When I say that I chose not to key your car, what I mean is that I chose not to key your car. I walk past dozens of cars every day, and I drive past hundreds. I had never before walked past a car with my keys in my hand, thinking to myself, “Should I… Read More To the Person Whose Car, Despite the Several Confederate Flags Which It Bore, I Chose Not to Key
There are some books that I read over and over again. From the time I was in sixth grade up into my last year of college, I read To Kill a Mockingbird at least twice a year. (I’ll be citing the edition that is yellow and a little torn beyond its years: it’s the first… Read More Villainous Age in Harper Lee’s “Oeuvre”
Less bracket, more conversation today. Listen to the second episode of the podcast here, in which we talk about why coed sports are overlooked and what we can do to improve the situation. (You’re going to have to deal with the jiggery-pokery of playing it in Music Player for Google Drive instead of that link… Read More Baumann and Burch Podcast #2 – Decathlon of Playground Sports (Underrated Coed Athletics)
It’s not an essay! My friend Matt and I have put together our first podcast. Right now, it’s a bit of a song and dance to get in and listen. The link should take you to an audio player; go ahead press play, and then open it in Music Player for Google Drive, which should… Read More Baumann and Burch Podcast #1 – I Live! I Die! I Podcast! (Sports Nicknames)
Dir. John Ford. Starring John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Henry Brandon The diagetic portions of this movie begin with a surprisingly striking image: a woman stands in a doorway, black in the way Pierre-Auguste Renoir said a painting should never use black, her silhouette blocking the majestic view of the ostensibly Texan skyline. (It’s Monument Valley,… Read More The Searchers (1956)
Dir. David Lean. Starring Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Cyril Raymond At least it wasn’t penalties. When Laura Bassett’s clearance fell short and went in off the crossbar (half an hour after Toni Duggan’s shot went out off the crossbar), resulting in a crushing own goal with no time left for England to regroup, the result… Read More Brief Encounter (1945)
Before we begin, some quick statements: 1) I’m from the Philadelphia area and, until this past season, had not kept up with the 76ers with any real interest since Allen Iverson and the 2001 Finals. I was ten. My defining memory of that series is that my grandmother was watching my brothers and me at… Read More Tanking in Basketball: A Treatise
Dir. Alexander Mackendrick. Starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison There’s a movie out there about what Bill O’Reilly would have been like if he’d been born handsome in a different era. It’s called Sweet Smell of Success, and you should see it. If you are like me, and you went to high school and… Read More Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Dir. Pete Docter. Starring Amy Poehler, Kaitlyn Dias, Phyllis Smith That’s my Middle West – not the wheat or the prairies or the lost Swede towns but the thrilling, returning trains of my youth and the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark and the shadows of holly wreaths thrown by lighted windows… Read More Inside Out (2015)
https://twitter.com/mallelis/status/614830229240950784 Like Mallory Ortberg, I just woke up and found out. Bree Newsome, who appears to have skipped the sugary cereal and cartoons this Saturday morning and went straight to acts of marvelous civil disobedience, went up a flagpole and came down a hero. Nikki Haley, who apparently was waiting on more Fortune 500 CEOs… Read More June 26, 2015
Seeing Things Secondhand 