Category: Culture

Sunday Morning Reading

A nod to Billy Joel, a little Faust, a little Shakespeare and the cycle of life keeps turning.

We may not have started the fire. In the words of Billy Joel, “it was always burning.” Still we can always try and fight it. I’m not sure how that’s working out but it does seem to be our lot. Sifting through smoke and ashes, here’s a little Sunday Morning Reading to share.

Kicking things off is David Todd McCarty’s Looking for God, Sitting in Hell. Summed up nicely, “we get so lost in semantics that we forget the important parts.” Indeed.

David Sterling Brown tells us What Shakespeare Revealed About the Chaotic Reign of Richard III – And Why The Play Still Resonates In The Age of Donald Trump. The only thing I question is the word “still” in the headline. There’s not a moment of being human that isn’t contained in the stories and characters of Shakespeare. We haven’t invented a new way of being good, bad or indifferent in quite some time.

And while we’re on the literature beat Brian Klaas give us Faustian Capitalism. Again, there’s nothing new under the sun here as we watch this country’s wealthiest men bend their knees in supplication, but there’s some small comfort in knowing we’ve been this selfishly stupid before.

John Pavlovitz hits a nail on the head with The California Fires Are a Disaster. The American Cruelty Is A Tragedy. It may be beyond our capacity to comprehend devastation, but as the previous two entries show, it shouldn’t be beyond our ability to know we keep repeating the same mistakes.  Or maybe that’s really just the hell we’re living?

Speaking of Faustian bargains, Mike Masnick lays out The Good, The Bad, And The Stupid In Meta’s New Content Policies.

This piece should scare you, but again, its subject is as old as humankind’s penchant for inhumanity. Stephanie McCrummen shines a bit of light as The Army Of God Comes Out Of The Shadows.

Derek Thompson takes a look at The Anti-Social Century and how our reality is changing as we spend so much of our time alone.

Perhaps one of the keys to being less alone and less anti-social is choosing your friends wisely. Natasha MH says that “To survive this life, it’s crucial to discern which friends are worth keeping and which aren’t. You are the guardian of your own peace of mind” as she lays out The Optimist’s Dilemma In A Pessimistic World.

And finally, Ian Dunt offers A Little Bit Of Hope After A Terrible Week, in what he calls a survival guide for the next four years. Ian says “History has no direction.” He’s correct. It’s a circle, a cycle, a carousel.

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here.  You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. You can also find me on social networks under my own name.

Sunday Morning Reading

Looking back, while heading forward, with a nod to Beckett wandering through a lot of good questions.

This is the first edition of Sunday Morning Reading in the New Year, 2025. A new year certainly has meaning astronomically. From a human perspective it is a way of looking back in remembrance, even as we continue to evolve and move forward. Often these days, the evolving part seems more and more in question, even as humans make strides and advances in their various fields of endeavors. Some improve our lives, even as it appears so many of us remain stuck in the habits of the past and feel good about celebrating that choice to turn the clock back.

This week’s edition, in a way, marks that always thin dividing line between one year and the next, when what was old carries over into the new.

Natasha MH kicks things off with a lovely remembrance of her grandfather, It Begins With A Grain Of Salt. There’s a lovely quote:

Human intuition is not always reliable. Our perceptions can be distorted by biases and the limitations of our senses, which capture only a small fraction of the world’s phenomena.”

Christopher Luu offers a terrific look at one who made choices in ‘She Believed You Have To Take Sides’: How Audrey Hepburn Became A Secret Spy During World War Two.

Om Malik has a lovely piece about his “re-birthday” after surviving a heart attack in The Story of The Stent.

James Thomson, the developer of PCalc and other Apple software, looks back on the last 25 years in I Live My Life A Quarter Century At A Time.

The Next Big Idea Club shares some insights from Greg Epstein’s new book Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World’s Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation, in The Weird Worship of Tech That Demands Serious Questioning. Epstein is the Humanist Chaplin at Harvard and at MIT, where he advises students, faculty and staff on ethical and existential concerns from a humanist perspective.

One thing is certain as we head into the new year, Artificial Intelligence will continue to dominate discourse. Jennifer Ouellette examines what happened at the Journal of Human Evolution when all but one member of the editorial board resigned. Some of the issues predate the current AI moment, but that seems to have been a breaking point as she explains in Evolution Journal Editors Resign En Masse.

Simon Willison takes a look at Things We Learned About LLMs in 2024. It’s an excellent look back and worth hanging onto as we plunge ahead, willingly or no.

Edward Zitron believes that generative AI has no killer apps, nor can it justify its valuations. Here’s him quoting himself from March 2024:

What if what we’re seeing today isn’t a glimpse of the future, but the new terms of the present? What if artificial intelligence isn’t actually capable of doing much more than what we’re seeing today, and what if there’s no clear timeline when it’ll be able to do more? What if this entire hype cycle has been built, goosed by a compliant media ready and willing to take career-embellishers at their word?

Strip out the reference to AI and apply it anywhere along the timeline of human evolution and innovation and the questions resonant in a very Beckett-like way. Check out his piece Godot Isn’t Making It. 

Judges in the U.S. Sixth Circuit drove a stake through the heart of Net Neutrality as the new year dawned. Brian Barrett says it’s crushing blow not just for how we live our lives on the Internet but consumer protections in general in The Death Of Net Neutrality Is A Bad Omen. He’s correct.

And finally this week, an incredible piece of reporting from Joshua Kaplan at ProPublica. The Militia And The Mole is at once terrifying and also confirming when it comes to the fears those paying attention harbor heading into whatever this next year is going to bring.

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here.  You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. You can also find me on social networks under my own name.

Good Books Now In The Public Domain

Terrific early work by famous authors among this year’s entries into the public domain.

In addition to being the first day of the New Year, January 1 is also known as Public Domain Day, when titles previously under copyright enter the public domain in many countries, including the U.S.

Shutterstock 2494525843.

This year’s titles include a host of good books by some authors you might have heard of including William Faulkner, Earnest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Dashiell Hammett, Thomas Wolfe, Sinclair Lewis, Edith Wharton and Mahatma Gandhi among others.

Standard EBOOKS is celebrating by providing links to twenty of the titles available to download in different formats that should work with most ebook readers.

These book titles, were first published in 1929. I won’t get into the length of copyrights and all the issues surrounding that, but instead say this is an interesting collection of works, some early or first works by some of the authors listed above.

Keep in mind that on Public Domain Day a number of titles in other media also entered the public domain. Duke University publishes a more extensive, but not complete list that includes titles of plays, movies, characters, music compositions, art,  and sound recordings. The date for sound recordings is 1924 and includes Rhapsody In Blue by George Gershwin.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. 

My Picks of the Year for 2024

Complex pieces, whether successful or not, dominate my end of year list for 2024

2024 was a complex year on many fronts in my life. We moved. Politics and culture seemed to daily turn the world upside down and inside out. And for some reason the movies, TV, and books I enjoyed the most were, while not necessarily the top of class, very complex.

I certainly didn’t see or consume everything during the year. Heading into the holiday movie release schedule I found myself thinking it had been a better year for streaming TV than it had for movies. I think that still holds. Some titles may have been released prior to 2024, but they didn’t cross my radar until this year soon to pass, so they get included.

For the record I don’t believe in “Best of.” As I continue to say, there’s too much good being created by too many good (and some not so good) folks out there, that I pick what attracts and holds my attention.

This year that leaned towards complex pieces that may or may not have been utterly successful. There’s also just some well done entertainment. There is still lots of mediocrity out there, but here’s the complex cream that rose to the top of my list. If I wrote something about the titles, there will be a link.

Movies

Streaming TV

Other Video

I’m not sure where to put YouTube videos on this list, but this presentation of Ubu and The Truth Commission by the Handspring Puppet Company was high on my list of favorite viewing this year.

Books

  • James by Percival Everett
  • The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich
  • Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
  • On Freedom by Timothy Snyder
  • The Freaks Came Out To Write by Tricia Romano
  • Infinite Detail by by Tim Maughan

Apps

Either I’m slowing down or software App development is. There’s only one new App that landed on my devices that I would recommend:

  • Croissant. A social media cross-posting app by Ben McCarthy and Aaron Veigh. It’s still got some quirks, but it is handy enough that I use it frequently hoping they’ll work the kinks out.

Have a Happy New Year!

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. 

Sunday Morning Reading

What do ugly Christmas sweaters, physics, the post office and pernicketies have in common? Check out this week’s Sunday Morning Reading.

Here we are with the last edition Sunday Morning Reading for 2024. As usual there’s links to subjects and writing I’ve found particularly interesting. I hope you do as well. Enjoy this week’s edition and see you next year.

 Christmas has come and gone, and it’s time for the decorations to come down and the ugly Christmas sweaters to be put away. Jennifer Ouellette takes a look at The Physics of Ugly Christmas Sweaters. You may want to consider how you fold yours up for seasonal storage after reading this.

I’ve laid off politics during most of this year’s holiday season, but I’ve been peripherally aware that apparently a Civil War has broken out between the tech bros and the MAGAts over immigration. Not to worry, Heather Cox Richardson has a running account of the blows and counter blows in her Letters From An American for December 27. 

One of the numerous things many are worried we might actually lose during the next administration is the troubled U.S. Postal Service. Steve Herman gives a nice rundown of some history, context, and what we might lose in Going Postal. As the son of a former post master, I appreciate Steve’s efforts here.

Thinking about how big projects get started, Joan Westenberg takes on The Ego-Legacy Complex: On Ancient Monuments and Modern Malaise. 

ProPublica writers Asia Fields, Nicole Santa Cruz, Ruth Talbot, and Maya Miller conducted a series of interviews with homeless individuals. A feature of the article is the re-printing of the notecards some of the interviewees wrote describing their losses. Check out I Have Lost Everything to see what they have lost.

Most folks have a love/hate relationship with services they subscribe to and of course that includes streaming video services like Netflix. If you subscribe to Netflix and you’ve ever wondered why Netflix gets on your nerves, check out Will Tavlin’s Casual Viewing. You’ll never stream it the same way again.

You have to love the title, but you’ll also love the article. Check out Pet Peeves and Other Pernicketies from NatashaMH.

Have a Happy New Year! 

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here.  You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. You can also find me on social networks under my own name.

The Fun Of Early Morning Movie Going

Movie magic without the crowds.

My wife and I had a holiday tradition of going to see movies around the holidays. We always chose the earliest morning showing because, hey, they are the cheapest ticket. One of the other benefits was the crowds were less. At times it felt like a private screening.

A gentleman siitting alone in a movie theatre, with popcorn and refreshments

All of that was pre-pandemic, and of course that tradition got shelved during those years, and has remained so even longer. But this year we kicked things back off again as my wife gifted me tickets to see Wicked.

If I’m being honest, I like the private screening feel.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. 

Jon M. Chu’s Wicked Is Wicked Good

Whether big and splashy or small and detailed, Wicked hits the right notes in telling this story.

Cutting right to the chase, Jon M. Chu has done the best job of directing a musical film I have seen since Singing In The Rain. Chu’s Wicked shows what a modern day movie musical can and should be.

Wicked cynthia erivo arrianna grande

My wife and I used to have a post-Christmas tradition. In the days following Christmas Day, we’d go to an early showing of whatever movie was the hot ticket. That carried over for most of our movie going rituals as we continued to hit the earliest (read cheapest) shows available when we wanted to go to see something on the big screen. Like everyone else we broke those habits and traditions during COVID. And, though we miss it, we’ve never started it back up again post-pandemic.

Well, this year my wife kicked the tires and got us started again by gifting us tickets to an early morning showing of Wicked, a film we both were looking forward to seeing. Great gift and great time at the movies.

Speaking of, I won’t go on about the performances, they are stunningly good. If nominated in the same category for acting, it will be tough for awards show voters to pick between Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, but they aren’t the only actors who are excellent. I also won’t go on about the production design. Again, stunningly good.

I will rave about Chu’s direction and the way he handled Christopher Scott’s choreography. For once, we get big, splashy musical numbers where the director actually wants us to see the details of the choreography and the character and small touches Scott brought to his dancers. It’s a revelation. I’ve enjoyed Chu’s previous work, especially Into The Heights, but even there the storytelling gets overwhelmed by the spectacle. Here, the storytelling is always front and center, even when the screen is bursting with spectacle.

There’s an intimacy to the story telling that I’ve often found in the music of Wicked, but have seldom seen play out on stage. That same intimacy applies to the small scenes as well, and Chu and his cast pull it off without a hitch.

Wicked is probably winding down its theatrical run as it is due to head to streaming soon, but if you can catch it in a theatre it’s quite a gift.

Highly recommended.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. 

Red One Will Make You Wince and Laugh

Red One won’t save Christmas, but it is quite jolly.

Red One, now streaming on Amazon Prime isn’t a classic, nor is it a loser. It’s fun in all the right places, and bad in all the right places. In the end, it’s worth streaming if you’re looking for some good brainless streaming fun over the holiday.

Overflowing with familiar names in the cast including The Rock, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, and J.K. Simmons, among others, it’s a romp that tosses a bunch of Christmas themed traditions into the mixer, shakes them up, and sprinkles enough one liners and almost too many special effects on top to keep it entertaining.

I’m not sure it’s quite family fare if you have wee young ones, but for an older mix of generations it’s might be worth the sleigh ride. Explaining Santa Claus might never been the same again.

The different world creation is a well done enough that the movie creates its own Christmas world view allowing a pretty insane mix of mythic magic and technology to propel the story  as the characters try to save Christmas.

If you’re like my families, silly and goofy Christmas movies are a part of the holiday tradition. This one probably makes the cut going forward.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. 

Sunday Morning Reading

Some festive fare, and some not quite so for this week’s Sunday Morning Reading.

Christmas and Hanukkah are almost upon us. There’s that traditional feeling of magic in the air, but it’s tempered a bit by apprehension about what may come in the New Year. But it’s Sunday and it’s before all of that, so it’s time to share some Sunday Morning Reading.

First up are a couple of Christmas gifts that seem appropriate both for their historical holiday context and in today’s current one. Shannon Cudd takes on The Surprisingly Corporate Retail Origin Story Behind ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.’ Feels appropriate in this approaching age of oligarchy even if that age seemed a bit more innocent.

Follow that up with Olivia Jordan’s A Christmas Carol in Context: Dickens’ Beloved Festive Fable. Having directed many a production of ‘The Carol,’ I’m always amazed that its story of goodwill and redemption is at once so popular, yet always so quickly forgotten. It’s a puzzler. But then the great messages told around Christmas typically lose their resonance once we move away from the season.

Speaking of puzzlers, Generative AI is still on everyone’s mind and Gary Marcus thinks Generative AI Still Needs To Prove It’s Usefulness. Yes, he means beyond the hype it’s generated that has made some fabulously wealthy.

Journalism is having a moment and not a good one in today’s political climate. Most of that is of its own making and a good deal of it is by the owners. Podcaster and tech journalist Kara Swisher might be fed up enough to try and do something about it. She is seeking to round up investors to fund a bid to buy The Washington Post, after Jeff Bezo’s weak capitulation to the incoming Trump regime. I hope she succeeds. Meanwhile, John Gruber has written a terrific piece on this titled Journalism Requires Owners Committed To The Cause. He’s spot on.

Meanwhile Om Malik takes a look at the just how dark things may be for traditional media in these dark days in Musings On Media In The Age of AI. Here’s a quote:

None of the media business models will work in the future — neither advertising nor paywalls. Today’s content deals, like the one The Atlantic signed with OpenAI, are akin to the sugar high you get from soda. The sugar high is followed by the inevitable crash.

Jennifer Berry Hawes, Nat Lash, and Mollie Simon for ProPublica take a look at The Story Of One Mississippi County Shows How Private Schools Are Exacerbating Segregation. Good reporting on a story that somehow feels more than a little Dickensian.

Folks seek validation in many ways. Climbing mountains and overcoming obstacles can be a part of that game. So too is recognizing that “not everything in life needs to be conquered.” Check out Ain’t No Mountain High Enough from NatashaMH.

And to close out this week’s Sunday Morning Reading with a bit of grace, check out The Laundromat On Sixth Avenue by Grace 🎶 @notesofgrace

May whatever holiday you celebrate this time of the year bring you some peace and perhaps some joy. Here’s hoping we all can find that comfort surrounded by the company of family and good friends.

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here.  You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. You can also find me on social networks under my own name.

Black Doves Makes A Play To Be A Deadly Christmas Movie

It’s no Die Hard, but Black Doves does make a play to be a deadly holiday thriller.

There’s a long standing debate that rolls around this time every year about whether or not the classic Bruce Willis film, Die Hard, is a Christmas movie or not. I happen to think it is, so there’s my $.02 on that. Netflix is making a play to join the violent Christmas movie genre with its recently released spy/gangster thriller Black Doves.

BlackDoves FirstLook Image 1-H-2024.

Does Black Doves stack up as a Christmas movie? For some probably so, for most I’m guessing not. It has a great sense of comedy amongst the dire circumstances, and almost enough holiday charm and romance to qualify it as a Hallmark holiday movie. Semi-stuffed with holiday trappings and none of the ticking clock pressure of trying to solve it by Christmas Day it sorta works.  That’s not to its detriment.

Black Doves does stack up as a decent spy/gangster tale with very good performances from Keira Knightly and Ben Whishaw, and it’s the spy game/gangster game plotting and sub-plotting that makes it work, though not necessarily with edge of your seat suspense. Which at times seems strange since  World War III keeps threatening to break out.

In any case, it’s not perfect, but it’s fun. I’d recommend Black Doves as a good stream if you’re looking for good entertainment over the holidays, whether you want things wrapped up with a pretty bow or not.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.