The Kitchen Sink and Links: Getting to be a regular feature. It used to be I'd comment regularly on things I read in magazines, now links. Like all of history, the nouns change but the verbs stay the same. (Note: I've been blogging for over 13 years now. You'd think that would carry some sort of deeper meaning, but I can't think of anything.)
Roger Ebert's Top Ten Movies of All Time. I had less than stellar things to say about The Tree of Life above. I compared it disparagingly to 2001. Both movies are on Ebert's list. He also picked the wrong Scorcese (Raging Bull over Goodfellas) and the wrong Hitchcock (Vertigo over Rear Window). Even Apocalypse Now is overrated. The guy can craft a beautiful movie review but there's no accounting for taste.
Graphic depiction of Lake and Ocean Depth. Tongue in cheek, but very cool. I recently saw the Nat Geo special on James Cameron dive into the Challenger Deep. Gotta admire the guy's guts and drive. Still doesn't make Avatar or Titanic worth watching.
When Matt Millen punch the Patriots GM in the Head. For NFL fans only. If you know the personalities involved in this story it's hilarious. Millen: “I was a fool for doing that, but you react, so what are you going to do?" Interestingly, this was also Millen's approach to the Lions' draft.
Senitment Kills. This article is extremely dense so don't dive into it unless you feel like ruminating on the state of modern culture. But the upshot is that hyper-sentimentality -- the regarding of unfiltered emotion as self justifying -- is coarsening the world and often leading to hostility and conflict. There is lots of speculation and supposing, but I found this paragraph to be spot on: "The habit of thought that a pop culture of treacle and a pop culture of anger hold in common is that we needn't polish the expression of our private feelings and sorrows into a form that's relevant and useful, even to strangers and fellow citizens... We can take for granted that our treacle or our anger speaks for itself and presume the relevance of private feelings to public discourse. If, in fact, we're drowning in a public culture of meanness, it is one that the public culture of cloying sweetness unwittingly helped create." To which I would add, GET OFF MY LAWN!!!!
Alpha Males on TV. Glaringly obvious omissions: Tony Soprano, Sterling Archer.
Striking Historic Photos of New York City. Very cool stuff. Makes me regret not having been in Manhattan for almost well over a year. Time to plan a trip.
Trailer Park Superhero. On the other hand, there so much fun going on right here in the glove.
