Category Archives: A Praise Chorus

“A Praise Chorus” is, probably amongst other things, a title of a song by the American Emo band Jimmy Eat World. I use it here to tag posts where I praise stuff. I thought that’d be obvious, really…

Stranger than Fiction

Watched Stranger than Fiction again tonight, and I was happy to discover that it was as good on the second viewing and in company as it was on the first and alone. The plot is a bit hard to describe without ruining it all, as discovering what the hell is going on is one of the [...]
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Yeah, um… — 2009-01-29

“The past is a grotesque animal And in its eyes you see How completely wrong you can be How completely wrong you can be The sun is out, it melts the snow that fell yesterday Makes you wonder why it bothered (…) Things could be different but they’re not Things could be different but they’re not (…) But it’s like we weren’t made for this [...]
Also posted in Art, Awe, Goosebumps!, Hodge-podge rambling, Language, Music, Pimping, Poetry, Quote of the day, Whoa, Words | 2 Comments

Fight Club

I watched Fight Club again, a couple of weeks ago. It’s been a few years since the last time I watched it, but I still clearly remembered the plot. What struck me this time was how well the movie has kept; for a movie with such a major plot twist, it is remarkable how great [...]
Also posted in A Moistening of the Eyes, Art, Awe, Bliss, Goosebumps!, Irony, Love, Movies, Music, Pimping, Pleasant surprises, Recommendations, Revelations, Review, Whoa | 5 Comments

The Histories by Herodotus

[Approximately 435 BCE] 2003. Translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt (1954). Introduction and notes by John Marincola (1996, 2003). 600 pages of main text. 166 pages of paratext.
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WALL-E

As I went to see WALL-E (from now on Wall-E, as Nature abhors a shout, even though it’s supposed to be an acronym) last a couple of days ago, I was feeling highly ambiguous and thus also a bit scared. You see, my hopes for this movie were nothing short of astronomic, as just about [...]
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Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie

2008. 536 pages (Gollancz Fantasy trade paperback). “Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge.” — Paul Gaugin. This being the opening quote of Last Argument of Kings, the concluding volume in Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law series, one can perhaps perceive that this is a bleak affair. As I remarked in my reviews of the first [...]
Also posted in A Moistening of the Eyes, Ambiguity, Art, Awe, Conflicting emotions, Death, Discomfort, Evilness, Goosebumps!, History, Literature, Misery, Oh noes!, Pain, Panic, Paranoia, Pessimism, Recommendations, Regret, Review, Speculative fiction, Whoa, Wistfulness | 13 Comments

I don’t want Bendis to ever go away!

So, I’ve been reading Ultimate Spider-Man lately (bye-bye, decent exam-period meals), and at first I thought it would be boring to read a superhero comic with only one superhero. I imagined it would be far less interesting than the more group-oriented superhero comics I’ve read before, like Astonishing and Ultimate X-Men and The Ultimates, as [...]
Also posted in Ambiguity, Annoyance, Awe, Comics, Goosebumps!, Impressions, Loki, Love, Opinions, Optimism, Revelations, Spider-Man, X-Men | 9 Comments

Amadeus

Had quite the movie-athon yesterday. Here’s part two, Amadeus, with three and four coming as soon as I can find the time to read them. Amadeus is often portrayed as the lifestory of one of if not the best musical composer in the history of mankind. (Disagree? Go listen to his Requiem while you wait for [...]
Also posted in A Moistening of the Eyes, Art, Awe, Bliss, Goosebumps!, Love, Megalomania, Misery, Movies, Music, Opinions, Recommendations, Revelations, Review | 6 Comments

Angel: After the Fall, issues 3-5

I’ve been doing a lot of nothing lately. In fact, I’ve been doing so much nothing that I’ven’t even read the last three (or four, now, I guess) issues of After the Fall. Luckily, I was able to rectify this last night, and man, am I glad I did. As frustrating as it is to read [...]
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Atheists <3 Averröes (or ibn Rushd, if you prefer)

“In the Christian intellectual environment of the thirteenth century, apparent conflicts between argumentation in natural philosophy and argumentation in matter sof theological doctrine became exceptionally acute. The newly introduced writings of from the ancients — Greek philosophy and science, accompanied by Arabic and Hebrew commentary — rigorously set forth propositions alien to fundamental dicta of [...]
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