Rushfield Babylon
Month
Media today is not necessarily about gathering facts, or about having a perspective, or an opinion, or anything at all in particular to say. Its about framing. Here are some questions asked today in some fancy media site headlines. Exclusive answers to these mysteries of the Universe provided by Rushfield Babylon (must credit).
Q: Jennifer Aniston: Exactly why is she still a movie star? (LA Times)
A: Women find endearing the spectre of America’s former sweetheart haplessly blithering; men of a certain age still think she’s hot.
Q: Can New York Save Lindsay Lohan? (NY TImes)
A: If by save you turn her from a fascinatingly horrifying narcissistic train wreck to a stupefyingly boring narcissistic windbag then sure, it probably could. New York is pretty good at that.
Q: What is it about twentysomethings? (NY Times)
A: Well for starters, pictures of them are more likely to get people to open a newspaper magazine supplement than pictures of David Axelrod. And second, they are the children of the most annoying, self serving generation in the history of the world, the Boomers. How’d you expect they’d turn out?
Q: Are frequent headaches a cause - or a consequence - of an unhealthy lifestyle? (LA Times)
A: Headaches are caused by standing in line at a certain coffee shop in Venice, California when Lucas is on duty. The 15 - 45 minute wait that ensues when he forgets your order, wanders into the store room and you wonder whether you should say anything to the rest of the staff has been proven to be the cause of most headaches suffered in recent years.
Q: Is Haiti Ready for Hurricane Season? (Time)
A: Oh yeah, totally. They’re psyched.
Q: What if Gold Isn’t a Commodity After All? (WSJ)
A: Then that whole business about making new friends and keeping the old was a lie too. Time to throw the dead weight college buddies over board.
So in the future here’s my stand: Other than Sarah Palin (because I will never vote for Sarah Palin ever for anything, even if she’s running for hall monitor) I will now vote for whatever candidate (Democrat or Republican) promises to NEVER COME TO LOS ANGELES during the length of his term.
That’s it. Save the rhetoric. Skip the debates. You want my vote? Do whatever the hell you want in Washington just stay out of my town. How’s this for a slogan? Forget NO NEW TAXES. How about NO BARRICADES WHEN YOU’RE TRYING TO DRIVE TWO BLOCKS TO PICK UP A FUCKING LOAF OF BREAD?
As much as it would be a thrill to meet the President of the United States, more important is knowing I can get to In & Out.
”—I stand with Ken Levine.HBO just made it official: As a TV series, “Entourage” will end in 2011.
“The plan right now is we’ll finish up this season, we’ll do a shorter order for next season, we’ve talked about six,” said Michael Lombardo, HBO programming president. “[Creator Doug Ellin] is appropriately reserving – he wants to write a film, but wants to do it when the story will make sense. He’s pitched other shows to us. I will expect that within the next couple years [he’ll have another show on HBO]. But ‘Entourage’ next summer will definitely be the final season.”
How could they just walk away? The dramatic possiblities of the new Ed Hardy line, of this year’s Ferrari models have barely been tapped. Think of all the aspiring actresses who will never be sexually harassed on screen and off when Entourage goes away. Of all the homophobic slurs that the world will never hear when Ari Gold’s cell phone goes dark forever.
Entourage, we hardly knew ye.
1. It may feel like the week is over, but it’s really not. At all.
2. It is however, the signal to panic about all the things that you didn’t get done this week and now you can see, with the hours waning, you won’t.
3. That is to say, Thursday Night is the worst of both worlds.
4. When you wore a younger man’s clothes, Thursday night was considered the start of the weekend. Now those memories mock.
5. In any event, who did you think you were so impressed with yourself because you started blowing off everything on Thursday night? True rebels begin their weekends on Tuesday afternoon.
6. People you know have used the term Must See TV unironically and scheduled their lives around it. At various points, perhaps you were one of them.
7. The name Thursday is derived from the Norse “Thunor’s Day” referring to the god Thunar, aka Thor. We are walking around spending one seventh of our life paying homage to a hammer wielding Viking totem who used ox’s heads as bait to catch giant sea monsters.
8. People can try and pretend Thor is actually the great overlooked Marvel classic, but they are fooling themselves and somewhere in their hearts they know it. It was overblown and had none of the human metaphorical angles that made Spiderman or Daredevil or Batman great. And the movie will be unspecial like all the non-Spiderman Marvel films have been.
9. From Breakfast at Tiffany’s: "’Thursday.’ She stood up. ‘My God,’ she said, and sat down again with a moan. 'It’s too gruesome.’“
Thursday, and Thursday night in particular, I deplore you and all your works!
In addition to that new bar, the Spare Room, coming to The Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, an interesting, entirely new nightlife venue is planned within the property. Comedian Jeff Beacher and actor David Arquette are teaming up for Beacher’s Madhouse, a Vaudeville-inspired theatre taking over a renovated space on the hotel’s lower level.According to the release, "little people" will fly across the room and operate a “midget bar" aka little people serving drinks. Let’s not forget about the go-go girls, burlesque dancers, midget impersonators, live animals, fire-breathers, omg. All of this is slated to roll out in the fall. Beacher says, "It’s some next level shit! Will be the hottest spot LA has had in decades.”
For an extra bottle service fee the club will offer VIP guests the opportunity to feast on the eyeballs of their out of work actors and drink the blood of the parking valets.
X
Then they left you for their pleasure: till in due time, one by one,
Some with lives that came to nothing, some with deeds as well undone,
Death stepped tacitly and took them where they never see the sun.
XI
But when I sit down to reason, think to take my stand nor swerve,
While I triumph o'er a secret wrung from nature’s close reserve,
In you come with your cold music till I creep thro’ every nerve.
XII
Yes, you, like a ghostly cricket, creaking where a house was burned:
“Dust and ashes, dead and done with, Venice spent what Venice earned.
"The soul, doubtless, is immortal — where a soul can be discerned.
(about students not professors)
(in no particular order)
1. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis.
3. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
4. Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm
5. Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh