Goodbye to Sleep

Round-Up: Monday, Aug. 2, 2010

2010-08-02T17:42:00.000-07:00

News: The cap-and-trade bill may be dead, but the issue of dealing with climate change is not going away.

But the main reason is simply this: at some point, the country is going to have to raise revenues to fix the deficit. And cap-and-trade, if done the right way -- if permits are sold, rather than given away to the industry -- can produce quite a lot of revenues...
Most of those costs will be passed onto consumers in the form of higher energy prices -- although interestingly, the CBO analysis suggests that the public will bear less of the cost if the permits are indeed sold to produce revenue rather than given away.
But my premise is that tax increases are inevitable: it's a question of who bears those taxes and how they bear them. And at some point Congress -- which is surely headed for some massive showdowns over the budget at some point in the next several years -- might conclude that cap-and-trade is a more acceptable way to raise revenues than an omnibus tax increase... But other than increased taxes on the very wealthy, and some gimmicky stuff like sin taxes and windfall profits taxes that don't have all that much revenue-generating potential, it polls a lot better than other types of tax increases, and may be a more politically palatable compromise.

Picture: Los Angeles parking fun (via)

Video: Ridiculous compilation The Chairman announcing every "secret" ingredient on Iron Chef America.

Video: The "rapist" video I posted last week gets the Auto-Tune remix treatment

Round-Up: Wednesday, July 28, 2010

2010-07-29T18:22:00.000-07:00

Diddy: The Awl Makes a Good Point: "I Don't Think The Word 'Humble' Means What Diddy Thinks It Means"

Vibe: Dr. Dre said that the last beat that floored him was 'All About the Benjamins.' How does that make you feel?

P. Diddy: "It’s humbling. I was in the studio with Dre the other day. He started working on a record for me. Watching him as a producer is watching greatness. We had a lot of similar traits. It was like looking in the mirror. He would ask questions like, 'How you feel about this?' People don’t really understand true producers want to know how you feel about things. We are some of the most observant people on the planet."

—Sometimes humility doesn't last very long.

List: Top Ten Foreign Films of the Decade

Video: And here I thought the local news was a waste. At least check out the 1:00 minute mark (Via)

Imagine: What the posters would look like if films followed their original casting

Watch: Buzz and Woody Talk Dreamworks

Watch: Sitcoms "filmed before a live disappointed audience"

Round-Up: Thursday, July 22, 2010

2010-07-22T18:10:00.000-07:00

Drink: Beer Recommendations from Serious Eats:

Hefeweizen from Germany
IPA from the Midwest
IPA from Oregon
IPA from Washington St
IPA from Colorado
IPA from California
Imperial Stouts
Imperial Porters
American Porters
English Porter
Canned Craft Brews
Beers of 2009
North American Stouts
Summer Seasonal Beers
Winter Warmers and Christmas Beers
Thanksgiving Beers
Season Fresh Hop Beers
Belgian Dubbels
Brown Ales from England
American Brown Ales
American Rye Beers

Eat: Food Porn of LudoBites 5.0
Chart: Compare The Generic Names for Soda by County

Round-Up: Tuesday, July 20, 2010

2010-07-20T17:53:00.000-07:00

Quote: “I believe a strong woman may be stronger than a man, particularly if she happens to have love in her heart. I guess a loving woman is indestructible.” - John Steinbeck, East of Eden (h/t Slaughterhouse 90210)

Chart: Quality of Death analysis courtesy of the Economist Intelligence Unit:

Video: Check out this CNN Video about Sarah Palin Making Up a Word (h/t Lacey)

Watch: Kevin Devine "I Could Be With Anyone." Simple concept, but emotionally effective in my opinion

Read: Rare interview with Bill Murray.

GQ: Is the third Ghostbusters movie happening? What's the story with that?
BM: It's all a bunch of crock. It's a crock. There was a story—and I gotta be careful here, I don't want to hurt someone's feelings. When I hurt someone's feelings, I really want to hurt them. [laughs] Harold Ramis said, Oh, I've got these guys, they write on The Office, and they're really funny. They're going to write the next Ghostbusters. And they had just written this movie that he had directed.
GQ: Year One.
BM: Year One. Well, I never went to see Year One, but people who did, including other Ghostbusters, said it was one of the worst things they had ever seen in their lives. So that dream just vaporized. That was gone. But it's the studio that really wants this thing. It's a franchise. It's a franchise, and they made a whole lot of money on Ghostbusters...
Okay. Well, how about Garfield? Can you explain that to me? Did you just do it for the dough?
BM: No! I didn't make that for the dough! Well, not completely. I thought it would be kind of fun, because doing a voice is challenging, and I'd never done that. Plus, I looked at the script, and it said, "So-and-so and Joel Coen." And I thought: Christ, well, I love those Coens! They're funny. So I sorta read a few pages of it and thought, Yeah, I'd like to do that. I had these agents at the time, and I said, "What do they give you to do one of these things?" And they said, "Oh, they give you $50,000." So I said, "Okay, well, I don't even leave the fuckin' driveway for that kind of money."
GQ: And it's not like you're helping out an indie director by playing Garfield.
BM: Exactly. He's in 3,000 newspapers every day; he's not hurtin'. Then this studio guy calls me up out of nowhere, and I had a nice conversation with him. No bullshit, no schmooze, none of that stuff. We just talked for a long time about the movie. And my agents called on Monday and said, "Well, they came back with another offer, and it was nowhere near $50,000." And I said, "That's more befitting of the work I expect to do!" So they went off and shot the movie, and I forgot all about it. Finally, I went out to L.A. to record my lines. And usually when you're looping a movie, if it takes two days, that's a lot. I don't know if I should even tell this story, because it's kind of mean. [beat] What the hell? It's interesting. So I worked all day and kept going, "That's the line? Well, I can't say that." And you sit there and go, What can I say that will make this funny? And make it make sense? And I worked. I was exhausted, soaked with sweat, and the lines got worse and worse. And I said, "Okay, you better show me the whole rest of the movie, so we can see what we're dealing with." So I sat down and watched the whole thing, and I kept saying, "Who the hell cut this thing? Who did this? What the fuck was Coen thinking?" And then they explained it to me: It wasn't written by that Joel Coen
GQ: And the pieces fall into place.
BM: [shakes head sadly] At least they had what's-her-name. The mind reader, pretty girl, really curvy girl, body's one in a million? What's her name? Help me. You know who I mean.
GQ: Jennifer Love Hewitt?
BM: Right! At least they had her in good-looking clothes. Best thing about the movie. But that's all ugly. That's inappropriate. That's just… [laughs] That's why, when they say, "Any regrets?" at the end of Zombieland, I say, "Well, maybe Garfield."

Round-Up: Monday, July 19, 2010

2010-07-19T15:47:00.000-07:00

News: Comparing the Costs of American Wars

"More than a trillion dollars has been appropriated since September 11, 2001 for U.S. military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. This makes the "war on terrorism" the most costly of any military engagement in U.S. history in absolute terms or, if correcting for inflation, the second most expensive U.S. military action after World War II.

A newly updated report from the Congressional Research Service estimated the financial costs of major U.S. wars from the American Revolution ($2.4 billion in FY 2011 dollars) to World War I ($334 billion) to World War II ($4.1 trillion) to the second Iraq war ($784 billion) and the war in Afghanistan ($321 billion). CRS provided its estimates in current year dollars (i.e. the year they were spent) and in constant year dollars (adjusted for inflation), and as a percentage of gross domestic product. Many caveats apply to these figures, which are spelled out in the CRS report.

In constant dollars, World War II is still the most expensive of all U.S. wars, having consumed a massive 35.8% of GDP at its height and having cost $4.1 trillion in FY2011 dollars."

Read: Great interview with the chemist in Inception where different theories on the film are discussed at length.

Watch: Seinfeld Trailer - "Serenity Now"

Round-Up: Friday, July 16, 2010

2010-07-16T17:22:00.000-07:00

Listen: Paste's Awesome list of "50 New State Songs For the 21st Century."

Film: Aaron Sorkin is one of my favorite writers. He can (almost) do no wrong in my eyes. I just hope he doesn't screw this one up: "Aaron Sorkin appears to be bold enough to take on the life of John Edwards, the philanderer with a $500 haircut. Sorkin has optioned The Politician, the tell-all written by aide Andrew Young, and plans to adapt it for the screen, producing and directing."

Did You Know?: From The Omnivore's Dilemma, Pollan's book I am currently reading
1. One-fifth of America’s petroleum consumption goes to producing and transporting our food

2. Most researchers trace America’s rising rates of obesity to the 1970s.This was of course the same decade that America embraced a cheap-food farm policy and began dismantling forty years of programs designed to prevent overproduction.

3. Early 1800s, American farmers were producing far too much corn. Corn whiskey, suddenly superabundant and cheap, became the drink of choice, and in 1820 the typical American was putting away half a pint of the stuff every day. That comes to more than 5 galls of spirits a year for every man, woman, and child in

America

. The figure today is less than one..

4. Switching a cow’s diet from corn to grass or hay for a few days prior to slaughter reduces the population of E. coli 0157:H7 in the animal’s gut by as much as 80%. But such a solution (Grass?!) is considered wildly impractical by the cattle industry and (therefore) by the USDA.

5. You hear plenty of explanations for humanity’s expanding waistline, all of them plausible. Changes in lifestyle (we’re more sedentary; we eat out more). Affluence (more people can afford a high-fat Western diet). Poverty (healthier whole foods cost more). Technology (fewer of us use our bodies in our work; at home, the remote control keeps us pinned to the couch). Clever marketing (supsersized portions; advertising to children). Changes in diet (more fats; more carbohydrates; more processed foods).

List: Cerebral Sci-Fil Films That Wipe Our Minds

Perfect:

Download: Collection of Free Mashups from Bootie LA
Titus Jones – Imma Stop Loving Drugs (Ke$ha vs. Glee Cast vs. La Roux vs. Black Eyed Peas vs. Iglu & Hartly)

LeeDM101 – (Find Myself) A Heap of Love (Florence & The Machine vs. Depeche Mode vs. Imogen Heap)

Mochi Beats – Time After Romance (Lady Gaga vs. Cyndi Lauper vs. Three 6 Mafia)
(This one goes out to Courtney Alev)

Round-Up: Thursday, July 15, 2010

2010-07-15T15:39:00.000-07:00

Good News: FDA Takes a Anti-Antibiotic Stance in Meat Production:

"Perfectly healthy farm animals needlessly consume 70 percent of the antibiotics in the United States. Farmers administer low levels of the drugs to their charges simply because they make animals grow faster. This creates ideal conditions for the evolution of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics that formerly killed them, bad news when animals or humans develop infections that need to be treated.

Late last month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) came out with a guidance proposal saying that using such drugs merely to increase production was not judicious. The proposal has no force of law behind it, but it is seen as a warning shot from the FDA that future regulatory action may be in the works. In the meantime, if you want to steer clear of antibiotics in your burger or chicken, buy organic. Antibiotics are banned in USDA certified organic meat production."

Review: Excerpt from Pitchfork's review of M.I.A.'s new album (it got a 4.4/10):

Right or wrong, the social contract is simple: If you bring the hits, we'll put up with your shit. With /\/\/\Y/\, M.I.A. has broken that contract.

Slideshow: Enjoy some weird looking creatures courtesy of the LA Times.

Watch: Jewel Karaoke's in Santa Monica

Round-Up: Friday, July 9, 2010

2010-07-09T16:08:00.000-07:00

News: The Awl on the BART-Shooting/Oscar Grant Verdict:

"When people say 'there's no such thing as a fair trial,' they're right and they're wrong. Those of us who don't work in courtrooms sometimes forget that the law is an extremely complicated series of if/then operators. So while emotionally and intellectually it's perfectly reasonable to be astounded that a (white) police officer can be convicted of involuntary manslaughter (by an all-white jury) for having shot (in the back) an unarmed (black) person (who was face-down on the ground), there is at least some logic to it in a legal sense. This is a good short primer on California law and voluntary and involuntary manslaughter—the "voluntary" charge involves provocation and passion. The conclusion being that, in this case and others like it, the law is not made for these situations: "Any result from a criminal justice proceeding will fall far short of the consequences that would truly constitute justice. Inherently. Intentionally." In Oakland last night, after the verdict, a largely peaceful planned protest was only somewhat marred by a conflict of agendas between different groups. A smaller anti-capitalist splinter group was interested in the tactic of violence against property—while a much larger group was interested in a peaceful opposition to a verdict that literally could not do justice to the crime. One of those groups received more attention from the media, which as an entity could not quite bring itself to make any differentiation between the two."

Download: Zip file of the top 50 songs according to the blog We All Want Someone to Shout For

Read: The Rules of Touring are Changing. Advice on the business side of touring.

Laugh: Read this great exchange about a graphic designer helping to find Missy the lost cat. (h/t Tracey)

Watch: Israeli Soldiers Dance to Ke$ha in Hebron, Palestine

Round-Up: Wednesday, July 7, 2010

2010-07-08T11:13:00.000-07:00

Did You Know?: "In an early draft of the Declaration of Independence, [Thomas] Jefferson wrote the word 'subjects,' when he referred to the American public. He then erased that word and replaced it with 'citizens,' a term he used frequently throughout the final draft."

Read: Rankings of the Top and Worst Presidents by Presidential Scholars.

Listen: My roommate Josh sent this my way: Summer Mix Series 2010. People make mixtapes, allow you to download them for free.

News: The National Association of Colleges and Employers said the average starting salary for this year's bachelor's degree recipients dipped 1.3%, to $48,661.

Analysis: Where Does the Money Go When You Buy a CD?

Predictions: According to online futures market Intrade, there is a 58% chance that Lebron James will move to the Sunshine State.

Read: The Economist blog discusses parenting and happiness research. Short and good read, but here's an interesting tidbit:

"But it's always seemed to me that this anxiety is also driven in part by high levels of inequality. In a society with a large gap between excellent and inadequate schools, parents face tremendous psychological pressure to raise and educate their kids the "right" way. In societies with a more egalitarian distribution, parents don't reproach themselves so much for laying off the kids a bit."

Watch: 100 Greatest Movie Insults

Watch: Scene from the TV Show Louie that I'm Looking Forward to Watching When it Comes on Hulu

Download: Das Racist Mixtape

Round-Up: Wednesday, June 30, 2010

2010-06-30T16:05:00.000-07:00

Chart: Sweet graphic showing how movie sequels are worse than originals, and trilogies get even worse.

Cook: Chicken Mango Slaw for warm summer nights

Bake: The Difference Between Corn Syrup and High Fructose Corn Syrup.

List: Angeleno Magazine's 8th Annual Restaurant Award Winners:

Restaurant of the Year: Hatfield’s

Chef of the Year: Michael Cimarusti, Providence

- Runner-up, Chef of the Year: Ludovic Lefebvre, LudoBites

Best New Chef: Michael Voltaggio, The Dining Room at The Langham

Pastry Chef of the Year: Zoe Nathan, Huckleberry Cafe, Rustic Canyon

- Runner-up, Pastry Chef of the Year: Roxana Jullapat, Ammo

- Runner-up, Pastry Chef of the Year: Jun Tan, Cube

Best New Restaurant: Lazy Ox Canteen

- Runner-up, Best New Restaurant: Bistro LQ

LA's Top 10 new restaurants

No. 3: Wolfgang Puck's WP24

No. 4: Culina at Four Seasons

No 5: La Cachette Bistro

No. 6: House Cafe

No. 7: South Beverly Grill

No. 8: Waterloo & City

No. 9: Bouchon

No. 10: Red O

Event: Outdoor Cinema Food Fest in LA

Did You Know: In N Out Double Double has 43 grams of fat? See the list of 50 Unhealthy Foods in 50 States.

Watch: Clips of the "The 10 Funniest Movies Scenes From The Last 10 Years." I've seen all ten of these movies, so they obviously didn't dig very deep.

Watch: Supreme Court Nominee Elena Kagan Showing Her Sense of Humor during the Confirmation Hearings

Round-Up: Monday, June 28, 2010

2010-06-29T16:58:00.000-07:00

Serious Eater: I'm often called a foodie, but no one really likes that name. The term "gourmand" isn't going to make a comeback anytime soon. I'm still a fan of the term "serious eater," which is how I would classify myself if I had to come up with an explanation beyond "I spend way too much time and energy thinking about food"

Definition by French chef Fernand Point in 1949 in The New Yorker:

My friends were "serious eaters"; they loved truly good food and scorned the snobbism of self-appointed "gourmets" and one-dish amateur cooks. They didn't consider themselves gourmets, but they would confide to each other, with the air of brokers divulging something hot in the market, the addresses of good restaurants.

Watch: Are You Sure You Want an iPhone?

Photos: Get a sense of what's going on in the streets during the G20 Summit in Toronto, Canada:

Travel: Vegas is overrated, but this makes me want to make a trip:

Watch: Hilarious Meltdown in Toronto

Watch: Fluffy McCloud - Something Cute as a Change of Pace

Round-Up: Friday, June 25, 2010

2010-06-25T15:49:00.000-07:00

Good Point: Woven reusable bags are an environmentally friendly approach to shopping, but an estimated 97% of users are rarely or never washing them, leading to "whopping amounts" of bacteria, including E. Coli. [AOL News]

Laugh: Twitter Round-Up

@ConanOBrien 11 years between “Toy Story’s” and 7 months between “Twilight’s.” By that measure, the “Jonah Hex” sequel should be out in 3 days.

@michaelianblack Today’s headline: North Korea out of World Cup. Tomorrow’s headline: North Korean Soccer Team Dead.

@boburnham miley cyrus, your dance moves pale in comparison to the moves of the dead feminists rolling in their graves.

@azizansari No idea why carne asada is trending on Twitter in LA, but if BP fucked up carne asada some how, I’m gonna be fucking PISSED

Watch: Pinberry the Musical in 3D

Round-Up: Thursday, June 24, 2010

2010-06-24T16:50:00.000-07:00

Don't Eat: Looks like my Subway days are over (I'd have it every couple months in a pinch. I prefer making my own sandwiches anyways).

Drink: The World Cup What to Drink: While Watching the World Cup

Swim: Who wants to swim with me 55 stories over the city of Singapore?

Round-Up: Wednesday, June 23, 2010

2010-06-23T17:31:00.000-07:00

Don't Eat: Arizona restaurant serving lion meat burgers. "Cameron Selogie says his Il Vinaio restaurant in Mesa has received a bomb threat and more than 150 e-mails from protesters. He says African lions are on the protected list, but not endangered." Ohhh.... they are only on the protected list, not the endangered list. In that case, can I get fries with that? Ridiculous.

List: Best Indie Albums: 1970s-2000s

Learn from Others' Mistakes: Three Lessons from the McChrystal Controversy:

1. Know who you are talking to. Reporters have track records. A good public affairs officer will know that record and provide you with articles with highlighted quotes.

2. Establish ground rules. If you have an embedded reporter, you need to say something like, anything you hear inside my tent is off the record until you check it with us. This goes triple for any event involving alcohol.

3. Reporters doing one-off profiles for magazines such as Rolling Stone and Esquire have less invested in a continuing relationship than do beat reporters covering the war for newspapers and newsmagazines. That doesn't mean you should avoid one-off reporters, but it does mean that they have no incentive to establish and maintain a relationship of trust over weeks and months of articles.

Don't Eat: Friendly's Ultimate Grilled Cheese Burger Melt. That doesn't even look appetizing

Laugh:

Round-Up: Monday, June 21, 2010

2010-06-21T18:22:00.000-07:00

Read: Modern Library's Top 100 Novels, plus readers' picks.

What?: Medical Marijuana lollipops were for sale along the Laker parade route today.

Anticipate: I'm digging this poster for the upcoming Facebook movie. I'm mostly excited about the film because the screenplay was written by one of my favorite writers Aaron Sorkin (West Wing, Sports Night, A Few Good Men, Charlie Wilson's War, The American President, etc...).

Don't Eat: Rainbow Bacon: Gross or delicious? I'm going with gross & unnecessary.

Watch: Awesome mash-up of scenes from Kubrick & Scorsese films

Watch: See How Much Salt Savoy Restaurant Uses on their Duck

HOLY SALT! How Savoy Restaurant Salt Bakes Local Duck for Flavor from SkeeterNYC on Vimeo.

Round-Up: Thursday, June 17, 2010

2010-06-17T17:24:00.000-07:00

Movies: Anyone looking forward to Toy Story 3? From the reviews I've read, it's well-done, but lacks heart. Heart is what made me like the first two so much. So I'm split. Wait for DVD maybe?

So True: Great list of 10 Restaurant Concepts that Don't Mean Anything Anymore. Examples: Gastropub, Farm to Table, Upscale Comfort Food, etc...
Watch: BP Spills Coffee

Web Comic: What It's Like to be an Apple product owner. Plus Cupidtino: a dating site for Apple lovers.

Design: Pretty cool idea. A French press travel mug.

What?: "Wonderful fake trend alert: Ethnic Frensing: the removal of all people of a certain group from your Facebook, etc." (Via)

Sleep: My coworker Tracey informed me that our company is seriously missing out by not having these sleep pods that Google HQs has. Would you want to take a nap in these at work?

Round-Up: Wednesday, June 16, 2010

2010-06-16T15:43:00.000-07:00

Recipe: 10 Reasons to Eat Salad for Dinner Once a Week, plus an Inauthentic Asian Salad recipe

Recipe: Speaking of recipes, here is a recipe for Squid with Swiss Chard that I cooked last night. I had never cooked squid before, but after seeing it at Liborio (a great hispanic market downtown), I decided to give a shot with a modified version of this recipe that I had saved away.

Some fun:

Round-Up: Tuesday, June 15, 2010

2010-06-15T17:13:00.000-07:00

Laugh: Best Soccer .gifs. These are excellent.

Local News: CA Gubernatorial Republican nominee Meg Whitman has written another $20-million check to her campaign -- bringing her personal contribution total to $91 million.

News: Do you think the recent announcement that Afghanistan has an estimated trillion dollars worth of untapped minerals will be a boon to the country or a curse? The Economist has this to say:

"It seems to me that the best Afghanistan can hope for is to become Saudi Arabia or Kazakhstan. The worst that could happen is that it becomes Congo. Given its ethnic, security, and human-development-index profile, the Congo scenario looks more likely. The wild card, of course, is this:
American officials fear resource-hungry China will try to dominate the development of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth, which could upset the United States, given its heavy investment in the region. After winning the bid for its Aynak copper mine in Logar Province, China clearly wants more, American officials said."

UCLA Professor Mark Kleiman's take:

"Mineral wealth is a blessing to rich, well-governed countries. To poor, ill-governed countries, it’s a curse, reinforcing the culture of corruption. Worst of all is mineral wealth in the midst of civil war: it can both finance and motivate insurgency. So the claimed discovery of a trillion dollars’ worth of minerals in Afghanistan is the opposite of good news. What puzzles me is who in the U.S. government thought it advantageous to get this story out now, and why."

List: 10 Ways to Support the War Effort. These include: Send letters and packages to deployed service members and units, don't do drugs, ask Congress to pass a real and meaningful national service act, etc... The most interesting one is:

"Ask Congress to pass a 'War or Patriot Tax' à la Thomas Friedman. When people feel the financial pinch of the war they will connect with the war effort. More importantly, they will be helping to attack the financial infrastructure of our worst enemies by stimulating alternative energy development and dropping demand."

News: Check out this sweet interactive graphic of how much money members of Congress have invested in areas they regulate.

Round-Up: Monday, June 14, 2010

2010-06-14T16:42:00.000-07:00

Did You Know: North Korea

1. North Korea has the world's fourth-largest standing army (1.1 million)
2. 2012 will mark the 100th anniversary of the birth Kim Jong Il's father, the revered Kim Il Sung
3. Kim Jong Il will officially be 70 in 2012
4. North Korea’s GDP per head is about 6% that of South Korea’s
5. The South Korean central bank has put the cost of reunification of the two countries as high as $900 billion over four decades
6. Following the evidence that a North Korean submarine fired a torpedo that sank a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, on March 26th with the loss of 46 sailors’ lives, South Korea has responded by shutting off the South’s sea lanes to North Korean ships, halting much of the $1.7 billion in inter-Korean trade and reintroducing propaganda broadcasts hurled at the north
7. Famine led to the deaths of some 1m people, or nearly 5% of the population, in the 1990s
8. Some missionaries, even American ones, are allowed in and out of the country, provided they do not evangelise.

Source: The Economist

Consider: Steven Levitt of "Freakonomics" fame shares similar views as me about health care reform challenges:

"A reasonable health care reform would shift the incentives so that when I go and get expensive health care, I pay enough of the costs to get me to think twice about whether the benefits outweigh the costs. It makes sense to have catastrophic coverage. That's the idea behind insurance: When someone is unlucky, you don't want that to ruin their life financially. But we as a society often will spend vast sums at the end of a life trying to keep someone alive for an extra month. It's not something society likes to talk about, but I think people should face a tradeoff: Do I want my mother to live another week, or do I want to have enough money to send my kids to college?"

Watch: A video postcard from one man's visit to Shanghai. The second half does a good job of showing some street food I enjoyed while I was there.

Watch: Only have a minute? Then check out this video of Shanghai in one minute

Watch: The Care Bears are Back, and They Aren't Taking any Prisoners

Round-Up: Thursday, June 10, 2010

2010-06-10T17:26:00.000-07:00

I'm back from China. I'll try to blog about it in the coming weeks.

Watch: This Video Makes Me Miss Venice

Listen: Japandroids - "Younger Us"

Consider: I first started thinking more seriously about urban renewal at the World Expo in Shanghai, courtesy of a ridiculous video at the USA pavilion. Despite a lot of "WTF?" moments, it was fairly inspiring. These pictures of urban renewal by Dutch artists in Brazil keeps the idea burning in my mind and heart.

Watch: Beck and Friends Cover "New Sensation" by INXS

Round-Up: Friday, May 21, 2010

2010-05-21T14:08:00.000-07:00

No blogging for the next two weeks since I will be exploring Beijing and Shanghai. I'm excited to take a ton of pictures with my new camera, eat a lot of new cuisine, and just take in the sights and sounds with a few buddies.

Laugh: How to Ace a Job Interview

Watch: Summary of the show Lost. Series finale is on Sunday, while I am in China. It's going to be hard not to let someone spoil it for me before I get a chance to watch it when I get back.

'Lost' audio: Garnett explains the island to 'Big Baby'.

Round-Up: Thursday, May 20, 2010

2010-05-20T15:05:00.000-07:00

What?: Nicolas Cage on How He Chooses What to Eat: "I actually choose the way I eat according to the way animals have sex. I think fish are very dignified with sex. So are birds. But pigs, not so much. So I don't eat pig meat or things like that. I eat fish and fowl."

Anticipate: Who Wants to See the Beatles Zombie movie opening night with me?

Listen: Pitchfork's Perfect 10 albums.

Watch: My New Favorite Web Series "Munchies." Watch chefs get drunk or high and take you on a tasting tour. Episodes include David Chang of Momofuku and the chefs of Animal (cameo's of people like Aziz Ansari)

Watch: The best commercial I've seen in a long time

Round-Up: Wednesday, May 19, 2010

2010-05-19T14:42:00.000-07:00

Read: Haute Stoner Cuisine (NYT)
"Roy Choi, who owns the fleet of Kogi Korean taco trucks in Los Angeles, likens the culinary culture that has grown up around marijuana to the one that rose up around theGrateful Dead years ago. Then, people who attended the band’s shows got high and shared live music. Now, people get high and share delicious, inventive and accessible food."

Drool: Vegetables with Guest Chef Jeremy Fox at Animal Restaurant

Laugh: If Summer Movies Posters were Honest

Debate: What do you think of Your Open Book where you can search people's Facebook statuses?

Watch: Singer Kate Nash

Round-Up: Monday, May 17, 2010

2010-05-17T16:45:00.000-07:00

So True: "Not Very Good Album Takes A Little While To Get Into" (The Onion)

"After a number of close listenings, local resident Brian Mott was finally able to get into a music album that is really not very good at all, sources reported Tuesday. "At first, it was kind of hard to penetrate, but now that I've heard the whole thing like six or seven times, I'm really starting to dig it," said Mott, who decided to stick with the utterly unimpressive record, and not be put off by the fact that it was, by any account, underwhelming at best. "It's definitely not for everyone, that's for sure." According to sources, Mott then went back to enjoying the overall crappy album by staring straight ahead for 43 minutes and furrowing his brow in intense concentration."

Watch: Important PSA on How to Give CPR

Watch: This political ad was love at first sight

Round-Up: Friday, May 14, 2010

2010-05-14T14:15:00.000-07:00

News: Kagan, New York, and "the Heartland"

Read: "This leads to a tendency to under-acknowledge when politicians are doing a reasonably good job. To be clearer: I think at the moment I and other bloggers are failing to credit politicians for paying a fair amount of attention to the issues that are, in fact, the most pressing ones of our times. If you look back to the 1990s or the 1980s, you'll find the nation's agenda was clogged up with a lot of rather ridiculous fluff. We had constitutional amendments to ban flag-burning. We had lawyers parsing the gender-harassment implications of jokes about pubic hairs on Cokes. (Yes, in retrospect I'm afraid that all seems a bit silly now. Sorry, Anita.) In legislative terms, the second presidential terms of both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were essentially dead-in-the-water partisan standoffs, with public discourse channeled into scandals and distractions.

In contrast, take a look at what's on the congressional agenda this term. Universal health-care coverage. Systemic financial reform to prevent the recurrence of a global meltdown. Climate-change legislation. You may not like the solutions Congress is coming up with on any of these issues, but you have to concede that these are the great issues of our time. They were the great issues of our time five years ago, too, but we weren't doing anything about them. Now we are. To a large extent, that's because looming disaster has forced them onto the agenda; America could afford to dither in the 1990s because things were going pretty well. But I think it's worth acknowledging that our political system is not entirely screwed up at the moment. Congress may or may not be doing a good job of solving the great problems facing our nation, but at least it's paying attention." (Economist)

Watch: "The charming short film "Pixels," in which various classic arcade game characters destroy New York City, has been picked up by Adam Sandler's company for a full-length version—a "'Ghostbusters'-style action comedy." (Awl)

Watch: "Gorgeous timelapse video of Eyjafjallajökull set to the music of Sigur Rós vocalist jónsi. By Sean Stiegemeier." (Via)

Watch: Spiderman Reboot

Round-Up: Tuesday, May 11, 2010

2010-05-12T14:59:00.000-07:00

Did You Know: Supreme Court Justices:
If Elana Kagan is confirmed,
1. All 9 justices will have studied law at either Harvard or Yale
2. There will be six Catholics and two Jews, and zero Protestants
3. 4 of the 5 Burroughs of New York will be represented

Also:
4. "Justice Stephen Breyer recused himself from the [Monsanto GMO] case because Charles Breyer, the lower court judge, is his brother. Notably, Justice Clarence Thomas, who was once a lawyer for Monsanto, did not recuse himself."

Analysis: Great take on the Hyundai car ads that attack young drivers.

Tweet of the Week: DougBenson: I wish GLEE had a weekly results show. #iwannavotesomeoneoff

Watch: Sing Talk (Tik Tok Ke$ha parody)

Watch: Techno Dog

Round-Up: Thursday, May 6, 2010

2010-05-07T17:48:00.000-07:00

Laugh: Defrost the Chicken!

Anticipate: 25 Albums that Paste (and I) are looking forward to this summer.

Unecessary but Cool: A Google map of all the places mentioned in Mountain Goats songs.

Laugh: Top 20 "Shit My Dad Says" Quotes

List: Artists that are technically one-hit wonders. Examples:

Weezer - "Beverly Hills"
Jimi Hendrix - "All Along the Watchtower"
Blink 182 - "All the Small Things" (my least fav. Blink song)
White Stripes - "Icky Thump"
Garth Brooks - "Lost in You"
More including: Ben Folds Five, Beck, Janis Joplin, Public Enemy, Iggy Pop, Rush, Norah Jones, Grateful Dead, etc...

Grill: 5 Grilling Tips from Chef de Cuisine at Wolfgang's Cut:

Light the briquettes at least one hour before you expect to grill.
Season meat at least one hour ahead of cooking.
Allow the meat to come to room temperature before cooking.
Before you start cooking, make sure that you have a gradient of heat, Start cooking the food that will take the longest first, Start cooking your meat on high heat first
Allow the meat to rest for at least 10 minutes after you pull it off of the grill

Watch: The Curse of NBA Jam
The Curse Of NBA Jam

Atom.com: Funny Videos | Sci-Fi & Horror Hilarity | Just Bizarre

Round-Up: Cinco de Mayo Edition

2010-05-05T17:05:00.000-07:00

Learn: 13 Facts about Cinco de Mayo

Drink: Google Map of LA Weekly's Top 50 Happy Hours

Eat: Is Chef Ludo the Chef of the Future? Time seems to think so.

List: 6 Things about Disneyland They Didn't Want You to Know

Listen: Stream the new Dead Weather album on NPR.

Cook: I've been hoping to have a sushi-making party, and this Bittman article is pretty helpful.

Watch: This 30-minute short film by Spike Jonze about robots in love in LA.

Watch: Grammar Nazis
.

Watch: The Inner Monologue of Conan O'Brien in his 60 Minutes Interview

Round-Up: Monday, May 3, 2010

2010-05-03T15:09:00.000-07:00

Drink: 10 Things Learned from Beer Chicks @ Beer School

Politics: Read about the young staffers in the West Wing. "The Obama campaign, one young West Wing staff member said, was a romantic 'crush' full of jitters, firsts and ups and downs. Governing, on the other hand, 'is like the way you love your girlfriend' — meaningful, but often more taxing and frustrating."

Drink: IPA Recommendations

Shop Locally: Tips for Shopping at a Farmer's Market. Also, find a Farmer's Market near you.

Dine: Top 50 Restaurants in the World (LA got zero = robbed).

Eat: Grilled Cheese Invitational Food Porn

Design: What do you think of these redesigns of our currency?

Eat: I love sandwiches. Can't wait to eat all of these.

Debate: NYT: Is high-fructose corn syrup worse for you than regular sugar?

Watch: Conan on 60 Minutes

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Round-Up: Tuesday, Apr. 27, 2010

2010-04-27T12:15:00.000-07:00

Art: Check out a cover for Fortune Magazine that was commissioned but ultimately rejected. It's pretty funny and well done. More info on the rejection here.

News: NYT piece on teacher layoffs based-on seniority. Shows both sides very well, with some arguments I had never really thought about. "Facing the likelihood of the largest number of layoffs in more than a generation, Mr. Klein and his counterparts around the country say that the rules, which require that the most recently hired teachers be the first to lose their jobs, are anachronistic. In an era of accountability, they say, the rules will upend their efforts of the last few years to recruit new teachers, improve teacher performance and reward those who do best."

Eat: All You Need to Know about the LA Pizza Scene

Listen & Laugh: Embarrassing pre-fame music careers. Trent Reznor as a New Wave cover artist? Billy Joel as a Psychedelic Metal God? Katy Perry as a Pious Christian Pop Angel? The answer is yes, with videos to prove it.

Predictions: Facebook Privacy Settings. My favorite user comment: "2021: Farmville becomes self aware and enslaves the human race"

Food Porn: The Cheese and Burger Society website is insane but so well-designed.

Politics: Interesting take on Harry Reid and Lindsey Graham's tussle on prioritizing immigration reform over a climate change bill.

Political Humor: Do You Find National Security Advisor Jim Jones's Joke Funny? Background and another joke here:
"I’d just like to tell you a story that I think is true. It happened recently in southern Afghanistan. A member of the Taliban was separated from his fighting party and wandered around for a few days in the desert, lost, out of food, no water. And he looked on the horizon and he saw what looked like a little shack and he walked towards that shack. And as he got to it, it turned out it was a little store owned by a Jewish merchant. And the Taliban warrior went up to him and said, ‘I need water. Give me some water.’ And the merchant said, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t have any water, but would you like a tie? We have a nice sale of ties today.’

Whereupon the Taliban erupted into a stream of language that I can’t repeat, but about Israel, about Jewish people, about the man himself, about his family, and just said, ‘I need water, you try to sell me ties, you people don’t get it.’

And impassively the merchant stood there until the Taliban was through with his diatribe and said, ‘Well I’m sorry that I don’t have water for you and I forgive you for all of the insults you’ve levied against me, my family, my country. But I will help you out. If you go over that hill and walk about two miles, there is a restaurant there and they have all the water you need.’ And the Taliban, instead of saying thanks, still muttering under his breath, disappears over the hill, only to come back an hour later. And walking up to the merchant says, ‘Your brother tells me I need a tie to get into the restaurant.’"

Entertainment News: Love this weekly round-up. Highlights:

Woody Allen's next film, Midnight in Paris, will star Owen Wilson, Marion Cotillard, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, and Carla Bruni.
Pixar has announced Monsters, Inc. 2
Aliens prequel w/ Ridley Scott will be about the "Space Jockey"
A deal on Avatar 2 hasn't been officially inked, but it's going to happen and will feature the oceans of Pandora
Do you think a Bad Boys 3 is necessary?
See if your favorite TV show is on the "safe" or "endangered" list for renewal. Thankfully the prospects for Chuck are looking better.
New Ricky Gervais pilot in the works!

Watch: I know this is going to be my new favorite cooking show. No competition, no stress, just cooking and talking. In "Dinner With the Band," chef Sam Mason cooks and hangs out with musicians such as The Mountain Goats, Rufus Wainwright, Andrew W.K., Owen Pallett (aka Final Fantasy), YACHT, etc.... In the following clip, he cooks for Canadian indie-rockers Tokyo Police Club (who were super nice when I met them after a show on Bruinwalk at noon one day at UCLA).

Listen: Oh and Tokyo Police Club just previewed a new song off their upcoming full-length.

Watch: Jim Carrey & Conan O'Brien sing "Superman (It's Not Easy)"

Round-Up: Friday, Apr. 23, 2010

2010-04-23T17:37:00.000-07:00

News: Why the Affordable Care Act is Important (hint: perhaps b/c health insurance companies can drop you if you get breast cancer or if you have braces which can be classified as a "congenital deformity"

Politics: Nate Silver's model predict that Republicans will gain 4 Senate seats in November, there's a 6% chance of a takeover of the Senate, and Democrats have only a 7% chance of adding one seat to their current total, giving them a 60 super-majority.

Laugh: Unintentional Porn

Watch: Gross but Funny

Round-Up: Thursday, Apr. 22, 2010

2010-04-22T17:25:00.000-07:00

Did You Know?: Sugar

1. The average American eats 44 pounds of sugar per year

2. The largest sugar exporter, Brazil, now uses half the sugar it produces to make ethanol

3. Sugar is an ingredient in 70% of manufactured food

4. Louisiana is America’s second-largest sugarcane producer behind Florida

5. The price per pound of American raw sugar has doubled in the past year

6. "Manufacturers including Hershey, Kraft and General Mills warn that they will have to raise prices and lay off workers if America does not ease import restrictions on foreign sugar—a move the Department of Agriculture (USDA) indicated earlier this month that it is considering. America’s powerful sugar lobby is vehemently opposed, and cites the security of the home-grown supply"

Network: Do You Wish Facebook Looked Like This?

Laugh: Craigslist Ad about Sticking a Flash Drive in...

Debate: UCLA Professor Argues Why We Should Get Rid of the Performance Review

Watch: Wikus from District 9 & Charlize Theron

Wikus and Charlize - watch more funny videos

Watch: Drunk Guy vs. Flip-flops at Coachella. If you like that, check out this European guy trying to wear his pants as a shirt (courtesy of my coworker Tracey)

Round-Up: Wednesday, Apr. 21, 2010

2010-04-21T16:21:00.000-07:00

News: Are unhealthy school lunches a national security issue? "While it is indeed worrisome that our high-calorie lunches might prevent the dull-eyed, sexting youth of today from becoming the IED fodder of tomorrow, remember this: Predator drones always stay trim"

Laugh: April Showers

Watch: Funny Video about How Every Pop Song Uses the Same Chords

Read: Top 10 Absurd Classics

Read: "10 Gay Indie Rockers (In Otherwise 'Straight' Bands)"

Features:
1.Jonsi of Sigur Ros
2.Owen Pallett of Final Fantasy
3. Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear
4. Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend/Discovery
5. Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu
6. Kele Okereke of Bloc Party
7. Bradford Cox of Deerhunter
8. Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons
9. Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields
10. Joel Gibb of The Hidden Cameras

Antony of Antony and the Johnson's:
"I think the fact we’re led to believe we’re different because of our sexuality is a hoax that’s been pulled on us. When you think about how much time you actually spend having sex compared to how much time you spend eating or talking or listening to music, it’s really not that significant or important. I might be an active homosexual for an hour here and there, but I’m myself 24 hours a day. Obviously I have quite a big gay and lesbian fan base, but I’m hopeful that the thing that binds us together isn’t our sexual orientation—it’s the fact that we’re all special in our individual ways."

Watch: Owen Pallett

Eat: Jidori Chicken is finding a home on LA restaurant menus.

List: 15 Movie Posters Re-Imagined With the Stars Originally Cast

Read: Interesting Anthony Bourdain interview (of course, any interview w/ Bourdain is bound to be interesting).

This Week at the Farmer's Market I bought:
1. Blood oranges (for blood orange margaritas)
2. Fava beans (something I've never cooked with)
3. Eggs
4. Romaine lettuce

Round-Up: Tuesday, Apr. 20, 2010

2010-04-20T16:46:00.000-07:00

Did You Know: Social Mobility in the US
1. In 2008, the richest 10% earned nearly half of all income, surpassing even their share in 1928
2. In 2009, 71% of Americans agreed that hard work & personal skill are the main ingredients for success
3. In 2004 men in their 30s earned 12% less in real terms than their fathers did at a similar age
4. "Between 1947 and 1973, the typical American family’s income roughly doubled in real terms. Between 1973 and 2007, however, it grew by only 22%—and this thanks to the rise of two-worker households"
5. "Parental income is a better predictor of a child’s future in America than in much of Europe, implying that social mobility is less powerful."
6. More than 40% of those Americans born in the bottom quintile remain stuck there as adults
7. Those who graduate in recessions have lower incomes in the long term
8. Those born to the middle class have about an equal chance of moving up or down the income ladder, according to the Economic Mobility Project. But those born to black middle-class families are much more likely than their white counterparts to fall in rank
9. "Ms Sawhill and Mr Haskins (Brookings Institution) argue for a drastic shift in federal priorities: rather than pay for the consumption of the old, America should invest in the productivity of the young. Reducing entitlement programmes will be tricky, to say the least. But stagnant rates of mobility risk turning the American dream to delusion."

Watch: An acoustic set by Silversun Pickups at Spin.

Eat: Nate Silver of 538 compares the nutritional values of KFC's Double Down with a bunch of other fast food restaurants.

4/20 News: 10 Successful "Potheads"

Round-Up: Thursday, Apr. 15, 2010

2010-04-16T14:07:00.000-07:00

Did You Know: Statute of Anne
1. First copyright statute in Britain & recognized as the first full copyright statute in the world
2. Went into effect 300 years ago this week
3. Named for Queen Anne of Great Britain
4. Copyright lasted 14 years for new books & an additional 14 years if the author was still alive when the first term ran out
5. In America, it is now 95 years (and may be extended soon)
6. The 95 years is called the "Mickey Mouse Protection Act" by its critics, referring to the fact that every time Mickey Mouse is about to go in the public domain, copyright law is extended

Design: Beautiful and creative office designs

Listen: Stream the latest Tallest Man on Earth album. Straight out of Sweden, give this a listen if you like some Woody Guthrie or Bob Dylan.

Watch: Check out this sweet Japanese Nike ad where Japanese DJs make music using the shoes.

Watch: The future is coming.

Round-Up: Wednesday, Apr. 14, 2010

2010-04-14T11:43:00.000-07:00

New blog feature: Did You Know?
This week's topic: Taxes:

1. The head of the IRS, Douglas Shulman, gets someone else to do his taxes.

2. The federal tax code was 400 pages long in 1913

3. The federal tax code is now 70,000 pages

4. Americans spend 7.6 billion hours a year on taxes

5. 82% of taxpayers pay for help on filling taxes.

Travel: 161 Road Trips in the West

Tech News:

Google rigs search results to help prevent suicide
Netflix has signed contracts with Twentieth Century Fox and Universal along with Warner Bros earlier this year to provide more content, but delays the rentals for 28 days. This move is to give the studios a potential for greater profit from DVD/BluRay sales.
Don't hold your breathe for an iPhone for Verizon anytime soon.

Laugh: Drug Effects in Different Scenarios & Super Shitty Classmates

Listen: Stream the new LCD Soundsystem album.

Watch: Clips of South Park that explain all of the annoying things about Facebook.

Michael Pollan on Feedlot Meat: "The consumer can only go so far -- we can all buy grass-fed meat and the price will come down and there will be efficiencies in distribution and slaughter, and that sort of thing, but ultimately feedlot meat enjoys large subsidies, in the form of subsidized grain, in the form of not having to clean up their waste -- they are in effect exempt from many environmental laws, and also the fact that they're allowed to use antibiotics on healthy animals. So until you change the three struts of federal support for feedlots, that kind of meat is always going to be more expensive." (Read the rest of the HuffPo interview here)

Tweet: "City of Choi; Saturday Night Lefevbre; There's Something About Mary Sue and Susan; I Was a Fugitive From a Wolfgang. #cheffilms" - Jonathan Gold
(Choi = Kogi, Lefebvre = Ludo Bites, Mary Sue & Susan = Border Grill & Ciudad, Wolfgang = Wolfgang Puck's many restaurants. I've eaten at all of those except for Wolfgang).

Round-Up: Friday, Apr. 9, 2010

2010-04-09T17:31:00.000-07:00

Laugh: Creepiest children's book covers

Eat & Laugh: The most PC cupcake you'll ever eat.

Listen: GROUP - Colours

Listen: Lil Wayne – Lollipop (Chopped and Screwed by DJ Young Redd)

Round-Up: Thursday, Apr. 8, 2010

2010-04-08T17:31:00.000-07:00

Read: Great concept for a site. Experts list the best 5 books in their field. Check out Five Books.

Listen: 10 Songs for English Majors.

News: "Stars & Stripes reports that an Air Force officer who outed herself as a lesbian was told she has to stay in the military because you can't out yourself just because you want to get a discharge. As the military newspaper notes, "if you admit to being homosexual you can be discharged from the military, but if you admit it for the purposes of being discharged you won't be." (The Best Defense)

Laugh and Cry: "Pope Forgives Molested Children" (2002 Onion article)

Listen: Owen Pallett "Lewis Takes Off His Shirt (Dan Deacon Remix)"

Round-Up: Wednesday, Apr. 7, 2010

2010-04-07T15:55:00.000-07:00

News: "People are all upset with Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell because he signed a proclamation celebrating Confederate History Month. The crux of their concern seems to be that the language in the proclamation makes no mention of slavery, but let's be fair: The Confederacy wasn't about slavery. It was about raising up arms against the government of the nation because certain states were upset by the results of a legitimate election. The whole point of the thing was the treason. The slave-owning was more of a side benefit." - The Awl

Pictures: Pictures of the crisis in Kyrgyzstan. A must see.

Watch: Evan Kleiman of KCRW's Good Food has great informational videos you can see here. I personally loved the "Herbs" one because I just bought rosemary, thyme, oregano, mint, and parsley plants to grow on my balcony. I'll have to try her tip in this video of throwing in the blender some garlic, salt, rosemary, and fennel seed to put on almost anything. She also has another video talking about salt, so added to my shopping list is Diamond Crystal kosher salt and Maldon sea salt

Laugh: Possible Lost spin-offs; best parking ticket dispute letter I've ever read, what an honest Facebook debate would look like,

Watch & Laugh: Megan Fox on CA Schools, plus some great Schwarzenegger jokes

Hot for Teachers w/ Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green from Megan Fox

Round-Up: Tuesday, Apr. 6, 2010

2010-04-06T15:12:00.001-07:00

Learn: Really cool Interactive guide to the key players in David Cameron's shadow government. British PM Gordon Brown just announced that elections will take place on May 6th. David Cameron may very well become the PM. Time to learn about his young braintrust. Britain's finances are a mess, so a more conservative government may be necessary. I am worried about how few leaders in Cameron's Conservative party support the EU, however.

Read more about the election here:
"The contest itself will be exciting. For the first time in nearly twenty years, the outcome is not at all certain. The detonation of the parliamentary expenses scandal still reverberates. Politicians are disliked and distrusted, and a record number of MPs will be standing down. The economy is tentatively recovering after a long recession. And, as British politics becomes ever less parliamentary and ever more presidential, the party leaders will clash for the first time in American-style televised debates, with unpredictable consequences.

Before Christmas, Mr Cameron’s party enjoyed double-digit poll leads. But since the start of 2010, the numbers have been much more volatile. Recent polls still put the Tories ahead of Labour, but often by smaller margins. In most countries their lead would be regarded as a healthy one, but Britain’s strange electoral arithmetic tilts the playing field against the Conservatives, and a victory that once looked certain now merely looks possible."

Policy: Parking and Biking Policy in Santa Monica examined. Interesting allusions to land-use and UCLA Urban Planning Professor Donald Shoup (I once wrote my own policy memo based on his work on parking).

News: The Economist highlights why the net neutrality ruling today might be bad news.

Commentary: Should Obama play it safe when replacing Supreme Court Justice Stevens or excite his base?

Art: Sweet needlepoint by Ryan Berkley

Laugh: How to Write a Nicholas Sparks Movie

Laugh: Shut-up Foodies tumblr

Tech: Council President Eric Garcetti (actually had the honor of meeting him) is going to release an iPhone app for city services. "Take and submit photos of potholes, graffiti and other problems for the city to address." This follows the news of iPhone app by new councilman Paul Koretz (my friends might recognize the name, since I was planning on volunteering for his campaign if I didn't get my current job).

Listen: Manchester Orchestra "Tony The Tiger" (Simon Illa remix)

Listen: Manchester Orchestra "Shake It Out" (P.O.S. remix)

Round-Up: Monday, Apr. 5, 2010

2010-04-05T16:35:00.000-07:00

Garden: 7 Things You Can Do to Celebrate National Garden Month

Read: Interesting LA Times article about the rising importance of decline to state voters in CA. They currently support Democrat Barbara Boxer's for re-election in the Senate, and Republican Meg Whitman for Governor.

"The nonpartisans occupy the ideological ground you'd expect, midway between the Democratic and Republican folds. They tend to be fiscally conservative and socially moderate.

Demographically, they look like the future of California, meaning that their sway should only increase. They are more white than the Democratic Party and more Latino than the Republican Party. They are more Asian than either party and between the two when it comes to African Americans.

Fully 55% are college graduates, compared with fewer than half of Democrats or Republicans. A quarter of them are aged 18 to 29, the same as Democrats and Republicans combined. Six in 10 are under age 50, compared with less than half among Democrats and even fewer among Republicans."

Recipe: I'm looking forward to making Ciudad's Peruvian ceviche. So tasty.

List: 50 Awesome Musical Movies

Listen: Tumbler of the Top Songs of the 80s (Think Husker Du, The Smiths, Talking Heads, etc...)

Listen: Pharoahe Monch - Simon Says

	pharoahe monch-simon says get the fuck up.mp3

	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Round-Up: Friday, Apr. 2, 2010

2010-04-02T16:38:00.000-07:00

News: Why offshore drilling is good politics, even if its bad policy

Eat: Why you are seeing low strawberry prices. I for one am very excited.

Read: "10 years after Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential," the bad-boy chef is an endangered species." I'd also suggest watching the short-lived fictional TV show based on the book at hulu.

Watch: Cute video about love in LA

Round-Up: Thursday, Apr. 1, 2010

2010-04-01T15:52:00.000-07:00

News: Quick summary of Obama's No Child Left Behind proposed reforms

Learn: 80 sex tips courtesy of Cosmo

Eat: Some great pics of lots of dishes at The Bazaar

Read: Why Warren Buffet Would Make a Great General

Gross: Peeps recipes galore. Peep sushi, Peeps Krispie Treats, Peeps Fluffernutter, Deep Fried Peeps

Apartment Hunt: My friend Aubrey put together some resources about finding an apartment in LA. Check it out at her blog.

List: 10 of the best April Fool's jokes in recent history. If you want a complete rundown of today's April Fool's jokes on the internet, go here.

Watch: LCD Soundystem's new song "Drunk Girls" already has an unofficial music video

Watch: I've been doing a lot of research on concealed guns and been following the Starbucks Open Carry controversy quite a bit. Here is Jimmy Kimmell's take:

Round-Up: Tuesday, Mar. 30, 2010

2010-03-30T17:27:00.000-07:00

List: Love this list of Hollywood's 15 Worst Kept Secrets. I knew Tim Allen had been in jail, but Oprah had a kid at 14? What?

News: Trader Joe's is going more sustainable with their seafood after pressure from Greenpeace.

Watch: I read this article about McDonald's opening a $250 million dollar Hamburger University in China that aims to teach students how to run a successful McDonald's franchise. I thought it was kind of amusing. Then I watched the following video that the article linked to and then I proceeded to laugh heartily and feel a little sadness for my country. Enjoy:

Round-Up: Monday, Mar. 29, 2010

2010-03-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

Read: Fat Mike of NOFX did an Unplugged-esque set at SXSW as Cokie the Clown. I really want to see a video of the set, but here is a disturbing read of the heavy show. I'd recommend reading a couple of the comments to get additional context.

Click: Great before and after Earth Hour pictures. Make sure to click on the pictures to see the lights fade.

Listen & Download: Mashup of Notorious BIG and the entire xx album

Round-Up: Friday, Mar. 26, 2010

2010-03-26T15:08:00.000-07:00

Eat: I'm finally going to have dim-sum for the first time this Sunday, and this WSJ article made me even more excited. Be sure to watch the video. Counting down the days until I visit China.

News: "Critics have, in recent weeks, accused Barack Obama of not treating the war on terrorism as a war, of coddling al-Qaeda detainees, and of picking a fight with Israel. In a short message released today to al-Jazeera, Osama bin Laden (or someone pretending to be him accurately enough to fool al-Jazeera) accuses Mr Obama of...escalating the war in Afghanistan, mistreating al-Qaeda prisoners and "supporting Israel's occupation of our land Palestine". He threatens to kill Americans in response. It's all in where you sit." - Democracy in America

Infographic: Timeline of Health Care Reform 2010-201 8

Laugh: Abott & Costello Get an HIV Test webcomic

Watch: Medley of TV Theme Songs

Watch: I've Been Watching Way Too Much Funny or Die Today

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis from Between Two Ferns

Watch: Serious Problem Associated with Spring Break

Round-Up: Thursday, Mar. 25, 2010

2010-03-25T17:58:00.000-07:00

Art: Acryllic Bodypaint

Visit: Virtual Tour of the Sistine Chapel. This is very well done and reminds me of how much I miss Italy.

Listen: Jonsi - "Around Us"

Jónsi: Around Us (Acoustic session, WNYC 2010) by Jónsi

Watch: Weird Al Biopic

Round-Up: Tuesday, Mar. 23, 2010

2010-03-23T16:18:00.000-07:00

Read: Why it Isn't Unethical for the Dems to Pass the Reportedly Unpopular Health Care Bill

News: Red light cameras appear to be costing LA more money than they bring in.

Read about Health Care Reform:
1. Economist has a good basic summary (as they always do)
2. UCLA Professor Andy Sabl has a very interesting look at the grassroots effort behind it
3. A more in-depth look by the Economist America blog at what the bill does (with a focus on redistribution of care)
4. Two cool pictures telling the story of the debate.

Nutrition: A new study about how high-fructose corn syrup is worse for you than regular sugar.

Listen: Hipster Tracks: See what hipsters are currently listening to. You can also stream the new MGMT album on their site.

Consider: Do you think the media has a bias towards the status-quo? I never thought about it until I saw Mark Kleiman write about it, but I think it rings true.

Eat: 10,000 Pound Rice Krispy Treat

Laugh: An RA's Brain, Too Hot and Two Cold genius, and a story about a rectum wanting to be in charge.

Watch: This futuristic device would be awesome.

Watch: Beastie Boys vs. Battlestar Galactica Mashup

Round-Up: Monday, Mar. 22, 2010

2010-03-22T12:14:00.000-07:00

What?: Tiger Woods Sexts Paired with Pictures of Kittens

Laugh: Rep. Alan Graylson (D-Fl) Gaves a Verbal Spanking to Sarah Palin after Palin took a few shots at him.

Architecture: I'm really liking Frank Gehry's latest building in Vegas.

Laugh: High-brow Calvinism webcomic, and a low-brow Russian Doll webcomic

Cook: Brown Rice, Lentil, and Spinach Soup. I might make this for a party if I throw another one of those soonish.

Travel: Top 15 California Destinations

Watch: You may remember me posting a video of a Ben Folds sounding guy doing a live Chatroulette song. While, Ben Folds does one of his own in tribute.

Round-Up: Wednesday, Mar. 17, 2010

2010-03-17T15:50:00.000-07:00

Cook: When I feel like cooking something more complicated, I might have to try this halibut recipe from Providence chef-owner Michael Cimarusti (who cooked one of the more memorable meals I've had)

Drink: 10 Things Not to Do When Ordering Wine

List: Top 10 Anti-Gay Activists Caught Being Gay

Watch: What if Nightmare Before Christmas Centered on St. Patrick's Day Instead?

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Watch: Ben Folds-sounding guy improvises songs on Chatroulette.

Round-Up: Monday, Mar. 15, 2010

2010-03-15T16:52:00.000-07:00

News: San Francisco is the second craziest city behind Cincinnati. Los Angeles is #26
"While L.A. ranked in the top five in eccentricity, our low psychiatrist density and our low drinking level (53rd out of 57!) drove us toward the middle of the pack of the nation's craziest." My guess is that we drink less because drinking a lot is nearly impossible because of the need to drive everywhere.

Dine: Best Sandwiches in Los Angeles & 10 Things to Eat to Hollywood Farmer's Market

Laugh: Posture webcomic, Iraq Voting comic, Toyota Pedal comic, CSPAN comic,

Bake: Irish Car Bomb Filled Cupcakes (Check out the pictures, they look quite fun & tasty)

Facebook Generation's Idea of Protesting

Watch: Toby from The Office Snaps

Watch: Another Terrible (& funny) CA Campaign Spot (Fiorina going after Sen. Boxer's CA Seat)

Round-Up: Friday, Mar. 12, 2010

2010-03-12T16:47:00.000-08:00

Read: Ruling coalition in Israel is fighting over a proposed path to easing conversion to Judaism. And it sounds like it can get pretty petty: “When I die, I’ll go straight to heaven just for having pushed through this bill,” says David Rotem, chairman of parliament’s law committee and a member of Yisrael Beitenu (meaning “Israel is our home”). “I don’t know where opponents of the bill will go.” Ultra-Orthodox members, apparently confident of their place in heaven, protested. A member of the Labour party, another coalition partner, said that if the ultra-Orthodox were in heaven he would rather not go there."

Listen: Stream the Pavement Retrospective

Download: Mixes by UK Mashup artist Kleptone

Watch: Insane Lady Gaga Video

Watch: I saw Manchester Orchestra play two shows at the Troubadour this week, and they confirmed my belief that they are one of the best live bands

Round-Up: Thursday, Mar. 11, 2010

2010-03-11T15:44:00.000-08:00

Eat Healthy: Diet Foods that Make You Fat. Some of these are somewhat obvious (beware of many smoothies, granolas, etc...) but some were surprising (avoid fat-free salad dressing).

Laugh: Honest Movie Posters from this year's Oscars. Love it.

Read: More intelligent things being said about health care reform.

List: 50 Weird Things about the Human Body

Waste Time: Ten Word Wiki. Example: Pulp Fiction - "Tarantino’s critical success, like listening to an audiobook on shuffle."

Laugh: How to Write a Rom-Com. Step 4: Popular Songs Used in Painfully Literal Ways.

"Again, you’re not painting the Sistine Chapel here. You’re basically rubbing a dog’s tummy. You know what the dumb animals like, just give it them (no offense to actual, cuddly puppies). And what the dumb animals like is songs they know, delivered in ways they understand. Therefore, when the couple has sex the first time, you need “Feels Like the First Time” by Foreigner (actual example from Valentine’s Day, btw); when she learns to stand up for herself, “Respect” by Aretha Franklin (Bridget Jones Diary — Notice that the link is in Italian and yet you can still tell exactly what’s going on? Perfect); when he sets off alone on a journey, “Here I Go Again” by Whitesnake. You might be thinking, wait, if he’s taking a journey, why not a Journey song? No. You’re being creative again, stop that. Besides, it’s not literal enough. The lyrics in the song have to perfectly match what the people onscreen are doing. That way even the stupidest moron in the audience can say, “Oh, I totally get why they’re playing that song!” If you want to use Journey, you’ll need “When the Lights Go Down in the City” while lights are actually going down in the city. Go ahead, you can even have that one."

Watch: 5 second films

Round-Up: Tuesday, Mar. 9, 2010

2010-03-10T16:31:00.000-08:00

Watch: Rip! A Remix Manifesto. I used part of this great documentary in the music industry class I taught. Now the whole thing is finally online for streaming. Check it out and learn about the history of copyright, remix culture such as artists like Girl Talk, and efforts by the music industry to resist change.

List: 10 Foods With Potentially Misleading Names

Chart: What Does a Big-Mac Cost More than a Salad?

Watch: Joanna Newsom Perform on Fallon (Also take a look at the lyrics on the right)

Listen: Jenny Lewis Covers the Traveling Wilbury's with some help from her friends. Jenny Lewis singing George Harrison's part, Ben Gibbard singing Roy Orbinson's part , M.Ward doing Tom Petty's, and Conor Oberst taking on Bob Dylan's.

Watch: I can't believe Insane Clown Posse is still around. I thought they were long gone, but then a friend mentioned "juggalos" to me and now ABC Nightline just did a story on them. Reminds me of my research on the link between violence and video games. Maybe I should quote Violent J in my research.

Round-Up: Monday, Mar. 8, 2010

2010-03-08T13:33:00.000-08:00

Listen: White Stripes concert from their new documentary

Bake: It's Girl Scout Cookie season, but here's a recipe to make your own Thin Mints (support the Girls though and buy something anyway).

Study: Humans can taste fat, sensitivity to the taste may affect what and how much they eat.

Read: Comparison of new Oscar voting & alternative ways of holding US elections.

Stream: Pavement retrospective gets a 10.0 on Pitchfork. Stream it and enjoy a great 90s band.

Round-Up: Saturday, March 6, 2010

2010-03-06T10:23:00.000-08:00

Ready for the Oscars?

Round-Up: Friday, March 5, 2010

2010-03-05T17:26:00.000-08:00

Listen: King Charles - "Love Lust"

Read: Printing Organs

Eat: How to Cook and Eat Artichokes

Laugh: Exchange between Chef/Author/TV Show Host Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert
ON KFC MACARONI AND CHEESE

Bourdain: “I kind of want to put a bag on my head … Every once in a while I’ll try to be in disguise and I’ll order that stuff. It’s a very shameful dirty thing — it’s like going into a porn shop. Not that you’ve ever done that.”
Ripert: “I’ve never been there … I don’t even know what they serve.”
Bourdain: “Really? You’ve never been to see the Colonel?”
Ripert: “No. No.”
Bourdain: “You’ve never been so stoned or so drunk that you staggered into the Colonel?”
Ripert: “I have been very stoned and very drunk, but I’ve never been that bad.”

Bake: Orange Walnut Whole Wheat Scones & Sweet Potato Pecan Cupcakes (Made these recently. So good. I didn't do frosting, however, so it was more like a muffin).

Chart: Worldwide Comparison of Retirement Age vs. Life Expectancy

Listen: The Shimmer - "No Surprise at All"

Watch: Parts One and Two of the Ed Hardy Boyz. I actually Saw Kick Kroll (Bobby Bottleservice) do stand-up about a month ago

The Ed Hardy Boyz: The Case of the Missing Sick Belt Buckle from Jon Daly

The Ed Hardy Boyz 2: The Case of When That Hot Filipina Girl Lost Her Tramp Stamp At Mini-Golf from Jon Daly

Watch: Backlash from Judd Apatow - "You're not being the lovable guy from The Office right now"

Backlash from Judd Apatow

Round-Up: Thursday, Mar. 4, 2010

2010-03-04T15:32:00.000-08:00

Listen and Learn: NPR Discusses "Rules for Eating" featuring Michael Pollan

Laugh: How to Get Nominated for an Academy Award, If Restaurants Were Honest, When Cake Decorating Goes Horribly Horribly Wrong

Read: One of the More Interesting Obituaries You Will Read: Charlie Wilson (Remember his war?)

Search for a New Job: 100 Useful Sites

Drink: 10 Things You Might Not Know about Sake

Listen: NPR Streams a SXSW Playlist with 100 Songs.

News: New York is a Mess. "At this point, only two of the six statewide elected officials, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, were actually elected to the positions they hold."

Stupid News: "A North Carolina congressman has announced new legislation that would put the smiling face of Ronald Reagan on the $50 bill, booting aside Ulysses S. Grant in favor of what Patrick McHenry calls "a modern-day statesman whose presidency transformed our nation’s political and economic thinking." McHenry also points out that Reagan is much more popular than Grant in opinion polls! Democracy in action!" (Via)

Watch: This has made the rounds already, but it's worth a rewatch

Watch: One of the More Solid Daily Show Segments of Late

Watch: Macarons at MacDo

Round-Up: Tuesday, Mar. 2, 2010

2010-03-02T17:44:00.000-08:00

Read: "America's Top Bartender" talks about his move to the Edison in Downtown LA. Includes a few recipes.

Read: Female Orgasm, by the Numbers

Learn: Health Care Costs Infographic

Laugh: Internet Sex Moves

View: Cool pictures of breakfast from around the world.
Watch: Learn Everything You Ever Want to About ChatRoulette

Watch: Best Book Trailer Ever?

Watch: Nerd-it-up as the Economist Quickly Discusses the Economic Rise of Asia

Round-Up: Saturday, Feb. 27

2010-02-27T12:00:00.000-08:00

Watch: Great compilation of movies from the 2000s. How many do you recognize?

the films of the 2000s from Paul Proulx on Vimeo.

Watch: The Onion Discusses the 2 am Virus

Round-Up: Friday, Feb. 26, 2010

2010-02-26T17:13:00.000-08:00

Eat: Aaron Israel introduced me to babka, and now I just want to jump on a plane to New York and devour as much babka as possible. Thanks Aaron for creating a monster.

Chart: Infographic about Google

List: 25 Romantic Comedies that Don't Suck

Listen: Johnny Depp's the Mad Hatter character was influenced by Sunset Rubdown?! So strange but so awesome. Saw the Rubdown a few months ago in Echo Park and it was a great great show. Here's one of Sunset Rubdown's catchier songs, "Up on your Leopard, Upon the End of your Feral Days”

Listen: Just discovered this band today. Fang Island - "Daisy." The song makes me happy.

Laugh: Curling webcomic, 10 worst Wedding photobombs

Watch: One of my favorite new bands Surfer Blood does a more stripped-down drum-intensive live set.

Watch: I love this video. Espresso at Intelligentsia

Watch: Waste Lots of Time with This Fun Mixable Youtube video

Watch: Creative Music Video (via)

Watch: Another Awesome Video (via)

Round-Up: Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010

2010-02-25T17:44:00.000-08:00

New Goal: Eat Everything on J. Gold's Just Release "99 Things to Eat in L.A. Before You Die" List by the end of the Year. Here are pictures of 40 of the places. Of course, the first one is going to be the most difficult (and by difficult, I mean expensive. Starting price for a meal: $350 not including tip, drinks, etc...) so maybe I should be more realistic and aim for 80 of them. Luckily one of the more difficult ones I've already bagged: LudoBite's Fried Chicken (doesn't have a restaurant. Just does pop-up concepts). The list w/o commentary can be seen here.

Graph: Income by Religion

Chart: Who Blogs Inforgraphic

Learn: Why You Don't Propose at a Sporting Event

Watch: The Legacy of Sen. Bayh

Watch: Hamm & Buble

Listen: Puma Hardchorus covers Savage Garden

Watch: Two & a Half Men w/ realistic studio audience

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Round-Up: Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2010

2010-02-24T15:58:00.000-08:00

Listen and Read: Vanity Fair presents "The Virile Man's Guide to Liking Joanna Newsom." Stream the album at NPR.

Eat: Awesome. I've been waiting for something like this for awhile. Google Map of the location of food trucks in real time.

Photos: Hi-res photos of Olympics

Learn: The Economics of Drinking Infographic

Read: Journalistic malpractice on global warming.

Judge: Controversial French anti-Smoking ads

Listen: Brian Fallon (of Gaslight Anthem) on NPR.
Watch: Last night, I went to Comedy Death Ray @ the Upright Citizens Brigade. It wasn't the most solid show I've seen there, but it had its moments. It was cool seeing special guest Nick Swardson (I recommend his comedy album Party), but I guess he hasn't done stand-up in almost a year and it was a slightly disappointing set. Oh well, I'm sure he will be better when he gets back into the swing of things (I've learned quite a bit about the challenges to stand-up comedy from my roommate). Pete Holmes was pretty funny, Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chloe from 24) bombed pretty bad, and everyone else was pretty forgettable. However, Garfunkel and Oates (who you may recognize from Scrubs or several other shows). Here are some Garfunkel & Oates videos:

From Scrubs:

Round-Up: Monday, Feb. 22, 2010

2010-02-22T16:45:00.000-08:00

Fun site: Rap Genius - interactive website to explain rap lyrics.

Funny and Interesting News: Interesting take on Alexander Haig's obituary, Indians Object to Super Cool Jesus, A slideshow of Obama feigning interest in mundane things, and the 14 worst onstage musical meltdowns

Read: Depressing but also inspiring read about Roger Ebert's Cancer Battle

Not Funny but Interesting: STD Infographic

Quote: “What passes for hip cynical transcendence of sentiment is really some kind of fear of being really human, since to be really human … is probably to be unavoidably sentimental and naïve and goo-prone and generally pathetic.” — David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest. Oh Joaquin Phoenix.

Listen: LA singer/songwriter Rachael Cantu covers Ra Ra Riot's "Can You Tell" (Via)

Watch: I'm a Kevin Smith fan and all, but this is pretty funny. Especially since, for some reason beyond explanation, I've been following this "Too Fat to Fly" controversy

Watch: Mark Bittman (love his book Food Matters and his cookbooks How to Cook Everything & How To Cook Everything Vegetarian) talks at TED about "What's Wrong with What We Eat"

Round-Up: Friday, Feb. 19, 2010

2010-02-19T18:32:00.000-08:00

Read: Informative article about Health Care Profits

Read: A Carnivore's Dilemma: Foodies killing animals themselves.

Why?: Redesigning the Penny

Eat: James Beard Semifinalists Announced & Tips on getting great service at a restaurant.

Cook: Save some money and spend only $3 on a pizza stone from Home Depot. Also, everything you'd ever want to know about cooking sous-vide

List: The Top Ten Bands Nick Has Never Seen Live That He Plans to See First Chance He Gets:
(Note: I'm not including bands that there is little chance of me being able to see like Neutral Milk Hotel)

1. The Mountain Goats
2. Modest Mouse
3. Los Campesinos!
4. Radiohead
5. The National
6. The Gaslight Anthem (Bought tickets to see the lead singer do a set soon!)
7. TV on the Radio
8. Bloc Party
9. The White Stripes
10. The Decemberists

I would have put Straylight Run in the running, but they just announced they were going on indefinite hiatus this week. I am lucky to have seen most of my favorite bands live.

Round-Up: Thursday, Feb. 18, 2010

2010-02-18T17:34:00.000-08:00

List: 10 Literary Classics Made Better as Comic Books

Listen: The Golden Filter - "Hide Me"

Watch: The Morning Benders sing "Echoes" with Chris from Girls, John Vanderslice, and many more

Yours Truly Presents: The Morning Benders "Excuses" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

Watch: How to Sell Anti-depressants

Watch: Yes, I Wave. No, I don't Buzz

Round-Up: Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2010

2010-02-16T16:09:00.000-08:00

Read: Although I get sick of politics quite easily when it comes to partisan attacks, listening to people repeatedly just parroting talking points, and personal scandals, I do love reading about rationality/incentives/collective action in politics. If you like this nerdy stuff, read this 538 post about non-strategic retirements and cycles.

Read: If you want something less wonky, I recommend reading this short argument in favor of universal health care coverage.

Listen: Stream 35 songs from around the world. 35 music bloggers from 35 countries each post one song that they love. You can also download the songs for free there.

Listen: Honor the 25th Anniversary of The Smith's Meat is Murder by listening to the record and reading what other musicians have to say about the album.

Laugh: Comic about the Starbucks/Guns controversy

Personal: I had a great weekend of food. LA street food festival (LudoBites Fried Chicken = best chicken of my life, great indian food), finally got coffee at LaMill, cooked spaghetti with roasted cauliflower and bacon-panko-breadcrumbs (I hate cooking bacon, might stop making recipes that use bacon) & a fun salad, had one of the best burgers of my life at Comma Ca (good fries and Chocolate Pot de Creme, and $4.50 specialty President's Day cocktails), and cooked a nice homemade breakfast.

Round-Up: Friday, Feb. 12, 2010

2010-02-12T18:25:00.000-08:00

Listen: Japandroids - "Art Czar"

News: "The only thing the CBO [Congressional Budget Office] believes would do more to create new jobs than a tax credit aimed at hiring would be raising unemployment benefits. The unemployed spend new funds so quickly, raising demand in the economy so much, that increasing unemployment benefits is, counterintuitively, the single best way to create jobs."

Sad News: "59% of the public cannot correctly answer the question: 'Do you know how many votes are required to end a filibuster in the US Senate?'"

Crave: Top 10 Baguettes in LA.

Big Picture: Two Sets of Pictures of Dancing Around the World. Also, Olympic Torch pictures & Vikings & People at Work

List: Tiny Mix Tapes Finishes Counting Down the Top Albums of the Decade

Listen: Kate Nash - "I Love You More" This is perhaps the most surprising song I've heard this year. I loved her clever, cute, piano ballads on her 2008 album. This is balls-to-the-walls Karen O shit, and I love it.

Did You Know: Valentine's Day is the Second Most Popular Day to Dine Out after Mother's Day.

Disgusting: A guy stuffed a roll of sausage with a cheesy double beef burrito from Taco Bell. There's also a McGangBang.

Listen:

(two circles) - Boredoms

Watch: Set Your Goals Cover Lady Gaga w/ Kazoos.... what?

Set Your Goals - MTV Shows

Round-Up: Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010

2010-02-11T18:15:00.000-08:00

Laugh: What Kind of Interviewee Are You?

How True: “It’s really hard to dig through your sound and also improve and push yourself as an artist and create songs that you’re going to love playing every night on stage,” Henry says. “I think when you put out a few songs and start touring you realize, ‘Oh, I’m going to have to play this song every day for the rest of my life.’” - Sherwood

Crave: Pictures of a Football Stadium Made Out of Snacks

Learn: The 5 Most Widely Believed WWII Facts (That Are Bullshit)

Listen: Yeasayer - "Ampling Amp (Very Best Remix)"

Watch: History of Everything via a Flipbook

Round-Up: Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2010

2010-02-10T14:03:00.000-08:00

Random: Cool facts about Jeopardy. Merv Griffin made $70 million for the theme song, Someone won once with only $1.

So True: Echo Park anti-Hipster letter

Laugh: Every Zach Galifianakis clip on Tim & Eric.

Laugh: ICYN Academy Awards for Guys, Science & Batman webcomic, Tea partiers & Obama share something in common, Lost Writers Need Your Help!, If people were honest on the internet, Why Da Vinci was a Supervillian

Read: Saveur Magazine, Los Angeles Edition."It's no secret that LA's upscale restaurants tend to be more casual and more outwardly trendy than those you find in other great food cities, or that the cuisine here is often lighter and more far ranging. But, why? What made it so?" "It's not fakeness that bothers us but fakeness without heart." They even have a timeline of LA eating milestones.

Learn: More than you wanted to know about semen. Did you know that semen travels 31 mph and 5% of women are allergic to it?

Round-Up: Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010

2010-02-09T18:04:00.000-08:00

Debate: Would you accept the European health care social contract? "It's part of the social contract: doctors accept limited salaries in exchange for limited liability; patients accept that they cannot sue doctors for millions of dollars in exchange for a guarantee of access to decent health care." The author argues, "People can be persuaded to give up their right to sue doctors for huge damages if they understand that those damages come out of everyone's pockets, because the system works for everyone and requires some sacrifices from everyone"

News: Christmas bomber is cooperating. This = an argument for justice, against torture.

Understand: Track by track breakdown of the great new album "Odd Blood" by Yeasayer. Listen to the album here.

Laugh: Braces & dating, Jobs (for Republicans), Party of No, NBC, SI Swimsuit Bracket (I at least think it's funny b/c of the time put into making this), Bachelor v. Shutter Island mashup video.

Listen: Frightened Rabbit - "Swim"

Watch: I got pretty interested in remix culture when I was researching for the class I taught. This is well done.

Watch: Google doesn't mess around when it comes to social networking. Seriously, I feel like I'm one of the few people that use Wave, and I'm still not quite sure what to make of it.

Round-Up: Monday, Feb. 8, 2010

2010-02-08T16:31:00.000-08:00

News: Can't be a good sign that HP's political action committee maxed out donations for the opponent of former HP CEO Carly Fiorina in the race for the Republican Nomination for US Senate. "They Know Her."

Personal: A few decent sized news agencies have written about the video game website I wrote. GamePro, GamePolitics, and Reuters.

Discover: Tiny Mixtapes begins its countdown of their favorite 100 albums of the decade.

Read: About Oscar campaigning.

Clever: For fans of The Office, Modern Family, and Dawsons Creek,

Listen: Hot Chip's "One Life Stand"

Round-Up: Saturday, Feb. 6, 2010

2010-02-06T11:00:00.000-08:00

List: Cool idea for a list: 10 Albums from the ’00s We’d Like to See Performed in Full

Sound Smart: Things I Can Say to Save My Ass During the Super Bowl

Don't Eat: 10 Most Un-nutritious Chain Sandwiches in the Country. #1: Cheesecake Factory Grilled Shrimp & Bacon Club. Almost everything there is super unhealthy.

Imagine: Which Filmmaker Do You Wish Was Directing the Super Bowl?

Watch: 1 Laptop per 3rd World n00b

Watch: The Perfect Lost Episode

Round-Up: Friday, Feb. 5, 2010

2010-02-05T11:00:00.000-08:00

News: Great quote in this article about Republicans wanting to seat Scott Brown to stop the NLRB Chair confirmation.
"I love how we cave to the Republicans and won’t seat our Senator, [Al] Franken. Then we reverse cave and seat their senator. I mean forget the analogy of one is playing checkers and the other playing chess. It’s like one is playing chess while the other is sitting there picking their nose"

News: Is Obama going to get the health care bill passed through reconciliation? It's starting to look like it.

Listen: The Soft Pack - "Down on Loving"

Lunch: Top LA Restaurants for a business lunch

Eat: How to store cheese (with pictures!) (Personal Note: I love spinach. So healthy but makes everything taste so creamy.) Also, add rosemary when you grill meat to reduce cancer-causing properties.

Tweet:
michaelianblack: Of course gays should serve in the army. Who's better at exercising, polishing things, and making their beds really well? Nobody!
DougBenson: Jay-Z isn't a movie star or a singer, so when he says he's the new Sinatra, he's means the could-have-people-killed part

Watch: Jason Segel and Jack Black sing "Dracula's Lament"

Laugh: Pee-Wee Gets an iPad

Pee-wee Gets An iPad! from Pee-wee Herman

Laugh: Another reason why the Grammy's are terrible (or maybe awesome?): Snooki of Jersey Shore interviews the amazing French band Phoenix

MTV Shows

Round-Up: Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010

2010-02-04T11:32:00.000-08:00

Super Bowl Sunday: Where to Hang Out and Eat in LA During the Super Bowl.

Flowchart: Remember when Cuba Gooding Jr. showed promise?

List: 50 Worst Movies of All-Time (#1 is Batman & Robin)

Read: Albums vs. Singles. Some history and some predictions.

Watch: The worst attack ad I've seen in a long long time, by Carly Fiorina. Make sure you watch the beginning as well as the end when there is a man dressed in an evil sheep costume crawling around.

Watch: Vampire Weekend do a 20-minute live acoustic set

Round-Up: Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010

2010-02-02T18:38:00.000-08:00

News: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KT) before President Obama supports Conrad-Gregg proposal: "As I have said many times before, the best way to address the crisis is the Conrad- Gregg proposal." After Obama supports it: McConnell votes against it. There's just too much integrity in Congress these days evidently.

Entertainment: Round-up of Movie & TV news from the last week. Harry Potter in 3D, Weird Al on Cartoon Network, George Lucas musical, and more....

Laugh: Flowchart to help you choose your major, Worst Maxim Covers, Women are slower at getting jokes, but enjoy them more, Strip Games webcomic (nice iterated prisoner dilemma shout-out), Karma: The Board Game webcomic,

List: 50 Most Racist films

Watch: Atlas Sound at Natural History Museum (it was a fun night)

Save: America's Biggest Rip-offs by CNNMoney

Watch: Trapped in the Drive-Thru

Round-Up: Thursday, Jan. 28

2010-01-28T16:20:00.000-08:00

View: 125 Rare Photos of Famous People. I really enjoyed these.

News: Obama Gives CA Money for High-speed Rail.

Read: State of the Union - Underwhelming because of the template? (For the record, the speech exceeded my low expectations as well. One of the better SOTU's I can remember). Also, a cool comparison of the themes and words Obama chose compared to his predecessors.

Ponder: Is Indie Dead?

Shop: Looking forward to a Sprout's opening near me in Culver City.

Watch: Deleted Family Guy scenes.

Laugh: Pick-up lines webcomic, 10 almost nations, Video about the Truth about Twiste r

Watch: How to Report the News

Round-Up: Wednesday, Jan. 27

2010-01-27T16:59:00.000-08:00

Debate: Do you think Whole Food's incentive program to get their employees to be healthier (and therefore cost the company less in health care costs) is a good one?

Drink: I hope these Growlers catch on in LA. Would love to fill up a jug on my way home from work on occasion.

Gross: Screech's 11 Most Scandalous Accusations in his book.

Shop: Awesome Tarantino (and Curb Your Enthusiasm) movie posters

Eat: Ten Breakfast Spots in LA (LAW) and The Best Burgers according to the LAist.

Watch: I tend to avoid American Idol, but I was talking to Jason Green last night who happened to have been on last night's American Idol. Pretty funny, worth a watch. He was more hilarious (and wasted) in person though.

Watch: SNL Digital Short Spoof of Andy Samburg

Round-Up: Tuesday, Jan. 26

2010-01-26T17:56:00.000-08:00

Dine: Food & Wine's "World's Top 10 Life-Changing Restaurants"

Illegal Eats: "The foods America doesn't want you to eat." They even include a gnarly video of cazu marzu, or "maggot cheese."

Art: Possibly the coolest poster I've ever seen.

Sneak Peek: Hogwarts in Orlando

Drink: What do your favorite LA Chef's drink?

Map: Redrawing the state lines to make the Senate representational and more democratic.

Watch: Fever Ray acceptance speech

Watch: Mmm... crap

Round-Up: Monday, Jan. 25

2010-01-25T17:27:00.000-08:00

Entertainment: Summary of this week's rumors and news in movies & television. Could Gervais' David Brent go toe to toe with Michael Scott on The Office? Neil Patrick Harris on Glee? Johnny Depp in Pirates 4, Avatar 2, Ghostbusters 3D, Jurassic Park 4, Cloverfield 2.

Waste time: Mom's Messages

Tweet:
mc_lars: Doesn't it make you question the Social Contract when cops change lanes without signalling?
johncmayer: If I were on 24, I'd make sure to be in the bathroom during the last 5 minutes of every hour. Good things do NOT happen then.
JeremyDempster: I hope that everybody who spent tonight cramming for our midterm tomorrow is intimidated by my lackadaisical demeanor. And my BrewCo stamp.
JenKirkman: Not sure who is more evil and responsible for more upheavals of lives - Jay Leno or Dick Cheney.
ScottAukerman: What's weird is pineapple supposedly makes semen taste better, yet semen makes pineapple taste AWFUL.

Laugh: ?uestlove's favorite snarky walk-on songs from Late Night.

News: Prince Frederic von Anhalt (Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband ) for CA Governor? Guess Jeans founder Georges Marciano?

Listen: Tallest Man on Earth - "King of Spain"

List: What does President Obama read?

Watch: I love watching TV News talking-heads talk about ridiculous things they don't understand. I actually remember these stories popping up over this past summer.

Round-Up: Friday, Jan. 22

2010-01-22T15:47:00.000-08:00

Read: On Friedman & spending money at home vs. abroad.

Listen: It's a little too early to tell, but after a couple of spins, I love the new Los Campesinos album. An early favorite lyrically: "Straight in at 101"

Fun: Boy Meets World & Les Miserables.

What?: The Economist compares McDonald's to Thomas Keller's French Laundry. "The French Laundry and McDonald's may well be America’s two most internationally renowned restaurants. McDonald's has long served as ambassador for American culture and cuisine, while Thomas Keller’s restaurant has more recently reached the pinnacle of Michelin-starred global prominence. But worldwide fame is just the start of their similarities..."

Impress: How to be a superstar bartender

Download: Mp3's of the Top 50 Songs of 2009 according to We All Want Someone to Shout For.

Abstract: The Economics of Getting Sloshed. "There is a trade-off between the efficiency gains due to the signaling effect and the loss of productivity associated with intoxication"

Eat Less Processed Food: A new study suggests that a national program to reduce dietary salt could cut as much as $24 billion from the national health care budget. [WSJ] "In the current study, researchers found that lowering salt intake by three grams a day would cut new cases of heart disease annually by a third—an estimated 60,000 to 120,000 cases per year—heart attacks by 54,000 to 99,000 cases and strokes by 32,000 to 66,000 cases. It would reduce about 100,000 deaths a year in the U.S."

Round-Up: Thursday, Jan. 21

2010-01-21T17:48:00.000-08:00

Read: This should be required reading. "The bills before Congress are politically partisan and substantively bipartisan"

Listen: Surfer Blood's new album Astro Coast. So good.

Snubbed: Kanye West not invited to Haiti telethon.

Notice: How lucky Tiger Woods is that the Conan v. Leno story totally knocked him out of the news cycle.

Watch: Ideas for presenting your design work. Such a brilliant video.

Watch: Trailer for PBS Show I want to See

Round-Up: Wednesday, Jan. 20

2010-01-20T17:17:00.000-08:00

Listen: Ann Peebles - "I Can't Stand the Rain"

Listen: I can't stop listening to Fanfarlo in my car

Laugh: Best Craigslist Ad, Jay Leno is....Spiderman?, Funny or Die: Twilebrity video

Read: In response to the devastating election in MA, The Economist asks "So how do we get universal coverage now?"

Read: My thesis adviser Jeff Lewis got a shout-out on the highly-influential political blog 538 concerning the MA election.

Cook: Potato & Kale Soup from TJ's and Stuffed Peppers for Under $8

Eat: Review of Jose Andres' The Bazaar. I feel like I have to go for the experience, but I better go with a lot of people so I can only order a couple of things but try/see a lot more. The bill is going to add up real fast when $7-$38 tapas are involved. Maybe I should just go back to Animal and try the Loco Moco.

Watch: I attended an excellent panel discussion last night about the legacy of Gourmet Magazine. It featured my favorite food critic Jonathan Gold, former Gourmet editors Ruth Reichl and Laurie Ochoa, and KCRW’s Evan Kleiman.Watch the video here.

Download: Wu Tang & Beatles mashup,

Watch: Highlights of prankster Rémi Gaillard

Round-Up: Monday, Jan. 18

2010-01-18T17:38:00.000-08:00

Drink: Top LA Cocktails of 2009

Feast Your Eyes: The Most Relevant Identity Work of the Decade

Laugh: The letter asking for money you'll never see about the special election in MA.

Listen: Arcade Fire - "Haiti"

Listen: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros "Home"

Thanks for the birthday wishes!

Restaurants in 2009 & 2010

2010-01-18T10:00:00.000-08:00

Top Restaurants I Ate at in 2009

1. Craft (Century City)
2. Animal (Mid-City)
3. Foundry on Melrose (W. Hollywood)
4. Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill (Las Vegas)
5. Gjelina (Venice)
6. JiRaffe (Santa Monica)
7. Luna Park (Mid-Wilshire)
8. Beacon (Culver City)
9. Drago (Santa Monica)
10. Nine Thirty (Westwood)
11. Joe’s Restaurant (Venice)
12. Mon Ami Gabi (Las Vegas)
13. Beechwood (Venice)
14. Fraiche (Santa Monica, Culver City)
15. Ford’s Filling Station (Culver City)
16. Jitlada (Hollywood)
17. Zimzala (OC)
18. Border Grill (Santa Monica)
19. 8 oz. Burger Bar (W. Hollywood, Night of Graduation)
20. Joan's on Third (Mid-City)
21. Henry's Hat (Studio City - great brunch)
22. La Dijonaise (Culver City)
23. Father's Office (Culver City, Santa Monica)
24. Westside Tavern (West LA)

Top Restaurants I Want to Try in 2010

1. Providence (Hancock Park) (note: I actually ate here for my bday, soon after I made this list)
2. Melisse (Santa Monica)
3. Bouchon (Beverly Hills)
4. Whatever pop-up Chef Ludo Lefebvre does next
5. The Bazaar by Jose Andres (Beverly Hills)
6. Mozza Pizzeria (Hollywood)
7. Comme Ca (Beverly Hills)
8. Church and State (Downtown)
9. Osteria Mozza (Hollywood)
10. Golden State (Mid-City)
11. Huckleberry (Santa Monica)
12. Il Moro (Santa Monica)
13. Canter's Deli (Mid-City)
14. Langer's (Downtown)
15. The Nickel (Downtown)
16. Rustic Canyon (Santa Monica)
17. Street (Hollywood)
18. Bay Cities Italian Deli (Santa Monica)19. Antica Pizza (Marina Del Rey)
20. La Casita Mexicana (Bell)
21. Urasawa (Beverly Hills - being the most expensive restaurant around, would only go if I won a free meal/the lottery)

Bonus: For Coffee
1. Intelligentsia (Venice)
2. La Mill (Silverlake)

Top Restaurants I Ate at in the First Two Weeks of 2010

1. Tupelo Junction Cafe (Santa Barbara)
2. Brent's (Northridge)

Round-Up: Friday, Jan. 14

2010-01-15T14:37:00.000-08:00

Watch: Jay Leno interviews Jimmy Kimmel. More like Kimmel roasts Leno.

Dine Out: dineLA Restaurant Week : Jan. 24-29, Jan. 31-Feb. 5. OC Restaurant Week: Feb. 28 - March 6.

Headline of the Day: "Floor collapses during Swedish Weight Watchers meeting" (NYP)

News: Things For Which Texas Will And Will Not Take Federal Money (Hint: one is education and one is guns. Which do you think they took?)

Laugh: Taking Avatar webcomic, NBC's Late Show listed on craigslist,

Listen: Owen Pallett/Final Fantasy new album "Heartland"

Read: Damien Rice fans will love this interview, supposedly his first in 3 years.

Listen: Covers of "Bad Romance" by The Modern Elite and Addicted to Love by Florence + the Machine
Watch: Crazy music video from musical genius Dan Deacon (the tiger in the video)

Food Matters: Eat less meat, eat more veggies, whole grains

2010-01-14T15:18:00.000-08:00

My growing interest in food politics has lead me to start reading authors like Michael Pollan (Omnivore's Dilemma is still on my to-read list), watch documentaries like Food, Inc., and learn more about biofuels and farm subsidies. One great book that I read recently was Food Matters by NYT Columnist and famed cookbook author Mark Bittman.

The book is half summary of the current state of food & health in America (we're up shit's creek). The second half is composed of guidelines and recipes to start to change the way we eat to help our health and the environment (this is where he gives us a paddle).

From the book that you can browse here at Google Books:

"Here's the summary: Eat less meat, and fewer animal products in general (I'll get to specifics on page 93). Eat fewer refined carbohydrates, like white bread, cookies, white rice, and pretzels. Eat way less junk food: soda, chips, snack food, candy, and so on. And eat far more vegetables, legumes, fruits, and whole grains—as much as you can.

If you followed those general rules and read no farther, you'd be doing yourself and the earth a favor. And I'm by no means the only one who thinks so."

Bittman lost a lot of weight by sticking to "vegan until six" and then eating close to how he ate before, but with more vegetables and less meat. Little was off limits, and he indulged in the occasional hamburger and desserts. He lost 35 pounds and lowered his cholesterol and blood sugar and slept better at night.

None of this is brand new. I think Salon nailed it when they called this book "applied Pollan." Before I read the book, I had already incorporated most of the recommendations into my diet (except I am not always vigilant since I find it difficult to not order dessert when I go to a new restaurant). I highly recommend this book and think that the role of food in public policy is only going to become more important with obesity and environmental issues on the rise.

"Lose Weight! Save the Planet! Become a Lessmeatarian!"

Round-Up: Thursday, Jan. 13

2010-01-14T12:36:00.000-08:00

Free: Free drinks at Coffee Bean today 4-7 pm

Watch: Sarah Palin making me die a little bit inside.

News: Summary of Howard Stern's take on the NBC/Leno/Conan debacle.

Real News: "12% of juvenile prisoners report being sexually abused, more than 10% of them by staff (the surprising nugget within this subgroup is that 95%—95%!—of that 10% report having been victimised by female staff). Non-heterosexual inmates report a higher rate of abuse by another youth (12.5%) than their heterosexual counterparts (1.3%)."

Play: The foodie nerd in me loves this interactive family tree of LA restaurants. Find out where your favorite chefs have worked

Laugh: Girl gets arrested at UCLA in the "Greatest Undie Run Picture Ever" & Infographics of greatest stories ever told

Infographic: SFW infographic of numbers in porn

Quote: Steinbeck & Paris Hilton

Drink: Essential facts about Whiskey.

Tip: How to Hide Your Alcohol at Work

Bad Google: What is google's stance on rape?

Debate: What is the best way to get gay marriage in CA? I am very uncomfortable with the idea of using the courts to overturn a popular vote that overturned the courts. But I also agree that going door to door isn't going to change enough votes. I like to think that the current trend of increased support for gay marriage will continue enough that in a couple of years a ballot initiative will get enough support to reverse Prop. 8. Not sure if it's worth the wait or the risk of it not happening, but I don't want this to be settled by the CA Supreme Court. Bonus story: Divorce Rates Higher in States that Ban Gay Marriage.

Watch: Parks and Recreation spoof featuring Wu-Tang Clan.

Watch: Clip of documentary "Objectified." Jonathan Ive discusses Apple products.

Round-Up: Wednesday, Jan. 12

2010-01-13T14:52:00.000-08:00

Read: Pitchfork reviews Lady Gaga's The Fame Monster. One of the best reviews I've read recently.

Local Politics: Sadly Tom Campbell has dropped out of the race to be Governor of CA. As with most elections, I choose one Democrat and one Republican I'd like to see win the nomination. Campbell was my Republican choice. He may challenge Boxer for her Senate seat, but that is probably futile.A Meg "eBay" Whitman vs. Jerry "Already Been Governor for 8 Years" Brown sounds horrible.

Cook: Grilled Veggie Sandwich with Trader Joe's ingredients.

Laugh: Don't take this the wrong way & chess & Bluetooth webcomic, 25 brutally honest signs, If political parties actually threw parties (the Democrat one makes it worth reading), Stuff White People Like: Conan O'Brien

Listen: Cornershop - Brimful of Asha (Norman Cook Remix) This song makes me happy

TV: How is Lost going to end? No spoilers, but the producers give some advice on managing your expectations.

Scary: Inside Look at Privacy & Facebook "Employee: See, the thing is — and I don’t know how much you know about it — it’s all stored in a database on the backend. Literally everything. Your messages are stored in a database, whether deleted or not. So we can just query the database, and easily look at it without every logging into your account. That’s what most people don’t understand."

Debate: Should you place your cell phone on the table at a restaurant?

RIP: Jay Reatard (29 year old indie rocker)

Quote of the Day: "When people ask me why I never went to law school, I usually answer, 'Because I know the difference between right and wrong, and want to keep it that way.' How can the lawyer who made that claim, or that lawyer’s superiors, live with themselves? Answer? They were trained in law school not to feel guilty for doing such things, under the labels 'Adversary system' and “Zealous advocacy.' Ycccch!" - Mark Kleiman on the supreme court case discussing two prosecutors who helped frame two black men for murder.

Round-Up: Tuesday, Jan. 12

2010-01-12T10:38:00.000-08:00

Learn: Great NYT article on crime control policy. Good summary of a bunch of ideas I learned at UCLA.

Tweet: Article on how to use twitter effectively (article is tailored for a musician, but interesting for everyone) and 10 things music fans want.

Fun: Finalists for Words of the Year and Decade. Spoiler alert: winners are "tweet" and "google"

Laugh: A father gets carried away with the Facebook bra meme.

Laugh: A Guide to Reading the Huffington Post

What?: "Former alleged Tiger Woods mistress Jamie Jungers is teaming up with Sarah Symonds, Gordon Ramsay's alleged former mistress, on a project to help mistresses get out of bad relationships." [NYP] (via Grub Street)

Eat: Eater LA updated their list of 38 Essential LA restaurants.

News: Bradley Byrne, a Republican candidate for governor of Alabama, gets in hot water for saying: "I think there are parts of the Bible that are meant to be literally true and parts that are not."

Photography: Check out work by Kevin Cooley (h/t Kitsune Noir)

Question: Why do people still find prison rape funny? Rape is just not funny.

Be Classy: Sushi eating etiquette

Compare: Differences between the online portraits men and women post.

Watch: Music video for Michael Cera fans.

Round-Up: Monday, Jan. 11

2010-01-11T11:22:00.000-08:00

Laugh: How to Fake that You've Listened to Animal Collective (One of my top 5 albums of 2009)

Laugh: How to make a Michael Cera film.

Laugh: Spelling Nazi's on the Internet webcomic

Fun: 6 Insane Fan Theories that Make Great Movies Better (James Bond films, Star Wars, Matrix, Ferris Bueller)

Watch: Mark Hoppus and Panic! At the Disco - "What's My Age Again?"

News: According to researchers at Brown University, Lighter-colored liquors cause lesser hangovers.

News: Researchers receive grant to develop color-changing contacts for diabetics.

Debate: Did Netflix sign a good deal by acquiring rights to stream more movies, but giving up the right to rent Warner Bros. movies within 28 days after release?

Round-Up: Sat, Jan. 9

2010-01-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

Tweet: jimgaffigan: "Did some1 really think naming a restaurant Pizza HUT was a good idea? "We want a name that communicates quality food & 3rd world housing!"

Read: Not a light read, but definitely worth your time. PDF of the first two chapters of the paperback version of Thomas Friedman's Hot, Flat and Crowded. Good summary of the financial meltdown and some big ideas that are being debated about the future of America.
Watch: NSFW Google phone vs. iPhone

Watch:

Drink: From this clever soda fountain

Listen: Piebald is reuniting at Bamboozle in NJ in May. I hope they make it to LA soon.

American Hearts - Piebald

King Of The Road - Piebald

Round-Up: Friday, Jan. 8

2010-01-08T09:00:00.000-08:00

Eargasm: Possibly the coolest (and simplest) thing I've seen in awhile. Choose any two youtube videos and use the built-in crossfader to mix them.

Chart: 5 Reasons Pigs are More Awesome than You

Eat: LA Times food critic S. Irene Virbila most memorable dining experiences in 2009.

Debate: "Should craft bartenders be cool with making 'easy' drinks like Jack and Coke for less experimental customers?...many customers wouldn't even dream of walking into a white-tablecloth restaurant and ordering something safe and pedestrian off-menu—such as a hot dog or cheeseburger—but the same customers might venture into a bar with a creative cocktail menu and order a Jack and Coke...But does the customer have a responsibility as well?" Short and good read.

Tweet: rainnwilson: "I wonder if Bernie Madoff would b interested in playing Shylock in my new production of The Merchant of Venice..."

Laugh: (h/t High Definite)

Listen: Last night I got pretty nostalgic at an acoustic show at the Troubadour. It was called "Where's the Band?" and featured the frontmen of Thrice, The Get Up Kids, Saves the Day, and Bayside. Highlights included: Matt (Get up Kids) playing a cover of Reggie and the Full Effect (his bandmate), seeing Dustin (Thrice) playing stuff off his solo record and playing covers of Tom Waits & Peter Gabriel. It was also cool at the end when all four guys played a NoFX and a Jawbreaker cover.

Dustin Krensue (Thrice) - "Pistol"

Get Up Kids - "Overdue"

Chris Conley (Saves the Day) - Jessie and my Whetstone (video from '07)

Search for the Best Burger in LA

2010-01-07T15:01:00.000-08:00

For about a year now, I've been trying to drastically limit the amount of red meat I eat. Since I only eat red meat a couple of times a month, I try to make sure that I make it count. LA is known for it's great burgers, so one goal for this year is to very slowly eat my way through some of the top burger spots in the city. Let me know if you want to make a trip sometime to any of the ones listed that I haven't visited!

Already Visited:
The Counter (Santa Monica)
In 'N Out (various) (I still don't get all the hype. Good for fast food, still not the best burger)
8 Oz (Hollywood)
Father's Office (Santa Monica, Culver City)
Westside Tavern
Rush Street (Culver City - I am counting this even though I actually had a great turkey burger with a fried egg on it)

Need to visit:

Comme Ca, West Hollywood

Cube, West Hollywood

Umami (La Brea)

Zeke's Smokehouse (West Hollywood)

Rustic Canyon (Santa Monica)

The Oinkster (Eagle Rock)

Dino's Burgers (South LA)

25 Degrees (Hollywood) - Note to self: Get the onion rings & Guinness shake

The Hungry Cat (Hollywood)

Apple Pan (West LA)

Are there any that I'm missing that I should try? If I do one a month, I can get through these by the end of the year.

Round-Up: Thursday, Jan. 7

2010-01-07T09:30:00.000-08:00

Eat: You have until midnight to get this coupon for 30% of Mozza2Go. They are supposed to have the best pizza in all of LA.

Serious Read: UCLA Professor Amy Zegart on the Christmas Day intelligence failure. Taking her classes was one of the best decisions I made at UCLA.

Fun Read: Breaking Up in a Digital Fishbowl (NYT). Reading this article will certainly cause lots of head shaking.

List: There's officially a list for everything. Here is one of the 10 hottest aliens.

Photography: Great photos of the Harbin Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival. I really want to visit China soon.

Chart: Compare the states that allow same sex marriage vs. marriage between cousins.

Chart: US Daily Data Consumption (h/t Kitsune Noir)



























Listen: Stereogum & team9 Present... MySplice 4: 2009 Mashed Up