Sure, it’s already snowing a bunch*, but you need this. We at V+V HQ have now watched this five times to make sure we get all the information. *LOLBoston P.S. Have a hot toddy; the government’s closed tomorrow.
Continue reading...It’s cold outside, so it’s time for a hot toddy
As it is the time of year we celebrate the birthday of our hallowed first president, many of us have been gifted the treasured three-day weekend. And since I have been gifted three days off in a row, my immune system has found it necessary to gift me in return a gnarly rhinovirus. Being sick, though, is a great excuse to use whiskey as medicine. Now, please do not take medical advice from me. Get your medical advise from doctors, not bloggers or huckster celebrities. Come to think of it, don’t take medical advice from huckster celebrities...
Continue reading...Hell Bent for Election
So this is friggin’ cool. Above is an animated film directed by Chuck Jones that was basically a union-sponsored campaign ad for FDR. From the YouTube description: Hell-Bent For Election was a 1944 two-reel (thirteen minute) animated cartoon short subject now in the public domain. The short was one of the first major films from United Productions of America (then known as “Industrial Films”), which would go on to become the most influential animation studio of the 1950s. As UPA did not have a full staff or a studio location until the late-1940s, this film was made...
Continue reading...Highways, A Metaphor
Started writing this for something else, but it ended up being a little too elaborate and didn’t fit, so here. Everybody is born in a car, and the car is driving rapidly down a major highway. When each person comes to life, they know nothing, a reality not unlike John Locke’s posited tabula rasa. Each person knows not where they are, what direction in which they are heading, and especially neither the cause nor the destination of the mysterious car ride. Unbeknownst to every person as they are born is that the destination is a town called Success,...
Continue reading...New York Times Columnist Line of the Day
If you frequent this here premier “web log,” there’s a good chance you may once or twice have read the New York Times op-ed page. You might even recognize the names of the columnists, who every day spout the most conventionally wise of the conventional wisdom. This is a feature that is dedicated to these folks, highlighting one line that is either funny, ridiculous, strange, or actually intelligent or well-written. Today\’s is from David Brooks, who in his column today, \”The Devotion Leap,\” seems to have sad about what sounds like some disappointing experiences with online dating: I have to guess some...
Continue reading...Parks and Rec creator says smart thing about government in random interview
I definitely don’t want it to fly by when somebody says something randomly that is very smart about government. Mike Schur, man behind some of the best sitcoms of all time, one of which is Parks and Recreation, was asked about the era that led to the creation of a show about local government: And then there were a couple of other things, the biggest of which I think obviously is that at the time Greg and I were developing the show around the summer of 2008, the world economy was collapsing around us, the McCain/Obama campaign...
Continue reading...Panda loves snow
So, it’s snowing today in the nation’s capital, which is friggin’ annoying, but you know who fucking loves it? That’s right, that little bastard Bao Bao, our resident kind-of-a-baby panda at the National Zoo. It’s his first snow, and he friggin’ loves it. Like the bastard he is. Anyways, carry on with your miserable day.
Continue reading...New York Times Columnist Line of the Day
If you frequent this here premier “web log,” there’s a good chance you may once or twice have read the New York Times op-ed page. You might even recognize the names of the columnists, who every day spout the most conventionally wise of the conventional wisdom. This is a feature that is dedicated to these folks, highlighting one line that is either funny, ridiculous, strange, or actually intelligent or well-written. Today\’s is from David Brooks, who in his column today, \”The Problem with Meaning,\” writes: Meaningfulness tries to replace structures, standards and disciplines with self-regarding emotion. Honestly, the rest of it makes...
Continue reading...Favorites in Your Face from 2014
I’ll bite. I’ll share with you what 2014 licks I was humming in my head, what I was tapping my foot to, and what I was singing loudly at my dashboard. Adding to previous posts, here are my favorite albums of 2014. Disgraceland – The Orwells Don’t know where I found this, most likely songza, but this found its way into my Spotify. Music genres never die, even if they fade from the pop charts, and so garage rock lives in these young lads. This album is rocking, energized, even when the lyrics get mellow or twisted....
Continue reading...The Favorites of WA
Pop started us off yesterday, listing his favorite albums of 2014, and hoping we’d hop into his post. I would do that, but I’m both lazy and selfish, so I’ll throw in three albums in this post. Before I start with the music, I need to mention that I listen almost exclusively to NPR. I hear bumper music on Here and Now and think to myself, well that sounds wicked fresh. So don’t buy anything on my recommendation unless you think 8 year old My Morning Jacket riffs are the height of innovation and cool. Also, this is in...
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