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Jul. 5th, 2014 05:20 am* "Rare Incan 'Calculators' Found in Peru:" http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/rare-incan-calculators-found-in-peru-140627.htm#mkcpgn=rssnws1
* "Deadly Victorian fashions or "Don't lick the arsenic dress:"" http://www.macleans.ca/culture/arts/deadly-victorian-fashions/
* "Hundred-year Mafia murder 'solved':" http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27971542
* "The Soapbox: Black Nerds, Escapism, & Why We Need More Diverse Books:" http://www.thefrisky.com/2014-07-04/the-soapbox-black-nerds-escapism-why-we-need-more-diverse-books/
* "Effortless Beauty: I Know You Didn't Really Eat That Pizza:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2014/07/effortless-beauty-i-know-you-didnt.html
* "Stopping James Crow III:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2014/07/stopping-james-crow-iii.html
* "Shut Up Fool Awards-Fourth Of July 2014 Edition:" http://www.transgriot.blogspot.com/2014/07/shut-up-fool-awards-fourth-of-july-2014.html
* How did I not know Douglas Addams wrote for Doctor Who?
* I wish I could see this. "This Beautiful Mourning Attire Is Coming To Met's Costume Institute:" http://gothamist.com/2014/07/01/this_beautiful_mourning_attire_is_c.php
* "Josh Charles shares ‘Dead Poets Society’ memories, 25 years :" http://insidemovies.ew.com/2014/07/03/dead-poets-society-josh-charles/
Along with "Another Country," "Dead Poet's Society" is one of two films I have ever seen that really speaks to my experience of high School. It's hard to watch still. It was extra unnerving for me when it first came out, as the boy I was dating, and in fact watched the film in the theater with, looked eerily like Neil. His parents were a special class of horrible, seeing him not as a human being with needs and wants of his own, but their favorite pawn in a complex psycho-sexual game they played with each other. He went to a different prep school we used to run against. It was way to close and very dagger to the heart at the time. (This is the same boy who took me to see his psychiatrist to 1. prove I was not a particularly elaborate fantasy/symptom of a psychotic break and 2. So that I could validate his descriptions of his treatment at home.)
Anyway, it was an incredibly hard film to watch, but the thing that bothers me still is that I knew damned well that schools like mine loved teachers like Keating. No really. They were rare, but oh so cherished. I could list my Keatings here if I wanted. The thing about prep school is that there is massive pressure to conform, but there is this countervailing force to turn the exceptional into future leaders. Conformity was for the middle of the personality Bell Curve. At the ends were the rock stars and the monsters. The system reinforces the monsters into something out of "American Psycho;" you need Keatings to turn the eccentrics into leaders and writers and Great Men/Women.
* "The Famous Artworks That Inspired 15 Films:" http://flavorwire.com/464926/the-famous-artworks-that-inspired-15-films
* "Deadly Victorian fashions or "Don't lick the arsenic dress:"" http://www.macleans.ca/culture/arts/deadly-victorian-fashions/
* "Hundred-year Mafia murder 'solved':" http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27971542
* "The Soapbox: Black Nerds, Escapism, & Why We Need More Diverse Books:" http://www.thefrisky.com/2014-07-04/the-soapbox-black-nerds-escapism-why-we-need-more-diverse-books/
* "Effortless Beauty: I Know You Didn't Really Eat That Pizza:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2014/07/effortless-beauty-i-know-you-didnt.html
* "Stopping James Crow III:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2014/07/stopping-james-crow-iii.html
* "Shut Up Fool Awards-Fourth Of July 2014 Edition:" http://www.transgriot.blogspot.com/2014/07/shut-up-fool-awards-fourth-of-july-2014.html
* How did I not know Douglas Addams wrote for Doctor Who?
* I wish I could see this. "This Beautiful Mourning Attire Is Coming To Met's Costume Institute:" http://gothamist.com/2014/07/01/this_beautiful_mourning_attire_is_c.php
* "Josh Charles shares ‘Dead Poets Society’ memories, 25 years :" http://insidemovies.ew.com/2014/07/03/dead-poets-society-josh-charles/
Along with "Another Country," "Dead Poet's Society" is one of two films I have ever seen that really speaks to my experience of high School. It's hard to watch still. It was extra unnerving for me when it first came out, as the boy I was dating, and in fact watched the film in the theater with, looked eerily like Neil. His parents were a special class of horrible, seeing him not as a human being with needs and wants of his own, but their favorite pawn in a complex psycho-sexual game they played with each other. He went to a different prep school we used to run against. It was way to close and very dagger to the heart at the time. (This is the same boy who took me to see his psychiatrist to 1. prove I was not a particularly elaborate fantasy/symptom of a psychotic break and 2. So that I could validate his descriptions of his treatment at home.)
Anyway, it was an incredibly hard film to watch, but the thing that bothers me still is that I knew damned well that schools like mine loved teachers like Keating. No really. They were rare, but oh so cherished. I could list my Keatings here if I wanted. The thing about prep school is that there is massive pressure to conform, but there is this countervailing force to turn the exceptional into future leaders. Conformity was for the middle of the personality Bell Curve. At the ends were the rock stars and the monsters. The system reinforces the monsters into something out of "American Psycho;" you need Keatings to turn the eccentrics into leaders and writers and Great Men/Women.
* "The Famous Artworks That Inspired 15 Films:" http://flavorwire.com/464926/the-famous-artworks-that-inspired-15-films