Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

* The web brings us news of yet another fetish we had no way of expecting. (NSFW)

* Anne Thompson fears the worst for the LA Times.

* Chris Floyd loves the case that Roger Scruton makes for a conservative environmentalism.

* That bad boy of the British cinema, Ken ("Tommy," "Women in Love") Russell, reads a biography about himself. Very amusing.

* Artist, gallery owner, and queer feminist, BDSM model Madison Young tells how she became a "rope slut." "For me there is only hemp or jute," she confides. "I love the bite, the tightness of the rope, the smell, the taste, I’m getting excited just talking about it. I really love rope." (NSFW.)

* A good passage from Vdare's Brenda Walker: "Illegal workers are part of that broader trend where Davos-style elites have quietly abandoned the nation-state and have morphed into One-Worlders with a bent toward commerce."

* MDMNM and loyal canine buddy run into a rattler. Pix galore.

* Sister Wolf wishes that more public figures would just speak their minds, goddammit.

* David Chute gives a mild thumb's-up to "Cloverfield."

* Joe Valdez thinks that Walter Hill's 1979 "The Warriors" deserves to be thought of as an overlooked classic. Sigh: I remember well when "The Warriors" was thought of as something exciting and new.

* Reid Farmer has a giggle at the expense of city people who move to the country.

* Free Vedanta talks. I suggest starting with Swami Prabhavananda, who is often really good.

* Katie Hutchison shares some photos of a lovely Boston neighborhood. Katie has a great feeling for livable beauty.

* MD watches a movie and is more struck by faces and decor than by the storyline. That's part of what's so great about movies, no? -- the way they can strike you on so many different levels.

* Maybe red meat is the healthy choice.

* Lemmonex supplies a wryly amusing FAQ about herself.

* Tom Smith thinks that not only do intellectuals have nothing interesting to say, they're no fun to be around.

* MBlowhard Rewind: I treated myself to a wrestle with G.K. Chesterton's "Orthodoxy."

Best,

Michael

I don’t know about the other links, but the one to Ken Russell’s review of a book about Ken Russell is (as I believe the term is) “malformed” and leads only to a 404 error page. The correct URL (or, if we’re being pernickety, URI) is:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article4051517.ece
It’s worth getting the address right, because the article really is worth reading - thanks for drawing attention to it.

Posted by: britishreader on June 13, 2008 3:47 AM

Thanks, fixed.

Posted by: Michael Blowhard on June 13, 2008 4:17 AM

I remember the day when I heard Fleetwood Mac playing on the Oldie Rock station. I felt bad for the Baby Boomers. I don't know if I'm ready for R.E.M. to be an oldie but goodie. Not yet.

Thanks for picking my site out of the blather once again and providing me with a link, Michael.

Posted by: Joe Valdez on June 13, 2008 4:38 AM

Whenever I find myself with a couple of beer bottles on my fingers i just can't help myself:
"Warriors come out to play
Warriors come out to plaaaayay..."

sN

Posted by: sN on June 13, 2008 4:44 AM

Ken Russell: I certainly enjoyed The Boyfriend - sheer good fun.

Posted by: dearieme on June 13, 2008 6:59 AM

Spike Lee has a lot of nerve calling anybody racist. He made one of the most appallingly racist movies ever: "Do the Right Thing." I lived half a block from the set of this movie in Brooklyn at the time that it was shot.

The moral of this insanely racist film is simple: blacks should burn white and Jewish businesses to the ground as a way to liberate their neighborhoods.

When I lived in that neighborhood, shop owners had to operate behind 2 inch thick plastic shields to keep from being murdered. It was astonishing that anybody would take the risk of serving that community.

Only guilty white liberals could possibly applaud this hellishly racist flick. And they did.

Lee is an amazingly overt, proud racist. Not surprising. Black racists are always applauded by the dingbat left.

Spike Lee is a virulent, unapologetic racist. He is one of the most vicious racists I've ever encountered.

Posted by: Shouting Thomas on June 13, 2008 7:33 AM

Ah, yes, the Warriors. This is a weird coincidence: just yesterday I was trying to convince a 23-year-old to buy the DVD!

As I've always said, if Walter Hill had gone from the Warriors to making a movie about hyper-macho 12-year-old boys (and who is more hyper-macho than 12-year-old boys?) he might have made the best movie of all time.

Odd how people can't see where their own subconscious is heading.

Posted by: Friedrich von Blowhard on June 13, 2008 10:51 AM

Thanks for the link!

I am a visual person, that's why I am a pathologist, all those pretty colors under the microscope! Seriously.

Yeah, I think it's interesting that I am more into look than narrative, these days. Whatever. I love movies.

*Boston does have some lovely areas. It really does. I was so angry most of the time I lived there I forgot to stop and notice things, which is one of the main reasons I moved. You should live your life in a way that you stop and notice things.

Posted by: onparkstreet (MD) on June 13, 2008 11:03 AM

Here is an interesting take on some classic photographs:
New old classics

Posted by: JM on June 13, 2008 4:30 PM

Geez, "The Warriors" was so long ago that I saw it at the drive-in!

I read with interest the Katie Hutchinson link. "A diverse district populated by creative folks" indeed! If by diverse she means that you'll find no stright men there, then I guess it is. The upside of the South End is the great brownstones have been reclaimed by the boys from the drug-infested ratholes they were until the mid-Nineties.

Re: Spike Lee. Dopey little schmuck was in today's paper talking about how he's good friends with a couple of the Boston Celtics (especially Ray Allen) but he can't root for them because they represent Boston, a city that for some reason really pisses the dwarf noir off. He had to insult Larry Bird (through a character wearing a Bird jersey) in one of his movies, I've heard. I must really stick in his racist craw that one of the greatest players of his generation was white!

He and Clint had better not cross paths in the near future, or he'll be getting a beat down from a 78-year old man!

Posted by: Brutus on June 13, 2008 4:45 PM

Thanks for the link!

Posted by: mdmnm on June 13, 2008 4:53 PM

Thanks for the link, Michael. Hope all is well with you and The Wife

Would be interested in your take on a post we have up on how the Web is mangling our brains

http://stephenbodio.blogspot.com/2008/06/atlantic-is-google-making-us-stoopid.html

Posted by: Reid Farmer on June 14, 2008 12:39 PM

Yep, Spike really does need to shut his face.

Posted by: Sister Wolf on June 15, 2008 6:39 PM






Post a comment

Name:


Email Address:


URL:


Comments:


Remember your info?