Month: January 2005

Radicals of the Republic.

If it’s post-MLK day, it must be the beginning of the spring semester here at Columbia…and this term I’ve returned to America’s shores from East Asia. (How McArthur-esque.) So, for the next few months I’ll be TA’ing “The Radical Tradition in America” for the inimitable Prof. Eric Foner, which I’m greatly looking forward to (despite ending up with Thursday night section times that are less than ideal…but ah well. I can’t blame anyone but myself for that.) Since most of my work this term on the dissertation (on, put very simply, Progressive persistence in national politics, 1919-1928) is going to involve senators, governors, magazine editors, and other inner-circle types (“They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom, for trying to change the system from within“), I’m hoping the objects of study here — individuals and movements working to effect change outside the confining parameters of legislative politics — will make for a nice, dynamic, and thought-provoking counterpoint, and one that will help me shore up my own thoughts on civic republicanism, both in its persistence and its possibilities for renewal.

You’ll never spam in this town again.

Well, much as it was fun to delete hundreds of poker, weight loss, and prescription-drug-related comment spam every day, I’ve gone ahead and (very belatedly) installed MT-Blacklist. Hopefully, it shouldn’t affect the few of you out there who do leave actual comments here…but if so, please tell me.

So Help Me God.

As the Bushies warm up the teleprompter, the Washington Post attempts to explain why most inaugural addresses are boring, Chris Suellentrop surveys some of the lousier efforts over the years (with help from this Library of Congress exhibit), and David Greenberg looks back at the last great one (Kennedy, 1961). Somehow, I have a sneaking suspicion that Dubya’s evocation tomorrow of “The Ownership Society” isn’t going to make the A-list.

The King of the Boudoir.

“Part of the advantage of being hideously, cripplingly self-conscious is that I feel free to use cliches, rather than feeling compelled to seek out original expression.” (Yeah, I’d say that’s pretty cliched.) The AP talks briefly with Stephin Merritt, the prodigious musical mind behind The Magnetic Fields, The 6ths, the Gothic Archies, and the Future Bible Heroes.

The Halftime Score.

Monica who? On the eve of Dubya II, Salon‘s Peter Dizikes offers a short but comprehensive list of this administration’s scandals thus far. Thirty-four and counting…not that you’d know it from watching the evening news.

It’s Clobbering Time.

In case you never saw the 20-sec promo last week, the full-on Fantastic Four trailer is online now and, well, what is there to say, really? Like Spiderman and X-Men, The Fantastic Four is one of Marvel’s signature franchises…so I’m surprised how leaden this one’s turning out. In no way does this look or feel like FF to me, with the possible exception of Michael Chiklis’ early-Kirby Thing look. Turning Doom into a deranged budget Emperor Palpatine was a particularly bad call.

Speaking of which, not to get too old-school fanboy up in here, but what is Julian McMahon doing with them up there in space anyway? (And what’s with the space station? I seem to remember a 4-seater test shuttle…don’t fix it if it ain’t broke, y’all.) Oof, I’ve got a bad feeling about this…could this actually end up being worse than The Hulk?

Some Pig.

Paramount and Nickelodeon announce the voice talent for the forthcoming live-action Charlotte’s Web (a la Babe), and it’s an all-star cast, including Julia Roberts (Charlotte), Steve Buscemi (Templeton/Rat), John Cleese (Samuel/Sheep), Oprah Winfrey and Cedric the Entertainer (Gussy and Golly/Geese), Reba McEntire and Kathy Bates (Betsy and Bitsy/Cows), and Thomas Haden Church and Andre 3000 (Brooks and Benjamin/Crows). No word on who’s Wilbur yet, although the ubiquitous Dakota Fanning is Fern. I’ve always had a soft spot for Charlotte’s Web — it’s the first book I ever remember reading — so I expect I’ll probably check this out (even if Julia is the spider.)

MLK 2K5.


“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. The chain reaction of evil…must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.“
— Martin Luther King, Jr (1929-1968)