1. The New Yorker’s Ben Greenman has come up with a list of a day’s worth of facts to get you through Wikipedia’s 24-hour blackout. [via McSweeney's]

2. In a move that rivals that woman who was upset that Drive wasn’t enough like a Fast and the Furious movie, some cinemagoers in the UK are demanding their money back because they didn’t realize that The Artist was a silent film. [via Telegraph]

3. The producers of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark are now suing the show’s former director, Julie Taymor, claiming that she developed “a dark, disjointed, and hallucinogenic musical involving suicide, sex, and death,” and refused to make the necessary changes when there were problems. [via BBC]

4. Pusha-T, Jay Electronica, and Frank Ocean are among the G.O.O.D. Music artists who are set to appear on Kanye West’s forthcoming compilation album, which is set for release this spring. [via NME]

5. LL Cool J is hosting this year’s Grammys which air February 12th on CBS at 8 pm. Didn’t realize that this particular awards show even had one? The last time it did was back in 2005, when Queen Latifah was at the helm. [via Vulture]

Bonus Buzz: The Internet’s Blackout Pages And SOPA Protests

Holiday-party season is upon us, which means you’ve probably encountered at least one round of Secret Santa, whether it’s at work or among friends. Of course, this also means you’re faced with the conundrum of finding something cool without spending too much. Because we all know that the two things most important with Secret Santa gifts are that 1) they shouldn’t actually set you back financially, and 2) they need to demonstrate your thoughtfulness, creativity, and utter coolness, impressing the pants off the recipient and everyone involved. We already took inspiration from the release of Madden NFL 12 from our friends at EA Sports to give you ideas on how to enjoy the holidays at home; now we’re using it as the jumping-off point to help you find some top-notch gifts that will leave you feeling smugger than Mr. Claus himself. Whether your recipient is a football fanatic, a culture vulture, or a sartorial junkie, here’s a plethora of thrifty gifts that will make you wish your own Secret Santa had this list. Read More »

Today at Flavorpill, we met 100 of the greatest movie villains. We loved this hilarious Thanksgiving-themed spoof on The Hunger Games from McSweeney’s. We heartily agreed with this Thanksgiving Food Pyramid. We found it incredibly endearing that Cameron Crowe made Matt Damon a really sad mixtape to help convince him to take a role in We Bought a Zoo. We couldn’t believe that Jimmy Fallon grounded Questlove for playing “Lyin’ Ass Bitch” during Michele Bachmann’s appearance on his show last night. We decided that this piece on the hushed dangers of startup depression should be required reading for anyone who works on the web. We were thrilled to see this mashup of Calvin and Hobbes and He-Man by illustrator Christopher Tupa. We were hypnotized by this video of flashing faces. We saw what The Walking Dead‘s humans would look like as zombies. And finally, we hoped that this clip is the craziest thing that we see for a long, long time, because it involves the consumption of fluorescent light bulbs.

The extremely unconventional 36th issue of McSweeney’s quarterly magazine is a box-shaped head filled with short stories, art postcards, a “lost” work by Michael Chabon, and a tiny scroll.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius author Dave Eggers founded McSweeney’s independent publishing house as a forum for indie literary-fiction authors to articulate progressive ideas. Issue 36 is a “275-cubic-inch full-color head-crate” filled with booklets and other objects, ripe for the sifting.

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The so-called death of print has hardly heralded the death of literature. To the contrary, the digital age has actually inspired a resurgence of publications that are committed to literary activity across a variety of styles, genres, and mediums — stuffy academic reviews be damned. Although plenty of established print journals have now fostered an online presence, this new generation of internet-centric periodicals has taken hold of the malleable platform (and the absence of print and distribution costs) to further the creative community. To get your feet wet, here are ten online publications that you should know about — and please share any other recommendations in the comments section.

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Spike Jonze’s first film since Where the Wild Things Are is presented in multimedia format with There Are Many of Us, a deluxe hardcover book packaged with a DVD and a CD soundtrack.

The film itself, I’m Here, is an emotional 30-minute short that follows the romance between two endearing robots in an alternate version of modern-day LA. The book features photos, interviews, and behind-the-scenes glimpses at its genesis, while the soundtrack includes songs from Sleigh Bells, Animal Collective, and the Lost Trees — a group featuring Nick Zinner, Flea, and singer Aska Matsumiya.

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Today at Flavorpill, we welcomed back the Vaselines, who just unveiled a new single. (It has been over 20 years since their last LP.) We learned the full names of 22 famous fictional characters — like, did you know that Barbie’s name is Barbara Millicent Roberts? We found out where the members of the original A-Team cast are now. We were impressed by how good the world’s oldest leather shoe looks 5,500 years later. We got sad just thinking about a world without Jaws, Chinatown, or Life of Brian. We laughed out loud over McSweeney’s “Great Literature Retitled To Boost Website Traffic.” We had fun imagining what was going through Meredith Veira’s head when this 13-year-old interviewee dropped two c-bombs in a row on The Today Show. We found out that it pays more to tweet if you’re Bob Vila than Stephanie Pratt. And finally, we watched Alfred Hitchcock drop the first ever “that’s what she said” joke. The year? 1929.

Over the weekend, the full trailer for Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World was posted online to relatively positive reception. The main criticism, as with almost all Michael Cera-related content, was that he was once again playing the role of awkward-yet-lovable teenage protagonist. And although it may be frustrating to see a young actor make so much money off of one trick, we must admit that we we’re not ready to quit him quite yet. Here’s why.

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Today at Flavorpill, we were creeped out by the idea that Facebook knows when your relationship is going to end before you do. We discovered where cursors come from. We enjoyed Baby’s Touch ‘N Feel Guide to Russian Literature, courtesy of McSweeney’s. We refused to believe that Justin Bieber’s tiny bird tattoo can be real. Or located on his girlish hip. We followed @feministhulk. (Sample tweet: “HULK NOT AFRAID OF GLASS CEILING. HULK EAT GLASS FOR BREAKFAST.”) We wondered what moving Parks and Recreation might mean for our favorite show, 30 Rock. We visited 15 amazing castles from around the world. We watched a couple in Japan get married by a humanoid robot. We decided that a touch of Le Tigre does a world of good for Christina Aguilera’s sound — just listen to this preview of “I Hate Boys.” And finally, we relived The National’s Saturday night Red Hot-benefiting show at BAM, thanks to our friends at ZYNC from American Express.

The Clock Without a Face transcends any preconceived notion of what genre is. It’s a hefty, pentagonal hunk of text and image, but it’s also a puzzle/treasure hunt. The storyline is simple. The great detective Roy Dodge teams up with his assistant, Gus Twintig, to solve the mystery of 12 missing emerald-studded numbers from an ancient clock. But here’s where things get interesting: the numbers, designed and hand-crafted by Anna Sheffield, can really be found buried in twelve holes across the country (“an extra bonus for especially energetic or greedy readers”). We interviewed one of the book’s three co-authors, Eli Horowitz, who is also an editor at McSweeney’s, to find out how they came up with this crazy idea.

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