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Summer Reading

John Presnall

Me: A couple of weeks ago, when the Summer Reading extravaganza of the New York Times Book Review appeared, you went through the issue to see how “religion” figured...

Lou Reed, R.I.P., Redux

John Presnall

Much venom has been spent against the recently departed Lou Reed. He apparently was emblematic of all that was wrong in America. He was the poster boy of popular...

Core Competencies Does Not Mean a Diary

John Presnall

Whenever someone you don’t really know tells you that you must not do such and such, it often provokes a desire to do that very same such and such....

Considering a Non-Student Centered Education of Student Failure

John Presnall

In education today there is an ever-increasing anxiety—an anxiety which emphasizes student success as the end all and be all of education. The idea of student success is so...

Rant on Obamacare

John Presnall

So I have no answers about the current stupid shutdown, but these are my thoughts on Obamacare. The bill that the Congress didn’t know the details of what was...

So Peter’s Remarks on Springsteen Made Me Think of NRBQ

John Presnall

This is an inappropriate way to begin a post, but as soon as I began writing what I had to say, the SOFTWARE COMPANY made me update and restart,...

Nothing Should Be On Demand

John Presnall

Video On Demand is not something that needs words to be spoken in its favor. It has plenty of advertising, and it is something good for a few bucks...

Never No Lament in “Sonny’s Blues”

John Presnall

While drinking my third cup of coffee, and reading all this talk of heroin and Charlie Parker, I got to thinking of James Baldwin’s beautiful short story “Sonny’s Blues”...

Here’s Mud in Dr. T.J. Eckleburg’s Eyes

John Presnall

If you care for this kind of warning, then let me say that there are probably SPOILERS throughout the following: 1. The Great Gatsby (Dir. Baz Luhrmann, 2013). Nietzsche...

Bazinga!

John Presnall

As the hugely successful CBS sitcom Big Bang Theory moves toward the conclusion of its sixth season, I thought I’d link to Ken Masugi’s recent blog post on the...

I Lost and Found It at the Movies This Week

John Presnall

This week had some big news in the world of movies. Unfortunately it didn’t include any new movies worth watching at the local multiplex. First, Roger Ebert sadly passed...

The Big Vacation with Girls

John Presnall

After speaking of the HBO series Girls and its brilliant stupidity, I received nothing but remarks about how following that show must be indicative of deep depravity on my...

I Can’t Believe I Watch This Crap: On Girls

John Presnall

The cynic in doglike dismissal says the HBO TV series Girls is the most asinine way to spend one’s half hour on Sunday nights. Yet the cynic continues to...

Remi Brague: The North American Tour 2012

John Presnall

Remi Brague is no stranger to PomoCon and First Things readers. So it goes with saying that he is one of the most brilliant and knowledgeable thinkers and writers...

A Pomocon Persuasion?

John Presnall

I took these words from a response to a fine post by Carl Scott, and decided to make them into a not so fine post of mine here— A...