…is hard to do. As Britain is now learning. When a country voluntarily signs away some of its autonomy—in this case, to join the EU—it would seem at the outset that such a decision would be reversible if that country … Continue reading →
I found the following at Buzzfeed. Now, Buzzfeed isn’t a site I usually visit and certainly not a site I often (or ever?) quote. But this description of the current news coverage struck somewhat of a resonant chord in me … Continue reading →
As far as I’m concerned, the 1948 David Lean black-and-white version of “Oliver Twist” is the masterpiece of the many movie versions of the story. I first saw the film as a child and it scared me horribly at times, … Continue reading →
Decades ago, the book review section of the NY Times used to be one of my favorite portions of the paper to read of a Sunday, back when I read it in the paper version. Implicit in my mind—without my … Continue reading →
First, the straight play “Pygmalion,” movie version with Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller: Now, the musical “My Fair Lady” with Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn: The scene continues in this next brief clip. The part where Howard as Higgins furiously … Continue reading →
Famous author Joyce Carol Oates is known for the number and length of her fiction output. But she’s also a Twitter-user, and yesterday she retweeted this pithy thought: “I could shoot 24 million people on Fifth Avenue & I would’t … Continue reading →
Well, it wasn’t exactly clickbait, because it was on TV rather than online. But Maddow’s promise to reveal Trump’s tax returns was the sort of thing you see on the internet all the time, an ad that promises some amazing … Continue reading →
A group called UDI (a bunch of guys from Siberia, by the way) was recently on Britain’s Got Talent. They do a gimmicky thing, and you can probably figure out how they do it. But the effects are wonderful and … Continue reading →
You may already have seen this experiment in which parts of the Trump/Clinton debates were restaged—complete with gestures and expressions matching the originals—with an actress playing Trump and an actor playing Clinton. The idea behind it was this: Maria Guadalupe, … Continue reading →
It may be time to get to know the work of prodigy Alma Deutscher. She’s twelve in this video: I don’t know about you, but I’m certainly impressed. Here Alma plays excerpts from some of her own compositions: And here’s … Continue reading →
This Oscar error wasn’t noticed by so many people. But to Jan Chapman, it was a bit of a shock: Janet Patterson, an Australian costume designer and four-time Oscar nominee (“The Piano,” “Portrait of a Lady,” “Oscar and Lucinda” and … Continue reading →
The other day I was reminded by commenter “AesopFan” of this article from last spring: “[Obama’s Deputy National Security Advisor Ben] Rhodes, 38, said in the article that it was easy to shape a favorable impression of the proposed (Iran) … Continue reading →