Art meets Technology meets Nostalgia meets…

there are more of these here.

Curbing the Clintons’ Enthusiasm

Obama has a new political advisor:

Larry David.

A few weeks ago, I started to feel sorry for her. Oh Christ, let her win already…Who cares…It’s not worth it. There’s not that much difference between them. She can have it. Anything to avoid watching her descend into madness. So I switched. I started rooting for her. It wasn’t that hard. Compromise comes easy to me. I was on board.

And then I saw the ad…

How is it that she became the one who’s perceived as more equipped to answer that 3 a.m. call than the unflappable Obama? He, with the ice in his veins, who doesn’t panic when he’s losing or get too giddy when he’s winning, who’s as comfortable in his own skin as she’s uncomfortable in hers. There have been times in this campaign when she seemed so unhinged that I worried she’d actually kill herself if she lost. Every day, she reminds me more and more of Adele H., who also had an obsession that drove her insane…

Here’s an idea for an Obama ad: a montage of Clinton’s Sybillish personalities that have surfaced during the campaign with a solemn voiceover at the end saying, “Does anyone want this nut answering the phone?”

Click…

…HERE

I single-dog dare you.

“Once”

It was, by all accounts, a great year for movies in 2007. I didn’t see every single well-received film of the year–most notably I missed “Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” “2 Months, Three Weeks, and Four Days,” “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead,” and “The Savages.” But I did catch a bunch of awfully good ones–”The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford,” “Zodiac,” “No Country For Old Men,” “The Bourne Ultimatum,” “There Will Be Blood,” “Beowulf” (in freaking 3-D!), “Atonement,” “Juno” (which I didn’t like as much as many did), “Ratatouille,” “Michael Clayton,” “I’m Not There,” and “Things We Lost In The Fire” (unfortunately overlooked).

But if you put a gun to my head and asked me which movie of 2007 moved me the most powefully, I’d have to swallow my (intellectual) pride and say, “Once”: that beautifully endearing ode to art and love that (I think) captures how hard it is for us all to find whatever and whoever makes us feel whole and connected to this world; and that when we find that special something, how marvelously joyful it is, but also how fleeting.

So I’m really glad that the film’s stars (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova) got to sing at the Oscars last night and that they won for best song. Here’s a quote that captures a bit of what I love so much about this movie, spoken backstage by Hansard shortly after receiving the award (as quoted by the NYTimes Oscar blogger):

“I just got a text from Bono. That is the biggest thing in the world that can happen to an Irishman.”