Archive | 2006

Spy and Kong

23 December 2006

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Here’s my friend Dave Etkin’s e-Christmas card. Always a treat. Todd Jackson has an in-depth interview with Kurt Andersen here. Fascinating, for the seven or eight of us who like that sort of thing. There’s a puzzling insistence on Mad Magazine as Spy‘s forebear, when Spy‘s lineage is obvious: Private Eye filtered through the graphic [...]

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Blueberry solar panels, and blue urine

14 December 2006

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Italian scientists have discovered a way to replace the expensive silicon in solar panels with blueberry pigment You cannot make this stuff up. Whatever else it will be, our future will be indescribably weird. Saw “The Madness of King George” a night ago and found myself, to my surprise, somewhat annoyed–I usually love Alan Bennett’s [...]

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Beautiful Trow quote:

10 December 2006

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From George W.S. Trow, via an essay about him in The New York Observer: “America is a glory of a country, and a glorious idea for a country, and we would be saved now by the love of it if the idea of the love of it hadn’t been strip-mined and left ugly.” About sums [...]

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Nice appreciation of GWS Trow in Slate

8 December 2006

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Stephen Metcalfe sums up writer George W.S. Trow and his major work, Within the Context of No Context. It’s a reasonably good read for people interested in such things. The scion of a prosperous New York printing family, Trow was a prime mover in the revivication that turned the Harvard Lampoon from a snotty finals-club [...]

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Racism, anti-semitism, and comedy

5 December 2006

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Between Michael Richards and BORAT, there’s been a lot of talk lately about comedy and prejudice. I’ve held out as long as I could, but here’s my two cents. Playing a prejudiced character shouldn’t get anybody in hot water. Acting prejudiced should. Each of us can only inhabit one body/identity/gender. If we are virtuous, we [...]

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Okay, still busted….

19 November 2006

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…but I have faith that it will be fixed eventually, so here I am with some random thoughts: 1) I celebrated the Cardinals’ victory in the World Series with a bottle of Veuve-Clicquot. The trick to not becoming a lush is to cultivate sufficiently expensive tastes. 2) I celebrated Halloween at The Aero, a theater [...]

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Simple, obvious, brilliant

7 October 2006

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This new device routs greywater from your sink for use in your toilet. This could be big, especially in water-starved spots like Los Angeles… Why didn’t I think of that?

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Rexual Healing

2 October 2006

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After years of suffering through offenses that call to mind the phrase “spastic colon,” Rex Grossman is literally healing me. I continue to be delighted that the 2006 Chicago Bears can actually run, throw, and catch. You’d think that all football players could do that, but if you did, you wouldn’t be a Bears fan. [...]

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a sketch-fest over at Dennis’ place!

29 September 2006

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Dennis Perrin, biographer of Michael O’Donoghue and all-around comedy head, has posted several of his favorite sketches from Mr. Show, Exit 57, and other YouTube-friendly shows. Check it out!

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Solar glass

28 September 2006

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Okay, things are getting just TOO cool. Now there’s a type of glass that generates electricity. Read more about it here. Look out your window at all the high rises with sealed shut, smoked/reflective windows. Now imagine them with solar glass. Then imagine how cheap solar glass would get to make, if it were being [...]

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