Tag: capitalism

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The Art of Reviewing: Cintra Wilson (Part One)

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Every blog needs a large-scale project. The Art of Reviewing will explore reviewing as an art form and as a valuable element to understanding society.  During this project, I will profile specific reviewers of merit.  Several specific cases also explore other facets of reviewing. Cintra Wilson Cintra Wilson was a columnist at Salon, retail reviewer in the New York Times Fashion & Style section (Critical Shopper), and lately political columnist (the C-Word), appearing in the New Haven Advocate, the Hartford Courant, and the Fairfield Weekly.  Wilson also authored the ferocious cultural commentary entitled A Massive Swelling: celebrity re-examined as a … Continue reading The Art of Reviewing: Cintra Wilson (Part One)

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The Art of Reviewing Special Edition(TM): The 20 Minute “Avatar” Review

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Every blog needs a large-scale project. The Art of Reviewing will explore reviewing as an art form and as a valuable element to understanding society.  During this project, I will profile specific reviewers of merit.  Several specific cases also explore other facets of reviewing. If you haven’t seen it already, it’s making the rounds on Ye Olde Nettertubes.  It’s a twenty-minute review of James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar. Here’s the review, in two parts: *** COMMENTARY This review is a bit long and a bit cynical, but it makes a number of valid points.  It is an artful combination of pop … Continue reading The Art of Reviewing Special Edition(TM): The 20 Minute “Avatar” Review

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book reviews, books, film, food, nature, The Internet, TV1 Comment

Liver: A Fictional Organ with a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes by Will Self

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A Review with a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes 1. A Culinary Introduction Liver: A Fictional Organ with a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes by Will Self explores and revels in decay and degeneration, gushing with bile and blood.  The quartet of interconnected short stories focus on the liver, a bodily organ with interconnected lobes. The liver functions by processing toxins and connects to the gall bladder.  People also consume liver as a delicacy.  The dish “liver and onions” is a classic in American cuisine.  I have eaten deer liver with onions and I enjoy the taste.  Prior to preparing … Continue reading Liver: A Fictional Organ with a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes by Will Self

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Hard Times by Charles Dickens

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Yuck! Soot, coal, suffering. Rinse, lather, repeat. Even by the standards of Dickens’ classic sentimentality for the underdog, this novel is a dud. Probably not the best introduction to Charles Dickens unless you want your child to enjoy the pleasures of never reading again. This novel makes Zola’s Germinal, also about downtrodden coal miners, seem like a work of candy-colored upbeat positivity. Dickens’s advice to coal miners getting steamrolled by the Man. Continue reading Hard Times by Charles Dickens

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Dollhouse Riffs, TV1 Comment

Dollhouse Riffs: Riff #6: The Sierra Club; or Human Labor-power, Commodity Fetishism, and Workplace Rape

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Commodities and human labor-power Arrows and Aphorisms “Remember Jamie Leigh Jones, the Halliburton/KBR contractor who alleged she was gang raped by her co-workers in Iraq and then imprisoned in a shipping container after she reported the attack to the company? Well, it looks like she’s finally get to sue the company, in a real courthouse, over her ordeal. “Her legal saga started after Halliburton failed to take any action against her alleged attackers, and the Justice Department and military also failed to prosecute. Jones then tried to sue the company for failing to protect her. But thanks to an employment … Continue reading Dollhouse Riffs: Riff #6: The Sierra Club; or Human Labor-power, Commodity Fetishism, and Workplace Rape

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Dollhouse Riffs: Riff #4: Season Openers

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Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse opened with the episodes “Vows” and “Instinct,” bringing new faces like Jamie Bamber and Alexis Denisof.  The season also began with a critique of two idols within the conservative mindset: marriage and motherhood. In “Vows,” the Dollhouse organization imprints Echo with the personality of an undercover FBI agent.  In her assignment, she married a wealthy amoral arms dealer played by Jamie Bamber.  Bamber (Lee Adama on Battlestar Galactica) uses his authentic British accent.  His good looks and easy-going charm create a false front to his nefarious activities.  He is not above selling dirty bomb components to terrorists … Continue reading Dollhouse Riffs: Riff #4: Season Openers

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Book Review: Devil Take the Hindmost: a History of Financial Speculation by John Chancellor

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In the re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica, the first Cylon Hybrid utters these chilling words: “All this has happened before, and it will happen again.” It may seem odd to quote a science fiction series in review of a book about the stock market, but it’s disturbingly apropos of the subject matter. John Chancellor’s magisterial book, Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation, charts the course of human folly in high finance from tulipomania to kamikaze capitalism. Trade and exchange are as old as time, while the need for money and the desire for wealth are not necessarily bad. … Continue reading Book Review: Devil Take the Hindmost: a History of Financial Speculation by John Chancellor

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