You don’t have to spend a lot of money to spread some Christmas cheer, here’s my humble, curmudgeonly gift suggestions.

Give the gift of learning how to drive. Start with basic courtesy; use your turn signal, even in a parking lot. Wave if someone’s nice enough to let you over. Don’t cut people off or […]

Preciousness, I hate it. In spite of my love for twee, I cannot stand “look at me look at me” sentimentalism. This is why I hate Everything Is Illuminated, Natalie Portman, Wes Anderson, and numerous other things.Carrie Brownstein sums it up beautifully on Monitor Mix:
Each of us has a deal-breaker when it comes to songs, […]

All polemics aside, I’ve always been fascinated with the work of Leni Reifenstahl, particularly her later underwater photography and work with the Nuba tribe. Reifenstahl’s infamy comes from her film Triumph of the Will, commissioned by Hitler himself.
I’ve never been quite sure what to make of her as a person. Till the day she […]

The first time I visited Portland, I was immediately struck by how bike friendly the city was. The roads and public transit embraced cyclists rather than swerving around them, screaming obscenities like Ohio. Today the NY Times comments on Portland’s bike culture.
If you’re a fan of Lomo photography, or cool old cameras in general, […]

These are some of my personal favorites.

Signs You are Not My New Roommate
Contrary to your rambling theories, the reason I am not calling back is not that your message was “so cra-a-ackily” (Were you trying to replicate the crackle sound in some kind of onomatopoetic serenade?)

I Have $1000 in Booze, and you Have a […]

The Search for the Next Elvira. Did we need another?
The Hello Kitty AK-47. For those days when shooting someone needs to be special.
Pizza Hut Italian Bistro.Pizza Hut- but classy. As if I didn’t have enough crappy faux-italian restaurants to choose from. Olive Garden, you’d better replace those fake baskets and fake linens with real […]

I woke up this morning to the news that my favorite torrent site, OiNK has been shut down. OiNK was the best place around to get out of print music. I downloaded a lot of old Brazilian jazz I could never get on CD or vinyl unless I spent years scavenging garage sales. I downloaded […]

The past two weeks my entire office has been abuzz with baseball talk. Indians pennants hang on cubes, everyone has their Indians shirts on. The prize in a contest last week was tickets to tonight’s game. It’s been really nice to see people excited about Cleveland. Let’s be honest, we get crapped on a lot. […]

By the end of each week, my porch is covered, a virtual obstacle course of wasted paper. Flyers poke out of the handle on my screen door. Items include (but are not limited to): free local papers, delivery menus, flyers for handyman, lawyers or lawn services, phone books from varying companies, political announcements, and coupons […]

I think the worst I’ve had was a scallop (I was 8 and thought was going to be a scalloped potato, what a terrible surprise) which doesn’t even begin to compare to Cracked Magazine’s 6 Most Terrifying Foods in the World.
While not giving away it’s place in the list, the balut reminded me of […]

Next Wednesday, October 17th, Amy Sedaris will be giving a talk at the Akron Public Library at 7pm. Afterwards she’ll be signing copies of her NY Times best seller, I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence. I Like You is filled with recipes, and such advice as:
A good trick is to fill your medicine cabinet […]

A great post from Advergirl on how her job isn’t really all that different from the retail and service jobs we left behind. She’s from Ohio too, by the way.
I smell a little less like French fries when I get home, but I’m still smiling when I don’t mean it, slinging coffee and supporting […]

Alana and I decided a while ago our next dog would either come from an animal shelter, or a breed rescue. Because of her allergies we’re restricted to terriers. I don’t mind since terriers are wonderful dogs, but it does mean we can’t adopt just any dog. (We presently have two wonderful Cairns) Purebred dogs […]

I came across a review of The Game Plan in Seattle’s The Stranger (perhaps the best free paper I’ve ever read by the way) by Lindy West.
“Sorry, annoying child,” he tells her, “I cannot care for you. You see, I am a man, and my apartment is full to capacity with trophies, catchphrases, megabucks, […]

Ever since Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia, all I’ve heard about it is his outlandish claim that Iran doesn’t have any gay people. Everyone was quick to point out how this is the opposite of true. Of course people living under brutal, oppressive authoritarian rule aren’t exactly forthcoming about their sexual preferences. Thank you, Captain Obvious […]

Kat’s 5 hours late which is completely unacceptable and unprofessional for any artist let alone supposed shop owner. Were she working for anyone else she would’ve been fired- again. She continues the show’s trend of only tattooing celebrities, presumably to keep the ratings up. After making the guitarist of My Chemical Bromance and his hired […]

Geeks of Doom on Good Luck Chuck
To start, this movie is so insatiably sexist that it just ASSUMES that women are so eager to enter into a life of indentured servitude, cleaning the shit stains out of dude’s drawers, and birthing their spawn that they will enter random sexual encounters on just the OFF-CHANCE that […]

In an effort to try and make the most of Fall, Alana and I have been taking the dogs to a lot of fun outdoor activities. Sunday we went back to Bow Wow Beach, and Monday afternoon we visited Kendall Hills in Boston Township / Peninsula. Both were a great chance to try out my […]

Scandal and corruption in high school football. I know sports are character building and physical education is important, and blah blah, but really I think sports and schools should be totally separate. Let cities offer intramural sports for student athletes. I went to a school where football had a bigger budget than the arts and […]

Freakonomics on the sad state of civil employees’ pay. It’s absurd that we as a culture will pay someone a million dollars to hit a ball with a stick, but the people who keep us safe, and the people who shape our children in their formative years make so little.

Lately I’ve been reading a lot about Miranda July’s work suffering the twee film backlash. I find this mostly unfair since I don’t even really consider her a filmmaker. I’ve always seen her as a performance artist, though she’s really a jack of all trades. Me and You and Everyone We Know and No One […]

A GameStop manager in Texas only sells games to students with good grades. This is quite the contrast from our local GameStop where the kids working behind the counter swear a blue streak, and tell you the wrong release dates for games, and occasionally send you home with an empty game case.

Tattooer to the butt rock / nu-metal stars, Paul Booth is not the best tattoo artist in the world. He’s not even close to the best tattoo artist in the country. But people (non-tattoo artists) can’t stop talking about him because of his over the top persona, and the “high profile” (MTV culture) clientele he […]

No, really. People used to ask me where I wanted to live, and when I’d answer Portland, Oregon if they said “Why?” I’d immediately know we wouldn’t have much in common. Particularly if the only commentary they had on the city was “Oh, don’t you know it rains all the time?” Incidentally I once read […]

Remembrance of Tacos Past
Taco Bell made Mexican food safe for postwar white America by turning down the tongue-searing heat, translating alien ingredients into the gabacho idiom, and automating food prep: The queso fresco sprinkled onto Mexican tostadas became cheddar cheese; the fragrant, meltingly delicious tortillas made by hand in Tijuana taco stands became prefab taco […]

The history of Labor Day. I had no idea it had it’s roots in strikes.

Yakuza Moon: Memoirs of a Gangster’s Daughter looks like something I definitely want to read. Here’s an article on her and Japanese mob culture.

Last week the AG UI Team packed up our bags and headed to An Event Apart Chicago ‘07. We had a great time, learned a lot, and ate a lot of pizza. Overall, all of the talks were mostly informative and worth the trip.
My initial impressions were:

Wow there’s a lot of different kinds of […]

You might be wondering what a lady could possibly have to say about men’s fashion, but let me reassure you that I spent two years working at Banana Republic, and in that time I sold a lot of men’s casual, professional, and semi-formal clothing. (Even if I currently spend most of my time in jeans […]

Michael Jackson, one of the world’s foremost beer writers and critics has passed away. Check out his website for some of his writing and a peek into a very interesting life.