Leigh M. Johnson

The Coen Brothers’ Coin-Flip: amor fati or fait accompli ?

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Film, Pop Culture/Film, Pop Culture/Film/Literature 5 Comments

Last year’s Academy Award for Best Picture went to the Coen Brothers’ haunting film No Country for Old Men, based on the novel of the same name by (University of Tennessee alum) Cormac McCarthy. In one of the most important scenes– which actually occurs twice–the film’s murderous, mysterious, and thoroughly amoral antagonist, Anton Chigurh (Javier…

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Damn Your Eyes!

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Music 1 Comment

Here’s a little tune from The Man in Black to make you smile on a Friday. Nevermind that it’s an execution song. (Details, details.) As I’ve said before, I think God speaks to humanity through Johnny Cash. Maybe not in this song in particular… but I don’t pretend to know the mind of God.

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Sad Songs (Still) Say So Much

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Music Comments Off on Sad Songs (Still) Say So Much

[If you got here through a Google search for “sad songs”, you should read this first.] A while back on this blog, there was a great discussion about sad songs in response to one of my posts entitled “Sad Songs Say So Much.” I’ve been thinking about that again recently for a couple of reasons….

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American Politics, in a word…

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Politics 1 Comment

I just dicovered the website Capitol Words, which provides an “at-a-glance view into the daily proceedings of the United States Congress through the simplest lens available.” What is the “simplest lens available” you may be asking yourself? Well, it’s really simple. Like, a single word. That’s right, for every day that Congress is in session,…

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Obituaries, Memphis style

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Memphis, Politics 2 Comments

From our alternative weekly, The Memphis Flyer:—————————- Bozo the clown, Jesse the racistLarry Harmon, the man who popularized the show business character Bozo the Clown, has died of congestive heart failure at the age of 83. Harmon did not create the flame-haired character, but played him in numerous appearances over the years. He purchased the…

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The Graying of the Faculty

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, Politics, Teaching 4 Comments

There’s an interesting article in the New York Times today– “The 60’s Begin To Fade As Liberal Professors Retire”— that touches on a number of issues surrounding what appears to be an impending “generational shift” in the American professorate. According to the author, over 54% of full-time faculty in the United States were over the…

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eSymposium on “The Obama Phenomenon”

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Obama, Politics 4 Comments

I feel very fortunate to have been invited to serve as a respondent for an eSymposium on “The Meaning and Implications of the Obama Phenomenon” over at The Zeleza Post. The Zeleza Post is the web-home for “informed news and commentary on the Pan-African world,” and the regular contributors there are among some of the…

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How To Be Real-er

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Pop Culture/Film, Pop Culture/Film/Literature 5 Comments

I’m a pretty big fan of reality television. Or “reality” television. I like to claim that my primary interest in it is as a cultural phenomenon, but I know that’s not completely true. The truth is that I just find it totally fascinating–partially in the same voyeuristic way that everyone else does, but also as…

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The Trouble with Banks

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, Politics 2 Comments

I know embarrassingly little about banking, but even my ignorant ears perked up a bit yesterday afternoon during President Bush’s press conference when he said (in response to a question about whether or not he thought banks were in trouble) that “Americans should remember that up to $100,000 of their money in the bank is…

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The (Ever-Elusive) Grandeur of the Forest

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Politics 2 Comments

Many years ago, when I was in the full throes of my pomo-lit phase, I read John Barth’s 1955 novel The Floating Opera, which was one of those books that serendipitously landed in my lap at just the right time. John Barth is a little bit of a Philip-Roth-Lite, I think. He’s funny and smart…

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