December 4, 2008
John C. Reilly, Jack Black, Neil Patrick Harris, and Maya Rudolph: “Gay Marriage Will Save the Economy”
November 23, 2008
For those of you who share my love of YA literature…
I just learned that Jezebel’s Lizzie Skurnick will be publishing a book this May called Shelf Discovery, based on her thought- and nostalgia-provoking Fine Lines feature. (You may recall that I’ve gushed about Fine Lines on this blog before.) And it looks like Shelf Discovery will be followed by a sequel based on Shelf Pleasuring?!! It’s good to know I wasn’t the only inquisitive bookworm stealing sexy thrillers off my parents’ shelves as a pre-teen.
In other book-related news, my Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism tells me that the only English-language version of Simone DeBeauvoir’s second-wave-launching classic The Second Sex is the original “incomplete and notoriously inaccurate translation by a zoologist, H.M. Parshley, whose enthusiasm far exceeded his grasp of either philosophy or feminism” (p. 1406). One of my favorite current scholars, Toril Moi, lamented this fact back in 2002 in her essay “While We Wait: The English Translation of The Second Sex,” but as far as I can tell from the internets, no one is really doing anything about it. This may be because the original is 1000+ pages long…but you know, if grad school falls through (meaning, if I’m not one of the 15 out of 350 (!) applicants admitted to PhD study at my universities of choice), I think I know what I’ll be doing in my spare time! Time to start brushing up my French. Heh.
November 20, 2008
Latest from The Chicago Reporter…
Check out my article on immigrant soldiers in the November/December issue of TCR.
November 5, 2008
The Democratic Hopescape
…has avoided Delightful Dismemberment. Congratulations, President-Elect Obama!
November 3, 2008
What if we all cared enough to make hollow advertising gestures?
I’ve already seen this ad twice today: once while trying to view Ben Affleck’s hi-larious Keith Olbermann impression from this weekend’s SNL, and once on my facebook:
While I appreciate any and all efforts to get out the vote, I don’t think the allure of a free cup of over-roasted, burnt coffee is going to be the deciding factor in anyone’s decision to vote. After all, if you bothered to register but you don’t actually turn up to the polls, I would assume it’s because you’re a) too lazy to leave your damn house or b) too busy to take a lunch break or leave work early. So this really seems like an attempt by an overpriced coffee house to stir up warm fuzzy feelings about its brand in an economy that’s increasingly driving customers to Dunkin’ Donuts (or – horror of horrors! — to brew their own).
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 11% of registered voters failed to actually cast a ballot in 2004. So perhaps a reminder is always good. Personally, I’m a fan of the Nashville newspaper that printed the name of local registered non-voters from the last presidential election.
November 3, 2008
Don’t get it right, get it written
It’s NaNoWriMo. Oh, how I want to participate! Unfortunately, it’s also my own personal NaTheWriMo (National THESIS writing month).
Over Christmas, I’m going to write a David Sedaris-like collection of short stories about my ridiculous life in NYC. Should I post the draft here?
October 29, 2008
If there’s one good thing about the economic disaster,
It’s that it provides a handy-dandy metaphor for environmentalists warning about the other catastrophe waiting in the wings.
October 21, 2008
“You can’t keep down a girl who loves music.”
Sorry for my absence this weekend…I was away visiting my boyfriend at the University of Illinois, a delicious getaway from my chaotic Manhattan existence.
On Sunday night we saw Broken Social Scene, and while they were as brilliant as I expected, I was blown away by openers Land of Talk. Frontwoman Elizabeth Powell rocked out during her own band’s set, then turned around and filled the place of former BSS vocalists Leslie Feist and Emily Haines (off being famous as Feist and one-fourth of Metric, respectively) throughout the headliners’ exhausting two-hour set.
Check ‘em out (you won’t regret it): www.landoftalk.com
[UPDATE: also give "It's Okay" and "All My Friends" a listen on itunes or wherever you get your music...their best stuff isn't up on myspace, with the exception of "Some Are Lakes."]
