1. The big news this week was that I found out that my contract with the school is not being renewed, so I'm going to have to scramble to find a new job. This was, of course, extremely disappointing, though I had seen hints of it coming, so I wasn't completely caught off guard. I'm … Continue reading Saturday Sundry: Life Change, Misc Thoughts, and ‘One Piece’ Again
Movies
Friday Flotsam: Miscellaneous Thoughts, Equality, and ‘One Piece’
1. Everyone knows that the best way to encourage dissent and rebellion in a country is for a foreign power to launch an unprovoked sneak attack against it. 2. If a statement is true, it cannot be racist. If it is false, the falsity is more important than racism. Therefore, the first question should never … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Miscellaneous Thoughts, Equality, and ‘One Piece’
Saturday Sundry: US Foreign Policy, ‘Rear Window’ and ‘Fiddler on the Roof’
1. US Foreign policy since about 1898 has followed a pretty consistent pattern: Step 1: "The US has gone into X:" "Yay! USA! This is a righteous and noble crusade!"Step 2: "The US has left X:" "Yeah, that whole thing was a stupid idea; why did we do that?" Step 3: Repeat 2. To put … Continue reading Saturday Sundry: US Foreign Policy, ‘Rear Window’ and ‘Fiddler on the Roof’
‘Iron Lung’ at Everyman
My latest article is up at The Everyman, going into how the success of Iron Lung might have major - and positive - consequences for the film industry: We may have just witnessed the dawn of a revolution in the world of filmmaking. A couple weekend’s ago, a low-budget independent horror film based on low-budget … Continue reading ‘Iron Lung’ at Everyman
Saturday Sundry: Back to the Future and Shikata ga nai
1. This week I held my first 'Classic Cinema Showcase' after-school meeting. The idea is to cultivate students' taste in cinema and fiction by showing them classic films and then explaining what makes them good. Our first film was Back to the Future, which they had all seen and liked, but when I started explaining … Continue reading Saturday Sundry: Back to the Future and Shikata ga nai
Overdue Flotsam: Lincoln Criticism and ‘Iron Lung’
1. I had a very distracted weekend one way or another, hence an extra late Flotsam this time. 2. The more I read about the Civil War, the more I begin to wonder whether Abraham Lincoln was really the amazing and wonderful leader he is made out to be. He certainly could give a good … Continue reading Overdue Flotsam: Lincoln Criticism and ‘Iron Lung’
Friday Flotsam: ‘Animal Farm’ Trailer and ‘K-Pop Demon Hunters’
1. I subjected myself to the trailer for Andy Serkis's Animal Farm, which looks incredibly bad in itself and to be a flat-out insult as an adaptation. The only joy in the experience came from looking at the video numbers: In case you can't see it, it reads: 7.15M subscribers113,000 views641 upvotes. At this point, … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: ‘Animal Farm’ Trailer and ‘K-Pop Demon Hunters’
Friday Flotsam: Christmas, ‘Avatar’ and ‘Rebecca’
1. A Merry Christmas! 2. It's been a very laid back, half-hearted kind of Christmas on my end, keeping with the whole of these past few months. The experience has been (so I imagine) similar to that of a functional alcoholic; there are good days and bad days, and a kind of fog over everything, … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Christmas, ‘Avatar’ and ‘Rebecca’
Sunday Sundry: End of the Semester and ‘Animal Farm’ Hypocrisies
1. Another semester done at last! And exams were mostly pretty fun this year. For my English students (all high schoolers this time around), I opted for a discourse method in which students had to give a verbal answer to a question regarding one of the books we read, followed by a general class discussion … Continue reading Sunday Sundry: End of the Semester and ‘Animal Farm’ Hypocrisies
Saturday Sundry: Gods of the Copybook Headings and Ten Years of Misery
1. I had my students read The Gods of the Copybook Headings this week (it's almost exam time and I didn't want to start new lessons, so we're just reading Kipling poems). It's really amazing that this was written in 1919, when its subject matter and thesis are a pitch-perfect match to the present. But … Continue reading Saturday Sundry: Gods of the Copybook Headings and Ten Years of Misery
Serpent's Den 