Don Hall 11/25/19 Don Hall 11/25/19

I Believe… [The Great Human Leveler]

…that without regard for political ideology, activist dogma, religious belief or sexual identity, we are all leveled human by the flu.

Don Hall 11/23/19 Don Hall 11/23/19

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah: How to Square the Circle of Disney’s Past With Today’s Need For Revisionist Cleansing

“It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Don Hall 11/19/19 Don Hall 11/19/19

Eat the Best Parts, Discard the Rest

I am not a Native American person.

I mean, I can’t say that I know any and I have to assume that modern Native Americans are no longer much like those from Dances with Wolves but my perception of those hunters and gatherers of the pre-colonized North America is that they were truly ecological in their approach. Kill the deer and eat or use all the parts as a sign of respect and a noncommerce-based frugality. Utilize the entire buffalo to be seen as a virtuous steward of nature because it’s okay to kill the animal as long as you use the shit out of the last sinew and bone.

I respect that concept and when it comes to ideas, I used to be that guy who found a new, shiny worldview or ideology and, if I discovered things I liked about it, took the whole load down my throat and proselytized it as all zealots do.

Don Hall 11/18/19 Don Hall 11/18/19

I Believe... [No New Pants]

…that I no longer care so much about my diet or exercise so much as I just don’t want to have to buy new pants.

Don Hall 11/11/19 Don Hall 11/11/19

I Believe… [Fostering Change Isn’t a Demand]

…that you can inspire someone to change. You can educate someone toward change. You can support someone as they change. You cannot make someone change, and all your efforts to do so, being met with failure, are the cause of your great outrage.

Don Hall 11/10/19 Don Hall 11/10/19

I Like To Watch | Yesterday (2019)

At the end, however, it is all about the songs. And, oh, what extraordinary songs they are.

Don Hall 11/6/19 Don Hall 11/6/19

Validation by Exaggerating Harm is Straight Out of the Propagandist Playbook

Take Donald Trump for example. His language choices are intentionally hyperbolic. He routinely elevates perceived enemies into traitors to the State and rants on and on about witch hunts and lynchings. The Left takes the bait and wastes time arguing the semantics of his grievances (“Witch Hunts are against women!”) and the Right buys into the faux seriousness of them and responds in outrage.

It doesn’t help that the Left elevates his discourse as assault and his rhetoric as violence. These concepts are simply ridiculous and even the dumbest of his supporters can see that.

Don Hall 11/4/19 Don Hall 11/4/19

I Believe… [Basic, Average White Guy]

…that when people tell you you look like Al Franken, Brad Pitt, Tim Allen, John Ham’s drunk cousin, and John Wick (Keanu Reeves), it is established fact that you are the most basic, average looking white guy on the Strip.

Don Hall 11/2/19 Don Hall 11/2/19

Problematic Movies of the '80s | "Amazon Women on the Moon" (1987)

To be frank, I don’t remember much about this movie with the exception that I remember thinking it was hysterical. I vaguely recall some racial humor and David Allen Grier as a black guy who sings like a white guy. I’m pretty sure there’s gratuitous boobs and, going into this one, I’d bet a hefty sum that it has a laundry list of problematic elements.

Don Hall 10/28/19 Don Hall 10/28/19

I Believe… [Political Misspelling is Dumb]

…that when I see you spell women “womxn “ and folks “folx” and white “yt,” wyte,” or “vvhite” your overwhelming virtue signaling blares so loudly that I simply can’t hear you for the noise. You’re only communicating to your trybe.

Don Hall 10/27/19 Don Hall 10/27/19

I Like to Watch | Winnebago Man

Fame is its own aphrodisiac. With the internet, fame is much easier to attain which makes its acquisition of far less value. When anyone can become notoriously known by putting up a video of them doing something stupid and perhaps painful, the bar is set for fewer and fewer influencers to have any real influence.

Don Hall 10/26/19 Don Hall 10/26/19

Problematic Movies of the 80s | Stripes (1981)

Oh man. Stripes is a relative stew of problematic elements, simmering without malice but just as tasty when the ingredients are sussed out.

Don Hall 10/21/19 Don Hall 10/21/19

I Believe... [Insurance is Only an Entry Fee]

…that insurance is no more than the membership fee for entering a doctor’s office. It is not actually insurance against catastrophe but a payment to be allowed in the room.

Don Hall 10/20/19 Don Hall 10/20/19

The Destructiveness of Deprivation and Want

In 1974, I used to troll around my Arizona neighborhood and beat up Cub Scouts regularly.

Don Hall 10/14/19 Don Hall 10/14/19

I Believe... [Baby Boomers With a Christian Bale Growl]

…that nothing is more true about the Baby Boomer generation than the truth about The Dark Knight: “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” Remember that Batman was always the hero.

Don Hall 10/13/19 Don Hall 10/13/19

I Like To Watch | Enter the Mollusk (2019)

When I watched Vincent Truman and David Himmel’s Enter the Mollusk, I laughed… hard. It’s both very funny and very on point as all good parody should be. The characters are all very recognizable for someone with my personal connection and yet are universal to someone unfamiliar. Sending up all the pretense and pompous posturing of the entire Chicago storytelling community with a laser-like focus on The Moth in specific.

Don Hall 10/9/19 Don Hall 10/9/19

I Like to Watch | Unbelievable (Netflix)

While I understand the argument that no one can genuinely empathize with someone else’s journey — the most recent of these is that white people can’t possibly understand the trials of being black in America — I believe we have to at least try or eventually faction off into castes and tribes with no attempt at finding anything resembling common interest. Stories give us that chance.

Don Hall 10/7/19 Don Hall 10/7/19

I Believe... [The Quixote Zone]

…that we have now entered the Quixote Zone when old men declaring they are knights, reality stars declaring they are presidents, and the very declaration that you are defined by your belief in your own, specific reality contrary to every indicator otherwise is normal.

Don Hall 10/2/19 Don Hall 10/2/19

Problematic Movies of the 80s | Trading Places (1983)

If you can get past Justin Trudeau in blackface, then you can probably get over Dan Akroyd in blackface but, if not, that’s definitely a jarring moment in the endgame of Winthorpe and Billy Ray executing the switcheroo on the Duke brothers in the last thirty minutes.

Don Hall 10/1/19 Don Hall 10/1/19

The Artist’s Cross to Bear in an Increasingly Strident AntiArt Paradigm

Currently, the artistic form most under fire is comedy. Oh...and movies. And theater, fashion design, television, museum art, and knitting. Yes. Knitting is under fire for not being appropriately woke in the wake of the Great Over Corrective Wokeness Patrol.