I went to see Pan’s Labyrinth a couple of weeks ago.  It was all right.  It meant to draw connections among fascism, machismo and orthodoxy, but did so with much less aplomb than Kiss of the Spider Woman, of which it was in some ways a magical realistic version.  Some of the imagery was effective, and some of the acting very affecting, but on the whole the thesis that it

At least, that’s what the implication is in this post at Simianbrain: I decided to do a little digging this morning to see how the conservative blogs were responding to Ann Coulter’s latest… I don’t even know how to phrase what it was. “Gaffe” makes it sound accidental, “transgression” gives it an air of authority well beyond what it was. Let’s just call it her latest moment of mouthing off

To Maggie and RTO for the “Kolchak:  Night Stalker” DVD set.  Darren McGavin at his best—and the inspiration for the “X-Files.” Thanks also to BMoe for the Jayhawks and Gram Parson’s CDs.  The music thread we had a while back—which turned into a California-rooted, “country”-flavored rock revival discussion (Parsons called the sound “Cosmic American”)—has really turned me on to some people I hadn’t listened to before, from Whiskeytown to The

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