AV and Book Club

Next week, on Thursday, June 30th, I'll be at The Book Cellar in Chicago for a discussion of "Life with Mr. Dangerous," the summer selection of The Gapers Block Book Club. Stop by, say hello, and ask me what's going on with all the ice cream and beards in the story.

And speaking of clubs: thanks to The Onion's AV Club for their review of the book. A tip of my hat to one of the world's finest sources of real and fake news.

From Shit to Social Progress

The events of election day were so massive and moving that you'd be hard pressed to find any way to joke about them. But that's why we have The Onion... who gives us this article.

My favorite line: "Carrying a majority of the popular vote, Obama did especially well among women and young voters, who polls showed were particularly sensitive to the current climate of everything being fucked."

Congratulations to everyone that worked for the campaign and to everyone who finally conceded that, yes, it had all gotten plenty shitty enough. Here's to less shittiness.

Art is for the Beavers

As I'm preparing notes and lesson plans for another semester teaching at Columbia here in Chicago, I couldn't resist revisiting two great Onion jabs at the art world: a Beaver's contemplation of his dam and its myriad concepts, and an unbearable aesthete we've all had the honor of suffering in one incarnation or another.

"I Am The (Badass) Law"

The Onion always manages to make me grin, with at least one headline per issue pulling an audible chuckle. But coming from a family with a mother who is a judge (the stalwart joke being: aren't they all?) and a little sister who works in the DePaul University Death Penalty Legal Clinic, this one had me laughing to the point of snorting. Tragically hilarious.

Wes Anderson's Hotel Chevalier

This thirteen minute short film, free to download, is listed as "Part 1" to the upcoming feature The Darjeeling Limited, for which I, along with The Onion, can't wait.