Ha.

For suburban kids hitting their stride during the Clinton years, there weren’t very many love songs to choose from. There was plenty of raging against the machine and Pavement-style irony to go around, but romance was generally the subject of mockery. In order to break through the era’s postmodern glaze, you either had to be an outcast, or be too comically self-indulgent to notice the world around you. Billy Corgan, at least for a time, was both.

I’m not sure if “Luna” should really be in Nerve.com’s 25 Greatest Love Songs of the 1990s, but it’s hard to disagree with the above.

There is some serious steel in this woman’s eyes.

God she’s fascinating. Under different circumstances I suspect she might have made a formidable politician.

This image of a Montana mountain at Sunrise really is something.

Caveat pre-emptor

I have to tell you that, over the course of several years, as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors, when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that, for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.

Barack Obama

Well, he got there in the end.

“They’re adapting by making terrible movies. And it’s actually a sound business move.”

Buzzfeed’s Katie Notopolous risks taking on the prevailing online consensus that piracy is basically victimless, at least for big producers:

I worked at major movie studios for years, and I know exactly the consequences of movie piracy. I was around for several rounds of massive layoffs at studios where thousands of jobs were eliminated. There is a direct and real effect on a large American industry. While Tom Cruise or the president of the studio doesn’t see a dent in his paycheck, you might see the entire accounting department outsourced to trim overhead.

If that sounds too much like a sad Detroit auto industry sob story — the fault of an industry that failed to evolve – here’s the sobering truth that film executives won’t outright say: they ARE adapting. They’re adapting by making terrible movies. And it’s actually a sound business move.

First, several studios shuttered their arthouse imprints like Picturehouse and Warner Independent in the past few years. So no more “good” movies that don’t make huge profits. Then, they cut their slates, meaning that they used to release about 15 movies and year, and cut that to around 11. That’s why sometimes you look at the movie listings and it seems like there’s nothing new and good out that week. It also means each movie has to be more of a sure bet.

That’s why there’s turd torpedos like Battleship based on a toy franchise, and that’s why there will be endlessly unneeded sequels like Hangover Part III. That’s why Katherine Heigl could drive a Lamborghini off a cliff every month for a year if she wanted.

It’s piracy’s fault. Don’t pirate. Don’t give Katherine Heigl a Lamborghini.

Someday you will be yelling out to the streets below your windows: “He is the chancellor of all the big ones!”

To the Editor:

I had the great pleasure of reading your unsolicited critique of the “Ch-Check It Out” music video ["Licensed to Stand Still" by Stephanie Zacharek, May 16]. It took some time to get to me, as it had to be curried (sp?) on goatback through the fjords of my homeland, the Oppenzell. And in the process the goat died, and then I had to give the mailman one of my goats, so remember, you owe me a goat.

Anyway, that video is big time good. Pauline Kael is spinning over in her grave. My film technique is clearly too advanced for your small way of looking at it. Someday you will be yelling out to the streets below your windows: “He is the chancellor of all the big ones! I love his genius! I am the most his close personal friend!”

You journalists are ever lying. I remember people like you laughing at me at the university, and now they are all eating off of my feet. You make this same unkind laughter at the Jerry Lewis for his Das Verruckte Professor and now look, he is respected as a French-clown. And you so-call New York Times smarties are giving love to the U2 because they are dressing as the Amish and singing songs about America? (Must I dress as the Leprechaun to sing songs about Ireland so that you will love me? You know the point I make here is true!)

In concluding, “Ch-Check It Out” is the always best music film and you will be realizing this too far passing. As ever I now wrap my dead goat carcass in the soiled New York Times — and you are not forgetting to buy me a replacement! Please send that one more goat to me now!

NATHANIAL HORNBLOWER

… a.k.a. Adam Yauch. RIP.

It’s always darkest before the $500 million dawn

I was like, ‘Why did I do that? Why did I get so invested in that Batman story? How much more evidence do I need that the machine doesn’t care about my vision?’

And I got back to work and got a phone call that ‘Firefly’ was cancelled.

poor old Joss Whedon.