[This essay was updated on February 6, 2023. The number of films watched multiple times is now 718. I plan to update regularly.] In February 2019, I posed a deceptively simple question: What makes a pleasure “guilty?” To answer this question, I focused on films, specifically those I had seen multiple times. I gathered publicly-available … Continue reading Measuring Film Quality: Revisiting “Guilty Pleasures”
WARNING: Spoilers ahead!! On March 16, 2021, Noir Alley—TCM’s weekend film noir screening hosted by Film Noir Foundation Founder and President Eddie Muller—launched its “March Badness” competition. Mimicking NCAA Men’s and Women’s College Basketball March Madness, pairs of villains from 16 classic-era films noir were pitted against each other in a series of 15 votes … Continue reading Finding The Worst Character In Neo-Noir: Establishing The Films
On January 29, 2021, 3½ years after my wife Nell suggested in financial exasperation that I write a book, I put on “outside” clothes, sneakers and my protective mask, then walked down to our local FedEx office. There, I plugged my thumb drive into a printer…then watched in relief and wonder as it printed out … Continue reading That Time My Mother Was a Total Badass
[Updated at 4:00 pm EST to account for late polls] On March 10, 2020, six more states will hold primaries to help select the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, bringing the total number of such contests to 24. Table 1 lists these states, sorted by poll closing times, and the number of pledged delegates each state … Continue reading 2020 Democratic primaries on March 10: My final polling update
At 10 am Nevada time (1 pm EST) on February 22, 2020, Nevadans who did not already vote between February 15 and 18 by submitting a ranking of their three top choices to be the 2020 Democratic nominee will gather in nearly 2,100 meeting places to support their preferred candidate(s). While about 84,000 Nevadans caucused … Continue reading 2020 Nevada Caucuses: Final Polling Update
This site benefits/suffers/both from consisting of posts about a wide range of topics, all linked under the amorphous heading "data-driven storytelling." In an attempt to impose some coherent structure, I am organizing related posts both chronologically and thematically. Having run through nine different "themes" of this blog… American politics film noir/NOIR CITY interrogating memory and … Continue reading Organizing by themes X: Doctor Who
This site benefits/suffers/both from consisting of posts about a wide range of topics, all linked under the amorphous heading "data-driven storytelling." In an attempt to impose some coherent structure, I am organizing related posts both chronologically and thematically. Having run through the primary themes of this blog… American politics film noir/NOIR CITY interrogating memory and … Continue reading Organizing by themes IX: The random bits
This spring, we learned that the charming three-story brick townhouse whose ground and basement floors Nell and I have occupied since September 2007 was being sold. As a result, we four will move into a nearby Brookline apartment (nicer and with a spectacular view of Boston, to be fair) at the end of July. While … Continue reading Updating the Doctor(s)
Just Bear With Me... 