Ten Men and a Movie: There Will Be Blood

If you like movies, then you should go see this. That’s all we really have to say.

Local Boy Makes Good.

The New York Times profiles Barak Obama's head speechwriter, John Favreau. He's a 26 year old graduate of Holy Cross.

Also gives us a look into the art of speechwriting:

“The trick of speechwriting, if you will, is making the client say your brilliant words while somehow managing to make it sound as though they issued straight from their own soul,” said the writer Christopher Buckley, who was a speechwriter for the first President Bush. “Imagine putting the words ‘Ask not what your country can do for you’ into the mouth of Ron Paul, and you can see the problem.”

One of our biggest problems w/ Bush’s speechwriters is they do exactly what Buckley advises against: they craft intricate, wordy speeches with lofty language, and put it into the hands of a an inarticulate man who’s at his best when he’s in his plain speaking, “aw shucks" good ‘ol boy mode.

Finally

Rent closes on Broadway in June.

On January 16, 2008 it was announced on the production's website that the musical would end its 12-year-run on June 1st, 2008. [38] An official reason was not given at the time of the announcement, however, according to League of American Theaters and Producers, ticket sales were down and box office figures showed that the production was playing at approximately fifty-percent capacity. Text via Wiki.

We never got the whole Rent phenomenon, or the plight of the squatters depicted n the play. (Maybe because when we were in our 20s we actually paid our fucking rent.)

We finally saw this musical back around 2000- we were shocked at how badly it had aged. Even then, only a few years removed from its heyday, it felt dated. The whole thing with the pagers going off onstage already had some of the younger people scratching their head ("What's that beeping noise?”)

We’re not the only ones who felt this way. To our surprise, someone subbing for Jason Kottke hated the thing too.

If this news makes you weepy, we suggest you drop a virtual Teddy Bear at this online shrine

Our New Favorite Comic Strip.

Brewster Rockit: Space Guy! by Tim Rickard

John August hates Parade Magazine.

He really, really hates it. And this week, they came through for him in a big way.