I’ve been enjoying the USA Network's Colony a lot - if you don’t know the show, it’s about life and resistance in Los Angeles under the tyrannical control of mysterious space aliens (umm, maybe) who have conquered the Earth. The second season just ended on Thursday so it’s time to ramp up the theorizing ( Read more... )

Was watching the original Planet of the Apes (1968) on cable yesterday.

The older I get, the more strongly I feel that Dr. Zaius is the hero of the story.

"Don't speak to me in absolutes, the evidence IS contestable . . . !"

Discuss.

Does anyone do post-Christmas accidia like W. H. Auden? This is from his Christmas oratorio, "For the Time Being," specifically the last poem, "Flight into Egypt." There are four sections; the third is probably the best known but the first is my own favorite, so I figured I'd pile on!

The Flight into Egypt (W.H. Auden ( Read more... )

Whatever gods there be act through man's mind and perceptions and are revealed in (1) his intelligence, (2) his ethical sense and his thirst for perfectibility, (3) his power to love (amo ergo sum), (4) his perception of beauty (to kalon), (5) his sense of mystery, (6) his power and urge to be a maker (in music, painting, sculpture, poetry, prose ( Read more... )

So Reince Priebus is going to be Trump's chief of staff, which I guess is OK given the possibilities; but Breitbart-lunatic and casual racist and anti-semite Steve Bannon is going to be "chief strategist" and Senior Counsel ( Read more... )

And now, Orestes, it’s up to you
and your dear friend Mr. Pilades, stranger in these parts.
Get goin’ quickly.
Sun’s risin’, birds are singin’,
stars going down, darkness broken.
Get going before people start moving about
and be clear in your own minds what you’re up to.

-- Sophocles, Elektra, as translated by Ezra Pound

In honor of today's Transition Meeting at the White House, and also in honor of my own long-past but memorably perverse experience in fandom, I wanted to offer a Barack/Donald drabble. 100 words exactly.

“Such a great honor,” Donald stammered. “I thought--a ten minute quickie. Fifteen, tops. We went on for hours . . . I want to see you again, ( Read more... )

Shit happens.

Indeed. :(

I have been thinking this afternoon about Rabbits (hint, hint) and offer the following as comment bait:

A Rabbit as King of the Ghosts Wallace Stevens ( Read more... )

Two public schools in Manhattan -- the Beekman Hill International School (PS 59) and the Landmark High School -- are located about three blocks from Trump Tower.

If he ends up a registered sex offender, do you suppose he'll have to move out?