Right now, at this very moment, part of me wishes I were 13 again. I fully acknowledge the masochistic implications of such a statement and recognize that it romanticizes the youthfulness every person not named Michael Jackson eventually loses to adulthood, but I just can’t shake the feeling. As George Orwell famously observed, autobiographical writing […]
Author Archives: Jake Tracer
Not all students are real pirates
May is a month of potential and doubt. Named after Maia, the Roman goddess of growth, the month can suggest the coming of new and better things just as plants that sprout in April usually flower about now. However, the Romans also married Maia off to Mars, the god of war, and so the month […]
Seasoned director fresh with new ideas
Early in “Annie Hall,” Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) gets into an argument with a stranger while standing in line at a movie theater. The argument is about film, and when Singer decides his opponent knows nothing about the work of media scholar Marshall McLuhan, he simply walks McLuhan, playing himself, into the frame to tell […]
TWO OF A KIND: Gay Talese
While walking around campus this weekend at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, most people will be dressed casually. Depending on the weather, some might wear scarves or shorts, but certainly most will wear denim, enough to please even the most zealous of Clothesline Project supporters. Especially nowadays, when pairs range in price from […]
“˜Scary Movie’ is true tragedy
Upon reflection, it occurs to me that I am the targeted audience of “Scary Movie 4″ even though I didn’t see the franchise’s first three installments and have absolutely no interest in seeing its current rendition. Still, after watching the film’s trailer, I have a sneaking suspicion that the producers of “Scary Movie 4″ expect […]
Bonds: a baseball fan’s Giant paradox
While waiting in a mysteriously long line to enter Dodger Stadium on Saturday, I had an epiphany. As much as it pains me to admit, I now understand that Giants fans are the luckiest in all of Major League Baseball. Before I go on, let me clarify that I am, always have been, and always […]
British genre has appeal in U.S.
If one were to scan the titles of movies opening this Friday, that person would find a group of adjectives appealing to a somewhat degenerate nature: scary, wild (admittedly used as a noun in the movie’s name), hard, notorious, kinky. In typical Hollywood fashion, that outward sex appeal doesn’t represent anything more than the slightest […]