Riddle Me This

Okay, I have a question. Why do I keep hearing news stories where people (either “experts,” or men-on-the-street) are asked whether they think we're experiencing a recession? Why does it matter what anybody thinks about this? A recession is a thing with a definition: two successive quarters with declining GDP. So, the economy either fits that criterion, or it doesn't, and that's what determines whether we're in a recession, no matter what anybody thinks. Asking people whether they think we're having a recession is like asking people whether they think it's snowing it's snowing outside; great if you want some kind of guessing game, but if you want to know if it's snowing, you go to weather.com. (Oh, right, I guess you could look outside, too. I always forget about that option).

I guess the question reporters are really asking is something like, “does the economy look shitty from where you're sitting, and does it look like it's going to get shittier?” Which is conceivably an interesting question, because it gets to people's psychology about the economy, and to whom, specifically, the economy is likely to seem shitty (i.e., who's doing well at the moment and who isn't). But that's exactly why we have this defined thing called a “recession,” because the economy always looks different depending on where you're sitting, and if you actually want to know what the economy is doing as a whole, instead of just who's getting ahead and who isn't, you come up with a defined way of measuring that.

Why is this so hard? Shorter version of this post: Media, please stop being stupid, again.

PS. We are not currently in a recession. Know how I know? I looked it up, because you can do that on the internets. I didn't ask anybody what they think.

Make of it what you will

Now that the iTunes is doing the rentals, you might wonder what's available for your almost-instant-gratification viewing needs.  It's early days yet, the Steve said the magic was sposeda happen in February, but His Steveness did throw us a few scraps to keep us busy in the meantime.

If you go to the iTunes store and use the "power search" function (new to me), you can use an "available for rental" checkbox to find all the rental movies, which number in the low hundreds.  I figured, there wouldn't be much selection yet, and what was there would be your big, dumb, over-promoted Hollywood brain-deactivators, and it's true that Live Free or Die Hard was right there on the front page.  But the one big, dumb brain-deactivator I was actually willing to sit through for the selfless purpose of evaluating iTunes movie rentals and reporting back to you'se all, Shooter, was available for overpriced purchase, but not overpriced rental.  Oh well.

Looking through the search results was kind of fascinating, though, because, if you make a game of guessing what 300-ish movies might be offered right upfront, out of all the movies out there, you will lose that game.

Here's what I'm talking about:

First, there's the obvious ones: Live Free or Die Hard, The Simpsons Movie, Disturbia, A Mighty Heart.  Recent, mainstream.

Also obvious: the old reliables, your undefeatable lowbrow sequels: Iron Eagle IV,  The Hills Have Eyes II,  F/X II, Star Trek several different roman numerals, Alien vs. Predator, etc., etc.

Then, there are some classics for all your octagenarians who are down with the new technology and are chomping at the bit to try out Apple's new download service on their broadband internets... ehh... anyway: Gallipoli, The Magnificent Seven, Man of La Mancha, and even one of The Duke's last movies, The Shootist.  I know my grandmother (Hi, Nana!) will be jazzed about these.

Surprisingly, a few edgier numbers for the movie snobs: Barton Fink, Dogville, Lair of the White Worm, Chuck & Buck.  I mean, Dogville! -- that one really was a surprise, no joke.

But... I kept noticing these few titles jumping out at me... apparently someone at Apple is, like myself, an admirer of the Blaxploitation genre.  I mean, add Sweet Sweetback, Shaft, and The Mack, and you've got the entire cannon here: Coffy, Foxy Brown, Black Caesar, Across 110th Street, and Blacula, for chrissakes.  Can it possibly be by chance that of ALL the first iTunes rentals available, 4 movies of interest *only* to blaxploitation fans are represented?  Brother, I think you can work it out.

And I couldn't fail to mention:  When I saw "And God Created Woman," of course I thought of the 1956 classic that introduced a generation of helplessly randy American men to Brigitte Bardot (who, by the way, has turned into one nasty piece of business in her old age.  But there's no denying she was sex on wheels in '56).  I thought wrong.  Rather, on offer among the iTunes rentals debut selection, is this masterpiece.  I don't want to spoil the surprise, so please -- go to iTunes and watch the trailer.  But hey - same director!

Insult to Injury

While falling off a building, in general, ranks fairly low on my list of ways I'd rather go,  being able to spend my last tens of seconds aware that my demise had come while erecting a Trump building -- in SoHo, no less-- would definitely peg it down somewhere in the "devoured by wild pigs" range.

Impulse Control

As of yesterday, the L train was continuing its uninterrupted week+ record of consecutive days with delays. I was blessed on Sunday when I just missed getting onto a packed train... which ended up getting stuck in the tunnel for 15 minutes or so. Never been so happy to miss a train, because there's nothing more miserable than being packed onto a stopped crowded train, having no idea how long you're going to be standing there.

With all the development in Williamsburg, it's only going to get worse, and I see potential for daily commute-catastrophes when you squish grumpy, insufficiently caffeinated people together like that on a regular basis. Why, just yesterday, riding in on the usual sardine-a-palooza, I was forced to stare at the crown of this short guy's head for the whole ride, and he had this one, thick, grey hair sticking almost straight up, all by itself. My hand was already moving, and my fingers already formed into a pinch gesture before I realized and stopped myself from plucking the little rogue right out. That could have been ugly.