Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope and the invention of the modern movie

When you consider that the 1948 cult-classic was one of the master director’s lesser known and less heralded works, his achievement in cinema – which I would suggest amounts to nothing less than the invention of modern cinema, from its plot and characters to how it is filmed and edited  – is all the more… Continue reading Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope and the invention of the modern movie

Biden’s awful interview with Time Magazine and the media’s desperate attempt to resuscitate a dying Presidency

The media will try, but you cannot reconcile a “man who has lived history,” “one of advancing age and broad experience” who can only converse in a “sometimes scattershot way.”  A President with a “stiff gait, muffled voice, and fitful syntax” that holds “fast to a vision that has reigned since World War II, in… Continue reading Biden’s awful interview with Time Magazine and the media’s desperate attempt to resuscitate a dying Presidency

The magic of Quito and the majesty of the Andes

At the risk of sounding more than a little provincial, visiting a non-European country can always be a little daunting for a Westerner.  As progressives put it, representation matters in some sense, but that’s where the opportunity for real magic happens when you travel. Quito, the capital of Ecuador, wasn’t a city I’d planned on… Continue reading The magic of Quito and the majesty of the Andes

The Trump verdict and the shoe an the other foot

Does anyone believe progressives would accept a conviction of President Joe Biden based on a trial in rural Alabama presided over by a judge who donated to Donald Trump, whose daughter worked for conservative advocacy firms, and whose chief prosecutor was the third highest ranking official in Trump’s Department of Justice?  Progressives were elated last… Continue reading The Trump verdict and the shoe an the other foot

An expedition to the Galapagos Archipelago and all the beer on the boat

Here is land where birds nest directly on the trail, crowding in the thousands.  The sea lions play with you in the crystal waters.  Schools of eagle rays drift by like silent specters in the night while sea turtles make their way beneath. Lizards lounge on the beach, daring you to get close.  The sun… Continue reading An expedition to the Galapagos Archipelago and all the beer on the boat

Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and the nature of power in the hands of the people

It is a tragedy not of a single individual or even the entire Roman Republic, but one of power, who has it, who wants it, how they get it, and how it ebbs and flows at the whims of the crowd, exercising their free and fickle will to support who they choose at any given… Continue reading Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and the nature of power in the hands of the people

Personal lessons in the wonders and limits of diversity

Diversity, if we take that to mean the richness of experience and ways of life, requires people to stick with their own to some extent and exclude others from some things.  I was born and bred in majority white towns, a proud member of Generation X who grew up in the 1980s.  Throughout my grade… Continue reading Personal lessons in the wonders and limits of diversity

No, Jerry Seinfeld isn’t controversial and the media shouldn’t be pretending otherwise

Mr. Seinfeld becomes living proof that everything and anything needs to be constantly reevaluated according to our ever changing standards of moral decency, and anyone who expresses an opinion of any kind even remotely at odds with those standards will find themselves facing either cancellation criticism or forced irrelevance.  At the risk of stating the… Continue reading No, Jerry Seinfeld isn’t controversial and the media shouldn’t be pretending otherwise

Trump’s intentionally salacious trials, from Stormy Daniels testimony to the FBI staging lurid photos

Stormy Daniels tells the court she spanked a former President with a rolled up magazine that had his photo on the cover before insisting she can speak to dead people while the FBI admits to staging the legal equivalent of pornography with a sensational photo of altered classified documents. While the media has been obsessed… Continue reading Trump’s intentionally salacious trials, from Stormy Daniels testimony to the FBI staging lurid photos

An aging coonhound’s bizarre behavior and a lesson for all of us

Lily gave up a treat she loved because dinner was bigger and better, but now she doesn’t get the treat at all – and she doesn’t even realize it.  Lest you think I am picking on poor dogs, there are likely many, many people out there that suffer from a similar phenomenon.  Most dogs are… Continue reading An aging coonhound’s bizarre behavior and a lesson for all of us