As I mentioned last time, I am finally delivering a long-promised post on the topic of the future availability of content. I’ll acknowledge up front that I am likely a voice crying in the wilderness. Most people like to consume mainstream content. They like movies with big names, they want music from the pop charts, [...]
Geek Culture – Wounded, But Not Dead
During the holidays, Patton Oswalt made quite a stir with an article at Wired.com: Wake Up, Geek Culture. Time to Die. He argues that 30 years ago, when he was a young nerd (which is roughly the same timeframe in which I was a young nerd), people really had to work to indulge their “obsessive, [...]
The Books that Influenced Me
It’s the craze that’s sweeping the blogosphere: That List of Books that Influenced Me! (See Julian Sanchez, Matt Yglesias and Kevin Drum.) Naturally I’m late to this and I can’t be bothered to pare it down to ten. Also: This is an incomplete list. What I find is that these books tends to clump into [...]
Book Club: New member!
My granddaughter Violet was visiting and I swear I didn’t pose her with my copy of Son of a Grifter. I had pulled it out, intending to re-read it and it’s natural she should browse through it. Yes, it’s the True Crime genre, but it’s also better than that. The 2001 book is by Kent [...]
When NYC was an urban hell
From Blye, Private Eye (1976), by Nicholas Pileggi The South Bronx, often referred to as Fort Apache by the policemen assigned to the area, is an urban war zone. To live there is to live in a nightmare. The streets are ruled by addicts, drunks, and psychotic adolescents, and for the countless poor forced to [...]
What to Make of Atonement?
Atonement is the film adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel of the same name. It was directed by Joe Wright, who also did Pride and Prejudice (2005), and was written by Christopher Hampton, best known for his play Les Liaisons Dangereuses; it stars Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. It’s already won a Golden Globe for Best [...]
The true meaning of Christmas
Merry Christmas. This is a phrase fraught with political meaning these days. Lots of people love to tell you what this day “really” means. It’s all about the kids, they’ll say. Perhaps it’s really about the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe it’s about Peace on Earth or loving your fellow man. The Fox [...]
The Roots of Green Chri$tma$
From An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power by John Steele Gordon: Even in rural areas that were still beyond the reach of the railroad, new merchandising techniques opened up new markets. Peddlers increasingly took advantage of the improved roads to sell such newly available manufactured goods as pails and tubs, [...]
Happy Hell-O-Ween!
Here’s a few treats for today… Have fun playing the De-Animator, based on H.P. Lovecraft’s collection Herbert West: Reanimator (which you can read online; also made into a great pulp movie). If you like playing House of the Dead (one of the few video games I don’t completely suck at), you’ll love shooting the living [...]
Round-up: More Spots
Once again, I have fallen behind in linking to my Spot-on columns. The BBC was caught up in a series of scandals earlier this year, which also raised issues about presenting “reality” on TV. If the devil is in the details, then we may be Dancing with the Devil. I’ve missed a lot of movies [...]