlong, the script is hopelessly clunky, the characters aren't nearly as vivid as those in the director's strongest work in Aliens and the first two Terminators. But it delivers what, for many years, Cameron did better than nearly anyone else: thrilling sci-fi action with eye-popping, extraordinary visuals. Forget what the trailers look like — this isn't a movie where 3D is an enhancement to the moviegoing experience. It's as essential to the film as technicolor was to The Wizard of Oz. Dismissing this movie based on a 2D trailer is like writing off The Lord of the Rings based on a two minute clip viewed on an old, static-plagued 13-inch TV with broken vertical hold. The difference really is that great. Sitting in a theater with those glasses on, you'll see a movie like nothing else you've ever experienced.

Don't bother viewing the trailer. See it in a theater.

Alright then. Perhaps I'll venture out into the snow this weekend to see it.

Exactly.

I've told you to watch Skins before, but let me quote PopCandy as to why (she puts it rather perfectly):

"I wish I could force everyone who talks about the greatness of Gossip Girl, 90210 and other high-school shows to watch one episode of Skins, which is hands-down The Teen Show To End All Teen Shows. (It is the Heathers of teen TV.) The characters make me simultaneously miss my youth and feel mighty relieved it's behind me."

Fire up those Netflix ques! It is truly a must-watch. And NOTHING like Gossip Girl or 90210.

More Stuff I Want

After I completed the Christmas List, I found a bunch more stuff to lust after! (Largely thanks to Kriston introducing me to Svpply). So here: more crap I want.

Here.

Here.


Here.


Here.


Here.


Here.


(Or any Le Crouset, really).


Here.


Here.


Here.

ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE

Internet is the new Santa.

Remember when I asked for a youtube function that lets you build playlists? Well, LOOKY HERE. I haven't gotten to play with Vevo yet, but it sounds like just what the dr.s t r e t c h ordered. Awesome. (And yes. I'm a doctor now. Congratulations! To... me!)

Today in Cross-Species BFFeration

This might be the crown jewel in CSBFF stories. (Longtime readers will know I've been archiving them for some time now.) After I recovered from initial exposure to BLT, I found out that Noah's Ark animal rescue has a flickr feed. And then, I began to want a bear more than anything in life. So, add that to my Christmas list: docile 1,000 bear rescued from drug barons, with an affinity for big cats and people.

(Side note: This place is officially the greatest, happiest, most wonderful in the world.

Because of this.

And this.

And this.

And this.

And this.

And this.

And this.)

I want this as a poster. Without all the UO crap.

And these. And this. And this (though that'd be a tricky thing to put on a poster).

HEY LOOK AT ME, WITH ALL THE BLOGGING!

My favorite concerts of 2009

Thee Oh Sees, Black Cat backstage

Stereo Total, Black Cat backstage

Wilco, Wolf Trap

TV on the Radio/Dirty Projectors, 9:30 Club

Wale, 9:30 Club

Matthew Hammerlein (I might not be spelling that right), Big Bear Cafe

Wale, 9:30 Club

Mother Mother, Rock & Roll Hotel

Tyler should write travel guides

"and then take the L to brooklyn (it'll say rockaway... lean back, lean back)"

me: and where do i get out?

Tyler: just start yelling "where brooklyn at! where brooklyn at!" people will help u.

Tyler: graham ave is third stop.

once you leave manhattan you'll know, cause your ears will pop.

and it goes Bedford (all the extremely hipster-hipsters will get off here)

Lorimer (moderately less hipster-hipsters)

Graham (normal people, some hipsters)

My Christmas List

If you're out there, scratching your head wondering "what do I get for the blogger who has everything?", well, here are a few ideas!*

I don't have a turquoise/teal scarf. I'm often wanting one.

It would be swell if somebody could come over and help me hang my curtains.

And cocktail lessons from Derek Brown would be the coolest.

Well, not the coolest. That'd be access to this.

I need a pad lock and a head lamp and my weight in bug spray for my upcoming trip to Maho Bay.

I could use some cool new gloves/had/scarf to go with my cool new yellow coat.

I'd like to read these books.


*But really, I have everything I need. This is more of a "things to buy myself later" list. Please carry on and do not spend any money on me. Thanks!

Related to my last post

Fantastic Mr Fox might be my favorite movie.

Truly wonderful and awesome and smart and cool and FUNNY! and adorable and I love it so so much everyone should see it. Ok great, thanks, glad we had this talk.

This kid cracks me up

What do you get if you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its diameter?

Pumpkin Pi!

This and other made-for-Amanda jokes available at Dumb Jokes That Are Funny. The best website ever.