The Ashcan

The Morning Dump: Ebert in Esquire, grading suicide notes, Elton John thinks Jesus was totally gay, punching Colin Farrell

Posted on 20. Feb, 2010 by theashcan in Morning Dump

• I’ll bite. If you live on the internet then I’m sure you’ve already read the quiet, eloquent Esquire feature on Roger Ebert that came out this week. It’s wonderfully put together by Jones, a former sports writer for the National Post, and I think that’s played as much into the appeal of the story as the famed, once-televised, now permanently-silenced film critic himself. This is the second time Roger Ebert finds himself in our link roundup (we raved about the wonderful writing on his blog before). And for those of you have read the piece already, Ebert’s response.

• When  Andrew Joseph Stack III flew a plane into a government building in Austin Texas, he left behind a 3,000 word suicide note condemning everything from the church to the IRS (especially the IRS). Over at Poynter, the journalism institute, Roy Peter Clark weighs in not on the act itself of the kamikaze pilot, but in the language of his note, criticizing it for being not up to journalistic standards. Here’s an example: “Orwell, I imagine, would see in the text an example of a mosaic of dead language, what he calls a ‘substitute for thinking.’” He presents an interesting angle to it all, accusing a murderer of the crime of bad, cliche ridden writing, but, I mean, is he being serious?

• I’m too young to understand why Elton John is famous. I mean, I appreciate him. But I probably will never understand him. His recent feature interview with Parade Magazine was pretty entertaining however. In it, Sir Elton compares himself to the late Princess Diana in terms of fame, then declares he doesn’t like being a celebrity anymore… while sitting in his multi-million dollar condo, on break from his tour with Billy Joel. Oh self-loathing famous folks; they can be so quaint. Also, Elton John apparently thinks Jesus was “a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems”. Interesting.

• I was so totally going to link to that Esquire/Ebert joint, but just because someone beat me to it doesn’t mean we can’t pound back more word shots from Canadian scribe Chris Jones. So big thanks to whoever tweeted a link to this other bundle of awesome, a 2003 Jones flashback wonderfully called “Don’t You Just Want to PUNCH Colin Farrell?” The story is just as hilarious as the title! This is that old school Esquire incredibly male-ish New Journalism verve, and I likes it. I’m so flexing my forearms right now and I’m drunk with your sister and later I’m going to write a VERY terse poem about it. Fuck yeah. Right after I get Mr. Farrell’s autograph.

Tags: Andrew Joseph Stack III, Austin Texas, Chris Jones, Colin Farrell, Esquire, IRA, kamikaze, Poynter, punching celebrities, Roger Ebert, Roy Peter Clark, suicide note