ANOTHER PLEA FOR HELP

I need a song, preferably an oldie, with lyrics about losing and/or looking for "my baby," like "where is my baby," "have you seen my baby," "I've lost my baby," etc. It also must be sung by a woman. Any suggestions?

PERSONAL BETTERMENT PROJECT KICKOFF

There are a lot of movies I haven't seen. A lot of classic movies, movies that it's even a little embarrassing to admit I haven't seen. For someone who works in Hollywood (tangentially, at least, at the moment) and enjoys a status among his friends (who really ought to know better) as some sort of film expert, there is really no excuse for never having seen, for instance, Casablanca or Gone With the Wind. And yet, I am that person. Me is I.

So, in an effort to correct this one small defect in my person, I have decided to spend this year (and probably part of the next) watching the movies on the AFI Top 100 Movies list. You could quibble with this list; you could say it's safe and obvious and middle-of-the-road, and you wouldn't be wrong, exactly; but see above for but two of many obvious movies I have never seen. So this is what I'm doing. (Of course, just as soon as I decide to watch all these movies, AFI decides to go and make another list, but I'm sticking with the one we've got. I'm not in any rush to see Crash again, I'll tell you that much.)

So anyway I'm starting at the top and working my way down. First up is Citizen Kane, a movie I actually have seen--on the big screen, no less, but in a pretty crappy print. I'm going old-school with this project, so each movie will have a newsreel (15 minutes of Headline News, I guess) and a cartoon--I think it's possible to pair each movie with a Simpsons episode that references it. At least a half-dozen Simpsons episodes have alluded to Citizen Kane, but the best one is the fifth-season episode "Rosebud," in which Mr. Burns pines for his childhood teddy bear Bobo. Kane also gets an overture, courtesy of The White Stripes. The lyrics of their song "The Union Forever," from White Blood Cells, are made up entirely of quotes from the film. Here's a recording from their 2001 Peel Session, along with its sister song "Little Room."

MP3: "Little Room/The Union Forever (2001 Peel Session)" by The White Stripes

I'm firing up the DVD player Saturday at 2:00 sharp. Feel free to drop by.

HELP WANTED

If you are a fan of The Office (American style) and have a free half-hour or so in the next couple days, drop me a line.

FRIDAY TIME-WASTERS

Work is for suckers.

--Achewood is always great, but the closing line of yesterday's strip is one of the funniest things I've seen in a while. (Start here for context.)

--Ian Brill points us to some LA alternative-comedy scene artifacts: clips from Bob Odenkirk's Next pilot and the Jon Brion show pilot.

--Nerds only: Civil War #5 and #6 remixed. And Get Your Civil War On, because it hasn't been linked to enough already. And Kevin Church brings us Grant Morrison live.

--New Modest Mouse song, in weird QuickTime .mov format. (Thanks, Chris!)

--Go listen to some Madeline. (Joanna Newsom - harp)/a couple degrees of voice squeakitude x Athens = you basically know what I'm talking about.

GET DOWN LIL' GARDNER GET DOWN

HIS DARK MATERIALS UPDATE

Pictures!

More pictures!

Yeah, this is looking good. (I'm going to assume the lack of daemons in the pictures just means they haven't been CGIed in yet, because how badly would you have to miss the point to cut the daemons from the movie?)

STORY TIME | The Boy in the Tunnel part 44

By popular demand.

IF GARDNER POSTS SOMETHING IN THE FOREST...

And just like that, we're back. Food poisoning + new job + TiVo + laziness = no GLFC for two months. Sorry.

Anyway, new Boy in the Tunnel chapter later tonight. For reals!

In the meantime, check out my freakishly long essay on Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" over at the Flagpole. And check out this page to hear the covers mentioned in the essay, as well as a special homemade treat.