This American Life tackles the sub-prime housing market. I’ve read economists writing about this crisis… and it’s rather difficult to understand. I mean, all this talk of AAA overrated paper, etc. — I got a vague idea of the topic, but I wanted something more. Soo, I read a glowing recommendation of This American Life’s coverage of the topic. A quick summary:
What does the housing crisis have to do with the collapse of
the investment bank Bear Stearns? Why did banks make
half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income?
And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s? It
all comes back to the Giant Pool of Money.
There’s something about this video of panda babies that makes the little ones look animatronic or something. Don’t get me wrong, they’re astoundingly cute, but they look like youngsters in suits or something. It could be that their movements resemble toddlers so much that it looks odd.
Human pregnancies can be revealed by ultrasound, the
telltale expanded belly, and home-pregnancy tests, but
panda pregnancies are highly difficult to detect. None of
these work for pandas. They won’t generally sit still for
ultrasounds, their babies are born too small — the size of a
stick of butter — to create any noticeable belly, and their
pregnancy hormones remain a mystery.
In this lovely classic Sesame Street video, Kermit sings about how to tell if something is alive. The song is great and the concept is rather timeless, but I implore you to watch and see what the Sesame Street version of a cow looks like. For some reason I think it’s hilarious.
It’s a sad weekend at the movies when we’ve got the formulaic What Happens in Vegas (40 at Metacritic) and what is apparently the really shiny turd of Speed Racer (36 at Metacritic)… and not much else. I wouldn’t condemn either of these films before seeing them, but things are not looking up. For those looking to see a good film, here are some I’ve been hoping to catch (all on limited release):
Persepolis is the poignant story of a young girl in Iran
during the Islamic Revolution. It is through the eyes of the
precocious and outspoken 9-year-old Marjane that we see a
people’s hopes dashed as fundamentalists take
power—forcing the veil on women and imprisoning
thousands. Clever and fearless, Marjane outsmarts the “social
guardians” and discovers punk, ABBA, and Iron Maiden. Yet
when her uncle is senselessly executed and as bombs fall
around Tehran in the Iran/Iraq war, the daily fear that
permeates life in Iran is palpable.
The Savages is an irreverent look at family, love and
mortality as seen through the lens of one of modern life’s
most bewildering and challenging experiences: when adult
siblings find themselves plucked from their everyday,
self-centered lives to care for an estranged elderly parent.
In China, it is simply known as ‘The River.’ But the
Yangtze—and all of the life that surrounds it—is undergoing
an astonishing transformation wrought by the largest
hydroelectric project in history, the Three Gorges Dam.
Chinese-Canadian director Yung Chang returns to the
gorgeous, now-disappearing landscape of his grandfather’s
youth to trace the surreal life of a “farewell cruise” that
traverses the gargantuan waterway.
Plus, there are some wide release movies on the horizon that could be good…
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Buckling swashes, excellent fantasy, fun special effects, and hopefully good writing to hold it all up. The music from the last one was pretty great, too (Imogen Heap!). Unfortunately, Heap’s track for this one has been shifted off the Prince Caspian soundtrack and into her album.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Fail or succeed, it’ll do so spectacularly.
WALL-E
Pixar keeps hitting movies out of the park; I have high hopes for their latest.
Hancock
Will Smith as an anti-hero with superhero abilities. C’mon this movie be good be good be good be good.
The Dark Knight
If this could even equal Batman Begins in quality, I’d be ecstatic.
