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Poetry (2009) NYT Critics' Pick

Yun Jung-hee in “Poetry.”
Consider an Apple, Consider the World
By MANOHLA DARGIS
Published: February 10, 2011

The women and few men sitting at their desks in the film “Poetry” have open faces and smiles. They’re good pupils, these older people who have come to the cultural center to learn. Perhaps because they have chosen to be there, they don’t have the look of sullen resentment and cultivated boredom that glazes the faces of the high school students glimpsed now and again. Instead these latter-day bards gaze at the man who has come to say something to them about art and maybe life. Instead he holds up an apple and talks about seeing. More

Cedar Rapids (2011) NYT Critics' Pick

Ed Helms, center, and Isiah Whitlock Jr., far right, aiming high.
An Innocent Abroad, at a Convention in Iowa
By MANOHLA DARGIS
Published: February 10, 2011

Everything’s up to date in Cedar Rapids, which not only has skyscrapers, but also a hotel with a pool sparkling in the atrium like a blue diamond. For Tim Lippe (rhymes with yippee), the 34-year-old naïf at the center of this wistful, equally tender and raunchy comedy of self-discovery, also called “Cedar Rapids,” the hotel and the pool signal that he’s reached the big time. What he can’t yet know is that by entering the hotel, having guilelessly said no to the friendly neighborhood prostitute outside, he has crossed a Rubicon. He’s on his way to a moral awakening in a story laced with Oedipal overtones and giddy with longing and smut. More

The 2011 Academy Award Nominated Short Films (2011)

“Day & Night,” from the 2011 Oscar-nominated short films. More Photos »
An Oscar Film Festival, All in One Screening
By A. O. SCOTT
Published: February 10, 2011

In addition to the 10 candidates for best picture and the smattering of contenders in other major categories, there are 15 movies whose titles will be mentioned at the Oscars on Feb. 27 that very few nonvoters are likely to have heard of. These are the nominees for best short film, which are divided into three groups: animated, live action and documentary. In the past, opportunities to see the shorts were scarce, but lately they have been showing up in theaters and also on iTunes and cable. More

Lovers of Hate (2009) NYT Critics' Pick

Chris Doubek in Bryan Poyser’s “Lovers of Hate.”
Fraternal Rivalry and Failed Ambition
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
Published: February 10, 2011

The bond between two brothers becomes irretrievably twisted in “Lovers of Hate,” an unusually perceptive examination of fraternal rivalry and failed ambition. More

I Can Haz Fitlered Air

In the annals of Some Time Ago, I washed the Honeywell air cleaner filters in the dishwasher as I am wont, took them back downstairs, stuck them in the furnace, and forgot about 'em. Some longish period of time after that, I noticed that the little neon pilot light wuzn't glowing as it is wont to do if the filter is working after it dries out, which by that point it had had a month or so to do. I called Standard Heating, the guys wot put in the furnace quite some time ago, and a man came out who poked at it with an electrical meter and declared it dead. I asked him about fixing it, and instead of repair, he came up with two impressive bids -- one to replace it for only $1,000 and another to replace it with a different unit for only $1,500 dollars, off which he might take the $100 fee for the service call. I sulked for quite some period of time, but bought a filter at Menards to cram into the Honeywell as a replacement for the filter cells.

Eventually, as grief turns to acceptance, I turned to procrastinating on Ghoogle, where I found air filters for rather substantially less than than $1,000 even with a $100 off for the service call. I read Consumer Reports online, then I started refining the Ghoogle query and found that they sell power heads for the Honeywell units, for way, way, way, way less than $1,000. I put one in a shopping cart, and then noticed a Check here to receive emails and special offers check box, which of course, froze the shopping cart, because who wants to buy a power head for an air cleaner only to receive a coupon for 20% off the next day? Not me! Who need air anyway? Isn't that why I take all these drugs anyway?

The expected 20% off coupon never arrived, but earlier this week, I sent Ghoogle back out across the Intarwebs to powershop for a Honeywell power head, and lo and behold, it found some. Of course, they were not for the unit I have so I was really comparing the prices of oranges when I needed an apple, but before I hit the Buy button, down I went to the basement, yanked off the front panel to the Honeywell filter, stalked back up the stairs, and looked up the right unit. I added it to the cart, and then noticed that it was the 240 V version, which is to say it wasn't the one that I wanted either. I added the third power head to the shopping cart after removing the other two one at a time, and proceeded to PayPal.

The Honewell powerhead arrived yesterday, and rather late last night, I went down to switch it out. It was a terrible amount of work. Two whole metal screws had to be taken out, and then I eventually figured out I had to slide the unit forward, then clip the new unit on the back prong like thingies and replace the two metal screws. I gleefully slid in the two filter cells, plugged the powerhead in, and was crushed that the neon light didn't glow forth. Despondent, I crammed the Menard's filter back, and noticed the glow of the light. I slid the filter out, and one cell in. No light. Bugger it! I took the cells back to the shower and washed them off, and called it quits for the ngiht after cramming the Menard's filter back in the void.

This morning I took the filters out of the shower and set them on a cabinet to inspect the fins. There, in the corner, one was clearly bent against the other. I retrieved a screwdriver, and bent it straighter. Then I took out the Menard's filter and slid the two cells in. (I also checked the other cell) The Neon Light Came On! Ittsa Miracle!

Now, of course, I want to put the other powerhead back and see if it was just a bent fin from the get go.

Hmm

It looks like Wisconsin's gotta good one! Link