Things We Laughed About 3 Months Ago

When Larry Met Woody

NY Observer has the piece. It's a good one.

So, a new Woody Allen movie starring Larry David filmed right here in New York City. Could there be a more deep-fried mix of talent, comedy and neuroses? For most of us, Woody Allen is as quintessential New York as the Chrysler Building. Many New Yorkers grew up with a vision of this city spun by Annie Hall and Manhattan and Hannah and Her Sisters, where the skyline always twinkles and romance lurks around every limestoned corner; where brainy, nervous men charm young and naïve beautiful women in grand prewar apartments lined with bookshelves; where there are country weekends with lobsters to chase and always—always—love to find and fail.

And then there’s Larry David, another Brooklyn boy made good, co-creator and writer of Seinfeld, which defined New York all over again in the ’90s, with its exquisite, endless examinations and sweating of the small stuff—soup Nazis, being master of the domain, parking garages and puffy shirts. Since his 1999 HBO special Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm, and the still-airing series that followed, he’s made performance masterpieces of excruciating situations. The news that he was to star in Mr. Allen’s latest had some rubbing their hands in anticipatory delight, others sharpening their knives, all anxious to see if Mr. David could pull off the ultimate as a Woody misanthropic paradigm.

The Perils of Social Media

From the NY Times:

When two Domino’s Pizza employees filmed a prank in the restaurant’s kitchen, they decided to post it online. In a few days, thanks to the power of social media, they ended up with felony charges, more than a million disgusted viewers, and a major company facing a public relations crisis.

In videos posted on YouTube and elsewhere this week, a Domino’s employee in Conover, N.C., prepared sandwiches for delivery while putting cheese up his nose, nasal mucus on the sandwiches, and violating other health-code standards while a fellow employee provided narration. The two were charged with delivering prohibited foods.

By Wednesday afternoon, the video had been viewed more than a million times on YouTube. References to it were in five of the 12 results on the first page of Google search for “Dominos,” and discussions about Domino’s had spread throughout Twitter.

Below is Domino's response video which has been praised in USA Today:

The CIA Interrogation Memos

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3a, Part 3b, Part 4a, Part 4b

And Obama's statement:

This is a time for reflection, not retribution. I respect the strong views and emotions that these issues evoke. We have been through a dark and painful chapter in our history. But at a time of great challenges and disturbing disunity, nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past. Our national greatness is embedded in America's ability to right its course in concert with our core values, and to move forward with confidence. That is why we must resist the forces that divide us, and instead come together on behalf of our common future.

The United States is a nation of laws. My Administration will always act in accordance with those laws, and with an unshakeable commitment to our ideals. That is why we have released these memos, and that is why we have taken steps to ensure that the actions described within them never take place again.

The Girlfriend Experience Trailer

Translation: Yes we can- be on time every day.

La La Land

The East Side of Los Angeles on a Sunday Day from clark vogeler on Vimeo.

In Case You Forgot About Prince's Ridiculous Symbol

He introduced the symbol in 1992 in case you wanted to be reminded that you are OLD

Links

Springtime in New York: a slideshow

Newsweek cover story on epilepsy

On modern day one-hit wonders

9/5/08 Radiohead concert on NPR

Super ant colony

Bench ads

Nukes

Steve Coll of The New Yorker lays out Obama's challenge of striving towards nuclear non-proliferation:


"Ronald Reagan, Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, and Sam Nunn are among the Cold War-era defense hawks who have preceded Obama to an embrace of nuclear abolition. Even so, it is commonplace to criticize this vision as naïve, since the goal is unlikely to be achievable anytime soon. This criticism distorts the abolitionist movement’s work; its supporters do not generally waste time on speculative debates about when and how a world containing precisely zero nuclear weapons might eventually be created. Instead, they want to drive down the world’s nine nuclear arsenals to much smaller sizes as quickly as possible—perhaps to the tens or low hundreds of weapons, in the case of the United States—and, while doing so, to make nuclear weapons as illegitimate and impractical as possible."

Still a Politician

I love Obama, but sometimes I'm reminded that in many ways, he is still a politician. Nowhere is this more apparent than his stance on gay marriage. He is FOR civil unions but AGAINST gay marriage. Now, it's understandable why he held this position during the campaign; He was courting independents who were more likely to be swayed by social issues.

However, the Windy City Times reported that when President Obama ran for the Illinois State Senate in 1996, he was unequivocally for same-sex marriage President-elect Obama’s answer to a 1996 Outlines newspaper question on marriage was:

“I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.” There was no use of the phrase “civil unions”

Granted, it's possible Obama has changed his views over the past 13 years, but more than likely he has been playing politics. As the population continues to shift towards favoring gay marriage, I won't be surprised when the President reverts back to his old stance.

The Voice of Summer

Growing up in South Jersey, I was never really a Phillies fan, but I was always a baseball fan. On summer days, after running around outside for hours, one of my favorite things to do was lay on the couch and flip on channel 57. The backdoor breeze and the voice of Harry Kalas calling the ballgame was summer personified to a 10 year-old. That unique, drawled, Midwestern delivery was so relaxing, so unmistakable. And the call- everyone from the area knows and has probably imitadated their own version of the call- "Looong fly ball to deep center field, it could be, it isss...ouuutta here, Mi-ckey Mour-an-di-ni!" Sad day.

Kalas calling the last 3 outs of the World Series

"I went to a restaurant that serves "breakfast at any time." So I ordered French Toast during the Renaissance."

- Steven Wright