Facebook, Creep

By Michael J.W. Stickings

I can't remember if I've ever posted a movie trailer here, but the full-length trailer for The Social Network, the David Fincher-directed film about Facebook (and founder Mark Zuckerberg) is brilliant, so much so that I'm actually quite excited about seeing the movie.

The music is the cover of Radiohead's "Creep," perhaps the band's best song, by Scala, a Belgian girls' choir, and the Kolacny brothers (Stijn conducting, Steven on the piano). It's a pretty amazing cover, and, needless to say, the trailer wouldn't be the same without it. Just consider the lyrics:

I don't care if it hurts,
I wanna have control.
I want a perfect body.
I want a perfect soul.

I want you to notice.
when I'm not around.
You're so fuckin' special.
I wish I was special.

But I'm a creep.
I'm a weirdo.
What the hell am I doin' here?
I don't belong here, ohhhh, ohhhh...

(By the way, check out Scala's other work. They do interesting covers of, for example, The Police's "Every Breath You Take," U2's "With or Without You," Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Under the Bridge.")

As for the movie, well, there's a lot of potential: Fincher's a really good director (Seven, Zodiac, Benjamin Button) and I really like Jesse Eisenberg, one of the stars of 2009 (Adventureland, Zombieland). And it could very well turn out to be one of the defining movies of our time, a movie about our time, and about our civilization, that captures the essence of who we are, for better and for worse. (Yes, I'm highly optimistic.)

Anyway, here it is. Enjoy.

Me and Troy

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Hello, my name is Michael, and I have a huge man-crush on the Pittsburgh Steelers' Troy Polamalu.

So I understand completely why his gorgeous hair is insured with Lloyd's of London for $1 million.

Though it seems a bit silly, and, if it weren't Polamalu, I might go so far as to call it a Sign of the Apocalypse -- not the hair, of course, the insurance policy, or the fact that such insurance policies are taken out at all (not by him, in this case, but by Proctor & Gamble (for whom Polamalu does ads for Head & Shoulders).

But I won't. Because he's awesome.

And because I'll be in Pittsburgh for the opening game of the regular season -- my beloved Steelers are taking on the Falcons -- and, with the team Big Ben-less (but with the great Hines Ward, if anyone can throw the ball to him), I'm really looking forward to seeing Polamalu and his (insured) flowing hair wreak havoc on Atlanta.

Them crazy Republicans

By Michael J.W. Stickings

In case it wasn't clear enough just how crazy (and how utterly divorced from reality) Republicans are:

A majority of Republicans believe that President Barack Obama "sympathizes with the goals of Islamic fundamentalists who want to impose Islamic law around the world," according to a survey released on Monday.

That figure, buried at the very end of a newly released Newsweek public opinion poll, reflects the extent to which a shocking bit of smear and misinformation has managed to become nearly commonplace within the GOP tent.

(Read the full poll results here.)

A full 14 percent of Republicans said that it was "definitely true" that Obama sympathized with the fundamentalists and wanted to impose Islamic law across the globe. An additional 38 percent said that it was probably true -- bringing the total percentage of believers to 52 percent. Only 33 percent of Republicans said that the "allegation" (as Newsweek put it) was "probably not true." Seven percent said it was "definitely not true." The rest (eight percent) either didn't know the answer or didn't read the question. 

And, as you might imagine, there's more:

Fifty-nine percent of Republicans, for instance, said they believed the president favored "the interests of Muslims over other groups of Americans," while only 34 percent of said he had been "generally even handed" in his approach.

Yes, the right-wing propaganda is working well, the lies spewed by the Republican smear machine, but the willful ignorance of Republicans is unfathomably enormous -- and, as this poll shows, simply appalling.

You can present them with all the evidence you have, undeniable proof that they're wrong, but there's just no reasoning with them, so much do they want nothing to do with the truth.