Music (in no particular order, only because I don’t want to think about it that much):

• Future of the Left - Curses
• Les Savy Fav - Let’s Stay Friends
• Kanye West - Graduation
• Coliseum - No Salvation
• 1990s - Cookies
• The White Stripes - Icky Thump
• Spank Rock and Benny Blanco - Bangers & Cash
• The Rakes - Ten New Messages
• Pissed Jeans - Hope for Men
• Good Shoes - Think Before You Speak

Movies (again in no particular order, because although I watched over 150 movies in 2007, only about a dozen were from that year… this list should prove that.)

• Death Proof
• Sicko
• Zodiac
• Atonement
• Blades of Glory
• Superbad
• Helvetica
• Ratatouille
• Vacancy
• 1408

There you have it. Your mileage may vary, particularly with the small movie sample size.

• Google Custom Search Engine
  Build and customize your own Google
  (tags: google work)
• Saving Democracy With Web 2.0
  Mashing maps and tagging data can transform American politics for the better.
  (tags: google map journalism work politics web)
• Ask.com Maps & Directions
  Supports walking directions! This includes the estimated time to walk (cool!), but it is also terribly handy to use as biking directions since it excludes highways. Also allows multiple destinations.
  (tags: google map ask travel walk)
• The periodic table in a spiral arrangement
  The spiral illustrates the elements’ relationship to hydrogen, with groups in a diagonal toward the center, and each spiral as a period.
  (tags: science design)
• Fantastic packaging for the Reservoir Dogs 15th Anniversary Edition DVD
  The box is a gas can, and the DVD case is a flip matchbook.
  (tags: movie design)

• What if you built a machine to predict hit movies?
  By Malcolm Gladwell
  (tags: movie math)
• CBS adds headlines on Google Earth
  (tags: google map news)

cin-o-matic.com: Possibly the quickest, easiest, and simplest way to see what movies to watch.

“By providing a lot of information about a lot of movies in an easily scannable, filterable, and sortable format, users are quickly able to see what movies may interest them and if they’re playing in their area or available on dvd/video. If not, users can add movies to their Watch List and be notified when movies become available.”

(Disclaimer: I was involved in the beta testing of this site, and was paid one (1) fish lunch as compensation for my consulting work.)

HDTV: Who Looks Worse, Better?: High-Definition TV is already having an impact on Hollywood. Make-up artists are searching for new techniques to hide the facial imperfections of the stars. Because of HDTV’s incredible picture, skin problems and aging signs are visible to the naked eye despite the best cosmetics. Here is a list of actors who look better (or worse) in HDTV.

Living Room Film Club, a Click Away: “Netflix not only changed my routine, it also turned me into a different kind of movie watcher. Culturally, I am no longer the same person.” The flat-fee system elicits two responses: more frequent renting, and more adventurous renting. To justify the cost, you watch more films. But since four films per month averages out to the cost of four films at Blockbuster, every subsequent movie is, in a delusory sense, free, and therefore there is no risk.

PreReview: Reviews of movies that haven’t come out yet and the reviewer hasn’t seen or otherwise have any idea about.

Why tech firms are out of tune: This revolution is clearly not about people taking control, it is about the entertainment cartel exerting even more control over what we, the people, can do with its expensive and often over-rated products.

It’s about restricting our freedom to use digital content in ways that fit with our lifestyles and choices. And it is about forcing us to pay more, and repeatedly, for stuff that we want to watch or listen to.

It is also, crucially, about limiting our freedom to play with the stuff we’ve bought.

Real freedom comes from below, not from the marketing department of a large corporation.

Film Threat’s Frigid 50: The coldest people in Hollywood 2003.

NoMovieAds.com: The Web site for a class-action lawsuit against several movie theater chains that routinely push back the starting time of movies in order to show commercials to a captive audience.