the mofo with the info.

A well-read friend of mine sent me a disturbing e-mail the other day. After another friend recommended Ender’s Game to her, she discounted the book after reading the amazon review:

I just started to read the Amazon synopsis of Ender’s Game and had to stop reading after this sentence: Aliens have attacked Earth twice and almost destroyed the human species.

I don’t think I can comment on this.

I consider this friend to be one of the most reliable litmus tests in terms of book recommendations; to see her reject a book out of hand (cart?) because of the mention of “Aliens” showed a closed mindedness that was disappointing, but not at all unusual, given the broad perception of the sci-fi genre as a whole. Between Star Trek Conventions and Hollywood remakes of Philip K. Dick novels, science fiction books and movies are generally seen as a niche, cult-appeal, sensationalist works meant mostly for the off-hours Dungeons & Dragons crowd looking for a break from the orc-hunting.
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I’ve been sick the last couple days, which means I’ve had little else to do but watch Netflix DVDs. I just watched most of X-Files Season 4, and the screenshot on the right here is from “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space”. Re-watching that episode now, almost a decade after I first saw that, I can safely and without any hesitation say that it’s the coolest episode of any tv show ever. It has pretty much everything you might want in an episode, including Rashômon style unreliable poly-narration, big-headed gray aliens, government men in black, and a cameo by the venerable Alex Trebek (pictured in the aforementioned screenshot).

On an unrelated note, I like Nyquil a lot. I mean, really a lot. If I still used “hella” as an adverb, it would be used here to describe my feelings for Nyquil.

Cupcakes have become an integral part of Manhattan cuisine, growing quickly from “Sex and the City” fad pastry to a staple for a growing number of bakeries, following the success arcs of other such specific dishes as Lobster Rolls and the ubiquitous Corn. New York Metro has a great story on the original Magnolia bakery and the resulting schism between founders Jennifer Appel and Allysa Torey , although their version is a little secular for my tastes.

Any real New Yorker knows the true story of La Cupcake Disputà, as immortalized by Raphael Santi in his famous Stanza Della Segnatura frescoes now displayed in the Vatican, and as documented by Milton in his “Aesthetics on Frosting”. Torey, of course, was a strict believer of cupcake-transubstantiation, and that the eucharistic cake and frosting actually became infused with the Real Presence of Jesus’ body and blood at the point of sale; Appel believed that Christ’s body and blood do not come down to inhabit the elements, but that “the Spirit truly unites things separated in space”. The resulting fraction led to the great Cupcake Reformation, by which Appel spun off the Buttercup bakery in midtown and the rest, as they say, is history.
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My friend Rob is an internet meme… and not one of the dirty ones!

He made a trailer for a contest, in which he had to re-cut a movie into a misleading trailer. The result is just awesome (mirrored here if the ps260 server gets hosed again). After he had submitted the original entry to the contest (which he won), he sent this link out to a few friends. We all thought it was pretty funny and forwarded it on, and now, maybe a month later, he’s all over the place. Check out links 2-10 on the first page of hits on Google Blogsearch.

As an executive producer for Rob’s student movie (this means that I had to go to the vending machines to buy diet sodas for our actors), I can’t help but feel proud.

UPDATE: It’s gotten crazy. Last night, The New York Fracking Times ran an article on Rob. We had to go over to his office to help him deal with the vapors. I’d make sure you watch the actual video before reading the nytimes article, because they kind of ruin the whole joke. And no, it’s not my blog they’re talking about, they’re talking about Dustin’s Xanga. I only posted it after it went hollywood.

The last few posts have been light on graphics, so I thought I’d post this creation of mine made with Comic Life.

William Chiong
Stayed up all night long

Leaving Him
In Logical Whim

or

William Chiong
Smoked a bong
Saying, today still
“I Own Magic Hill”

This was originally posted on my blogger account. The original content along with comments can be found here.

If you haven’t seen The Cezanne and Pissarro exhibit at MoMA yet, you should definitely check it out. It’s the coolest thing I’ve seen there since my friend Erik almost spilled a drink on a Monet at the opening last year.

It’s a thorough comparison of the work contributed by the two artists while they were living in close proximity and painting prolifically, their styles influencing each other and mixing in unpredictable ways. It was also where I discovered that I missed my calling as a curator. Had I my druthers, the exhibit would have been called “Cezanne: The Bizarro Pissarro“. My friend Jen thought the exhibit should be more focused on their close relationship, and suggested “Cezanne and Pissarro: BFF“.

This was originally posted on my blogger account. The original content along with comments can be found here