Remembering (and Celebrating) The Kids In The Hall
Sean Murphy(10/16: After yesterday's post, it seems appropriate (and always overdue) to remember how amazing KITH were (are)!) (From PopMatters, 10/07) The Kids in the Hall existed in a sort of…
End of Summer (Camp) with a Bat, a Cat and a Clown
It is an inexorable, if lamentable rite of passage to revisit cultural mementos from one's childhood and discover that, to an adult's eyes, they are lacking. But then, "putting away…
Remembering the USS Indianapolis, Robert Shaw and The Scene
On July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis, which had just delivered key components of the Hiroshima atomic bomb to the Pacific island of Tinian, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine.…
Dennis Farina: Bad Man, Good Actor
And by bad I mean, of course, badass. Nevermind that he actually was a Chicago cop for many years before he "broke in" to acting (See what I did there?).…
A Week of Americana. Part Five: Chinatown
Chinatown does not usually make the short list of best American films. In fairness, it probably shouldn’t. It will have to settle for merely being the only perfect American film…
Jean Stapleton, R.I.P.
This one hurts, especially for any of us who came of age (or were alive, period) in the '70s. If you were alive in the '70s, you knew about Jean…
The Ballad of Bonnie & Clyde or, Art Improving Upon Life (Revisited)
ON THIS DAY On May 23, 1934, bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were shot to death in a police ambush as they were driving a stolen Ford Deluxe…
3.14 and Interfacing with the Infinite
If you've never seen Pi, Darren Aronofsky's first (and best) movie, I strongly encourage you to check it out. (Hint: it's not just a number; it's a concept of existence.…
Coal Mines, Unions, Big Business and (of course) George Orwell (Revisited)
Watching coal-miners at work, you realize momentarily what different universes people inhabit. --George Orwell Quite by chance (no, really), I saw an old classic that had been languishing in my…
Marlon Brando, Pocahontas and Me (Revisited)
And the Oscar goes to... Who cares? Okay, okay: I'll resist the urge to be a sourpuss and let it suffice that I express my indifference to the pompous and…