So I'm watching MSNBC for the Pennsylvania results, and Rachel Maddow makes the sensible and largely uncontroversial point that how Barack Obama performs against Hillary Clinton in a Democratic primary has little relation to how Barack Obama might perform against John McCain in a general election. Pat Buchanan then responds by calling this a "Marxist dialectic." Maddow then looks at Buchanan like he's a mental patient. Priceless stuff.

Labels: Brian, entertainment, media

Our readership might think it's all fun and games here at Urbanagora, but the reality is far more brutal and disturbing:

Labels: Brian, entertainment, internet

For those of us a little confused by all the economic woes currently ailing us, here is a pretty useful and entertaining primer on the subprime crisis. It's got stick figures and everything. The bottom line: we need to require financial institutions to provide more transparency and openness in financial reporting.

Update: My amazing brother brought this to my attention (there, happy now?).

Labels: Brian, economics, entertainment

Okay, so as I've said before, I liked this first song, but this one is both annoying and kind of creepy, isn't it? The whole "Obama" repetition makes me feel like it's more about worshiping this one human being rather than what I think is the more sensible position of being excited about an energized and mobilized electorate.

Labels: 2008, Brian, entertainment, media, politics

Whoever pulled this prank off is my new best friend.

Labels: Brian, entertainment, jurisprudence

Just to buttress Augur's previous post with a far simpler explanation for Obama's success, might I suggest it all comes down to his superb use of fonts? Consider this interview with a very impressed graphic designer:

Every time you look, all those signs are perfect. Graphic designers like me don't understand how it's happening. It's unprecedented and inconceivable to us. The people in the know are flabbergasted...I'm not sure that the commander-in-chief proves his mettle by getting everyone at his rallies to set their signs in the same typeface, but as someone who knows how hard that is, I'm very impressed.

Just another data point to consider if you're on the fence this year. And in case anybody's worried that Obama's really a secret militant Muslim bent on giving aid to the terrorists, consider his choice to use Gotham as the font on his campaign signs:

Unlike other sans serif typefaces, it's not German, it's not French, it's not Swiss. It's very American.

Personally, I'm a fan of Verdana. But, then, I'm also a traitor to America.

Labels: 2008, art, Brian, entertainment, politics

To any Obama supporters who may have wanted to start referring to Obama's rapidly increasing support as "Omentum": it's probably not such a good idea.

Labels: 2008, Brian, entertainment, politics, science and technology

An untold chapter in the history of women's liberation:

Labels: Brian, entertainment, gender

One of my favorite things about the end of the year is the slew of top 10 lists that come out in various media outlets. I always have a tendency to feel inspired to create top 10 lists of my own before I realize that I have not been anywhere near exposed enough to all of the various things I would be listing (i.e. movies and music). I mean, I might have seen 10 movies that came out this year, not all of which were good, and my familiarity with all or even a great deal of the albums of 2007 is just as limited. So it's sort of difficult to say what the ten best movies of the year were, for example, when I haven't seen a whole slew of movies that would probably have ended up on my list if I had seen them.

But I still like making lists. So, instead of creating some sort of definitive Top 10, I'm just going to list some stuff I liked a lot, roughly in the order of how much I liked them, but specifically noting some of the things I have not yet but would like to see/hear and which I suspect would have made it on my list if I had only took the time to see/hear them.

And, yes, I know hardly anybody who reads this blog cares what I think about these subjects and that this is pretty much just for my own enjoyment. But, I'd be more than happy to hear what movies, music, etc. you all enjoyed from the past year, so please share. Anyway, here are my...

Favorite Movies That I Have Seen So Far from 2007
1. No Country for Old Men
2. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
3. The Lives of Others
4. Into the Wild
5. The Bourne Ultimatum
6. Michael Clayton
7. Zodiac

Movies That If I Saw Them Would Stand a Decent Chance of Being Among My Favorites from 2007
1. There Will Be Blood
2. Juno
3. The Savages
4. Sweeney Todd
5. Once
6. Atonement
7. Gone Baby Gone
8. Persepolis
9. Charlie Wilson's War
10. Knocked Up

Favorite Albums That I Have Heard So Far from 2007
1. In Rainbows, Radiohead
2. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, Spoon
3. Wincing the Night Away, the Shins
4. The Reminder, Feist
5. Neon Bible, Arcade Fire
6. Night Falls Over Kortedala, Jens Lekman
7. Cross, Justice
8. Graduation, Kanye West
9. Boxer, the National
10. All Hour Cymbals, Yeasayer
11. Blackout, Britney Spears
12. I'm Not There, Various Artists

Albums That If I Heard Them Would Stand a Decent Chance of Being Among My Favorites of 2007
1. Sound of Silver, LCD Soundsystem
2. Andorra, Caribou
3. For Emma, Forever Ago, Bon Iver
4. The Flying Club Cup, Beirut
5. The Shepherd's Dog, Iron and Wine
6. Kala, M.I.A.
7. In Our Bedroom After the War, Stars
8. Challengers, the New Pornographers
9. The Con, Tegan and Sara
10. Back to Black, Amy Winehouse
11. Under the Blacklight, Rilo Kiley

Labels: Brian, entertainment, movies, music

"I was panicked a bit because I really don't know about...the Cuban Missile Crisis. It had to do with Cuba and missiles, I'm pretty sure. I came home and I asked my husband. I said, 'Wasn't that like the Bay of Pigs thing?' And he said, 'Oh, Dana.'"

-White House Press Secretary Dana Perino

Labels: Brian, entertainment, foreign policy

This is pretty fantastic. Here we have a Bob Fosse routine that is bizarrely well synchronized to Unk's "Walk It Out."



And here is the same video with the song it was originally set to: a '60s go-go tune called "Mexican Breakfast" by Gwen Verdon.



Which is better? I report, you decide.

UPDATE: As Tom points out in the comments, I got this wrong. The dancer is Gwen Verdon, the song is composed by Pat Williams.

Labels: Brian, entertainment, music, video

Every now and then I discover a band I enjoy that a part of me dares to think Billy might enjoy too. I rarely summon up the courage to share these bands with him, however, out of fear that he will reject them in such a way that sends me into a tailspin of blind fury and leaves me wondering how I could ever be friends with such a lame, narrow-minded ass (no offense, Billy).
I'm going for it this time, though, and hopefully even if Billy refuses to enjoy it, some of you like it. It's a band called Bishop Allen, named after Bishop Allen Drive in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where singer Justin Rice and guitarist Christian Rudder lived after college. It's warm pop rock with solid lyrics. Here's their main website, and here's their MySpace page, both of which have free samplings of their songs. They also have concert dates coming up soon in Chicago and elsewhere, in case anybody's interested.

Here are a few of my favorites:

"ClickClickClickClick" from The Broken String
"Rain" from The Broken String
"Things Are What You Make of Them" from Charm School

Labels: Brian, entertainment, music

This, via the very impressively redesigned American Scene, made me laugh:

Also from the Dept. of Amusing Probably Only To Me, but I’m currently preoccupied with imagining a sit-com based around Christopher Hitchens. Tentatively called “Everybody Pisses Off Hitch,” it features a wacky female neighbor who, even though she works some great prop comedy and hilarious visual gags, never manages to amuse the star, who sits at the kitchen table drinking Scotch and blinking like a mordant eagle caught in the rain. The show’s signature catch-phrase is, “I find that boring and irritating,” and on a very special holiday episode Hitch gets very drunk and regales the neighborhood kids with the story of the lost weekend he and Kingsley Amis spent in Tijuana.

Not that anybody cares, but speaking of the American Scene, I've updated my blogroll in the sidebar to more accurately reflect my current reading material.

Labels: Brian, entertainment, humor, media

I'm not usually one for this kind of sappiness, and maybe I'm just having an off day, but...well...this nearly made me burst into tears. Do I need therapy?

Labels: Brian, entertainment, music

Woody Allen takes on Billy Graham. Why can't interviews like this happen on TV today?

Part I


Part II

(Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan)

Labels: Brian, entertainment, religion

The Westboro Baptist Church brings us a message we can all get behind: God hates the world.



I'm not sure I get the "You'll eat your children" part, but, hey, it's catchy.

Labels: Brian, entertainment, music, religion

New column's up today (I switched days with Jon since the school board election I'm discussing happens tomorrow and we wanted it to be timely): "Banning Kurt Vonnegut and Other Sins Against Man."

Labels: DI, education, entertainment, politics, role of government, society

Iran is clearly the only country that could ever entertain this possibility (they are controlled by the Jews, after all).

Labels: entertainment, foreign policy

If you like music at all, then you will love this song: from a band called TigerCity. Just throwing it out there.

Update: music (for robots) took down their link to this song, as they normally do after a week or so, so it doesn't work any more, but you can still listen to TigerCity at their website.

Labels: Brian, entertainment, music

I know it's election season and there are a lot of important issues facing the country and the world right now. But Tom Cruise just partnered with MGM to take over United Artists, so let's see who can come up with the most gratingly annoying puns combining this story with a Cruise film. CNN and Fox News already have dibs on "Cruise Named Top Gun at UA." I know you guys can do better than the MSM, don't let me down on this!

Labels: Brian, entertainment, media