Good morning, y’all! Did you miss us yesterday? Bet you did! Especially the theater trolls! Top of the news pile this morning: According to the Student Press Law Center, the University of Maryland’s Board of Regents opted to not make a constitution-violating anti-porn policy for the university. “The students couldn’t be happier,” Sarah Elfreth, the student rep on the board, told the SPLC. Good on the board, I say, and good on the students for defending what’s important; free speech is the shit.

The one band everyone–save for me and NME–forgot to put on their best of the decade list, how to solve a Rubik’s cube, more still on Dave Eggers’ foray into newspapers, and more, after the jump.

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NME reports that the Shins frontman is set to star in a feature-length film titled Some Days Are Better Than Others. Director Matt McCormick says the film’s all about “lonely people trying to create their own abstract forms of communication.” Sounds pretty heavy. It’s slated for release in August 2009.

Over at MOG, Charley Rogulewski observes an uncanny resemblance between Mercer and Kevin Spacey. Shins biopic, anyone? I’d be down, assuming it doesn’t prevent Spacey from directing, producing, and starring in The Mike Huckabee Story. Both scenarios would offer the actor ample opportunity to indulge his well-established fondness for channeling musical personae.

McCormick and Mercer have collaborated on two Shins videos (see below): “The Past & Pending” (from Oh, Inverted World) and “Australia” (from Wincing the Night Away). If these are any indication, Some Days will probably involve a lot of abandoned farmhouses, an old-school camera, and balloon abduction.

Read More “James Mercer: Star of the Silver Screen!” »