Buffalo

by Seth Eastman.

1.20.2009

Inauguration Day.

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

The nogoodforme blog always does this feature, which is my favorite.

Listening:Fresh Air (from February 2008); Tegan and Sarah.
Watching: Blazing Saddles, Bladerunner, 30 Rock, American Teen, Rachel Getting Married.
Reading: Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations; either Coraline or 13 Clocks; The Bell Jar.
Wearing: new socks, a white button down Stephan gave me for Xmas; jeans his mom gave me a few Xmas-es ago; boots.
Wanting: these shoes, a basil plant.

False advertising

I've noticed two absurd ad campaigns recently.
1. The new Pepsi logo seems to be deliberately trying to steal Obama's thunder. See Thomas Frank for Pepsi's ingenious appropriation of culture in the past.

2. The eharmony.com ads purport to be "true." Not that I expected them to be actually true, but the illusion is a little harder to maintain when you contradict your own story in two different versions of the same commercial. In the first version, Tanyalee says that she was too busy owning a store to date. See the first clip below. In the second version, Tanyalee claims she and Josh opened her store together. And then they show footage of the same store. See the second clip below. In theory there could be TWO stores, but then show different footage. eharmony is a horrible corporation anyway, for being so fucking homophobic.

Nading girls

Stephan's great grandmother, on the left.

Outfits

Here, formerly here, and here.

Jericho

Why didn't anyone tell me that Jericho is so radical? I love it. It's a critique of the Iraq war akin to Battlestar season 3, admittedly minus the subtlety. The show basically pillories the US for ceding its values and infrastructure to Blackwater's corporate capitalism. I mean sure, it loves guns, militias, traditional gender roles, and proprietary capitalism, but no one's perfect. This is the reason Obama won the election. When guys who love guns, militias, traditional gender roles, and proprietary capitalism have a stinging critique of the US foreign policy, politics are swinging left. Image care of here.

Awesome Stuff I Loved in 2008

Websites that are bad for me: Facebook and Jezebel. Jezebel inspired this post.

Hard Liquor. In particular free shots won at trivia night at the Bucktown Pub and Bailey's during cards at R's.

Politics. Obama 08. Indiana goes blue. Minus Prop 8. Minus Blago scandals. Minus Bush's last minute policy bullshit.

Stephan's invented old-timey slang. We heard the term "jukie" in a song by Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks and decided a Jukie was a music hipster. Then Stephan invented other categories of hipster: a Nick (nickelodeon) is a movie hipster; a Nick at Nite is a horror movie hipster; and a picture boxer is a television hipster. I am proud to be a picture boxer.

Green beans. The year before it was broccoli; 2008 was green beans.

Children's Book Club: highlights include Watership Down and Howl's Moving Castle. Book club has also helped me rediscover the Chicago Public Library.

Sewing class at the Needle Shop.

Pants that were not jeans: cords, my striped guys, yellow chinos, and Bitten canvas pants.



What's going to be awesome in 2009:
*More sewing classes at the Needle Shop and more book club.
*Horses. The birds/deer of the future. Vintage horse buttons on ebay would be a good start. See above.
*Trips to San Diego, Springfield IL, and Chapel Hill NC.
*The revival of cloth napkins. My roommate did this in college, and hence I did. Now I have some pretty new ones, and I'm reviving the tradition.
*Inauguration.

New Years Lists

My favorite TV shows of the year
1. Mad Men
2. Battlestar Galactica
3. Pushing Daisies
4. The Middleman
5. Lost
6. The Office
7. True Blood
8. 30 Rock
9. How I Met Your Mother
10. Burn Notice

Short Nominations (I've only seen a couple episodes of these, but the rest either live on my Tivo or I wish they lived on my Tivo. I plan to watch them soon.)
1. Skins
2. Life on Mars
3. Breaking Bad

Forecasted Nominations (I spent 2008 watching season 4; if I were caught up, this would be on the list).
1. The Wire, season 5

Movies/Experiences (a list like T's on FB, though not nearly as sophisticated)
1. Wall-E on Western. I know it's cheesy. Fuck it. Moe rocks.
2. Transsiberian at Piper's Alley. I saw this with my Hitchcock friend right before she moved to LA.
3. Dark Knight also on Western. All of Stephan's efforts embedded in a really stunning flick.
4. Vicky Christina Barcelona at the Logan. Penelope Cruz is amazing; Rebecca Hall does a wonderful Woody Allen; and I thought the voice-over totally captured all the travelogues we used to watch in Spanish class. Critics never took Spanish.
5. Nothing Like the Holidays at the River North Chicago premiere. Even more of Stephan's efforts. I loved it.
6. Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas at the Siskel. A great Muppet classic. I only wish I could have met Cookie Monster.
7. Let the Right One In at the Landmark. Creepy and awesome.
8. The Stuff at A & H's Halloween party. Perfect Halloween fare.
9. Stagecoach and
10. The Apartment at home. How had I missed these two classics? They're now two of my all time favorites.