Category Archives: media

Comment on Cowboy Bebop, Session 11, “Toys in the Attic”

Spoilers galore ahead Cowboy Bebop, Session 11 (video) | episode guide This was the first episode of Cowboy Bebop I saw, because a friend knowledgeable about the series (and who had superlative taste in anime) said it was an excellent introduction to the series as a whole. He’s exactly right, and the episode not only …

June 20, 2010 – 3:45 am | By ashok | Posted in media, writing | Tagged | Comments (3)

Online Culture and Mike Judge’s “Idiocracy”

1. Paul recommended “Idiocracy” to me a while back, and I regret not seeing it immediately then. I saw a good portion of the film on Comedy Central yesterday – I picked up at the part where Luke Wilson was in line to go to prison. If you haven’t seen the film, all you need …

June 14, 2010 – 2:25 am | By ashok | Posted in media, movies, politics | Comments (4)

Comment on Cowboy Bebop Session 10, “Ganymede Elegy”

Spoilers galore ahead Cowboy Bebop Session 10, “Ganymede Elegy” (video) | episode guide 1. Plot: The crew of the Bebop drops off a bounty at Jet’s home, Ganymede. Jet has his ex-girlfriend on his mind; she walked out on him, leaving him a note that only said “Farewell” and a pocketwatch. Jet kept the latter …

June 13, 2010 – 4:57 am | By ashok | Posted in media, writing | Tagged | Comments (2)

MTV’s Jersey Shore, or the Impossibility of Enlightenment

The last two or three days I’ve been writing drafts for blog posts on the topic of academic cheating. I wanted to address how it seems to me our very culture encourages people to cheat, how valuing a piece of paper more than actual knowledge has become the default way we value anything. Of course …

December 12, 2009 – 11:47 am | By ashok | Posted in education, media | Comments (6)

Briefly Noted: David Carr, “Reality TV’s Glare Hits High Office”

The article in question is by one David Carr at the nytimes; we’ve noted the President’s overexposure before – see “The Olympics, Obama and the Permanent Campaign” – but it might be more prudent to look away from the President’s explicit political ends and focus only on the means: When Barack Obama became president, he …

December 7, 2009 – 3:48 pm | By ashok | Posted in media, politics | Comments (1)

Arts and Letters Daily has some worse links than usual today…

1. Carlin Romano has written a screed against Heidegger that I skimmed the first two paragraphs of, felt sick, and immediately stopped reading. I’m not linking to it here – his essential point is that Heidegger was a Nazi and shouldn’t be taken seriously, and recent scholarship seems to show how much hate he was …

October 22, 2009 – 9:32 am | By ashok | Posted in media, philosophy | Tagged | Comments (0)

The Problem of Twitter: A Rant

Presented at the Inaugural Cool Twitter Conference in Washington DC on 6/11/2009. By “presented” I mean I stuck my head in my notes and never looked up and talked too fast – you’ll see that on the video, if I get a link (you might have to pay to see it, I’m money like that). …

June 12, 2009 – 7:33 am | By ashok | Posted in media, politics | Comments (0)

Rant: If you have anything worthwhile to say, then reaching out to other bloggers is a waste of time

When I first started blogging, my main practice was to write posts that were responses to other bloggers’ posts. This wasn’t to attack them, although a few did deserve that. I spent a lot of time trying to show how to best appreciate their best points. I was doing this to show that someone was …

May 30, 2009 – 4:27 pm | By ashok | Posted in media | Comments (6)

Information Overload: How do you know what to trust nowadays?

We on the Right have several problems, but a big one is that crazy stuff can come in mainstream packages and trick all of us. The latest escapade – and I don’t even know what to believe myself, I’m just reading the sources and pretty much withholding judgment – involves a Department of Homeland Security …

April 15, 2009 – 10:41 am | By ashok | Posted in blogging, media, politics | Comments (6)

In Defense of “The Big O” Finale (anime)

Spoilers galore ahead; this is a meditation on the last episode of the series “The Big O” has come under fire by people that initially appreciated it. To quote Wikipedia: For some reviewers, the second season “doesn’t quite match the first” addressing [sic] to “something” missing in these episodes. Andy Patrizio of IGN points out …

November 23, 2008 – 1:07 pm | By ashok | Posted in media | Tagged | Comments (12)