Truth in advertising? Hm ...
The fairly useless webzine The Gadflyer is holding a fundraising drive. That's understandable. But their plea doesn't really make any sense.

We don't charge a subscription fee, because we want The Gadflyer read as widely as possible. And we don't run ads, because we just have too much to say to give up the space.

Give up the space? On a website?
- posted by Dave Weigel #

 
Fuck.
William Manchester, dead.
- posted by Dave Weigel #

 
Movie review: "Super Size Me"
My fellow classical liberals have been bristling at the mention of this documentary and its conceit - a snarky anti-corporate fella eats McDonalds for a month and watches his health go septic. They say it's unfair, and silly, to pretend fast food companies brainwash Americans into giving up free will and eating junk.

This is true: That's why "Super Size Me" doesn't assert that. It asserts, with the input of ax-grinding scientists and health gurus, that fast food companies target children in the hopes of creating lifetime customers, and that their food is remarkably terrible for you. All of that's true. Director/star/urban redneck* Morgan Spurlock goes out of his way to SAY that you can eat this food rarely, that you should avoid it, that he'd be perfectly happy if fast food merchants just put their health data up front so that adults and parents could make informed decisions on whether to ingest it.

I have increasingly solid eating habits, and I eat fast food maybe 4 times a year (usually when craving a synthetic milkshake). The lessons and humor of "Super Size Me" connected because, hey, I would not mind if McDonalds had zucchini as an option to replace fries, as long as I'm trying to grab something there with friends. I'd sleep better knowing schoolchildren had healthier options at their school lunches, because gorging on sugar really does do wonders to make you tired and lazy in the middle of the day.

In general, I liked the movie's message, which surprised me. And I liked the humor (much at the expense of a vegan chef!) which should surprise no one.

*a judgment about his facial hair, not his character
- posted by Dave Weigel #

 
And yet Charmed got a sixth season...
Fun interview with Joss Whedon in New York.

Both Marvel’s world and the Buffyverse are built on potent supernatural metaphors: X-Men’s mutant gene suggests both racial difference and adolescence; Whedon’s version of witchcraft is linked to both lesbianism and addiction (sometimes, messily, both at once).

Totally true. I'm watching the sixth season of Buffy on DVD, and the magic-as-drugs plot thread drags the show down like a an anchor made of human fat.
- posted by Dave Weigel #

 
Book Review: "Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs"
Chuck Klosterman's first book, "Fargo Rock City," is probably the definitive book about loving heavy metal, never to be topped. The hook, as pumped up by the publicity-driven title, was that Klosterman grew up in the vast, misunderstood Midwest, and had an understanding of WHY metal meant so much to kids like him that could not be imparted to your average, Dickies-clad SPIN copy editor.

The debut's success, of course, got Klosterman a job at SPIN. He's written "Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs" from that perch - a much more comfortable, much less interesting place. It shows in the work. After tearing through his first book in one afternoon and night, I found myself getting bored and putting aside this tome for more amusing stuff like "The Empire of the Steppes."

But it did take me a while to get bored. The opening chapters on "fake love" (the strange appeal of Coldplay and Lloyd Dobler), Billy Joel and The Sims are quickly-paced and hilarious, especially when Klosterman gets Will Wright on the phone and grills him on why, in The Sims, you can only be happy by buying lots of stuff. Later topics are just not as rich - hating soccer? Saved by the Bell? And absolutely none of Klosterman's one-page interludes work or are at all memorable. Not a bad book, but a disappointing sign that Klosterman plateaued early.
- posted by Dave Weigel #

 
Jimmy Bush
Loathe as I am to admit it, Kevin Drum has a pretty good point.

I wonder if George Bush will end up being the best thing ever to happen to American liberalism. Bushian excess has energized liberals, of course, but more important may be that in the same way that liberals dejectedly gave up on Carter toward the end of his presidency, conservatives seem to be losing heart over Bush in his final year too. Increasingly, even the most hawkish conservatives are unwilling to drain their credibility further by dredging up pretzel twisting defenses for Bush's obvious incompetence and cluelessness.

I speculated about this a year ago with a column my school decided not to submit for its usual awards. Thanks, Medill!
- posted by Dave Weigel #

 
PSA
If you have VH-1 Classic on your cable provider, turn it on. Today is devoted to 80s metal videos.
- posted by Dave Weigel #

 
After August, I can die happy
Slacker on DVD!

Richard Linklater's Slacker presents a day in the life of a subculture of marginal, eccentric, and overeducated citizens in and around the University of Texas at Austin. Shooting the film on 16mm for a mere $23,000, writer/producer/director Linklater and his close-knit crew of friends eschewed a traditional plot, choosing instead to employ long takes and fluid transitions to create a tapestry of over a hundred characters, each as unique as the last, culminating in an episodic portrait of a distinct vernacular culture and a tribute to bohemian cerebration. Slacker is a prescient look at an emerging generation of aggressive nonparticipants, and one of the keynote films of the American independent film movement of the 1990s.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, rent the VHS version of Slacker ASAP.
- posted by Dave Weigel #

 
Why I love America


Seriously, how pleasant is THAT?
- posted by Dave Weigel #

 
Hide the kids
I found a silly insta-anagram feature on someone's livejournal and made use of it.

R	Realistic
A	Amazing
P	Peaceful
I	Irresistible
S	Silky
T	Tame

Name / Username:

Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com
- posted by Dave Weigel #

 
Self-promotion
I've held off on hyping the columns I wrote for NU's daily newspaper, mostly for reasons of tact. It seemed gauche. But since they published my final column, here are links to the stuff I wrote in Spring quarter.

- my introduction
- on Chicago's RedEye newspaper (see also: an editorial apology for my existence)
- on why rich college kids drink like poor college kids
- on the joy of ignoring student government
- on Alexandra Robbins' book "Pledged" and NU
- on a push to expand ethnic studies
- on selling out to Hollywood
- (in place of my column on mental health - not on the website - another editoial riposte toward me)
- on why college students shouldn't feel guilty about sitting out of elections
- on how the real world kicks college's ass

Many thanks to Jesse Abrams-Morley and Jaime Griesgraber for a fun and enlighting quarter in the newsroom.
- posted by Dave Weigel #

 
Consummatum est!
Great big candy-stuffed congratulations to the staff of the Northwestern Chronicle, my alma mater. They've completed their first quarter of publication with such highlights as
- catching the students who were seizing copies of the paper and throwing them out
- publishing on schedule despite my asbsolute and total lack of financial management
- making NUComment, The Passenger, The Protest, and The Daily all look like warmed-over rat shit. Although The Daily had its moments.
- posted by Dave Weigel #

 
An oldie but goodie
I finally met the talented Jeremy Lott last night, and had the dust shaken off my memory of one of the more amusing blogwars of recent times. A brief guide:

1.)Read this.
2.)Now this.
3.)Ready? Now this.
4.)OK. Now this.
5.)*deep breath* Now this.
6.)This.
7.)Now this.
8.)Ha ha! Now this.
9.)Also, this.
10.)And: Scene!

As my boss would say ... Thoughts as I sit at home with my blinds drawn:
- Blogwars are funny, yet usually pointless. What did anyone learn from the public ego-bruising of Rich Lowry? Did the imminent nuking of Mecca fade from the list of possibilities? Nah, never existed. And we could have guessed that there were dumb people out there who want to nuke things.
- Rich Lowry bruises easily, but not as easily as Jonah "Matthew Yglesias made a short comment disparaging one of my web columns, thus I must respond with 500 words" Goldberg.
- Seriously, nuclear weapons should never be used, in any circumstances, ever. Except one.
- posted by Dave Weigel #

 
Rare society blogging
For the third consecutive night I drove into DC, and for the third consecutive night I survived. Keep in mind, driving into the city from work is actually quite direct, and only - in theory - a 10-minute detour from my route home. But since I finished work early, I crashed right into the Thursday rush hour and spent 65 minutes getting across 8 miles of Virginia into the city.

Oh, yeah - then I parked. It took a solid 15 minutes of stopping, starting, and circling before I could slide into a space on the side of M St. The process was so stressful that I forgot where I actually had parked, which became slightly humiliating when I offered a ride to a journalist I really respected, then couldn't find the car.

But that gets ahead of my point. I was in town, again, to take advantage of the America's Future Foundation's monthly happy hour. It provided my first real chance to interact with journalists I've read from afar with various degrees of awe. I will refrain from using their names in the chance David Brock is reading this to extrapolate a new conspiracy.
- posted by Dave Weigel #