Jan 17, 2011 0
—Who’s drinkin’ Jäger!? —Actually, it’s Fernet. —It’s what? —Fernet. Fernet-Branca; it’s an amaro, an Italian aromatic liqueur. —… —It’s a San Francisco bartender drink. —San Francisco!? I let them give the admittedly Jäger-looking shot a sniff. Faces are made, and the bravest (drunkest) asks for and is granted a sip. I’ve heard lots of curiously angry [...]
Jan 16, 2011 0
Recently, having become addicted to young adult fiction, I had to face the harsh reality that I needed to find some new way to feed my habit before I became the star of the next episode of Hoarders. So I did what any other self-respecting Midwesterner would have done: I got a library card. The [...]
Jan 12, 2011 0
This year, my New Year’s resolutions were based less on introspection and more on watching an inordinate number of infomercials during Christmas break. Did I want to shake my way into shape in the new year? Yes! Was I interested in burning away unwanted hair? Absolutely! Would I like to miraculously earn wealth without risk? [...]
Dec 31, 2010 3
The linear, analog nature of the cassette tape, like the broadcast schedule itself, renders the viewer’s whims impotent; it sets up limits against which we e-watchers are now likely to buck and thrash. Although many of the televised worlds of the ’90s persist, the limits that used to define their reception—their forced contextualization amidst advertisements one another—are all but extinct, except on tape.
Dec 23, 2010 1
In each small Seinfeld moment in which a bias is repudiated or a perceived prejudice rebuffed, our pushing forward, with all its pratfalls and inevitable errors, is both reiteratively bolstered and critically made fun of. Our missteps and mistakes are made festive. Stabs toward universality may end in the insanity of Festivus, but that the stabs continue is itself a sort of miracle.
