I can’t even talk about whatever Henry Cavill is wearing in the upcoming Man of Steel movie that he’s trying to pass off as a Superman costume. It’s actually worse than Brandon Routh’s from Superman Returns. Is it really so hard to get it right? The lady dancing with Michael Jackson in this clip from a 1979 episode of Midnight Special comes closer to the real deal than Cavill and Routh on their best day. This is back when movies had legs — rather than playing for a few weeks and then showing up on Amazon as a Blu-ray special edition, so it’s likely that the first Christopher Reeve film was still in theaters.
James Baldwin just RSVPed to my Writers Group meeting, and although he’s a nice fellow, he is regrettably not the gentleman who wrote Giovanni’s Room or debated William F. Buckley at his smarmiest in 1965 at Cambridge University.
It’s amazing to see the reception Baldwin receives at Cambridge, which in 1965 would have been hard to imagine at an American university.
I just watched the seventh season finale of the new DOCTOR WHO series, which featured a cliffhanger ending that (obligatory spoiler warning) introduced John Hurt (Alien, Nineteen Eighty-Four) as the Doctor. At that point, my wife turned to me and said, “If this old guy is the new Doctor, you’re watching this show on your own from now on.”
So, John Hurt is the Doctor, except he’s not really the Doctor. I suppose the main character does change faces and personalities every few years, so it shouldn’t surprise me if he also appears to suffer from dissociative disorder. He sort of reminds me of Prince in the 1990s after he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol and referred to his former self in the third person. Perhaps the finale would have played out better if it had actually featured Prince.
(PRINCE holds CLARA tight but suddenly reacts with horror when he glimpses a figure in the distance.)
CLARA: Who’s that?
PRINCE: Never mind. Let’s go back.
CLARA: But who is he?
PRINCE: He’s me. There’s only me here, that’s the point. Now let’s get back.
CLARA: But I never saw that one. I saw all of you. The Dirty Mind you, the Purple Rain you, the Parade you, the Sign o’ the Times you…
PRINCE: I said he was me. I never said he was Prince.
CLARA: I don’t understand.
DOCTOR: Look, my name, my real name, that is not the point. The name I chose is Prince. The name you choose, it’s like, it’s like a promise you make. He’s the one who broke the promise. (CLARA faints.)
PRINCE Clara? Clara? Clara! (PRINCE has a bodyguard pick up Clara in his arms.)
PRINCE: He is my secret.
NOT PRINCE: What I did, I did without choice.
PRINCE: I know.
NOT PRINCE: In the name of peace and sanity.
PRINCE: But not in the name of Prince! (PRINCE’s bodyguard carries Clara and Prince away. The figure turns around to introduce Jamie Foxx as O+>).
I’m a fan of Pieta-inspired comic book covers, but this issue of Lois Lane is one I hadn’t seen until recently. Whatever twisted meaning you might wish to interpret is your own business, but Bob Oksner’s cover is one of my favorites of this theme.
This is a photo of Michelangelo’s Pieta. I had the chance to see it at St. Peter’s Basilica in 2011, and much like David in Florence or Venus De Milo in Paris, the sculpture is almost overwhelming in person.
The Pieta depicts Mary cradling the slain body of her son (“Someone Christ, King of the Jews”). However, it’s not surprising that the male-dominated comic book industry tends to focus on men holding limp female bodies (and occasionally a limp male body).
RT @stuartpstevens: .@HeathMayo, admire all you’re doing but has it really come to this? We applaud for not going along with a coup? Pence… 50 minutes ago
serhasacomplaint 
Baldwin vs. Buckley 1965…
James Baldwin just RSVPed to my Writers Group meeting, and although he’s a nice fellow, he is regrettably not the gentleman who wrote Giovanni’s Room or debated William F. Buckley at his smarmiest in 1965 at Cambridge University.
It’s amazing to see the reception Baldwin receives at Cambridge, which in 1965 would have been hard to imagine at an American university.
Posted by Stephen Robinson on May 24, 2013 in Pop Life, Social Commentary
Tags: cambridge, james baldwin, race, william f. buckley