Citizenfour (2014)

IMDB

Citizenfour (2014): Greenwald interviews Snowden in Hong Kong hotel room. Oscar winning doc. Serious issue; dull cinema. One-sided. C+

Illegal Freestanding Structure?

Illegal freestanding structure? I hope not. Little Free Library.

In my neighborhood in Seattle, these adorable book-lending birdhouses liven up almost every other block. Whenever I see one -- even if I'm mid-run rocking out to Nicki Minaj -- I stop, I look, and I smile up at the sky thinking, "God, I love this city." Little Free Libraries give you that kind of feeling -- they just do.

Source: Grist.

Finding Vivian Maier (2014)

IMDB

Finding Vivian Maier (2014): Private, eccentric hoarder who took 100,000 great street photos but never shared. Want more of her photos. B+

Now You See Me (2013)

IMDB

Now You See Me (2013): I wish I hadn't. I never suspended disbelief in the hole-filled plot. Movie magic, yes. Movies about magic, no. C+

Copenhagen (2014)

IMDB

Copenhagen (2014): Too young Effy befriends too immature Will seeking his long-lost grandfather. Not creepy. Charming. City is a co-star. B+

Exceptionalism or Tribalism

I've never been a fan of Exceptionalism, the notion that the U.S. is favored by God and is exempt from historical forces that have affected other countries. I've believed those who hold this notion to be guilty of, at best, hubris and at worst, preposterousness.

Even though I can't subscribe to (capital "E") Exceptionalism, I do believe that American history is (small "e") exceptional. I used to think the difference between (capital "E") Exceptionalism and (small "e") exceptional was a difference of degree, not kind. But something Paul Krugman said recently has changed my mind.

Review: 1493

Amazon

From 1493, by Charles C. Mann:

What happened after Columbus, this new research says, was nothing less than the forming of a single new world from the collision of two old worlds -- three, if one counts Africa as separate from Eurasia. Born in the sixteenth century from European desires to join the thriving Asian trade sphere, the economic system for exchange ended up transforming the globe into a single ecological system by the nineteenth century -- almost instantly, in biological terms."

After the jump, my review.