March 2008 Archives

I have a hypothesis that an economic recession will be good for American culture. Although a slowing economy with increased unemployment is almost never a good scenario, the effect of less buying power might be generally positive for our materialistic culture. I have already seen several stories about ways people are saving: making their own bread, staying in to eat, having potlucks with the neighbors, walking everywhere if possible. I've started to do my part by using only cold water for laundry and getting Heidi to cut my hair. :)

Boston.com's 20 ways readers save is full of good ideas. I especially like the homemade dog food.

These guys are correcting America's grammar.

While I understand their motives, I also find the grammatical inaccuracies of America's signage endearing. After all, whatever would do without websites like this?

So Todd, Heidi and I attended a taping of The Daily Show last night. It was fun, though not as euphoric an experience as seeing Stephen Colbert last year. One observation, though: Jon Stewart is about 2 feet tall. Even the average-sized Larry Wilmore towered over him. Which brings me to my second point: Larry Wilmore! What a guy. He did a hilarious piece subtly poking fun at Geraldine Ferraro for her "Obama is lucky he's black" comments, in the context of David Paterson taking over for Eliot Spitzer.

Other than that I was glad to see Jon do his Bush imitation, not because it's good, but it's somewhat charming. Interesting also to see the special effects - they used fishwire to simulate Aasif Mandvi's reporter's notebook flying out of his hands as he "fell" several stories, evoking the collapse of the financial markets. No toss, though. Disappointing. Jon Stewart's a bit boring between takes, too, keeping his head down, not doing anything crazy. He seemed like more of an old pro than Colbert. Also, people asked the stupidest questions during the Q and A. What do you expect on St. Patrick's Day in NYC.

Watch the episode here.

Dreamworks' Monsters v Aliens

Starring (the voices of):

Reese Witherspoon as a giant woman
Rainn Wilson as the evil alien Gallaxher
Hugh Laurie as Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D.
Seth Rogen as B.O.B.
Will Arnett as Missing Link, a half-ape, half-fish
and
(drumroll please)
Stephen Colbert as the crazy President!

Could they lump together any more of my favorite people? (Add Steve Carell and we're all set, but I guess he's paid his animated feature dues with Horton Hears a Who.)

It's also the first animated feature shot in 3-D. Not coming out until next year, but I'm already excited!

I've always wondered why I am the way I am. It all goes back to Saturday mornings with Garfield.

"What could be worse than Monday, Garfield? Ooooh, how about Monday with Nermal around?"

"Oh no, they never do things like that on cartoons! Cartoons teach you you should be sweet and nice and always agree with everyone!"