Category Archives: reviews

eXistenZ vs Inception and Avatar

After watching Inception, I had this urge to revisit David Cronenberg’s 1999 film eXistenZ. I only remembered that I had really liked it, especially Jennifer Jason Leigh, and that it was about gamers trapped in a highly articulated game world. If you haven’t seen … Continue reading

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Television without the Networks

It is probably not a good thing that we can now access so much television programming online. Before Steve and I got married, he spent a few Christmas vacations with his daughters plowing through an entire season of 24 in … Continue reading

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Dream of Life

I highly recommend that anyone who reads and likes Patti Smith’s book Just Kids also rent the (auto-)documentary Dream of Life. Thanks to Giana for sending the recommendation my way! This movie, a collaboration with filmmaker Steven Siebring, took ten years … Continue reading

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Patti Smith / Just Kids

Patti Smith’s memoir Just Kids is not an advice book, and should not be read as one. If you want to know her program for becoming a famous rock star in the 1970s, here it is:  move to New York City, even … Continue reading

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Bad World, Good Wife

We don’t watch much television, by which I mean following shows week to week. The one show we do watch regularly is The Good Wife on CBS on Tuesday nights. The acting is good and the stories are interesting and the … Continue reading

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Films of 2010

I’ve been cruising the Web this morning looking for Top 10 movie lists to fill out my Netflix selection. It’s sometimes hard to navigate the recommendations. I’m not sure why, but it seems like movie reviewers have become more and … Continue reading

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Prodigal Summer (Review) and Butter

I’ve been reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer, and although I’m not disappointed in it, I am surprised by how didactic it is. I had high hopes of a book that would be full of details of rural life in Virginia, … Continue reading

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Terry Gilliam via Tim Burton part 2: Terry Gilliam

After watching Alice in Wonderland, when Steve and I were processing the visual genius of it, and wondering where that came from besides Tim Burton’s head, I kept bringing up Terry Gilliam. In the “live action as spectacle” world, I have trouble thinking of … Continue reading

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Terry Gilliam via Tim Burton, part 1: Tim Burton

The headline should be the other way around, if one were to be chronological in one’s analysis. Terry Gilliam and Brazil, which changed the way I and a lot of other people saw the possibilities of movies, was made in … Continue reading

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Swimming Hole

The major improvement to our property this summer has been the addition of a proper swimming hole. On the farm we have three ponds. There’s the small one behind our house that I’m using to water my garden. The water … Continue reading

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