Category: This Modern Life
Good-Bye, Fail Whale: Why I Left Twitter
My reasons are common, but they are no less true for that: Twitter is Unfair. Twitter squelches the speech of the Right, but not the Left. The examples are too many to count, and they’ve been going on for a while. It’s going to continue that way. That’s what the people who run Twitter think is… Read More Good-Bye, Fail Whale: Why I Left Twitter
The Coddling of the American Mind — Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff — The Story’s Story
A good discussion of the most modern of complaints: the University-as-therapy and the concomitant eradication of Free Speech. Apart from its intellectual content and institutional structure descriptions, The Coddling of the American Mind makes being a contemporary college student in some schools sound like a terrible experience: Life in a call-out culture requires constant vigilance,… Read More The Coddling of the American Mind — Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff — The Story’s Story
Why Music Sounds Bad When You Get Older
Two reasons: 1. As you age, your critical faculties improve. When you first discover pop music, it’s like the rush of first love. You’re a blank slate and the music just writes itself into you. It becomes identity. And you immerse yourself into it. And after enough songs, you start getting readier and readier to… Read More Why Music Sounds Bad When You Get Older
Quite of the Day
“Start ridiculously small. Create vision for something as simple as getting out of bed. See it with complete, brilliant clarity. Then execute. Memorize the feeling of success. Repeat ceaselessly.” -from “The Nine Laws” by Ivan Throne
Culinary Discoveries
I’ve been told by my Unnamed Journal collaborator Mike that Goldfish pairs well with scotch. He may have specified cheap scotch. This has led to pairing Cheez-it’s with Dewars and Goldfish with Wild Turkey. Both are satisfying. And that’s how the line up for the next issue of UJ was set.
Civic Duty Grumble Grumble…
Jury Duty today. I’m expecting full Kafkaesque tedium. I won’t be blogging, but I will be taking my notebook, so perhaps something constructive will come of it.
The Darkness of Kevin Spacey: Swimming With Sharks and How Hollywood Breeds Monsters
The mighty always fall. There’s a moment, early in the recent Rolling Stones Documentary Crossfire Hurricane, where Mick Jagger discusses the level of truth to the band’s bad-boy image, as marketed by manager/impresario Andrew Loog Oldham: “When you cast actors for a part, you look to find actors suitable for the part. We were actors… Read More The Darkness of Kevin Spacey: Swimming With Sharks and How Hollywood Breeds Monsters
Of Course Blogging Isn’t Dead.
One one level, having to deny that something is dead is evidence that a significant number of people thing it is, which is “dead” in pop-culture terms. And that’s true as far as it goes. But pop-culture isn’t everything. So on another level, the internet is filled with blogging. If you consider social media micro-blogging… Read More Of Course Blogging Isn’t Dead.
Wes Anderson’s Doom: Special Screening of Awaited European Animated Film at Cannes
In my fisking of Variety’s pre-advertising for next year’s Oscars, I made this prediciton about Wes Anderson’s film Isle of Dogs: See? There’s already a ghetto for cartoons. “Dogs” will get nominated for this, and then lose to something Italian that gets a limited release in New York for a week. And that was before Wes… Read More Wes Anderson’s Doom: Special Screening of Awaited European Animated Film at Cannes
Content Blues 