Confessions of a Conservative Atheist
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Roosevelt has little in common with Trump on the surface, save for being born wealthy in New York City and having significant careers outside of politics, but both men inspired over the top passion and both spent a lot of time in court after their Presidencies. On New Year’s Day 2016, I joined my wife… Continue reading Donald Trump, Teddy Roosevelt, a President on trial, and the American obsession with sick bastards
Surrounded by tens of thousands of fans, many of whom know the lyrics by heart, the promised land is then and there. As Springsteen belts out the lyrics - even as he approaches the fifteen hundredth time – the moment we are seeking is right now. “The Promised Land” has never been one of Bruce… Continue reading Springsteen in Albany and “The Promised Land”
Jaques, As You Like It’s “melancholy fellow,” is not likely to appear on any list of Shakespeare’s greatest characters, nor is his speech on the nature of his melancholy, but we see in him a sort of proto-Hamlet without the need to wound, opinion unrestrained, as he fancies himself said, claims it is better to… Continue reading Shakespeare’s most underrated character and speech, perhaps
Roger Ebert asked, “It’s tempting to search here for themes and a style he would return to in his later masterpieces, but...Seeing it without his credit, would you guess it was by Kubrick?” On the surface, the answer is self-evidently no, but to a more critical eye, we can see the early signs of an… Continue reading The Killing and the early genius of Stanley Kubrick
In truth, the Japanese were the aggressors, responsible for millions of deaths and uncounted war crimes. They aspired to be the very colonialist, imperial power that progressives claim to loathe, but the ironclad rules of intersectionality make them the victim when the United States is involved. Earlier this month, the Oscar winning film Oppenheimer premiered… Continue reading Oppenheimer and the “whitewashing” of the Japanese in World War II
We cannot know the wellspring of the emotion we call love, neither where it comes or where it goes, but we should embrace it, lest the entire species should falter. Such is the weight of our dalliances, which are about a lot more than nothing – as is the play itself. Much Ado About nothing… Continue reading Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and why the world must be peopled
The seemingly omniscient narrator of the main verses is interrupted by a first-person speaker who sings something almost entirely different, setting up both a duality and a contrast that persists throughout the song until the very end, where it is either resolved with Billy as the speaker or someone else. Bruce Springsteen recorded the incredibly… Continue reading Springsteen’s “Rockaway the Days” is a lost classic, culled from a few other songs, but with a unique structure that stands on its own
If brevity is the soul of wit, Macbeth’s might be the superior statement of the futility of our existence, an entire philosophy contained in a few simple lines, but the overall meaning couldn’t be more different. It’s as if each speech is itself a prism, and the meaning reflected is based on the direction of… Continue reading Shakespeare’s Macbeth, As You Like It, and all the world’s a stage
Barely half as many couples are getting divorced and more couples are getting married than in recent years. Some experts attribute the trend to being intentional about your mate and choosing companionship rather than romance. Perhaps Springsteen put it best in “Tougher Than the Rest,” or even Shakespeare hundreds of years earlier in Romeo and… Continue reading Springsteen’s “Tougher Than the Rest” and the dramatic decline in divorce rates
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that a show about movies should offer what you haven’t seen before, leaving you with a little of the magic in your own home, rather than scratching your head wondering what they pay these people so much more money for in the first place. Hollywood is supposed… Continue reading The Oscars are an embarrassment for an industry that prides itself on creativity and showmanship
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 