Good news, in case you haven’t heard yet.

As of February 1, 2006, the Brattle Film Foundation has signed a one-year extension on our current lease at the Brattle Theatre!

Terri and I are going to see next Monday’s double-feature of the The Awful Truth and Holiday. Holiday has Carey Grant marrying into a rich eccentric family (the older sister in which is Katherine Hepburn), and The Awful Truth features him and Irene Dunne as an almost-divorced couple who do a lot of witty verbal sparring but can’t quite sever the knot. Join us if you’re interested!

The RealFake song of the month is “Paper Moon” by Harold Arlen, lyrics by E.Y. (Yip) Harburg. (”Yip”, folks, “Yip”!) I haven’t found my favorite version yet. Most recordings I’ve found start after the intro, with “it’s only a paper moon, sailing over a cardboard sea”. In fact, hunting through about 15 versions, the only one I’ve found with the whole intro is by Rufus Wainright, of whom I’m not overly fond. Sometimes I want to be, but he’s somehow too Starbucks-y for my taste.

I remember liking it as a kid, too, but whose version did I hear?

At first you think it’s just bubble gum, and then you realize it’s about death and maya.

I never feel a thing is real

When I’m away from you

Out of your embrace

The world’s a temporary parking place

Mmm, mm, mm, mm

A bubble for a minute

Mmm, mm, mm, mm

You smile, the bubble has a rainbow in it

Say, its only a paper moon

Sailing over a cardboard sea

But it wouldn’t be make-believe

If you believed in me

Yes, it’s only a canvas sky

Hanging over a muslin tree

But it wouldn’t be make-believe

If you believed in me

Without your love

It’s a honky-tonk parade

Without your love

It’s a melody played in a penny arcade

It’s a Barnum and Bailey world

Just as phony as it can be

But it wouldn’t be make-believe

If you believed in me

Our fridge currently contains

• double gloucester
• aged mahon
• fresh mozzarella
• Cabot “hunter’s” cheddar
• some Vermonty aged cheddar
• fontina

From Wired:

“Hedda Gabler, of all Ibsen’s plays, is about transcendence, the desire to escape this world and the characters’ inability to escape the roles society shapes for them,” he says, looking down at his vegetarian chili, then back up as though it had spoken to him. “It made perfect sense: robots.”

I’m not a big football person, as you may know, but growing up in Pittsburgh in the 1970’s, it’s hard not to have a soft spot. Just about all of the steel mills closed, the population of Allegheny County went down 150,000 between 1970 and 1980 (about 10%), and we won 4 Super Bowls. As you can imagine, having one thing going on that didn’t completely suck made a lot of really diehard fans. I remember the regional depression produced a lot of Jesus freaks, too, but I think the Steelers have had more enduring and consistent devotion.

Anyway, yeah, I’m pretty happy that the Steelers won on Sunday.

I turned 32 last Thursday, and 32 was Franco Harris’s number, so, you know, it was pretty much a done deal, right?

Ed came downstairs after the game and generously offered that he’d understand if I needed to go out and flip his car.

Oh, and that’s a photo my Mom sent me of one of their cats wrapped in a Terrible Towel, watching the Steelers’ victory parade on KDKA.

(Also thanks to everyone who came over and watched the game and sang happy birthday!)

Because you would be wrong— he is:

“I understand how important the opportunity to lead your party’s efforts to exploit this issue must seem to a freshman senator, and I hold no hard feelings over your earlier disingenuousness.”

You know, a couple of interesting things here. He’s so well-versed in that way of talking out of both sides of one’s mouth that is the hallmark of Senatorial discourse that I wonder if it will play well in a presidential race. Being a senator really seems to warp politicians into a very particular political style that no one since LBJ has been able to leave behind to win a presidential election (and him only after spending four years out of the senate to recover).

Second, it seems like he’s really distinguishing Obama by singling out a freshman senator in this way. But maybe what he’s really doing is picking his enemy— lending a sort of backhanded prestige to a potential 2008 opponent whose inexperience might make him a more preferable enemy than Hillary?