Celebrities in a mirror universe, and Nebraska

Here's the link to the pic and the original comments on reddit.

Madonna looks like a Lovecraft horror-monster living in a small Maine town... or a Jim Henson muppet. Either way, it's quite disturbing. Tom Cruise, I can see this being a reality for whatever reason. he looks like he should live down the street from me.

See? Celebrities really are like us.



I also watched Nebraska last night. It romanticizes the upper West-Midwest, and it starts in Billings, Montana, where I spent most of my life (3rd to 12th grade and many summers). I loved the little details Alexander Payne added: the bobcat insignia in their house, the many shots of the rims in the background and the Crowne Plaza, the mention of the Albertsons on King Avenue (totally how people would talk there), the train noises, the refineries. You could practically smell the sugar-beet air. Though all their license plates should have began with a '3'. Not sure why that was overlooked. The black and white added to the starkness of it, and even Forte and Dern's wide-eyed stares. They look like dudes who would live here.





I saw Payne on the Colbert Report. I thought it was one of the rare interviews where Colbert comes off badly, but the director said he basically resented the middle of the country being called 'fly-over states', and that no one questions Woody Allen why he sets most of his films in New York City. Either way, happy to see the love for a part of the country few see. There are a lot of old timers here, middle-aged people living dead end lives, and much of it is wasting away-- those old farms and ranches, big family reunions with 10 siblings, that's the truth. I live in Bozeman, Montana now-- the culture is different here, more hip, youthful, less real. Billings is grittier, downright unattractive in a lot of places. You have to respect that, but the follies of youth you know? And to be honest, it has never been like the rest of the upper Midwest-West. Billings has always been growing, and now the Bakken is accelerating that change into a bigger city. It is the meeting of the East and West. You can tell by the accent. Baaaaag. My friend from Florida even says I say VAGUE weird. Well, you say caramel and groceries weird, Sarah.

EDIT: I know the story necessitated it, but who would buy a truck in Nebraska when you could go home to Montana? No sales tax, bro. Though I have heard if you can prove you're a resident of Montana, you can get out of other state's sales taxes... oh whatever, it's a movie, Nick.