Paul Auster: Sunset Park

Paul Auster is perhaps the most accessible writer of those considered to be part of the “high establishment.” And you know the echelon I mean—Roth, Morrison, DeLillo, McCarthy, etc. Yet his new novel, which comes out today, is too accessible, toeing a dangerous line somewhere between the inventive plots of Jonathan Lethem (one of Auster’s own protégés) and the facile sentences of Dan Brown.

20 Under 40: A Comprehensive (Subjective) Guide

Gee, this should help you kill some time at work. Two weeks ago I received a promotional email about a New Yorker event: a reading by Joshua Ferris and Karen Russell. I was excited. But I was also surprised to see that they were touted in the ad as “20 under 40 writers.”

A Grammar Lesson from Kanye

Well, there’s no real “lesson,” actually, but for the grammar hounds out there, an interesting crisis arises from trying to retype a certain line of lyrics from the song “Dark Fantasy” off Kanye’s new album.

Kanye Clause Delivers an Early Christmas Gift

If you like Kanye, or hip-hop, or good music (also G.O.O.D. Music), or Christmas, you will like this. The song is bouncy and fun. It literally sounds like an actual Christmas tune that you might hear over the speakers in Michael’s arts and crafts store, as you wait in that goddamn line for twenty minutes to pay for an embarrassingly crappy plastic wreath.

Home Alone and Ten Other Movies That Are Always on TV That I Will Almost Always Watch

It’s the holiday season and you know what that means—starting with Thanksgiving, Home Alone has been on TV constantly. And it’s fucking awesome. Christmas/New Years’ time, especially when you’re still in school so you’re home on break, seems to be a period, for many of us, that involves lots of passive, half-asleep viewing of movies on TV.

Rupert Murdoch's New iPad Thing Looooves The Winklevoss Twins

The people of The Daily editorial team either haven’t seen The Social Network, or think you didn’t see it. Regardless, they think the fact that Goofy and Doofy Winklevoss still resent Mark Zuckerberg, and want more money, is news. A $65 million settlement (which is actually the lowest estimate that has been made about what the twins nabbed from Daddy Zuckbucks) isn’t enough for them. They deserve more.

Guess You Shouldn't Just Go With It Tonight

Now, I’m not sure how this movie could possibly be bad when it has such talent as Jennifer Aniston (she of The Bounty Hunter, that one was terrific), Brooklyn Decker, Allan Covert (better known as the guy from Grandma’s Boy), and Sandler favorites Kevin Nealon and Dave Matthews.

Photos with “Ken” in Times Square: A Study in Awkwardness

As part of some weird advertising campaign to promote the 50th anniversary of Ken dolls, Mattel has been putting on a full blitz, including subway posters, web site banners, and, on Monday, photo-opportunities with Ken (well, good-looking, nearly-plastic men in suits and baby blue ties with Ken tags on their wrists).