Benefits of a Classical Education

The Fog of War

Alex Thompson — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:18:57 +0000

Any military commander who is honest with himself, or with those he is speaking to, will admit that he has made mistakes in the application of military power. He’s killed people – unnecessarily. His own troops or other troops. Through mistakes, through errors of judgement. A hundred, or a thousand, or ten thousand, maybe even […]

Seven Days of Seeing: 5/12/13-5/18/13

Alex Thompson — Mon, 20 May 2013 20:25:35 +0000

I’ve gotten back into writing mini-reviews of every movie I watch thanks to Letterboxd. You can follow me there at this link. However, I’ll also be putting all of my mini-reviews here every Monday for the previous week, so you can just wait a bit and find out what I have to say. I’ll always […]

If on a winter’s night a traveler – Italo Calvino

Alex Thompson — Thu, 09 May 2013 21:13:24 +0000

“You have with you the book you were reading in the cafe, which you are eager to continue, so that you can then hand it on to her, to communicate again with her through the channel dug by others’ words, which, as they are uttered by an alien voice, by the voice of that silent […]

Optimism in the Face of Movie Culture

Alex Thompson — Thu, 09 May 2013 18:16:48 +0000

There’s a certain feeling that has come to pervade the movie-going culture, especially those that care about movies to a larger-than-normal degree. It’s a constant, oppressive pessimism. Every year we are treated to a cycle of horribleness, first the dumping grounds of the winter months where movies that a too crappy to live go to […]

Best Movies of 2012: Part 3

Alex Thompson — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 18:11:34 +0000

Sorry I’ve taken so long here. Hectic week and I’ve seen two more movies from the year so this installment is going to start at 21 instead of 20 where I left off. Silly, I know, but I’ll go back and fix everything so it looks less dumb. Anyways, time to start with the really […]

Best Movies of 2012: Part 2

Alex Thompson — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 16:16:50 +0000

Turns out I’ve seen 65 movies from 2012, including one movie I saw in between starting and ending this post. None of the movies I forgot about yesterday were in my bottom third of the year, so I won’t have to edit that post outside of putting different numbers on each entry. I’ll be doing […]

Best Movies of 2012: Part 1

Alex Thompson — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 01:13:14 +0000

I’ve seen 61 movies from 2012 as of this writing. That is, I believe, a record for me. And now I will inflict upon you my recounting of them. As usual, this will be from the bottom up and I’ll break it into 3 pieces for easier digestion. If the title is underlined, click it […]

Best Books Read in 2012

Alex Thompson — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 22:05:06 +0000

I didn’t read enough books to make a 2012 only list, so these will be all the books I read last year, old and new. And listed in order from worst to best. Find me on Goodreads and follow along as I try to read 40 books this year. I got through 34 last year, […]

Story Corner: The Wood of Many Doors

Alex Thompson — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 19:14:28 +0000

This story is a little more straightfowrward. The character here is an actual person, not the idea of a forest, so there’s that. Also, I swear I wrote this before watching Fringe. Again, if you have feedback of any kind, please leave a comment at the bottom of the page! The boy was just like […]

Story Corner: Growing

Alex Thompson — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 23:06:20 +0000

Here’s a little story I wrote a while ago. It is kind of a creation story, kind of a fable. Very much inspired by A.S. Byatt’s short story collection The Little Black Book of Stories and her take on Norse mythology Ragnarok: The End of the Gods. She describes nature really well in a very […]