Dear Mr. Lancho:
You chickenshit motherfucker. The bull got one horn into you and you just lay there in the dirt. The bull didn’t do that, even after he’d been stabbed and stuck with swords and spears by your faithful little picadors, your sycophants on horseback. [Read more →]
Our fellow WFTC writer Michael Antman has just published a fine essay on the digitalization of our culture at the popular culture website PopMatters.com. Entitled “The Future is an Empty Room,” the piece explores the impact that digital progress has had and is likely to have on everything from music and books, to the very nature of living spaces in the future. Needless to say, I completely agree with him, and there’s only a few points I’d like to add. [Read more →]
Panicked by the possible legalization of gay marriage in New York State, the National Organization for Marriage went all out with a local TV spot. The load-bearing line in the spot is: “The rights of people who believe that marriage is between a man and a woman will no longer matter.”
What rights are these? [Read more →]
Obviously I take my movie watching somewhat seriously. I mean, I write a blog about it, and that’s a bit above and beyond where most people go with their movie watching. I try and walk a fine line between movie snob and movie goer, but there is one place where I seem to be the movie snob asshole guy, and that’s AT THE MOVIES! [Read more →]
Willie Heath Neal plays country music. That’s what I’d call it, that’s what he calls it. If you listen to popular country radio then you will disagree. You will call his songs “alt-country rockabilly” or “cowpunk” or “outlaw country” or “hillbilly” or “psychobilly.” Really, there seem to be endless ways to describe him by tacking “billy” onto the end of a word. But what really matters as we hash it all out is that he knows how to write a good song. That’s all I care about, and that is exactly what matters when you are in Ybor City on a rainy Tuesday night at Crowbar to see Willie and his gang play. I don’t ordinarily listen to country music (I adore The Old 97’s, but here again, they don’t seem to count), so I had no idea what I was getting into, but I loved every minute of it. [Read more →]
Dear Ruby,
I work for a large company and I’ve gotten friendly with a woman in another department who’s in the lunchroom when I am. I suspect she’s a lesbian and I’m a straight woman, so I want to let her know that a) her orientation is not a problem with me, and b) I’m not interested in romance but I am interested in having her be my friend. She has not said anything specifically so I am wondering how to bring it up. I think it’s a pretty friendly place to work for gay people so I’m not sure if she’s in the closet just to me or everyone. Any tips to break the ice?
Straight but not narrow
In Brewster’s Millions, Richard Pryor’s character Monty Brewster was given the challenge of spending $30 million in 30 days. If he was successful, he would get a $300 million inheritance from a long lost rich uncle. If he failed, he got nothing. The catch was that after 30 days, he could not have any possessions bought with the $30 million, and could return to the lawyers’ office with only the shirt on his back. (That shirt, coincidently enough, was a Chicago Cubs jersey.) The point, his deceased rich uncle told him via a pre-death recorded video, was to teach him to not squander money by making him so sick of spending money that he would think twice before doing it.
Apparently, the previous administration, as well as the current administration, have seen this movie and have subscribed to this method, hoping that if they spend enough money, a rich uncle — Sam? Mao? — will come up with the cash prize. [Read more →]
So Archie has chosen. And by choosing, he’s taking us down a dark path.
Not since Rene Descartes polished off a sixth bottle of wine and slurred the famous maxim, “I drink therefore I am,” has there been a more culturally critical dualism. I’m talking about the Betty and Veronica dichotomy that has shaped generations of youth — both male and female. [Read more →]
“They put Foley and the Cuban together in the backseat of the van and took them from the Palm Beach County jail on Gun Club to Glades Correctional, the old redbrick prison at the south end of Lake Okeechobee,” my friend and former editor, Frank Wilson, read to the audience at the Central Library in Center City Philadelphia prior to introducing crime writer Elmore Leonard on May 14th.
Barack Obama has been talking about shaking up the Supreme Court by making his first appointment a non-judge. If he really wants to rattle Scalia’s cage, he’ll give the nod to Saul. Criminal attorney Saul Goodman boasts a haircut described as “business mullet” and works out of a New Mexico strip mall with an inflatable Statue of Liberty on its roof (his office is filled with similarly cheesy/ patriotic décor). Loud, flirtatious, and utterly smitten with himself, he’s a clown with a knack for getting what he wants. Oh, and he’s actually only pretending to be Jewish for the benefit of his largely Hispanic clientele: “My real name’s McGill. The Jew thing I just do for the homeboys.” [Read more →]
May 11, 2009
I dream I am in a glass elevator in the tallest building in Beijing. It terrifies me to go up to the top. Nevertheless, I stay in the elevator and go to the top repeatedly. I am working as some kind of celebrity support staff and I am in the elevator with a columnist who has diamond encrusted eyeballs. [Read more →]
Supergirl ain’t nothin’ but a hotly drawn bitch!
Summary (no spoiler): Supergirl comes to Earth for the first time. We deal with the whole stranger in a strange land issue and the illegal immigration issue. Superman is not alone. Batman wonders about some things that a high school senior could piece together. Blah, blah, blah. Darkseid is the main villain and the application of his entourage is kind of cool. And the ending is somewhat clever. Not a terrible read for a general Superman title, but a terrible six-issue waste of Batman Superman. [Read more →]
“Dr. Langdon, what a relief. The symbolist is here,” Commander Richter (Stellan Skarsgård) says dryly to Dr. Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks). I understand his lack of enthusiasm. Let us all pray we never hear that greeting again. This convoluted plot is as murky and confusing as the copious underground Roman passageways, where much of this film takes place. Only an exciting final thirty minutes comes close to bringing this film redemption. [Read more →]
Can you write? Do you pay attention to the news and think, “Hey, I think stuff about this stuff”? Are you funny? Outraged? Both? Do you find interesting news items or videos online and entertain your friends with your snarky comments on Facebook? If you answered yes to any of these inspired questions, maybe, just maybe, you could be the newest contributor to When Falls the Coliseum. [Read more →]
Okay, okay. You’ve read The Great Gatsby. We’ve all read The Great Gatsby. You were assigned it in 8th grade, then in high school, and again in Freshman English in college (though your subsequent readings were the Cliff’s Notes!). And you still have that crushed paperback with the cheesy neon lights on the cover. You forgot all about it until you saw the movie on TV, and when Mia Farrow went orgasmic over Robert Redford’s tailored pink shirts, you thought, “Well, that’s enough of that!” (And you didn’t even know, thank God, about a remake with Mira Sorvino and Toby Stephens!)
Well, forget all that. You’re a grown-up now and you need to read Gatsby with a grown-up’s perspective. [Read more →]
Take advantage of the fresh veggies at the Farmers Market right now when making these simple vegetarian burritos!
Summer Veggie Burritos: Serves 2
Ingredients: One ear of fresh corn (kernels removed from the cob), 4 large flour tortillas, 2 handfuls of shiitake mushrooms (you can substitute another mushroom variety), 2 cloves of garlic, 1 minced jalapeno without the seeds, 1/4 of a red onion, 4 ripe tomatoes, a few sprigs of finely chopped cilantro, salt and pepper, 1 cup of cotija cheese, 2 ripe avocados, and 2 Tbsp of butter or olive oil.
Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr once uttered to the Heavens, “Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” More commonly identified as the Serenity Prayer, this petition may now be uttered more frequently during the current socio-economic climate, one replete with much uncertainty. Niebuhr’s invocation plays quite well into time of immense worry. [Read more →]
The Glassblower of Murano is an exceptional first novel written by Marina Fiorato, who is herself half Venetian and a graduate of the University of Venice. Her love of the city and its history comes through clearly. It’s a very romantic story, full of intrigue and heartbreak; to understand it, a little history is helpful.
Murano is well-known for its art glass, its millefiori and its chandeliers, but its artisans were virtual prisoners on the island. [Read more →]
I first heard of Peter Altenberg while watching The Tonight Show, back in the days when it was hosted by Jack Paar. Alexander King, one of Paar’s regulars, used to talk about Altenberg all the time. [Read more →]
Here’s a puzzle for you: what is it you can hear but cannot hear, creates noise to make you sleep, and is a key feature of some 35 iPhone / iPod Touch applications that represent some of the most high-tech snake oil ever invented?
The answer is Binaural Beats, an aural illusion created when you listen to two different tones, one in each ear, that your brain interprets as something else entirely — a beat. [Read more →]
Glee (FOX, Fall, 2009) — I had high expectations for this and it did not disappoint. It was actually better than expected, not because it was oozing with cheese, but because actually, it wasn’t. Obviously, it’s had its cheesy moments, but I actually saw some similarities between Glee and the 1999 dark comedy, Election. It’s funny and entertaining, yet quietly odd (and the main chick, Rachel, is reminiscent of Reese Witherspoon’s award-nominated role as the uptight teacher’s pet, Tracy Flick). [Read more →]
Rarely has an athlete who has shown up in the papers for the wrong things as often as John Daly had so much positive press at the same time. Sure, he has won some tournaments and wowed crowds with his long-distance drives. But he has also been a human train wreck. Issues with alcoholism and weight have chased him his whole career. Fans have always flocked to him, though, drawn in by his everyman persona and his sense of humor.
This week, he leads off our Good Sports section by showing his support for the plight of fellow golfer Phil Mickelson’s wife, who has breast cancer, by wearing pink pants at the BMW PGA Championship in England. [Read more →]
10. Enchantment Under the Bleachers
9. An Evening to Forget
8. Crepe Paper, Bunting, And That Gym Sock Smell!
7. Save the Last Dance for Your Hot Friend
6. Dry Hump Dreams
5. Goodbye Textbooks! Hello Minimum Wage!
4. Herpes-palooza!
3. Moon Over Abu Ghraib
2. A Midsummer’s Night Grope
1. Memories to Last a Nighttime
Author’s note: For 10 months I traveled to work in New York City from my home in southeastern Connecticut. Notice I used the word “traveled” and not “commuted.” The difference, to me, is mileage and duration. My daily “commute” was three hours each way, including a 45-minute drive, an hour-and-40-minute train ride, and subway rides across and uptown. Occasionally, I took notes on the people sitting around me on the train. What follows are the fourth and fifth of several stream-of-consciousness entries I made in an untitled journal.
Monday, July 28, 2008
I appreciate each and every person who passes. Apparently there is a more appealing seat than any of the three surrounding me. [Read more →]
The most powerful work of public sculpture I’ve ever encountered is Maya Lin’s Vietnam War Memorial on the Mall in Washington, D.C. I first visited it late one spring night in 1985 when I was 32. I was astonished at how many people were there at nearly midnight. I found the experience deeply and unexpectedly moving, not least because it caused me to think how lucky I’d been not to have to go to war myself. I wrote this poem soon after and left a copy of it at the Memorial when I returned a year later.
I am not a Luddite. I love my MacBook, my iPod, and my Blackberry Curve. I have my doubts about the effects on literature and music through digitization, the Kindle, downloading, etc., but I accept the premise that, on balance, such technological progress is a good thing. I also eagerly await the progress of medical science in the areas of Alzheimer’s and hip replacement, two things I worry about. Now, a recent article in The New Scientist reports on a recent conference on Neuroscience, and proclaims, “It will soon be possible to boost human brainpower with electronic ‘plug-ins’ or even by genetic enhancement.” [Read more →]
What do you do when you’ve taken a great concept, squeezed it until it’s bled dry, and made it a non-viable entity? In cinema, the answer is the “reboot”. And the best way to reboot a franchise is with a “prequel”. Following the path led by George Lucas and the Star Wars prequels, movie makers are revisiting some of the best sci-fi concepts that have been ruined by greed, and the American need to make each sequel to a movie (insert Schwarzenegger accent here) “Biggah, bettah, with even moh exploshons!” Star Wars worked to a point, with each prequel getting better and better. (Best in my opinion was The Clone Wars movie and animated series). Star Trek’s new movie was mostly very good, with an interesting twist on the “reboot” concept, using an alternate timeline. Terminator Salvation, though, falls woefully short of these rebooted prequels. [Read more →]
This week, all the major networks made their presentations and unveiled their fall/mid-season lineups to the media and its buyers. As an obvious fan of TV and its miraculous storytelling, I look forward to this week every year. As all my shows come to a close, this is a reminder of what’s to look forward to and figure out just how much time I will consume engaging with my fictional friends and family, and how little time I’ll be spending with my real life friends and family. Here it is…. [Read more →]
The study is out and the facts are in. Nearly 80% of a sampling of women surveyed in the UK (as stressed and recessed as anywhere else economically) admitted that they would still “splurge to cheer themselves up.”
According to Karen Pine, a University of Hertfordshire professor and author of “Sheconomics” (and soon-to-be-nominee for Author of Most Dumbass Title of the Year Award), “This type of spending, or compensatory consumption, serves as a way of regulating intense emotions.” [Read more →]
A survey by the Pew Research Center found that some of the most supportive of torturous acts are also some of Christianity’s most pious. 54% of Christians who attend service at least once in a week said the use of torture against terrorist suspects was either “often” or “sometimes” justified. In the survey, 19% of White non-Hispanic Catholics answered that torture can “often” be justified to gain important information. White Evangelical Protestants accounted for 18%. These two groups led all other groups in the survey, which also included mainline Protestants as well as religiously unaffiliated. [Read more →]
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