Photo by John Griswold
We have an old bottle of Macallan whisky given to us by my in-laws, who were Scottish immigrants in the 1950s. They told us that a family friend was a foreman at the Macallan distillery, and he gifted them the bottle on the eve…
The stamps do not lie: Their colors pop out of a solemn black background, and the skulls evoke grief, death, and decomposition as surely as poor Yorick’s skull did for Hamlet. But there is no sense of alas, no horror or repulsion. These are sugar skulls, delightful to take into ourselves.
Being disobedient is not necessarily a wise choice in any given circumstance, but it is powerful, perhaps the most powerful of all human actions. From “No! In Thunder!” to “I would prefer not to.” The symmetry of opposition has a kind of beauty to it.
I do not automatically trust mainstream media, federal agencies, drug manufacturers, hospital administrators, or scientific findings, either. But when all of that is sweepingly discredited at once, and people find a niche with no referees, no factual accountability, and a cluster of superstars who seem wholesome, natural, and interested only in healing and well-being . . . they will be powerfully persuasive.
Poster at St. Louis Science Center. Photo by John Griswold
“Hot damn, mummies!” I heard someone say at the St. Louis Science Center, which is currently hosting the exhibit Mummies of the World. Who is not drawn to gaze on a mummy, even at $19.95 a ticket?
Usually…
Boiled down, the problem is simple: Nice does not speak the truth. Nice dances around the truth, speaking so softly and with so much extra reassurance and bubbling niceness.
On September 14, Picture Cave—the hidden Lascaux of the Midwest—will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. The auction terms also note that Picture Cave is “subject to prior sale,” should there be an exceptional pre-auction offer—so this may already be a done deal.
"Veronica Mars" is teenage in a way that takes you right back to all the angst, idealism, feverish passion, and blithe fun. But the show is also a noir crime drama that in many ways feels quite grown up.
When a woman’s nipple has been injured, scarred, or rebuilt after a mastectomy, it can be shown. When a woman’s nipple is hard at work feeding an infant, it can be shown. And no one will object if a woman’s nipple has been distanced by history and glammed up by a gold leaf frame. An artist from the Renaissance may reveal a woman’s nipple with impunity.
Screenshot from Bo Burnham’s recent Netflix special, ‘Inside.’
Comedian-musician Bo Burnham has a song in his most recent Netflix special, Inside, that admits he is “problematic.” In making a joke of something true, he either faces it or is trying to get ahead of criticism (or both),…