So, everything is sort of falling apart slowly, right? Still sort of trying to work the marriage thing out, trying to get my own business off the ground, still not sure if we can keep the house, blah blah blah. And yet, here I am, for the first time in years, fronting a full four piece band. Here I am, for the first time ever, singing in the type of band that has enough interest to have options. [Read more →]
You might have noticed that When Falls the Coliseum has been adding lots of new content and new writers in recent weeks. This is only the beginning. We are looking for contributors who can write engaging posts on any of the subjects we cover. So if you have something to say and can say it well, read on. [Read more →]
August 19, 2008
I dream I get mixed up with Eastern European rugby players, but the game they’re playing is not rugby. It involves whacking pieces of plastic with brooms. I find myself involved, not only with their sport, but with walking their mascots, one of which is mangled by a ferocious weasel owned by one of my foolish teammates. The old people who control the sport are furious. [Read more →]
I must confess that:
1. I know many magicians.
2. I have performed mentalism.
3. I saw the Amazing Kreskin perform a scaled-down version of his show in a seedy, off the Strip casino in Las Vegas.
4. I love John Malkovich.
But while my interest in the subject matter and lead actor may have enhanced my enjoyment of the film, you do not need to know anything about magic or Kreskin to appreciate the The Great Buck Howard. [Read more →]
Wow. Did anyone actually last through the full two-hour episode of Dancing With the Stars last night? I barely got through it. It was painful, excruciating actually. I would rather get a Novocaine-free root canal than watch that show again. But it’s my job. It’s what I do. And I do it for you. [Read more →]
“Life is like eating artichokes, you have got to go through so much to get so little.” –Thomas Dorgan, writer, cartoonist, New Yorker.
Artichokes are yummy. And good for you too. They have tons of vitamins and nutrients in them, including calcium, iron, and magnesium. [Read more →]
Think on These Things is the title of a book by Jiddu Krishnamurti. I don’t how many people nowadays remember Krishnamurti, but he was a most extraordinary fellow.
Born near Madras, India, in 1895, he was spotted on a beach when he 13 years old by C.W. Leadbeater, an Anglican priest turned theosophist. Leadbeater said the boy had the most perfect aura he had ever seen, and he and Annie Besant, the president of the World Theosophical Society, arranged with Krishnamurti’s father to take the boy and his younger brother back to England with them. [Read more →]
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the movie, as most people know, is based upon a short story of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Not one of his best, Fitzgerald’s story is relatively brief, a rather obvious playing-out of what he must have considered a clever idea — a life lived backwards. It’s written in the same fabulist mode in which he wrote several other stories. Two of them, “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz” and “Oh, Russet Witch,” are two of my favorite short stories of all time. [Read more →]
This week’s Bad sports, good sports starts with the bad. About as bad as you can get, actually. Imagine you are playing soccer, and you have gotten loose for a breakaway. Heading toward the goalie, you start to make your move. Do you score? Umm…. no. At least, not if you’re in Iraq, apparently. Instead, you get shot in the head and killed. [Read more →]
The economy is in the crapper. Sick of hearing about it? So am I. So where are the answers? Every time I turn on the news I cross my fingers that one of these drones is going to give me some good news. An inkling of hope. Something. Anything. “Start a lemonade stand.” Give me an idea. Anything at all. Every night I watch, or actually try not to watch, the news. It’s bleak to say the least. All the reports are about the decline in the stock market, bailouts, stimulus plans and that in vitro obsessed octo-psycho. Enough is enough. The marketplace is changing. We get it. So for everybody out there that’s had it with news stories about overpaid AIG executives and Bernie Madoff’s bazillion dollar Ponzi scheme, stay with me here. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. [Read more →]
10. $1.1 billion to make airport security even slower
9. $1.5 million to study the feasibility of harnessing the wind generated by Rush Limbaugh
8. $750,000 incentive given on condition that the Octomom “knock it off”
7. $300 million to acquire electric vehicles for the federal vehicle fleet, and another $300 million for really really long extension cords
6. $50 million for the newly created Commission for the Study of Stem-Cell Research and Presidential Cloning
5. $50,000 to enable Michael Phelps to continue his drug research
4. $1 million to put The Love Guru II into fast-track production
3. $10 million to build a Bridge Back from Nowhere
2. $15.35 to reinforce the levees in New Orleans
1. $50 billion to enable homeowners to afford their own tents
My son is 2 1/2 and he started sleeping in a bed a few nights ago. I thought the first two nights went well… I had to threaten that I would shut his door and take away some of his favorite bedtime loveys, but after only a few attempts at escaping his room, he finally got into his bed and fell asleep. Last night he made up for those relatively good nights and almost broke me. [Read more →]
When Falls the Coliseum wants to expand its book coverage. If you are a book reviewer, or would like to be one, we’d be happy to hear from you. Our plan is to have a weekly column or columns that cover recent books in a variety of genres. This could include mystery, crime fiction, chick-lit, science fiction, fantasy, graphic novels/comics, so-called literary fiction, romance, and all subjects of nonfiction.
If you are interested, visit our submissions page and send us a bio like the kind our contributors have written. Also indicate that you would like to review books and tell us how frequently you can do this (every week, every other week, once a month) and what genre(s) you would like to cover. [Read more →]
Sometimes when I’m riding my bike, I like to sing. Often on the way to work, when I catch all green lights going down hill, and I have the wind at my back, as I’m speeding through traffic with the open road ahead of me, I will scream at the top of my burning lungs, Wagner’s The Ride Of The Valkyries. I’m also a great admirer of Benjamin Franklin, as well as the rest of the founding fathers. And I can’t help but sing when most R. Kelly songs come on the radio. So, what do Franklin, Wagner, and The Pied Piper of R&B have in common? They are all people who have created great things, while also being major assholes. [Read more →]
Dear Ruby,
All my life I’ve been a bit of a dreamer. You know, places to go, people to meet, and new careers upon which to embark. While I was married, with a young son, I mostly kept the dreams at bay with occasional small indulgences like becoming a painter for a year. Now in my mid-40’s I am starting to wonder if it is reasonable to still be a dreamer, let alone to actually pursue one. Being divorced I no longer have a family to support, nor any reason to stay where I am or to do what I am doing. I feel the huge wide world constantly beckoning but worry where I will be in 20 years. Is it time to stop dreaming, grow up, and plant some roots?
Anonymous
OK kids, here’s the breakdown this week:
Survivor — Again, boring by my standards. It really doesn’t get all that exciting until the merge hits and the castaways are forced to turn on each other. To nobody’s surprise, Spencer, the gay kid, went home last week. Not because he was gay (nobody actually knew, he hadn’t come out), but because he was a pansy and didn’t perform well at the challenge. He really didn’t have a chance. [Read more →]
I went to the midnight IMAX showing of The Watchmen and felt like a kid again. Literally, the average age of a theater goer had to be 35, about ten years older than me — and it was awesome! [Read more →]
November 10, 2008
I dream I am a superhero or avenger type indulging in one of my favorite hobbies: walking through amusement park spook house rides and examining spook house artifacts. As I climb through very late at night I get wind of a competing hero who is plotting my demise. I run around a shopping center in circles in an attempt to draw the competing hero out. My plan is to turn a corner very quickly and then when she turns to follow me I change my direction and leap towards her. In this scenario, we collide and I knock her out. My plan fails because, wisely, she does not follow me. [Read more →]
After rushing to theaters for a pre-Academy Awards rampage that included Slumdog Millionaire, Doubt, The Reader, Gran Torino, The Wrestler and Rachel Getting Married, I decided it was time for a palate cleanser. I thought He’s Just Not That into You might be just the spoonful I needed. [Read more →]
Robert: I have to say, Paula, the public outcry over the ridiculous bonuses to AIG executives strikes me as long, long overdue. I think Americans have reacted to brutal business practices sort of the way some women react to abusive men: They can’t help it. It goes with the territory. [Read more →]
