All the President’s Horses and All the President’s Men
My writing style has become reasonably casual, parsed with a pompous vocabulary in pursuit of legitimacy (ha). I’ll construct essays like stories, and there’s nothing wrong with a joke every now and again. I like to think it conveys a comfortable confidence with the material, a “yeah I know...
Wrapping the Old School Old School: Meet Citizen Doe
This wraps up the first week of writing for Politics and Film. I’m pretty sure he had a rough word limit on the essays, which was handy after the pages and pages of questions for the individual films. Each module was due on a Sunday night, so of course...
Politics and Film: Meet John Doe. And then forget all about him.
I have …almost NO memory whatsoever of watching this one. There’s a rooftop scene I mention of which I have a vague impression, but that’s it. Otherwise this one made no dent at all. Meet John Doe How are questions of class, wealth and poverty dealt with in the...
Citizen Kane takes it up the Rosebud
I’d started midyear and knew after that first spring that CSUCI kinda sucked, so I enrolled for a few summer courses to move things along. This was killing my summer so I leaned heavily into what I already knew. There was a Nonprofit Management class that was almost word-for-word...
Batting For The Cycle- Cleanup on the Netflix aisle
I wasn’t super-inclined otherwise, but between Spartacus and Rome I’ve been on an Italian thing lately. So I gave Netflix’s docu-drama a try- Roman Empire. And… Eh. It’s both more and less than Spartacus and Rome were, though it’s clearly inspired some by both. There’s sex and gore still,...
Do as the violent rapey Romans say, not as the violent rapey Romans do.
The cool thing about historical dramas is you know how it’s generally gonna go. You can get attached to characters without worrying about some pretentious writer killing them off before their times. Watching Spartacus for example, you know Spartacus dies. You know Caesar doesn’t. In Rome though, you know...
No soy Espartaco, yo
I wrote an essay back at PCC on “rape culture”, years before I wrote about ‘Spartacus’ a few days ago. As I’m re-finishing the last season, I’m reminded of how closely related they are. Rape is a storytelling device throughout the series. Male slaves are used by women or...
The B-Movie Team
If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them….maybe you can hire The A-Team. But I don’t remember them ever actually working for money… I was looking for something to watch and somehow wound up with the modern vision of an...
Yo Soy Spartacus
Less “gladiator porn” than “porn with gladiators”. I don’t do violence as easily as before Sue’s killing. Walking Dead was expired from the watchlist pretty much immediately. I tried Game of Thrones at one point, but couldn’t make it through the first episode without being sickened. Spartacus is an...
Iron Mannerisms: Flight of the Fe Nitwit
I’m working thru SGU again so I’ll get to that one. Yesterday was Iron Man day. The first one still holds up really well, considering everything it introduces. The third on the other hand is among Marvel’s worst. I have fond memories of IM, we opened Glendale with that...