In a plot line inspired by Robert Frost’s poem Road Not Taken, fictional character Archie Andrews has already proposed to Veronica and will propose to Betty next month. I wonder what it would be like if other comics were inspired by poems…(imagine dreamy music and blurry vision.)
On His Blindness—John Milton
Spiderman is blind, worries about his [...]
Archive for the ‘Media’ Category
Super Poems
Posted in Arts and Aesthetics, History, Literature, Media, Popular culture on October 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Kristol and the Uses of Religion
Posted in Media, Personalities, Philosophy, tagged David Frum, Irving Kristol, shoddy intellectuals, Steve Vieux, Terry Teachout on September 20, 2009 | 1 Comment »
In my previous posting, I noted that Irving Kristol had a utilitarian attitude towards religion, viewing it as a necessary instrument of social control. For readers who might want more detail, I recommend this review of Kristol’s book Neoconservatism by Steve Vieux in New Politics.
It came from the desert, part deux
Posted in Canadian politics, Foreign affairs, History, Media, tagged Algeria, AQIM, Mali, Robert Fowler on September 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Readers of the Globe and Mail will already have seen today’s front-page-above-the-fold article on diplomat Robert Fowler’s return to Canada and his interview on national TV about his abduction last year by a splinter group of AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb — itself a splinter group of the Algerian insurgency of the 1990s), [...]
New Frontiers in Niche Marketing
Posted in Media on August 28, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Sophie Pollitt-Cohen writes:
Lately I’ve had advertising on the brain. I rented billboard space on my cerebral cortex for Gold’s Gym. But also, I’ve been thinking about marketing strategies a lot these days. It seems that advertising is a way to sell people things and thus make money. I love money! I have a plan: marketing [...]
It came from the desert
Posted in Foreign affairs, History, Media, tagged Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat, Jeremy Keenan, Sahel, Tuareg, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Maghreb on August 7, 2009 | 3 Comments »
According to American and European intelligence and military sources, there is a growing menace to Western security in (to use the intervention-justifying cliché of recent times) “the vast ungoverned spaces” of northwest Africa. A New York Times story published earlier this month itemized a string of violent events in the region that officials blame on [...]
Comics notebook
Posted in Media, Popular culture, tagged Brian Boyd, Herge, Nabokov, Robert Fulford, Seth on August 6, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The subset of Sans Everything readers who are interested in comics will want to read the following articles:
1. Patrick West on the politics of Herge (which West argues were Catholic conservative rather than fascist). A quote:
Posterity has not been kind to Hergé. In many ways, his life resembles that of P G Wodehouse. Both authors [...]
The Uses of Nostalgia
Posted in Arts and Aesthetics, Media, Philosophy, Popular culture, tagged Bob Dylan, Chris Ware, Coen Brothers, Fredric Jameson, Robert Crumb, Seth, Walter Benjamin on June 28, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Robert Crumb’s nostalgia for that old time music.
Nostalgia is a suspect emotion, both psychologically and politically. Emotionally, nostalgia carries connotations of escapism, ignoring present realities while longing for a mythical past. Politically, nostalgia has often been used by conservative and Fascist leaders who have deployed images of the good old days in order to thwart [...]
Tennis Vagabond: a story of tennis, evil and everything else
Posted in Arts and Aesthetics, Film and documentary, Literature, Media, Personalities, Popular culture, Uncategorized, tagged commodification, death, drugs, evil, Illuminati, Kerouac, O'Rourke, physics, Sachs, sex, Tennis Vagabond on June 21, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Sans Everything depends not only on its writers, but also its readers. Given the huge difference between daily site visits and replies to our posts it is clear that the vast majority of visitors to the site are content to read quietly, which is perfectly fine with us. We are also delighted, however, to have some regular [...]
Foreign Workers in Japan: Please Close the Door When You Leave
Posted in Asia, Foreign affairs, History, Japan, Media, Uncategorized on June 14, 2009 | 1 Comment »
A recent episode of National Public Radio’s All Things Considered discusses Japan’s (mis)treatment of foreign workers; my Japan book co-author, Jean-Pierre Lehmann, is interviewed just after five minutes into the seven minute program. It’s also worth listening for the politician Taro Kono’s candid comments about 3:28 into the interview.
A recent New York Times article, “Japan Pays Foreign Workers to [...]
