Archive for January 2024
Fat Linda throws an incomplete pass
by David Benjamin “Data technologies do not simply predict the future by guessing what an individual or group might do or want to do in the future. It is rather that those futures already exist, completely realized, and they reach backwards into the present to guide it. The possible paths for our desires to travel…
Read MoreCharacterization in shades of gray
by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis.—A growing phenomenon in film and TV entertainment, especially over the last quarter-century, is the morally vacuous villain, a badass so totally devoid of redeeming qualities that he or she is not character but caricature. This trend is manifest in the proliferation of films, and an entire studio—Marvel—rooted in comic books.……
Read MoreDo helicopter parents have heliport kids?
by David Benjamin “Herbert T. Gillis: Son, is this the book you were looking for? “Dobie Gillis: Oh, yeah. Thanks, Dad. I don’t know what I’d do without you. “Herbert T. Gillis: Yeah, neither do I, but just thinking about it has made my whole day.” —“The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis” MADISON,…
Read MoreCES ’24: ‘Ah feel ya, man.’
by David Benjamin “… Feelings, whoa, oh, oh, feelings/ Whoa, oh, oh, feel it again in my arms/ Feelings, whoa, oh, oh, feelings/ Whoa, oh, oh, feel it/ Whoa, oh, again” — Morris Albert LAS VEGAS—Watching a relay team of Sony, Honda and Microsoft execs at a Consumer Electronics Show (CES) “press conference”…
Read MoreThe Hinauslehnen Hundred
by David Benjamin “Movies are so rarely great art that if we cannot appreciate great trash we have very little reason to be interested in them.” ― Pauline Kael MADISON, Wis.—My favorite movie maven, Nick Hinauslehnen, who publishes a film periodical called Flashback, poses an annual question for readers. This year, he asks, “What movies…
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