VENICE/ROME: Leftover from the Anthropomorfics experiment: You’re older, best, but never will be home.They’ll never see your arches and think, “Yes.”Poor thing, green swamp-rot beats a brilliant dome;Oh Rome! O pale Eternal! sister less!You get them at the death–they want you then–when they think they can’t crawl out from their mess.I get them when they look for memory, whentheir hearts are sick of homely cities made for men. Read more

CONSTANCE WILDE: I don’t actually think this is how it was, you know. But I can’t resist the fact that this woman had the most appropriate name in the history of ever. None of us deserve a great lady like Mrs. Wilde. My darling husband sailed his coffin shipTo the pubs where his panthers would feast.Exploiting the slip ‘twixt my cup and his lipHe got me to pay for the keep of his beast.He was my sons and he was... Read more

THOUSANDS ARE SAILING (or, The Dead Have Come to Claim a Debt From Me): In honor of St Patrick’s Day, America as Socrates–denying the gods of the city, turning children against their fathers, corrupting the youth. And not wrong. And the boys in the NYPD choir are still singing “Galway Bay”…. Read more

I finally found someone to turn me upside-downAnd nail my blogwatch where my head should be… Amy Welborn: A post about Rome, including this quote from a Holy Whapper: “You can’t say you’ve seen the Forum until you’ve sung Ecce Caesar Nunc Triumphans to the tune of Oh My Darling Clementine in the shadow of the statue of Gaius Julius himself.” Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics. Via Amy W. From Across the Pond: Does republicanism cause assassination? Really... Read more

ATTENTION, PEOPLE OF EARTH: What were you looking for when you landed here? According to my referrer logs, these: swamped thigh bootsfeminist meaty scrollwomen using unusual objectsHuman mating ritualsRadio from a pennyremove ingrained thoughtsinteresting things about human development and whyrat deterrent from barbecueWHAT DOES IT MEAN TO FEED EMOTIONALLYDo you think that home viewing in itself makes us more impatient when watching a film like this Does the verygorgon rug uodoes anything in pennsylvania start with the letter xdrawing of... Read more

I took the jeers and drank the beers and crawled back home at dawnAnd ended up a blogwatch in the morning… POLISH POSTERS–THESE ARE SO AWESOME!!!!: While most movie posters in the United States pretty much showcase the standard corporate style imagery to hawk the film, the fine folks in Poland have a brilliant dramatic license when marketing Hollywood’s finest in their country, resulting in some of the most brilliantly surreal and amazing pieces of movie artwork ever created. Some... Read more

IDENTITY VS. BEHAVIOR, OR, YIPPEE-KAY-YAY… MADAM: If Vita Sackville-West married Oscar Wilde, would she become Mrs. Wilde-West? (Alternate hypothesis: Do I need more sleep?) Read more

AND THEN TERESA, BEING WATCHED…. Read more

NAPOLEONS OF CRIME: Comics reviews. Big, flaky-pastry, melting-chocolatey napoleons of crime. X-Statix: Good Guys, Bad Guys. Totally fun, fluffy entertainment about a commercialized, reality-TV superhero team that’s “famous, mutant, and mortal.” Soap operatics, with the expected genuinely moving interludes, and general wigginess. I’d forgotten how much fun X-Statix was. Now I’m going to track down the rest of the series (with the likely exception of whatever happened to their scuttled zombie Princess Diana parody, “Di Another Day”). I will admit... Read more

PRETTY GIRLS ARE IN DEMAND: THEOLOGY OF THE BODY NOTES, WEEK ONE: Dude, this was awesome. You should be going! St. Matthew’s Cathedral, conveniently located right by the Dupont Circle metro, every second and fourth Saturday at (…shudder) 10 AM. (They have free coffee!) Here are my notes from the second meeting (which likely reflect my obsessions rather than the actual discussion… and lightly edited to add clarity, links, and a joke). Keep in mind that where I don’t draw... Read more