The January 2010 reading journal addresses In the Heart of the Heart of the Country, Our Idiot Brother, Filmed Thought, and Jamaica Inn
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Reading the News? 3 Reasons to Stop
Civic responsibility entails reading the news regularly, to keep abreast of the world’s turnings. But does this practice actually improve us as persons?
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- 2020-01-05
- Faves On Ideas, Concepts, Intuitions
Does Philosophy Do Film?
“Clearly you are not a bowler”: Can film do philosophy? Can philosophy do film?
Continue reading...Only Boredom Can Save Photography Now
Photography is under siege by the smartphone, the device that has made everyone a photographer while equally rendering all unable to appreciate images.
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- 2019-12-17
- Faves On Ideas, Concepts, Intuitions
Why Hamilton is Great
Finally some explanations why this play is so important!
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- 2019-12-05
- Idle Reflections
Booth Tarkington’s “The Magnificent Ambersons”
Why do some works of art age better than others?
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- 2019-12-03
- On Literature, Books Reading Journal
Patricia Highsmith’s “Tales of Natural and Unnatural Catastrophes”
The promise of unnatural catastrophes turns out not to be catastrophic nor unnatural enough
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- 2019-07-07
- On Literature, Books Reading Journal
Uncertain reflections on the Coen Brothers’ misanthropy
Reflection on David Denby’s critique of the Coen brothers’ consistent misanthropy
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- 2015-01-15
- On Film, Movies, Cinema
“Hiroshima Mon Amour” (1959), Part 1
Bodies impersonal but affective are instruments of memory.
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- 2014-10-23
- On Film, Movies, Cinema
Protected: Lu gets a new bike
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
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- 2010-10-25
- Idle Reflections
“Pépé le Moko” (1937): Failure to Escape
Comments on the 1936 film Pépé le Moko, starring Jean Gabin, and set in the Casbah
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- 2008-06-08
- Viewing Journal On Film, Movies, Cinema
The iPhone Easily Led Me into the Future
Reflections on getting an iPhone
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- 2008-01-12
- Idle Reflections
Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” (1954): Murder as Fantasy, Sex as Violence
Rear Window appears a murder mystery in which Jeff and Lisa play amateur sleuths. In truth, the film is a fantasy about the strange gravity between sex and murder.
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- 2007-12-08
- Faves On Film, Movies, Cinema
Chet Travels: sur les bricoleurs de l’angoisse
One of the things I learned on my last trip to Paris was about this special group of individuals in French society. They have been called the “bricoleurs de l’angoisse,”...
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- 2007-09-04
- Idle Reflections Way Back
from the journals of Chet (8/6/04)
A lovely set of days in Umbria, Italy, with philosophers and one in particular.
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- 2004-08-26
- Idle Reflections Way Back