Many people still mistakenly label George Orwell’s 1984 as “satire.” But fewer people should continue in this error after President Obama defended war in his acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize today in Oslo.
We should be truly thankful that we unelected all those neocons.
My daughter is 3 1/2 years old. Although you would never know it now, she was a late talker. By late, of course, I mean that at 1 1/2 she was only saying a few words, ya know the way most 1 1/2-year-olds are. My girlfriend works for the Early Intervention program so when she saw my daughter having fits and struggling to express herself, she immediately had her evaluated for speech therapy, which she qualified for. To not have her evaluated would have been like a dentist letting his teenage son walk around with an overbite and a snaggle-tooth. There’s nothing to talk about. You slap braces on that kid’s ugly mouth. [Read more →]
As any cop will tell you, the full moon brings out the crazies. And if you are working the streets of Hollywood, California – well, the moon makes them even crazier.
Joesph Wambaugh, a former LAPD detective sergeant, is the grand master of tales about cops, crooks and crime. He once again offers us a novel with stark realism, blunt language and abundant humor. Hollywood Moon is the last in a trilogy of novels that began with Hollywood Station and continued with Hollywood Crows.
If you’re like me and consider watching reality television a full-time job, then you’ll be setting your TiVo for the second installment of Jersey Shore tonight on MTV. It’s arguably the worst that television has to offer these days, which is why I love it and cannot wait for tonight’s episode. In fact, it’s so bad (and by “bad”, I mean brilliant) that I’m considering skipping the TiVo and watching it in real time. [Read more →]
I was posed a question by the reader wjv in an earlier thread, asking me if I could work some of my ideas on the nature of government, and the freedoms of individuals and groups, into a few thoughts on health care. I must admit that I find it interesting that anyone would care what I think about it, but it was a great question/suggestion, and provided quite a bit of food for thought as I wandered the crisp, breezy woods yesterday afternoon.
Thank god for Google Alerts. What a treat it was to check my e-mail and read about a “tiger trainer” being mauled by his “trainees.”
(My use of quotation marks will explain itself.)
According to a story in the Guardian, attendees at a “Dinner Circus” in Hamburg, Germany were treated to a little improv during the appetizer course when a “tiger trainer” named Christian Walliser “was attacked after he stumbled during the show.”
Naturally, I got all warm and fuzzy reading that, though I have no idea why, according to the story, “200 guests watched in horror as Walliser was pinned to the ground by the tigers.”
Why they “watched in horror” is beyond me. Shit, I’d have tipped the tigers for making the show entertaining. [Read more →]
To Netflix, Reed Hastings, CEO;
Dear Reed,
First of all let me say how much I enjoy your service. Watching movies that I don’t own without having to drive to the video store or subscribe to cable TV is well worth whatever it is I pay you on a monthly basis. Also, thanks for leading the way on delivering video content via the internet. Now I can catch up on all of those episodes of Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe that I miss out on by not having cable. What? No? Okay, well, get on it then. But you still managed to put the other guys out of business by doing what they do better. That’s the creative destruction of the market at work, and truly the essence of the American Dream.
But unless you’re looking to hire someone to watch movies all day and write summaries of them, I’m not here just to heap praises upon you. I’m here to discuss your site’s use of genre. [Read more →]
The LA Times reports that UCLA plans to screen the old Sherlock Holmes classic films.
I like Basil Rathbone in his early films as Holmes, but I was not crazy about Rathbone/Holmes fighting Nazis in the later films. Holmes was out of his time and element in those films.
I was also a big fan of Jeremy Brett as Holmes on PBS’ Mystery! The series was very faithful to Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories.
Our nation’s women are being swept off their feet by a (not exactly) new phenomenon — vampires!
Sexy, young, brooding, vampires — not the swishy Bela Lugosi kind. The vampire I am talking about kinda looks like a cracked out John Mayer. [Read more →]
Americans are deeply conflicted over whether alleged 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed should be tried in a civilian court. But the one thing we can all agree on is that — in reprisal for his orchestration of the cold-blooded murder of those killed in the World Trade Center attack — we should . . . murder him in cold blood. [Read more →]
April 10, 2009
I dream Gail and I visit a cross between the Sands Casino in Atlantic City and a video arcade from the 1970’s. I enjoy playing a long-neglected game and discover that the coin return slot is packed. I pull out many coins and an equal number of old tissues and cigarette butts. It’s disgusting, but I feel that this is the only way to win in these places. Gail is appalled that I was willing to do this messy stuff, and when I go home I see that I have a thick tuft of hair coming out of my urethra. Gail is disgusted. I pull the hair out in a big clump.
Essayist Gerald L. Early once wrote that 2,000 years from now, America will be known for “the Constitution, baseball, and jazz music…the three most beautiful things our culture has ever produced.”
Tough to argue with that.
But if the Constitution is to be enshrined in this immortal trio of Americana, why do today’s leaders continue to dismiss what’s written inside? [Read more →]
When a film has Jim Sheridan as its director, a screenplay by screenwriter/author David Benioff and is based on a film (Brødre) written and directed by acclaimed Danish director/writer Susanne Bier, it would be surprising if the film were anything short of first rate. Although the copious advertisements for Brothers suggest a smarmy familial love triangle, Brothers is a thoughtful and dark exploration of war’s effect on soldiers and their families. The big stars in the film do a fine job with the serious material. [Read more →]
I was pleased to read that the Sussex Square Homeowners’ Association had dropped their threat of a lawsuit against Van T. Barfoot.
His offense? Flying the American flag outside his home in suburban Richmond, Virginia.
The association claimed that Col. Barfoot’s American flag on a 21-foot flagpole was not “aesthetic.” Of course there was an immediate outcry from veterans’ groups and many others. Being a 90-year-old retired Army Colonel and World War II Medal of Honor winner certainly helped his cause.
This New York Times story caught my eye today because of the the linguistic choices in the headline — “US Agrees to $3 Billion Deal in Indian Trust Suit” — as well as many within the story’s body. Some examples of the latter:
The tentative agreement, reached late Monday between Obama administration negotiators and lawyers for some 300,000 individual American Indians[…]
“This is an historic, positive development for Indian country[…]” said Ken Salazar, the Interior Department secretary[….]
Under the settlement agreement, the government would pay $1.4 billion to compensate the Indians[…]
Michael Crichton told the kind of stories that grabbed us as readers and that drew us to the big screen. Pirate Latitudes, unpublished at the time of his death in 2008, is just that sort of story — a big, exciting tale of a handsome pirate, a woman scorned, impossible odds and a fortune in gold. You can almost imagine it unfolding on the big screen as you read it; at the same time, there is a wealth of detail you’ll only get from the book. It is meticulously researched, full of detail about the ships, the men who sailed them, and the intricacies of pirate society. [Read more →]
Until Thursday, I was perfectly happy to be the tail wagging the very, very end of the Baby Boomer dog. But, apparently, I am in reality part of the lamest-ass generation since Generation Y (how sad are those afterthoughts?)
That’s right, Generation Jones. What does it mean, you ask? How is it that one surname can so succinctly encompass the dreams and lives of those born between 1954 and 1965? [Read more →]
In my last column, I remarked in passing that while great music is always original, originality alone doesn’t account for its greatness. The same is true of all art, of course, not just music
As for why this so, something C.S. Lewis had to say on the subject, which I came upon just the other day, is especially insightful: [Read more →]
Ok, before we get started, I need to ask if anyone in the audience has a forklift or light crane I can borrow? Looking over my outline for this post, I’m having serious trouble keeping my lower jaw held up off the floor and I require some heavy duty mechanical assistance to put an end to the uncontrollable drooling on my carpet that is resulting from it. I’m going to actually defend Rush Limbaugh here, and it’s having the adverse effect of making me lose control of some of my minor muscles…
“But that’s too strong cuz it is my favorite holiday.” It’s about that time… your turkey leftovers should be gone (and if they’re not, please throw them away), black friday and cyber monday are behind us, the big Christmas tree is lit at Rockefeller Center, and “Last Christmas” by Wham! is playing at every Gap across America. It’s official, the holidays are here. [Read more →]
