#er

Popular culture no longer craves archangels and new dawns. Pop culture traffics in vampires and deads of night. ↗

— James Wolcott

#culture #dawns #longer #new #night

Republicans: steely, rational, paternalistic, respectful of authority, easy to herd, the party of No. Democrats: sugary, emotional, idealistic, yearning for novelty, hard to marshal, the party of Oh Yeah, Baby, Make Mama Feel Good. ↗

— James Wolcott

#baby #democrats #easy #emotional #feel

What a turnaround in sentiment 'Glee' exemplifies. It was only a few years ago that pursuing the dream of a Broadway career or cabaret stardom relegated some poor yearning dope to a lavender ghetto of losers, self-deluders, and social rejects. ↗

— James Wolcott

#broadway #cabaret #career #dope #dream

Stars wide of belt often cultivated a gentlemanly grandeur, a groomed refinement that filtered through their fingertips - the dainty fidgets of Hardy's plump digits, Orson Welles performing magic tricks with nimble dexterity, Jackie Gleason lofting a teacup to his lips as if he were Lady Bracknell - or through a fine set of twinkle-toes. ↗

— James Wolcott

#cultivated #dainty #filtered #fine #fingertips

The Beltway media went into caroming-off-the-walls hysterics over Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, whipping itself into a flaming casserole even as Clinton's standing with the American people remained upright and firm, so to speak. ↗

— James Wolcott

#american people #beltway #bill #bill clinton #clinton

The days when the words 'Hollywood actor' framed Ronald Reagan like bunny fingers as an ID tag and an implied insult seem far-off and quaint: nearly everybody in politics - candidate, consultant, pundit, and Tea Party crowd extra alike - is an actor now, a shameless ham in a hoked-up reality series that never stops. ↗

— James Wolcott

#alike #bunny #candidate #consultant #crowd

The lies the government and media tell are amplifications of the lies we tell ourselves. To stop being conned, stop conning yourself. ↗

— James Wolcott

#conned #government #lies #media #ourselves

If a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged, a liberal is a conservative who's been arrested. ↗

— Tom Wolfe

#been #conservative #liberal #mugged #who

The whole ecosystem of celebrity has broken down for writers. If you go back to the '50s, '60s, and '70s, writers were on TV a lot, and they were allowed to misbehave a lot. ↗

— James Wolcott

#back #broken #celebrity #down #ecosystem

There was a time when idealistic folksingers such as myself believed that Reality TV was a programming vogue that would peak and recede, leaving only its hardiest show-offs. Instead, it has metastasized like toxic mold, filling every nook and opening new crannies. ↗

— James Wolcott

#every #filling #idealistic #instead #leaving