I haven’t been watching the vital Congressional testimony taking place today, but I have been following it, largely through the lens of social media and online news sources. Particularly when considering the courage it took for Dr. Christine Blasey Ford … Continue reading Programming Note
Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. If the flaming disaster … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Funny or Die, “Non-Voters Anonymous”
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. This has been a tough day for me and for anyone who has a political outlook roughly … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — “The Courage to Change”
With the occasional exception, I haven’t used this space to promote an ongoing charitable effort my household has undertaken since the most recent U.S. Presidential election. This month, however, I want to put these words wherever I can. The following … Continue reading STRATEGIC ACTS DONATION — OCTOBER 2017
I struggle over what to post on holidays. Except for a few instances in which I’ve settled into a comfortable, easy pattern — a silly animated gif on Thanksgiving, a Calvin and Hobbes comic on Christmas Eve — I find I come to the most significant individual days on the U.S. calendar with a measure of uncertainty. I have no wistful memories to offer up, no strident calls to value the meaning of the day within me. Usually, I punt, tapping out some bit of simple nonsense in a minimum number of words, confident no one is much likely to … Continue reading On Memorial Day
Given the endless procession of freshly minted atrocities on the front pages of credible newspapers, it’s tempting to invoke the apocryphal Chinese curse that bestowed the condemnation of “interesting times.” But we’ve crossed well beyond that battle-scarred region. We’ve moved on to a swirling abomination that can only be thought of as “exhausting times.” Being engaged in the current political stories that flash and pop with the frantic urgency of an overloading pinball machine is an invitation to madness, or at least a version of unwanted enlightening that is particularly soul-crushing. None of these examples of egregious abdication of sensible … Continue reading My Writers: Charles P. Pierce
Thus far, I’ve refrained from posting about a monthly charitable endeavor my household has embarked upon, largely because — a few exceptions notwithstanding and some pretty clear viewpoints creeping into my pop culture commentary from time to time — I’ve … Continue reading Strategic Acts Donation — March 2017
As per tradition, I follow my countdown of the top ten films of the year by turning my attention to the acting that most enthralled me while the previous calendar was still tacked to the wall. The guidelines I set for myself are simple: I draft up the version of a nominating ballot I would submit were I a member of the Academy’s Acting Branch, ranking the five performances in each category and forcing myself to be assiduously honest. That means setting my own sentimental preferences and occasionally ignoring the strategic category shifting that takes place. Both of those factor … Continue reading Twenty Performances, or The Folly of Working Without Annette
I read a lot of comic books as a kid. This series of posts is about the comics I read, and, occasionally, the comics that I should have read. Around 1983, anguished teen superheroes were all the rage. Marvel’s Uncanny X-MenUncanny X-Men was establishing a stranglehold on the top of the sales charts, and DC’s revamped take on the Teen Titans was a rare sensation to emerge from that publisher at that time. There was perhaps no clearer proof of the trend than the emergence of Cloak and Dagger. Introduced in the pages of Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man, Cloak and … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: Marvel Team-Up Annual #6 by Bill Mantlo and Ron Frenz
For some indiscernible reason, today’s date is weighing on me a little more heavily than in past years. I think the pervasive attempts to use the ever-distancing tragedy of that 2001 day to prop up political agendas and inspire cheap shots against the other side have simply done me in this year. It’s worth noting that the disheartening spectacle is coming from all parts of the political spectrum, even from those I consider fairly closely aligned with my own views on the issues of the day. With that in mind, I’ll just yield the space to a track from what … Continue reading Clear blue holds its breath
Coffee for Two 