I'm no patriot, but Thanksgiving is (in the abstract anyway) one of the few national holidays I can really get behind—not for the Puritan thing (although any excuse to re-examine the mix in that owl of nuts is always welcome entertainment) but because I have to admire the impulse to celebrate being grateful for what…

The Trenchcoat Mafia was just the local name for that clique of mopey outsiders most high schools have (at mine, they were just called "skids" and you can bet I was one)—but it made great copy for sensationalist stories that tried to turn the shared pathology of two damaged individuals into a nationwide crisis of…

Oh, and every werewolf movie suffers from some substandard FX work at some point—even 'American Werewolf' and 'The Howling'. It seems that suspension of disbelief goes down in inverse proportion to the amount of the creature is shown on screen. At least 'Ginger Snaps' delays that by making the transformation itself a…

There is nothing at all wrong with the end—except that the first half is so damn good. —Spoilers—That initial attack in the park, prefigured by Ginger's blood and Brigette's description of the dog corpse "it's still warm" followed by mostly offscreen brutality communicated only by screams and the tripping on of the…

The first sequel is worthwhile—better than I thought it would be, actually. Ginger is back as a kinmd of Obi Wan-like spiritual advisor to Brigette, who is the central figure. In it, she is infected, and has taken to self medicating herself with a maintenance regimen of intravenous monk's hood and to researching and…

I have rented this maybe three times from Netflix and every time it had a glitch in exactly the same place during the brilliant first attack. I was able to get it to work, but it made me think that it Netflix only had one copy in circulation. Anyway, it was not letterboxed—so in that sense I hadn't ever really "seen"…

I'm not creating any such false dichotomy between believers and otherwise—in fact, my complaint is about the very "all or nothing" arguments that tends to describe. As a Buddhist I know very well how faith and atheism can occupy the same space. You seem to be taking it personally, though—which is never my intention.…

I can't believe they didn't include the whole 'Planet of the Apes' saga, or 'Enemy Mine'.

This has been so worth it.

Don't fret twagenaar, I laughed. And you know what else? I laughed hard.

"picking a religion to cash in on"

Dominic-Vobiscum—Always glad to hear from another Buddhist. I was about to make the same point you did about the "all or nothing" discussions of religion that tend to crop up—even to the extent that people will argue at length about the "Big Three" (i.e. the people of the Book) as if there were no other approaches to…

I don't know if I posted it here—or if it was during the two weeks where I was not posting, but I definitely mentioned it to my parents and my mom sent me this in an email yesterday morning:

I disagree Ticker—and perhaps the truth remains to be seen—but Roger broke it off with Joan, and could have had her any time if he were only inclined to leave Mona. That Jane got him to make that move and Joan did not tells me that Joan, as much as she meant to him, was still a dalliance. I think it may be a symptom…

That's got to be some kind of record for multiples.

Lionel Ritchie just told me he'd like to see your "Ma Ma Se, Ma Ma Sa, Ma Ma Coo Sa" and raise you one "Tam bo li de say de moi ya—Hey jambo jumbo!".

Actually, I thought the Jackson 5 version was the original, and at any rate it's one of his Michael's best vocal turns ever.

The Doors are fine. They are one of the most easily mocked rock bands for a whole host of reasons, many of them a result of Jim Morrison's over the top wannabe poet histrionics—but, at the end of the day they were a pretty good Blues Rock band and that's enough to keep them canonical. If you're talking about canon…

Fear of success
It's really a fear of maintaining success. I have it. I won a bunch of acclaim as a grad student doing my MFA—won an award for my thesis, was named one of the 100 Washingtonians to watch for the new millenium. And then I was stricken with post-artum depression. Paralyzed creatively. Nowadays I can't…

And yet, not a terribly funny corporate history.