Netflix: The Needle that Broke Blockbuster's Back

When I’m at home in the beautiful San Fernando Valley, there is only one place I visit more than Starbucks – Blockbuster. One by one, the stores in my area have been closing – one was even replaced by a Starbucks. During the time I was home in March of this year, I visited my nearest Blockbuster and found it in the process of shutting down.

Netflix may be, as it were, the “ultimate” business model for easy and efficient movie-watching, but it has completely extracted the social component from the movie experience.

Movie-going was once a shared, community experience. Before the advent of television, people had to leave their homes to see a movie. Right now, going to the movies is a costly event, and it seems theatres will never be as full as they once were. Though nothing quite beats going to the movie theater, going to the video store is the next best thing. But with Netflix and similar digital delivery services, renting a movie is no longer an activity. When we don’t actively choose a movie for ourselves, the entire process becomes another instance of our passive indifference.
With a Netflix account, you can take endless multiple choice quizzes that indicate your “taste preferences.” The quizzes ask such questions as “How often do you watch campy movies?” or “How often do you watch heartfelt movies?” and the three answer choices are “never,” “sometimes,” and “often.” I don’t think I am being particularly controversial when I say there is a time for campy, and there is a time for heartfelt. I guess you could mark “sometimes” for every question, but what would be the point of that?

Netflix algorithms use the results from our “taste preferences” quizzes and track what we add to our queue to provide us with suggestions on what we might like in the future. Though adding movies to your queue might be a sweet escape while you are bored at work, the process of browsing the selection in person is incomparable – in a physical video rental store, we see things we might have missed and we don’t rent one out without honestly thinking we will enjoy it. For me, adding movies to my Netflix queue just makes me think of all the movies I will never see. I have spent countless hours browsing through the selection, adding movies to my queue, but not actually watching a movie.

Research scientists Daniel Read, George Loewenstein and Shobana Kalyanaraman administered a study in 1999 titled “Instant Gratifcation and Movie Demand,” in which they asked participants to choose movies from a selection of both high brow and low brow works and decide when they would watch them. When picking a movie for tonight, 66% of the subjects went for a low brow option. When picking for next Thursday, 37% chose low brow. When picking for the following Thursday, 29% selected a low brow movie. The conclusion they reached was that their subjects wanted something easy to watch immediately and generally put off watching heavier works for later. By exploiting this inclination within us, Netflix’s unprecedented collection of movies and television makes it easy for us to succumb to immediate gratification. We may be stunting our own growth and ability to learn through great cinematic works by limiting our reach to Netflix’s Watch Instantly.

My question to Netflix is, what are we supposed to do with virtually unlimited access to movies? As a kid for most (and as a 21 year old for me), the video store was like a candy store and renting one was a big event. Blockbuster sought to recreate the feeling of theatrical exhibition in their store environments – bright, colorful decor, traditional movie concessions, and knowledgeable staff. DVDs were well-displayed and categorized for efficient browsing. Roger Ebert applauds Amazon and Netflix for linking to reviews, such as his own. At my local Blockbuster store, I would ask fellow human beings for their opinions and recommendations.

Despite its competitors, both past and present, Netflix is an incredible company with far-reaching potential. They are constantly signing new streaming deals with distributors and are now even racing past premium cable channels with “House of Cards,” a series starring Kevin Spacey and directed by David Fincher that will be available for viewing exclusively through Netflix. The company is changing how we view movies and television, for better or for worse.

Though the era of the video store may be dead and gone, the possibilities for a revised business model for video rentals are endless. In an experiment to see how movies and social media interact directly, Facebook has made The Dark Knight available for streaming at the cost of $3.00, or 30 Facebook Credits. Similarly, Samsung’s The Smart Living Room is a noble attempt to bring movie-watching at home back to its social roots by incorporating personal profiles and social networking into the process. Our mainstream cinema does not ask us to think too much - it is now a means for us to escape our day-to-day routines. If all we are doing is sitting back and letting the entertainment come to us, where is the activity?

Journalism at its Worst

On April 5, 2011, British police arrested two journalists, Ian Edmonson and Neville Thurlbeck, on suspicions of phone tapping celebrities, politicians, and royals for News of the World (NotW), one of the United Kingdom’s top-selling tabloid newspapers. Edmonson, former NotW news editor, and Thurlbeck, the paper’s chief reporter, used cell phone numbers and voicemail security codes to hack into their targets’ voicemail boxes and intercept messages for gossip material.
Owned by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, NotW is known for “reporting” inside information on celebrities and political officials. Almost 3 million people read the paper, making it one of the U.K.’s top-selling newspapers and one of the highest-selling English language papers in the world.

This is not the first time NotW has been accused of acquiring information through unethical means. In January 2007, the royal editor of the tabloid, Clive Goodman, was jailed for four months for plotting to intercept voicemail messages left for royal aides and other prominent figures. Glenn Muclaire, a private investigator hired on contract by the paper, was also imprisoned for six months after pleading guilty to the same charge. In this instance, supermodel Elle Macpherson was a victim, along with Prince William, football agent Skylet Andrew and publicist Max Clifford, to name only a few. Ironically, at the time he was working at NotW, Mulcaire also ran Nine Consultancy, a company that offered a service protecting clients from media disturbance. Evidence recovered from Mulcaire’s home included a list of the cell numbers of political, sports, and entertainment figures – potential hacking targets. The two were convicted under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (2000), a law that aims to protect private parties from surveillance and investigation in the Internet age.

So far, four arrests have been made in this scandal and NotW has issued a formal apology. But personal privacy has been put into question, publicly. Are the arrests and apology appropriate consequence for the tabloid?



In a word, no. Hugh Grant and Sienna Miller have been two vocal figures in this scandal – both were victims of phone hacking. In an instance of fate, Grant met Paul McMullan, a former NotW journalist, who also exposed the paper’s phone hacking activity. After snapping pictures of him and selling them to another British tabloid, Mail on Sunday, McMullan invited Grant to come to visit his pub in Kent. Seeing an opportunity, Grant accepted. He decided to tape his conversation with McMullan, and published excerpts in a piece titled “The Bugger, Bugged” in the New Statesman. Actress Sienna Miller is suing NotW in a very public case, risking her professional future in the process (News Corporation owns both NotW and 20th Century Fox). When asked about the possibility that she could be blacklisted at 20th Century Fox, Miller responded, “I’m not really too concerned about never working for Fox because it’s about standing up for myself in a way that’s more important than anything. If that’s the case, then that’s the case. It means more to me to make a stand against that than it does anything else in my life.”

The point is that the laws regarding investigative journalism must be strengthened to fit the modern age, so maybe individual “takedowns” are the way to go right now. While the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act is fairly modern, the law, or any law for that matter, is unable to keep up with the Internet. In fact, statutory attempts to protect privacy are ineffectual because of the speed with which the Internet evolves.

Two separate instances of phone hacking have happened at the same tabloid journal. While the arrests and apology are a step in the right direction, NotW itself must face some legal consequences for any substantial change to occur.

The NotW scandal was a highly public instance of privacy invasion. We only see the tip of the iceberg here with high profile celebrities openly broadcasting how their right to privacy has been invaded. Even though Princess Diana died as a result of paparazzi invasion, no formal criminal law protecting privacy for celebrities has been introduced to the U.K. In the U.S., “The Britney Law” has been put into place to protect celebrities from paparazzi harassment by designating a “personal safety bubble” for the victims from aggressive photo-taking.

Though celebrities are the ones primarily affected in the NotW case, privacy in the Internet age is a public concern. Everybody has their privacy invaded every time they turn on a computer. For example, a friend recently showed me how Google’s Gmail is not merely a webmail service – it aggregates your web history whenever you are logged in, and shows what time and for how long you were on each site. It even provides a calendar, indicating the days you were most active on the Internet in different shades of green. Not only that, Apple is tracking your locations - whether the company has an agenda or not is irrelevant. The NotW scandal has made us conscious of the possible extent of privacy invasion. Though we not be celebrities our information is still being collected, shared, and sold. Sienna Miller is taking legal action to fight for what is ethical. Why aren’t we?

Karl Lagerfeld for...

Karl Lagerfeld premiered three short films at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 21. Each of the "films" feature Rachel Bilson, my personal style icon, in a different role - she is a model in one, a ballerina in the next, and an art student in the last. Surprisingly, they are not as abstract as one would first think when imagining Lagerfeld's work. In fact, they are the exact opposite of what I would imagine - mainstream commercials for Magnum Ice Cream. Magnum is a globally recognized brand that is finally exploring the U.S. market, and using these commercials to break ground.

In my opinion, the ads are a success - they have a dry, satiric comic quality and Bilson is (as always) charming. Here is my favorite:



It's almost as if Lagerfeld is poking fun of himself in this one. Known for his work at elite fashion houses Chanel and Fendi, as well as his own label, Lagerfeld is quoted in an interview on the collaboration with Magnum, of all things:

"I am mass market too...Don't forget that I did H&M. There are lots of people who can buy a Chanel dress, but there are many, many, many more people who can buy a Chanel lipstick."

Down-to-earth words from a man who never takes off his sunglasses!

Life in a Day!

The Summer 2011 movie slate is full of sequels and action flicks - we've got Fast Five, Thor, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, to name only a few. I'm undoubtedly excited to see these movies, but I am more excited for this:



People were asked to upload videos of their lives to YouTube on July 24, 2010 for this project. With thousands of people responding to the request, director Kevin MacDonald (Last King of Scotland) and crew were left with the extraordinary task of editing down 80,000 clips - almost 4,500 hours of footage - into a feature length documentary. They managed to do it and Life in a Day was well-received at this year's Sundance and SXSW festivals.

This amazing movie hits theaters on July 24th...check it out!

RIP Tim Hetherington

Photojournalist and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Tim Hetherington was tragically killed during a mortar attack in Libya on April 20, 2011. Most famous for the war documentary film Restrepo he produced and directed with Sebastian Junger, Hetherington was working on a doc on the conflict between Muammar Gaddafi's forces and rebels in Misurata, Libya when he died.

China Squashes Time Travel

China’s State Administration for Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT) has banned “time-travel” in television and movies, citing that notion involves distorting and disrespecting the country’s history.

The guidelines condemn story lines that involve "fantasy, time-travel, random compilations of mythical stories, bizarre plots, absurd techniques, even propagating feudal superstitions, fatalism and reincarnation, ambiguous moral lessons, and a lack of positive thinking." With the absence of these elements, SARFT hopes to extract fantasy from reality and control how Chinese citizens view their country.

Though we are familiar with time-travel in a science-fiction sense through movies such as Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, The Terminator, and Back to the Future, time-travel in Chinese film and television is more often used as a mechanism for fantastical nostalgia, a way of reimagining reality and current affairs. For example, Myth (Shen Hua) is a popular television drama based on time-travel that tells “the story of a modern man going back to ancient China where, after some adjustment, he finds love and happiness.”

The bottom line is that Chinese officials are not scared of the power of science-fiction; rather, they’re worried that the citizenry is unhappy with the status quo and time-travel in film and TV provides a false hope. Last time I checked, the purpose of fiction was to provide escape and enjoyment...

What Do Will Ferrell and Mexico Have in Common?

Casa De Mi Padre, of course! The first official trailer for the film was released earlier this week:



To be real, I think the trailer undersells the movie's potential for brilliance and oversells its twisted genre conventions. Starring Will Ferrell in his first Spanish language role alongside Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, Casa De Mi Padre is a spoof Western that follows rancher Armando Alvarez (Ferrell) as he entangles himself in conflicts of romance and drug trafficking. It's directed by former Saturday Night Live writer and winner of the U.S. Grand Jury Prize for Short Filmmaking at the Sundance Film Festival for "Brick Novax's Diary" Matt Piedmont. Though there is no release date set for the film yet, I think theatres will be packed for this one.

Reading 100 All TIME Novels

Six years ago, TIME Magazine put out a list of the "100 best English-language novels" from 1923 to 2005. The novels were handpicked by book critic/fiction writer/blogger Lev Grossman and TIME editor at large/art critic/blogger Richard Lacayo. In "How We Picked the List," Lacayo writes, "Lists like this one have two purposes. One is to instruct. The other of course is to enrage." This statement is proven accurate in the very amusing "Your Opinion" section, in which readers can share their feelings about what constitutes a good novel.

Every now and again, I visit this list. For the most part it makes me feel unaccomplished and uncultured, but it also reminds me of how important fiction is in our world. The way I see it, the novel (and fiction in general) is a springboard. As we all know, fiction inspires critical thought and creative work. More often, it moves everyday people who are bored at work to think and fantasize. Fiction, in my opinion, is one of the main reasons for why the world still works. It keeps us interested and gives us hope.

Reading 100 All TIME Novels is a manifestation of all this. Just a regular guy, "MyRev," has embarked on a quest of a lifetime. His mission? To read every novel on TIME's list and review each one. This guy understands the importance of the great novel and has made tackling this project seem like a piece of cake. He has taken something that is essentially high-brow and transformed it into something both down-to-earth and accessible. I'm impressed, and happy there are people out there doing stuff like this.

Project Five

Jennifer Aniston, Demi Moore, and Alicia Keys are all directing short films to be part of a five-part anthology entitled Project Five. Created for Lifetime, the original movie will be a collection of five stories of women with breast cancer. Aniston on the purpose of the film:

"Our hope with Project Five is to entertain, inform and inspire dialogue, research and prevention. Otherwise, our goals are small...We want these films to move people and empower those affected by breast cancer to stand tall through this challenge, which impacts ALL of our lives, no matter who we are.”

Patricia Clarkson and Jeanne Tripplehorn will be starring in Aniston's short, which, along with the other four, will air on Lifetime in October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Jay-Z the Journalist

Earlier this month, Jay-Z hopped on the celeb blog movement with his site Life + Times. But in true HOV fashion, he has taken the concept to a whole new level - Life + Times is not at all a place where Jay goes to bitch about another rapper's unwarranted success or give us the lowdown on what event he attended last night; rather, it's a site focused on culture - style, leisure, art & design, technology, music, and sports. Not only is the site informative and extremely well-written, it is stylish in both design and content. I would expect no less from the HOV.

Though he has enlisted a staff of writers to support the site, Jay is still heavily involved in the project - his informal interview of his "sister" Gwyneth Paltrow on her interest in hip-hop really struck me as an example of his engagement with the e-mag.

Jay-Z's mission statement for the site is "I want to make the ordinary, extraordinary" - six words that speak absolute volumes to the scope of this project. As a whole, the site carries with it an air of exclusivity, but exclusivity made accessible. When I peruse the site, it's as if I am caring about and listening to what Jay listens to and cares about. For whatever reason, that feeling gets me and keeps me coming back.

Classic Daft Punk Song Revisited

Actor Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild, Milk) makes his directorial debut with a music video set to the tune of Daft Punk's "Alive":

Jon Cryer > Charlie Sheen

Jon Cryer as Duckie in Pretty in Pink.

(Possible) Ear Candy Alert

“I’m too scared. They’ll find me out. It’s like ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ They’ll find out there’s nothing there” said pop/soul icon Sade to the LA Times on the subject of producing collaborations with rappers. She has been approached in the past by a number of famed hip-hop artists, and has openly turned them down. The most publicized of these refusals was to Jay-Z back in October 2010.

Well, even sex symbols are allowed to change their mind every once and a while - Sade has agreed to allow Jay-Z to rap over her song “The Moon and the Sky” from her latest (and platinum-selling) album Soldier of Love. The remixed track will be featured on the upcoming The Ultimate Collection, a two-disc, 28-track greatest hits compilation that will be released on May 3rd.

Many in the music world are calling this an “awkward collaboration,” but I think Sade and Jay-Z have proven themselves capable of achieving musical greatness. Both artists have garnered critical praise and achieved commercial success on their own, so why shouldn’t they give collaboration the ol' college try?

Patience is a Virtue for Fans of "Mad Men"

It has been a little over five months since Season Four of three-time Emmy award-winning series "Mad Men" ended, and fans have been itching for more ever since. Unfortunately it looks like they might be itching for a while - while the show’s previous seasons have aired over the months of summer and early fall, it looks as though season five will not be gracing us until early 2012.



That’s because Season Five has not actually been officially greenlighted yet. Matthew Weiner, creator of the show, Lionsgate, its production studio, and AMC, its cable network, have been plowing through months in renewal deal negotiations. (In other words, the three parties are fighting over who’s paying and who’s pocketing). Though the deal seems to be nearing completion, production cannot begin until everything is official. So, we’re looking at a later air date for this season. Nellie Andreeva at Deadline writes, “Cable networks having the freedom to develop, greenlight and schedule projects on their own schedule is great, but sometimes it might be better to have the pressure of a looming May broadcast upfront presentation to get big deals done.” I think fans agree.

I guess we will just have to wait a bit longer to see if Don will actually marry Megan or what will become of Joan and Roger’s baby. In the meantime, Season Four is available on DVD on March 29th. And, there’s always this:

Adorable.

A friend posted this on my Facebook:



I'm a real sucker for cute baby vids, but this one takes the cake.

Hereafter Pulled from Japanese Theatres

The movie Hereafter has been pulled from Japanese theaters, as an official at Warner Entertainment Japan Inc. deemed it inappropriate. Starring Matt Damon and directed by Clint Eastwood, the film features a tsunami sequence in itsbeginning scenes. The movie is available on DVD in the U.S. as of March 15th, but only began its theatrical run in Japan in February at approximately 200 theatres.

Warner Bros. will also be donating $1 million of Hereafter's home video sales to the Japanese Red Cross Society. While I think this move is in good taste (a donation is a donation, after all), Mike Bracken over at Moviefone's Cinematical disagrees. Read why Warner Bros. decision to donate seems wrong to him here.

Hobglobin and Hitler

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon and his wife Ayelet Waldman are in the process of writing a TV show for HBO. The premise? A band of conmen and magicians battling Hitler during WWII. It's tentatively titled "Hobglobin."



Now suspend your disbelief and bear with me, because once you know a little bit about Chabon's work, "Hobglobin" looks like a potential masterpiece.

Chabon wrote The Wonder Boys (published in 1995), which was picked up and adapted as a movie starring Michael Douglas and Tobey Maguire in 2000. Next, he won the Pulitzer in 2001 for his heartwarming tale of American life and one of my personal favorites, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. The Yiddish Policemen's Union, another critically-acclaimed novel by Chabon, is currently being adapted for film by the Coen Brothers. So now you know, the man can write.

Thematically, Chabon commonly explores the idiosyncrasies of Jewish culture, the family structure, the American Dream, and the trials of romance to name a few. He also often incorporates comic books, genre entertainment, and the 1940s into his story arcs.

Even with the help of his wife, author and former public defender, and all his talent, Chabon is presented with an immense challenge with "Hobglobin." Though it is in the early stages of development and may not hit production, my hopes are that "Hobglobin" beats the page and changes its name so that this fantastical story as dreamt by a visionary can be told.

Drake's Getting Some Indie Help

For his sophomore album Take Care, rapper Drake will be collaborating with Jamie xx, one-third of British alt/indie group The xx.



When asked about his work for Drake, Jamie said "He's a fan of the xx and my remixes and stuff, and I sent him some beats. We're just going to do some stuff for the next album." Drake, in turn, said, "The praises I'll sing most is definitely The xx and Jamie...Jamie is probably one of the most exciting producers I've ever heard." The future looks bright for the young beatmaker.



While the extent of Jamie xx's work on Drake's project is unknown, Jamie just released a full-length album remix project titled We're New Here for 70's jazz/soul artist Gil Scott-Heron's I'm New Here, which is Scott-Heron's first album to be released in 13 years. Listen to the remix album in its entirety here:

Super 8

Information about the highly anticipated summer blockbuster Super 8 has been mostly speculative - until now. Paramount Pictures released the film's official plot synopsis and (more importantly) the first full-length trailer via Twitter this past week.



The rumors that Super 8 is an homage to Steven Spielberg (co-producer of the project) and his sci-fi flicks from the 70's are proven true with this trailer. The MTV Movies Team breaks the elements down best in their trailer analysis.

Director J.J. Abrams, famous for creating and producing TV shows such as "Alias" and "Lost," first spoke about the movie to the press in early February with LA Times Hero Complex blogger Geoff Boucher and revealed a very interesting fact about Super 8's conception:

"The movie began as two projects that ended up merging due to their individual deficiencies. The first was a non-fantastical tale of youngsters and the way they see the world and each other through the viewfinder of their Super 8 camera. Abrams took the vague notion to Spielberg and they decided to investigate further but a string of meetings with top writers in town ended with a lot of shrugs and consternation. Abrams said 'there was not much there and it was frustrating because it would not go away in my head. … I couldn’t tell you what the story was. I knew characters, I knew situations, I knew there were issues of class and a love story at the core and that it would be a coming-of-age movie. A lot of the writers were lukewarm.'

Paramount, meanwhile, had bought a separate idea by Abrams for a spooky film about the 1970s scrutiny of Area 51 and how anxious government officials decided the best way to protect the classified possessions of the increasingly notorious military base was to ship them off to other sites aboard midnight trains — one of which never reaches its final destination. With this project, Abrams had 'a pretty cool premise but no characters to speak of … so I was in possession of two halves and it occurred to me after six months or so to put them together.'"

Super 8 will open in theaters and IMAX on June 10.

Hulu's Second Annual Best in Show

In the spirit of NCAA March Madness, Hulu has created a bracket system for determining TV's best show. In this five week-long "tournament," TV shows are matched up according to genre and fans vote for their favorites online. The scores are determined 95% by fans' votes and 5% by the votes of TV critic (and HitFix senior editor) Alan Sepinwall, who will also write analyses of tournament results and critical reviews of shows in the running. While last year Lost emerged victorious, there does not seem to be a stand-out show for this year. Start casting your votes here.

Donald Glover

In my opinion, Donald Glover is one of the most accomplished and talented entertainers of our generation. As an actor, comedian, writer, rapper, and fashion icon, he is the model of the modern celebrity.

Glover’s time as an undergraduate at New York University was formative in shaping his career. While studying Dramatic Writing, he formed Derrick Comedy, a sketch comedy group, with whom he continues to produce zero-budget comedy shorts. In 2009, Derrick Comedy released their very own first feature-length film titled Mystery Team. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal in 2010, Glover described the film: “It was kind of a passion project we did with the money we made from our sketch comedy group. It’s kind of an Encyclopedia Brown-esque movie with these kids who are trying to solve a double murder."

While still a Resident Assistant at NYU, Glover began writing for NBC’s 30 Rock, a stint that virtually catapulted him into recognition within the comedy community.

Now, Glover stars alongside Joel McHale and Chevy Chase in Community, currently in its second season on NBC. In the show, he plays a washed-up high school football star who attends Greendale Community College and embarks on absurd adventures with his eccentric study group.

If that wasn’t enough of a resume for you, Glover also raps under the pseudonym Childish Gambino. Since 2008 he has put out three albums, two mixtapes, and two EPs. Rapping about his comedy career, relationships, and “general dopeness,” Childish Gambino has grabbed the interest of hipsters.



Armed with an attractive face, a talent for pure comedy, and an active Twitter account, Donald Glover is a force to be reckoned with.

Check out his blog I Am Donald, or if you’re really interested in seeing what he’s about, Childish Gambino will be performing in Los Angeles on April 27 at The Music Box.

Yahoo Bus Stop Derby in SF

San Francisco neighborhoods compete for a block party and OK Go concert.

Imported From Detroit

The way I see it, the Superbowl is divided into three equally exciting (or unexciting, depending on how American you really are) parts - The Game, The Ads, and The (increasingly disappointing) Halftime Show. I don't think many people would disagree with me here.

Though I admittedly didn't watch Superbowl XLV yesterday, I did spend some time watching the 2011 Superbowl Commercials that aired during the game and well, I was impressed. While I enjoyed the slapstick humor of Doritos' Pug Attack and the Audi's Escape from Prison, my favorite commercial of this year has to be Chrysler's featuring Detroit's baby, Marshall Mathers. Watch it in HD here.


While Eminem has always been known for revolutionizing pop music (and pop culture, for that matter), Chrysler has been known in recent history as, well, a has-been. In pairing Eminem with Chrysler, a proud image of Detroit emerges.

In the 1960’s, Detroit was a star – a flourishing motor industry and a vibrant musical culture (thanks mainly due to Motown Records). When we think of Detroit today, we think of deserted buildings, decrepit houses, and overworked factories. The commercial works towards re-envisioning this past. After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy a mere two years ago, Chrysler once stood as a definitive symbol of America's crumbling economic power. Now, with the help of Italian motor company Fiat, the automaker has been given a second chance at life. In an instance of "paying it forward," Chrysler paints a mighty portrait of the city that raised it.

Postmodern Babies

The Hood Internet is mashup heaven, and an instance where a lack of originality ought to be praised.

Introduction

"A while back, Dick, Barry, and I agreed that what really matters is what you like, not what you are like. Books, records, films – these things matter. Call me shallow, it’s the fucking truth."

- High Fidelity (Stephen Frears, 2000)