This week on the internet: 110609

Compiled by Ryan

The links:

-If you’re looking for a way to waste a solid half hour, check out Paste’s top fifty albums and films of the decade.

-Wes Anderson told Access Hollywood that he wants to shoot a film in space.

-George Clooney may play the lead in The Descendants, the next project from director Alexander Payne.

-AV Club talks to Chris Pratt, who plays Andy on Parks and Recreation.

-Tina Fey recounts her ten favorite 30 Rock moments at The Daily Beast.

-This NYT piece highlights the talented Kumail Nanjiani among others in the New York alt-comedy scene.

-A friend pointed out to me that Fearless Freaks, the Flaming Lips documentary, is on Hulu now; if you’re a fan of the band at all, it’s definitely worth a watch.

The YouTube highlights:

It’s a simple enough concept, but Christopher Walken reading Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” on Jonathan Ross still made me laugh:

Aziz Ansari highlighted this gem on Twitter this week:

New music spotlight:

Julian Casablancas – Phrazes for the Young

Stokes leadman Casablancas has gotten quite a bit of buzz for his debut solo album; you can read an interview on Pitchfork, check out this Village Voice article, read about his cover of the SNL song “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” at NME, then listen to it at Stereogum, and, finally, you can check out his MySpace to preview the entire album along with bonus tracks.  But if you don’t do any of that, at least listen to the Strokes-y first track:

Julian Casablancas – “Out of the Blue” from Phrazes for the Young, out now on Cut Records

An Altruistic Angle: Saving Adam’s Ale

By Anna

My average bathroom use is higher than the average person’s (six times a day). A few years ago my familial guilt conscience kicked in, and I have abided by the ol’ hippie rule of “If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down,” because of my average flushing (nine times a day). But because this disgusts many, and it probably should, I picked up the most recent issue of Good and learned what I could do instead to decrease my water use:

1. Put a brick in the back of the toilet to fool it from filling up to six gallons (the number used with every flush).
2. Use a dishwasher, since the water flowing out of an average faucet drones out at five gallons a minute; and run the dishwasher only when it’s full.
3. Choose chicken over beef. Cows are a heck of a lot thirstier and require a lot more to survive, not to mention taste good. As well as the whole CO_x they release into the atmosphere contributing to climate change (but that’s another point for another time).

Those were the most practical, but here are a few for the money-mongers and extremists:

1. Put a rain barrel on the roof to water plants or your lawn.
2. Install a half flush option on your toilet and a low flow faucet on your sink.
3. Buy a front load washing machine.
4. Use solar energy.

But I know the intellectual crowd reading this column knows that the 326 million trillion gallons of water on earth is still on earth. So why should we conserve? Because we treat those million trillions like the Israelites treated their covenant with God, it exists as long as we do so what’s the purpose? But how much abuse can water stand before purification is not enough? Some don’t have the option to treat water fairly and some just think we deserve the ale after a hard day’s work. Either way our lakes and reservoirs dwindle as we flush what’s mostly water anyway down the toilet.

This week on the internet: 103009

Compiled by Ryan

The links:

-NBC has picked up full-seasons of Community and Parks and Recreation, which have both exceeded industry ratings expectations.

-I enjoy Top Chef, but I’m not sure about a Just Desserts spin-off.

-A lot of rumors have been bouncing around about Hulu going to a pay system, but this article attempts to refute such claims.

-A former Late Night with David Letterman writer wrote an interesting piece for Vanity Fair about what it’s like to be a female working for the male-dominated show.

New music spotlight:

Yeasayer – Ambling Alp [Single]

All Hour Cymbals was one of the more interesting debut records in recent memory, instantly catapulting Brooklynites Yeasayer to the ranks of “buzz band.”  Fortunately for everyone, the band decided not to abuse this status by rushing out a new album of debut-album retreads, instead logging long hours touring, writing, and recording in anticipation of their 2010 follow-up, Odd Blood.  We now have the first taste of that album, and I’m pretty excited to hear more:

Yeasayer – “Ambling Alp”

The Cigarette Noise: The trouble with dreams

By Ryan

“If you could be anything you want, I bet you’d be disappointed, am I right?”

-Isaac Brock, Modest Mouse, on The Moon and Antartica’s “Lives”

I’ve been thinking about dreams, hopes, goals, and aspirations a lot lately, and, honestly, it’s been a bit of a drag.  So many people I know have goals that are so simple, it’s hard to imagine why they would even call them “dreams.”  But even my own desires, which would seem beyond realistic to some, are things that I fully expect to achieve in my lifetime, and therein lies the issue.  The above quote, in addition to being some clever wordplay, summarizes the problem with dreams that are accomplishable.

I think everyone, no matter their level of ambition, has a small, sinking feeling inside of them as it relates to what it will feel like to get everything you ever wanted, do everything you ever wanted to do, and be around the people you always wanted to be around.  We all know, instinctively, that no matter the scope of our individual dreams, there’s a huge pile of uncertainly and purposelessness on the other side.  If you don’t realize this, then you’re just not being honest with yourself.

It’s fine if your dream is truly something like learning another language, taking a certain trip, or going to a certain school.  But the problem with dreams that just require us to do them is that we reach the other side too quickly, forcing us to find new dreams or become depressed.  And it’s the same with big dreams that require everything to line up just so; if it happens for you once in your life, you’ll never be satisfied until it happens every time.

Here’s the caveat: our dreams can be anything we want them to be.  Since I know that my individual dreams will likely lead to disappointment, or at least a slight feeling of emptiness, maybe my dreams should be beyond the scope of me.  It’s a terribly cliché example, but someone like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was able to have the drive and passion he did because his dreams were beyond what he could accomplish.  Maybe by setting our sights on the world at large, we can pursue our own dreams with a higher sense of purpose.

It’s true that “the world needs dreamers,” but, more accurately, the world needs the right kind of dreamers.

An Altruistic Angle: Where the Wild Things Are

By Anna

A group of us met at my friend Lisa’s before going to the opening night of Where the Wild Things Are. It was important that we met there because she lives closest to the cheapest theater in the Twin Cities, the Woodbury 10. It would also become important because of what happened before we left for the movie.

Where the Wild Things Are is an important interpretation of Maurice Sendak’s children’s book because it’s not for children, but for adults, particularly adults who were once a child like Max was. Max’s dad wasn’t around, his mom worked full-time and his sister was just old enough for it to not be cool to hang out with Max. He kept to his igloos, forts, and wolf costume.

Max didn’t understand why his father rejected him and his family and didn’t know how else to express his frustration but through tantrums and running. After a pre-dinner tantrum and biting his mom, he ran (and sailed) all the way to where to where the wild things are.

The implications for me became clearer. About a half hour before we left for the Woodbury 10, Lisa’s neighbor stopped by. Lisa had never met this neighbor before, but had watched the family dynamics from a distance and knew they inclined toward a different social understanding and interaction.

“Can I use your phone?” the 28-year-old woman asked as her little redheaded girl huddled behind her knees.

“Oh she’s just scared of your ghosts on your deck. You do know this house is haunted right?” the woman said. We all shock our heads. Not being in opposition to ghosts, knowing full and well of a supernatural realm present in the world, we all giggled a little as our Western mindset taught us to do in the face of ghost believers.

Though this young mom probably influenced her daughter’s belief and knowledge of ghosts, I couldn’t help but think of this young girl when we left the theater that night. Her white jacket and blue lightsaber like Max’s wolf attire. She would probably eventually deny what she knew at the time to be real, the existence of ghosts, but for now she believed in what no one else could see. Fatherless, as the mom told us “she tried that marriage thing once,” she faced the world of ghosts probably fighting as Luke Skywalker fought evil with his blue lightsaber.

Though the little redheaded girl seemed happier than Max, my heart broke for her. The threat of an incomplete family is a horrifying experience I don’t know how to deal with. Not only is my family complete, but most of my friends’ families are complete so with ignorance I stood giggling at this girl’s apparitions, all the while loving fantasy films and believing in God.

Where the Wild Things Are is an important film for its beauty and interpretative imagination, but maybe mostly important in its provision of emotional and psychological understandings of broken families and the children affected. So that I might call the redheaded girl imaginative like Max, and not weird as I initially thought of her.