Friday, December 14, 2012
Nudity: Best and worst of 2012
It's Time to Fix the Pitifully Slow, Expensive Internet Access in the U.S.
It's Time to Fix the Pitifully Slow, Expensive Internet Access in the U.S.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
How Would You Improve Lincoln Boulevard?
How Would You Improve Lincoln Boulevard?
A grassroots effort to help the city improve Lincoln Boulevard is underway, and the citizens task force that's leading the charge wants feedback from residents and businesses.
The task force announced on Monday that it launched two surveys ahead of the city's official public outreach, which is scheduled to begin next year.
"The two surveys will allow the community to lead the design process rather than outside interests determine what improvements are made," said task for member Roger Swanson.
Supported by the Ocean Park Association, Friends of Sunset Park, Pico Neighborhood Association and Borderline Neighborhood Group, the task force formed in February with the goal of helping transform Lincoln south of the 10 freeway to the Venice border.
The goal is to make the corridor safer, prettier and pedestrian-friendly, Swanson said.
"It is not a very pleasant street to walk along," wrote resident and cycling advocate Gary Kavanagh in his former Patch column, Green City. "Cars roar, there's poor tree cover, and its development pattern is very automobile-oriented."
The opinion surveys address a variety of issues, such as streetscape design (trees, medians and public art), bus lanes, zoning, traffic speeds and crosswalks.
The resident survey is for all Santa Monica residents. The business survey is for businesses already open on Lincoln south of the I-10, as well as businesses that might consider re-locating there.
The survey is at opa-sm.org/lincoln.
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Ian McKellen Reveals He Has Prostate Cancer
Ian McKellen Reveals He Has Prostate Cancer
Public Buses Across Country Quietly Adding Microphones to Record Passenger Conversations
Public Buses Across Country Quietly Adding Microphones to Record Passenger Conversations
Monday, December 10, 2012
The Simpsons explains A.V. Club cameo
Matt Selman, the writer of last night's episode of The Simpsons, explains A.V Club cameo
We here at The A.V. Club continue to bask in the afterglow of our unexpected cameo in last night's episode of The Simpsons. But how did it come about? How did a reference to our humble publication end up in this most venerable, beloved and influential of pop-culture institutions? For an answer, we emailed Matt Selman, the episode's writer, who was kind enough to give us the following explanation for our appearance:
"I love it when The Simpsons references specific real world things that people are passionate about. It's what drew me to the show when I was just a fan, and I love putting those specific references in now that I have some power over these things. To include The Onion and The A.V. Club is an honor.
I was writing an episode about Marge feeling awkward and uncool around the new mom next ...
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"Christmas With The Super-Heroes" searched for the holiness of Superman and friends
13 Days Of Christmas: Christmas With The Super-Heroes searched for the holiness of Superman and friends
You already know the 12 Days Of Christmas, with its drummers drumming and partridges and gold rings, but we here at The A.V. Club like to take everything one step further, for your reading pleasure. Hence, 13 Days Of Christmas, a collection of essays on a handful of beloved holiday classics and a few that have sadly fallen through the cracks. Up today, a 1988 anthology covering the holiday season with DC's best-known superhero characters.
The best novel I've ever read about the mythology of superhero comics, and what that mythology means to comics readers, is Joseph Torchia's The Kryptonite Kid. The book is written in the form of letters to Superman from the hero, a lonely, suffering first-grader named Jerry Chariot. The big adult role models in Jerry's life are the drunken, abusive father who makes his home life hell, and the strict, judgmental ...
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Jon Lovitz will kick your ass
Jon Lovitz will kick your ass: 20-plus unexpectedly badass performances from established non-badasses
1. Jon Lovitz, Southland Tales (2006)
Jon Lovitz came to America's attention as a bumbling sad-sack on Saturday Night Live, best known for running gags like the "Girl Watchers" series, where he and Tom Hanks played two atonal, self-denigrating drips who dismissed every woman they saw as "waaaaay out of our league." He went on to star on The Critic, playing an unpopular, shat-upon film critic who mostly drew jokes about his weight, his baldness, and his nerdy tendency to actually care about movies. His career has often traded on the fact that he has a pear-shaped body and a nasal voice, both of which he's played up in roles that focus on how nebbishy, grating, and generally laughable he is. So it was a surprise to see him in Southland Tales as a rogue cop who not only murders two people in cold blood, but then turns ...
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Sunday, December 9, 2012
The A.V. Club was on The Simpsons!
We were surprised and delighted to learn earlier today that tonight's episode of The Simpsons, "The Day The Earth Stood Cool," featured an appearance by The A.V. Club—or at least our logo, and a good-natured jab at what we do. In the episode, Marge is fooled by headlines in The Onion, then turns to The A.V. Club, where she notes the hilarity of our "fake" movie reviews. (For the record, both The Graduate and The Wizard Of Oz would get Bs, at minimum.)
As regular A.V. Club readers know, The Simpsons is a huge touchstone for us—a modern classic that we hold near and dear, even as we critique its every move. (And a Venn diagram of "Simpsons watchers" and "A.V. Club readers" would basically be just a circle.) So we were honored to make it on to that hallowed screen, if only ...
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