Culture
March 2, 2023 — Scott Johnson
I love the screwball comedies of the 1930’s as well as the Peter Bogdanovich homage to them in What’s Up, Doc?, but I hadn’t even heard of Ball of Fire before I caught up with it on TCM last year. I watched it again this week as TCM warmed up for its version of March madness — its 31 Days of Oscar programming. TCM has quite a lineup of films
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February 19, 2023 — Scott Johnson
I had never heard of Marianne Roney Mantell before learning of her death in James R. Hagerty’s fantastic Wall Street Journal obituary. Mrs. Mantell started out struggling to make a living in the early 1950s by writing liner notes for record albums and translating opera libretti. Hagerty continues her story: Men who ran record companies often asked her for ideas about what they should record—but rejected all of her suggestions.
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February 9, 2023 — John Hinderaker
This afternoon, I appeared on the “U.S. Report” show on Sky News Australia with host James Morrow. It is a terrific show: the guests ahead of me were Mick Mulvaney and Tammy Bruce. Morrow began our conversation by showing this Disney video: This Disney clip is pure critical race theory, including the insane conspiracy theory that Lincoln did not free the slaves.pic.twitter.com/kLqPUU34Mn — Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) February 5,
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January 2, 2023 — John Hinderaker
A controversy has erupted in France over the renovation of a statue of novelist Victor Hugo that portrays him as a black man. The New York Times, always quick to jump on any racial angle, is on the case. And Steve Sailer has an excellent post that pulls it all together. First, the controversy, as described by the Times: The statue of Victor Hugo has loomed outside the city hall
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December 21, 2022 — John Hinderaker
A political reality in today’s world is that the Left has vastly more money than the Right. That is certainly a problem, but the more important question is how each side deploys its resources. We have just emerged from an election cycle in which vast amounts of money were spent on both sides, in most cases inefficiently if not entirely fruitlessly. Some years ago, Glenn Reynolds proposed that the Koch
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November 28, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The AP hasn’t gotten around to correcting its headline over the story reporting the word of the year according to Merriam-Webster. At the moment the headline reads: “What headline? ‘Gaslighting’ Merriam-Webster’s word of 2022.” That “What headline?” can’t be right, can it? This must be the AP’s “Mush from the wimp” moment. Speaking of mush from the wimp, I give the Biden administration credit for the rise of “gaslighting” to
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November 15, 2022 — Scott Johnson
We are awash in a wave of anti-Semitic hatred and violence that is coursing through the black community and elsewhere. I heard it in the troubled musings of Kanye West and wrote about in “Anti-Semitism for Ye — but not for me.” The December Commentary features Elliot Kaufman’s deep backgrounder “O Ye of Little Faith: The Anti-Semitism of Kanye West.” Over the weekend comedian Dave Chappelle hosted Saturday Night Live
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November 13, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Dave Chappelle hosted Saturday Night Live last night. In his opening monologue, Chappelle held at painful length that “the Jews” control the world but that this can only be said out loud ironically — because, you know, “the Jews.” It was an unsubtle performance that might be funny if you are on board with that particular “point of view.” Then it might be hilarious. I caught up with video of
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October 18, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Lonny Price’s Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened is one of my favorite documentaries. If you’re a Sondheim fanatic, you will recognize the title of the documentary as a play on one of the songs in the legendary Sondheim flop Merrily We Roll Along (book by George Furth, produced by Hal Prince). Price himself played one of the leads in the show. The film is a riveting and
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October 10, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Over at the University of Minnesota Medical School, one probably shouldn’t be seen with books such as Arthur Koestler’s novel Darkness at Noon or Fan Shen’s memoir Gang of One: Memoirs of a Red Guard. It might reflect an inclination to think for yourself and other such bourgeois indulgences. I’m thinking that they missed a few strokes at this year’s white-coat ceremony for new students. The video below is a
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September 8, 2022 — John Hinderaker
I shelled out $21 to buy Breitbart’s new film, My Son Hunter. It is the story of the Biden crime family, as documented on Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop, brought to life. It is not a documentary; rather the film is a fictionalized version of the story. As Gina Carano, playing a Secret Service agent, says at the beginning: “This is not a true story…except for all the facts.” So, how
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August 15, 2022 — Scott Johnson
TCM is in the middle of its annual Summer Under the Stars festival featuring blocs of films with favorite actors and actresses. At the moment they are running films starring Randolph Scott that continue through tomorrow morning. You may want to set your DVR tonight for Ride the High Country (1962, directed by Sam Peckinpah). Regardless of the star, every film played this month demonstrates the superiority of the old
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July 18, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Angel Blue is an African-American opera singer, who I assume is very good. She made news a few days ago when she walked out on a production of La Traviata being staged by the Verona Theater because–not in her opera, but in a different production at the same theater, Aida–a Russian singer was slated to play the title role in “blackface” makeup. The Telegraph reports: A renowned Italian Opera theatre
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July 4, 2022 — John Hinderaker
I am so old, I can remember when liberals at least pretended to be patriotic. And some of them really were. George McGovern, for instance, was a legitimate World War II hero, flying a B-24 Liberator in combat. He was wrong about many things, but he wasn’t wrong because he hated his country. Fast forward to now. We have been seeing poll data for some years, indicating that liberals generally
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June 26, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Buzz Lightyear (voiced by the great Tim Allen, one of the few right-leaning stars in Hollywood) became an iconic character in the Toy Story series of films, but the new standalone Buzz Lightyear movie, with Buzz voiced by Chris Evans instead of Allen, has bombed at the box office, perhaps because it decided to go fully woke by prominently featuring a lesbian relationship. As Kyle Smith puts it, “today Hollywood’s
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May 31, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Queen Elizabeth is celebrating her Platinum Jubilee–70 years on the throne. After a lifetime of integrity and faithful service, the queen is naturally popular. Current surveys have Elizabeth at 81% favorable and 12% unfavorable. One wonders who the 12% are–IRA terrorists, maybe? Of the royal family, Prince William and Duchess Catherine score next at 74/10. Prince Andrew is the least popular royal, with a 5% approval rating. I don’t think
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May 10, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Wilfred McClay is the formidable historian and a leading light of our intellectual life. On May 17 he is to be recognized with one of this year’s Bradley Prizes — this one — along with Glenn Loury and Chen Guangcheng. Bill wrote me last night: “That is such sad news about Midge. I loved that woman She had more soul in her little finger than any seven other people. I
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