Open thread 6/30/23
When I was watching this video, I thought about a Bee Gees comparison before Fil made the same point. Were the Bee Gees the male Andrews sisters? Sort of. But I have one disagreement with Fil here – which is … Continue reading →
Category Archives: Arts
This book by Heather Mac Donald looks worth reading
The latest from Heather Mac Donald is called When Race Trumps Merit: When Race Trumps Merit provides an alternative explanation for those racial disparities. It is large academic skills gaps that cause the lack of proportional representation in our most … Continue reading →
Food for thought from William Blake
William Blake was a unique poet and artist. I don’t think he fits into any category except “mystical visionary” and probably “some sort of genius.” Many people are aware of his poem
Continue reading →Mr. Rogers has a message from 52 years ago about boys and girls
I’m too old to have watched Mr. Rogers as a child. But as I watched him forty years ago with my own child, I found some of his messages a little obscure. For example, there was the song that follows, … Continue reading →
And speaking of adventure tourism…
…there’s this: …[T]he Taliban are now selling tickets to visit the ancient monuments that they demolished in 2001, in an attempt to boost Afghanistan’s flagging economy. The Washington Post reported that Afghanistan’s tourist plan includes a pair of 1,400-year-old giant … Continue reading →
On the Titanic submersible rescue operation and extreme adventure excursions
I’ll start out by saying that I think the five people in the submersible are dead, and that even days ago I thought they probably had been dead from the moment the vehicle stopped communicating with the mother ship about … Continue reading →
Songs of friendship and comfort
It’s a genre, and a rather large one. Here are just a few examples – heavy on the Bee Gees, of course. I always liked Ringo’s quirky voice: Early-ish Bee Gees: Got to include this one. And she’s got my … Continue reading →
Hopkins’ kingfishers and dragonflies
[NOTE: I decided not to be as politics-intensive as usual today.] I consider the poems of Jesuit priest Gerard Manley Hopkins to be among the greatest, and I’m going to highlight a single line from his poem entitled—well, the poem … Continue reading →
The Little Mermaid
Disney has just released a live action version of “The Little Mermaid.” Some people have panned it, in particular compared to the 1989 animated film of the same story that was very popular and highly praised. But I’ve never seen … Continue reading →
A song for Memorial Day
I’ve posted this song before, but I think it bears repeating, especially on Memorial Day. It’s Tim McGraw’s extraordinarily moving song “If You’re Reading This“: If you’re readin’ this My momma’s sittin’ there Looks like I only got a one … Continue reading →
Looking back with the Moody Blues
The Moody Blues were big in the late 60s. But for reasons I never could quite articulate, their music creeped me out at the time. It didn’t make sense that I disliked their songs, because they had many elements I … Continue reading →
That “Life of Brian” trans scene: brilliant, prescient, and now forbidden
In an odd coincidence, two days ago I sent a friend a video of one of my favorite comic scenes from “Life of Brian,” made in 1979: And last night I saw this article about a new stage production based … Continue reading →