Why is anyone giving the guy shit over this? He in fact didn't whine, he made good-natured fun of himself the whole time, including characterizing himself as whining when he patently wasn't. I don't have a TV either, for pretty much exactly the same reason Ames gives -- I suck at making big ticket purchases and put it off forever. I'm a total junkie of TV, but I'm getting it off Hulu and Netflix for the time being. Maybe I'm biased because of this, but he seems lovely to me. #jonathanames
@MissNormaDesmond: He was whining, but with enough self-awareness that he was whining to try to play it off as self-aware joking whining but with just enough real whine that people would get the point that he was actually whining. You know, whining. Or something.
The good news is that with so much discussion of his whining, semantic satiation has blasted the concept straight out of my mind, so now I don't think anyone is whining at all. #jonathanames
@celery: Do you actually know him, or have access to other information than what's included here, or is this just your alternative reading? I don't mean this in a combative way, I'm just curious. #jonathanames
@JacquesPaysan: Merci for the clarification. Now I don't feel so bad for judging him to be a douche just based on his cap and studied "thinker" pose in the pic above. #jonathanames
@ms_priestypants: Really. I occasionally blog The Swag Report. Oh, and two weeks ago I got a swanky $100 brunch with a dashing explorer at a fine hotel, partly because of whining. One of my first online experiences was getting flown across the country and driven to meet Viggo Mortensen. That was only half whining, though; the other half was making amusing dirty jokes, also not a skill I thought I could monetize. #jonathanames
Ames, you're a writer. Words are your sacred weapon. Why do you abuse your weapon as such? Does it save you that much precious time to lower-case "i" instead of capitalizing it--"I"--as per proper written English language conventions? Does it save you that many seconds if you DON'T capitalize the first letter of a sentence?
..While we're at it.
"JASON Schwartzman," not "Jonathan Schwatzman." #jonathanames
@snugbug: He's just that old school:
"Reduced to i by 1137 in northern England, it began to be capitalized c.1250 to mark it as a distinct word and avoid misreading in handwritten manuscripts. "
@therealgoogle: What a great little nugget.. Maybe Ames should write piece of fiction whereby he imagines what William the Conqueror would have tweeted during the Battle of Hastings. Lowercase "i" and all. (Gaah, this wouldn't work because William was/spoke French.. We would need a speaker of Anglo-Saxon as the protagonist..) #jonathanames
@snugbug: or a Twitterama (the Battle of Hastings in four twits)
williamconq: @haroldharold, i see you're standing @ridge #holdingposition
haroldharold: @williamconq show self or u dead?
williamconq: @everyone, here i am waving hat, lol #fightsux
haroldharold: @normandyhorses, thy damn of it, more troops! #death
Williamconq was, of course, translated with babblefish #jonathanames
@snugbug: It's Twitter. Maybe he's not pompous enough to give that much of a crap about it. Sometimes he capitalizes, sometimes he doesn't. Or maybe he's ahead of his time -- I think there's a good case to be made for not capitalizing i, actually: [www.nytimes.com]#jonathanames
@MissNormaDesmond: I admit I loved that Caroline Winter NYT piece you linked to, even though I disagree with her thrust. It's true that language is a living body that evolves constantly, but the capped "I" thing is quite a lovely relic from an Anglo-Saxon root language. It deserves to be maintained, especially since contemporary English is such a simplified Germanic language--it uniquely has un-gendered nouns, for example. I don't even know what I mean here, I'm just happy to be talking nerdy stuff that excites me on a dead thread..
He seems tortured by the sudden prickly suspicion that there are millions of thoughtful people such as himself who will refuse to watch his quirky little show, even if they are given free televisions.
@m4ximusprim3: I had the chance to work with him on something a long while ago - He actually is a really nice and thoughtful guy. Not at all woodsy. Not even close.
Does a great storytelling about his first time smoking crack... #jonathanames
The cast is good, and the writing is good, but the whole show has this air of twee preciousness I have never ever associated with Jonathan Ames work. Heck, his work is so un-twee and un-precious it’s hard to understand how it got distilled on the screen like this.
I think it comes down the the stiff direction and editing. When you read Jonathan Ames work it’s snappy, witty an concise. Heck, when he reads his own work it sparks to life. This show? Mehhh. Get snappier direction and editing and it would be tons more fun. #boredtodeath
Isn't calling a show "Bored to Death" tempting fate in a most flippant manner? If I were HBO I'd watch my back. The gods on Mount Nielsen don't appreciate irony. #boredtodeath
Ted Danson is terrific in Bored to Death. He lights up every scene he's in, and I find him totally believable as a megalomaniacal big-city magazine editor. The show is interesting, with some flashes of strong writing, though tonight's episode was uneven at best. But the current season of Curbed is crapola. Larry David shrieking "it's pretty... pretty... pretty.. pretty... good" got old three seasons ago. The last non-stop hilarious Curbed episode starred Krazee-Eyes Killa, though Super Dave makes me laugh every moment he's on. #boredtodeath
I think that apart from Galifianakis, Dandon is the best part of this show. His explanation of his renewed love of women's armpit hair was freaking delightful.
I also think these characters are better drawn than most of the ones in Sex and the City. Plus I don't have to look at Sarah Jessica Parker. #boredtodeath
10/28/09
10/29/09
The good news is that with so much discussion of his whining, semantic satiation has blasted the concept straight out of my mind, so now I don't think anyone is whining at all. #jonathanames
10/29/09
10/27/09
What a moron. #jonathanames
10/27/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
10/28/09
10/28/09
10/28/09
10/27/09
Your TV show needs snappier pacing and editing. The wit is there and the jokes are there but they shockingly fall flat.
Us #jonathanames
10/27/09
..While we're at it.
"JASON Schwartzman," not "Jonathan Schwatzman." #jonathanames
10/28/09
"Reduced to i by 1137 in northern England, it began to be capitalized c.1250 to mark it as a distinct word and avoid misreading in handwritten manuscripts. "
source [www.etymonline.com] #jonathanames
10/28/09
10/28/09
williamconq: @haroldharold, i see you're standing @ridge #holdingposition
haroldharold: @williamconq show self or u dead?
williamconq: @everyone, here i am waving hat, lol #fightsux
haroldharold: @normandyhorses, thy damn of it, more troops! #death
Williamconq was, of course, translated with babblefish #jonathanames
10/28/09
[Later..]
haroldharold @all: i need to appease the Gods with the sacrificial body and bounty of an ox to ensure win. #desperate
williamconq @haroldharold: LOL, a-hole, it's going to be called "beef" once my language takes over your language! #passthepâté
10/28/09
10/28/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
Does a great storytelling about his first time smoking crack... #jonathanames
10/27/09
10/19/09
I think it comes down the the stiff direction and editing. When you read Jonathan Ames work it’s snappy, witty an concise. Heck, when he reads his own work it sparks to life. This show? Mehhh. Get snappier direction and editing and it would be tons more fun. #boredtodeath
10/19/09
What about Flight of the Conchords?
10/18/09
10/18/09
10/18/09
10/18/09
I also think these characters are better drawn than most of the ones in Sex and the City. Plus I don't have to look at Sarah Jessica Parker. #boredtodeath
10/19/09