Category Archives: New Post

The best of the best of the best

Posted on April 1, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

This blog has purported, for fifteen long months now, to cherish, honor and when necessary deconstruct, all the culture. But let’s not kid ourselves. What this blog has really been, is a fanboy’s loveletter to his favorite actors, artists and … Continue reading →

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RIP Earl Scruggs (Jan 6, 1924 – March 28, 2012)

Posted on March 29, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

Maybe you don’t like bluegrass. Maybe the banjo does nothing for you. Fair enough. Even if that’s true, you must recognize when you see a maestro at work. When it came to the banjo, Earl Scruggs was that maestro. You … Continue reading →

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Mad for the Ad Men

Posted on March 25, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

Fellow Mad Men fanatics: it’s been a long 17 months, hasn’t it? AMC is quenching our too-long thirst (with a few noontime martinis, no doubt) and returning us to that strange insular world of mid-1960s Madison Avenue. It’s insular, we’ve … Continue reading →

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Art, war, and the lost treasures of Europe

Posted on March 20, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

It’s staggering to realize that a conflict that ended nearly seven decades ago is still shaping so much of our lives. Politics, demographics, ethnic relations – the way we think of all these things, and many more, can be traced … Continue reading →

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Ernest Hemingway: The Spanish Earth (1937)

Posted on March 10, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

What a cool find, and thanks as always, YouTube. This documentary provides not only one of the few surviving recordings of Hemingway’s voice (he narrated it), it also represents one of his only willing collaborations with the film industry (he … Continue reading →

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Pleiades at play

Posted on March 7, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

There’s this star cluster in Taurus. I can’t take my eyes off it. Which is remarkable in two ways. The first is that there’s nothing remarkable about this star cluster. It’s up there half the year, easy to find, you … Continue reading →

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Book launch!

Posted on March 6, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

Please pardon the overt self-promotion, it’s just that Book Launch Day comes so seldom these days. Anyway, and intended for a rather narrow audience, we introduce today Strategies for Training Excellence. Available now, as usual, with our good friends over … Continue reading →

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A tradition of gore

Posted on March 3, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

Bullfighting is bloodsport. Let’s set aside euphemism and accept that fact from the outset. There’s never a reprieve, nor any chance of a languid, bloodless match. The sands of the corrida will always turn red. Each and every time a … Continue reading →

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Davy Jones Dec. 30 1945 – Feb. 29 2012

Posted on February 29, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

Hey hey I’m a monkees fan. Always have been, even if I haven’t always been willing to admit it. Davy Jones died of a heart attack at age 66, just like a thousand other grand-dads did today. But somehow Davy … Continue reading →

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Weaponizing the culture wars

Posted on February 24, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

The culture wars are, and have been, a charred and cratered part of our political landscape. The divisions between church and state, between private life and the public commons, are becoming ever more blurry and ever more contentious. Would it be alarmist … Continue reading →

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Art as magic

Posted on February 18, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

The best art forms present themselves with just a hint, maybe more than a hint, of the mystical. This has always been so, and you can still see it in the unearthly realism and perspective that Leonardo was painting five … Continue reading →

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Whitney Houston, August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012

Posted on February 12, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

We can speculate, and most of us probably already are. Whitney Houston’s excesses and over-the-top lifestyle were her cultural calling-cards for the latter part of her career. Did they lead to her death? That question will probably be answered in … Continue reading →

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Fathermucker!

Posted on February 6, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

Author Greg Olear is talented, funny and kind enough to share his platform with fellow scribes. “Fathermucker” isn’t an expletive (at least not really); it’s the name of Greg’s 2011 novel, and his hilarously unerring blog. Both book and blog look at … Continue reading →

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Liveblog: Superbowl XLVI

Posted on February 5, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

So what have we here? What we have here is a team from Boston that claims to represent an entire region, and a team from New Jersey that claims to be from New York. Schizophrenia Bowl? It very well might … Continue reading →

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Superbowl Super-blog!

Posted on February 1, 2012 by editor, facilitator, decider

No one here at the Deconstruction claims to be a sports expert. But as we’ve said before, when it comes to American sports culture, we know there’s only One Big Game. That’s why Superbowl Sunday, February 5th, will mark our … Continue reading →

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