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

Rosemary's Baby

Finally saw it. Of course loved it.

ADDENDUM: Okay, I was going to try to avoid this, but I just can't. I find it infinitely disturbing that Roman Polanski basically got the idea of how to rape a 13-yo girl from his own movie. Champagne plus quaaludes=alcohol plus drugged chocolate mousse/mouse. Even though marital rape was legal in 1968, the marital rape exemption never applied to forcing your wife to have sex with another man. (Having sex with your wife while she is unable to consent even if you are the one that drugged her is still legal in a few states. What a country). And of course, raping a 13 yo who was not your wife was not legal then or now. Rosemary's Baby is an awesome movie, but Roman Polanski is fucked up.

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.

State by State

Health Care in Hawaii
Abortion in Oklahoma

Polanski

I think this Salon piece puts the Polanski arrest and hubub just right.

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

NYMag and others have referred to Sally reading Decline and Fall to her grandfather in Mad Men as heavy-handed foreshadowing. I guess I don't buy this so much; I think it's foreshadowing the rise of a conservative movement that interprets the social change to come as the decline and fall of the American empire. Decline and fall doesn't seem like the kind of value judgment Weiner and his writers would make. It's the judgment that Harry Crane will make--ie the one that Reagan, Schlafly, et al made.

RIP

I hope we get you health care.

Anniversaries

The New York Times commemorates two anniversaries today.

Frank Rich celebrates Stonewall. The entire column is great, but here is the end:
"It’s a press cliché that “gay supporters” are disappointed with Obama, but we should all be. Gay Americans aren’t just another political special interest group. They are Americans who are actively discriminated against by federal laws. If the president is to properly honor the memory of Stonewall, he should get up to speed on what happened there 40 years ago, when courageous kids who had nothing, not even a public acknowledgment of their existence, stood up to make history happen in the least likely of places."

And Ray Robinson remembers Lou Gehrig's resignation from baseball. This is the text of Gehrig's farewell, courtesy of this site:
"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.
Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball's greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I'm lucky.
When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift - that's something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies - that's something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter - that's something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body - it's a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed - that's the finest I know.
So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for."

Umbrellas

I waited a long time to find this third umbrella. And then I spent forever trying to find these very very very old links. I especially like this Victorian postcard depicting life before widely available, affordable, and legal birth control.

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.

Love, Hate

I love this article about Michelle Obama. Muppets and wearing a dress more than once.

I hate doing pushups.

Politics and History

ARGH. On the alleged danger of Gay New York to children.
And a historical perspective on Somali pirates. Image here.

History matters.

The Week in Review

News
There's the bad. Unemployment continues to go up. Another tragic shooting spree. But there's also the good. Iowa has legalized same sex marriage, which is good for all the obvious reasons. But it is also good because it was unanimous and even more so because "there is no requirement that people seeking marriage licenses prove they live in Iowa, so the doors will be open to same-sex couples from other states." NYT.

Culture
I saw three great movies recently. 1) In Bruges. I had heard this was great, but still had low expectations. I really enjoyed it though. Brendan Gleeson is so winning. And between this and the New World, I might have to like Colin Farrell. 2) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). I heard this really interesting Fresh Air about the Invasion of the Body Snatchers medical condition, called Capgras Delusion. Basically, your emotional nodes of the brain are damaged, such that you visually recognize a person as your friend or family member, but your brain can no longer activates the emotional reaction you normally associate with them. Hence your impression that someone is impersonating them. There's also a compelling historiographical argument now that Cold War anxiety is notable for its fixation on the threat from within, which Invasion also fits perfectly. 3)And finally, the Good Fairy, my favorite of the three. I know this movie is cheesy, but I loved it. I think Preston Sturges + William Wyler has to be the best combination ever.

Miscellanie
I love these sheep and the people/dogs that shepherd them. Also, right now The Shaft is playing on Sci Fi, featuring Naomi Watts before she was famous and a killer dolphin elevator AND Love's Enduring Promise is playing on the Hallmark Channel, featuring Katherine Heigl and January Jones before they were famous and some bonnets. This is flattering for no one.

Upcoming
Slumber Party 09.

Happy Birthday Abe Lincoln

Happy Birthday Abraham Lincoln. You make a 20th century historian wish she studied the 19th.

I also wonder why I've suddenly noticed that the news now refers to you as freeing some of the slaves. New historical savvy from the many PBS documentaries? Kindly lowering too-high expectations for Obama? Subtly criticizing Obama? Me not noticing anything until today? I don't know. Happy Bday Abe! both images via kottke. second image possibly not AL.

1.20.2009

Inauguration Day.

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.

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.

ARGH

This story via Frank Rich.

November 11

November 4, 2008

Take a Bow, America
Blue Indiana The NYT actually attributed Obama's victory in Indiana to white voters, making it even more historic in my mind. I am so proud of my state. I can't even say.
Also, the second Muslim in the House of Representatives comes from Indianapolis, care of a deep affection for his grandmother, Julia Carson.
The sad success of Proposition 8.
My non-Hoosier friends across the street while we were getting out the vote in Indiana.
Best pictures of Obama.
McCain's concession speech.
Obama's victory speech. Parts 1. 2. and 3.
Obama's DNC 2004 speech.