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Bradley Cooper is a superb actor and director. I loved his A Star Is Born with Lady Gaga. So when I heard that Cooper was starring in and directing Maestro, a biopic about composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein, I had to see it.
Maestro is a masterful work of acting and directing. Bradley Cooper really brings Leonard Bernstein to life. Carey Mulligan is also superb as Bernstein’s wife Felicia. Indeed, there are no weak performances. The sets and costumes are meticulous. (more…)
2,522 words
Ayo H. Kimathi
Jews are the Problem, second edition
Crestview, Fla.: Money Tree Publishing, 2023
Ayo H. Kimathi received considerable scorn in the mainstream media for his Black Nationalist racial activism while working as a contractor for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2013. At the time, he was making many anti-white statements that would have been tolerated during the Summer of Floyd in 2020, but weren’t tolerated in 2013. (more…)
3,901 words
Gordon Peter Wilson
The Prophets of Gentilly Terrace: A New Orleans Novel
Austin, Tex.: Greenleaf Publishing Group, 2023
The idea was a selfish one, and it felt a lot like blackmail, but it was an opportunity to solve everyone’s problems. Such a sensitive matter required all of the diplomatic skills he had honed over the years as Burton Clayton’s bagman.
I greeted Gordon Peter Wilson’s first, previous, novel with enthusiasm, and that enthusiasm continues with this latest one. (more…)
3,620 words
If you’ve ever wondered about what’s actually being taught in Women’s Studies classes, perhaps the truth might come as a surprise. Radical feminist writings in general tend to be soaked in bile, especially those written for initiates of The Sisterhood. (more…)
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There is a deep, hermetic lore known only to cultural insiders, a small circle of academics, and a handful of social rogues[1] — namely, the lore of the often-tense relationships between white gays and blacks in those urban neighborhoods that exist in the liminal realm between “ghetto” and “gentrified.”
I first noticed this as a child going to work with my dad in the early 1990s. Several neighborhoods in Columbus, Ohio were undergoing a sort of transformation. (more…)
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It’s June, and what was once Bride Month is now Pride Month. So that means it’s time to celebrate, everyone! Mothers and fathers only get one day each every year, but 175ers get 30 days — and surely that must be faaaabulous! (more…)
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Jim Goad has produced a short video to accompany his latest essay, “June Is the Gayest Month,” on the signs that the Pride coalition is sparking a backlash by inundating America with ever-more ridiculous propaganda for the LGBTQ agenda in relation to Pride Month. See below. (more…)
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Audio version: To listen in a player, use the one below or click here. To download the mp3, right-click here and choose “save link as” or “save target as.”
“April is the cruellest month,” wrote T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) in his 1922 poem “The Waste Land.”
As we all now know — whether or not we’d rather forget it, they won’t let us forget it — June is now federally designated as Pride Month, but I doubt that on the surface, Eliot would have had a problem with the abstract notion of pride. (more…)
Aristophanes
Aristophanes
6,912 words
Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 here)
Strepsiades Flunks Out
It hasn’t gone well. First Socrates bursts out of the Thinkery swearing an oath: “By Respiration, by Chaos, by the Air.” The usual places of gods in his oath are occupied by three natural forces. Socrates then rants about a particularly bad student who is “rustic . . . resourceless . . . dull . . . and forgetful.” Then he calls this student to come out. And out comes Strepsiades.
Socrates then quizzes Strepsiades on what he has learned. (more…)
Thomas Mann: breakthrough Black [sic] author?
Thomas Mann: breakthrough Black [sic] author?
Part 1 of 2 (Part 2 here)
Thomas Mann: New Selected Stories
Translated and with an introduction by Damion Searls
New York: Liveright, 2023
“It is really curious that a life of playing games and dreaming can — if only you go on with it long enough — lead to your being treated like royalty.” — Thomas Mann, author of Felix Krull, Confidence Man
“What a royal gift the imagination is, and what pleasure it affords us!” — Felix Krull, confidence man (more…)
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I finally saw this year’s Oscar winner for Best Picture, Everything Everywhere All at Once, by directing duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, and enjoyed the film. Like many of you , I think it’s a shame Tár didn’t win, and note that The Banshees of Inisherin also didn’t win — but I think many of you are glad about that. Nevertheless, Everything Everywhere All at Once hits all the bases for this year’s woke base — but it’s also a fun movie, very fast-paced and a visual delight. (more…)
