Yes. It is brilliant in the way that complex things can be simply explained. Don’t see it with anyone in the financial community if you have anger management problems.
3.
BGinCHI
In my Netflix queue (“long wait”).
Heard it’s good….
We did “The Big Lebowski” in my film class last night. Probably more “fucks” than my students have heard in class for a while.
Saw it in the theater. The Blu-ray disc arrive from Netflix tomorrow. I am having a party for friends who WILL boo the bad guys.
I think this is a superb movie. In two hours, Ferguson explains a complicated subject so well, even the thickest can understand it. Actually, I have quite a bit to say about his efforts here.
Just got my copy from Netflix today! Looking forward to watching it, but not while the Spousal Unit is around, because he doesn’t cope well with depressing movies.
(Pro tip: I have obtained good results by keeping a liable-to-be-hot movie at the top of my queue, once it’s auto-moved from the “saved” sub-queue. It bugs my Virgo housemate to see a queue that starts with a couple of ‘available on’ and a string of ‘long wait’ and ‘short wait’ discs, but as with so much else in our relationship, he’s learned to deal.)
Probably the most illuminating part of the movie was the discussion on how corrupted academic economics/business programs have been by the revolving door between Wall Street, Washington and, apparently, Academia. That shit was infuriating.
The dude who conducted the interviews of the Wall Street big shots in during the interviews was great. He didn’t seem to take shit from anyone.
14.
BGinCHI
@Anne Laurie: Ooh, thanks for the tip. Didn’t see your parenthetical.
I was wondering if Netflix used the “wait” thing as a disincentive.
15.
stuckinred
Just watched Zoot Suit, esey.
16.
BGinCHI
Haven’t seen The Social Network and gonna watch it tonight.
Have held off because I assumed I’d hate all the characters. The only Harvard person I can stand is DougJ, and Helen Vendler, but she’s faculty.
Skip it. Go straight to “Client 9.” Which will make it so much clearer how corrupt Wall Street was then/now is and how complicit the NYT was in bringing down Spitzer. Also a much more well-crafted movie.
18.
Monkeyhawk
Netflix says I’m getting it tomorrow.
Can hardly wait.
19.
jwb
@BGinCHI: “The only Harvard person I can stand is DougJ, and Helen Vendler, but she’s faculty.”
Yes, it does make you wonder what they put in the water, doesn’t it? Yale does something similar, but in my experience they generally come out somewhat less haughty and quite a lot more neurotic.
Probably the most illuminating part of the movie was the discussion on how corrupted academic economics/business programs have been by the revolving door between Wall Street, Washington and, apparently, Academia. That shit was infuriating.
The most infuriating part was that those fuckers didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with their whoring. Even when they got called on it. Seriously, we could abolish 3/4 of the economics dept. in the world and prob. be a lot better off.
Probably the most illuminating part of the movie was the discussion on how corrupted academic economics/business programs have been by the revolving door between Wall Street, Washington and, apparently, Academia. That shit was infuriating.
The most infuriating part was that those fuckers didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with their whoring. Even when they got called on it. Seriously, we could abolish 3/4 of the economics dept. in the world and prob. be a lot better off.
Ok, I’m lowballing. 9/10ths.
23.
opie_jeanne
@jwb: My niece graduated from Yale two years ago. She’s neither haughty or neurotic, but maybe that’s because she got in on a full ride scholarship. I wish she’d post here because she’s brilliant and funny, but she’s in Switzerland working on her Masters, not sure what subject. She has skipped around a bit but we kind of think she’s going to end up in the diplomatic corp.
24.
mantis
Inside Job? What is that, gay bible porn?
25.
jl
Mark Thoma’s Economist’s View blog has a post with links to some good debunking the myth that there is a public employee pension crisis.
The extract from the McClatchy story, with link, is especially good.
Really, really great doc. Saw it in a local theater and part of the experience was hearing people should random curses. It was a joy, even if the content of the film will make you want to go on a rampage
@opie_jeanne: Mostly, I know students who were graduate students at the institutions. In no event are the effects uniform, but even the Harvard folks I know and genuinely like will occasionally don that particular “air.” I know a lot more Yalies (no, I’m not one), and for whatever reason I like them almost uniformly, but they all seem psychologically damaged in a very similar way. All the Yale undergrads I know went to grad school at other places, and, for most in my field at least, grad school tends to imprint much more deeply than undergrad.
29.
BGinCHI
@jwb: Agree with all of this. Always exceptions, but it’s amazing how much generalizing you can actually do about the Ivies.
Someone should write a book, or have a NYT column, or have a blog about this kind of thing. I bet Charlie Rose would interview them if they did.
@BGinCHI: I have seen and loved Lebowski alone, with the TB, with one friend or another, and with small groups. I have never seen it in a crowd. I think I would like to experience that.
39.
handy
any BJers know any opengl?
40.
BGinCHI
@shortstop: I would also enjoy yelling “You see what you get when you fuck a stranger in the ass!” over and over with a very large, drunk crowd.
I’d probably also wear my one-piece, purple, Jesus bowling uniform.
41.
jwb
@BGinCHI: So true, so true. And we haven’t even started talking about the University of Chicago salad bar yet…
42.
shortstop
@BGinCHI: Without even trying, I can think of at least 15 Lebowski lines I’d enjoy yelling with a similar audience. It’s a movie that really ties a large, drunk crowd together.
43.
Mark
I didn’t think there was much new content in the movie, but then again, I read this blog. I think only a tiny fraction of the population can be moved to care about this fraud.
DougJ went to Harvard? That explains everything. Elitist!
OTOH DougJ went to a more prestigious school than McMegan. Maybe he should casually mention that the next time he’s trolling her blog. Her replies to him always seem so condescending, like she can’t believe she has to respond to this idiot child.
No. Have not seen it. Will not see it. My teeth are ground to little nubs as it is.
50.
suzanne
I am trying to decide what to give up for Lent. (No, I am not a very religious person, but I like holidays that involve torturing oneself. They’re so passive-aggressive.)
My husband suggested that I give up SNARK. I think I would prefer the flames of Hell for all eternity.
51.
suzanne
Wait a minute. I am reconsidering my earlier statement.
Is Hell a dry heat?
@suzanne: I’m giving up swearing to prep myself for the primaries. Good news: I can still lie!
53.
TheOtherWA
Yes, it played in Portland a couple months ago. Loved how it made all the complex bullshit these guys pulled quite easy to understand. The friend I went with was very depressed afterwards. I knew what to expect, but still learned a lot.
Saw Inside Job at a small theater in town (there were maybe 40 folks there). I was so POed by the time the lights came up, I stood at the end of the movie and said if anyone there had an account with the banks outed in the film they needed to move their money or they were also part of the problem (think Citigroup or BoA). That got a few amens, but I don’t recall all that many people taking part in the “move your money” stuff a few months back.
I do recommend seeing the film, though. And if you want to see an equally angering film about GMO crops and the crap that Monsanto is pulling check out The World According to Monsanto. You can see the entire thing free at the website. Or there is the movie The Corporation.
And that should be enough links to put me in moderation. Happy Fat Tuesday to everyone. Have an ashy Wednesday tomorrow.
56.
schrodinger's cat
@Comrade Mary: Why? What did the Dutch ever do to you?
57.
Suffern ACE
@suzanne: I’ve seen many paintings on the topic, and will only say that if heat is your only torment, you’ve gotten off rather lightly.
58.
TheOtherWA
BTW, if you’re too impatient for your Netflix queue, Redbox’s website has a search feature. It will tell you which boxes are stocked with any particular film. http://www.redbox.com/
Damn. What will these kids and their internets think of next?
I was wondering if Netflix used the “wait” thing as a disincentive.
Don’t have any inside information, but I’ve been one of those ‘high demand’ Netflix users for some time — just stepped down from 8-at-a-time to 6, and usually bumping up against the 500 queue-maximum. Best I can tell, their algorithms decide how many copies to buy based partially on how many people have “saved” a particular title to their queues, with extra points for the ones (like me) who have that “saved” title at the top of their queues. For high-demand titles, I’ve seen the notification drop from ‘long wait’ to ‘available’ literally overnight, usually a few days after it first becomes available. Which I think means that if there are enough members signalling ‘WE WANT NAOW’ then Netflix bites the bullet and buys the right to burn additional copies from the distributor (the copy of Inside Job I got today, like many of the ‘new’ titles in recent months, is definitely not a retail-market copy).
60.
suzanne
@Suffern ACE: Yeah, fo’ sho’, Except if Bosch has the right idea, Hell actually looks really friggin’ fun. Dirty kinky fun.
I saw Inside Job in the theater during its micro-quick run here in D.C. It’s very good, worthy of wider viewing on DVD, Netflix, etc. I don’t think there’s anything super revelatory in it for the informed Balloon Juice reader, but it’s nice to have it all done up in one narrative with some good eye candy. (The cinematography is really, really good, not just “good for a documentary.”)
The movie does a good job of running the numbers, although occasionally it strays a little close to the Powerpoint presentation zone. But there are some great interviews–heroes and villains–and some very quotable quotes. My co-viewer and I both thought the off-camera interviewer wussed out occasionally and could have gone after some of the villains he interviewed a little harder, but we are both former newspaper reporters who graduated from a big J-school during the Nixon administration, so bias noted and your mileage may vary.
Application to wingnut friends/relatives? It can’t hurt, although it may be a little too fact-y for them. And the fact that it is narrated by Matt Damon probably makes it a priori commie/pinko/liberal propaganda. I also saw it with my brother–not the full-on teatard but the other one, a doctor and mini-mogul who lives in what I think of as the “Bloomberg bubble.” He had a lot of “But, but, but . . .” objections, but I could tell he was experiencing some cognitive dissonance and at least a little of the message was getting through. Again, your mileage may vary.
[. . .] coming up is Soderbergh’s underrated Out of Sight.
Amen to that! Great little movie. Good cinematography, great Fender Rhodes piano music, great acting flying all over the place–even by Jennifer Lopez!–and a tight little script that stays close to Elmore Leonard’s book. Tasty.
This reminds me that I want to go back and watch The Limey again. I don’t think it’s up to the standard of Out of Sight, but I think it is also underrated or overlooked.
Heh. I am still enjoying one of my Christmas season impulse purchases–the Big Lebowski kit. Right now I’m looking at my Persian rug mousepad and my plastic severed toe (with green nail polish), and in the kitchen is my “I’m staying. Finishing my coffee” coffee cup. And the “The Dude Abides” magnet is on the refrigerator.
67.
BGinCHI
@Steeplejack: Oh, I agree completely. It’s more stark and flat, and doesn’t have that brilliant flip from S FL to Detroit, which takes the film from good to brilliant.
Stamp is just so damn underused in American film. Someone should have done some noirs with him.
Thanks for reminding me about that film.
68.
opie_jeanne
@jwb: That’s an interesting observation. Or set of them. If Magoo has neuroses she got them from her parents and had them before she got to Yale, but it looked to as if Yale was such a terrific improvement in her life that it was a stabilizing influence.
She seems remarkably normal after graduating from that place, but she did tell me about a couple of dickish young men she encountered early on, both from families with more money than God. One of them had been hitting on her and when he found out where she was from, he said, “Oh. I don’t like Californians.”
She also knew several very nice young people from families with more money than God.
We overheard a table full of the dickish type one evening in an Indian restaurant near the campus. That table had three young idiot males who were being entertained by a simply poisonous young female, and they were all treating the owner like he was the hired help. He was very nice to us and lavished attention on us, probably because we were polite and appreciative. It was easy to be nice because the food was so good. My sis and I were there to help her move into housing for her senior year because Calhoun Hall was being rehabbed.
69.
BGinCHI
Watching The Royal Tennenbaums right now. So great.
The sequence where Ritchie tries to kill himself is fucking smart as hell.
Another great movie. I’m about to go watch an episode of Maigret on MHz. I think it’s available–along with all of MHz’s stuff–on Netflix streaming. Highly recommend Montalbano, too.
@Yutsano: Well, pfffft on you! I thought I would hate it, and then I really liked it. The wedding is shaping up nicely. I’m going to bed soon, though, so have a good rest of the evening. And, rugelach.
@Steeplejack: I have 50 movies in my Netflix Queue at all times. By the way, Yutsy suggested you be the groom in my wedding, but I wanted a true Republican marriage–which means a gay husband.
Just got in a while ago from work. Tedious and tiring. About to go watch something on TV and decompress. But I couldn’t pass up the bait of Out of Sight and Big Lebowski references.
Just wanted to let you know I support you in your candidacy and will do all I can to secure the NoVA vote for you. Will there be a personal appearance here on your forthcoming tour?
@Steeplejack: Thanks! Can you actually vote for a Republican in the primaries? And, yes, I will make an appearance there. I have to visit all the places where I can rile up the base have a chance of winning.
@Steeplejack: Oh, yeah. That would be awesome. We’ll make the rumors fly!
82.
velouria
For all the people who want to avoid long waits on new movies from Netflix:
It’s easy to get almost any new film from the week it comes out provided that you mail something back on Saturday before the last mail pickup. Netflix will receive what you sent in on Monday which is the day they mail out new releases. Have the new release at the top of your queue and you should get it shipped.
I don’t go to movie theaters anymore and this method has proven to be a damn near 100% reliable method to get new releases from Netflix. I got three new blu-rays from them today, one of which was Inside Job.
83.
IronyAbounds
I’ll be getting it on Netflix in a few days, and I’m sure I’ll be outraged (reading The Big Short made my blood boil), but I’ll also be depressed, because the time has come and gone to hold the fucking banksters to account. Amazing that public employees and teachers are now the bad guys, the ones causing all the fiscal problems. Something has gone seriously wrong with this country, between the super rich hoovering all the money, the religious wackos hatred of science, and the vapid culture of celebrity that elevates the Paris Hiltons, the Kardashians and the Snookis of the world into icons. To say this country is dumbing down would be an extreme understatement.
And the fact that it is narrated by Matt Damon probably makes it a priori commie/pinko/liberal propaganda.
So, tell them it’s narrated by Jason Bourne. Someone who’s that good with sooper-sekrit spy stuff can’t be a lie-bral!
(Hey, these are the people who think appearing in all those Westerns made John Wayne a real cowboy, amirite?)
85.
Emerald
@Comrade Mary: Yah, that ad is Superbowl worthy. I mean, it’s a British ad, and it’s becoming famous over here. A teevee commercial.
Tim Curry doing the voiceover. Can’t beat it.
And I have no doubt they got the idea from the Cheezburger site. Cats lamenting that they don’t have opposable thumbs is a minor theme there.
86.
RandyH
Didn’t realize it was out on DVD yet. I just checked on RedBox and found one copy available for rent but it is WAY across town. Maybe I’ll check again tomorrow and see if one pops up closer to me, and earlier in the day before I’ve had a couple adult beverages. I need to go run a bunch of errands tomorrow anyway. I can probably work it into the route.
87.
robert green
i watched it with a friend of questionable politics who worked in senior management at deutchebank for 10 years. he approached the movie with a “everyone is bad, i blame poor people too!” attitude (one prevalent amongst bankers). he’s also loud and obnoxious and a blowhard when it comes to his chosen field.
in the first ten minutes he was heckling the movie, talking back etc.
by twenty minutes in he was quiet.
at the end, his mind was blown. he understood the issues in a different (and more accurate and logical) way. his preconceptions were found wanting, and i suspect he won’t go back to them.
Saw it Saturday. The theater was full and there was vigorous clapping at the end. It makes the meltdown understandable to most. I sort of wish they had talked about the division of the mortgages into tranches. And how there was no way that companies could tell which mortgages went bad because of the division. But otherwise it was excellent. I walked out in a high heat that has not left me 4 days later.
89.
Maude
@moe99:
That’s the most important part of why it went so far and then crashed. They were able to bury the junk with the good, get a good rating and sell the junk as if it were good. It is also why it took a lot for anyone to figure out what was going on.
Insuring the CDOs with credit default swaps was clever. It was fine until the swaps were called in.
90.
RosiesDad
When I bought my ticket, the woman at the booth asked me if I had left my gun at home. I asked why and she said the movie would make me very angry. I pointed out that I wouldn’t be mad at the other people in the audience (only about 20 people in the theater) and shooting holes in the screen wouldn’t do much to alleviate my anger. She just chuckled.
The movie did make me mad. Much as Matt Taibbi’s book “Griftopia” is making me mad. But Ferguson’s narrative is not hyperbolic and he tells the story in a logical, easy to follow way.
We need Eliot Spitzer back in politics. He may be a douche bag but he’s the only guy who ever indicted/convicted a Wall Street crook.
(I have Alex Gibney’s documentary about Spitzer, Citizen 9, on order from my local public library.)
@Mutant Poodle: Inside Job is awesome, even if it does inspire second amendment remedies.
92.
celiadexter
Definitely a must-see — will confirm what you already know or suspect — the only real news to me was the part about the complicity of the academic community. Disgusting and disillusioning.
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jl
Is that a trick question?
patrick II
Yes. It is brilliant in the way that complex things can be simply explained. Don’t see it with anyone in the financial community if you have anger management problems.
BGinCHI
In my Netflix queue (“long wait”).
Heard it’s good….
We did “The Big Lebowski” in my film class last night. Probably more “fucks” than my students have heard in class for a while.
MattR
@BGinCHI: Have you seen the short version?
arguingwithsignposts
Yes. Don’t watch it. It will make your blood boil. Picture the Frontline docs on the crash taken to 11.
enplaned
Yes, worthwhile. Go see it, but be sure to take your medicine if you suffer from hypertension.
techno
Saw it in the theater. The Blu-ray disc arrive from Netflix tomorrow. I am having a party for friends who WILL boo the bad guys.
I think this is a superb movie. In two hours, Ferguson explains a complicated subject so well, even the thickest can understand it. Actually, I have quite a bit to say about his efforts here.
Do NOT miss it!
arguingwithsignposts
@BGinCHI: Where do I sign up for your film class?
I’ve used the opening credits to BL to explain sequencing to students before.
BGinCHI
@MattR: Oh, awesome.
The fuck abides.
Anne Laurie
Just got my copy from Netflix today! Looking forward to watching it, but not while the Spousal Unit is around, because he doesn’t cope well with depressing movies.
(Pro tip: I have obtained good results by keeping a liable-to-be-hot movie at the top of my queue, once it’s auto-moved from the “saved” sub-queue. It bugs my Virgo housemate to see a queue that starts with a couple of ‘available on’ and a string of ‘long wait’ and ‘short wait’ discs, but as with so much else in our relationship, he’s learned to deal.)
BGinCHI
@arguingwithsignposts: Hey, you can sit in any time you like.
You missed a Hitchcock double feature last week (Rear Window and North By Northwest), but coming up is Soderbergh’s underrated “Out of Sight.”
Followed by “Blade Runner.”
BGinCHI
Why does my Netflix say “Long wait”?? What am I missing?
JB
Probably the most illuminating part of the movie was the discussion on how corrupted academic economics/business programs have been by the revolving door between Wall Street, Washington and, apparently, Academia. That shit was infuriating.
The dude who conducted the interviews of the Wall Street big shots in during the interviews was great. He didn’t seem to take shit from anyone.
BGinCHI
@Anne Laurie: Ooh, thanks for the tip. Didn’t see your parenthetical.
I was wondering if Netflix used the “wait” thing as a disincentive.
stuckinred
Just watched Zoot Suit, esey.
BGinCHI
Haven’t seen The Social Network and gonna watch it tonight.
Have held off because I assumed I’d hate all the characters. The only Harvard person I can stand is DougJ, and Helen Vendler, but she’s faculty.
gastropoda
Skip it. Go straight to “Client 9.” Which will make it so much clearer how corrupt Wall Street was then/now is and how complicit the NYT was in bringing down Spitzer. Also a much more well-crafted movie.
Monkeyhawk
Netflix says I’m getting it tomorrow.
Can hardly wait.
jwb
@BGinCHI: “The only Harvard person I can stand is DougJ, and Helen Vendler, but she’s faculty.”
Yes, it does make you wonder what they put in the water, doesn’t it? Yale does something similar, but in my experience they generally come out somewhat less haughty and quite a lot more neurotic.
BGinCHI
@jwb: They teach doubt at Yale.
At Harvard they teach “who could be smarter than you?”
arguingwithsignposts
@JB:
The most infuriating part was that those fuckers didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with their whoring. Even when they got called on it. Seriously, we could abolish 3/4 of the economics dept. in the world and prob. be a lot better off.
Ok, I’m lowballing. 9/10ths.
arguingwithsignposts
@JB:
The most infuriating part was that those fuckers didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with their whoring. Even when they got called on it. Seriously, we could abolish 3/4 of the economics dept. in the world and prob. be a lot better off.
Ok, I’m lowballing. 9/10ths.
opie_jeanne
@jwb: My niece graduated from Yale two years ago. She’s neither haughty or neurotic, but maybe that’s because she got in on a full ride scholarship. I wish she’d post here because she’s brilliant and funny, but she’s in Switzerland working on her Masters, not sure what subject. She has skipped around a bit but we kind of think she’s going to end up in the diplomatic corp.
mantis
Inside Job? What is that, gay bible porn?
jl
Mark Thoma’s Economist’s View blog has a post with links to some good debunking the myth that there is a public employee pension crisis.
The extract from the McClatchy story, with link, is especially good.
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2011/03/employee-pensions-are-not-bankrupting-states.html
Aaron
Really, really great doc. Saw it in a local theater and part of the experience was hearing people should random curses. It was a joy, even if the content of the film will make you want to go on a rampage
BGinCHI
@arguingwithsignposts: All of them. Period. Let the sociologists teach econ.
jwb
@opie_jeanne: Mostly, I know students who were graduate students at the institutions. In no event are the effects uniform, but even the Harvard folks I know and genuinely like will occasionally don that particular “air.” I know a lot more Yalies (no, I’m not one), and for whatever reason I like them almost uniformly, but they all seem psychologically damaged in a very similar way. All the Yale undergrads I know went to grad school at other places, and, for most in my field at least, grad school tends to imprint much more deeply than undergrad.
BGinCHI
@jwb: Agree with all of this. Always exceptions, but it’s amazing how much generalizing you can actually do about the Ivies.
Someone should write a book, or have a NYT column, or have a blog about this kind of thing. I bet Charlie Rose would interview them if they did.
Mutant Poodle
Inside Job is awesome, even if it does inspire second amendment remedies.
shortstop
I feel sad and angry even thinking about watching IJ. Even thinking about putting it in my queue makes me want to take a strengthening nap first.
The Republic of Stupidity
I recommend Michael Lewis’ The Big Short for another perspective on the melt down…
Haven’t seen Inside Job yet but plan to very soon…
BGinCHI
@shortstop: Wish they’d show it at Brew ‘n View at the Vic.
shortstop
@The Republic of Stupidity: The third baseman is reading it now. He shouts out excerpts that make me sad and angry.
shortstop
@BGinCHI: Are they still doing that? That makes me a little less sad and angry.
BGinCHI
@shortstop: They’re also doing it at Lincoln Hall. They were supposed to show Big Lebowski (for free) the night of the big blizzardowski.
sukabi
no, but I love the album
shortstop
@BGinCHI: I have seen and loved Lebowski alone, with the TB, with one friend or another, and with small groups. I have never seen it in a crowd. I think I would like to experience that.
handy
any BJers know any opengl?
BGinCHI
@shortstop: I would also enjoy yelling “You see what you get when you fuck a stranger in the ass!” over and over with a very large, drunk crowd.
I’d probably also wear my one-piece, purple, Jesus bowling uniform.
jwb
@BGinCHI: So true, so true. And we haven’t even started talking about the University of Chicago salad bar yet…
shortstop
@BGinCHI: Without even trying, I can think of at least 15 Lebowski lines I’d enjoy yelling with a similar audience. It’s a movie that really ties a large, drunk crowd together.
Mark
I didn’t think there was much new content in the movie, but then again, I read this blog. I think only a tiny fraction of the population can be moved to care about this fraud.
BGinCHI
@shortstop: Well played.
Ija
@BGinCHI:
DougJ went to Harvard? That explains everything. Elitist!
OTOH DougJ went to a more prestigious school than McMegan. Maybe he should casually mention that the next time he’s trolling her blog. Her replies to him always seem so condescending, like she can’t believe she has to respond to this idiot child.
sukabi
@BGinCHI: who do you think you are? Clarence Thomas?
handy
@shortstop:
YOU’RE OUT OF YOUR LEAGUE DONNIE!
shortstop
@sukabi: BG doesn’t roll that way on Shabbos. As far as I know.
asiangrrlMN
No. Have not seen it. Will not see it. My teeth are ground to little nubs as it is.
suzanne
I am trying to decide what to give up for Lent. (No, I am not a very religious person, but I like holidays that involve torturing oneself. They’re so passive-aggressive.)
My husband suggested that I give up SNARK. I think I would prefer the flames of Hell for all eternity.
suzanne
Wait a minute. I am reconsidering my earlier statement.
Is Hell a dry heat?
asiangrrlMN
@suzanne: I’m giving up swearing to prep myself for the primaries. Good news: I can still lie!
TheOtherWA
Yes, it played in Portland a couple months ago. Loved how it made all the complex bullshit these guys pulled quite easy to understand. The friend I went with was very depressed afterwards. I knew what to expect, but still learned a lot.
Comrade Mary
Just had a Dutch baby for Shrove Tuesday — yum!
Here’s something very, very scary: Why do cats stare when you’re pouring milk?
marcopolo
Saw Inside Job at a small theater in town (there were maybe 40 folks there). I was so POed by the time the lights came up, I stood at the end of the movie and said if anyone there had an account with the banks outed in the film they needed to move their money or they were also part of the problem (think Citigroup or BoA). That got a few amens, but I don’t recall all that many people taking part in the “move your money” stuff a few months back.
I do recommend seeing the film, though. And if you want to see an equally angering film about GMO crops and the crap that Monsanto is pulling check out The World According to Monsanto. You can see the entire thing free at the website. Or there is the movie The Corporation.
And that should be enough links to put me in moderation. Happy Fat Tuesday to everyone. Have an ashy Wednesday tomorrow.
schrodinger's cat
@Comrade Mary: Why? What did the Dutch ever do to you?
Suffern ACE
@suzanne: I’ve seen many paintings on the topic, and will only say that if heat is your only torment, you’ve gotten off rather lightly.
TheOtherWA
BTW, if you’re too impatient for your Netflix queue, Redbox’s website has a search feature. It will tell you which boxes are stocked with any particular film. http://www.redbox.com/
Damn. What will these kids and their internets think of next?
Anne Laurie
@BGinCHI:
Don’t have any inside information, but I’ve been one of those ‘high demand’ Netflix users for some time — just stepped down from 8-at-a-time to 6, and usually bumping up against the 500 queue-maximum. Best I can tell, their algorithms decide how many copies to buy based partially on how many people have “saved” a particular title to their queues, with extra points for the ones (like me) who have that “saved” title at the top of their queues. For high-demand titles, I’ve seen the notification drop from ‘long wait’ to ‘available’ literally overnight, usually a few days after it first becomes available. Which I think means that if there are enough members signalling ‘WE WANT NAOW’ then Netflix bites the bullet and buys the right to burn additional copies from the distributor (the copy of Inside Job I got today, like many of the ‘new’ titles in recent months, is definitely not a retail-market copy).
suzanne
@Suffern ACE: Yeah, fo’ sho’, Except if Bosch has the right idea, Hell actually looks really friggin’ fun. Dirty kinky fun.
asiangrrlMN
@suzanne: Love Bosch’s triptychs.
BGinCHI
@shortstop: Confirmed.
Wait.
No, confirmed.
Comrade Mary
@schrodinger’s cat: You can’t eat babies DURING Lent, silly.
Steeplejack
Night shift checking in.
I saw Inside Job in the theater during its micro-quick run here in D.C. It’s very good, worthy of wider viewing on DVD, Netflix, etc. I don’t think there’s anything super revelatory in it for the informed Balloon Juice reader, but it’s nice to have it all done up in one narrative with some good eye candy. (The cinematography is really, really good, not just “good for a documentary.”)
The movie does a good job of running the numbers, although occasionally it strays a little close to the Powerpoint presentation zone. But there are some great interviews–heroes and villains–and some very quotable quotes. My co-viewer and I both thought the off-camera interviewer wussed out occasionally and could have gone after some of the villains he interviewed a little harder, but we are both former newspaper reporters who graduated from a big J-school during the Nixon administration, so bias noted and your mileage may vary.
Application to wingnut friends/relatives? It can’t hurt, although it may be a little too fact-y for them. And the fact that it is narrated by Matt Damon probably makes it a priori commie/pinko/liberal propaganda. I also saw it with my brother–not the full-on teatard but the other one, a doctor and mini-mogul who lives in what I think of as the “Bloomberg bubble.” He had a lot of “But, but, but . . .” objections, but I could tell he was experiencing some cognitive dissonance and at least a little of the message was getting through. Again, your mileage may vary.
Steeplejack
@BGinCHI:
Amen to that! Great little movie. Good cinematography, great Fender Rhodes piano music, great acting flying all over the place–even by Jennifer Lopez!–and a tight little script that stays close to Elmore Leonard’s book. Tasty.
This reminds me that I want to go back and watch The Limey again. I don’t think it’s up to the standard of Out of Sight, but I think it is also underrated or overlooked.
Steeplejack
@shortstop:
Heh. I am still enjoying one of my Christmas season impulse purchases–the Big Lebowski kit. Right now I’m looking at my Persian rug mousepad and my plastic severed toe (with green nail polish), and in the kitchen is my “I’m staying. Finishing my coffee” coffee cup. And the “The Dude Abides” magnet is on the refrigerator.
BGinCHI
@Steeplejack: Oh, I agree completely. It’s more stark and flat, and doesn’t have that brilliant flip from S FL to Detroit, which takes the film from good to brilliant.
Stamp is just so damn underused in American film. Someone should have done some noirs with him.
Thanks for reminding me about that film.
opie_jeanne
@jwb: That’s an interesting observation. Or set of them. If Magoo has neuroses she got them from her parents and had them before she got to Yale, but it looked to as if Yale was such a terrific improvement in her life that it was a stabilizing influence.
She seems remarkably normal after graduating from that place, but she did tell me about a couple of dickish young men she encountered early on, both from families with more money than God. One of them had been hitting on her and when he found out where she was from, he said, “Oh. I don’t like Californians.”
She also knew several very nice young people from families with more money than God.
We overheard a table full of the dickish type one evening in an Indian restaurant near the campus. That table had three young idiot males who were being entertained by a simply poisonous young female, and they were all treating the owner like he was the hired help. He was very nice to us and lavished attention on us, probably because we were polite and appreciative. It was easy to be nice because the food was so good. My sis and I were there to help her move into housing for her senior year because Calhoun Hall was being rehabbed.
BGinCHI
Watching The Royal Tennenbaums right now. So great.
The sequence where Ritchie tries to kill himself is fucking smart as hell.
Steeplejack
@BGinCHI:
Another great movie. I’m about to go watch an episode of Maigret on MHz. I think it’s available–along with all of MHz’s stuff–on Netflix streaming. Highly recommend Montalbano, too.
asiangrrlMN
@BGinCHI: I really liked this movie, much to my GREAT surprise.
@Steeplejack: Hi. How you be?
BGinCHI
@Steeplejack: Grazie.
Assume you’ve seen the British “Life on Mars” series.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Funny, I hated it. I think because everyone told me I just HAD to like it. I just didn’t grok it I guess.
Been home for awhile (early shift today cause of training) and about to make a quick store run. And laundry. And rugelach.
Steeplejack
@BGinCHI:
Have not seen Life on Mars. It’s in my (incredibly long) personal queue.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Well, pfffft on you! I thought I would hate it, and then I really liked it. The wedding is shaping up nicely. I’m going to bed soon, though, so have a good rest of the evening. And, rugelach.
@Steeplejack: I have 50 movies in my Netflix Queue at all times. By the way, Yutsy suggested you be the groom in my wedding, but I wanted a true Republican marriage–which means a gay husband.
BGinCHI
@Steeplejack: Move that shit to the top.
It’s second only to The Wire in series excellence.
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
Just got in a while ago from work. Tedious and tiring. About to go watch something on TV and decompress. But I couldn’t pass up the bait of Out of Sight and Big Lebowski references.
Just wanted to let you know I support you in your candidacy and will do all I can to secure the NoVA vote for you. Will there be a personal appearance here on your forthcoming tour?
Steeplejack
@BGinCHI:
Done and done.
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
Night-night, hon. Catch you on the flip.
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
I am honored. Perhaps I can be that shadowy staffer about whom rumors are constantly flying.
asiangrrlMN
@Steeplejack: Thanks! Can you actually vote for a Republican in the primaries? And, yes, I will make an appearance there. I have to visit all the places where I can
rile up the basehave a chance of winning.@Steeplejack: Oh, yeah. That would be awesome. We’ll make the rumors fly!
velouria
For all the people who want to avoid long waits on new movies from Netflix:
It’s easy to get almost any new film from the week it comes out provided that you mail something back on Saturday before the last mail pickup. Netflix will receive what you sent in on Monday which is the day they mail out new releases. Have the new release at the top of your queue and you should get it shipped.
I don’t go to movie theaters anymore and this method has proven to be a damn near 100% reliable method to get new releases from Netflix. I got three new blu-rays from them today, one of which was Inside Job.
IronyAbounds
I’ll be getting it on Netflix in a few days, and I’m sure I’ll be outraged (reading The Big Short made my blood boil), but I’ll also be depressed, because the time has come and gone to hold the fucking banksters to account. Amazing that public employees and teachers are now the bad guys, the ones causing all the fiscal problems. Something has gone seriously wrong with this country, between the super rich hoovering all the money, the religious wackos hatred of science, and the vapid culture of celebrity that elevates the Paris Hiltons, the Kardashians and the Snookis of the world into icons. To say this country is dumbing down would be an extreme understatement.
Anne Laurie
@Steeplejack:
So, tell them it’s narrated by Jason Bourne. Someone who’s that good with sooper-sekrit spy stuff can’t be a lie-bral!
(Hey, these are the people who think appearing in all those Westerns made John Wayne a real cowboy, amirite?)
Emerald
@Comrade Mary: Yah, that ad is Superbowl worthy. I mean, it’s a British ad, and it’s becoming famous over here. A teevee commercial.
Tim Curry doing the voiceover. Can’t beat it.
And I have no doubt they got the idea from the Cheezburger site. Cats lamenting that they don’t have opposable thumbs is a minor theme there.
RandyH
Didn’t realize it was out on DVD yet. I just checked on RedBox and found one copy available for rent but it is WAY across town. Maybe I’ll check again tomorrow and see if one pops up closer to me, and earlier in the day before I’ve had a couple adult beverages. I need to go run a bunch of errands tomorrow anyway. I can probably work it into the route.
robert green
i watched it with a friend of questionable politics who worked in senior management at deutchebank for 10 years. he approached the movie with a “everyone is bad, i blame poor people too!” attitude (one prevalent amongst bankers). he’s also loud and obnoxious and a blowhard when it comes to his chosen field.
in the first ten minutes he was heckling the movie, talking back etc.
by twenty minutes in he was quiet.
at the end, his mind was blown. he understood the issues in a different (and more accurate and logical) way. his preconceptions were found wanting, and i suspect he won’t go back to them.
now THAT is an effective documentary.
moe99
Saw it Saturday. The theater was full and there was vigorous clapping at the end. It makes the meltdown understandable to most. I sort of wish they had talked about the division of the mortgages into tranches. And how there was no way that companies could tell which mortgages went bad because of the division. But otherwise it was excellent. I walked out in a high heat that has not left me 4 days later.
Maude
@moe99:
That’s the most important part of why it went so far and then crashed. They were able to bury the junk with the good, get a good rating and sell the junk as if it were good. It is also why it took a lot for anyone to figure out what was going on.
Insuring the CDOs with credit default swaps was clever. It was fine until the swaps were called in.
RosiesDad
When I bought my ticket, the woman at the booth asked me if I had left my gun at home. I asked why and she said the movie would make me very angry. I pointed out that I wouldn’t be mad at the other people in the audience (only about 20 people in the theater) and shooting holes in the screen wouldn’t do much to alleviate my anger. She just chuckled.
The movie did make me mad. Much as Matt Taibbi’s book “Griftopia” is making me mad. But Ferguson’s narrative is not hyperbolic and he tells the story in a logical, easy to follow way.
We need Eliot Spitzer back in politics. He may be a douche bag but he’s the only guy who ever indicted/convicted a Wall Street crook.
(I have Alex Gibney’s documentary about Spitzer, Citizen 9, on order from my local public library.)
Earl
This:
celiadexter
Definitely a must-see — will confirm what you already know or suspect — the only real news to me was the part about the complicity of the academic community. Disgusting and disillusioning.