John Presnall

Driving home from Dallas to Houston after a family Thanksgiving dinner is a task. I don’t mean the traffic, but I mean the effort itself. A Thanksgiving dinner tradition my late grandmother established over thirty years ago still holds (in its bare bones) today. So four hours from Houston to . . . . Continue Reading »

So here are some (this time) abstract thoughts on Skyfall which assume you have already seen the movie. I was helped by the thoughtful comments to my earlier posts, but I went in another direction. Hope you enjoy these remarks because they are the last (for now). I know—too much on a popular . . . . Continue Reading »

This time with spoilers. Here . . . . . Continue Reading »

Here. . . . . Continue Reading »

I’m an a**hole, but such as we can see only by starlight  I like to think I have something to say. So says the Smashing Pumpkins with which Carl would immediately say is stupid, because he is the go to guy on anything regarding music. Even if his historicist nonsense should not be called . . . . Continue Reading »

What if I told you that you could get free money? If such were actually the case, you would think I was crazy, or stupid, or a charlatan. Well I could have been all three, but I have no such promise in this post. Yet, if you have ever had insomnia and found yourself watching late night/early . . . . Continue Reading »

Buzz Bissinger, a life long Democrat, has decided to publicly explain why he’s supporting Romney this year (h/t Mollie Hemingway ). He says that the president’s poor debate performance, as well as some nagging doubts about the efficacy of his policies past and proposed, have led him to . . . . Continue Reading »

If Tocqueville is correct then elections bring out the greatest political passions of the American people. Periodically every two to four years the people are wrought and brought to extremes of anger and vindictiveness and defensiveness the likes of which would shame their otherwise day to day . . . . Continue Reading »

This post is my way of giving respect to Carl Scott even while it simultaneously holds Cameron Crowe movies in utter contempt. Carl tells us that the way of rock is a delusion. However it is apparently a delusion true to one’s own eroticism. Unfortunately the individual fandom of rock . . . . Continue Reading »

So I may be a voice of negativism and cynicism. So be it. I find the weepy RNC convention in its appeals to compassion to be silly. The very thing they lambast about so-called bleeding heart liberals, they return in tenfold with oceans of tears. Since when did American exceptionalism become the . . . . Continue Reading »