Featured

Nov 25, 2024

Don Hall

Nov 25, 2024

Don Hall

...that intense and deep aren’t the same thing even if you’ve convinced yourself they are. Intense is momentary and fleeting; deep is the result of time and energy.

Nov 25, 2024

Don Hall

Featured

Dec 16

Dec 16, 2024

BUGHOUSE!

Dec 16, 2024

It’s BACK! Chicago’s most entertaining debate show—Six debaters, three topics, the art of the dialectic!

Five bucks at the door (Cash or Venmo)

Haymarket Pub & Brewery, 737 W. Randolph (the corner of Randolph & Halsted)

Dec 16, 2024

ARCHIVE OF ARTICLES

Don Hall 9/6/21 Don Hall 9/6/21

I Believe... [Missing the Cold War]

...that I long for the days of the Cold War when our enemies were Soviets instead of each other and we thought hiding under our desks could save us from nuclear war.

Don Hall 9/5/21 Don Hall 9/5/21

Fair is Fair

"Father?"

The old man sitting on the bench was eating pistachio nuts and carefully placing the shells in a ball cap to his left. He looked Jack's way.

"Ah! Jack. Not any more. Not in long time."

Don Hall 9/2/21 Don Hall 9/2/21

Take a Peek Out of Your Comfortable Skinner Box Once in a While

Skinner Boxes are the avatars of immediate gratification and unearned treats.

Don Hall 8/30/21 Don Hall 8/30/21

I Believe... [Comfort is Overrated]

I believe... that the worst perpetual state for any human creative is comfortable. Seeking out discomfort is the source of every great risk and every great reward.

Don Hall 8/28/21 Don Hall 8/28/21

I Like to Watch | The Chair (Netflix)

The fact that there are thinkpieces out in the ether complaining that the series doesn't skewer the teachers, the students, Melville, or any of the other popular demons but centers its criticism on all involved indicates the thing has legs.

Don Hall 8/26/21 Don Hall 8/26/21

How About Some Upbeat News for Fuck's Sake?

Among the most shrill in our daily discourse is a small group of Utopians suffering from utopian idealism. Utopians compare the present with what might be called the future perfect, not the past imperfect. Instead of seeing the present as a vast improvement on the past, they see the present as failing to live up to some sort of an imagined utopia.

Don Hall 8/24/21 Don Hall 8/24/21

I Like to Watch | Mrs. America (Hulu)

If there's one source of joy I embrace in film and television it's superhero shit. No johnny-come-lately, I loved that stuff before I had pubic hair so the fun I have watching any show featuring super-powered characters is incomparable. A close second is historical political dramas. I love 'em.

Don Hall 8/23/21 Don Hall 8/23/21

I Believe... [OnlyUptightFans]

...that OnlyFans banning pornographic material is like Texas banning beef or Grindr banning gay men.

Don Hall 8/19/21 Don Hall 8/19/21

What Happens When Everyone Gets Bored with the Scolds?

We're bored out of our everliving skulls with the hysteria. The faux outrage has worn us right the fuck out. We're fed-up with Bob Dylan being accused of doing something in 1965 and moving on with life. We're nodding off every time we hear someone (usually young but not always) crying wolf every moment of every day.

Don Hall 8/16/21 Don Hall 8/16/21

I Believe... [Go to the Beach!]

...that the ocean is an abstract concept for millions of Americans. Wanna get people to take cleaning it up seriously? Get ‘em to the beach for a day and experience it once.

Don Hall 8/12/21 Don Hall 8/12/21

Carpe

His dad used to tell him (when the man was sober) that life gave you three choices: fail and wallow in it, coast and be unfulfilled, or swing for the fences and maybe—MAYBE—do something notable.

Dad seemed to be OK with the first.

Swing for the fences. Seize the day.

Don Hall 8/10/21 Don Hall 8/10/21

The Suicide Squad Solidifies the Genre-Crossing Brilliance of Comic Book Films

While his is not the first genre film featuring comic book characters, The Suicide Squad is so good, so fun, and so well put together, its very existence puts concrete to the future of all superhero projects.

Don Hall 8/9/21 Don Hall 8/9/21

Introducing XwhyZ Podcast!

Jackie Brandenburg is young. She’s a Zoomer. She is frightfully Woke. She also just received her college degree in Politic Science so she knows a thing or two about both the ills of the world and some ideas on how to solve them.

I have more life experience than Jackie. She’s already smarter than me.

Thus, XwhyZ.

Don Hall 8/9/21 Don Hall 8/9/21

I Believe... [Poisoning the Public Well]

I Believe... that the lack of civil discourse and thoughtful debate is a result of a poisoning of the public well that sickens everyone who drinks from it.

Don Hall 8/5/21 Don Hall 8/5/21

No Fly Zone the Unvaccinated

Remember the film 12 Monkeys?

Don Hall 8/3/21 Don Hall 8/3/21

The Orwellian DoubleSpeak of Anti-

We're now entering the DADAist stage of American dysfunction as we are all desperately trying to communicate ideas to others who simply aren't using the same language. It sounds the same but meanings are changing and it fuels more frustration and anger and results in an almost non-stop confrontation.

Don Hall 8/2/21 Don Hall 8/2/21

I Believe... [Lemmings Die Together]

...that, perhaps it’s shitty of me, I mentally place every single COVID death due to refusal to get a free vaccine in the Darwin Awards drawer. Sort of like thousands of idiots taking selfies on cliffs only to fall to their death. Lemmings be lemmings, bro.

Don Hall 7/29/21 Don Hall 7/29/21

The Power of Selective Care: How to Survive the Wave Pool of Everyone Else's Causes

Refuse to be distracted by anyone else's bullshit and spend your time and energy running one race at a time. If your issue is important enough to you, everyone else's cause can slide into the background.

Don Hall 7/27/21 Don Hall 7/27/21

The Life of Zealots and the Refusal to Play Well with Others

Locke and Rousseau argued that we gain civil rights in return for accepting the obligation to respect and defend the rights of others, giving up some freedoms to do so.

Don Hall 7/26/21 Don Hall 7/26/21

I Believe... [Vaccination Passports]

...that vaccination passports to gain entry into any public place or gathering outside the home should be required nationwide. No vaccine for you, no fun for you, fuck-o.