I thought this was pretty hilarious. After winning an Oscar the other night for the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” which among other things stresses the importance of energy conservation, someone decided to do a little research into Al Gore’s energy habits. This is what they found:

• it takes 20 times the national average to power Al Gore’s Nashville mansion
• Since the release of “An Inconvenient Truth,” his energy expenditure has gone up
• Gore’s mansion consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, according to the Nashville Electric Service (NES)

Obviously Al Gore is a huge hypocrite. But as is the case with most politicians and their actions: do what they say, not what they do.

Other Interesting Links:

10 Greatest Cereal Commercials. Ever.

One of the most disgusting sports injuries you’ll ever see: Shaun Livingston

Does anyone really think the Academy knows what they’re doing? Because in my humble opinion, they almost never choose the real best picture of the year.Some notable examples of the Academy getting it completely wrong are How Green Was My Valley winning over Citizen Kane in 1941; Rocky beating out Network, Taxi Driver and All the President’s Men in 1976; Raging Bull losing to Ordinary People in 1980; Shakespeare In Love beating Saving Private Ryan in 1998; and a very bad movie about race called Crash winning over Munich and Brokeback Mountain.

Anyway, I’ve complied my list of the 5 best films on the year. And this year’s best picture winner The Departed is not on the list. Of course, there’s some crossover with the Academy’s list; but unlike the Academy, I don’t have a track record of screwing things, mainly because I don’t have a track record at all.

5) Little Miss Sunshine

Why it’s on the list: despite the generic Indie plot (let’s put five quirk people in a bus and make them go on a road trip! It’s so eccentric!), there wasn’t another movie this year as genuinely likable. Add in a perfect ensemble cast and a howler of an ending, and you’ve got a winner.

4) Borat

Why it’s on the list: I can’t remember the last time I laughed this much at the theater. Ever. And the wrestling scene was the most memorable & shocking things I’ve ever seen.

3) United 93
Why it’s on the list: No movie this year packed as much punch as United 93. Told in real time, the movie at first keeps you at the edge of your seat with it’s quickly paced telling of 9/11’s events, and then eventually it breaks your heart. Despite very good reviews, this movie was ignored by everyone, maybe because no wanted to see such a depressing movie.

2) Letters From Iwo Jima
Why it’s on the list: My feeling is of all the movies made this year, Letters From Iwo Jima is the one most likely to endure the test of time. Clint Eastwood’s great film is not only a visual tone poem, which drains almost all the color from the bloody battlefield, but a beautiful humanistic statement about what the “enemy” actually entails in war.

1) Children of Men

Why it’s on the list: The cinematography alone would make Children of Men a must see; it’s spectacular especially the climatic scene, which is shot in one amazing 20 minute long take. But Children of Men is also the the most relevant movie of the year, as well as the most entertaining. Throw in two great, under appreciated performances by Clive Owen and Michael Caine, and you’ve got greatness. Go see, discuss it and argue about it.

Buy movies on Amazon:

Technorati Tags: little miss sunshine, borat, united 93, letters from iwo jima, children of men, oscars, best picture, oscar snubs, 5 best pictures of 2006, the departed

“Fair and balanced” is out to destroy Barack Obama’s campaign before it gets started. Just watch the clip. Enough said…

Other Interesting Links:

13 classic SNL commercials

The incredible shrinking Jennifer Hudson

“Children of Men” was my favorite movie this year. This guy agrees.

Technorati Tags: children of men, jennifer hudson, SNL commercials, barack obama, fox news

If only Joey Ramone were alive to see this… there’s a Whole Food opening on the fucking Bowery. That may mean nothing to you non-New Yorkers, but to me it officially hands the Lower East Side away from druggies, Punk Rockers and authenticity to the financal bourgeois.

I guess Brooklyn and Queens is all the middle class artsy types have left…

Other Interesting Links:

The Gryoball arrives in America

11 funniest fake foreigners (warning Apu Nahasapeemapetilon and Borat may appear on list)

Technorati Tags: whole foods, joey ramone, brooklyn, queens, gryoball, funny foreigners, apu, borat

I don’t think bald women are attractive. This includes Britney’s latest incarnation. But sometimes, depending on the woman’s face, they don’t look half bad. Here’s a list of eight women who look pretty good bald and certainly better than Britney bald:The link

Other Interesting Links:

The truth about Google Earth

Jeffery Sebelia is broke

Technorati Tags: britney spears, bald women, google earth, jeffery sebelia

When I hear words like “labia” and “scrotum,” I laugh.

I’m not exactly sure why, but if I ventured a guess, I’d say it has something to do with feeling ashamed of my body parts as a child.

Well many people don’t feel the same way.

Apparently the word “scrotum” appears on the first page of “The Higher Power of Lucky,” by Susan Patron, this year’s winner of the Newbery Medal, the most prestigious award in children’s literature.

Many elementary school librarians are outraged. Morally outraged. And they want to ban the book from schools.

Personally, I think this is much ado about nothing. As Pat Scales, a former chairwoman of the Newbery Award committee, said, “The people who are reacting to that word are not reading the book as a whole. That’s what censors do— they pick out words and don’t look at the total merit of the book.”

I know people want to protect their children, but doesn’t this seem absurd? Is this really going to corrupt young minds?

Isn’t there a difference between watching Jenna Jameson sucking on some guys scrotum, and seeing the word appear twice in what many consider a great children’s book?

Many will say there isn’t a difference or that the difference is slight. I say to those people: labia, penis, vagina, scrotum, clitoris.

Technorati Tags: scrotum, newberry medal, the higher power of lucky, susan patron, jenna jameson

Buy the “The Higher Power of Lucky”:

The meltdown continues.

The former mouseketeer has officially lost her mind by shaving her head and then running to a tattoo parlor to get a cross tattooed on her hip.

Has anyone ever broken down so publicly? I’m not sure.

But the nation will continue to be enraptured by the news of a 26-year-old pop star we’ve never met and don’t really know at all, despite her being in the public eye for 10 years now.

I’m just happy people are paying attention to the important things. Where would be if we paid attention to suffering, eath, disease and destruction of a bunch of foreigners?

A lot more aware and fulfilled maybe, but more depressed, too. And who wants to feel depressed? Give me morons and easy celebrities any day.

Other Interesting Links:

Oh the Irony: while flying to India to promote safe sex, Ralph Fiennes has unprotected sex with a stewardess in the bathroom

Anna Nicole Smith, the year of magical drinking

Technorati Tags: britney spears, darfur, ralph fiennes, anna nicole smith, year of magical drinking

Oh, Samuel L. Jackson, has there ever been anyone who could yell quite like you?

I don’t think so.

From Pulp Fiction to selling his own line of beer, he’s yelled better and more frequently than anyone.

So in honor of this great man, here are some of the best moments in Samuel L. Jackson history:

http://www.uber.com/samjackson

Other Interesting Links:

A model of tolearance and understand: Tim Hardaway hates gay people

11 films damaging to Black People

Technorati Tags: samuel l. jackson, pulp fiction, tim hardaway

Want to watch The Empire Strikes Back again, but don’t have the time? Never seen the Passion of the Christ but want a quick recap?

Well, this guy on YouTube is trying to create a 5-second version of every great movie ever made. Some of the results are mediocre; but many of the results are great. Check out the Titanic one for example…

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=guywiththeglasses

Technorati Tags: the empire strikes back, passion of the Christ, titanic, 5 second movie

The lesser known woman poet who killed herself, Anne Sexton wrote some of the most heart achingly painful poetry ever. One of my favorite poems of hers is “Wanting to Die.” It’s strikingly confessional and difficult to read because it punches you in the gut with each line…

Wanting to Die

Since you ask, most days I cannot remember.
I walk in my clothing, unmarked by that voyage.
Then the almost unnameable lust returns.

Even then I have nothing against life.
I know well the grass blades you mention,
the furniture you have placed under the sun.

But suicides have a special language.
Like carpenters they want to know which tools.
They never ask why build.

Twice I have so simply declared myself,
have possessed the enemy, eaten the enemy,
have taken on his craft, his magic.

In this way, heavy and thoughtful,
warmer than oil or water,
I have rested, drooling at the mouth-hole.

I did not think of my body at needle point.
Even the cornea and the leftover urine were gone.
Suicides have already betrayed the body.

Still-born, they don’t always die,
but dazzled, they can’t forget a drug so sweet
that even children would look on and smile.

To thrust all that life under your tongue!–
that, all by itself, becomes a passion.
Death’s a sad Bone; bruised, you’d say,

and yet she waits for me, year after year,
to so delicately undo an old wound,
to empty my breath from its bad prison.

Balanced there, suicides sometimes meet,
raging at the fruit, a pumped-up moon,
leaving the bread they mistook for a kiss,

leaving the page of the book carelessly open,
something unsaid, the phone off the hook
and the love, whatever it was, an infection.

Books by Anne Sexton:

Technorati Tags: Anne Sexton, Wanting to Die, great poem

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