Agent Palmer

Hit Man is based on an article. That article is based on a true story written by a journalist, as is the documentary Radical Wolfe. So too are the movies Almost Famous, Live Free or Die Hard, Argo, and Top Gun.

It was those first two that I mentioned that were both released in 2023 and most importantly credited the articles they were based on. And the whole thing got me thinking…

John Feinstein’s The Last Amateurs: Playing for Glory and Honor in Division I College Basketball is a love letter to amateur athletics and the notion of the unironic “student” athlete. 

In the book, he chronicles the 1999-2000 Patriot League Basketball season. The Patriot League is something I guess I took for granted, as it is in my backyard. But for those who don’t know, it’s academically right up there with the Ivy League.

I don’t know if I should be amused, bemused, or depressed now that I’ve finished reading Friendly Fire by C.D.B. Byran. The death of any young person is a tragedy, in war or peace. But the story of Michael Mullen, his death and the plight and anguish of his parents, as well as that of a nation unsure of itself, is the broader stroke of the book.  As the inside dust jacket reads: “Michael was to have been the fifth…

Have you ever found a piece of media that works so perfectly in the way it’s presented that you feel like maybe everyone else should stop trying?

Ok, so perhaps it is just me, but “Storm,” the animated short from Tim Minchin on YouTube, is what the medium should be. It’s not clickbait or the start of a rabbit hole. It is a single piece of art. But first, let me explain the animated short and we’ll get to why I feel that way.