Typing up a lecture on the Blitz and fighting desperately not to use the phrase "A screaming comes across the sky."
26.02.2026 18:14
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Typing up a lecture on the Blitz and fighting desperately not to use the phrase "A screaming comes across the sky."
Few things more dispiriting than some dude asking a dive bar to put the golf on
Hey, Victoria E. Thompson has a new book out! Cool
liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....
I can't imagine who else would think these design decisions would be a good idea
"But Tyson," you might say, "surely your problems derive from your merely average Powerpoint skills and overall lack of techological élan?"
To which I respond: no, I disagree. Cadaver Synod.
In geopolitical terms, it's probably not the *most* critical thing going on right now, but I still think we should consider a Cadaver Synod for whoever keeps updating Powerpoint to be less functional
Brilliance!
L’ancien ou la nouvelle?
Anyways, more of an amanuensis guy, myself
YOU THINK I DONT ALREADY HAVE OPINIONS ABOUT QUILLS??
Trying to build my brand as “tiresome pedant,” also buying stock in monocle factors and astrolabe distributors
Thinking about becoming the kind of guy who spells it “débâcle”
“Remove justice and what are states but gangs of bandits on a large scale?” Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (Book IV, Chapter 4)
Sports: The Iron Claw (Durkin, 2023)
Runner-Up: Bull Durham (Shelton, 1988)
HM: Challengers (Guadagnino, 2024)
There are some obvious ways that Bull Durham is a "better" movie, but what can I say, The Iron Claw really walloped me
War: Destination Tokyo (Daves, 1943)
Music: Tender Mercies (Beresford, 1983)
Documentary: American Movie (Smith, 1999)
Runner-Up: Heartworn Highways (Szalapski, 1976)
HM: Directed by John Ford (Bogdanovich, 1971/2006)
Wuxia: The Bells of Death (Yueh Feng, 1968)
Runner-Up: The Valiant Ones (King Hu, 1974)
HM: Raining in the Mountain (King Hu, 1979), Dragon Inn (King Hu, 1967)
Very close call, but the thematic depth/grittiness of The Bells of death narrowly edged out Hu's aesthetic mastery and spiritual grasp
Martial Arts: Throw Down (To, 2004)
Runner-Up: Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (Cheang, 2024)
HM: Life After Fighting (Foster, 2024)
Action: Madigan (Siegel, 1968)
Runner-Up: The Big Racket (Castellari, 1976)
HM: The Heroin Busters (Castellari, 1977)
Yakuza: Sympathy for the Underdog (Fukasaku, 1971)
Runner-Up: Tokijiro: Lone Yakuza (Kate, 1966)
HM: Hokuriku Proxy War (Fukasaku, 1977)
Samurai: Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji (Uchida, 1955)
Noir/Crime/Thriller: The Maltese Falcon (Huston, 1941)
Runner-Up: The Roaring Twenties (Walsh, 1939)
HM: The 4th Man (Verhoeven, 1983), The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (Ritt, 1965), Dillinger (Milius, 1973), Yokohama BJ Blues (Kudo, 1981), Kansas City Confidential (Karlson, 1952)
Genre Awards
Western: The Big Country (Wyler, 1958)
Runner-Up: The Great Silence (Corbucci, 1968)
Honorable Mentions: Forty Guns (Fuller, 1957), Compañeros (Corbucci, 1970)
Best Rewatch, continued:
Runner-Up: Lawrence of Arabia (Lean, 1962)
Honorable Mentions: It Happened One Night (Capra, 1934), Summertime (Lean, 1955), Evil Dead 2 (Raimi, 1987)
Best New Watch, Honorable Mentions, continued: The Awful Truth (McCarey, 1937), Shanghai Express (von Sternberg, 1932), My Heart is that Eternal Rose (Tam, 1989), Anora (Baker, 2024), The Fog (Carpenter, 1980)
Best Rewatch: Seven Samurai (Kurosawa, 1954)...
2025 Movie Roundup:
Best New Watch: Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Akerman, 1975)
Runner-Up: Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia (Peckinpah, 1974)
Honorable Mentions: Matewan (Sayles, 1987), Becket (Glenville, 1974), Carrington (Hampton, 1995) ...
Boy, this King Hu guy. Pure dang cinema
The Haitian God Save the King, as recorded by Juste Chanlatte, c. 1817-19
Just started a movie set in Sonora that daringly uses the grey "Eastern European" filter instead of the standard yellow "Mexico" filter. The world turned upside down, Bakhtinian carnivalesque, cats and dogs etc etc
Italian unification as international model (Clark, 2012)
Dipping warm tortillas into a big bowl of beans, folks, you gotta love it
Sometimes you just have to listen to three Tom Waits albums in a row, I do not make the rules
Good to know that Quesnay's Tableau économique has been giving people fits since the beginning (Charles and Théré, 2019)