The Future and the Past

The Future:
AT&T's really accurate commercials from the 1990s
100 Things to Look Forward to in 2011
2011 Midseason Shows
The Future of Alzheimer's Care
The Texas Omen by Paul Krugman

The Past
Young Johnny and Elizabeth Edwards. I find this unspeakably sad for all sorts of reasons.
James Tiptree Jr. in another era
Cigarette cards featuring Old Hollywood Players
Hidden Mother photos. These are deeply creepy.
Vivian Maeir. I love this genre of photography.

BONUS LINK: The Past of the Future also dealing with AT&T

Multiverse Directors

These are the ultimate from the what-would-have-been-culture:
Lynch directs Jedi
Cronenberg directs Breaking Dawn

Holiday links

Lovely gift guide from Creature Comforts
Goys doing Hannukah food
Microwavable mitten warmers
Image (and instructions) from Creature Comforts

Embarrassment of Riches

All of November, in one post:
FDR probably died of cancer. Discovered by brilliant neurologist and journalist.

Gorgeous dollhouse.
The best movies et al of the 00s. I might do this soon.
Jezebel reminded me of this Lisa Simpson quote, which would look nice under my theoretical Lisa Simpson-as-Jolly Roger tattoo: "beneath my goody two shoes lie some very dark socks."
Five comics I'm not reading, but might read soon.
Another fascinating story on autism.
And more weird things about the brain.
Possible inspiration for twitter.

Weegee

I think I've posted about how much I love Weegee before, but hearing his voice is awesome. Peter Sellers based his Dr. Strangelove accent on Weegee's, which this blog describes as "part Austro-Hungarian immigrant by way of the Lower East Side and part Elmer Fudd."

Most people seem to like the murder Weegee photos, but my favorites are the sex ones.

Link Attack!

My brother's impressive video of a grass-roots organization in IN.
Errol Morris explores forgery. See pic above.
A kids' book list.
A really crushing assessment of Tiller's murder.
Nesting dolls in danger.
Vampires saving humans from zombies.

Big Screen, Little Screen

I couldn't figure out why I liked Big Screen, Little Screen so much until today when I realized it is the kottke of film and tv blogs.

Links

Where the Wild Things Are trailer via kottke
Fifi Lapin and LeSportSac together
Cootie catchers and other fortune tellers
Chic Chicago
GQ's slideshow of the 50 most stylish men also via kottke

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.

Late Night Political Panic

I told you I wasn't writing.
Bob Herbert's inspiring call to liberals.
Frustrating but hopefully inflated poll numbers.
The Bush-esque media-managed Palin.
Though even without interviews, it's still painfully clear I hate her politics.
Where to donate to the Obama campaign.
Which is getting pretty necessary.

Frolic!

It's British week at Frolic! and "not writing the dissertation" day at my blog.

NYT did an article on this youtube video, and it is pretty damn great.

Kottke-esque

Google is cutting back on the daycare available to its employees. The lack of affordable and acceptable daycare in this country is a travesty.

Scandinavians 2000 years ago were more ethnically diverse than they are now.

Apparently making access to the means of suicide more difficult actually reduces the number of suicides. People don't find another method.