The White Roses resonate
We need more of these
July 14, 2009 Leave a Comment
Foreign policy would make more sense to such a large group of people if we could reliably often discuss it using rap feuds as examples. Tongue could be firmly planted in cheek here, but Marc Lynch makes a couple of really good points. About foreign policy. And also Jay-Z. To wit: But the limits on [...]
Republicans be crazy!
July 6, 2009 Leave a Comment
Tab dump! So I’ve got three articles sitting in my Firefox window, and I need to get rid of them if I’m going to scratch this itch at the back of my brain. Over the weekend last week three separate articles on three very different news sources identify just how crazy the Republican Party is. [...]
I admit to curiosity, if not a desire to see, ‘Transformers’
June 24, 2009 Leave a Comment
And, in brief, here is why: And yet “" and here’s the part where I really think ROTF approaches “art movie” status “" the movie’s id overload reaches such crazy levels that the fabric of reality itself starts to break down. Michael Bay has boasted about how every single shot in the movie has so [...]
A children’s treasury of my recent reviews
June 23, 2009 Leave a Comment
Internet! Here are my most recent book reviews (in most to least recent): 1) “Horse Soldiers” by Doug Stanton sucked. 2) “Hey! Nietzsche! Leave them kids alone!” by Craig Schuftan was amazing. 3) “The Chris Farley Show” by Tanner Colby and Tom Farley, Jr. surprisingly stuck with me (and still does). More stuff right here.
‘Horse Soldiers’ frustrated me, a lot more than it should
June 23, 2009 Leave a Comment
When you’re writing a book about the military, this critic thinks, you’ve got to be a great writer. You have got to know what you’re doing, and you have got to understand the shark-infested waters you’re swimming in. A bad book about the military will do one or several of the following things: 1) reduce [...]
Horse Soldiers: I have seen this movie already, and liked it better when it was Lawrence of Arabia
June 23, 2009 2 Comments
Doug Stanton’s newest novel is waiting to be directed by Tony Scott.
A word of inspiration
June 21, 2009 Leave a Comment
So, I got unemployed a long time ago (back in March, he says, dusting off the cobwebs from Overthinking It), and was sitting in my apartment applying for jobs with my girlfriend this morning, when I came across this quotation, from Ralph Waldo Emerson. “Doubt not, O poet, but persist. Say, ‘It is in me, [...]
“Hey! Nietzsche! Leave those kids alone!” sees Byron leading the Black Parade
June 10, 2009 2 Comments
Funny, smart, scholarly, witty and brilliant.
Review: “The Chris Farley Show” a difficult story
June 1, 2009 Leave a Comment
You can’t think about Chris Farley and not have an opinion of him.
Overhyping it! ‘Watchmen’ companion books… better than the movie?
March 7, 2009 2 Comments
Okay, so I went to see that little movie based on some four-color funny book that just hit theaters, “Watchmen,” and maybe it was the inundation that comes along with every big-budget movie like this, but when I finally got to see how Zach Snyder, David Hayter and Alex Tse rendered their homage to Alan [...]
Watchmen is not as weird as it should be
March 7, 2009 Leave a Comment
The deconstructionist middle finger of Alan Moore’s “Watchmen” showed an industry built around taking masked heroes seriously just how silly it was. It was the punk kid in the back of the classroom who knew everything already, and was angry with and bored at the kid in the front of the classroom who didn’t know [...]
The ladder starts to clatter with fear fight down height
Feb. 18, 2009 Leave a Comment
Woke up this morning to a pair of slap-you-in-the-face headlines. The first, from Boingboing, is a good earnest ‘how is everybody doing’ post: What are you telling yourself? How are you all sleeping at night? Are you hedging your bets with canned goods and shotguns, or plans for urban communal farming? Are you starting a [...]
Oh, Mr. Darcy… you are one ugly motherf*cker
Feb. 17, 2009 Leave a Comment
Did you hear? It’ll be Mr. Darcy vs. the Predator! It might prove something of a boon to those who reach for the remote control when yet another costume drama comes on television: Elton John’s Rocket Pictures is developing a new spin on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, this time featuring a nefarious seven-foot extraterrestrial [...]
Friday the 13th is only good in context
Feb. 14, 2009 1 Comment
The hardest kind of review to write is a review for a mediocre film. I didn’t hate “Friday the 13th” as much as I hated “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” and I certainly didn’t love the movie as much as I loved “Milk.” It was exactly what you would expect from a horror movie. [...]
Remembering John Updike
Jan. 29, 2009 2 Comments
John Updike, one of the most critically acclaimed American authors of the 20th century, died in Danvers, Mass. on Jan. 26. Mr. Updike had been battling lung cancer. He was 76. The author of the “Rabbit” series and countless contributions to the New Yorker magazine was hailed throughout his career as an author whose work [...]
Best-selling author John Updike dead at 76
Jan. 27, 2009 3 Comments
John Updike, 76, best selling author, died Tuesday after succumbing to lung cancer. [...]
The day the earth sucked hard
Dec. 19, 2008 3 Comments
I can’t, for the life of me, think of a good reason you should see the remake of “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” [...]
“Spook Country”
Oct. 4, 2007 2 Comments
It would appear that the man who gave us culturally ubiquitous terms "Cyberspace" and "The Matrix" (both from his landscape-shattering breakout novel "Neuromancer") has been blown over by Google, the iPod and locative art. "Spook Country" is an accidental sequel to William Gibson’s post-911 requiem "Pattern Recognition," according to a video on his website. It [...]
