The thing about The Shield is that it keeps getting better.  You are gonna be so blown away by the time it's all over.

Anyone who's never read anything to a lover might as well be celibate by my lights. So, good play.

A girlfriend long ago taped herself reading that and sent it to me. Yes, it was awesome.

There's also a lovely setting of that one (and some other Lorca poems) in Ancient Voices of Children by George Crumb. He does cut out the last three lines, which still bugs me.

All my favorites have the feeling of being in ordinary language knocked just a bit off: Robert Pinsky's "The Figured Wheel," Robinson Jeffers' "Be Angry at the Sun," Frank O'Hara's "Mayakovsky" (often recited at the beginning of a journey). (EDIT: if you consider it poetry, John Cage's Lecture on Nothing is in there…

Dersu Uzala, which fucking Kino still has the rights to, apparently.

Real Genius.  (Come on, it has William Atherton as the best arrogant academic in the history of film.  And "OH MY GOD! It's headed for the gas tank!")

Looks even more like his brother Dave.

The Council for a Drug-Free America's latest PSA.

The Shield

No there aren't. Which is one of the reasons it's the greatest thing ever on TV.

Benjamin Button was pure author-of-Forrest Gump Oscar bait.  Beautiful, but ultimately a big piece of meh.  But considering Fincher made Zodiac and that got exactly zero (0) nominations, he could have purchased hookers to give every member of the Academy blowjobs for all I care.

wallflower Is Listening To. . . (cross-posted on "Paranormal Parentage")

wallflower Is Listening To. . .

That seems possible.  The second one might have been a bit buzzed, after leaving a drinking establishment of some sort.  (Perhaps a saloon or a speakeasy.)

Two guys walk into a bar.  You'd think the second one would have ducked.

This one?

No you're not.  You're just paying attention to plot and characters—the reality of the world—rather than taking a step back and looking at it as a work of art.  Personally, I think that's to its credit.  (Then again, I'm the guy who never got all that into The Sopranos.)

"Dennis and Dee Go on Welfare" is probably my favorite title-as-punchline.

Belongs in an archive next to Barbara Bush's comments during Hurricane Katrina.