Sometimes there’s a strange serendipity that happens in culture and pop-culture. There are times when things line up, like when movies come out in perfectly matching pairs about such random things as asteroids, ants, volcanoes, androids, and mars. And then there are times when two things absolutely perfect for each…
Have you ever had that sort of confluence of media when you watch, read, or play a number of things and they all seem to play off of each other? One year I went for months when, not only was every book I read great, but they also perfectly paired…
This has been a weird holiday season. I feel like since the election last year I’ve been saying that for each Jewish holiday. It’s like Trump has codified a modern American bigotry. This Passover the 🙄 has ranged from the benign, well-meaning gentile telling me about their non-Jewish seder1 to articles claiming…
It’s that time of year again. As always, on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox our television screens will be graced by the grand daddy of all wrestling shows. It’s WrestleMania! (Actually, the bit with the full moon and such is how we figure…
My friend busted out Mortal Kombat XL at a recent party and I had forgotten how much fun those games are. So when the next party happened to be at my place, I wanted to reciprocate as a good host. I found a little indie game called Normal Human Face…
The Nike line-of-sight anti-aircraft missile system was produced by the U.S Army (and Bell Labs). This gave the United States its first operational anti-aircraft missile system in 1953. Site Summit is located more than 4,000 feet above Anchorage and was really difficult to build. The site was placed in a…
The Connecticut Leather Company was started in 1932 by an ambitious young buck named Maurice Greenberg. The company made bank during World War 2 and with wads of cash in hand, began diversifying. One idea which they had was a “make your own leather moccasin” kit for kids, released in…
Phantom Thread Originally this was going to be another double feature entitled Two World War Twos wherein I would review Darkest Hour and Dunkirk. I’ll be honest, I’m somewhat burnt out on World War II (#askaJew) and wasn’t particularly looking forward to two dour features to slog through on the subject. I had…
This is the category of Oscar nominated movies that co-star Timothée Chalamet. No? Sorry. This is the category of nominees that are oddly recent period pieces. Wrong again? Ugh. Okay, how about these are the coming of age stories for 2018? There we go. Call Me By Your Name (deserves Best…
The Post This is a weird one. It’s clearly the most Oscar-baitey movie one could imagine, nearly being the platonic ideal of awards begging. It’s also fiercely mediocre. The Post has a pedigree that should have a broad enough appeal, backed by gobs of talent, to be “good” at the…
This year has been surprisingly inclusive in certain traditionally stodgy Oscar categories. White men are in the minority for best director by 2:31, which is great! And genre movies have also done surprisingly well. For Best Picture we get horror and science fiction/fantasy representing, with Get Out and The Shape of…
It’s been a banner year for ol’ Philippe in the sports world. My Fantasy Football team, the NY-NJ Hitmen, became the Fantasy Football champions at my work1. This netted me a few hundred dollars which is always nice. My colleague and runner up, Mike B. and I, opted to take…
