Early in the series, The Office had a slow smallness to it unlike anything on television. It was willing to linger where other shows would skip ahead, which allowed the audience to practically participate in the tension. The slow smallness gave dimensions to characters who could’ve easily been one-dimensional. Of course, there were stories, too: …
To be fair, this post by Joel Mathis for Macworld is a warm, humorous, first-person, human interest anecdote on the role of social networking in his own recovery from surgery. I’m generally hesitant to apply a negative tone to someone’s account of a personal experience. I feel worried by this one, though, and, anyway, it …
The video (hereafter, “art piece”) for Kanye West’s “Monster” is controversial. That’s for sure. Read pretty much anything that’s been written about it already, or just watch it, and find out why. That part of it’s not interesting to me. As controversial content goes, I’m relatively unmoved. I am offended by something, but it’s not …
I’m earnest in my appreciation and support for women and homosexuals. As I mature and learn and listen, I become more aware of the discrimination, injustice, and violence with which people have to contend simply because of their gender and/or orientation. With that awareness, I’m confronted by my own incongruity, discovering unexplored prejudices that appall …
Three moments struck me as particularly poignant and of one accord in “Goodbye, Michael,” Steve Carell’s final episode as the star of The Office. Each (like much of the rest of the episode) put a nice shine on the strangely beautiful development that we’ve witnessed over the past seven seasons, both in the Michael character …
In its research, its content, its writing, and its timing, Sherry Turkle’s Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other is impeccable. Professor Turkle brings to it her experience as a sociologist and a licensed clinical psychiatrist, three decades of teaching at MIT, four decades of observing the human relationship …
After months of playing Bejeweled 3 on my laptop during downtime at home — something to occupy my hands and time while watching TV or listening to music, because, apparently, those things aren’t enough, on their own, anymore — I became bored with it. I’d earned all the badges and accomplished everything I’d hoped to …