The Zeitgeist

If artists depend on angst and unrest to fuel their creative fire, then at least in one sense the 43rd presidency has been a blessing. Eight years is an eternity in the life of a culture, and when we look back on an era, we do it through pinholes: a movie here, a book there. What will stand out, decades from now, as the singular emblems of this moment in history? Newsweek asked its cultural critics to pick the one work in their field that they believe exemplifies what it was like to be alive in the age of George W. Bush.

Battlestar Galactica
American Idol
Jeff Koons’s Hanging Heart
The Corrections
Black Hawk Down
Cohen’s Borat
Green Day’s American Idiot
Far Away
Rick Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life

Battlestar is a decent if limited pick, and Idol a fairly inspired one, though not for the reasons given—but the exclusion of The Wire is simply criminal, not to mention Sopranos and Deadwood, and (yes) 24. For film, it might actually be The Dark Knight, or else There Will Be Blood. (Maybe Children of Men?) For books—surely the hardest category—it’s probably The Road, for a few reasons. I’m too illiterate in music to even begin to answer: the best I could manage would be a half-serious suggestion of Gnarls Barkley, or else just name a Springsteen album because that’s how I roll.

Via The Chutry Experiment, who points (among other things) to the unforgivable omission of viral video.

Top Cinematic Moments of 2007

InContention has a list of the top ten cinematic moments of 2007. (Part 1, Part 2.)

I’ll go along with a lot of what’s said here—though I can’t help noting that Tapley is a bit over-appreciative of The Assassination of Jesse James; that the best shots of There Will Be Blood surely beat all comers; and that the omission of the opening sequence of Darjeeling Limited (out on DVD tomorrow!) is simply inexcusable.

Dumbest Bush administration legal arguments of the year

Slate has a nice list of the dumbest Bush administration legal arguments of the year, via Washington Monthly. Here’s #4: Nine U.S. attorneys were fired by nobody, but for good reason. And #5: Everyone who has ever spoken to the president about anything is barred from congressional testimony by executive privilege. And the all-time winner: The vice president’s office is not a part of the executive branch. Fear 2008…

Durham Drought Update

2007 was a year of extreme weather across the board, not least of which was the ongoing southeastern drought, likely to reach crisis proportions in 2008. Both links via MeFi.

Best Film of 2007?

Roger Ebert says Juno is the best film of 2007, while blucarbnpinwheel says it’s just okay at best. I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m inclined to trust Ben, especially insofar as we apparently had the exact same reaction to Napoleon Dynamite right down to the Rushmore comparison. (Although in fairness to N.D. I have grown a little more fond of it in retrospect and upon a subsequent viewing.) In Ebert’s plus column, he does note the greatness of No Country for Old Men, which I’ve been meaning to write about but am having trouble improving upon the Candleblog review: Holy crap. I was just punched in the face by the Coen brothers. Every single individual moment of this film is perfect. I am in awe. How dare they make this film?

But Ebert maliciously and incorrectly snubs by omission The Darjeeling Limited, obviously my choice for best film of Oh Seven, almost as if he’s deliberately trying to provoke me into a blind rage. Winner: blucarbnpinwheel!

I’m still hoping I like Juno, though. As I believe I’ve mentioned before, literally everything Michael Cera does makes me laugh, so the outlook is good.

Year in Ideas 2007

The New York Times’s Year in Ideas 2007. Here’s one: Rock-Paper-Scissors may govern conflict throughout the universe.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Fimoculous has begun the 2007 list of year-end lists. Keep an eye on this.

My dad is in town for a few days, so posting will probably be light even for a weekend. But there are a few interesting things going on today on the blogotubes:

* Diebold Election Systems is now Premier Election Systems. Please adjust your slogans and conspiracy theories accordingly. Via MeFi.

* Time to send a ‘knowledge ark’ to the Moon? I have a better idea. Also via.

* Modern Cosmology: Science or Folktale?, by the appropriately named Michael J. Disney.

* Lenin’s Tomb looks at 2007 and 1929. With charts! For what it’s worth, I think this overstates the case pretty significantly, but only because I place collapse a little further in the future.