General Essays

As I’ve expressed on this blog before, I’m a huge fan of Iranian cinema. I saw quite a few movies in 2025, and Iranian filmmakers gave the world two of the best — Jafar Pahani’s anti-revenge masterpiece “It Was Just an Accident” and the Oscar nominated documentary “Cutting

Wars have always been upsetting to me. I don’t think anything disturbs me more than the excitement that some people feel about them — the righteous rhetoric that surrounds them, the endless procession of grey men in suits offering battlefield and diplomatic opinions. At this point, the new conflict with

Some things just have to be said. First, President Donald Trump spoke for more than 100 minutes at the State of the Union on Tuesday. He mentioned Iran for three minutes. Most of that was boasting about how he successfully knocked out their nuclear program last June. He talked about

One of the staples of “Mad Men,” the AMC drama about Madison Avenue advertising in the 1960s, was the season finale where the fortunes of the company seemed to be heading in a dangerous direction, so all the key players get together to create a new firm in the dark

For a long time, I was focused on looking for clues in the data of my websites and interpreting meaning from what I’ve observed. I make a conscious effort not to do that anymore. That isn’t to say I don’t look and pay attention to my traffic,

Yesterday I finished my “In the Mood for Love” series, coming on the heels of wrapping up “Mirror” the week before. I think it’s interesting how “Mirror” led me to write longer essays, but fewer of them — while “In the Mood for Love” almost demanded that it take it