Tag Archives: recommendations

Whad’ja Think: Rachel Getting Married

With the possible exception of certain horror genres, “cringe” is not a word that most people hope to see in a recommendation. Common connotations, however, often don’t tell the whole story. Consider the case of Rachel Getting Married, a movie that made me cringe for all the right reasons. And with the right frequency – I didn’t cringe throughout, and the occasional cringes were hardly my only physical reaction to the film. They were good ones, though, and without them I wouldn’t have made it to the fond grins and I found later. I cringe because I care. [...Read on...] Continue reading

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George Carlin, 1937-2008

George Carlin is gone. Damn it. I never got to meet him.

Carlin showed me what comedy could be. He demonstrated that its full scope extends well beyond what is merely funny. His wit was restless, impatient; it tugged persistently at the uneven corners of our society. People who know me well will attest that in a normal conversation, it’s quite common for me to quote George Carlin. It’s no accident: he was so prolifically funny and insightful for so long that he covered the majority of topics relevant to our lives at one time or another. More than any other individual source, George Carlin’s stand-up work was the basis of my comedic sensibility. Continue reading

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Favorite Movies: All That Jazz

Bob Fosse‘s masterpiece isn’t merely a self-portrait: it’s a self-referendum, so revealing that it feels like an act of penance. One imagines that by surviving for another eight years after the film’s release, Fosse surprised himself. All That Jazz is … Continue reading

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