21.2.07

The cover of the new Haruki Murakami novel...

9.2.07

On Surnow

I've always insisted that 24 is a silly but compelling piece of genre television and that the people taking it as serious political commentary -- whether liberal or conservative -- are simply wrong. This long article from the New Yorker on 24 Executive Producer Joel Surnow has changed my mind entirely.

This has to be the weirdest bit of all:
Surnow told me that he would like to counter the prevailing image of Senator Joseph McCarthy as a demagogue and a liar. Surnow and his friend Ann Coulter—the conservative pundit, and author of the pro-McCarthy book “Treason”—talked about creating a conservative response to George Clooney’s recent film “Good Night, and Good Luck.” Surnow said, “I thought it would really provoke people to do a movie that depicted Joe McCarthy as an American hero or, maybe, someone with a good cause who maybe went too far.”

2.2.07

McGrath's Philadelphia

I was searching Google for a Boston restaurant like Hopleaf in Chicago or Abbaye in London. Instead of a restaurant, I found this great prose poem, which is one bland phrase from perfection.