BlackBook

Although Chicago readily and enthusiastically claims Roger Ebert as one of its favorite sons, the late, great film critic spent most of his formative years in the bustling university metropolis of Champaign, Illinois. For years, Champaign has played home to Ebertfest, an annual hometown celebration where he selects several of his favorite under-the-radar films from recent years to be screened for the locals at the historic Virginia Theatre. And although this is the first Ebertfest without the man, the show will go on as planned. 

Instead of ending the year with a slew of Best Of lists, BlackBook asked our contributors to share the most important moments in art, music, film, television, and fashion that took place in 2012. Here, Lindsay Eanet writes of the gospel of Matthew E. White’s Big Inner, one of the year’s most joyous listening experiences.

According to some conspiracy theorists that are taking the Mayan prophecy so seriously the Mayans are actually all, like, “knock it off, bro” now, the world is in ending in 19 days. Assuming this prediction is, in fact, incorrect, lovers from all over the world will be able to tie the knot in the way they’d always imagined—in a wedding chapel at the new Neonopolis Denny’s in Las Vegas. Knowing this now, we’d imagine more Americans are hoping that perhaps the Mayans are right after all.

If you still want to help out East Coasters affected by Hurricane Sandy and do so in an environment with adult beverages and high-caliber entertainment, this week, a couple more enticing Sandy benefits have been announced. So if you’re looking for something to do next week and live in the greater New York, Atlantic City, or Los Angeles areas, here you go.

With the holidays comes the time-honored end-of-the-year influx of crazy-hyped movies, and while many will choose to spend their Christmas Day ugly-crying for three hours to Les Misérables (no judgment!), there are other options. One of these is Django Unchained, the all-star Sergio Corbucci-inspired Spaghetti-Western-meets-Deep-South feature from Quentin Tarantino. Today the final trailer was released for the film, which stars Jamie Foxx as the title character, a former slave who joins forces with a bounty hunter (Tarantino favorite Christoph Waltz) to take out a gang and rescue his wife (Kerry Washington) from her brutal master, played by Leonardo DiCaprio with a sinister-looking facial hair arrangement. 

"Seriously, whenever somebody's like, 'I don't want my pickle,' I'm like, 'Are you insane?'" author Jami Attenberg tells us, which is probably the realest thing we've heard anyone say all day. 

Barack Obama may have gotten an endorsement from a real billionaire yesterday—New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who cited the destruction of Hurricane Sandy and the highly unnerving real threat of climate change as swaying his decision—but not to be outdone, Mitt Romney countered with another well-recognized American billionaire. Yesterday, shocking no one, Fox released a video in which The Simpsons' C. Montgomery Burns, the eccentric, insanely wealthy, sort-of-evil tycoon owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, endorses Romney from the dark and stormy headquarters of the Springfield Republican Party. 

For those of you who have power at this point but don't feel like leaving your houses on Halloween, you can still curl up and relive your childhood with the Sanderson Sisters and their shenanigans. Apparently, the 1993 Disney Halloween classic starring Bette Midler (and her brilliant rendition of "I Put A Spell On You"), Sarah Jessica Parker (and her crazy eyebrows) and Kathy Najimy (riding a vacuum cleaner) can be viewed—not in the highest of quality, but decent enough—on the YouTubes, in its entirety, in one video. Talking cat and all. 

My internet conveniently went out this morning, which seems to make a lot of sense as it managed to hold on during Hurricane Sandy. With New Yorkers returning to work en masse by way of cabs and car services, I managed to change out of my blogging outfit (read: only sweatpants) and put on real clothes to face the day. I can report that South Brooklyn is blowin' up. Kids are home from school and gleefully running down the sidewalks, bumping into grumpy childless adults who temporarily put their survivor's guilt on hold to complain about having to do work today. It's like Lord of the Rings out here, and I'm basically fighting orcs for free wireless internet right now. The blog must go on! 

NBC has taken its sitcoms to some strange places lately, from a veterinary office led by Justin Kirk (Animal Practice, we hardly knew ye) to inside the mind of Ryan Murphy, a land of many stereotypes and occasional unfunny racist remarks. One place NBC will not be going, however, is the rustic landscape of a beet farm in rural Pennsylvania. NBC has pulled the plug on The Farm, a proposed spinoff of The Office focusing on life on Assistant (to the) Regional Manager Dwight Schrute's family farm and introducing all his wacky family members (now with 100% more Cousin Mose!).