Elmo and Robert De Niro on Sesame Street

This may have been circling the net for a while now. I discovered this WATCHING the Street one afternoon and I was blown away on a number of levels. It's Elmo and De Niro shooting the shit about acting. What a right. A laugh riot.



ahahahah ahahahha ahahahah

The Dumbest Generation(?)

Mark Bauerlein, an English professor at Emory University, has written a book entitled, "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future." After TAing for upper-level, writing-intensive college courses and seeing the typewritten swill that is trying to be passed off as prose, I'm concerned that Bauerlein may actually be on to something. I haven't read this book yet, but I think I'm going to. Within the next five years, I'm going to be a college professor, so I guess it's time to figure out what I may be up against. And, according to this guy, we're all part of the dumbest generation, so I'd also like to see what crimes against intellectualism we're taking the rap for.

Here's a list of 8 reasons why people shouldn't "trust anyone under 30" taken from the book.


Which ones do people agree with? Disagree with? Any that he left out? And, is anyone else thinking of reading the book?

Surf the Channel

I don't get cable. Recently I have had an immense wanting for some television. I realize the avenues of internet television are plagued by the same Charles Schwab advertisements a la Richard Linklater "Scanner Darkly" real-life/animation editing style. If you go to NBC.com to watch "The Office" you watch more commercials than you do on an actual television. I have however found a great website which hosts a plethora of television programs without commercials. Many of the shows I have watched are hosted on sites like Megavideo or Veohtv, which are fast, but you should probably be on a browser like Firefox if you don't want to be bothered with a slow stream. Although Surf the Channel doesn't have every episode of every season necessarily, they do a pretty good job regardless. For free streaming TV go here: Surf the Channel

slate.com

I feel slightly lame devoting two of not many posts entirely to web links, but I don't care. The website is slate.com - http://www.slate.com/ - and I am not sure how well known it is, but if you haven't checked it out, it's worth a look. It's a kind of online journal / database of collected Alternative Press stories / original content / blogger input. There are consistently great pictures in the "today's photos" section at the top right (the photo in this post is one of them). And I always check the "today's papers" section at some point in the day (it's a rundown of all the big stories in all of the big papers for the given day)
- reading that section is probably, more than anything else, a reliable structural marker to my daily routines - it makes me feel more responsible / older than I actually am. I have come across some pretty sub par videos in the various video links and I don't agree with the emphasis on the 2008 Presidential Election often evident on the home page but on the whole you can find a lot of interesting reading material here. check it out.

Chuck Klosterman- On the Road

I believe it was Mike who said on a previous post that he was reading the newest Chuck Klosterman book. I was an avid reader of Spin as a fat high school student and I always loved his insights. Here is a cool article I found from the Believer magazine online. It's Klosterman talking about road movies. Enjoy.

Maybe You Seen It, Maybe You Ain't

One of the funniest things on video in recent months (years?) is an internet television show by creator Bob Odenkirk  (Mr. Show).  The show is called Derek and Simon.  It's about two friends that live in Los Angeles, one is a poon hound, the other a more reserved neurotic, young Jewish guy.  Each episode varies in length from about One and 1/2 minutes to Five.  Timing aside each episode packs enough comic punch to fuck up Mike Tyson.  I feel that this is were Odenkirk really succeeds.  Bob Odenkirk can't make a feature film to save his life but these little web episodes from Superdeluxe.com will have you laughing for days.  

Derek and Simon: The Show