* * * * CrUsH aLeRt * * * *

I guess people are still debating health care?? JK. They are. Lucky for us that means more articles about Rahm Emanuel. Obama's Chief of Staff has it all - good looks, a famous family (brother Ari Emanuel- the inspiration behind Ari Gold on Entourage), an artistic side (won a ballet scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet, attended Sarah Lawrence), and a "fiery" personality (rumor has it that he mailed a rotten fish to a former coworker after the two parted ways).

In response to the lack of a bipartisan approach the Democrats are considering a new strategy - relying on their numbers to get the final bill passed. Rahm said, "The Republican leadership has made a strategic decision that defeating President Obama's health care proposal is more important for their political goals than solving the health insurance problems that American face every day." It does seem that way when you see the town hall meetings and the craziness/crazies that surround Congressmen at open forums. With all of the specials and articles on the Obama administration, they paint the picture that Rahm is the real go-to guy to get legislation passed. Hott.

Remixes 2.0

I like this picture of Pete Yorn and Scarlett Johansson. I'm not a big fan of either, esp SJ. She looks good here with the red hair though. This was the picture for an article about how Scarlett is playing the Brigitte Bardot to Yorn's Serge Gainsbourg. If her previous cd is any indication then we should all be a little bit scared.

5 pic Friday

Hoss Wranglers-now ya know.

young Billy

Wrong.

He's back!

Badlands, SD

Kill Your Cable!

My roommate and I cancelled our cable this summer. It was a great decision. Summer sports are lame, as are summer shows. We save 50 bucks a month, yet I sacrificed my chance to catch up on Spencer and Heidi shenanigans. Bummer!

We still have the Internet. And we have Hulu, magical Hulu. We get every TV show we could want, for free. You can do it too. Call Time Warner and tell them to end their tyranny! Tell 'em to go to hell!

5 Pic Friday

Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

Whitney looks crazy - crazy good!

New Mad Men soon! (btw - How cool is that headboard?)

Out of Africa

Despite its title, the white people in Out of Africa are not desperately fleeing the continent. They love it. They stay there a while. Some of them leave and even come back. "This is not the war-torn continent I imagined Africa always is and will be," you say. You're right, because it's set in the 1910s, before European "civilization" wrought havoc on hundreds of millions of people.

Karen Blixen, played by Meryl Streep (about the only person who didn't win an Oscar for this movie), leaves Denmark to live in British Kenya with her new husband, Baron Blixen. If you love crusty British aristocracy, this picture is for you! Despite the urbane Brits running around oppressing natives, Blixen loves Africa. "I had a farm, in Africa," she narrates constantly. She runs the coffee farm, mostly by herself. And wouldn't you know it, she runs into people who don't think a woman can run a farm.

Luckily for Karen, the Brits are too busy destroying the lives of the locals to care about keeping down Europeans. The time period probably represents the last time Africa was Africa, with tribes and proto-kings running around and without all those messy things like borders and nation-states, and the rape of natural resources and...whew, this wears me out. Most of this stuff takes place off-screen, sparingly rearing its head in the narrative.

Blixen asks a bureaucrat for some money to help repair the damage to her farm. He scoffs when he learns that she isn't using all her land for crops, instead keeping a local tribe on its ancestral lands. "Why don't you move them off?" he asks. "Because they live there," she says. Silly Danes, never disrupting thousands of years of local traditions to more productively export goods.

But save the social discussions for after the credits roll. Get lost in Africa. It's easy. If you enjoyed Planet Earth and its sweeping shots of the African landscape, get ready to be nostalgic. This movie's full of 'em. If you enjoy getting lost in Robert Redford's eyes and cool reassurance about the world, you'll love it. I did. It pleased me so much that I didn't even loathe Meryl Streep. From me, that's a compliment.

Super Confused Today Because

How are we supposed to choose from that crazy list of movies???? I have to be honest with you all: as much as I like and respect Stanley Kubrick and Frederico Fellini and Jean-Luc Goddard and Francois Truffaut and blah blah blah, I enjoy John Hughes' movies more than just about anybody else's.

Let's take a look at this astounding list of hits:

1) Uncle Buck. the niece dated a guy named "Bug"?? so hilarious! my dad used to drive a crappy Buick like John Candy's in the movie, and he was a protective dad so he'd always joke about embarrassing me in front of boys by acting like Uncle Buck.

2) Pretty in Pink. watched this just last week! is James Spader very fine in this movie??? is he very confident in a white suit in a high school? is Ducky even adequately charming, despite being a little bit creepy?! yes, yes, YES. but...is her prom dress beautiful and worth all the tension-building leading up to her entrance? not really.

3) Christmas Vacation. got my vote. the way Julia Louis-Dreyfuss says "Todd" cracks me up every time.

4) Mr. Mom. Michael Keaton really sells this role! Think of anybody else playing Mr. Mom: Richard Gere? Pauly Shore? Tom Cruise? Marc Summers????

5) Sixteen Candles. Jake, Jake, Jake. no offense to Mr. Ahhh "The Arctic Cat," but Jake is a very unconvincing love interest for Molly Ringwald here. But does it matter? you've got both Cusacks, you've got a bitchy sister on muscle relaxants, you've got drunk popular girls making very bad decisions, you've got a piece-of-trash "bohunk," you've got a notebook that says "the rave-up." you've got asian stereotypes and Lilith from Cheers!!!

6) Home Alone. we all know this one, nothing new to say. so many of the lines from this movie are burned into my permanent vocabulary: Kevin's "woof," looking at his brother's girlfriend's picture; "look what you did, you little jerk!", "ahhhhhhhhhhh!"

7) Planes, Trains, & Automobiles. no opinion; I think if I saw it at all, it'd have been when my parents rented it and I was too young to get it or enjoy it. don't vote on this one.

Super Happy Today Because

1) it's the last Friday of work!

2) internship interview next week!

3) new computer arrived this morning!!!!!!!!!!!

Discussion: What Was In Your Discman?

Last week, I was thinking about my state of mind in '99, specifically: What was I thinking, buying the LFO "Summer Girls" CD single? What was I thinking, buying any CD? I know I was thinking about trying to be cool, but I was also thinking about "relating" to a singer and feeling related-to. Meaning: I was a huge giant fan of Ani DiFranco, Tori Amos, and Fiona Apple. That part of my 14-year-old self makes sense to me now.

But what could explain this funny little mixtape I found while unpacking?

Side 1:

1. NOFX: Olive Me (Fat Wreck Chords compilation opened a lot of doors for me)
2. Beck: Hotwax
3. Beastie Boys: Intergalactic
4. Lipps, Inc.: Funkytown
5. The Cardigans: Lovefool
6. Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh: Dúlamán (got a pretty sweet Celtic compilation)
7. Dave Matthews Band: One Sweet World
8. Ben Folds Five: Don't Change Your Plans
9. Smashing Pumpkins: Thirty-Three
10. Jars of Clay: Tea and Sympathy
11. Led Zeppelin: Battle of Evermore
12. Ani DiFranco: Gravel
13. Fiona Apple: Never is a Promise (made myself sad there toward the end)


Side 2:

1. Tahiti 80: Mr. Davies (put a high premium on things I didn't think anybody else had heard of)
2. Me First & The Gimme Gimmes: Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard (I was cool, so I wrote this like MAJDBTS for short. also, again with the Fat Wreck Chords compilation/striving for "obscurity")
3. Tom Petty: Crawling Back to You
4. James Taylor: Fire and Rain
5. Radiohead: Thinking About You (clearly ruminating on some imagined heartache at this point)
6. Simon and Garfunkel: Cecilia
7. Barenaked Ladies: Straw Hat and Old Dirty Hank
8. Weezer: Tired of Sex (my edgy side)
9. The The: This is the Day (was i into Empire Records very much???)
10. Poe: Fingertips
11. Moby: Porcelain (#'s 10 and 11 both clearly influenced by the Saint Mary's modern dance ensemble)
12. Goldfinger: Mabel
13. They Might Be Giants: Istanbul
14. Steve Miller Band: Jungle Love
15. Tori Amos: Yes, Anastasia (saving the best for last)

So what about you? Don't pretend like you never went through a fratty-jam-band phase, especially if you grew up in Raleigh--I can think of only five people who can truthfully claim they were never tempted by DMB. What was your big jam: was it Destiny's Child? Usher? Cherry Poppin' Daddies?????

Better Get Some Fancy Sunglasses

...because the future of this blog is so bright you're gonna need SPF 500! Not only because of all the talent we have on board, but because I'm getting a new computer this week. I can't wait! True, "grad school and library science and learning code and stuff" really means "I need an excuse to buy something maybe fancier than what I need," but trust me: this new computer will be awesome for all of us. Combined with all the astounding features and capabilities of my new laptop, the sheer knowledge of computers ('n' shit) I'll be picking up in library science will translate to an incredible multimedia extravaganza here on Jar of Paperclips.

Email us with your ideas at jarofpaperclips@gmail.com. Or chat us up! We spend a lot of time on gchat.