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I Did An Interview With Peep Show Co-creator Jesse Armstrong

It's up at the website for the PRI-syndicated radio show, The Sound Of Young America. Here's the opening blurb:

Jesse Armstrong is one of the co-creators and writers of the BAFTA-winning BBC sitcom Peep Show. (A BAFTA is like a British Emmy.) Now entering its sixth series, with a US version in development at Spike TV, Peep Show is a funny, but cringe-inducing, depiction of the lives of two twenty-something flat mates, played by past "The Sound of Young America" guest David Mitchell and comedy partner Robert Webb. No less an authority on UK comedy than Ricky Gervais called it "The only British thing that I was really blown away by in the last few years."

Armstrong has also written for other acclaimed television series, including the sketch series That Mitchell & Web Look and the political satire The Thick of It.

[Hey, TSOYA visitors: Wh's'happening?]

Paul Krugman: Inflation Unlikely

According to his Op-Ed today, which I found comforting:

[...] don’t such actions [i.e. buying lots of debt both from the government and from the private sector] have to be inflationary sooner or later? No. The Bank of Japan, faced with economic difficulties not too different from those we face today, purchased debt on a huge scale between 1997 and 2003. What happened to consumer prices? They fell.

[...] it’s hard to escape the sense that the current inflation fear-mongering is partly political, coming largely from economists who had no problem with deficits caused by tax cuts but suddenly became fiscal scolds when the government started spending money to rescue the economy. And their goal seems to be to bully the Obama administration into abandoning those rescue efforts.

Needless to say, the president should not let himself be bullied. The economy is still in deep trouble and needs continuing help.

Boom! Rebutted!

The Babysitters' Club Theme Song

Summary: Giggling holiday consumerism. Headbands in vibrant colors. A reaffirmation of the reliability of friends, specifically girlfriends who share membership in a childcare guild.

Sherlock Holmes Trailer [Pallet Cleanser]

Having read most of the Conan Doyle Holmes books, I am happy to see this.

It's actually no more inaccurate an adaptation than the staid, refined Basil Rathbone version of Sherlock Holmes that's ingrained in our collective pop culture consciousness. And, frankly, I am delighted to see the pendulum swing this far in the other direction.

Finally, Holmes' drug habbit and Watson's athletic build will get some (over)representation.

Thanks for getting divorced from Guy Ritchie, Madonna.

"The Road" Trailer [Do Not Want]

Nothing about this filled me with more dread than the "Dimension Films" logo. Did I really want to think of this adaptation in the same line-up with Scream 3, Halloween H20, Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return and Hellraisers 3-8?

Allegedly a "Fan Vid" for the Strokes Song "Razorblade"

I still don't understand why no one liked their 3rd album.

"Look At Me Like A Human Boy"

A Note On John Edwards

"Ethicist" Randy Cohen has a post/piece/whatever on the NYT's site about Elizabeth Edwards new book—however, mostly, I want to direct your attention to this wedding photo and what is perhaps the most textbook "shit-eating grin" I have ever seen on a man's face:

Mary Gaitskill Interview: The Believer Issue 02.09

I sometimes feel like I come off like Ed Wood talking about Orson Welles (as depicted in the film Ed Wood) whenever I'm talking about writers and how they've conducting their lives: that is to say, earnest and more than a little embarrassing.

In any event, this Mary Gaitskill interview was good—and I don't have much more time tonight to devote to this subject than to say that. Personal highlights included (but were not limited to):

• Sentiment as false-feeling.
• Her notion of what a wife is, and more importantly the, frankly, heartwarming post-print-publication addenda.
• The bit about repetition in Dickens and the proceeding tangent on (essentially) everyone's natural tendency towards apophenia.
• The differences between guilt and shame.

Some Music Videos

Someone I know compared this Swedish-based group Liechtenstein to the Vivian Girls in the limited sense that both of these all-girl trios seem capable of coasting on their looks in lieu of having anything particularly amazing to offer sonically. As this blog post's label indicates, I am in no position to weigh in on whether this is true for either band. I bring it up because I am fascinated with this concept as a corollary to the glass ceiling specifically for attractive and ambitious career women: the more perversely degrading glass floor. That being said, I liked their set (sonically!) on Friday at Don Hills and recommend seeing them and Cats on Fire when both bands play at Bruar Falls in Brooklyn on Tuesday.



I was supposed to get a song from these guys on a mix CD from someone, but in the interim, I've broken down and just started listening to them on my own. So (obviously) the song is called "I'm In Fighting Mode" and the band is British trio Let's Wrestle.

Pollution In My Neighborhood Explained By WNYC

The Irony Of This "McCafe" Hulu Ad Is Sad

What is Adbusters Magazine going to do now that companies are "sponsoring" ad-free (virtual) environments?

When Haruki Murakami Chose To Be Poor

Part something-or-other in an ongoing series wherein I read things about great authors whose early-30's were not exactly financially successful — largely to comfort myself with delusions of being in good company.

From a truncated version of Murakami's "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" that appeared in (as with the first installment of this series) the New Yorker:

For three years I ran my jazz club-keeping the accounts, checking the inventory, scheduling my staff, standing behind the counter mixing cocktails and cooking, closing up in the wee hours of the morning, and only then being able to write, at home, at the kitchen table, until I got sleepy. I felt as if I were living two people's lives. And, gradually, I found myself wanting to write a more substantial kind of novel. I had enjoyed the process of writing my first two books, but there were parts of both that I wasn't pleased with. I was able to write only in spurts, snatching bits of time-a half hour here, an hour there-and, because I was always tired and felt as if I were competing against the clock, I was never able to concentrate very well. With this scattered kind of approach I was able to write a few interesting, fresh things, but the result was far from complex or profound. I felt as if I'd been given this wonderful opportunity to be a novelist, and I had a natural desire to take that opportunity as far as I possibly could. So, after giving it a lot of thought, I decided to close the business and focus solely on writing. At this point, my income from the jazz club was significantly more than my income as a novelist, a reality to which I resigned myself.

Preliminary Minutiae: Mini-Comic (Very) Roughs

[Click to enlarge]