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Review: Upstream Color
Whew. That’s about the only adequate response after watching Upstream Color, the new film from Shane Carruth. Carruth, whose debut film Primer remains an unparalleled piece of indie sci fi (and the...
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Choose Your Own Ash(er) Venture: A Television Review Poll
You know what I miss? Reviewing TV shows on a weekly basis. Around a year ago I sadly abandoned ship midway through Better Off Ted for no discernible reason. Now, in an effort to correct this, I am...
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The People Have Spoken… And Now Must Speak Again
The results from my poll earlier in the week are in, and the winner, by a surprisingly large margin, was: Sci Fi. Apparently you all either think I’m a huge nerd and want to confirm it by having me...
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Blind Spots: Sunset Boulevard
Blind Spots is a new feature here at the Philistine. Everyone, no matter how much culture they consume, has “blind spots”, cultural artifacts that they know they should have experienced by now but...
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And the Winner Is…
After a mad dash to the finish, the winner of my latest TV show, the lucky program that gets to be subjected to me reviewing it week in and week out, is… STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION. Was there ever...
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Captain’s Log: The Next Generation, Season 1, Episode 1
Welcome to the first of many, many, many reviews of Star Trek: The Next Generation. And I do mean many. The show ran for 7 seasons, and each season is a few episodes longer than the conventional 22...
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Monsters University and the Myth of the Pixar Slump
It apparently has become de rigeur to refer to a “Pixar decline” whenever talking about a new film from the animation company. In a randomly selected scanning (from the “top critics” section of Rotten...
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Captain’s Log: The Next Generation, Season 1, Episodes 3-4
Since the pilot of TNG was the two part “Encounter at Farpoint”, we pick up today with episodes 3+4, “The Naked Now” and “Code of Honor”. While I have some real issues with these episodes, especially...
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Captain’s Log: The Next Generation, Season 1, Episodes 5-6
After last week’s episodes, one half decent, the other a bit of a debacle, it’s nice to get two strong episodes of The Next Generation, including what is easily the best of the series so far. Episode...
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Shoulda Been Classics: The Allman Brothers Band
As you may have noticed in my previous “Shoulda Been Classics” article on Beethoven’s 5th, I’m stretching the definition of this category just a tad. For me, these pieces are a way to highlight a...
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Captain’s Log: The Next Generation, Season 1, Episodes 7-8
In which Picard goes on a funky interstellar space ride, and Wesley Crusher: Boy Wonder almost gets a taste of those two most human things, sex and death. First off, apologies for my lack of TNG...
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Who’s Afraid of the Catholic Church? A Response to Michael Atkinson
On the whole and for the most part, I do my best not to get involved in debates and disputes, especially in Internet land. One of the quirks of being an INTP is that I tend to like building my own...
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Fish in a Barrel: “The Reason” by Hoobastank
Sometimes I get so caught up in thinking about serious things that I forget to step back and have a little fun. So I’ve instituted Fish in a Barrel to help me keep my sanity. The feature is designed...
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Captain’s Log: The Next Generation, Season 1, Episodes 9-10
In which Picard is literally tortured by his past, and Q gives Riker PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER – without the itty bitty living space. Now that’s what I’m talking about, TNG. Another pair of solid...
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Beauty Will Save the World
“Beauty will save the world,” Dostoyevsky once wrote. Like all profound thoughts, its sense is at once immediate and obscured, intuitive and counter-intuitive. To some it sounds like a mere fancy, a...
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Captain’s Log: The Next Generation, Season One, Episodes 11-12
In which wedding bells almost toll for Deanna Troi, and Picard gets his gumshoe on. Apologies first off for being a day late with this. The start of school threw me off a tad. Mea culpa to the two...
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A Short Announcement
Dear Philistine Readers, If you enjoy the thoughtful content we provide for you here at The Erstwhile Philistine, I’d really appreciate it if you would head over to this link where you can upvote us...
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On the Use and Abuse of High School History Class For Life
When I first switched over to WordPress a few years back, I did a series of posts on the nature of history. Since that point I have not written much on the subject, though I think a lot about it, and...
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RIP Robert Farrar Capon (1925-2013)
It was with a saddened heart that I just read the news that Robert Farrar Capon died yesterday. His thinking and writing on Christianity (especially how it relates to food and the rest of creation)...
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I Was Wrong About Wes Anderson
I tend to have strong feelings about pop culture. That’s generally an asset – I am a critic after all. At times though this gets me in trouble. I tend to champion certain odd artifacts and decry...
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