Sound wars.

James Lileks gets hilariously defensive about his IPod. Dude, if you want to base your mp3 player strictly on its aesthetic appeal, fine, but why lash out when people who focus more on the sound and function don't give a hoot in hell about the aesthetics? (Also, I find the IPod ugly and monolithic. So sue me, I like feedback.)

In which I address Orlando Bloom.

Go Fug Yourself reports that the Star said you broke up with Kate Bosworth because she told you to choose between her and making Pirates II with Johnny Depp.

You made the right decision, sweetie.

Dames come and go and take half your property with them. A decent role in a movie franchise, even as secondary slightly-swishy beefcake--that's as close to security as Hollywood gets. Besides, her head looks like a pumpkin on a pencil. Seriously.

Now go eat a sandwich.

The Year of the Puppet.

Triumph interviewed in the NY Times:

With your Catskills-style schtick and your Russian-accented English, I must ask: Are you Jewish?

Like Madonna, I'll become Jewish when I need the publicity.

Oh, yes.

[Via Tim Blair, who got it from Jim Treacher.]

Suspicions of gross sentimentality confirmed.

James Bowman analyzes the political agenda behind Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby, and the basis for denial of said agenda by both Eastwood and the critics at large. (With bonus Arthur Miller content, in conjunction with the previous post.)

I don't want to see Clint on-screen anymore unless he's shooting people. Preferably without the weepy self-torment.

De mortuis.

Terry Teachout views the work of the late Arthur Miller with a gimlet eye. (May require registration, but it's free.)

2/17 update: So does Mark Steyn.

Three cheers and a tiger.

I noticed yesterday Mark Steyn's website is being updated again.

Cheap shots.

In response to the launch of Kalashnikov Vodka (counter-intuitively a British brand, albeit under the auspices of Gen. Kalashnikov himself) , Tim Blair suggests a line of similarly-themed liquors.

My favorite: Hezbollah Boozalah. (collapses in a fit of giggles)

Garden State.

That's it. I'm off slacker comedies. Everyone in the movie bordered on the repulsive.

Clarification: Not physically. They were all just so...damn...stupid.

Huh.

Turns out Netflix limits you to 500 movies in the queue. Damn.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are still dead.

And due to be released on DVD on March 22. Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, and Richard Dreyfuss as the Player. Hell, yes, I pre-ordered.

The Player: We're more of the love, blood, and rhetoric school. Well, we can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and we can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive. But we can't give you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory. They're all blood, you see.
Guildenstern: Is that what people want?
The Player: It's what we do.

Sheila always has the best links.

Overheard in New York, via Sheila O'Malley.

"Easy Rider": the nadir of American film.

Who the hell turned this self-indulgent piece of shit into a cult movie? Goddamn hippies.

Britain: A Nation of Fraidy Cats.

According to a Telegraph survey, a sizable chunkage of Britons think the US is less safe than Egypt, Israel, or South Africa:

One in three of YouGov's respondents regards America as one of the world's three "least safe" countries – more than think the same of Israel, Egypt or South Africa.

In fact, the US is ranked *dead last*; 37% of these nimrods think the US is the least safe, vice 19% for friggin' Russia. Possible reasons for thinking so:
1) 37% of respondents on crack.
2) 37% of respondents have never been to any foreign country; believe "Homicide" a reality show.
3) 37% of respondents burglars who resent the fact that it's still legal to shoot people who invade your home over here.

Moreover, while 19 per cent reckon the US is one of the countries "most deserving of international respect", a considerably larger proportion, 25 per cent, reckon that under this heading it is one of the world's "least deserving" countries.

And if I cared that might hurt.

But the US didn't fare as badly overall as Israel:

The violence and Israel's continuing occupation of the West Bank and Gaza appear to have done immense damage to its standing. Israel comes top of the list of countries where people would least like to live and would least like to take a holiday.

It is also the country thought least deserving of international respect. Despite being the only fully democratic state in the Middle East, it is also thought to be among the world's "least democratic countries".

Which just kinda tells me the respondents may be working with, shall we say, a flawed definition of democracy.