Chris Barsanti's Blog, page 134

Weekend Reading: January 22, 2016

Finally, you can now buy your very own $100 “West Village” trash can. So here’s the problem with Making a Murderer . Consensus on Cruz: Not going to happen, constitutionally speaking. Also: At least 17 members of Congress probably can’t run either, for the same “natural-born” reason. “Turning safety nets into hammocks,” “he’s going rogue left and right man,” “you holly rollers,” and other highlights from the Great Palin Endorsement of 2016. Weird Al, LeVar Burton, REM, and other “READ” poster...

Screening Room: The Nearly-Great Movies of 2015

Emorey Cohen and Saoirse Ronan in Brooklyn (Sony Pictures Classics)

For my annual film guide seriesEyes Wide Open—and yes, the 2015 edition is now on sale, thanks for asking— I try to narrow down the list of best films of the year to 25. Some years are easier than others. But pretty much every time there are movies that don’t quite make the cut but still seem worth calling out as worthy of people’s attention.

You can read “Brooklyn to Chi-Raq: The Nearly-Great Movies of 2015” at Medium.

Writer’s Desk: The First Draft

Jane Smiley on gettingout of your own way:

…you cannot be judging yourself as you write the first draft—you want to harness that unexpected energy, and you don’t want to limit the possibilities of exploration. You don’t know what you’re writing until it’s done. So if a draft is 500 pages long, you have to suspend judgment for months. It takes effort to be good at suspending at judgment, to give the images and story priority over your ideas…

I think there are two kinds of sentences in a rough...

Reader’s Corner: Bowie’s Books

When you look at this list of David Bowie’s 100 favorite books, a few seem obvious, given his predilection (particularly in the Berlin phase) for bleak, chilly dystopias and tales of alienation and schizophrenic dislocation. So, of course he liked:

1984by George Orwell A Clockwork Orangeby Anthony Burgess City Of Nightby John Rechy The Origin Of Consciousness In The Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mindby Julian Jaynes

But then there are some books, urbane novels of wit and glee, that don’t exact...

Weekend Reading: January 15, 2016

No,The Martian (funny though it may be) is not a comedy. They aren’t strong enough and other myths about women in combat. Waco, Oregon, Bundys, and when is oppression a delusion: The difference between white and black extremist groups. There’s more to it than the unemployment rate. Here are the things and people that enable Bill Cosby. “They sent me aStar Wars suitcase”— Carrie Fisher interviews Daisy Ridley. Next up for the Navy: Lasers, railguns, and other futuristic “hard-kill systems.” Fr...

Screening Room: ’13 Hours’

Pablo Schreiber, John Krasinski, and David Denman in 13 Hours(Paramount Pictures)

When the US consulate in Benghazi was attacked by an Islamist militia in September 2012, they were quickly overwhelmed. Their only fighting chance was a small team ofcontractors stationed at a nearby CIA station. Michael Bay’s13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is based on those contractors’tell-all book about the massive firefight and bureaucratic snafus that followed the assault.

13 Hoursopens this weeke...

In Memorium: David Bowie (1947-2016)

Pushing through the market square, so many mothers sighing /
News had just come over, we had five years left to cry in /
News guy wept and told us, earth was really dying /
Cried so much his face was wet, then I knew he was not lying…

Even the Vatican paid tribute to the Thin White Duke’s passing.

Writer’s Desk: Making a Name

This is Patti Smith at a Louisiana literature festival in 2012:

When I was really young William Burroughs told me – I was really struggling we never had any money – and the advice that William gave me was built a good name and keep your name clean. Don’t make compromises. Don’t worry about making a bunch of money or being successful. Be concerned with doing good work and make the right choices and protect your work. And if you build a good name eventually you know that name will be its own cu...

Weekend Reading: January 8, 2016

A tale of two Chicagos. Police in the U.S. kill nearly 3 people a day. Sedition by another name is still… Let’s not forget that Ezra Pound (good poet, terrible human being) was actually convicted of treason. In the House, the most liberal Republicans are now further to the right than the most conservative Democrats. Tech, Twitter, and relentless whiteness. Bit rot: The impermanence of data. Print and read: Mitt and Joe will run for president, and other terrible predictions.

Screening Room: Human and Machine in ‘Ex Machina’

Theaters were full of science fiction this year. However, it was mostly of the post-apocalyptic YA (Hunger Games) or space opera (Star Wars) variety. Alex Garland’sEx Machina was something different. It’s available on DVD now.

“The Year’s Best Science Fiction MovieWasn’t Star Wars: The Force Awakens” was published atShort Ends & Leader:

In the final reckoning, people are never that creative. That’s true even when they think they’re changing history. The explorer who goes to the ends of the ea...