My Thumped review of The Survivalist
Grindhouse inspirations clash with artier leanings in Northern Irish writer/director Stephen Fingleton's promising yet puzzling full-length debut. #link
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Date: February 2016
Grindhouse inspirations clash with artier leanings in Northern Irish writer/director Stephen Fingleton's promising yet puzzling full-length debut. #link
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I'm not sure I buy the 'lower intelligence' part, since IQ does not equal general intelligence, but the key bit here is that "people who consider bullshit statements to be more profound are less reflective in their thinking". #link
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How often we forget that humanity, let alone the concept of borders and nation states, has been here only a fraction of the time of our fellow species. And they won't remember us after we're gone, either. [c/o The Real Future] #link
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Analytic philosopher Galen Strawson still recommends the book, despite his smart takedown of its thesis that 'free speech' means the freedom to express anything at all without responsibility. And you know how I feel about this kind of thing. #link
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Political journalist Michael Grunwald's recent tweetstorm on the institutional failures that led to the Katrina disaster and ensure that repeat disasters are only a matter of time. #link
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Behind the scenes with today's jazz wunderkind. I need to give The Epic another go, as the lush arrangements on my first listen put me off (but I did appreciate it when the first track opened up a little and Kamasi started wailing on the sax). #link
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Save your groans, pun-haters! #link
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There's something very Enterprise about the fonts and overall look, I can't quite explain why. #link
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Sarkeesian is not someone I agree with when it comes to her reading of video games, but that's fine. More to the point: has she actually attacked anyone? At the very worst, she's merely wrong in her judgements of this or that. Who does that harm? Does any of it deserve the sheer volume of abuse she gets? GamerGaters can all get fucked. #link
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This is great stuff here, even if it's a little too accepting of how laziness and ignorance are shaping language (I'm thinking of things like 'alot', or 'of' when people mean 'have', not dialectic differences like 'ax' for 'ask'). #link
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"In Orwellian fashion, Americans have been stripped of the right to walk, challenging their humanity, freedom and health." But sure hasn't that been the case for decades already? You're only copping on to it now? It's fairly stark from the perspective of people who do it all: walk, drive, cycle, take the bus or the train, whatever suits best. #link
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Bit of a sampler for Dead Neanderthals and their noisy associates. #link
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I love the 'worm' logo, it's the one I grew up with. It's retro-futuristic in the best sense. And it's not just about the logo; the styles that went with it had a cohesiveness that's alarmingly absent from the look they went back to in the '90s, coinciding with the period in which things started going south for space exploration. #link
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I've said it before and I'll say it again: you have to know the rules (whether useful for clarity, or bullshit class-enforcing myths) before you can break them. #link
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How celebrities' increasing direct access to their fans, via Instagram and the like, has undermined the entertainment press, prompting them to seek ever more desperate measures, like fanboy profiles. #link
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You want to say 'just keep it as a hobby' but the reality for most is, if you want any kind of following you can hope to monetise, you have to post something new almost daily, and doing that well is a full-time gig. Although, if the following you get are the kind of people who'll call you a 'sellout' for trying to make a living, then why even bother in the first place? #link
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The title might be uninspired, but having seen this understated tour-de-force twice now, anything flashier would not be appropriate. #link
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Films for teenagers shouldn't get a pass on being crap. #link
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The kind of film where its best qualities are almost despite the director and his leading man. #link
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A film with its fair share of failings, but Jennifer Lawrence in the lead role is not one of them. #link
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A third hour of interesting sounds for your ears to bring January to a close. No death metal this time! But still a little screaming. Also, I still have a very blocked nose.
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Not a whole lot to report for the last few weeks. I’m still playing catch-up on my music promos, and I’ve seen feck-all movies so far this year. I did have a few film reviews published but I forgot to blog about them here. (Sorry.)
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