Table-talk of Parkus Grammaticus for March 22-23, 2008

I. Hey Dullblog's Devin appears on the Upper West Side on Tuesday, March 25, to talk about the Beatles in 1968; in the meantime, read his take on the great (?) Beatles movie project that never was.
II. On Style; for Moderns meditates on Elton John's sartorial choices:

The background looks like a stock background on offer at your local overmodernized, ruined-a-good-thing photo booth. It's like Hi Mom! Here's me and my fake visit to Yellowstone! Except it's not me in 1997. It's Elton Freaking John in 1974, hairy chested in some pre-JNCO jeans, with less (head) hair than his contemporary self, and holding his hands as awkwardly as hands have ever been held.

III. A friend has unearthed a blog post (I am not quite clear what the blog is called!) devoted to the iconography of Idiocracy. Here's one for tax season:

Table-talk of Parkus Grammaticus for February 7

I.

I'm reading tonight! From Personal Days! In Brooklyn!

II.

Maharishi dies—Hey Dullblog takes note—and James Wolcott takes note of our note!

III.

Habitus unearths a never-before-published Borges interview! Lots of goodies, including this bit:

Without a doubt Alonso Quijano is more complex now than when Cervantes imagined him, because Alonso Quijano has been enriched, we say, by [Miguel de] Unamuno. Without a doubt Hamlet is more complex now than when Shakespeare originated him; [Hamlet] has been enriched by Coleridge, by Bradley, by Goethe, by so many people. That is, the books live on posthumously. Each time that anyone reads them, the text changes, even if slightly, and the fact of being read with respect makes us see the riches in them ignored by the author.

Via Three Percent

IV.

Mike Hale's NYT review of Nickelodeon's Ni Hao, Kai-lan, is quietly hilarious:

Given the multifarious nature of the Chinese language, choices have to be made, and some Chinese-Americans might be disappointed to know that millions of children are about to be told to call red packets — the envelopes used for gifts of money at new year — ya sui qian rather than hong bao or ang pao.

V.

Great name: Floyd M. Boring, RIP.

VI.

Song of the day, from Moistworks: The Lucksmiths, "To Absent Votes"

Table-talk of Parkus Grammaticus for January 22-23

I. January 22 is the 41st anniversary of the death of Harry Stephen Keeler.

II. Remember when I used to write film reviews for the PTSNBN? Me neither! But Google does—this just came up as a Google Alert: My "Rotten Tomatoes" page. (They must have redesigned it.) See what movie I called "irredeemably dull"! "Fun and nourishing"! "A gratifying playground of high-wire language"! (Huh?!) "Enthusiastically scored"! And of course, "Less a romance than a feature-length plug for 'N Sync and its personalities."

III. On a more somber note—the first film I ever reviewed for the PT... was A Knight's Tale, starring the late Heath Ledger.

IV. Levi heeds the Dizzies call and argues for Powell's superiority over Amis. (That's Anthony and Martin—not Padgett or Dawn and Kingsley!)