Slant Magazine

1. Why there is no iTunes for movies. Slate's Farhad Manjoo takes a look at the various deals in place that keep an online site that offers streaming movies for a monthly fee from happening.

["Sound like a lot to ask for? In fact, it's pretty much the same system that Netflix has been offering with DVDs for years. I'm only calling for someone to give me all the splendors of Netflix, but through the Web. Netflix proves that even if you give people unlimited subscriptions, they'll still watch only a handful per month. My guess is that the same sensibility governs online rentals. Sure, a few uninspired people will sit around streaming movies every spare moment, but most of us have too much to do to abuse an unlimited subscription, even when we cut out the postal service as the middle man."]

2. 4 Favorite Earth Day Movies. Current Movies rounds up the four movies that could make anyone an environmentalist, including ... a Godzilla flick? Related: Check out the new trailer for Oceans, the latest from the folks behind Winged Migration. The actual footage from the film is compelling, but there's a ton of Disney self-congratulation. But, then, what else do you expect?

["Directed by Yoshimitsu Banno, the film is a hodge podge of hippie-dom when Godzilla (everyone's favorite foil for nuclear holocaust) must step up to battle the alien Hedorah who feeds off pollution and gives off all sorts of bad things. This somehow damages everyone's favorite nuclear monster, but the Big Green Guy wins in the end."]

3. Variety talks to Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, the guys behind Lost, and gets a nicely wide-ranging interview out of them that focuses less on where the show's going heading into its final handful of episodes and more on the show's past and long-term recognition.

["I think our hope is that looking back on the entire run of the show, that people remember the EXPERIENCE of watching it—what it actually felt like to be mystified and frustrated and surprised—as opposed to just where it landed storywise. When all is said and done, we'll have consumed six years of our fans' lives and our greatest wish is that they look back on that time and feel that it was all worth it. As far as whether we'll want to revisit "Lost" 20 years from now, the answer is probably no... though it would be pretty cool to see what someone else might come up with!"]

4. I know I force my personal obsessions on you people a lot, but if you don't like this Quiet Bubble roundtable on baseball and literature on some level, well, then I don't much like you.

["But baseball time is something else. Not the clock's tick but a series of tableaux. You don't just watch it, you study it. What else is there to do?! Baseball fandom is stats-obsessed partly because the discreteness of baseball play makes for easier counting, but partly (mostly) because the game's visceral thrill is the waiting, savoring, dwelling, ruminating. Marinating. Only in baseball does the radio guy go, 'Here comes the windup...'"]

5. The 20 Male Poses of Facebook. On the other hand, this is just funny. (h/t: Jason Bellamy)

["The Facebook Photo— a bitch and a lover. As a girl, I choose my facebook photo primarily by how unrealistically attractive I look in it. It's narcissistic, but you can't deny that you do the same thing. I'm not going to lie, sometimes when I'm getting ready to go out, I'll evaluate whether or not I'm lookin' "Facebook-worthy" that night. In other instances I'll even attend certain events just because I think I'll get a cute Facebook pic out of it. Overall, it's accepted that girls use their Facebook pic as an outlet to display their "Oh my Gawd I look HAWT!" pictures. What about guys? With guys it's harder. It would be a little gay for a guy to display a nicely cropped photo of himself trying to look as cute as possible, workin' all the right angles and sucking in like the world is about to end. While I was searching through the Ryans, I discovered that there exist 20 different standard shots that guys use for their Facebook picture. It's like guys got together and agreed that these 20 poses will make them look good without trying to hard because that would be gay dude. The best part is that most of them are a hilariously horrible call. Let's do a little study, shall we? I present to you, The 20 Male Poses of Facebook!"]

Quote of the Day:

Image of the Day (click to enlarge): This "Kids' Letters to Michael Bay" feature over at Screen Junkies is pretty amusing.

Clip of the Day: My latest YouTube obsession: this Edarem fellow, who is apparently an insane old man fascinated by TV theme songs. This is what I will become, folks. This is what I will become.