'Ten Thousand Posts': Talking About Rotten Tomatoes and Film Criticism

This was fun: Hussein Kesvani and Phoebe Roy had me on for a special episode of Ten Thousand Posts to discuss how Rotten Tomatoes does or doesn't affect my job. You can hear a taste of our episode down below. If you'd like to hear the whole thing, consider subscribing to their Patreon.

What Does Jared Leto Think He's Doing in 'Morbius'?

As one of the few people who actually likes this reviled superhero movie, I devoted a few words to what I think the Oscar-winner does right in Morbius. You can read my essay over at MEL.

Keith Law Interviews Me About 'This Is How You Make a Movie'

I'll get into it more later, but my latest book, This Is How You Make a Movie, is out now. (You can order it at Amazon or Bookshop.) In the meantime, I'm very happy to say that my friend Keith Law invited me to be on his podcast to talk about the book, the Oscar nominations and, yes, the St. Louis Cardinals. You can hear my episode of The Keith Law Show down below.

E Talks About My Eels Biography

With E out promoting Eels' fine new album, I was, of course, curious if anyone might ask him about my Eels biography. Happily, Dan Lucas, who's a fan of my book, did just that. Dan's profile of E at Drowned in Sound is great across the board, but here's the section where he asks E what he thought of Blinking Lights and Other Revelations: The Story of Eels...

Back in 2008 E received widespread acclaim for his literary prowess thanks to his fascinating memoir Things the Grandchildren Should Know. Now, just four years later, rock critic Tim Grierson has written the unauthorised biography Blinking Lights & Other Revelations which offers a welcome objectivity that the autobiography, by nature, lacked. I felt the book had its merits but, as its subject, E is less certain having been just about the only person closely associated with Eels who declined to be involved in Grierson’s project. “It’s very flattering that somebody wrote a book about me. I couldn’t really recognise myself in it though, I felt like I was reading about somebody else. I think it was odd that it would come out so soon. I think I did it better, but then I would think that! Maybe it’s odd to read a book about yourself? I mean, I’m happy to try anything once, so I just thought ‘let’s see what I’m like’ and so [when reading Grierson’s book] I was like ‘didn’t we do that already?’”

I thank Dan immensely, and I appreciate E's comments. My short response to his rhetorical question is that while Things the Grandchildren Should Know is indeed great, it skips over a lot of his life and musical adventures. For instance, he doesn't talk about I Am the Messiah, nor does he discuss the very-hard-to-find Bad Dude in Love, which he recorded while he was still living in Virginia. Plus, getting to hear other people's perspective on E's creative process, to my mind, makes my book a valuable companion piece to E's memoir.

With that said, I can't imagine what it must be like to read a book written by a complete stranger about you. I've been a fan of the man for more than 15 years, so I definitely approached this project with a lot of love and a huge sense of responsibility. As Dan mentions, E didn't participate in the book, but he was kind enough to let me interview those around him. (I've interviewed him twice in the past, though.) Someday, I hope to actually sit down with the man and chat about this book. Even if that doesn't happen, though, I'm proud of my effort to explain to the world what an undervalued talent he is. That's enough for me. (You can order the book here and judge for yourself.)

indie rock alphabet book

Truly magnificent.

kids respond to yo la tengo's "little eyes"

If you've never seen this, you should check it out, especially if you love kids' drawings and/or the music of Yo La Tengo.

judge judy vs. michele bachmann

The brilliant ladies of Jezebel have done it again.

bob dylan, the painter

Rolling Stone has a nice gallery up of some of Bob Dylan's artwork.

(No, I haven't heard the new album yet. I know, I know, I know. Hopefully once I get some stuff done today, I'll be able to spend some time with it.)

kids write letters to obama

The whole story about Dear President Obama: Letters of Hope from Children Across America can be read here. But let me just say that this 12-year-old's letter might be my favorite.

glenn kenny on the whole miss usa "controversy"

Film critic Glenn Kenny draws the obvious parallel to a certain Woody Allen film. Brilliant.

alec baldwin agrees with me about rachel maddow

From Alec Baldwin's piece today in The Huffington Post (which is actually about the ongoing importance of The New York Times):

She is smart and charming but her writers are dreadful and the less cutesy she is, the better. She did an excellent interview with Colin Powell recently. The next night, I missed that tougher, less avuncular Rachel.

She needs to cut down on the aren't-I-adorable? moments. I still like her a lot, and the Powell interview was good, but I hope someone over at her show is in charge of watching out for encroaching smugness.

eels - hombre lobo

If the first single, "Fresh Blood," didn't make it clear, this trailer for the making-of documentary suggests that Eels' Hombre Lobo is going to be a rock album, possibly in the vein of Souljacker. I'm positively loving "Fresh Blood," and I hope there's more like it on the album.



Update, 5/6/2009: According to the Eels camp, Hombre Lobo is indeed going to be somewhat Souljacker-ish.

don't buy stuff you cannot afford

This Saturday Night Live sketch aired three years ago, before "subprime" and "economic stimulus" were media buzzwords. I remember thinking this was brilliant when I saw it back in 2006. Now, it actually makes me a little sad. And angry.

why st. louis cardinals fans are the best in the world

Joe Magrane, former Cardinals pitcher and current MLB Network commentator, talking about his fondest memories of playing in St. Louis:

I would have to say just the support of the fans. Whether we were succeeding or not, they were just incredibly loyal ... You look at the sea of red and knowing that they're gonna be there with you, good or bad.

Very heartwarming stuff, and I'm sure most Cardinal fans would agree with his assessment. But then he added this:

Unlike some of the other teams around the league, these fans look like they've had a shower within the last couple of days.

Translation: St. Louis fans are hardcore, but they're not obnoxious cretins. (And shall we guess which "other teams around the league" he's referring to?)

happy valentine's day ... from the onion

God bless them.

Despite having more than a decade of experience and being in fairly good physical shape, 32-year-old publisher's assistant Peter Graney told reporters Tuesday that he is inexplicably getting worse at sex.

"I don't get it," Graney said following an awkward evening of intercourse with a coworker he has dated for the past two months. "At this point in my life, I thought I'd be able to please a woman every time, no problem, but it's actually quite the opposite."

"It doesn't make any sense," Graney continued. "I'm starting to think I might have been better at this whole thing back in high school."

The rest is here.

Radiohead Win Best Grammy Comment

It's not a Grammy category yet, but Radiohead guitarist Johnny Greenword deserves some sort of award for this response to the ridiculous lavishness of the Grammys:

Everything I know about pop culture I know from The Simpsons, and they say the Grammys aren't very good.

For the record, I thought their performance of "15 Steps" with the USC marching band was just OK. It's not one of my favorite tracks from In Rainbows.

what the darwins can teach all of us

Deborah Heiligman's excellent editorial in yesterday's Los Angeles Times, tied to the 170th anniversary of Charles and Emma Darwin's wedding day, is a great reminder of how faith and science can coexist. Charles was a nonbeliever, Emma passionately believed. And yet their marriage flourished -- she even helped him edit The Origin of the Species to make its points stronger.

But let's move this discussion away from religious faith for a moment. In general, the idea that two people in love can hold vastly different viewpoints on important matters is something I think we don't value enough in our society. That's not a weakness in a couple -- it's a sign of strength in their bond.

Heiligman sums it up succinctly:

Although they never were able to see eye-to-eye on the question of religion and God, they were able to reach their hands across the gulf. In the end, each of them accepted and, it seems, truly understood what the other believed.

If it is a sign of intelligence to be able to hold two opposite thoughts or opinions in your head, then it is a mark of a successful marriage to be able to truly see the other person's point of view. This is also the mark of a successful society.

erykah badu made the best album of 2008

And Jess Harvell of Idolator will tell you why:

Badu's self-dissection lacks the ego-engorged glibness of her college-spurning, casually misogynistic peer, and in a singularly shitty socioeconomic year, she sold down-and-out, day-to-day life as hard as she wagged a mystical finger at new jacks who paid more attention to strip clubs than stump speeches; dismissed consumption-drunk gangstas who name-checked while missing her point(s); and refuted an industry happy to squeeze modern African-American music through the current pinhole parameters of MTV Jams.

New Amerykah heads my list of the year's top ten albums of 2008. You can read the whole list here.

not hating seven pounds

If I get around to it, I'll write a review for Will Smith's new film, Seven Pounds, but in the meantime, I refer you all to David Poland's defense of the movie. I'm less interested in his attacking of film critics who have disparaged it, but I agree with him that Seven Pounds has more going for it than just being this winter's Pay It Forward or Sixth Sense.

Poland's theory that its critics would have more willingly accepted the film if it had been in a foreign language is questionable, though.

the economist goes for obama

Everybody and their mother does presidential endorsements, but The Economist's pick was the one I was most anticipating. (To review, in the last four elections, they've endorsed Kerry, Bush, Dole and Clinton.) This year?

[T]his cannot be another election where the choice is based merely on fear. In terms of painting a brighter future for America and the world, Mr Obama has produced the more compelling and detailed portrait. He has campaigned with more style, intelligence and discipline than his opponent. Whether he can fulfil his immense potential remains to be seen. But Mr Obama deserves the presidency.

I couldn't agree more. The whole piece is here.