PBS American Masters tomorrow: "Woody Allen: A Documentary" http://t.co/RpDXooBH

"Then Again," Diane Keaton's memoir about herself, and about her mother. 

I saw "Annie Hall" for the first time on my first date with the woman who would later become my wife.  I have seen it about six times.  I have seen almost all of Woody Allen's movies and I have followed his life.  I'm really looking forward to seeing what American Masters does with the story.  Some of their other documentaries have been truly moving detailed portraits of lives that I didn't know (the shows on Mort Sahl and Waldo Salt come to mind).  The review in Thursday's New York Times (here) only whets my appetite.  There is also "Then Again," Diane Keaton's biography, which is reviewed by Janet Maslin in the same paper (here).  Here too, I learned a few new things from the review, and will probably learn more from the book itself.  It makes me feel old that these lives are being looked back on as though they are nearly complete, but I suppose that's true.  

I am older than most people who blog here (but perhaps not older than Dan, aka TheTheologiansCafe), and I sometimes wonder what I'm doing here.  To be sure, there are people whose posts I enjoy reading.  I am entertained by Xanga, and I keep coming back.  I will continue to come back.

However, much of what goes on here reminds me of high school intrigue.   Apropos of nothing, one of the most popular Xanga bloggers asked Did President Obama Cheat On Michelle?  As a way of talking about speculation that Irena Kagan might be nominated to the supreme court, he posted Lesbian On the Supreme Court? and The Lesbian Look.  I could just as well ask Was Dan found guilty of public masturbation?  My point is that while some Xangans see themselves as akin to bloggers on Slate or the Huffington Post, comparisons to Club Penguin might be more apt.  It's nothing about Dan.  In fact, it is the criticism of him by other Xangans that reminds me the most of high school gossip.

Part of the problem is that Xanga provides a highly structured environment.  Compared to other free blogging services (e.g. Google's blogger and WordPress), Xanga is extremely limited.  No java script.  No free html outside of the posts.  No user-defined widgets.  Perhaps Xanga itself will grow up before the little Xangans grow up and move out.  It will be interesting to see how this shakes out.

First, I'd like to announce that the nadir of Western Civilization will be this Friday afternoon. That's good news (it can only get better from there). You can read the whole story here.

Then I'd like to consider the cause of our decline. Could it be ... socialized reading?

This article from the San Francisco Chronicle breaks the story. We've been in decline for a long time. It goes right back to Ben Franklin, who was a Socialist.