Archive for January, 2009

The celebrity culture is infantilizing us. We are being trained not to think. It is not about the disappearance of film critics. We are the canaries. It is about the death of an intelligent and curious, readership, interested in significant things and able to think critically. It is about the failure of our educational system. It is not about dumbing-down. It is about snuffing out.

via Death to film critics! Hail to the CelebCult! – Roger Ebert’s Journal.

The end of the holidays

Well, after 4 family gift exchanges, 2 white elephant events, a last minute successful creation of a gag gift, 1 Christmas dinner, somewhere in the area of 15 batches of cookies, 0 loafs of pumpkin bread, 35 hours of driving, 1 bad decision to trust the GPS, 6 states and a district visited, 6 hours of Bones, 10 or so hours of Playhouse Disney, 2.2 viewings of Kung Fu Panda, a poor performance of Oliver at the King Center in Melbourne, a fantastic performance of West Side Story at the National Theatre in Washington DC, an impromptu walk to the White House, a highly anticipated visit to Orlando Ice, 4 very dead paper targets by way of a couple boxes of lead by way of 4 pistols, a wedding rehearsal, a wedding dinner, a wedding reception, an actual wedding, a fast trip to Walgreens to pick up honeymoon car decorating supplies, a wedding toast, 4 car packings, the largest game of hand and foot I ever want to play, a rousing game of Bond-opoly, a traumatic wasp sting to a sleeping 7 year old, a carsick episode 9 minutes before the end of a 9 hour trip, a sad but close Clemson bowl game, 17 relaxing days off from work, and one arrival back at home, the 2008 Christmas season is complete.