The Bricktosser

Obviously I appreciate this.

A digitally drawn homage to the George Herriman comic strip Krazy Kat. Starting left of frame we see yellow Ignatz Mouse having just thrown a brick which is sailing across the center of the frame and in another instant will bash the oblivious Krazy Kat (a blue bipedal cartoon cat wearing a red scarf) in the back of the head as he walks innocently to the right. Everything is drawn in rough black pen and colored in pale washes. A speech bubble from Ignatz reads ‘Maybe it will…’, the word ’Happen’ appears in the whooshing trail of the sailing brick, and a final speech bubble belonging to the Kat reads ‘…Today’.

100% this. It was a reaction against the overtly biographical readings of the time period, with the idea being that not only is authorial intent fundamentally unknowable, often even by the writer the author themselves, but also a limited tool in analyzing a work even if fully known.

Being a Mad Men fan, I'd heard a lot of references to The Apartment when discussing it.

Finally watched about a year ago, and

1) Wow
2) Yes, Mad Men owes it everything

It wasn't until Andor that Star Wars showed me it could be more than "fun adventure well told" or "nostalgia blast from that movie I saw at age 10."

I was always more on the Trek side of "let's dig into an idea."

I'm too bored of this to try and be clever about it anymore.

If you think that two men kissing, or two women kissing, requires any more explanation than a man kissing a woman, that is homophobia.

A "Last show you saw before COVID" thread could be fun.

Mine was They Might Be Giants, about a week before lockdown here.

Let's see if the intersection of people who read my posts, people who actually post, and people who might remember is enough for a thread.

That's got to be driven at least in part by the Who failing to break here until Monterrey, no?

Oh my God it's so good. Been thinking of doing a reread and then plunging into the later stuff after I fell off comics mostly.

Shock Treatment (1981) - Duel Duet YouTube video by Robert Shay

The thing about the Shock Treatment soundtrack is that the songs are a mix of very clever and unbearably corny, and usually in the same song.

I love it anyway.

youtu.be/PgxPKjvc-kw?...

As "lyrics so cheesy as to wrap around to good," these are right up there.

The Clinton Travel Office Scandal seems so quaint in comparison.

I just tried making this point yesterday and some people will not hear it.

As a USian I don't get the complaint. It's it some weird offense taken, or just aesthetic dislike?

Same!

Shock Treatment is criminally underrated/ignored.

Similarly I've heard people downplay Regan's communication skills, because they disagreed with him. Nope, sorry, Reagan was an amazing communicator (of very bad ideas).

They lead the caucus (of caucuses, as you note) in each respective chamber. That job is building the consensus and keeping members from staying too far when it matters. (Schumer does in fact suck at that.) That sausage-making is at odds with national messaging and inspiration. Anyone would fail.

This is semantics.

The party leaders of each chamber have specific jobs that make it hard for them to be good national representatives. There's a reason such people always have terrible national approval ratings regardless of party.

OTOH, if you just want "Dems suck" gotcha points, here have 1000

The job of caucus leader is very different than just generally "leader." The things that job requires are specifically at odds with being a statesman or inspirational leader.

I said elsewhere, it's like asking the guy who works the sausage grinder to also be the salesman.

The structural problem isn't the people in those seats, it's what we expect from them.

The party really ought to elect an opposition leader outside these roles because these roles are fundamentally not suited to be both spokesperson and caucus-wrangler. Thune, McConnell, Pelosi, Johnson, same issue

I didn't disagree but the chamber speakers are always going to be weak as national public leaders. They're almost always deeply unpopular with the general public and only middling with their own base. I can't think of a particular exception except maybe Newt Gringrich, and only with his base.

House and Senate majority and minority leaders almost always have terrible approval ratings. The needs of the job (wrangling a caucus, allocating resources) are orthogonal to public leadership and messaging. It's like asking the guy who runs the sausage grinder to be the salesman too.

The regular criticisms of Schumer and Jeffries stem almost entirely on the structural problem that these roles aren't conceived as national leaders and spokespeople, but as internal leaders. True for the majority leaders too, but they have the president to be a figurehead.

I often wonder if Andrew Hickey and Kirk Hamilton listen to each other's podcasts. They are such great compliments to each other.

Not going to @ them cuz that's rude.

This is happening because the Republicans in Congress are allowing it to happen.

Swamp Thing and Abby Arcane

two page spread from Swamp Thing, with Wood adding a spectacular red backdrop to a single panel, in the same tone as Abby's shirt

Wood's variations on greens and light yellow adds to a trippy 2page spread

Tatjana Wood, in the mix of Moore, Veitch, Bissette, Totleben etc on Swamp Thing, was the equivalent of a great bassist in a band---if not appreciated enough, absolutely essential to the whole. RIP.

I can't agree, PS1 games, if they don't hurt your eyes (I get it, some people are superficial) have a huge amount of variety.

I can't play Raiden 2, Skullmonkeys, Wipeout (a good version anyway), Metal Slug, Castlevania, Devil Dice, Spyro on an N64.

Many PS1 treasures are just top flight 2D games

Underrated, PS1 has a huge number of excellent 2D games as well, that N64 wasn't really qualified for

Anyway I agree and Aaron is wrong on this one.

The running theme of Le Carre novels is: being a spy is the worst profession ever.

I love em.

My go to example of a movie that nails the book perfectly.