Ennealogic: August 2, 2013

1. The trailer for David O. Russell’s next great film, American Hustle. I watched the video on mute, but I’m assuming the plot is two Hollywood heartthrobs, played by Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper, try to out-ugly each other with a beer gut/combover combo and a perm, respectively, and still manage to nab some bombshells (Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams) because the world is unfair.

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2. Li-trally the worst news that you will read all week: Rob Lowe and Rashida Jones are leaving Parks and Rec. Showrunner Mike Schur has promised a “great Pawnee send-off.” Here’s hoping for an appropriately doubled-up farewell, “10,000 Candles in the Wind.”

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3. Get ready for some increasing Breaking Bad appearances in these Friday posts as we get ready for the show’s final run. Geek-out to this moment: Vince Gilligan and the cast arrive at the premiere in an RV, with smokey meth byproduct piping out the top and everything.

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4. A rare, handwritten poem by Edgar Allan Poe was auctioned for $300,000. Poe has been my favorite author for as long as I can remember, but that’s just a bit out of my price range. So, instead, I made a copy of the poem in comic sans. Basically the same thing.

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5. The differences between real sex and porn sex, as explained with food. Fair warning: Avoid watching if you share some of George Costanzia’s proclivities; you won’t be able to eat a papaya without getting aroused.

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6. Amid the buzz surrounding Netflix’s new in-house hit, Orange is the New Black, Regina Spektor’s theme song has been shamefully overlooked. It fucking rocks.

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7. I remember vividly the day my mother got her first cell phone and sent me an sms in textspeak. I was proud of her effort to contemporize herself, but that feeling quickly gave way to complete and utter repulsion because of the cross-generational intermingling. Harsh, sure, but that’s kind of the feeling I get from this Elvis Costello/The Roots team-up.

Maybe ull lik it mor.

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8. George Saunders delivered a speech to Syracuse’s graduating class. The kind, thoughtful man implored those graduates to be kinder and more thoughtful. Here’s a lovely snippet.

One thing in our favor: some of this “becoming kinder” happens naturally, with age. It might be a simple matter of attrition: as we get older, we come to see how useless it is to be selfish—how illogical, really. We come to love other people and are thereby counter-instructed in our own centrality. We get our butts kicked by real life, and people come to our defense, and help us, and we learn that we’re not separate, and don’t want to be. We see people near and dear to us dropping away, and are gradually convinced that maybe we too will drop away (someday, a long time from now). Most people, as they age, become less selfish and more loving. I think this is true. The great Syracuse poet, Hayden Carruth, said, in a poem written near the end of his life, that he was “mostly Love, now.”

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9. Alright, one more BB post for good measure—and this one should leave you awe-struck. In this unique teaser for the final season, Bryan Cranston reads ~~“Heisenberg”~~ “Ozymandias,” a haunting sonnet by Percy Shelley.