See What I’m Saying
After this year’s Academy Awards, you might think that everything’s been done. A woman finally won best director, the lady from Speed won a best actress nod and the phrase “uber bingo” was used in an acceptance speech. That’s why we’re excited about the upcoming documentary “See What I’m Saying,” which breaks new ground for the deaf community. Directed and produced by filmmaker Hilari Scarl, the film not only follows four deaf/hard of hearing performers–a subset of the entertainment community that mainstream audiences know little about–but every print of the film is open captioned making it available to all audiences, including those who don’t know sign language. Unlike most films, where deaf audiences are limited to only a handful of options if they want to catch a captioned screening, all showings of SWIS will be accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing.
This heartfelt documentary follows four entertainers in the deaf community as they attempt to cross over to mainstream audiences during a single year: CJ Jones, an internationally celebrated comic in the deaf world, but virtually unknown to hearing audiences fights to cross over to the mainstream by producing the first international sign language theatre festival in Los Angeles; Bob Hiltermann, a drummer in the world’s only deaf rock band, Beethoven’s Nightmare, produces the largest show in the band’s 30 year history; Robert DeMayo, a brilliant actor who teaches at Juilliard, struggles to survive when he becomes homeless; and TL Forsberg, a hard-of-hearing singer finds herself caught between the hearing and deaf communities when she attracts a major producer to record her first CD “Not Deaf Enough.”
The world premier is being held at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theater on March 18th.
Tickets are available here.
The film opens in Los Angeles March 19-April 1st. Tickets are available at www.seewhatimsayingmovie.com
The film premiers in New York City on April 9th – April 22nd at the Village East Cinema.
Tickets are available here.
For more information and screenings, visit www.seewhatimsayingmovie.com
Get your “Project Runway” Game On!
Have you ever watched an episode of Project Runway and thought, “I could design a much better outfit than any of these hacks!?” Now you can prove it with the new Nintendo Wii Project Runway game, on-sale today.
How it works: Players receive their challenge (ex. haute couture, hip hop clothing, rock star fashion, newspaper dress, or school uniform), and design looks with pre-selected clothing items which they customize by color, length, fabric, and accessories. And just like on the show, players design the makeup and hairstyle for their model, who struts down the runway rocking the look. And if you have the Wii Balance Board, you can even walk the runway along with your model!
The best part, per WWD.com, is that after the runway show, ”pithy comments from judges Heidi Klum, Tim Gunn, Michael Kors and Nina Garcia emerge on the screen. (They might say, “Where was the glamour? Where was the vision?”) Designs are then scored with stars. At the end, in the parlance of Klum on the television show, the player is either “in” and continues with the game, or “out” and must try again with another game”.
If you think you have what it takes to face the judges, pick up the game for $39.99 at most mass retailers. But if you’d like to brush up on your fashion rules first, check out one of Nina Garcia’s three fabulous style books for an insiders guide to what’s hot and what’s not.
Celebrate the DVD Release of the September Issue with Grace and André!
The surprisingly hilarious fashion documentary, The September Issue, chronicling the making of the September 2007 issue of Vogue—the largest issue in that magazine’s history—just released on DVD on Tuesday! I don’t know about you, but I cannot wait to watch Grace and Anna duel it out over and over again on DVD. Of course, I already know youritlist’s Joseph agrees with me.
Even better is that according to the NYTimes Style Magazine, the DVD contains: “90 minutes of extra footage, including a side-splitting cover-line meeting; Anna Wintour admonishing Olivier Theyskens, then at the helm of Nina Ricci, for rescheduling one of his shows (“You’ll never do that again,” Wintour proclaims); and plenty of gems from the film’s accidental breakout vedette, Grace Coddington.”
And the best news of all is that this Thursday, Feb. 25th, NYC-dwellers will get a chance to see meet some of the stars of the film! In a special discussion moderated by Vogue Contributing Editor William Norwich, director R.J. Cutler will be joined by Vogue’s Creative Director Grace Coddington and Vogue’s Editor-at-Large André Leon Talley at the Union Square Barnes & Noble in Manhattan (33 East 17th Street at Union Square) at 7pm. The event is free but you best get there early to get seats! The editors will be signing the special Barnes and Noble exclusive 3-disc DVD edition of The September Issue, which includes the never-before-seen “The Met Ball” mini-documentary.
If you can’t make it to the signing this Thursday (why not?) be sure to check out R.J. Cutler’s informative and entertaining Huffington Post blog, “What I Learned From Anna Wintour”, in which he shares valuable lessons gleaned from the fashion maven while filming the documentary.
Red Light Properties by Dan Goldman
Like it does for most art forms, the internet offers a lot of opportunities to change the way we think of comics and graphic novels. Creators without the backing of major publishers are able to push their creations directly to the web at a fraction of the cost associated with print versions.
A new web comic from Dan Goldman called Red Light Properties offers a twist on the genre. Navigation is always a bit of a challenge for online comics–the flow of reading a panel-driven narrative can be a bit tricky digitally. But Goldman’s method–to reveal one panel at a time–gives a new feel to the process. He’s a trained filmmaker, so it’s natural that his comic should achieve a filmic feel. Here you take in the action frame-by-frame, and there’s no opportunity for your eyes to wander and spoil the action later down the page.
The full comic–which melds Ghost Busters with the mortgage meltdown and gives it all a sort of Leisure Suit Larry veneer–is available serially each Tuesday on Tor’s website. To get a better look at the process behind the product, check out this really nice Babelgum video.
Celebrities: Lent me your ears!
Ash Wednesday (aka “Night of the Living Ash-Cross Zombies” to the non-practicing) is upon us. While everyone else is giving up chocolate, reality TV and cussin’, we’ve turned our attention to what other people should give up for the next 40 days. To wit:
Kevin Smith: Give up flying coach (or at least Southwest). If, as you say, you “have enough money” to buy two seats, why, perchance, don’t you just fly first class?
Celebrity Mags: Give Up the ‘Celebs Without Make-Up’ features—nothing about 
seeing a star breakout (not to be confused with a breakout star) is pretty.
Betty White: We’re giving you a pass this year—never give up an inch. Everything you do makes us laugh.
Jeremy Renner: You gave a riveting performance in The Hurt Locker, but give up the Oscar—it’s Jeff Bridge’s turn! We see more noms in your future anyway.
Mr. Clean after Rogaine
“The Bachelor” Producers: Give up casting watching-paint-dry-boring bachelors, floozies, and pregnant gals. Okay, fine, keep casting the floozies and pregnant gals, otherwise why would we watch?
Robert Downey Jr.—you’ve given up enough vices for all the Lents to come—just never give up acting. And never give up that muse you married!
John Mayer: Do yourself, more than anyone else, a favor and STOP GIVING INTERVIEWS. Forty days might not be enough for this one–40 years might be a better plan. Exhibit A and Exhibit B.
Best Valentine’s Day Gift Ever
In honor of Valentine’s Day, Marc Jacobs is selling this limited-edition Mirror Heart Evening Bag for only $35!! Available in purple, red, blue, silver, gold and gunmetal, the purse sports a chain strap and fun heart pattern. This adorable purse is only available in Marc by Marc Jacob stores, so check out marcjacobs.com to find the location nearest you and head there now. Thanks racked.com for the tip!
From Womb to Tomb
Update: Please plan to catch Federico Solmi this week at VOLTA NY, the cutting-edge satellite art fair, featuring only 92 artists by invitation, which is being held in tandem during the Armory Show, at 7 West 34th Street, 11th floor. www.voltashow.com
Without further ado, we welcome our newest Your It List columnist, Theodore Bouloukos.
As an actor whose performance origins reside in video art, I’m often at pains to define this genre for even the most reasonably sophisticated friends. Video art, as a medium distinct from, say, early artistic cinematic experiments in 35-mm film (such as Buñuel’s 16-minute silent surrealist short, Un Chien Andalou), is thought to owe its latter-day roots to Fluxus artist Nam June Paik and the portable video-audio experimental pieces that he created on his Sony Portapak in the mid 1960s. Contemporaneously, Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey, employing both film and video, manipulated both medium and content in their work to either imitate and extricate the conventions of its motion picture and television brethren; in so doing, their collaborations have long influenced the visual vocabulary of what we see in a gallery and what we see on TV. The introduction of digital video in the 1990s enabled many artists to expand their artistic practices, engulfing such previously discrete media as design, sculpture, installation and electronic arts. In so doing, video art itself became more variegated, amplifying its boundaries while rigorously challenging the viewer’s expectations of video as an enterprise of either narrative or entertainment. The preponderant use of home video these days for the sake of the Internet alone has only added to this heterogeneity of hybrid practice, wherein everyone can be the director and the distributor of his own movie.
If the fluid relationship between art and cinema (viz. Cocteau) sees its tradition extended in Matthew Barney’s five feature-film Cremaster series (in which the interstitial plot lines serve as metaphors for the descension of the suspensory muscle of the testis); or in The Rape of the Sabine Women, Eve Sussman’s gorgeous epic, in which the myth of Romulus’s founding of Rome, depicted famously in in Jacques-Louis David’s 1799 painting, is re-envisioned as a 1960s allegorical musical with a cast of hundreds, shot on location in Berlin and on the isle of Hydra, Greece, then so, too, might animation, itself the womb of the video game, find companionable conflation in the work of Federico Solmi (1973), whose second solo exhibition at LMAK projects, entitled “From Uterus to Grave with no Happy Ending,” can be seen at the gallery through February 14. In it, he has combined traditional, hand-drawn animation with digital models, utilizing computer gaming engines to create a real-time 3D framework, thanks to his long-time collaborator, 3D artist Russell Lowe, a New Zealander who is also a senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales, in Australia.
If the title of his show is provocative, so too has Solmi gained currency as something of an enfant terrible; although not in the masturbatory way of, say, Sebastian Horsley, the British dandy-memoirist-artist of self-crucifixion fame, denied entry to the States for previous controlled-substance violations a couple of years ago, forfeiting his only New York book-signing appearance in the bargain. No, no, for Signor Solmi, the offense was creatively crucifying–depending on one’s stridency of commitment to religious dogma–and more in the vein of a good old-fashioned duel with the Roman Catholic Church. Solmi’s an Italian, after all, and his native land is one in which it’s A-okay to elect a porn star to Parliament just as long as you don’t fuck with the Pope. Brought to trial for “obscenity, blasphemy and offense to religion,” after his work, The Evil Empire (2007)–seen at his first solo show at LMAK Projects in 2008, coincidental with the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to New York–appeared at the Arte Fiera Bologna art fair a year later. While Solmi was being absolved of the “religious offense” charge, the work in question was sold for $7,000 at the fair, but remained in custody. Since that time, these censorship charges have all been dismissed, and Solmi, a 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship recipient for Video Art, has moved to New York; and he has since been invited to exhibit his work at the upcoming Santa Fe Biennale in New Mexico. Through his media of video, drawings, mechanical sculptures and paintings, Solmi has infused the imagery he plucks from pop culture with art-historical references to realize his irreverently rambunctious manifestations as depictions of gorgeous phantasm. His is a place where extravagance and irony are the collaborative devices in showing us why moral decay might be our only legacy.
Step into the VOGUE
Imagine a world where you can flip through your favorite magazine, admire the products featured in the pages, and then go online and find those exact products for sale in all the same place. Pretty convenient, right? VOGUE thinks so. This week the fashion magazine announced a collaboration with exclusive designer-sale website Gilt Group, which will allow members to ”Shope the Issue” of VOGUE. This month, members will find the 10 editor-selected menswear looks featured in the February issue. The sale is going on now until February 8th, and includes clothes from a range of high and low-priced outlets, including Gap, Theory, and Topman.
While the Annie Hall look might not be your bag, this collaboration seems like a promising first step towards merging the print and digital realms of magazines. Especially from VOGUE, which, until recently, didn’t even have its own website. And it’s a particularly interesting announcement in light of this week’s presentation of the itampon ipad. Maybe sometime soon, we’ll all be able to read our favorite books and magazines on our ipads, click on a product to add to our cart and check out, all without even turning a page.
Where to stay for New York Fashion Week
After a long day of walking in heels and hitting all the shows and parties at New York Fashion Week this February 11th to 18th, without a doubt the best place to return to has got to be Paramount Hotel. As if the highly-recomended Library Bar is not reason enough to stay there, Paramount is offering a Runway Deal tied into Fashion Week.
Between February 8 and February 20 guests will receive two fantastic cocktails per night in any of Paramount’s bars, a free copy of Amanda Brook’s book I Love Your Style, plus a luxuriant 3pm checkout on your day of departure. And the added knowledge that you’re staying at one of New York’s premiere spots just a few blocks from the Bryant Park and the center of the Fashion Week World. Victoria’s Secret top model Marisa Miller agrees, Paramount is the only place to stay.
Make your reservation HERE and keep up to date on Facebook and Twitter.
Cyanide & Happiness (& plush dolls)
If you aren’t yet acquainted with the disturbed humor of the incredibly popular web comic Cyanide & Happiness, the time has come to get on board. These naughty stick figures will take you to places you’ve never been.
Take a look at some of the comics, then come back here to enter for a chance to win some great C&H stuff–like an official plush doll and a signed copy of the brand new comic collection. One grand prize winner will get a book signed by all four C&H creators, Kris, Rob, Matt & Dave; plus a handsome plush doll. Four 1st prize winners will receive a handsome doll all by himself.
To enter for a chance to win, just send an email to YourItList@harpercollins.com with subject line: CYANIDE before 1:00PM (EST) on February 12. We will randomly be selecting one (1) Grand Prize winner and four (4) 1st Prize winners. No purchase necessary. The last entry will be accepted at 1:00 PM (EST) on February 12, 2010.
Click here to view official rules.
Cooler than cool
*** Full Disclosure: I just hijacked this piece from the wonderful website Iceland Review because I like what they have to say. Read their blog. ***
Cooler Than You: The Tragically Hip
Hot damned Reykjavík is cool. Coolest place on earth, always has been, always will be. Cooler than whatever town you are from, even if you’re from Reykjavík.
And if you think you can come here, slip’n’slide your way into the hip crowd. Well that’s just not possible. These kids are hipper than a year’s worth of surgery in a specialist hip replacement ward.
Or that was the case. Until now, until my sure fire 12-step guide to being hip in hipsville.
1. Find your own style.
First and most important. You gotta make your mark in zero seconds flat, from across the room, across the street. Across the town. Every hip kid has his or her own style. Fortunately it’s easy to find your own, just remember this mantra: I want to be an individual, like all the other individuals. Look around, copy, steal.
2. Drink coffee.
This is your daytime activity. From the moment you wake (no earlier than 1 pm) till the kids go home, you are going to subsist in 101 coffee-shops. Latte, espresso, black or with milk, doesn’t matter what you like, that’s not the point. Drink whatever everyone else drinks, just be seen doing it. Books, pen and paper are for hippies, PC’s for losers, make sure to have a Mac in front of you at all times.
3. Drink. At bars, a lot.
This is how you spend the night. Every night.
Weeknights: Drink beer, the watery stuff from the tap. Weekends: Beer and sugary shots. 1 for 1. Spend all your time at the bar, sit on it for extra marks. Never ever try to dance, no one is impressed. By anything. Ever.
4. Eat out.
Always eat out. Time spent at home is time not seen—ergo time wasted. It doesn’t matter if the food is bad. Taste and the hip go together like toothpaste and orange juice.
5. Be seen, be heard. Ad nauseam.
This is a war of attrition people. The hip of the town are the most seen—in the most places, with the most people. If people aren’t sick of the sight of you, then you aren’t working hard enough.
6. Act like you own the place.
You’ve wheedled your way into the communal hip consciousness, now you gotta get the act down. No problem, just remember this one word. Obnoxious: You’re hip, it’s your right, it’s your duty. What’s the word: obnoxious!
7. Talk about projects you are working on.
Incessantly. At any given opportunity. No one was ever hip just for being hip. You need to be seen to be doing something, and people need to know about it. Something creative, exciting, energetic. Something hip.
8. Never ever work on your projects.
Of course no one who was hip never actually did anything, apart from being hip. This isn’t a contradiction, it’s a paradox. A hip paradox.
9. Tell everyone you love them when you are face-to-face.
Diplomacy is all important in a city as small as Reykjavík. Like any good politician, learn to press the flesh.
10. Criticize everyone behind their backs.
As soon as the schmoes turn their back, get ready to drag their name through the dirt.
11. Never express an opinion that might come back on you.
Diplomacy is a balancing act—with no net. Get it wrong and a fall’s coming.
Remember this: your opinion is worth nothing. The only opinion that is, is the opinion of the Greater Hip. If you have to stand up for your words, then they’re the wrong words. He who stands alone, falls alone. Mean what you say, never say what you mean.
12. Take a day off every now and then.
Mystery is good. It gives the impression that you have more important matters. Of course you don’t, but who’s to know?
This is the perfect time to look up those YouTube clips to screen in coffee-shops, and to dream up hilarious(ly hip) updates for Facebook and Twitter. If you aren’t big on the net, you aren’t big on the streets. Just don’t get too big—500 friends maximum.
So, there you go, that’s it. Follow these 12 steps and you too can be obnoxious, arrogant, ubiquitous, irrelevant.
Though when you put it like that, it just doesn’t sound quite so… What’s the word?
Hip.
Thursday Night with friends
Last night we celebrated the publication of the new edition of THE FAITH OF GRAFFITI with legendary photo journalist Jon Naar, the consummate gentleman. Brooklyn’s Powerhouse Arena played the gracious host, and the room was packed with Jon’s fans, New York graffiti lovers, and most importantly, a large contingent of old school graffiti writers. Wicked Gary, Snake 1, Butler and many of their 1970s tagging crew were on hand to reminisce about the heyday of New York graffiti that Jon’s photos captured.
After Jon’s impressive slide show, moderator Chris Pape–the graffiti writer known as Freedom–led the assembled graffiti writers in a spirited discussion of their experiences. It was clear that old turf battles remain–Brooklyn, Bronx, Harlem and Manhattan were all represented–but in the end, the writers seemed to enjoy a chance to revisit the old days. It was especially fun to see the writers scrambling to tag their friends’ copies of FAITH, almost like high school kids on yearbook day.
Thanks to Susan König at Powerhouse for the photos.
Thanks to Bear Flag for the wine!
Welcome to the Museum of Modern Tweets
A new website, which bills itself as the Museum of Modern Tweets, pairs celebrities’ laughable Twitter posts (such as John Mayer’s “Christmas on December 25 is merely a suggestion. It can come anytime between the 25 and 1. And it’s happening now.”) with illustrations designed to mock them. The website just got off the ground but already includes hilarious tributes to the twitterature of A-listers like Ryan Seacrest, Martha Stewart, and Nick Jonas. Definitely worth a few minutes of your daily allotment of procrastination time.
Glee on stage
photo by Tara Leigh Cook
Our love for Glee here at YIL is no secret. We love Sue Sylvester’s dirty mouth; we love Matthew Morrison’s boxers, we love the baby mama drama; and of course we love the camp musical numbers.
That’s why we’re pretty sure we’re gonna really love this event next Wednesday, January 20: cabaret singer Rakesh Satyal, accompanied by pianist Jesse Elder, sings songs from Glee (plus other odds and ends) at Don’t Tell Mama (343 W. 46th street, NYC). You can get tickets here, but be forewarned, ticket holders are subject to search before entering the show: for the performers’ safety, slushies will not be permitted on the premises.
Poor Michael Furey… He said he did not want to live.
Today we are taking a page out of the playbook of the second best blog on these here internets, FiftyTwoStories.com, and talking about … a short story. But not just any short story. Possibly the greatest short fiction ever written (apologies to “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”).
Why you ask? Because today is January 6th. In addition to being the day Nancy Kerrigan went and got herself clubbed, Mother Teresa arrived in Calcutta and Joan of Arc being born in Domrémy, January 6th is known through all of Ireland as Little Christmas or The Feast of the Epiphany. It was this night, in 1904, that the Morkan sisters threw their annual holiday party where
Lily, the caretaker’s daughter, was literally run off her feet.
And so begins James Joyce’s “The Dead.”
Here is a story that captures the holiday season as none other can. A packed house on a cold, snowy night. Music and singing and dancing and food. A middle-aged man breaking the promise to his mother of not getting drunk again. A dozen or so young women fearful of spinsterhood approaching. Dinner conversations of music and travel, religion and an increasing lack of it, politics and the decreasing amount of rights and freedoms, traditions and the younger generation’s lack of interest in them. And more politics. And more religion.
But above all else, there is the ghost of the past. The remembrance of a life cut short. The ultimate act of love.
Poor Michael Furey… He said he did not want to live.
And the realization – the epiphany – that the great life you are living should have belonged to someone else.
Generous tears filled Gabriel’s eyes. He had never felt like that himself towards any woman but he knew that such a feeling must be love. The tears gathered more thickly in his eyes and in the partial darkness he imagined he saw the form of a young man standing under a dripping tree. Other forms were near. His soul had approached that region where dwell the vast hosts of the dead. He was conscious of, but could not apprehend, their wayward and flickering existence. His own identity was fading out into a grey impalpable world: the solid world itself which these dead had one time reared and lived in was dissolving and dwindling.
Read “The Dead” or visit it and celebrate January 6th.
Our Favor!te Things: Kate & Jeremy
We forge ahead with our list of favor!te things. Book editor extraordinaire Kate and YIL regular contributor Jeremy offer their 2009 round-up.
KATE’S FAVOR!TES
Favor!te Film: Inglourious Basterds
Favor!te Album: Neko Case’s Middle Cyclone
Favor!te Concert: Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Concert at Madison Square Garden
Favor!te Book: Christopher McDougall’s BORN TO RUN
Favor!te Designer: Calypso St. Barth
Favor!te TV show: 30 Rock 
Favor!te Website: someecards.com
Favor!te Twitterer: Justin Halpern, Shit My Dad Says
Favor!te You Tube Video: I’m On A Boat
JEREMY’S FAVOR!TES
TR: The future president
Favor!te Film: Up was a solid film, but I’m still waiting for some more Oscar bait.
Favor!te Book: Wilderness Warrior by Douglas Brinkley. Teddy Roosevelt used to wrestle his pet bear on the White House lawn. Those were the days.
Favor!te Fashion Designer: The Hill-side. Two words: denim neckties.
Favor!te TV show: Predictably, Mad Men. But in terms of new stuff, I’m all over Jersey Shore.
Favor!te Blog: The Constant Siege (often NSFW)
Favor!te Real Housewife: “Thick As Thieves” Caroline
Favor!te Twitterer: Warren Ellis (AKA Internet Jesus). A sample: I have 149,935 followers. The 150,000th must kill someone of my choosing or I will murder their family.
Favor!te You Tube Video: Not technically Youtube, but The Ed Hardy Boyz I SAID “SWEET BELT BUCKLE, BRO!”
Post-Holiday Weekend Relaxer
Like any sane American the day after Christmas, I am staying the hell away from any shopping facility in the area and am staying in to watch movies and eat left overs. Why doesn’t America celebrate Boxing Day again? Can we start a petition? Anyway….to help you relax over the weekend and meditate on the holidaze, here’s a bit of my favorite part of Christmas, the Yule log. Enjoy.
Alter-native shopping
These studded gloves are only $24!
I dreamed a dream …
… of Chanel.
Over the very, very snowy-white weekend in New York City, I had lots of time to read, eat Sabra’s Supremely Spicy hummus, watch Sex and the City, and sleep.
Hummus!
During my slumber I dreamt that I went shopping with It Books’ own Carrie and Cal. We had a lovely time up and down 5th Avenue. The best part of the dream came when Cal with his masterful skills got the price of this Chanel watch that I’ve been eyeing down from $10,000+ to $150. I think I may have had to a little Tiny Tim number from A Christmas Carol, but it was worth it.
yes, please
Thank you, Cal; a white Christmas indeed. If anyone still wants to buy this for me, it’s on sale here.
They are the Magi
Here’s a little dose of holiday spirit for you, from Joel Priddy’s illustrated version of O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi.
Fifty-Two Stories has the full short story.
See more of Joel’s amazing Magi work:
Joel Priddy’s official site
Sue Good to be True
Pam Cesarec, friend of YIL, and enemy of the capital letter, pays homage to the Season of Sue.
with the fall t.v. season coming to a close, viewers are left to pause, take stock, and reflect upon what we have to be thankful for from these past few months. the answer should come easily and can be summed up in a single name: sue.
2009 introduced us to two classy characters who share a first name: sue sylvester of the campy, but surprisingly good-natured “glee” and sue “rhymes with weenie” collini, of showtime’s surprisingly not so good-natured “californication.” played by golden globe nominee jane lynch and kathleen turner, respectively. these broads know how to deliver a line. (and i can’t, in good conscience, write this without an honorable mention. there’s a third sue– sue who’s always “so FRICKIN’ excited”. the baggy sweater-wearing super geek who can never contain herself when a surprise is a’brewin- played by the incomparable kristin wiig on SNL).
sue syl loves blackmailing, making ridiculously unseemly remarks to students and fellow faculty at her school, tucking the jacket of her adidas track suit into her pants, encouraging people to “cane” their children on the local news in order to toughen them up, and – on occasion – donning a zoot suit for some hardcore swing dancing.
collini has very different priorities- including, but not by any means limited to, having coke blown up her ass, throwing swinger parties in her sex toy-filled LA mansion, and engaging in incredibly aggressive and explicit sexual harassment at the workplace. she was neither afraid nor ashamed in the least to propose to her brand new employee charlie runkle that they “slip out of this business casual and see what kind of sodomy laws we can break.”
these sues are two classy ladies. i use the term “ladies” liberally here. very. at any rate, i’m relatively sure that the unflappable/wicked-cool jane lynch improvises a lot of her lines, but we gotta give kudos to the writers of “glee” for crafting her dialogue in such a fashion that she gets away with some remarkably whack stuff without getting banned by the censors. and if collini wasn’t on a pay channel, her character simply wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of even existing. that is one filthy, filthy post-menopausal woman. just imagining her growling “rrrrrunkle” in her, ahem, sexy, ahem, baritone gives me goosebumps… in a profoundly creepy way. 
(one observation that i feel compelled to mention here: kathleen turner has the second-deepest human voice i’ve heard, next to yao defen, aka the world’s tallest woman [look her up!]. when i read on IMDB that turner was born in 1954 and did that quick math in my head, i had to do further research because i felt it simply couldn’t be. weeks after this discovery, i still find myself disturbed that she’s only 55 years old.)
bottom line: at first, i was not a bit excited to see kathleen turner join the cast of “californication” but, man, now i can’t get enough. and i have no doubt that sue sylvester will go down in t.v. history as one of the crudest, rudest, most clever villains we’ll ever have the pleasure of gasping at. all right, ladies and gents, i could write for days on this topic but i shall leave you with some random sue/sue quotes. do enjoy. and please remember during this holiday season– sue: it’s the gift that keeps on giving.
“that was the most offensive thing i’ve seen in 20 years of teaching— and that includes an elementary school production of ‘hair.’” -sue sylvester
“i used to run lines with margot kidder before she went ape shit.” -sue collini
(really this was the only amusing thing collini said all season that was clean enough to quote.)
cesarec… out!
Our Favor!te Things 2009: Kevin
Considering he saw (500) Days of Summer eight times (at last count), we’re pretty surprised that our marketing head honcho Kevin Callahan actually had time to enjoy other pop culture delights this year. Apparently he did, and apparently these were his favor!tes.
Favor!te Film: (500) Days of Summer. Because “this is not a love story.” Because in the hands of actors less talented than Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel the movie could have taken an entirely different direction, but what they do in it is remarkable. Because I want to live in Tom Hansen’s apartment. Because of this.
Favor!te Concert: Nirvana, Live at Reading. Because very rarely can you be transported back in time and witness something amazing happen.
Favor!te Album: Green Day, 21st Century Breakdown. Because five years ago Rolling Stone wrote “Tell the truth: did anybody think Green Day would still be around in 2004?” and Green Day not only proved their importance then with American Idiot but far-surpassed it in 2009 with 21st Century Breakdown. Because seeing Billie Joe Armstrong in concert is a religous experience. Because What’s the latest way that a man can die / Screaming hallelujah? Because even though Billie Joe has a son in high school, you still believe him when he tells you how mom and dad will never understand.
Favor!te Book: The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, Reif Larsen. Because every now and then you can get completely lost in the mind of a book’s character and forget that he doesn’t actually exist. Because Reif Larsen has created an inventive forms of storytelling. Because the interrior looks like this.
Favor!te Art-type thingy: Hamlet. Because Jude Law made the funny lines actually funny. Because he didn’t over do “To Be or Not to Be.” Because the scene of Polonius’s murder was the best version I’ve ever seen. Because in my opinion Getrude is the toughest role to have and Geraldine James was incredible in it. Because the costumes and set decorations were brilliant in their simplicities. Because it snowed on stage. Because I’m a Hamlet snob so for me to like it as much as I did, it must be good.
Favor!te Fashion: Hoodies. Because a hoodie under a blazer is warmer than a winter coat. Because 2007 was the last time GAP made a decent hoodie. Because 2007’s hoodies are now perfectly worn-in.
Favor!te TV Show: Gossip Girl. Because I lost a little faith after Seaon 2, but Season 3 has more than made up for it.
Favor!te Blog/Website: HTMLGiant. Because it contained the Best Essay of 2009: Blake Butler’s “James Joyce does not exist.”
Favor!te Real Housewives: Dina Manzo and Caroline Manzo from Real Housewives of New Jersey. Because they are thick as thieves.
Favor!te Twitterer: @God. Because, well, he’s God.
Favor!te You Tube Video: When Pandas Attack. Because this is the video proof that underneath all that fur, pandas are mean fuckers.
Bonus:
What are you most excited about for 2010? Emile Hirsch’s Hamlet may surprise a lot of people. Ed Westwick as Heathcliff and Gemma Arterton as Cathy in a new Wuthering Heights. And I still have high hopes for Shutter Island.
Who do you most want to smooch on New Year’s Eve? Patricia Highsmith. Because “My New Year’s Eve Toast: to all the devils, lusts, passions, greeds, envies, loves, hates, strange desires, enemies ghostly and real, the army of memories, with which I do battle — may they never give me peace.” – Patricia Highsmith, January 1, 1947. 2:30 am.
Our Favor!te Things 2009: Joseph
In our third Favor!te Things installment, I’m pleased to present Joseph’s (YIL contributor, publicist extraordinaire and wearer of thigh-highs) 2009 picks.
Favor!te Film: It’s a dead tie between Where the Wild Things Are and The September Issue, which I’ve already discussed.
Credit: Caroline Knopf
Favor!te Album: Nellie McKay’s Normal as Blueberry Pie. She divine.
Favor!te Concert: Semi-Precious Weapons. I’ve seen them live probably 5 times in 09 and they get better every time. My favorite show was the one they played in the courtyard of the Hudson Hotel in NYC. They are now on tour with Lady Gaga.
Favor!te Book: I re-read Call Me by Your Name by Andre Aciman. He’s a breathtaking story teller.
Favor!te Art Show: Noah Scalin’s Skull exhibit at Quirk Gallery in Richmond was pretty brilliant. His book was pretty cool too.
Favor!te Fashion Trend: I’m just really happy that color seems to be universally okay again. Even in New York. As I mentioned before I’d get a sex change to wear these shoes.
Favor!te TV show: 30 Rock reigns supreme, but as far as new shows go, I’m loving ABC’s Modern Family.
Favor!te Blog: www.towleroad.com
Favor!te Real Housewife: Me. My life’s goal is to be a housewife. Volvo and all. Bring it on. 
Favor!te Twitterer: Kirstie Alley. She’s a big ball of crazy.
Favor!te You Tube Video: Undoubtedly the gays lip syncing Party in the USA.
Bonus Coverage:
What are you most excited about for 2010? The summer, when my short shorts can make their return.
Who do you most want to smooch on New Year’s Eve? Zac Efron.
YIL Presents: Mork & Darwin Volume 2
After a tremendous response to Volume 1 of our Mork & Darwin series, we’re back with round two. This week we ask you to carefully determine the following: which is more stupefying, Bicentennial Man or the Dumbo octopus?
Dumbo octopus photo is from Claire Nouvian’s THE DEEP.
