What a brilliant a script it was that made “Blazing Saddles.” (And never mind the gags). It is scathing, satirical, funny and bawdy — and still fresh. This is one of Hollywood’s few successfully close-to-the-bone comedies along with To Be or Not to Be — unfortunately poorly remade by Mel Brooks. Mel Brooks: 10 things you…
A superbly literate occassional co-author and chum of mine here with a chapter from a book that he edited and I too had a piece in. Christianitycivilizationcorey abelcultureMichael Oakeshott
Beware of Episcopal women who take up with Ayn Rand and the Buddha and Dr. Rhine formerly of Duke University. A certain type of Episcopal girl has a weakness that comes on them just past youth, just as sure as Italian girls get fat. They fall prey to Gnostic pride, commence buying antiques, and develop…
One of the greats has passed. The very excellent Keith Spera captures him best ably supported by the very excellent Wayne Curtis: NYT BBC The Guardian The Atlantic OffBeat Allen ToussaintfunkKeith Speramusicnew orleanspianorhythm and bluessoulwayne curtis
The very excellent Simon Garnier: Collective intelligencecomplexitycomputational intelligencedistributed cognitiondistributed knowledgeemergent orderSimon GarnierSpontaneous orderStigmergySwarm intelligence
Sadly, Soho these days comes over as very anemic save for the occasional gem, one being an unmarked (not illegal nor private) bar that I was taken to — you’d have to know it’s there to enter. A wonderful throwback to a time when Soho was still interesting. Though Bernard was a fixture at the “bloody” Coach…
Died on this day — without doubt one of the greats. No one has ever played the piano like Booker. In an email referring to the new deluxe Classified record, Harry Connick Jr. put it like this: “This CD is yet another example of the powerful genius of a unique and complex mind. I hear joy…
Born on this day — a brief article outlining his life and works. (H/T to Troy Camplin). Albert CamusexistentialismFranz KafkaJean-Paul SartreKierkegaardstalinism
Extracts from The Chap Almanac: An Esoterick Yearbook for the Decadent Gentleman by Vic Darkwood and Gustav Temple. On 1st January 1909, Marcel Proust was reading in bed when he dipped a piece of toast into a glass of tea and remembered something he’d left behind in his childhood. Thus began a vast literary project that would run…
Astonished to see that my Amy Winehouse: The Album Collection comes with one these most grievous of offenses against taste and decency and liberality. Frank . . . our culture is still being infantilized and no doubt has supporters from both the illiberal Left and the illiberal Right — the “central scrutinizers” of Joe’s Garage. “Explicit…
manwithoutqualities 