Call me a sentimental old git, but I am of the opinion that when a man dies, people should remember basic things about him, like, his age. I’m astounded that my random survey of 20 news agencies found that 90% of those reporting Stephen Furst’s death got his age wrong. This might seem like a…
There has been a great deal of discussion on social media this week regarding Jordan Peele, writer, comedian, founder of Monkeypaw Productions, and the writer/director of the surprise hit movie, Get Out. Now admittedly, I haven’t seen the movie, nor am I likely to since horror films generally irritate me without providing either scares or…
Mary Tyler Moore – Ms. Moore began her career in earnest with the role of Laura Petrie in 1960s TV series The Dick Van Dyke Show. She later appeared in her own 1970s eponymous series, one of the first featuring strong, independent, single women. She was 80. Sir John Vincent Hurt – Sir John passed…
Like every year, we lost a number of people in 2016 who we’ve admired throughout our lives. And, like each of those years, we’re left feeling as though more than our fair share passed away. This was especially true early in the year, when David Bowie and Alan Rickman died in January, starting an emotional…
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, KBE, had been silent for most of his career. Actor, writer, director, composer, businessman, he was a one-man machine, wielding his power with grace and aplomb. His first feature-length film, The Kid (1921), was followed with a series of successful movies through the 1920s. In the 30s, when film went to…
Today’s photo of the day is oddly timely, given I chose the photo yesterday, mostly at random. As shown in the caption below, it is a photo by photographer Nick Ut, of 9-year-old Phan Thị Kim Phúc, also known as “napalm girl,” as she ran, terrified and in pain, following a napalm attack by a South…
Much is being written this week about the protest of a young, biracial athlete’s refusal to stand for the U.S. national anthem. For an old-timer like me, it is noteworthy only in that his protest echoes similar protests made nearly 50 years ago, not to mention my own protests in 1970, spurred on by Tommie…
On 1 September 1941, Reinhard Heydrich, one of the architects of the Jewish Holocaust, decreed that all Jews over six years of age in the Reich, Alsace, Bohemia-Moravia and the German–annexed territory of western Poland were to wear yellow Star of David badges on their outer clothing in public at all times. The word “Jew”…
I’m finding the futility of life oddly poetic today, given the most recent acts of violence in Dallas. Carved into the hard grain of reality is a word that people seldom know how to pronounce: accountability. Whether we are directly affected by events or not is moot. We are all in some way accountable because…
History lies. That is, the human interpretation of historical events is and has always been subject to change and distortion from historians. Stated more directly, people bend facts in order to substantiate whatever socio-political view they are expectorating. However photos, although subject to the same distortions as anything else, are unique in that they allow…
Raw, Naked Art 