And with the chain, so dies the awkward file they've probably kept about my account!
The only items I can remember purchasing at Borders in recent years have been semi-pornographic gag books that were gifts for friends' weddings, and Criterion Collection releases of Japanese serial killer & grindhouse movies marked…

@Flaubert - I think 'racist' is an unfortunate word that, when thrown around as an accusation, usually serves to piss more people off than it does to further discussions. Nor do I think it really accurately describes what happened at the awards show, or the audience response. The KKK is a racist organization. Kanye's…

I may be becoming the crusty sort of humorless lefty that I usually find obnoxious, but I feel like I can appreciate the fact that - while Kanye may have been a jackass - the media outcry also fed off the fact that here was a big bad black man who performs music in a historically black genre of music (verbally)…

And then, sometime around two in the morning, take advantage of yourself.

I'm with whataworkout/MDDG that the day's one in many that can be depressing if you're not coupled (which I'm not, at the moment). Of course, it does make an ideal evening to listen on repeat to that Tom Waits song off Nighthawks where he talks about taking yourself out on a date. You can laugh, then laugh, then cry!

Editing David Foster Wallace in his absence is definitely not an enviable job…

I have a soft spot for the Keanu movie because it introduced me to the comics, but Tarsem? Damn. That could have been brilliant, like a bleak Gilliam.

In much of rural Iowa, the smell changes with the wind. If its coming from the right direction, hooray for clean, fresh air. On the nights you're downwind of a hog lot, though, you sometimes wonder if its possible to gouge out your own nose.

I recall in the book Virtual Tibet (great read about the US and Hollywood's obsession with the place, and some particularly crazy detours with Steven Segal) there's a section about how unpalatable a lot of the food in the country is, what with the poverty and not too-fertile stony snow land and not much to cook but…

If we're talking statewide statistics, I'll admit Iowa is pretty white. But the overall stats are somewhat misleading when it comes to individual school districts, especially given that the immigrants to the area tend to be of family-building age and to have larger families than the born-and-bred locals. So when a…

@Plum - I agree that Europe's high test scores can be attributed in part to its countries' homogeneity, but if you're using Iowa as a symbol for 'homogeneous', you'd be mistaken. There are a lot of large-scale meat & farm & egg operations in small towns out here that rely on immigrant labor, and the school districts…

She and the original WSJ article sold the piece on inflammatory sensationalizing, then back-peddled and entered damage control mode when the reaction from pretty much everyone (person on the street, blogosphere, Americans, Asians, Asian-Americans…) was strongly negative. On the Colbert interview she just keeps…

I think the best (semi-serious) rebuttal I read was from David Brooks in the NYT, entitled "Amy Chua is a Wimp."

You, good doctor, win the page.

One of my most awkward film viewings ever
I was back in college, a friend of mine's girlfriend had just been diagnosed with cancer, and we were going to watch some good wholesome violence / satire to take his mind off it. We were, of course, unaware of the Glenn character…

Roman Polanski.

The Wolfman alternated between being an enjoyable throwback to the old Universal horror movies (in production design at least) and not knowing what it wanted to do with itself, and by the end had just completely lost its shit. I'd say the makeup follows the same pattern: Wolf Benicio del Toro = awesome. Wolf Anthony…

But we did have mild surprises!
- No Waiting for Superman nomination for Best Documentary

I wonder if MK:A is slightly more incoherent if you are or aren't familiar with the franchise. Like, if you went in without the baggage of extra knowledge about the characters and their personalities and whatnot, then you would be freed to understand the movie purely on the level of "these people and a centaur want to…

What if Jack Bauer dies and goes to hell, where he has to start all over again, owning everyone he already owned in life while awkwardly avoiding all the personified guilt over those he failed to protect? It'll be like a cross between Hellblazer and that unproduced Gladiator sequel written by Nick Cave.