PicoBlog

“Empire of the Sun” is my favorite Steven Spielberg movie. It’s also the one that probably most people have never heard of. I would not call it Spielberg’s best movie — “Schindler’s List,” “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” “Jaws” and “Saving Private Ryan” are typically put at the top of that very competitive list. But best vs. favorite to me is like the difference between beautiful and attractive. There are plenty of women society says are beautiful that I don’t find attractive, and vice-versa.

For our curriculum this year, we are re-reading the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. I’ve read some aloud a number of years ago, the kids love the dramatized audiobooks, and I read through them just for myself last year, but they bear up under multiple readings (for the most part). The curriculum has us reading them chronologically; however, my preferred way to read the Narnia series is in publication order (for your first read at least).

I spent part of last week in Charlottesville with a group of incredible women (thank you to everyone who came out). At dinner the first night, the conversation turned to the Envy chapter of On Our Best Behavior, where every chat about the book unfailingly tends to go. This is the chapter about women’s covert and undiagnosed wanting, and how we tend to d… ncG1vNJzZmidnJ7AprjOnp%2BnnZ5jwLau0q2YnKNemLyue89onKecmaO0bsDHnmSmmZ6auQ%3D%3D

The Road to Omega project has officially launched, and much is happening behind the scenes. The Neuromantics are self-assembling and strategizing, and an announcement post with all our plans and initiatives is coming soon. If you’d like to get involved at this early stage, please send a short bio and headshot to bobbyazarian@gmail.com. A big ‘thank you’ goes out to all my subscribers—especially those who are funding the project with paid subscriptions—for hanging in there.

There was a moment in 1996 when Terry Hall rejoined the orbit of contemporary pop music, a good decade and a half after he left the Specials to form Fun Boy Three. It was a moment that arrived right in the thick of Britpop, a movement that would not have happened without Hall's music of the 1980s, a fact underscored by Blur inviting Hall to sing "Night Klub" on a 1996 television special.

CHICAGO – In the fall of 2019, Akron coach John Groce organized an open tryout for undergraduates. Groce has held a tryout wherever he has coached, and over time the students pretty much look and play the same. On this day, however, one of the players looked and played a little bit different. “I get in my seat with my cup of coffee, and here comes this guy that’s 6-7 and long, moving really well,” Groce said.

"Now, why doesn't somebody pull a .45, and bang, settle it?" This is the question I ask about literally every martial arts movie made, ever. I was surprised to discover that Bruce Lee asks it himself in "Enter the Dragon," perhaps the most iconic such film. The fact the movie makes a bit of a joke out of the proposition that one well-placed firearm could render its entire plot moot doesn't change the fact that it's still hard to take such flicks seriously given this reality.

“Envy/Desire: was envisioned as part one of a six-part miniseries which would dissect dating as a transsexual in New York City. It was spawned from the lineage of Lena Dunham's Girls and Sex and the City ,two of my favorite pieces of art. The other five episodes (which have now been adapted into a feature film script) included various other archetypal guys who date dolls: “The guy who won’t tell his friends about you,” “The repressed violent homosexual,” “The nerdy simp,”, ‘the hottest guy ever who only wants sex” and of course, “The crossdresser.

In the middle of his career, Eoin Morgan's batting technique had evolved in so many different directions that he was sitting on an imaginary toilet waiting for the ball to be delivered. When you think of Morgan, the shit-batting squat probably doesn't come high up in your mind. That just shows what a long bizarre career he has had. After all, Eoin Morgan is the Irish player who saved English cricket.