popular thinking

THE SUNDAY SURF: Combining last week's potential shown by "The Saturday Surf" and "The Sunday Times." Is this another example of two great tastes that taste great together? Discuss. No, wait. Read these stories first. Then discuss.

-- Hollywood is still too much in love with itself, as witnessed by the latest TV project, Hopeless Pictures. (Slate)

-- 10 reasons why network news anchors are here to stay. (Newsday)

-- If you think the Weekly Dig and the Boston Phoenix are engaged in trench warfare, then you really don't know what alt-weeklies can do. Just take a look at Seattle, where The Stranger (which the Weekly Dig worships) has been taking potshots at Seattle Weekly for years. The latest brew-ha-ha gets coverage in the dailies. (Seattle P-I)

-- Hollywood is about to cut its print movie ad budgets, as if that's the reason no one wants to see the crappy crap craptactular movies the studios have put out this year. This is not the news we wanted to hear. (LA Weekly) And if that's not enough, the studios also are thinking about cutting back on TV ads, too. Here's an idea: How's abouts putting some dough into the actual movie? (WSJ)

-- The Globe sends a correspondent to my hometown in Connecticut, finds it nothing like I remember it. The Chart House is now Pettibone's Tavern? What gives? (Globe)

-- More people are watching more channels late at night. Is that any different than the morning, afternoon or prime time? Um, no. But thank you, LAT, for keeping track of this developing story. And yet, the paper also reports on how even cable fails to be as revolutionary as it should be in late night. Comedy Central did get the Pamela Anderson roast right, at least, although you had to watch the uncensored version overnight Saturday to get the full flavor, so to speak. (LAT)

-- I'm not the only one watching Rock Star: INXS. It just seems that way sometimes. Thanks, Choire Sicha, our favorite Gawker-turned-Observer. (LAT)

-- And I'm far from the only person going to tonight's opening of the latest Rolling Stones world tour. Sure, they're older than my dad. Certainly, you would've thought Keith Richards would've dropped by now. But two words: Fenway Park. I'm excited. In the meantime, read this rock critic's thoughts about aging rockers outliving their predicted usefulness. Specifically, how the Stones still start it up. (LAT)

-- I'm always a sucker for stories about F. Scott Fitzgerald. This one explores how Hollywood can't adapt him -- oh, the irony! (NYT)