We typically regard the New Year as a let-down after the Holidays, and the Dark Heart of January usually gives us reason. The Solstice is a time of Hope, but a Hope against the winter that is still before us. But we know now that hope is always around the next corner. So let us… Read More Happy Christmas and Merry New Year
Which observation occurred to me, gleaned from the Penguin “Great Ideas” anthology, which goes under the title of On Solitude. I’ve podcasted about the chap before. The following quote is from his “On Books”: It is always a pleasure to see things written about by those who had assayed how to manage them, but there… Read More Montaigne Prophesies Propaganda
Of course I watched it. And I laughed really hard. Tiger King is the best mockumentary since Spinal Tap. All mockumentaries rely on filming the Dunning-Kruger Effect, the gap between someone’s perceived competence and their actual competence. All the principle characters are not in on the Joke: Joe Exotic is a lunatic, a narcissist, a… Read More When Humans Attack – Tiger King 2
I deserve to be whipped for writing about this, as it’s fairly reeks of 2014, but I’ve seen it pop up on Twitter, and recently. Most of the time this is discussed in typical internet gibberish, but within it is an attempt to analyze human behavior, so there’s something worth commenting on. If you’re not… Read More Star Wars and the Social-Sexual Hierarchy
I sometimes thing that the only profitable part of self-publishing is sniffing out the flop-sweat on people who are desperate for attention because they wrote a book. Here’s a classic example, found on Facebook. It looks like every other website of this kind: Long scrolling page Center-justified, bolded text. Buy button placed at regular intervals.… Read More The Internet is Filled With Writing Gurus Who Want Your Money
The Boys at RLM Recently did one of their “list” re:View episodes, about the films of John Carpenter. Let the record state that I’m not the biggest fan of this particular format. re:View works best as an opportunity to dust off an old/forgotten piece of cinema, turn it over backwards and front and make a… Read More Aesthetics vs. Prophecy: John Carpenter’s Escape from L.A.
No, I’m not talking about the Saucy Nugs guy again. That meme sadly failed. I am disappoint. No, this is a link to a long post by a fellow calling himself Monsieur le Baron, who is some manner of Red Monarchist (which is not absurd, the Soviet Union was a series of Tsars, and anyone… Read More The Aesthetics of McNuggets, Or Brooklyn Status Panic Drugs
Somewhere on I-81 in Virginia, there’s a billboard for Cracker Barrel, because of course there is. If you find yourself on the interstate and there isn’t a Cracker Barrel within 30 miles of you, then start taking pictures of the alien plants and the non-Euclidean geometry, because you’ve slipped into an alternate dimension. Anyway, this… Read More The Reproducibility Trap, Or Why Everything Original and Curated Becomes Re-Heated Crap
I’ve got a Content Blues Podcast about halfway recorded, and then there’s a Shallow & Pedantic planned to be recorded this weekend. Of the two, the CBP is easier, because I can add to that whenever I want. The work is getting enough recorded to fill out about 30 minutes or so of material. Any… Read More The Rule of 30 in Podcasting
I may have made fun of it a while back, but honestly, I don’t hate the concept. I might scope it if it rolls through one of the apps I have. I cannot, however, promise that I will do that. Movies in this era are largely an individualized aesthetic exercise, not a community one. The… Read More Maybe I’ll see Nomadland, Maybe I Won’t
Content Blues 