Archive for the Observation Category

‘The Men Who Came Too Late and Stayed Too Long.’

Posted in Film, Observation, Pretensions toward cultural theory, Real Men with tags , , , , , , , , , , on March 19, 2023 by Jarrod Boyle

1.

Surgery is a major life event. I had a hip replacement, which means full derailment; it’s a paradigm shift quite unlike any other. And most of the time, paradigm shifts find you stranded in a world that’s changed and requires that you develop new skills in order to cope. In my case, I return to the world with a certain ability that I had lost, namely, the ability to walk and stand square and strong, without pain.

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Point Break: Redux

Posted in Film, Observation, Pretensions toward cultural theory, Real Men with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 18, 2023 by Jarrod Boyle

2.

Once he discovers his newfound friends and mentor are actually the ex-presidents, Johnny draws his line. During a botched stakeout shortly after, Utah reveals his identity when he pursues them in an attempt to capture.

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Point Break: Redux

Posted in Film, Observation, Pretensions toward cultural theory, Real Men with tags , , , , , , , , , , on February 3, 2023 by Jarrod Boyle

1.

I had very little memory of the film when I switched it on to pass a recent Saturday evening, and was concerned that watching an ‘old’ film from my teenaged years had become a recreational activity worthy of my time.

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‘Story is Such a Lie.’

Posted in Observation, Real Men with tags , , , , , , on January 20, 2023 by Jarrod Boyle

Rodney Hall, frequent guest of this blog, began a spiel on this topic when last we met. This commentary on the nature of art is so fundamental and so important, it needs to be posted somewhere: once again, I exhorted him to start his own blog and yet again, he refused. For that reason, I present his ideas here, rather than attempt to pass them off as my own.

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Meditation Killed My Motivation

Posted in Observation, Pretensions toward cultural theory, Reading, Real Men, Statement of intention with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 1, 2022 by Jarrod Boyle

Tim Ferriss once said that he had initially avoided meditation for fear it would bliss him out and diminish his drive. In my case, I fear that it’s true.    

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Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story

Posted in Netflix, Observation, True Crime with tags , , , on October 23, 2022 by Jarrod Boyle

Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is one of those things that fits in the, ‘Good, but I don’t like it’ category of film and television, which at the very least, pushes it beyond the odious definition of film and television as entertainment.

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‘Sorry, Not Beautiful.’

Posted in Observation with tags , , , , , , , on July 2, 2022 by Jarrod Boyle

2.

It is not necessary to be a professional athlete training twice a day, for four hours a day, to achieve these outcomes.

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‘Sorry, Not Beautiful.’

Posted in Observation with tags , , , , , , , , on June 22, 2022 by Jarrod Boyle

No doubt we were all amused this week by the back-and-forth between Sports Illustrated cover model Yumi Nu and Jordan Peterson.

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Thomas Hardy: Character is Fate in ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’

Posted in Fiction, Observation, Reading with tags , , , , , , , , on May 31, 2022 by Jarrod Boyle

‘Character is fate, said Novalis, and Farfrae’s character was just the reverse of Henchard’s, who might not be inaptly described as Faust has been described – as a vehement gloomy being who had quitted the ways of vulgar men without light to guide him on a better way.’

Thomas Hardy,

The Mayor of Casterbridge,

P. 131

While reading The Mayor of Casterbridge this morning, I saw something that I did not like: myself.

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Stolen Focus: Recovering the Sense of Flow

Posted in Observation, Pretensions toward cultural theory with tags , , , , , on May 1, 2022 by Jarrod Boyle

I’ve been reading a bit about the effect of the smart phone on the attention span, and I must confess, I recognise a number of Johann Hari’s observations in my own behaviour.

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