Wes Phillips

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Ars Longa, Vita Brevis

As a child who grew up reading the light humor of S. J. Perelmam and James Thurber, I worshipped at the altar of Art Buchwald. I didn't know it at the time, but, looking back on it, he taught me a tremendous amount about the importance of voice. If the practice truly is treacherous, well, Buchwald certainly made it look easy.

Tall Tale Postcards

When I traveled through Wisconsin in the '70s, you could still buy these for a quarter at junk shops around the state. Sure wish I'd taken advantage of the opportunity—as if we needed more stuff around here.

March of the Emperors

This one minute commercial for the French movie channel Canal+ nearly had coffee spurting out my nose.

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Free Music

Website Ionartshttp://ionarts.blogspot.com/2007/01/gardner-podding.html">Ionarts; alerts us to "the amazingly successful free podcast of the classical concert series at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum."

Yet Another Sexual Kink I Don't Understand

The definition of "fetish" is "object or part of the body that arouses libidinal impulses—often to the exclusion of genital impulses." Fetishizing that annoying Microsoft Word paperclip, however, goes beyond extreme kink into deeply creepy territory.

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Best DVD Commentaries

Now that I don't review DVDs professionally, I almost never watch the commentary tracks. Like most folks, I feel I could use that time watching a movie I've never seen before—yet, a few (a very small few) of 'em are interesting or amusing. I think my favorite was Randy Newman's commentary for Pleasantville, which came off as an insider's view of the Hollywood scoring community (his uncles Lionel and Alfred were both film composers).

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