Category: Posts
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Siskel & Ebert, Mark Driscoll, and the Power of Popularity
Among the podcasts in my regular rotation, there are two others I’m listening to that are both limited series, airing concurrently, and happen to share a surprising thematic overlap. One is Gene and Roger, an eight-part Spotify-exclusive series from The Ringer that serves as an oral history of Gene Siskel, Roger Ebert, and their movie…
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My professional pantheon
I now have my own office at work, along with a bookshelf I don’t have much to put on. So I moved the figurines I used to keep on my desk to the top of the bookshelf and christened them my professional pantheon. Here’s what they are and what I’ll look to them for. Top:…
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Mad Max on the Feminism Road
Really enjoyed this post from Freddie de Boer about his frustration with the common misinterpretation of Mad Max: Fury Road as “Furiosa replaces Max in a Mad Max movie”—a take that’s entirely false: It’s important to understand that Furiosa doesn’t replace Max because the entire movie demonstrates the failure of dictatorship and the superiority of…
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Stargazing with WALL-E
Spent the holiday weekend at my wife’s family’s beach community, where they do a fireworks show every year on the beach. (Read my 2017 reflection about this experience.) Though it was fun to watch Little Man experience fireworks for the first time, my personal highlight was being able to see the clear night sky without…
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On Paper Trails and Typewriting Females
I just finished reading Cameron Blevins’ new book Paper Trails: The US Post and the Making of the American West, which I learned a lot from (see my full book notes). One thing that popped out to me was the role of women in the Post Office’s workforce. Women made up two-thirds of all Post…
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Two favorite ‘Ted Lasso’ scenes
We rewatched season 1 of Ted Lasso in advance of season 2 coming out next month. Among the many wonderful scenes in this marvel of a show, two scenes stuck out this time around. One is from episode 7 (“Make Rebecca Great Again”), when the shy groundskeeper Nate gives a (NSFW) pregame speech/roast with Ted’s…
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The Ghost Map
When I learned Steven Johnson (my favorite author) has a new book out, it prompted me to finally read one of his previous books that’s been on my list for a while. The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World was a timely read,…
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Recent Views
More photography here and on my Instagram. Nice and clean newly painted line in a corner of my library’s under-renovation lower level: We had some trees removed and the guy in the bucket truck looked like he was chillin’ on the roof despite actually floating through the air: From our first time in Half Price…
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Media of the moment
An ongoing series of what I’ve read, seen, and heard recently The Good Lord Bird. The limited series really captures the book’s madcap and dramatic spirit. Ethan Hawke is so delightfully committed to the dead-serious absurdity of John Brown. The Underground Railroad. Two of my main takeaways while watching this 10-episode limited series: 1. I…
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Mulch ado about gardening
We’re finally, finally, doing stuff in our yard and garden areas. Some of it is remedial caretaking—fertilizing and weeding the lawn, removing dead bushes and trees—but a lot of it has focused on beautification and planting vegetables we’re not totally sure will thrive but are giving a try anyway. I gotta say: I’ve really loved…
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Marveling at masks amidst the plague experience
In his latest column “Are Face Masks the New Condoms?” (paywalled), Andrew Sullivan reflects on how difficult it is to change pandemic-induced behaviors: With HIV, as with Covid, a transformation of the facts did not necessarily mean a transformation of psychology. Human psyches take time to adjust to new realities; fear and trauma have a…
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Recent Views
More photography here and on my Instagram. This picture barely captures how cool the evening light was through these clouds at my local strip mall: Remnants of winter: Black Play-Doh + white Play-Doh = accidentally awesome marbled design: “Aphyllous trees beneath cirrocumulus clouds” sounds like a line from “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” but…