I was sad and sorry to hear that legendary actor Gene Hackman was discovered dead recently. Evidently, he, his wife, and one of their three dogs (in a crate) died some time ago in their home under mysterious circumstances which are being investigated. It would be sad enough if he died un-mysteriously. Here is to the memory of a man who performed many memorable performances.
Slope of Hope Blog Posts
Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.
Oink, ‘mericuh!
Half Century of SNL
Tonight, I will be spending three hours watching the 50th anniversary special of Saturday Night Live. SNL has spanned the vast majority of my own life, and surely no other show has had a greater influence on American culture over the history of television. Here’s the entirety of the first episode, broadcast in October 1975:
Is This Tomorrow?
I stumbled upon a comic book from 1947 (illustrated by a young Charles M. Schultz, of all people) that was distributed by the Catholic church and intended to scare the bejesus out of the public regarding the threat of communism. It’s actually a fascinating and fun “read” (it’s a comic book, after all) and rather chilling, considering the crumbling state of our political system. One needn’t be concerned about communism, per se, but the means with which a government is upended. You can read the entire comic for free here.
Severed
Do not be alarmed. A minority of you get Apple TV, and a subset of that group watches the television series Severance. This post doesn’t require knowledge or even interest in the show, but the show’s conceit is the basis for what I have to say.
The premise of the show is that a small number of people have consented to a medical procedure on their brain which allows a corporation to employ them during the day, and during that workday, they will have absolutely no knowledge of their lives, memories, or families outside the workplace. Even though there may be a single human being, there are two human experiences: the “innie” who is the worker and the “outie” who is the person outside the confines of the office.
