Film, Television, Sex, Music, Literature, Pop
Rahab, Oppenheimer, Epps (One of these things is not like the others..) I once met an old Marine who served in Okinawa during World War II. He told horrendous stories of machine gun nests opening up every 75 feet, and American GIs tied to stakes and turned into Swiss Cheese for the amusement of Japanese..
On the Road… A few weeks ago a guy pulling a rickshaw on Venice beach called me, “Mr. 80s Man.” It was an unsolicited commentary on my clothing — the khakis, button down shirt, loafers and Ray Bans that have constituted my attire since college, forty or more years ago, back when the classic preppy..
Epstein’s victims: a metaphor for all of us.. It’s a heart-breaking, cruel and baffling picture: a dewy young woman– anxious to make her mark in the world–is promised the glories of high-society introductions, admission to elite universities, and professional advancement in a club that is chock full of billionaires and luminaries. And, by the way,..
Oh, Zion! Dear Zion! I have a lush novel planned–full of carnivals and music and beautiful girls slow dancing with their young men on moonlit patios. In the broader landscape described here, kindly old men will give sing-song sermons full of teary-eyed spiritual assurance. It will all be set to a big, swelling chorus, and..
..and mistaking them for people.. A “cog,” they tell us, is a motion-transferring wheel with sprockets along its edge. A collection of them, engineered and assembled, as in a Swiss watch, can be so beautiful to behold that some designers have taken to leaving the whole assembly visible to the eye. It’s reassuring to ponder..
As gentle as serpents and as wise as Dodo birds.. So imagine, just for the sake of the depressing mental challenge it represents, a fraternity of world leaders in positions of extraordinary power. These lions of state and corporate power share an ancient, superstitious fear: the world is too just too small and delicate for..
..Laughing, and blushing, into his locker Two things I should make clear at the outset: Number one: in my book Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez earns a daily Maxine Waters award for unmitigated dimwittery in the execution of her congressional duties. Her “Green New Deal” would consign most of the world to abject poverty, and she appears to..
It’s not really a child.. Seventy different “Pro-Life” organizations penned an open letter on the subject of criminalizing abortion this week. With the anticipated fall of Roe V. Wade, many states are proposing criminal penalties for providing or seeking an abortion. There has been a huge amount of disinformation purveyed by pro-abortion groups on this..
What Makes A Story Work? In the search for a really good, binge-worthy source of entertainment (I do a lot of elliptical these days), I have taken to re-watching stories that actually work — That Thing You Do, Blast From the Past, True Grit, Breaking Bad to name a few— over taking a chance on..
The Scary Thing.. I haven’t watched a great deal of Depp V. Heard, but I did stop in to see Amber’s moisture-less crying jag. I also watched a bit of Depp’s testimony. Amber’s grief was so singularly awkward a performance that I went from being a little amused by it to being more than a..
