Our most popular posts

Here are Tragically Hipster's most popular posts since it's inception:

1. Shana Lutker interview - 351 views
2. Tao Lin Offers a Cure to Existential Despair Through Strategic Investment Opportunities - 103 views
3. Flight of the Conchords at Largo - 99 views
4. Ariel Pink interview - 83 views
5. Rau Art Review of Philip Lorca DiCorcia at LACMA - 48 views

Just because they're the most popular doesn't make them the best, Brenda, but they may be worth a look.

Prop 8... The Musical?!?!

No matter what you think about Prop 8, you have to admit that this is funny as hell! (p.s. - I for one wish we'd been voting to eliminate all state administration of "marriage", but we'll save that post for another time)

In the mean time:

Prop 8: The Musical!

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Mmm...Hamm...

“If it feels like a slice of ham, don’t wipe your ass with it.” – Jon Hamm’s John Ham

Thanks, SNL!

Hello Kitty Hell

As a Hello Kitty fan, I am at once delighted and horrified by my own addiction. That's why I so very much enjoy Hello Kitty Hell - one man's frightening journey into the bottomless pit that is his wife's HK fixation. Behold his future:

Prick Up Your Ears 2008

A good friend of mine (with impeccable taste) generally sends out an annual "best albums of the year" list via email to a select group of friends... This year he has posted it on a friend's blog for easy sharing.

Click the photo to read his comments on the top 10, and several honorable mentions.

Go check it out and discuss the merits and pitfalls of his list (or come up with you own)!

All thanks to Greg Stump... who deserves all glory (and ridicule) for the list.

"Barking at the Moon"

On Saturday I saw the new Disney computer-animated movie Bolt with The Blogfather and his 12-year-old brother. For a family pic I really enjoyed it (and laughed my ass off at the quixotic, somewhat insane hamster), but I was surprised to hear what sounded like a Jenny Lewis song playing under a montage about halfway through the movie. The Blogfather thought it might be Jewel, but I wasn't convinced. Sure enough, after checking the credits at the end I was able to confirm that it was Jenny. (After constantly playing "Under the Blacklight" all spring and summer, her beautiful little trill is ingrained in my brain.) The track is called "Barking at the Moon" and it's lovely, as her music tends to be. Kudos to the Disney people who asked her to perform on the soundtrack - an unexpectedly cool choice.

"The Relevance Was Alaska's"

The Relevance of Africa
Sarah Palin

And the relevance to me
With that issue,
As we spoke
About Africa and some
Of the countries
There that were
Kind of the people succumbing
To the dictators
And the corruption
Of some collapsed governments
On the
Continent,
The relevance
Was Alaska’s.


"Not since Walt Whitman published Leaves of Grass has there been such an electrifying debut. And she is yet to publish a collection. This is an astonishing poetic insurgency. The building momentum will soon be unstoppable."

LINK:
Sarah Palin for Poet Laureate

HOME ROOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Funky Forest: First Contact on DVD

Crop circles are awesome!

So apparently this one is old news, but I just found out about it...

Let me start by saying that crop circles are AWESOME!

If you believe in aliens... AWESOME.
or if you enjoy the exploits of clever pranksters... AWESOME.
If you're into geometric abstract art... AWESOME.
If you're a geek at heart... AWESOME.
If you love puzzles ... AWESOME.
If you enjoy picturesque landscapes... AWESOME.
If you're an Anglo-phile... AWESOME.
Everything about them is AWESOME!

So...
Now that we have established that you like crop circles...
(unless you are a prudish, British hating, nature killing, art-phobe, lunk head)

Check this out...


"Yeah, Yeah... Okay... So what... It's just a crop circle..."

Maybe...
But this is a crop circle that abstractly depicts the first 10 digits of pi!
A crop circle that says - "3.141592654..."

Don't believe me? Check this out.


It even includes a mini crop circle decimal point!

I think the middle school mathlete in me just wet himself with glee...

You can read more here.

The Japanese: Imaginations Still as Cute/Deeply Disturbing as Ever

Petition signatures to put the nation of Japan under a plexiglass lid so as to safely observe its culture will now be accepted:

Haunting and Lovely

Official Site
Let the Right One In Director Slams Remake

Educated Optimism and the Collective

Today I wore my “Obama ‘08” button, even though it’s too late to campaign for Barack or stir a conversation with an undecided voter. The button, if it ever had any impact on the people around me, is now rendered useless. Last night, Barack Obama was named the new President-Elect of the United States of America.

As an individual, my vote did not affect the outcome of the election. Presidential elections will never come down to one vote as long as the Electoral College remains firmly in place. But as a member of a large group of citizens who mobilized and turned out in droves to cast their votes for Obama, I am one of many people who chose to see themselves as a collective rather than individuals. I am one of many who stepped into the voting booth or mailed their ballot in the hopes that they could help to turn the tide. One vote doesn’t mean much, but if so many Obama supporters hadn’t exercised their right to vote, the election would have had entirely different results.

I believe it was this camaraderie, this awareness of the danger of apathy and the significance of standing up for what you believe in, that led people into the streets to celebrate Obama’s victory in Oakland, Seattle, Chicago, Washington D.C., and New York City. There were celebratory gatherings in England, Kenya, Costa Rica, China and many other nations around the world. And individuals and families across the nation and overseas sat joyfully in their homes as Obama gave his televised victory speech – a speech that weighed heavily with the difficult tasks ahead of him, a speech that called on Americans to think of the greater good and to serve their communities, a speech that recalled the painful moments of our history and painted a cleaner, brighter future, a speech that brought many in the diverse crowd in Chicago to tears.

The election of Obama has renewed my belief that our individual actions matter. We are each one small piece of a vast union and each of us must be willing to take responsibility for his or her choices, whether we disconnect from what lies outside our comfort zones, or whether we jump into the fray and try to make positive changes wherever we view a need. Young voters and African-American voters turned out in record numbers, but they alone did not create the wave of support that turned key states from red to blue. Individuals all over the nation, many who had not voted in previous elections, understood the importance of their individual votes. Because so many individuals didn’t allow themselves to become apathetic, they were able to form a collective that brought about a significant milestone in our nation’s history.

My Obama vote had little to do with race, gender, age or any other physical trait. Quite simply, Obama demonstrated to me and many others through his voting record and his many speeches, appearances, and writings that he has compassion for people in need, for working-class and middle-class singles and families, for immigrants, for people who experience discrimination, and for segments of the population that have been ignored for the past 8 years. He always appeared poised, thoughtful, logical and ready to lead. He admitted his imperfections and the areas in which he lacked specific knowledge, but he never seemed weak or unable to handle new information. Listening to Obama speak, for once I didn’t feel like I was being swindled or that someone was attempting to sell me a leader who was the lesser of two evils. I felt inspiration, hope and genuine excitement about the election, and I realized how great a privilege it really was to be able to vote for someone I believed in.

For those who were so busy booing Obama that you failed to hear his speech last night or turned off the T.V. before he finished, you missed an opportunity to be a part of something big, something bigger than yourselves, your immediate surroundings and you political party. Just as John McCain gave a gracious, humble concession speech, Obama spoke with equal grace and humility. If you missed his speech because you were angry about McCain’s loss, you missed the opportunity to witness a new sense of hope and responsibility in America, a fresh perspective that is not based on fear, but on educated optimism. You missed an opportunity to witness millions of Americans all over the country coming together in the streets to celebrate and revel in the power of democracy.

And now the work begins. Obama will be tested. His administration will be tested. The American people will be tested. We don’t know what crises we will face in the next four years or what actions we will have to take to overcome them. We don’t know who will rise to the occasion and who will fall. We must remain cautious with our government and learn to recognize when our leaders are taking steps toward a healthier and more unified nation, or when they are acting out of fear, greed or self-interest. The collective truly has the power to make a positive impact on the world stage, and thus each one of us as individuals, and we must remember this fact before cynicism rears its head once again.

With the election of Barack Obama I believe, for the first time in my life, that the government will be taking steps toward truly protecting and supporting the American people – male or female, poor or wealthy, young or old, healthy or sick, Republican or Democrat. The people of my country are inspiring me to become a better person. For the first time since childhood, I almost believe in the American Dream.

Michael Crichton Has Departed to the Great Amusement Park in the Sky

...hopefully, he will find it devoid of malfunctioning robots, genetically-cloned oversized lizards, talking apes, or pretty much anything else that has ever been featured as a plot device in one of his novels.


If you're looking for a fitting way to pay the man tribute, may we recommend reading -- you know, actually reading, rather than watching the movie version -- Jurassic Park? It doesn't have any of the cool CGI or the gosh-isn't-this-neat John Williams score, but it is a markedly better story, and one of the most intense reads you're likely to stumble across for a good long while.

LINK: RIP Michael Crichton (A.V. Club News Bulletin)

Back to our regularly inconsequential programming: featuring Captain Fantastic Faster Than Superman Spiderman Batman Wolverine Hulk And The Flash...

Via Telegraph

"A Return to Traditional Values"

Dead Set
Election night has come and gone, and surely no matter which side of the political fence you reside upon, some things went your way while others did not. But lost in the shuffle of celebrations and recriminations has been perhaps the greatest issue of them all, elucidated in yesterday's Guardian U.K. with heartbreaking clarity by writer, actor, and impassioned advocate for the undead, Simon Pegg:

ZOMBIES DON'T RUN!

I know it is absurd to debate the rules of a reality that does not exist, but this genuinely irks me. You cannot kill a vampire with an MDF stake; werewolves can't fly; zombies do not run. It's a misconception, a bastardisation that diminishes a classic movie monster. The best phantasmagoria uses reality to render the inconceivable conceivable. The speedy zombie seems implausible to me, even within the fantastic realm it inhabits. A biological agent, I'll buy. Some sort of super-virus? Sure, why not. But death? Death is a disability, not a superpower. It's hard to run with a cold, let alone the most debilitating malady of them all.

More significantly, the fast zombie is bereft of poetic subtlety. As monsters from the id, zombies win out over vampires and werewolves when it comes to the title of Most Potent Metaphorical Monster. Where their pointy-toothed cousins are all about sex and bestial savagery, the zombie trumps all by personifying our deepest fear: death. Zombies are our destiny writ large. Slow and steady in their approach, weak, clumsy, often absurd, the zombie relentlessly closes in, unstoppable, intractable.

However (and herein lies the sublime artfulness of the slow zombie), their ineptitude actually makes them avoidable, at least for a while. If you're careful, if you keep your wits about you, you can stave them off, even outstrip them - much as we strive to outstrip death. Drink less, cut out red meat, exercise, practice safe sex; these are our shotguns, our cricket bats, our farmhouses, our shopping malls. However, none of these things fully insulates us from the creeping dread that something so witless, so elemental may yet catch us unawares - the drunk driver, the cancer sleeping in the double helix, the legless ghoul dragging itself through the darkness towards our ankles.

For more of Pegg's heartfelt review of a television miniseries unlikely to ever see the light of day on this side of the pond, we suggest you click here.