Insert boilerplate text here that goes on the front page, and then when people click they see the rest of the sentence, which explains that I wrote that on purpose to make people think "ah hah, they screwed up." No, I just didn't want to have the main-page text say "short blog today, I'm finishing a column." But since you're here, well, short blog today. So:

URBAN STUDIES The question isn't how they got so bad, it's how they seem to have reached a state of perfect decay without getting completely trashed. Haunting photos of abandoned theaters.

DISNEY Everyone knows that the stretching room in the Haunted Mansion goes down in Disneyland and up in Disneyworld, right? I didn't. More here.

INTERNET And a shiver of dismay just ran up and down the spines of a million teens:

That's from the Daily Dot; more here. I love the Orwellian Department of Trust and Safety, and the assurance that they don't look at messages under "ordinary circumstances." That's a hard-and-fast distinction.

MOVIES Just in time for Halloween: Hell No, a horror movie built around sensible choices. Finally!

Also in movie news, and because the law says that every week has to have a story about Kubrick, here's indiewire:

They sound dreadful. The original works because there's nothing left at the end. Strangelove crying out in joy to the ghost of Hitler as he rises from his chair as the world explodes seems like a definitive ending, wouldn't you say? Anyone ever watch the credits and think "boy, I wonder what happened next"?

If so, maybe they ask "it would be great if that Monty Python animator directed the sequel, too."

VIDEO Easy . . . easy . . . eeeeasy . . . oh, crap.