Culture
February 26, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
In Hollywood, I imagine, the two sincerest forms of flattery are imitation and left-liberalism. As I suggested yesterday, Argo clinched its Oscar for best picture through the flattery of a left-liberal introduction and conclusion to its story about revolutionary Iran. But let’s not overlook the opening scene from Lincoln which, in my opinion, strikes the only false notes in this brilliant film. That scene features an African-American soldier, in the
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February 25, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Politics, it has been said for a while now, is “show business for ugly people.” (The line is said to have originated with either Paul Begala, or Texas political consultant Bill Miller, in a 1991 Dallas Morning News article.) Actually, the ugly part is less and less true; it is slowly becoming a requirement in politics as in Hollywood that you be good looking to succeed. With the appearance at
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February 25, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
I hear that Argo has won the Academy Award for best picture. I saw the movie on Scott’s recommendation and thought it was quite good, but inferior to Lincoln which I also saw on Scott’s recommendation. How Argo compares to other highly-regarded movies of 2012, I cannot say. Absent a strong recommendation by someone I know and trust, I don’t attend Hollywood films. But I suspect that Argo clinched its
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February 23, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Andrew Klavan is the prolific author whose most recent book is A Killer in the Wind. In the panel on our culture this afternoon at the Horowitz Freedom Center West Coast Retreat, the discussion turned to Zero Dark Thirty in the question-and-answer period. Klavan pronounced the quote of the day in his comments: “I personally believe that waterboarding jihadis should be an Olympic sport.”
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February 21, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Daniel Henninger devotes his weekly Wall Street Journal column to the mind-boggling letter sent by Democratic Senators Feinstein and Levin along with their friend John McCain (Republican, I probably don’t need to remind you) to Sony Pictures protesting the film Zero Dark Thirty. “Zero Dark Thirty is factually inacurrate,” these solons write, “and we believe that you have an obligation to state that the role of torture in the hunt
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February 19, 2013 — Scott Johnson
The Wall Street Journal’s Weekend Interview feature this past Saturday sent Journal editorial board member Matthew Kaminkski in the direction of the author of the screenplay of Zero Dark Thirty, Mark Boal. While he has teamed up with director Katheryn Bigelow, Boal is also a reporter who has written for such reliably left-wing outlets as The Village Voice, Rolling Stone and Mother Jones. With his screenplay for the Zero Dark
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February 17, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
I confess to watching Downton Abbey, the glorified soap opera that PBS runs on “Masterpiece Classic.” (By the way, what was the last true masterpiece to appear on Masterpiece Theatre/Classic, I Claudius?) My excuse is that I got hooked before I realized how flawed the show is. A better excuse, albeit of the after the fact variety, came briefly to mind when I saw, via Forbes Magazine, that some among
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February 17, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Dozens of protesters rallied outside the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters yesterday in a show of support for Christopher Dorner and his claims of racism on the part of the LAPD. Among the signs the protesters carried were: “If you’re not enraged, you’re not paying attention.” “Why couldn’t we hear his side?” “Clear his name! Christopher Dorner” Support for the deranged killer wasn’t limited to the protesters. According to the
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February 16, 2013 — Scott Johnson
I discovered via Kyle Smith on Twitter yesterday that the Criterion Collection of mostly classic films has been made available for free via Hulu this weekend. Engagdet recommends a few science fiction classics from the collection. I recommend anything by Ingmar Bergman and Akira Kurasawa, favorites dating back to my college days. The films stream with brief commercial interruption, but hey, they’re free. If you have any favorites to recommend,
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February 13, 2013 — John Hinderaker
If you follow the British press, you are aware that the second-biggest scandal in Great Britain, after the ongoing horror of the National Health Service, is the discovery that for years, suppliers of various food products have been substituting horse meat for beef. The horse meat frequently originated in Poland, but recent investigations have found horse meat that originates in Britain itself and has been masquerading as beef. English beefeaters
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February 13, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Four California high-school students reportedly were suspended for chanting “U.S.A! U.S.A!” and wearing American flag bandanas during a basketball game. Although their punishment has since been rescinded, school administrators said “the incident is far from over.” The students attend Camarillo High School. They attended a game against rival Rio Mesa wearing the flag bandanas. After a vice principal ordered them to remove the bandanas or leave the gym, they left
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February 10, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck cuts a fine figure on television as he condemns killer Charles Dorner and promises to bring him to justice. He even looks a little like that police commissioner Tom Selleck plays on television. But Beck has disgraced himself by ordering a reexamination of the disciplinary case that led to the firing of Dorner. Beck explained that he wants to assure the city that his
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February 3, 2013 — Scott Johnson
I happened onto an installment of Shakespeare Uncovered on PBS this past Friday. What manner of show is this? I found it riveting. Looking around for an explanation, I discovered Nancy DeWolf Smith’s explanation in Friday’s Wall Street Journal: If the marvelous “Shakespeare Uncovered” had been around when all of us were first introduced to the Bard, the world might be a better place, or at least a happier one.
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January 27, 2013 — Scott Johnson
In one of his lesser works, Ernest Hemingway famously observed that “all modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.” Not true, but true enough, and I think the same might be said of modern American theater with respect to one play by Eugene O’Neill called Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Written by O’Neill in 1941-42, but not published until 1956, after his death, the
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January 23, 2013 — Scott Johnson
The Claremont Institute’s American Mind series with host Charles Kesler kicks off in earnest with an interview of Bill Bennett. The American Mind seeks to deliver the insights, ideas, and perspectives of our brightest conservative thinkers, writers and political philosophers, in a monthly series of intimate conversations hosted by Professor Kesler, editor of The Claremont Review of Books. We previewed the interview last week with its first segment. The interview
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January 10, 2013 — Scott Johnson
In another sign that the end of times is approaching, Bill Clinton has been named by the National Father’s Day Council to receive one of its coveted Father of the Year awards: “With the profound generosity, leadership and tireless dedication to both his public office and many philanthropic organizations, President Clinton exemplifies the attributes that we celebrate through the Father of the Year award,” said Dan Orwig, chairman of the
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January 6, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Okay, this is one of those obscure posts about progressive rock that you’re best advised to skip over unless you’re a 70s prog-rock geek like me and Brad Birzer at Hillsdale. (See ProgArchy.com if you want a geek sample.) But if you are one of us, this one is really fun. I just yesterday stumbled across the obscure cultural fact that at the 2010 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
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