January 2012
18 posts
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“If I had to pick one Bible verse that students of American history should know,...”
– Sarah Vowell, Unfamiliar Fishes — I’m reading this now, and loving it.
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LADY GAGA CONSISTENTLY MISUSES SUBJECTIVE AND...
“You and me could write a bad romance.” - Bad Romance
“There ain’t no reason you and me should be alone.” - Edge of Glory
“You and me are gonna win it, baby.” - Take You Out
“Something about, baby, you and I.” - You and I
“I’d rather die without you and I.” - You and I
ARE YOU KIDDING? EVERY TIME? This is a poor use of...
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“I know some people are NEVER going to stop saying that “women aren’t funny” and...”
– This is the end (sorry, spoilers) of a really great essay by Jen Kirkman on women and comedy and you should read the whole thing here.
Adam helps Raphael prepare for a commercial... →
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MY FRIENDS ARE SOOO TALENTED!!!
I have so many talented friends and they make me so proud. EXCUSE ME WHILE I KVELL.
MY FRIEND ELOISE MUMFORD IS SOOO TALENTED!
Eloise is a phenomenally good actress who you might recognize from the 2010 Fox drama Lone Star if you watched one of the two episodes before it got cancelled, or, more likely, from a reading of a play I did back in 2007 if you are my friend. Starting February 7th,...
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My mom used to say, "This household is not a...
But actually, that wasn’t quite true, because it was a democracy, it was just a flawed two-party system with a vastly unfair distribution of electoral votes. Oftentimes the general public was pressured to settle for the least objectionable of a series of unpalatable options. There were also powerful special interests that could obfuscate proper voting procedure and push pieces of legislation...
“It’s one thing that’s always...
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“What can be done? Say who you are, really say it in your life and in your work....”
– Charlie Kaufman’s BAFTA speech on screenwriting is predictably about itself, and predictably rambly, and predictably brilliant.
December 2011
13 posts
1 tag
Life Among The Waksbergs
David Guetta is the worst, and other observations from a loud crowded nightclub in San Juan: I’m glad everyone else here is having a good time, but I can’t for the life of me figure out how. I find this all phenomenally depressing, in the boring kind of way that everything’s depressing if you think about it long enough, and if it’s late enough, and if you’re tired...
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I live the majority of my life in fear that the...
“You know what they say. Women break up with men because they expect them to change and they don’t; men break up with women because they expect them not to change and they do.” “Who says that?” “You know… relationship… experts.”
…
“There are literally more people living right now in India than all the people that have ever lived in the United...
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November 2011
15 posts
WatchOh Land - White Nights, directed by CANADA
Wake up! It’s Wednesday! Let’s get weird!
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“So this morning I see that professional fat-hater Jamie Oliver has posted a...”
– Melissa McEwan at Shakesville: On Fat Hatred and Eliminationism
This is what I (Raphael) have to say about this: I think there are two different issues here that are being conflated.
If the issue is about body image, then yes, no one should ever be made to feel bad about the way he or she looks....
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More Short Stories
11. It occurred to him that he loved the idea of being in a relationship more than he loved any person he’d actually been in a relationship with.
12. Her sister told her, “You don’t even know all the things that are wrong with you,” and she said, “No, trust me, I am all too aware,” but privately she wondered if there weren’t even more things.
13....
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“We’re told all the time through the media and through society that something...”
– Love Your Body Day at Brandeis: challenging media’s narrow beauty ideals
When I was in college, a good chunk of my time and energy was devoted to aggressively rolling my eyes at anything as nakedly earnest as a “Love Your Body Day,” and I couldn’t be prouder of my younger...
“If the notion on this is we’re going to elect somebody to the United States...”
– Elizabeth Warren, in this great New York Magazine feature
I love her. Ever since this video went viral a couple months ago, I’ve daydreamed about 2016 when I can vote for this woman for president and then inevitably be disappointed when she turns out to be not perfect and not have all the...
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“I was out of town last week when the police rioted against the Oakland...”
– Notes From the Patriarchy: Whose Streets
Dispatch from Oakland.
Sound Advice:
If you ever wake up and you discover that you’re underwater and you don’t know how you got there and it’s dark and it’s wet and you’re scared and you don’t even know which way is up, what you need to do is exhale a little bit, breathe a little breath, and the air bubble will float upward and that’s how you’ll know which way to swim in order to get...
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October 2011
12 posts
the self-referential aptitude test →
I had a blast figuring this out (it took me about a half hour and an extra sheet of paper). Recommendations for more things of this nature are very welcome.
But also, re: question 20: As someone who’s always been good at standardized tests, I believe standardized tests don’t measure intelligence as much as they measure one’s ability to take standardized tests.
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FUN FACT: If, one night while driving up the 5, somewhere between Los Angeles and San Francisco you pass a gas station on fire, like really on fire, on fire on fire, like a fire in the movies, bright and tall and awful and kind of gorgeous in how terrifying it is, and if before you left you kept getting delayed so you hit rush hour and it took you forever to get out of the city and your car stereo...