Friday, December 29, 2006

Classic Takedown

There is nothing that fills me with holiday cheer more than a little OCD blogger muckraking.


Dallasfood.org decided to find out if super-premium Noka Chocolates ($99 for a box of 12!) are worth the cost. It's a twisty-turny 10 part expose that could only exist through the internet and someone's micro-obsession. I won't tell you what they found out, but there's a little Jacques Torres secret wedged in there for those who care. (And you'll be able to converse about chocolate at Jacques's counter like you know what you're talking about.)

What's Noka Worth? (dallasfood.org)

(via the fireball)

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Staying West's Big 2006 Year in Review

It's been a big year! Let's go to the Excel spreadsheet:

Years spent on this earth: 28
Years spent in New York City: 10
Years spent next to the F train: 3


Employers this year: 8
Projects that made it onto TV: 4
Producers I made cry: 1 (that I know of)
World Cup matches watched in entirety while "on the clock": 1
Videotaped baby births witnessed: 8
Years of birth control that's good for: 10
Projects airing on television of which I am at least somewhat proud: 1

Length of first feature cut, in minutes: 73
Projects not currently airing on television of which I am very proud: 1

Weddings of peers attended: 3
Engagements of peers announced: 2
Divorces of peers informed of: 1
Pregnancies of peers announced: 0

Length, in minutes, of my best man's toast at my brother's wedding: 3

$16 cocktails drunk at the Russian Tea Room: 2
Tuckaberry shows attended: 2
Times I baited my mom on the way to church by talking politcs: 4
Number of dinners JB and I had at Zenkichi in the first month it was openned: 4
BAC of JB and I after all that sake at Zenkichi the first month it was openned: 2.6
Important movies that I should have watched in film school but didn't, watched in the past year: 0
Big venue rock concerts attended this year: 0
Times I was asked to explain my Halloween costume: 9
Number of Sangre De Toro toy bulls accumulated: 13

Truly shocking secrets learned this year: 2
Those of you who will learn what those are: 0

Plays of Rebellion (Lies) according to iTunes: 113
Plays of The District Sleeps Alone Tonight according to iTunes: 215
Plays of Via Chicago according to iTunes: 0
Percent trust I now have in iTunes play-count: 0

Percent chance I was in my slate gray J. Crew sweater on a first date: 75
Percent chance I was nervously fiddling with the zipper: 93
Percent chance doing that ruined all my chances: 67

Amount won playing a television quiz show: $350
Number of times I look like a tool on said television quiz show: 8
Biggest amount won playing blackjack: $1000
Number of times I will repeat that in my life: 0
Dollars the Korean laundry guy has likely extracted from my jean's pockets: 85
Number of cheese plates eaten at Otto: 6
Stages left to get through in Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! before I can see the female cheerleaders: 2

Relationships: 1

New Year's Resolutions: 3
New Year's Resolutions likely to to be acted upon: 1 (maybe)
New Year's Resolutions likely to be taken to conclusion: 0

Years spent on this earth (the same time next year): 29

Confession

1) Time spent writing the TPOTY post - 45 seconds
2) Time spent compositing Time cover with fat nude man - 3 minutes
3) Time spent on images.google.com typing permutations like "fat guy naked", "old man typing nude", "obese pedophile nude" to find said fat nude man image - 32 minutes

(Confession postscript -- My next post will also entirely consist of a list with numbers. So dies American prose.)

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

TPOTY




1) Matty gets it right.

2) Pat Buchanan(!) gets it right.

Monday, December 11, 2006

I realize...

...that I sometimes am overly superlative about things. (Hence my problem in reviewing the records I buy). However, I can, for real, unequivocally say, this is the dorkiest thing ever:


And I so friggin' wish I'd thought of it first.

(via Wired blogs)

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Premieres (rhymes with "Creamy Days")

Two movie notes:

1) Jeremy has (pretty much) finished The Great Pretenders, a film four years in the making about office politics and corporate ridiculousness. He was far too kind in giving me co-editor credit, being that probably only a half dozen splices that I made still remain in the film. But, it's good -- I've screened it countless times over the past three years and it still makes me laugh.

He created a couple of little teasers clips for it. (More here).



JC's nice (iWeb created) website is here.

2) Johnny and I (pretty much) finished editing Gender Redesigner last weekend. There's not much to say, other than I'm really happy with this documentary. (How could one not be happy with a tit-chomping, drag-kinging, cross-country romp?)


You can be our friend on MySpace -- our (very, very old) fundraising trailer is there, too.

(OK, so I realize there's no actual "premieres" in this post, but that's coming soon....)

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

This Picture Is Not Moving



really.

(via Digg)

Friday, December 01, 2006

Without Further Comment #9 (Sweet Jesus, Not Condos! Edition)