Category: 2013

2013, Books, Non-Fiction

Amsterdam: A History of the World’s Most Liberal City (2013) by Russell Shorto

When I was in high school and even when I was in university we learned liberalism like this: The Magna Carta invented “responsible government” Thomas Hobbes invented the liberal constitution but his king had too much power John Locke took the Hobbesian constitution and paired it with better institutions and gave us liberalism Then the …

2007, 2013, Books, Non-Fiction

Let’s Talk About Love: Why Other People Have Such Bad Taste (2007, 2013 Expanded Edition)

Note: I am reviewing the reissue. This is an engaging, thought-provoking and highly readable discussion about taste, what it is, and the philosophical and practical issues inherent in taste.

2013, Movies

Coherence (2013, James Ward Byrkit)

This is one of those super talky, high concept science fiction films which feels like it was written for the stage. (Many of these have been written for the stage, but this one apparently was not.) There are a lot of these films by this point and it’s sort of become its own sub genre. …

2013, Movies

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013, Harald Zwart

This is one of the innumerable young adult fantasy franchises that has seemingly popped up out of nowhere over the last decade and a half. I watched it for the same reasons that I watch all of these – I enjoy bad movies. This one is, at times, better than a lot of the other …

2013, Books, Fiction

The Dilettantes (2013) by Michael Hingston

Full Disclosure: This novel was written by a friend of my brother’s. When I was younger, I reviewed everything without regard to who created it and so wrote some reviews of music made by friends that I didn’t love, though I couldn’t tell them this to their faces because I’m a coward. As I’ve gotten …

2013, Movies

Broken (2013, Bright Wonder Obasi)

Had I not seen other Nollywood movies, I might have been shocked by how awful this film’s production values are. But having seen a number of Nollywood movies now, I know that this is actually above average when it comes to those production values. It’s only the sound that’s really, really awful (and only at …

2010, 2011, 2013

Borgen (2010)

Borgen is a remarkable, unique Danish television show that may have established it’s own genre. Every other TV show to focus on politics that I have ever seen has added elements of fantasy; normally these shows and movies are “political thrillers” where someone always dies; occasionally they’re comedies. Either way, there is a balance between …

2013, Books, Journalism, Non-Fiction, Society

Informing the News (2013) by Thomas E. Patterson

This book was written to make the case for “knowledge-based” journalism. It was sponsored by an initiative that is trying to establish that kind of journalism. The author believes strongly in the cause and has been a crucial part of the initiative that sponsored his work here.

2013, Movies

Blue is the Warmest Color aka La vie d’Adele (2013, Abdellatif Kechiche)

This is an affecting, if long, coming of age story that contains perhaps the most graphic sex scenes I’ve ever seen in a coming of age movie (i.e. a movie involving “teens”). The film goes places other films don’t with the passion of “first love” thing, i.e. explicit sex. But there’s a lot more to …

1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 2013, Music

The Best of the Classic Capitol Singles (2013) by Wanda Jackson

This is a compilation that, despite its title, appears to contain every single one of Jackson’s singles for Capitol between 1956 and the early ’60s. It shows off what could only be a pioneering fusion of country and rock music that I was completely unaware existed.

2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, TV

Mad Men (2007)

I watched Mad Men over an even longer period than most of you, so my memory of the individual episodes is not perfect. I know there were some weaker ones in there, and there even parts of seasons – perhaps even whole seasons – that I didn’t enjoy on the level of the best parts …

2013, Movies

The Purge (2013, James DeMonaco)

The opening text this movie displays, explaining what ‘the purge’ is, is basically the pitch meeting for this movie. The filmmaker likely walked into an office, said those exact words, mentioned some actors for the key roles, and got this green-lit. This film is a perfect symbol of what is wrong with “high concept” films …

1988, 2013, Books, Non-Fiction

How to Work a Room (1988, 2013) by Susan RoAne

There are parts of this book that are helpful if you are shy – the author claims that most of us are shy, which may or may not be true and I have trouble believing most of us are as shy as I used to be – or if you don’t know how to go …

2013, Movies

Are All Men Pedophiles? (2013, Jan-Willem Breue)

Putting aside the sensationalist title, there are a lot of interesting things that are discussed in this film, that might make for an interesting documentary. For example: the evolutionary imperative for males to seek out younger females in order to insure procreation. (And there are numerous others.) But this is not that movie.

2013, Music

Miami Pop Festival (2013) by the Jimi Hendrix Experience

This is an Experience concert from the 1968 Miami Pop Festival (obviously) containing remarkably little music from either Axis or Ladyland – which they had already begun recording. Actually I don’t think there’s a single song from the latter. It’s a strong set and it shows off the Experience as a great live band, which …

2013, Movies

20 Feet from Stardom (2013, Morgan Neville)

This is an interesting and affecting, if oddly structured, documentary about what it’s like to be a backup singer. I say oddly structured because it starts out seemingly to be a history of the backing vocalist in rock music, but then it turns out to be the personal stories of a few of the pioneering …

2013, Movies

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013, Martin Scorsese)

This is basically the Goodfellas of stockbroker films. It’s got so many things in common with his earlier masterpiece that I don’t really want to go into it. (I feel like going into it would take too long and, frankly, I am worried I wouldn’t do the most complete job.) Scorsese has created another brilliant …

2013, Music

Symphony No. 14 (2013) by Dmitry Shostakovitch, performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic conducted by Vasily Petrenko, with Gal James and Alexander Vinogradov

I have taken some time getting to know Shostakovitch and, on the whole, I have found him a little underwhelming, I guess because of his allegiance to the past. And I know I am coming at his symphonies backwards, by listening to the second last one first, but…