Everything new gets old fast. Is this a product of age or the age we live in? Perhaps the constant influx of new and amazing things has dulled our appreciation for their inherent awesomeness. Or maybe our attention spans are just stunted by the slow deterioration of brain cells. Whatever the reason the incessant phenomenon which starts with a bang and quickly ends with a shrug is (more…)
Archive for the ‘Observations and Commentary’ Category
everything new gets old fast
Posted: April 27, 2013 in Observations and CommentaryTags: age, information, life, new, old, society, sorta humor, T2, technology
faith healing
Posted: April 2, 2013 in Observations and CommentaryTags: April, belief, faith, hope, spring
Months have passed since that sadly familiar day when the news was final and the gates locked. Months of heartbreak, tears and bitter reality. Months filled with emotional torture and despair. These were hard months. They were, to tinker with Paine, times that tried men’s souls. Times that tried your soul. Just because a storm is expected does not lessen its fury. And this storm swamped (more…)
bite-sized for your convenience
Posted: January 31, 2013 in Observations and CommentaryTags: data, gun control, guns, humor, humour, information, interwebs, life, news, USA
The revival of the national gun debate has re-energized failed graphic designers throughout cyberspace. Just when you thought the Presidential election had sapped all their energy these folks have rebounded from November’s muck to grace our monitors and tablets with their amazing PowerPointy/Photoshoppy dexterity! Being nimble of finger and savvy of Google these modern day Rembrandts-cum-Jeffersons have (more…)
common threads #12: anticipation
Posted: January 14, 2013 in Observations and CommentaryTags: anticipation, Common Threads, excitement, growth, joy, life
Take a moment and reach back to your childhood. Remember waiting for that special thing to happen, that special thing which you knew was going to happen. Remember how time seemed to crawl like a slug through thick, unforgiving mud. Remember the feeling of waiting waiting waiting for it to arrive, then the unmistakable sensation somersaulting in your tummy like the Flying Wallendas which accompanied the wait. Maybe it was (more…)
more collateral damage
Posted: December 15, 2012 in Observations and CommentaryTags: culture, death, guns, life, Newtown, rights, shooting, society, United States
It is hard to write through tear stained eyes, but not impossible. What is impossible to comprehend, even fractionally, is the scope of the horror in Newtown, Connecticut yesterday. 26 people mowed down at the hand of a deranged killer, massacred like characters in a video game. 26 people, 20 of them children. Good lord. How does one wrap their head around that? 20 children. It is (more…)
common threads #11: language employed to manipulate others
Posted: October 31, 2012 in Observations and CommentaryTags: Common Threads, humor, humour, language, life, manipulation, words
These guys are not trying to manipulate you in any way.
The timing of this topic is simply too sweet to be coincidental. Too. Sweet. Citing examples of language employed to manipulate others, what with it being the sprint to the election finish line and all, is like setting Susie Sweettooth loose in a chocolate factory with a bib and a dream. Just open the door and all hell breaks loose. A quick review of what the candidates have said and continue to say as they grapple for their political lives can be accomplished in minutes, seconds really. Far, far too easy. Surely an ugly underbelly, an insidious subtext, must exist which will blow this whole “lucky” timing thing to smithereens and turn the tables of buffoonery on those who gleefully point out the creative use of “candidate speak.” Perhaps it lies in a rarely enforced covenant of the Patriot Act which allows federal agents to (more…)
simply put, don’t complicate
Posted: October 15, 2012 in Observations and CommentaryTags: complex, complication, ego, life, people, progress, random thoughts, regress, simple, simplicity, Wonder Woman
Complicating things is easy. Anyone can do it. It takes no special skills, no formal training. Hell, children master it and they are still in the early stages of development. However, simplifying things…now that is hard work. Boiling situations, problems, tasks, and processes down to their essence and then working to resolve them in a way which is both satisfactory and reasonable is a skill which (more…)
common threads #10: economic inequalities
Posted: October 9, 2012 in Observations and CommentaryTags: Common Threads, economic inequality, humor, humour, life, money, not so funny, wealth
Yeah, it sucks having less money than other people, particularly when it is blindingly clear some of those wealth-basking folks are absolute Class A numskulls. It can be baffling tracing the egregious steps which resulted in you being more of a “have-not” than a “have”, especially when you bear witness to the goofy behavior of these well-to-do nincompoops. Understandably, context is a difficult construct when you are putt-putt-putting along in your cranky 14 year old two-tone Plymouth Neon, attuned to every creak, cling and clang emitting from (more…)
take it back
Posted: October 7, 2012 in Observations and CommentaryTags: America, commentary, common good, common ground, culture, differences, division, life, society, USA, we the people
We are constantly bombarded by people screaming we must “take back” the country, particularly during an election year. As if it has been stolen by rebel forces whose primary mission is to destroy it. Alternately we are told we must take back the country from the President, radical right-wingers, bleeding heart liberals, big government and corporations. We must fight and take it back from the Muslims, Jews, Catholics, gun nuts, constitution eroders, freedom inhibitors, women haters, and lobbyists. We must wretch these precious United States from the destructive grips of (more…)
Trask Avenue 
good deeds
Posted: July 8, 2013 in Arts, Observations and CommentaryTags: 1936, Capra, compassion, film, life, movies, Mr. Deeds, Robert Riskin, society
I re-watched Mr. Deeds Goes to Town a few days ago, Frank Capra’s 1936 fanciful tale of Longfellow Deeds, an everyman from rural Vermont who inherits a vast fortune. It contains many hallmark Capra elements: a good person forced to confront a whirlwind of greed and/or corruption, a sentimental and idealized view of small town life, a smart, savvy female lead, and snappy, intelligent dialogue. It is by all accounts very Capraesque.
The first time viewer may think the movie horribly dated, one that shows every wrinkle and crease of its 77 years. We no longer tolerate plot advancement through (more…)