When the encounter between Mr. Mailer and Mr. Vidal turned physical, if not bloody, Mr. Vidal is said to have responded from the floor, “Words fail Norman Mailer yet again.”
March 29, 2007
March 24, 2007
Review: Little Giant
I had brunch with Dave and Sue at Little Giant today, at the corner of Orchard and Broome. They make a mean Bloody Mary and the Trucker’s Breakfast is filling without being over the top. It’s scrambled eggs, tomato, sausage, mushrooms, toast and beans. Were it not for the sausage, it might even be healthy and sensible.
My dad would probably be surprised by the change in the neighborhood. You used to have to walk to the Village, Little Italy or Chinatown to eat when he lived there in the late 70s. I’m pretty sure his old loft was on this block:
300
I have to disagree with a lot of reviewers who didn’t see a current political dimension to 300. It maybe just comes down to a question of timing. If a movie based on the Lysistrata appeared now, it would be hyped as being about the wars in the Middle East. The movie’s PR people would be mentioning it in the context of the current war. So, if you release a movie in which the best of the Spartan military state give their lives to fight off the Persian hordes for “freedom” and to save the Western world while we’re at war with Iraq and pondering war with Iran, it automatically picks up political overtones. It’s the anti-Lysistrata. I think this is true regardless of how you feel about war or the current war. This is a neutral proclamation.
It’s getting a free pass because it’s stupid enough that it doesn’t feel like it’s worthy of being a message film.
There were two things that I thought were odd about the story in 300. The first is the omission of the most moving aspect of the story: the 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians and 2000 Spartan Helot slaves remained behind to allow the escape of a larger Greek force during the Persian encirclement. That necessary tactical sacrifice is totally omitted. The second is the weird insistance on making the story about preserving “freedom” when even the movie itself is making Sparta out to be a military dictatorship with a eugenics program. Just because everyone in the well-muscled master race feels that the State policy is noble doesn’t make it good. See grade school-level lessons of WWII that every American should know if that’s not clear. Again, it gets a pass since it’s about freedom from foreign rule, but you just can’t say freedom that many times in a post-9/11 movie without making one think of current troubles.
So, we’re left with a dumb comic book movie full of melodramatic macho hand to hand combat porn, and I enjoyed that part. Penny Arcade’s review about sums that up. The reviews that point out that it’s dumb, cheap entertainment are absolutely right. There’s a place for that.
March 23, 2007
Iota Probate at Rutgers
Iota probate at Rutgers on Wednesday:
http://www.okblackevents.com/doordie/
I think it’s nice that the Alpha and Sigma found love.
March 17, 2007
Robert Fisk on 301 and Genocide Denial
I wrote that I would be honoured to stand in a Turkish court and talk about the genocide. Now, it seems, my Turkish publishers want to bring my book out like illicit pornography – but still have me standing with them in the dock if right-wing lawyers bring charges under 301!
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article2366519.ece
March 14, 2007
The lunch that broke my spirit
Today, I went for lunch at Island Burgers and Shakes on 9th Avenue. To make it healthy I ordered a chicken sandwich instead of a burger. To continue my embarassing series of stunt eating spectacles, the one I picked came with pepper cream sauce, bacon, and blue cheese and was about the size of dinner plate.
There are basically two ways to go with burgers. The first and probably correct way is the basic burger. The second is the burger optioned out with all sorts of crazy things like they do at Island Burger. Jalapenos? Horseradish Sauce? Chicken breast instead of beef? Bring it on. It’s fun, but eating this particular lunch just got to be degrading after a while. It was sort of like putting down a kiddie pool of gravy in the middle of the street and wading in with a spoon for all to see. I think the tourists were staring.
Next time I go back, I’m getting a very plain chicken breast sandwich or a salad. I actually still like the place.
March 13, 2007
Deja Vu
Today’s Wondermark is hillarious, mostly because I’ve had almost this exact conversation about 100 times.
March 12, 2007
Run Eliot, Run
Spitzer 2010 is already running ads. Eliot Spitzer has been New York State governor for two months and two weeks. It’s a four year term. spitzer2010.com has some early info on the campaign.
I’ll bet it’s a lot easier to get your current political message out by always campaigning and spending money on TV ads than it is by holding press conferences up in Albany.
March 4, 2007
March 3, 2007
Interesting Best Buy Sales Practice
Best Buy Confirms It Has Secret Website
Basically, what they appear to have done is put low prices on their public website, but when a consumer gets to the store, they’re shown an internal site that looks like the public website, but with higher pricing.