Ten Men and a Movie

We left the Ten AM Compound this weekend in search of a movie, only to discover that both Voodoo Taxi and Murdercycle were already rented. (Hate when that happens.) Since we were out of the house anyway, we decided to go see one of the new releases we've heard so much about- Little Miss Sunshine. (One of the Ten is in a screenwriting workshop, and some of the film nerds in his group have been raving about this film for weeks.)

Our take? It was a typical independent movie:

• Dysfunctional family? Check.
• Non-threatening homosexual? Check
• Precocious child? Check
• Quirky bunch of losers? Check.

Overall, an amusing little film. Until the 3^rd act kicked in, and we were treated to one of the biggest payoffs we’ve seen in a long, long time. What happens in the 3rd Act comes at you from out of nowhere, and would be right at home in the best Will Ferrell movie. It’s that funny. We highly recommend this.

Learning the Art of the Funny

A friend of ours just wrapped up a stint studying at the Improv Olympic in Chicago. His name's Baratunde,and he writes about his experience in his blog (start with the entry all the way on the bottom, and work your way up to the top)

Our reaction? Wow. He traveled all the way to Chicago and spent five weeks studying comedy, and it’s all we can do to bring ourselves to generate one half-assed posting per day. Man, we’re so useless…

Don't Fear What You Don't Understand

We're fans of the Electoral College (see this piece we wrote on it 6 years ago.) As complicated as it may seem, we feel it was put there for some very sound reasons, and to remove it would be shortsighted.

The paragraph below is as good a summary as any about why the Electoral College was put into the constitution.

"So rather that trying to eviscerate the Electoral College, we should be embracing it. It was put in the Constitution to allow states to choose presidents, for we are a republic based on the separation of powers, not a direct democracy. And the Electoral College--just like the Senate--was intended to protect the residents of small states. As James Madison said, the Electoral College included the will of the nation--every congressional district gets an electoral vote--and "the will of the states in their distinct and independent capacities" since every state gets two additional electors." Via opinionjournal.com

If you're a dork like us and interested in such things we recommend you read the whole essay. The author makes some goofy arguments, and engages in some partisan paranoia, but on the whole it’s a good defense of a complicated (and thus misunderstood) cog within our electoral machine.

Men Who Look Like Lesbians

Number 1 in a series. This installment: Chuck Klosterman

911 Commission Report is now a graphic novel.

Slate .com is posting daily excerpts.

Got a card from a friend of ours

A glossy announcement that his organization merged with an even bigger organization. The announcement itself was underwhelming- typical series of generic stock photos. Well, almost all of them were generic. Below is the one that caught our eye.

Really- what the Hell is that woman in the hairnet manufacturing? Looks like some nightmarish cross between Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and the final act of Woody Allen's "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask."

It’s cute when people think the criminal justice system actually works

The Boston Globe profiles some Back Bay property owners who are taking a hard line against a graffiti tagger:

"On Sept. 1, one of the neighborhood's biggest menaces -- Gonzo, whom police identified as Michael Beck, a 20-year-old Quincy car washer -- is scheduled to arrive in court for a pretrial hearing. Back Bay residents, who have accused Beck of spray-painting at least 68 properties, said they will be ready with photographs of his alleged handiwork and letters to the judge from dozens of people who say they are his victims….The group calls itself the Graffiti NABBers, short for Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay, and their goal is to ensure a stiff penalty for Beck and send a message to others who spray graffiti that the crime will be taken seriously…."

Good luck with that.

Why we hate Cambridge (Reason number 874)

From the same story as above, it’s because of attitudes like this one:

"Caleb Neelon, a Cambridge artist who was curator of a graffiti exhibit at the New Art Center in Newton in March, said that jailing taggers would not stop others from spraying graffiti…. ``If they don't want graffiti in that neighborhood, a good thing to do would be to clean it."

Here We Go

Our first post on our new blog. Out with the old HTML, and in with the new Blogger thing that all the kids on MySpace are talking about.

Hours from now, we’ll look back at this post and be embarrassed at what we wrote, and we'll all share a laugh at how naïve we were, back in those halcyon days of four hours ago….