A little while back, I analyzed Kevin Spacey through the lens of one of an indie Hollywood navel-gazer, Swimming With Sharks. It was, I decided a window on Spacey’s soul, the self-justification of all immorality “It was like this when I got here.” But beyond that, the story had a mark of truth to it,… Read More Hollywood’s Monster Parade: Scott Rudin
From A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, a longish article on the varieties of ancient evidence. The modern world is resplendent with all kinds of evidence, but the further back in time you go, the less and less there is. There is a physical reason for this, of course: things decay over time. And despite the… Read More On the Kinds of Ancient History
This has actually been up for a week, but we were finalizing the new issue of Unnamed Journal, so I forgot to post it. Also I’ve been lazy about posting this month, for reasons best left unexplored. In related news, I’m going to be experimenting with Anchor, the podcasting platform/service that’s partnered with WordPress. Due… Read More Shallow & Pedantic 12: BEHOLD
Every now and again, because I do not learn, I google the phrase “winds of winter”, the title for the next book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series (remember Game of Thrones?). I do this because, nine years ago, I did this for “A Dance With Dragons” and happened to catch a… Read More Time for the Yearly George R.R. Martin Abuse Post
Carl Schmidt was a German jurist and political philosopher of the Weimar and Nazi eras. True to the time, his writings contain very strong critique of what he called “the liberal critique of politics.” He phrased it that way because to his mind there was no such thing as true liberal politics, as the essence… Read More Doing Things For a Reason: Miller’s Crossing and the Friend/Enemy Dynamic
I don’t care how dead the horse; I’m gonna beat it more. Observe the nominees for Best Picture: The Father: Someone feeds Anthony Hopkins from his gruel bowl for two hours. Feels ensue. Judas and the Black Messiah: Did you Know that the FBI infiltrated groups hostile to the United States Government? I am shocked,… Read More Let Us Now Tap-Dance on the Grave of the Oscars
We’ve gotten to the point where we just kind of suggest podcast topics during the previous podcast (these don’t make it onto the platform; no one wants to listen to that), and we roll with it. I don’t recall this topic being on the List of Topics we did a few months ago, but we… Read More Shallow & Pedantic 10 – Go Team Phrasing!
Editing existing projects is not the most exciting way to spend one’s time. Very often it feels repetitive, especially when you’ve already labored with a thing to finish it. I’m not saying I won’t edit the various projects I’m planning on getting out this year. I’m saying I’m pushing off a deadline in order to… Read More The Burning Palace
You fail to blog by blogging to fail. Or failing to plan. Or deciding that you’ve got a bunch of projects occupying your mind and you can’t even begin to reckon on a subject for a post. Or, you don’t actually decide that, it just becomes the default and then you’re seven days into the… Read More Blogging Lulls Begin Insidiously
80’s Nostalgia has been going on so long that the teenagers who were doing it 15 years ago are now grown up and have kids of their own. Do they nostalgize their nostalgia? Is there anything else? Are we permanently stuck? Does this whining help? No to all, and the questions have become boring. The… Read More Sweep the Nostalgia, Or Why Cobra Kai Does and Does Not Suck
Content Blues 