It’s called “Admissions,” and it’s by Joshua Harmon, and I’m surprised it was ever even produced, given the current political climate: It’s a relentless, often very funny exposé of the hypocrisies and self-contradictions of the diversity craze that defines virtually … Continue reading →
Well, maybe not everything. But an extraordinary number of things. And boy, could he do them well. A while back I showed a clip of Rall in the barn dance from “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” in which he was … Continue reading →
This doesn’t sound like a good idea to me: …[A] new artificial intelligence research project coming out of Japan…can analyze a person’s brain scans and provide a written description of what they have been looking at. To generate its captions, … Continue reading →
This is one of the more depressing—albeit minor—pieces of news I’ve read in a long time: Last year, more than half of plastic surgeons were approached by patients who wanted to look better in selfies, according to a survey by … Continue reading →
I find that lately I’ve been pulling back ever-so-slightly from day-to-day politics. It’s not that I’m not writing about that sort of thing; I definitely still am. I just find that, for the most part, the stories du jour are … Continue reading →
Here’s why. Although I’m not an Academy member (unlike Roger), I’m in 100% agreement with this: I’m fed up with the Oscars and everything they represent. The sight of red carpets, particularly celebrities mouthing off on red carpets, makes me … Continue reading →
—John Updike: we may skate upon an intense radiance we do not see because we see nothing else. Delmore Schwartz was a mid-20th-century poet with a tragic life but a wonderful gift. In fact, Saul Bellow wrote the novel Humboldt’s … Continue reading →
Yesterday and today, on the comments thread to this post I put up last night, there was a great deal of discussion about the reactions of the security guard at Parkland who failed to engage the shooter or even enter … Continue reading →
[NOTE: If it’s not clear what Ammogrrrll’s post and my rejoinder are referring to, please see this.] I confess. I stole and ate Ammogrrrll’s Key Lime Pie, even though I wrote an email to myself saying I didn’t. But I … Continue reading →
Commenter “Steve57” asks: I was goofing around on the intertubes. I came across this nugget [of ballet dancer Diana Vishneva as “Carmen”] and I was captivated… She wasn’t one of the “Dueling Carmens” you wrote about in June 2013 (Svetlana … Continue reading →
[Part I can be found here.] This next clip is an example of an element of Fonteyn’s specialness that’s extremely subtle. It’s not even a dance step; it’s more a bit of acting expressed through movement (acting through dance was … Continue reading →
It’s called 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos, and it’s been #1 for much of the time since it was released on January 23, 2018. As I write this it has over 600 customer reviews and, astoundingly, almost … Continue reading →