By their dramatic nature, earthquakes and catastrophic floods are the sort of human tragedies that always grab the world’s attention and evoke the sympathy that inspires individuals and governments to reach for their checkbooks. … And when an earthquake renders 70,000 people homeless on the day after Christmas, when people in Western countries are feeling […]
Quote: “One thing that feeds public concern is knowledge”
Posted by Ben on December 31, 2003
https://www.swordbilled.com/quote-one-thing-that-feeds-public-concern-is-knowledge/
2003 Movies In Review
A special note: these are, for the most part, not movies that were released in 2003, but movies that I watched in 2003. Viola, I get to list movies like ‘Death to Smoochy,’ ‘Exotica,’ and ‘Boondock Saints’ alongside ‘X2’ and ‘Identity.’ What fun this is. Categories are basically arbitrary. They are Foreign films, and movies […]
Posted by Ben on December 28, 2003
https://www.swordbilled.com/2003-movies-in-review/
Just try and shake yer stick
More top 10/best-of/favorites of 2003 lists than you can shake a stick at, courtesy of those fun DJ-type people at WFMU. Best experiences. Favorite music. Everything. Most-liked numbers. I can only dream of living in Jersey City. (And, as much as I dig WFMU, I’d basically like to keep it that way.)
Posted by Ben on December 23, 2003
https://www.swordbilled.com/just-try-and-shake-yer-stick/
2004
The year draws to a close, even though it’s just another way of adding segmentation to a river: a little curious, maybe a little vain, but at least it’s something that allows us to keep on with the pretense that we know what we’re doing. Another line in the laughably egocentric ledger of human progress. […]
Posted by Ben on December 22, 2003
https://www.swordbilled.com/2004/
Holly Days
Christmas is a time when things once miraculous have been turned into plasticized mass-produced re-creations whose meaning is incorporated into a wholly self-serving dogma of a Holiday of Consumerism. The sacred and the diverse have been blended together into the mundane. Gift-giving has transcended symbolism to become both an ends and a means, a cycle […]
Posted by Ben on December 21, 2003
https://www.swordbilled.com/holly-days/
Another day, another fate postponed
Today the geese did not attack, but they well could have. Instead of trumpeting their numbers, they fled as individuals, or as members of a disparate horde. Instead of driving onward out of sheer willpower, they relented, succumbing to the urge to flee to safety. What safety was confidently theirs. Instead of testing the limits […]
Posted by Ben on December 19, 2003
https://www.swordbilled.com/another-day-another-fate-postponed/
An interesting spread (no, not that kind)
From an article about Wes Clark in the Washington Post, we learn the assets of certain other Democratic candidates: Wesley Clark: $3 to $3.5 million Sen. John F. Kerry: $500 million Sen. John Edwards: $13 to $16 million Howard Dean: $2.2 to $5 million Rep. Dennis Kucinich: $2,000 to $32,000 (article via RandomWalks)
Posted by Ben on December 16, 2003
https://www.swordbilled.com/an-interesting-spread-no-not-that-kind/
flip-flops
From Harper’s Index for November 2003: Rank of the World Wildlife Fund among organizations most trusted by Europeans and Americans, respectively: 2, 8 [Edelman (N.Y.C.)] Rank of Coca-Cola: 8, 2
Posted by Ben on December 11, 2003
https://www.swordbilled.com/flip-flops/
check one two
radically different from your own experience of reality you nonetheless have to wonder whose is more accurate, theirs or yours. yours is more immediate, of course, but theirs is backed up by facts and statistics and pie charts and interviews and bold proclamations and yours is backed up only by you.
Posted by Ben on December 10, 2003
https://www.swordbilled.com/check-one-two/
Inward glance
Photographed by microphones in the dark, the sound of fate is a laughing French racing blue.
Posted by Ben on November 30, 2003
https://www.swordbilled.com/inward-glance/