We’ve been watching “The Americans,” the FX series about two Soviet intelligence agents posing as a married-with-children couple to spy on the American government. Spoiler: this is not a documentary about Donald J. Trump and family. It’s set in the early ’80s. Therein lies the charm, I guess. It seems almost quaint to imagine the Russians bothering with deep-cover agents when they’ve pretty much got the run […]
Joan of dark
Film noir of the week is “Sudden Fear,” starring Joan Crawford and Jack Palance. You weren’t aware of Film Noir of the Week? Yeah, that’s something I just came up with. I fully expect to forget about it over the next few days. Anyway, “Sudden Fear” is a perfectly respectable noir, made in 1951 just before all the conventions of the genre solidified into cliches. It’s shot […]
Downward-facing decade
I wonder: Has the iPhone made the world a better place, or a worse one? Always a popular subject and more in vogue this month now that the iPhone has turned 10. (Any anniversary that’s a multiple of five is red meat to pundits caught in the dog days of summer.) And so Timothy Egan and David Brooks both have nice columns on the subject in the […]
Peace through television
I haven’t posted for — what, five months now? — because every time I have an idea it somehow ends up with the phrase “that fucking Trump.” The original idea could be about television or books or movies, or gardening or the importance of regular oil changes, and still those words keep forcing themselves forward in the first paragraph. But I’m past it now. I figure it’s […]
Meals on Wheels
meets Godzilla
I used to be a Meals on Wheels driver, and let me tell you, those were the days: Pulling down a generous stipend while delivering gourmet cuisine to indolent oldsters. The only downside was that they were lousy tippers, and tended to complain if the foie gras was grainy or the filets were overdone. Ha ha. Very funny, right? Actually, I found Meals on Wheels to be […]
‘Star Trek’ saw it coming
You run out of metaphors to explain Trump. In the shit-hits-the-fan scenario, is Trump the fan, or is he the shit? In the Hitler scenario, is Trump really Hitler, or is he Mussolini’s feckless brother Doug? In the comet-destroys-Earth scenario, is Trump the comet, or is he just a guy on his toilet, tweeting out his reactions to “Fox and Friends”? The thing about history is that […]
Thar he blows
Call me Ishmael. Or call me Dave. Really, either one is fine. The thing is, I’ve started reading “Moby Dick.” It’s a Lenten exercise. Last year it was “War and Peace,” this year it’s the great white whale. Somehow I’d managed to avoid it until now. Then Lent rolled around and I started thinking of things I’d never do except as penance. This book sprang to mind. […]
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 113
- Next Page »