What It Was Once Like- (Found June 29, 2008 ) Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- Tim Appelo's interview with film journalist Peter Biskind is smart and amusing. It's also quite the reminder of a not-so-long-gone era in film-buffdom -- even two or three such eras. Maybe you had to be there yourself, but the following passage made me laugh out loud. Appelo asks Biskind -- who'd been pre-med as an undergrad -- what happened to his med school aspirations: Biskind: I liked English, and I got a lot of encouragement, so I went to grad...http://www.2blowhards.com/archives/2008/06/what_it_was_onc.html Product Evolution Sweet-Spots- (Found June 29, 2008 ) Donald Pittenger writes: Dear Blowhards -- When I was young -- between 15 and 25 or thereabouts -- and read biographies, I tended to be bored when plowing through the formative years parts. I wanted to get to the interesting bits, when the famous person was doing the stuff that made him famous. As I got older I became more interested in the formative parts. But by then it was too late for the information to do me much good. When it comes to product types, my interest has always tended to focus..http://www.2blowhards.com/archives/2008/06/product_evoluti.html Putting a Stop to Car Talk- (Found June 29, 2008 ) Donald Pittenger writes: Dear Blowhards -- Next Tuesday, 1 July, it will be illegal to drive in Washington state while holding a cellphone to your ear while presumably talking on it. An exception is the case of an emergency. And it is a "secondary offense," which means that cops have to have another reason for pulling you over before hitting on the phone business. Cellphone use is okay provided both hands are free for driving. Some other states have laws prohibiting use of hand-held phones in...http://www.2blowhards.com/archives/2008/06/putting_a_stop.html An Astonishing Art Rediscovery- (Found June 29, 2008 ) Donald Pittenger writes: Dear Blowhards -- Revolution continues to shake the art world. Well into the process of being overturned are the reputations of hegemonist white males whose corporeal forms long since flatlined to room temperature (or to express the thought more crudely, died). May maggots feast on their canvasses as well as their carcasses! We have come far, my friends. The atrophying of Abstract Expressionist painting (mere wall-decorations lacking any semblance to irony, intellectual.http://www.2blowhards.com/archives/2008/06/an_astonishing.html DVD Journal: "The Seven Little Foys"- (Found June 29, 2008 ) Michael Blowhard writes: Dear Blowhards -- A squaresville musical drama (spiced up with many bitter wisecracks) about the real-life Irish-American vaudevillian Eddie Foy, and how -- despite being a tough-guy, driven loner -- he came to head an act consisting of him and his seven kids. It's material that seems to want to be something like "Gypsy" -- a horrified, semi-satirical homage. Given what we're told about him, Eddie Foy was almost certainly a self-centered bastard. But the film presents...http://www.2blowhards.com/archives/2008/06/dvd_journal_the_5.html |