{"id":4057,"date":"2009-06-12T05:00:39","date_gmt":"2009-06-12T09:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=4057"},"modified":"2009-06-12T05:38:12","modified_gmt":"2009-06-12T09:38:12","slug":"unrequired-reading-june-12-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-june-12-2009","title":{"rendered":"Unrequired Reading: June 12, 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

What am I, made of links? Just click “more”!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Roger Ebert on the phenomenon of John Wayne<\/a>, who died 30 years ago. Seriously, you oughtta check out Ebert’s blog regularly.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Will no one think of the young Welsh Patagonians<\/a>? (Amazingly, this is not<\/em> a Masonic code-phrase.)<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

30 Rock = The Muppet Show<\/a>. (Except without that musical scene of vikings pillaging a town, set to In The Navy<\/em>.)
\n* * *<\/p>\n

Sure is a heck of a cast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I wish I could write, “. . . it stood as the core of Anglo-American chicanery and cozenage . . .”<\/p>\n

(I don’t think the association that Angleton’s approach to ambiguity = the American approach to it is valid, but I guess it holds up okay in its discussion of Empson & Angleton and the nature of counterintelligence<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Eli Eli<\/a> lama sabachthani? (Anyone know the Aramaic for “endowment?”)<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

MPD Guy<\/a> = Magic Negro?<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Now We Know<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The truth, of course, is that neither Coulter nor Navasky, nor any of the many others who have joined this particular battle, is really interested in history. They and their respective allies instead wish to score points about contemporary politics–points that bear only a tendentious relationship to the events of the 1930s and the 1940s. Coulter and her ilk want modern liberals to be identified with the CPUSA: Hiss = Obama. Navasky and his friends suspect that anyone who investigates Hiss is covertly promoting “the wholesale suspension of liberties”: historical research = Guantanamo. There is something dim and lifeless about this kind of apologetic argument, which is why wading though the writings of the Coulters and the Navaskys is a torment, like watching an endless episode of Crossfire<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

If you need 3,576 round-cut white diamonds to spell out, “CRUNK AIN’T DEAD,”<\/a> then maybe it’s time to admit that crunk is<\/em> dead.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I guess when you move up in society, you can’t just say, “I had a hankerin’ fer some strange<\/a>.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What am I, made of links? Just click “more”!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,17],"tags":[315,729,728,285,730],"class_list":["post-4057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-business","category-politics-explicit","tag-eliot-spitzer","tag-james-jesus-angleton","tag-john-wayne","tag-roger-ebert","tag-william-empson"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-13r","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3837,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/no-bailout","url_meta":{"origin":4057,"position":0},"title":"No bailout","author":"Gil","date":"April 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"While I was in Vegas this week, I entertained the thought of giving up this blog, bailing on writing (but not my day job as an editor), and trying to find another pursuit\/outlet. Then two things happened. First, one of my best friends wrote out of the blue to tell\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Roger Ebert\"","block_context":{"text":"Roger Ebert","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/roger-ebert"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3425,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-feb-13-2009","url_meta":{"origin":4057,"position":1},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Feb. 13, 2009","author":"Gil","date":"February 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"It's an extra-spooky, hockey-mask-wearing Friday the 13th edition of Unrequired Reading! Boo! The A.V. Club offers back-to-back Random Roles interviews with two VM faves: Illeana Douglas and Bruce Campbell! * * * Roger Ebert contemplates the long-term view, as in that Flaming Lips lyric, \"Do you realize that everyone you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4124,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-june-26-2009","url_meta":{"origin":4057,"position":2},"title":"Unrequired Reading: June 26, 2009","author":"Gil","date":"June 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"No doubt about it: these links suck. Just click \"more\"! I'm sorry, Kathryn Bigelow. You made Strange Days. Hence, you suck. * * * I'm sorry, Huckabees. You still suck, especially as a followup to Three Kings. * * * Painter of light? You suck as a businessman and as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4415,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-aug-28-2009","url_meta":{"origin":4057,"position":3},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Aug. 28, 2009","author":"Gil","date":"August 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been a busy week, so cut my links some slack, okay? And just click \"more\"! Long Live the King. * * * Biography Bookshop or thousand-dollar purse: Which Bleecker Street do you want? * * * For those of you scoring at home. * * * I know you've\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3939,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-may-15-2009","url_meta":{"origin":4057,"position":4},"title":"Unrequired Reading: May 15, 2009","author":"Gil","date":"May 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Oh, it's on. Just click \"more\"! American Idol's in decline, evidently, but that's a relative term. \"In the 2003-4 season, the first in which 'Idol' was the top-rated prime-time series, its lead over the second place show was about 7 percent. That margin has grown every year since and this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3537,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/apart-the-hole","url_meta":{"origin":4057,"position":5},"title":"Apart, the Hole","author":"Gil","date":"March 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I saw Synecdoche, New York on Friday afternoon and I've spent this weekend trying to parse what I saw, heard and felt. I've even been struggling with the metaphor of how it's affected me; I don't want to ape the ongoingly-dying lead character by saying it's infected me like a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4057"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4063,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4057\/revisions\/4063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}