January 2014

If you’ve seen Johnny Knoxville’s hilarious Irving Zisman schtick in the Jackass movies, you know what to expect from Bad Grandpa, and it delivers. But trying to use an actual story to string together its collection of pranks and gags disrupts the pace and dilutes the comedy. The absence of character development was never a problem for the Jackass series before, so I’m not sure why they decided to try it here. The closing credits… See more →

There’s a strange narrative conflict at the heart of 12 O’Clock Boys. On one hand, the broader story of Baltimore’s brand of impoverished urban escapism through reckless dirt bike riding probably could have been told well enough in a short film. The local news clips and interviews with riders get pretty repetitive after awhile. On the other hand, following its charismatic protagonist, Pug, through three of his formative years (ages 12–15) offers a valuable glimpse… See more →

This morning I discovered a band that chose to call itself Unclown Despair. Surrender your badge, Hoobastank, there’s a new sheriff in town.

It is very likely that I ate more lentils tonight than you did.

“…self-esteem, not achievement, is the ultimate human value, and it’s making us all dumber by the day.” thefederalist.com/2014/01/17/the…

My Top 3 #lastfm Artists: Morphine (14), Low (13) & Warpaint (12) tweekly.fm/twitter/robweycher…

The 30 Years of Mac icon font is surprisingly sloppily drawn, and has odd lapses of detail (e.g. wrong aspect ratio for TiBook-era laptops).

So @squarespace’s amateur website creation tools are okay but their amateur logo creation tool is bad? I don’t get what the problem is.

“Her made me think a lot, but it never made me feel anything.” Interesting analysis of a movie I found underwhelming. grantland.com/hollywood-pros…

My Top 3 #lastfm Artists: Diarrhea Planet (24), Swearin' (12) & Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings (9) tweekly.fm/twitter/robweycher…

The recipe said to slice the fennel using a mandolin but I don’t have one and neither my guitar nor my ukelele did a very good job.

ROB: I think I’ll try to get some writing done at home today.
GUYS OUTSIDE: Bring in the road saw!

My first week of @quinciple. My kitchen is so confused. flic.kr/p/jbXRFx

My Top 3 #lastfm Artists: Melt-Banana (12), Archers of Loaf (11) & Tortoise (9) tweekly.fm/twitter/robweycher…

Wide awake after an evening sugar crash nap. Time to stare into the darkness and ruminate fruitlessly for hours on the mind–body problem.

Has anyone ever finished a ChapStick?

My Top 3 #lastfm Artists: Big Star (19), Chris Bell (15) & Chromelodeon (11) tweekly.fm/twitter/robweycher…

A wonderfully atmospheric, somewhat Lynchian portrait of emotional deterioration, with no small amount of affection for giallo films and the analog audio era. Excellent score by James Cargill and the late Trish Keenan of Broadcast.

I was 22 before I finally saw The Godfather. I previously had no interest in mob movies, mainly because of what I knew about Tommy DeVito, Joe Pesci’s character in Goodfellas, whose maniacal extortionist with an intolerable sense of entitlement I took to be the genre’s dominant archetype. While it turned out that wasn’t entirely off-base, I was pleased to find many Mafia stories richer than I expected.

Fifteen years later, The Wolf of Wall… See more →

For 2014: Fuck idealism and its sibling cynicism. Highlight what needs improvement, improve it, and don’t expect things to change overnight.

In Her, the central romance between Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) and his artificially intelligent operating system Samantha (Scarlett Johansson) is developed almost entirely through conversation, since Samantha doesn’t have a physical presence. As a result, virtually everything either character thinks or feels is plainly stated aloud, giving viewers little to assess for themselves. The film is its own CliffsNotes. And while it touches on various difficulties inevitable to a relationship between a metaphysically boundless AI and… See more →