Some Chicago Boyz know each other from student days at the University of Chicago. Others are Chicago boys in spirit. The blog name is also intended as a good-humored gesture of admiration for distinguished Chicago School economists and fellow travelers.
I just saw The Emperor and the Assassin, an epic Chinese film about King Ying Zheng, who wants to unify all of China, at any cost. Here is a scene from the movie.
Paul Monk’s excellent review essay is here. It has spoilers, but since the movie is about historical events, maybe that does not matter so much.
The essay is included in his excellent book Thunder From the Silent Zone: Rethinking China, reviewed here.
I highly recommend the movie (available from Netflix), the book, and the essay.
Via Instapundit comes this review of science fiction movies at Popular Science. The review of the movie “Moon” caught my eye:
In this space drama, Sam Rockwell plays a lonely lunar miner who is nearing the end of a multi-year contract. With communication satellites down, he’s cut off from the outside world, with little to keep him company other than a Kevin Spaceyvoiced computer named Gerty (and his own demons, naturally). While the space dramas of the ’70s and ’80s were dominated by acid-spewing aliens, this movie’s monster is scarier yet: a negligent corporate bureaucracy. [Emph. added.]
WTF? You set a movie on the freaking Moon and the scariest, most dramatic conflict you can come up with involves tight-fisted accountants? Who’s going to be the scary monster in the sequel, those weenies in marketing?
This follows a pronounced trend I have seen in popular entertainment: Corporations are always portrayed as evil. This is especially true in entertainment aimed at young people, such as animation and video games.
If the 1930s are really back, it won’t be long now before they remake Confidence, starring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit as an economist. Sorry, embedding was disabled.
Notes on the cartoon: Oswald was originally drawn, but not owned, by Walt Disney. A few tweaks and a change of species later, Mickey Mouse was born. Take a good look at the mice on drums in the band – it was probably an in-joke. Also, check the credits: Tex Avery (Bugs Bunny) and Walter Lantz (Woody Woodpecker), among others.
The text emphasizes a poem I hadn’t read before; that a dog doesn’t bark means something, even if we have good reason to cherish that dog’s protection. Of course, in a sense it is what we usually talk about: respect for others, tendency toward a “muddle on” pragmatism, and an essential respect for law, all of which we owe to a common heritage. But then, neither side has been suitably educated by UNWRA.
Now for something more than a little strange…
The work of German artist Patricia Waller who seems to combine true skill at crochet with seriously warped imagination.
I do find it interesting how we attach certain concepts to a particular medium and find it jarring when we see other concepts rendered in that medium.
For example, crocheted, pink, S&M gear.
