Several weeks ago, I saw Beasts of the Southern Wild (adapted from the one-act play Juicy and Delicious by Lucy Alibar), the first feature-length film by director Benh Zeitlin and possibly one of the toughest films to characterize that I’ve ever seen. Whatever other faults it may have– and I will get to those shortly–…
Read MoreElection years are always crazy years for American politics. They’re not always Clint-Eastwood-talking-to-an-empty-chair crazy, though. Nor are they, as a rule, “legitimate rape”- or “binders full of women”- or “fiscal cliff”- or “austerity”- crazy, that is, so crazy that one requires a Crazy-to-English translator to watch the evening news. And although American politics is never…
Read MoreLegendary Packers coach Vince Lombardi once said: “If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?” In spite of the many ways sports serves as an apt metaphor for life, Lombardi’s sage reflection keys in on one of the important differences between sports and life. Namely, in sports, they keep score. On a scoreboard. And…
Read MoreIn a press conference shortly after the horrible news of the Connecticut grade-school shooting broke, White House press secretary Jay Carney said: “There is, I am sure– will be, rather– a day for discussion of the usual Washington policy debates, but I do not think today is that day.” Carney could not have been more…
Read More[Introductory note from Dr. J: Hello, readers. Just a quick introductory note about today’s “guest blogger.” Shiloh Whitney (pictured left) is a PhD candidate in Philosophy at McGill University. She submitted a rather long comment to the previous discussion taking place on this blog surrounding the Hendricks affair, so I asked her if she wouldn’t…
Read MoreThe image to your left is one of a set of images that were recently posted by Vincent Hendricks, Professor of Formal Philosophy at the University of Copenhagen and part-time Visiting Research Scholar at Columbia University, advertising his course in Logic. (The advertisement has since been taken down from Prof. Hendricks’ website, but you can…
Read More[This is a continuation of my (now numerous) reflections on the Uncanny Valley. You can read the previous seven installments here if you’re interested.] Late last semester, as a part of my department’s semi-regular Philosophy Film Series, we screened Mechanical Love, a 2007 documentary about the ever-evolving relationships between humans and robots. The film focuses…
Read MoreI’m guessing I’m not the only one who saw the trailers for the new film Young Adult (directed by Up In The Air and Thank You For Smoking auteur Jason Reitman, penned by Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody) and thought to myself: that looks really funny! I want to see it! I mean, I didn’t expect…
Read MoreDoing the end-of-the-year Pop Culture list is definitely something that I look forward to each December. I was worried that last year’s list was going to be hard to top– what with 2010’s introduction of the Facebook “like” button, the Jersey Shore “GTL” mantra, the iPad and the Rally To Restore Sanity and/or Fear– but…
Read MoreBefore I drop the 2011 Year in Pop Culture, which will be the last of my year-end lists, I thought I’d do one recounting my own year. 2011 began for me with a bit of a rough transition, as I was returning from a semester-long sabbatical, but things eventually smoothed out and stayed running smoothly…
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