Lindsey Shaugnessy e-mailed me that The Office tv show is having a t-shirt design contest. Well, I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try my hand at designing a t-shirt that could possibly be sold by NBC.com! Of course, giving the winner royalties or something like that would be just too much, but the social critic in me is immediately silenced by that humorous Jim (Like that? That’s called subtle sarcasm…).

I would include a link to the web page where you can vote for my t-shirt, but I don’t think there’s any voting mechanism. The contest seems as well-thought and serious as the many contests the Carl claims to have.

But here’s my entry:

-Alex Sciuto

Last week’s Presidential debate was a huge success on Carleton campus. Almost every student with a television was tuned in, beer firmly in hand. Memorable moments (including Obama’s use of the word “orgy”) have been quoted around campus more passionately than Dave Chappelle’s Little Jon skits were quoted in high school.

But the fun has only just begun. Tomorrow (Thursday 8PM) marks the first Vice Presidential debate and it has the potential to be one of the greatest nights in political entertainment history. With Biden’s brashness and Palin’s cluelessness, what could be better than watching the debate?

…Watching the debate with a drinking game. Duh.

Drink if:

• Palin has no idea what she’s talking about but gets increasingly more vague as she bullshits on.
• Biden made his point a long time ago, but he’s still talking.
• Palin says: “I’m not going to pretend I know the answer to this question, but…”
• Biden says “the truth is…” or “folks”
• Palin pulls out the “sexism” card
• Palin refers to any member of her absurdly named family
• Biden has a “clever” single word response.
• Palin says “In Alaska…”
• Anyone makes a joke involving hockey moms, lipstick, or any cloven-hoofed animal.

Feel free to add your own rules if you don’t have classes on Friday. For the rest of you, I’m pretty sure your professor will understand if you miss your 4A because you’re hung over from the debates.

-Shilpa Rao

This past Thursday, NBC premiered the first episode of season five of The American Office (I know, I know. By now saying The Office automatically signifies the North American version, but remember back a few years ago? When saying The Office meant Ricky Gervais?). I don’t think there are too many people out there who aren’t biased in favor of the show and I’m certainly not one of them, but I really enjoyed the show. I constantly wonder how they’ll keep the plots interesting, but by now I trust the writing quality enough that I tuck the fear that the show has jumped the shark in the back of my head.

I’ll try not to give away any spoilers here. The aspect of the show that I enjoyed most was the renewed attention to the central conceit of a documentary inside a television show. The choice to cover the summer in the form of vignettes with week long spaces of time in-between “tapings” of the documentary was particularly well done. Without it the surprise of Michael Scott (or Dwight) growing a goatee would have been impossible. I also liked the large amount of shaky and/or surreptitious filming. Often times, like when Michael fell down the stairs as the cameraman chased after him, what the camera missed or barely caught was made so much more poignant precisely because it wasn’t meant for film. <BIG SPOILER ALERT>Of course the conceit was best used in the most touching scene from the episode when Jim proposes to Pam. Not only did the surreptitious filming allow us to see a genuinely private moment (fictionally genuinely private, but still), but the location of the camera, across the street catching the whole view of the gas station, really nicely framed the scene. It was a gentle reminder to the viewer that what the audience viewed as such a special act was in fact normal. This knowledge, for me, instead of cheapening Jim and Pam’s sentiments, really made the entire highway/gas station seem like a magical and memorable place.

The one area that I questioned the believability of the writing was with Dwight and how the audience should relate to him. When he broke up with Angela, his pain and alienation forged a sincere relationship between him and the viewer, one that mostly bypassed Rainn Wilson’s caricature of the Dwight as office fascist. The writers synthesized those two Dwights making reasonable how his pain led to the fascism. I’m not sure how the writers want me to connect the socially incompetent, completely unsubtle Dwight, with the Dwight who is constantly sneaking off with Angela to hook-up in the warehouse. Not that I’m complaining, it’s funny, but it’s just a little thing that’s bothering me.

So bravo BJ Novak and all the other writers. I like it.

-Alex Sciuto