I try to stay away from the NYT editorial page, but today someone linked approvingly to a piece by David Brooks (I’m not linking to it because the hell with David Brooks and the New York Times. If you’re interested, it’s not hard to find) in which he tiptoes right up to the point and then misses it entirely.
Because I was a broke kid who went to rich people’s schools, I wound up with a kind of complicated class identity. There have been times when I’ve had money and there have been times where I was broke. And it’s become apparent to me recently that a lot of people who are not broke have no idea what this reality is like and how it affects people. So I’m writing this not because all of it is my experience (though some if it definitely is) but because I really don’t think middle class people with money who hang out with other middle class people with money have any idea of what being broke is like.
Though Wicked has a cult following, I’m not part of the cult. I read the book at some point in the late 90’s, didn’t like it, and never saw the musical.
So I went into this movie with no expectations, except that I thought it was going to feel way too long. It didn’t, and more on this later. Also: it knocked me out.
Here in the good old USA, we will soon be ruled by a collection of clowns, villains, and villainous clowns. I think it’s time we started taking the idea of protecting our data a little more seriously. Even though it’s a pain in the ass and you probably feel like you have nothing to hide.
I’ve been reading a fair number of posts on social media from people who feel that a vote for either presidential candidate is an endorsement of horrifying crimes they don’t want to be associated with. What these folks are wrestling with, I think, is a question that plagues everyone with a conscience: how do I live a moral life in a corrupt world?
Old friend Seamus Cooper dropped by with a haunted look in his eyes and a flash drive in his hand. “Just…publish it,” he said, pressing the flash drive into my hand. So here it is, just in time for Halloween!
Even after all these years, I am a sucker for found footage horror. I think it’s because it accounts for the presence of the camera, so you don’t have to suspend your disbelief quite as much as you do with a regular movie, where you know there’s a crew and a director and everybody right there because it’s a movie, but you make yourself forget it while you’re watching.
Your mileage may vary. I know a lot of people are fed up with found footage, and I have some thoughts on why that might be in my review of