Ravine Rantings

  A metaphor, perhaps. By Willy Stöwer - Magazine Die Gartenlaube, en:Die Gartenlaube and de:Die Gartenlaube, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=97646 (contains a minor spoiler for the movie  Titanic ) James Cameron was one of the best writers and directors in cinema for over a decade. I loved the Terminator series, Aliens , The Abyss , and True Lies . I'm not sure exactly what happened but I think he was generally a victim of his own success. After a certain point, he was able to finance anything he wanted and indulged every creative impulse with little regard for schedule or financial discipline. As a director, I don't think he's made anything good since True Lies , plus a little writing after that. Later Cameron started making ambitious but slow movies that frankly are too long. Titanic was a huge success but I didn't care for it much and I don't think I'm alone. It wasn't terrible but it was overrated and it's become an

Robert Schoch is an example of a well-credentialed scientist with tenure at a prestigious university who is willing to walk right along the fringes of science and engage in wild speculation. He has degrees from Yale and George Washington University and is a faculty member at Boston University. GWU and Boston U are both "near-Ivy" universities, meaning that although they are not in the Ivy League, they are at a similar level of quality and prestige. Yale, of course, is in the Ivy League. Schoch, I think, troubles the scientific community because he is willing to challenge existing paradigms yet is difficult to dismiss out of hand because of his credentials and tenure. Schoch gained international prominence when he published scientific papers and appeared in a documentary in the early 1990s about the Great Sphinx, dating it to pre-dynastic Egypt. His work was based on studies of erosion in the Sphinx enclosure, which is carved out of bedrock. His claims caused an uproar in the

  This interior scene is gorgeous. I ask myself what is the symbolism of red here? I can't parse it yet. Fair warning: herein lie spoilers. Do not read it if you have not seen Blade Runner 2049. I just rewatched Blade Runner 2049 and I think this is the first time I've started to comprehend it. I admit I had to watch a few primers on YouTube and read a couple of articles. This is exactly what I liked about the original Blade Runner from 1982, it was dense but compelling. People say the Blade Runner movies are slow, but they aren't slow like bad movies. They are slow like cerebral movies. Some of the criticisms of the world of Blade Runner are valid. The movies are science fiction noir, and therefore the movies are somewhat dark and melancholy. Some of the female characters are not presented in the best light. The emotions are negative. The worst facets of humanity are examined. Sorry for the low quality screen photos. I believe what I'm doing is legitimate academic crit

"A Dog Fight at Kit Burn’s" by Edward Winslow Martin (James D. McCabe). USA, 1868 Source: Wikimedia Pit bull dog owners seem attracted to pit bulls specifically because they have a reputation for viciousness. They are bred fighting dogs from a long line of fighting dogs going back at least into the 1800s, and you can tell by the jaws and build. They are made to bite and fight. This is why the breed is popular. People like the muscular look and the overbuilt jaws, the streamlined head. Also pit bull owners: "They aren't fighting dogs, they're sweet!" Ok, so why are they called "pit bulls?" You do know what a dog fighting pit is, don't you? See authentic nineteenth century illustration above complete with early pit bulls fighting. Statistically pit bulls are more likely to bite than most other breeds of dog. I believe this is the specific reason people like pit bulls as pets. They like both the look and reputation. Then they go on the internet an

I was raised with the mainstream christian belief that there is an afterlife and it consists of heaven and hell. You go to heaven if you are a good, faithful christian, to hell if you are bad. Hell is usually envisioned as a fiery place, where souls burn for all of eternity. Heaven is described as a place where the streets are paved with gold. That doesn't really sound all that appealing to me. It sounds like Trump's ridiculous gold-plated penthouse in New York: cold and ostentatious. My heaven would be a place of physical comfort but also beautiful scenery, endless miles of trail, waterfalls, placid beaches, but also changeable weather. Basically it would be like natural earth but without the illness and back pain. Over time my ideas about the possibility of an afterlife have changed. For the most part, a rational world view seems inconsistent with religion, and an afterlife requires a religious universe 1 . But as I have written elsewhere , this is superficial. Religion does

  My copy of American Tabloid with minor cat damage. James Ellroy paints a grimy view of mid-twentieth century America in his novel American Tabloid . Every cop is a crook and a thug. Every FBI agent is a thief, a liar, and violent. Every man has at least one mistress. The only man portrayed as honest in the entire novel is Robert F. Kennedy, but the rest of the family are crooks, cheaters, and womanizers. Women are portrayed mostly as sexual partners for the corrupt men of the world. The mafia are central to the story, and everyone does business with them, from the CIA to Raul Castro, to J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. Ellroy writes in heavy period slang. Stupe. Dig. Zorched (apparently means drunk). Every profane phrase ever known to humanity is uttered, many forgotten to time and not listed in the Urban Dictionary. Every nickname for every street drug you can think of is included. Every racial slur is spoken or embedded into the narration. The cast is an ensemble, there is no central