Red Right Blog |
|
|
Rants, Rates, Slags, Slates. Manic-depressive posts from Red Wright-Hand. Because there are thousands of worthless blogs out there and who am I not to add to their number?
Total US troop deaths in Iraq to date (09/01/07) since 03/20/03: 3739
From 05/02/03 through 06/28/04: 718 Myeloma (etc.) Blogs
Adventures of Cancer Girl Browse
Arts & Letters Daily
|
Friday, May 28, 2004
This year marks the 50th-anniversary of the original release of Godzilla, and this Memorial Day weekend makes an apt time for watching the Big Guy make his big first impression on Tokyo in this rather-historic re-release. No joke: this is a grim nightmare film, derived from King Kong, of course, but reflecting the spectacular trauma of a fire- and atom-bombed nation almost a decade after the end of the Second World War. Sure, that first reel is pretty creaky (though film bugs will have fun identifying actors from The Seven Samurai) but the lasting effect is pretty somber. Tell 'em, G. Tuesday, May 25, 2004
"I was deeply disturbed by Moore's comment upon receiving the Palm d'Or that, 'I want to make sure if I do nothing else for the rest of this year that those who died in Iraq have not died in vain.'" Has any filmmaker in recent memory generated such bi-polar critical reaction as Michael Moore? I don't simply mean wildly split reactions from different (left-wing/right-wing) camps, I mean wildly split reactions from the same journalist, within the space of a single article or feature interview, thoughtful critics who appear aghast at Moore's personality: the pompous-humble-folksy-manipulative-lying-soothsayer act that both drives and subverts his work. And I think they're correct. Please see these two articles on Moore, the first from Andrew Anthony of the Guardian (UK), the second from David Poland of The Hot Button. Poland's essay especially is extremely to the point, and I seriously recommend reading it through to the very end, especially to the section quoted above. Monday, May 24, 2004
And speaking of the column on the left-hand (which is never read...waaaah ha ha, I crack myself up), both MobyLives' and Harvey Pekar's sites have not been updated for months. Come on, guys, even I'm not that slow! Post something new or risk the dreadful possibility of being scratched from my list. "My name is Tanya Headon and I hate music. All of it. The purpose of this weblog is a simple one: to detail, week on week, the failings and infinite wretchedness of the stuff, building into an encyclopaedia of musical badness." She ain't kidding, either. Hours of pleasure for musical trainspotters. To be read aloud in stridently female British accent for maximum enjoyment. Instant addition to the Red Right Blog clickable Hall of Fame (see left-hand column). Thanks to Large Hearted Boy for the clue-in. Sunday, May 23, 2004
"No one, not Pushkin, not Mahfouz, can describe what happened to us." -- a former inmate of Abu Ghraib prison in the reign of Saddam Hussein, as quoted in a 1993 Human Rights Watch report (courtesy The New Yorker, May 17, 2004). Which leads me to some follow-up comments upon Mahfouz's work. No doubt that my Western tastes kept me from reading his Cairo Trilogy with great enthusiasm, no doubt that I simply don't get the rhythms of Arabic literature, at least not yet. But obviously Arabic readers get Mahfouz, as witness the quote above. Clearly the man matters. And as weeks have passed since I finished the Trilogy, the portions of it which seemed to me redundant and gaseous and overdrawn have filtered out of mind, till what remains, successfully, is its emotional core, the living depiction of a troubled Egyptian family and nation. (Something like when I read Dreiser's Sister Carrie, rolling my eyes at the laborious prose, but finally absorbed by the author's powers of social observation.) Another underlying theme that remains from Mahfouz' novels: humiliation. The rage at being pushed around by Western forces (British in early-20th.-c. Cairo, but oh how times change). The inferiority complex, the self-loathing, the rage, the rage. I admit it: my initial reading of Mahfouz will have to be revised. Wednesday, May 19, 2004
Almost four years ago, in a Bread Loaf Writers' Conference workshop, I had the pleasure of reading some of the novel-in-progress manuscript of fellow-conferee Mindy Friddle. Now I have the pleasure of seeing Mindy's novel, The Garden Angel, about to be published. No surprise: it's very accomplished work. Friday, May 14, 2004
Monday, May 10, 2004
"On the surface, GBV were old, ugly, drunk guys and their records sounded like shit." A knowledgeable oh-bitch-you-are-read about the retirement of Guided by Voices. I might have to start paying attention to this goddamn Black Table. Thursday, May 06, 2004
The recent Pentagon announcement that coalition troop levels in Iraq will stay the same until at least the end of 2005 has me thinking I can do a little math in advance. (Sort of a time-saving operation, you understand.) There are, after today, 603 days remaining until the end of 2005. At the present average rate of 1.85 fatalities per day suffered by US soldiers since the beginning of the invasion/occupation of Iraq, we can expect 1,116 additional deaths (rounding to the nearest full number) by midnight, Dec. 31, 2005, for a total of 1,882 dead American servicemen and women. If we consider the figures for all coalition forces (2.11 deaths per day), the number rises to 1,272 deaths from now until (Happy New Year!) the crack of 2006, or 2,145 in all. As stated in previous posts, these calculations do not take into consideration either coalition wounded or any Iraqis whatsoever, be they military or civilian. If you find these figures too dry, just consider the pictures, guaranteed to provide a lifetime of memories. Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Two days from today, it will be exactly one year since a shy, mysterious wee little slip of a blog took its first tentative steps into the Internet. Sniff: I always cry at a blogaversary! What hath 365 days wrought? Roughly 620 dead American servicemen in Iraq for one thing, no single one of whom got as much press as the passing of Bob Hope, the mortal-coil-shuffling of Idi Amin or even the release of Gigli. Never fear: at Red Right Blog, prioritizing is one of our middle names. Monday, May 03, 2004
Speaking of photographs, it appears most folks coming to this site do so as a result of searching for Heudnsk. Found photographs are the new reality show (slogan of the day): here's the direct link to where you'll find them on the Heudnsk site. |
