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Dan Carlson
Houston, Texas

I'm a twentysomething white male with ambitions to be a professional film critic and generally spend my days getting paid to watch movies and write about it. A compulsive reader and stubborn cineaste, I take an often contrary stance to my more fundamentalist peers and upbringing by celebrating the pursuit of the good, and the Good, in life, love, art and film. If you watched enough episodes of certain TV shows — for starters, "The Hungry and the Hunted," "The Cut Man Cometh," "The Body," "The Zeppo," "Waiting in the Wings," "Out of Gas," "April Is the Cruelest Month," "20 Hours in America," "Colonial Day," "An Echolls Family Christmas," "Look Who's Stalking," "The Garage Door," "Charlie Gets Crippled," "Wind Sprints," and "Corner Boys" — you would understand me completely, and you'd also realize that much of my worldview and philosophical insights are heavily influenced by fictional works/programs, and many of the good things I've said in my life are just a regurgitation of someone else's imaginings, or at any rate a heartfelt attempt to interpret them. I guess I was made to be a film critic.

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September 12, 2007

Come On, You Guys Have Made Out With People Weirder Than Me

By Dan Carlson

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This week in the Willamette Week, I take a look at TBS' "My Boys," which is low-key, predictable, and completely watchable. It's not groundbreaking, but it is oddly comforting.

Click here for the column.

P.S. If I were a superhero, I would be Captain Douchebag.

P.P.S. This is somewhat unrelated, but always appropriate:

Comments: 6

sarah

i love Friends... more than some of my real-life friends. it's sad, kind-of.

have you listened to that elvis costello album yet? at least check out the track with lucinda on it.

and yes, i will keep randomly commenting about listening to elvis costello until you give in or tell me to F off.

Sep 12, 2007 8:05 AM

Julie

That is my favorite scene of my favorite episode of Friends.

"What was Monica's nickname as a field hockey goalie?"
"Big fat goalie!"

Never fails to crack me up.

Sep 12, 2007 10:13 AM

ScribeLA

Thanks for posting this scene. Friends ages well, n'est pas? "Ms. Chanandeler Bong." haha.
ScribeLA

Sep 12, 2007 11:17 AM

Constance

If you were Captain Douchebag the staff of Pajiba would have to stage a super douchebag intervention and perhaps write letters about how you've let us down with your douchey douchebaggery. My letter might go something like this: "LOOK AT YOUR BELT!"

Sep 12, 2007 12:20 PM

Kyle

Wow. I watched that whole thing. That's a funny one.

Sep 13, 2007 9:00 PM

Tom the Dog

I have great love for My Boys, which, yes, does not break the sitcom mold, but which is just so damn AFFABLE. I like spending time with those people very much. The board game tournament was a great moment indeed. And of course, the trivia contest on Friends was one of the funniest bits ever in the history of TV. Absolutely classic.

Sep 15, 2007 2:35 AM

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Remembering speechlessly we seek the great forgotten language, the lost lane-end into heaven, a stone, a leaf, an unfound door. Where? When?

O lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back again.
— Look Homeward, Angel, Thomas Wolfe

Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.
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We are all under the same mental calamity; we have all forgotten our names. We have all forgotten what we really are. All that we call common sense and rationality and practicality and positivism only means that for certain dead levels of our life we forget that we have forgotten. All that we call spirit and art and ecstasy only means that for one awful instant we remember that we forget.
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