If you grew up in a white, middle-class family in the 50s and 60s, you probably had some gorgeous children’s storybooks with beautifully rendered “color plates”. If the books were a certain vintage, they’d have translucent pages to protect the color illustrations. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is very explicitly a take on these books, […]
I don’t know any gamers. I played only two games: Doom (I’m including all variants under that title; they’re not separate games) and Arkanoid, Revenge of Doh, which is a brick-breaking game. These are both DOS-era games… In fact, I keep a bootable stick with DOS and those games. I also played Neuromancer (and have […]
In the sentimental vision of America, Main St of a small town, the businesses are locally owned, staffed locally, and local people brought their custom. The businesses and staff reflected the local culture. (For better and for worse, but still.) A business owner might hire on the local slow kid. They might contribute toward the […]
I can’t say I’m terrified of death, but I feel I have a lot more work to do. I don’t believe in an afterlife, and I don’t think death will be especially painful. I suspect it will feel like passing out. My feeling about consciousness is that it is something the brain does. Asking what […]
Floating head dream. And trying standup again. And hagiography.
Alan Moore’s Promethea vs. Watchmen. Is Watchmen really “the greatest graphic novel”?
Peter muses on toughness signalling, relating it to pro wrestling and comic books.
Peter opines on Amazon’s bid for Whole Foods, and A-Z’s influence on Big Box stores and churches. He brings in Wall St and ethnic identity.
Saw a comment on Slashdot, about SCOTUS permitting the band The Slants to copyright their name, that it’s great to take ownership of a slur, to defang it. But if you do that (the commenter wrote) you have to permit anyone to use it. The example they gave was “nerd”, which I think is charming. […]
Mythic and cultural resonances of manly coal vs. effeminate renewables