Month: December 2008

• “Keep it down, I’m trying to SCIENCE in here!” Watchmen Condensed is deceptively simple and crude but also very funny and spot-on. (Okay, some of it might just be as simple and crude as it seems. But still.) [via]
• Wow. I’m getting the sense that Virginia Heffernan really doesn’t like Sarah Vowell.
• There’s been a lot of talk in recent years about Sesame Street being dumbed down, primarily to appeal to its increasingly pre-school audience. But then it goes and does something like this winning nod to 30 Rock, or the Law and Order: Special Letters Unit spoof from a while back. It’s clearly not just all Elmo’s World over there.
• Today’s Wal-Marts and Best Buys — tomorrow’s cathedrals, museums and artists’ communities? [via]
• I don’t drink coffee very often, and I’ve never actually used a hotel coffeemaker, but this is helpful advice nonetheless. If I’m staying overnight someplace where methamphetamines are regularly brewed, I think I should know about it.
• Out for Justice? Steven Seagal has been a New Orleans cop for the past twenty years. You just can’t make that kind of thing up. [via]
• There’s something distinctly weird about watching this promo for the upcoming Cupid remake. I was a fan of the original, but it was canceled pretty quick. If this one fails too, will Rob Thomas try again in 2018?

The New York Times reports:

That’s a shame. My parents and I saw her perform with a live show of A Prairie Home Companion about a year ago, and she was nothing short of incredible.

• Reading this post — the latest in John Seavey’s terrific storytelling engines series. Seriously, go read some of them — it occurs to me that I’ve never actually watched any of George Romero’s zombie movies. I should probably remedy that at some point.
• Pushing Daisies has been cancelled. This makes me sad. If the universe was looking to off-set my sadness a little, it could finally give The Middleman a second season. I’m just saying.
• I’m really intrigued by these examples of tilt-shift photography. Tilt-shift makes real locations and objects look like miniature-scale models. I find most of these photographs stunning, but I’m not completely sure why. After all, would the same images, shot without the camera manipulation, seem quite so incredible? I’ve seen this sort of thing before, but I think now what I find most interesting about the technique is how completely it tricks the mind. I’m constantly having to remind myself that these aren’t models, and that the exquisite attention to detail isn’t necessarily the photographer’s doing. [via]
• “Renowned scientist Dr. Judd Nelson”… Now there’s something you don’t read every day. I’m still not interested in watching the show, however.
• Christopher Beam makes a compelling argument for why stories of vampires continue to reinvent themselves: “stomping on old myths heightens the realism.” [via]

Tasha Robinson on Twilight: