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Reading List More from A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry
This week we’re looking at a specific visual motif common in TV and film: the arrow volley. You know the scene: the general readies his archers, he orders them to ‘draw!’ and then holds up his hand with that ‘wait for it’ gesture and then shouts ‘loose!’ (or worse yet, ‘fire!’) and all of the … Continue reading Collections: Why Archers Didn’t Volley Fire →
This week, I want to keep unloading my Tolkien-related thoughts, turning from last week’s character study to a look at the way ‘magic’ and spiritual power work in Tolkien’s legendarium and in particular to how contests between fundamentally magical beings in Middle-earth are decided. This is a topic that I think even the best adaptations … Continue reading Collections: How Gandalf Proved Mightiest: Spiritual Power in Tolkien →
This week (and probably next) I want to talk a bit more Tolkien, but in a somewhat different vein from normal. Rather than discussing the historicity of Tolkien’s world or adaptations of it, I want to take a moment to discuss some of the themes of Tolkien’s work, which express themselves in the metaphysical architecture … Continue reading Collections: Why Celebrimbor Fell but Boromir Conquered: the Moral Universe of Tolkien →
This is the final part of our five part (I, II, III, IV) series on the Siege of Eregion in Amazon’s Rings of Power. Last time, we looked at the orc siege and marveled at both their lack of works and also their nonsensical siege engines, concluding that Adar had launched a siege assault which … Continue reading Collections: The Siege of Eregion, Part V: What Tactics? →
Fireside this week! I am still a bit behind after attending the annual meeting of the Society for Military History – conferences always leave me a bit tired and slow to get back to writing, even as they also stimulate my thinking – so the conclusion of our look at Rings of Power must wait … Continue reading Fireside Friday, April 4, 2025 →
More in history
Dedicated to New York City street art, International Graffiti Times – IGTimes (aka: Subway Sun, InterGalactic Times, GetHip International Times, Tight and IGT) announced itself with an image of the city’s Mayor Ed Koch covered in tags. After Koch, the arch enemy of “graffiti”, there were articles on artist Michael Stewart (May 9, 1958 – September … Continue reading "International Graffiti Times – 1884-1994" The post International Graffiti Times – 1884-1994 appeared first on Flashbak.
Germany’s integration miracle and other stories
It can be tempting to view the box office’s domination by visual-effects-laden Hollywood spectacle as a recent phenomenon. And indeed, there have been periods during which that wasn’t the case: the “New Hollywood” that began in the late nineteen sixties, for instance, when the old studio system handed the reins to inventive young guns like […]
For most who hear the name “Hieronymus Bosch,” their thoughts go to The Garden of Earthly Delights or the fantastical figures birthed from the artist’s imagination. When considering the number of works cataloged in museums around the world, it stands to reason that viewers often associate artists with a few distinct pieces or common […]
