Mark's blog
Sporadic blog posts on a wide variety of topics, by Racine, Wisconsin web designer Mark Czerniec.(Also check out my weekly entries in Another Week.)
‘Brain on Fire’: Autoimmune disease, not demon possession
Were the countless cases of "demonic possession" that have frightened people through history actually manifestations of a rare autoimmune disease with symptoms ranging from numbness, paranoia, and erratic behavior to hallucinations and catatonia? This was one of the...
What is a catheter and why is it stalking me?
I'm a political/news junkie who works from home, so the TV on my desk is often tuned to MSNBC. While Morning Joe, The Daily Rundown, Jansing & Co., Andrea Mitchell Reports, The Cycle and the rest are sweeping through the hours like the sun across the sky, the TV...
‘Argo’ (Ben Affleck movie, Best Picture of 2012)
Many people know something about the Iran hostage crisis, which began when the U.S Embassy in Tehran was stormed by angry Islamists on November 4, 1979. Fifty-two Americans inside it were then held hostage for 444 days, released only as Ronald Reagan was being sworn...
‘Road to Nowhere’ (Monte Hellman movie, 2010)
If you're acquainted with any wannabe filmmakers, you may know the agony of listening to people spout movie jargon and watching them direct scenes for films that can never amount to more than an indulgent mess of amateur acting, clumsy technique, and flawed...
‘Morning Joe’: Chris Matthews nails Reince Priebus on racism
There was an unusually interesting moment on MSNBC's Morning Joe this morning. Hardball host Chris Matthews took on Kenosha, Wisconsin's own Reince Priebus, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, over Mitt Romney's thinly veiled appeals to racism — including...
Mitt Romney lying about balanced budget, taxes
Mitt Romney is lying. He and Paul Ryan teamed up for a joint town hall meeting on Monday at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire. Here is what Mitt Romney said to the more than 3,000 people who came to hear him: " ... raising taxes slows down growth, and...
Honey Boo Boo on CNN with Brooke Baldwin, John Berman
Here's a little TV moment that I'll be reliving in nightmares for a while. Apparently, "Honey Boo Boo" is the nickname of Alana Thompson, the breakout star of TLC's Toddlers & Tiaras beauty pageant show who will now be featured in her own TLC spinoff, Here Comes...
‘Steve Jobs’ biography by Walter Isaacson
My sister recently gifted me with a copy of the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson, published last year by Simon & Schuster. At 571 pages plus notes and index, it's a hefty volume, and Isaacson's plain and linear telling makes the book seem daunting at first...
‘To Kill a Mockingbird’: The book, the movie, the documentary
A little while back, one of the DVDs arriving in our mail from Netflix was Hey, Boo: Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird, the 2010 documentary which also aired on PBS's American Masters this past April. It occurred to me that, before viewing the disc, I should...
‘George Harrison: Living in the Material World’ (2011 movie)
George Harrison, dead now almost eleven years, has remained relatively unstudied — compared with, say, fellow Beatle John Lennon — despite the richness and depth Harrison contributed to the Beatles' music, his significant post-Beatles work, and his generally...
‘Pink Floyd: The Story of Wish You Were Here’
Over the weekend, I was surprised to hear that another of our nephews is a huge Pink Floyd fan. Of course our nephew Elliot, 25, has been smitten with Dark Side of the Moon for years — to the point of buying import copies on vinyl, getting a Dark Side of the Moon...
Hawaii missionaries: Sarah Vowell’s ‘Unfamiliar Fishes’
Unfamiliar Fishes is the product a very fortunate convergence. Author Sarah Vowell has a delicious appreciation for the peculiar coincidences and ironies produced when cultures clash and combine into the slaw of American history — and Hawaii, our 50th state, is a...
‘Exporting Raymond’: ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ in Russia
Have you ever found yourself in a meeting, attempting to communicate what you know to be a sound and worthy idea, and yet every point you make is blunted and deflected by your collaborators? Perhaps there is some friction with their corporate culture, or a difference...
‘Cedar Rapids’ (Ed Helms, Anne Heche movie, 2011)
It's the quirks and surprises that make an offbeat movie like Cedar Rapids enjoyable. The basic story is strictly conventional: Naive insurance agent Tim Lippe (Ed Helms) is unexpectedly catapulted from his routine life in the Wisconsin hinterlands to the bright...
Jonah Lehrer: ‘Imagine: How Creativity Works’
Update, July 30, 2012: On Sunday, July 29, Jonah Lehrer resigned from The New Yorker over reuse of his own material in his New Yorker blog posts, and after an article in Tablet magazine — "Jonah Lehrer’s Deceptions" — revealed that he had fabricated quotes from Bob...
How to replace a toilet: First, break the old toilet
A couple of days ago, I successfully replaced our toilet's flapper assembly. However, something was still not quite right. The flush handle was bumping into the tank lid, and it clearly needed a small adjustment. So on Thursday afternoon, I grabbed an adjustable...
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker compares self to Vince Lombardi
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, quoted in an AP story Wednesday afternoon, is now imagining himself as legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi. Walker recalls the Packers' 1-10-1 record for the 1958 season, and he cautions that head coach Vince Lombardi was not...
Solitaire, patience, and creativity at work
Solitaire — the pastime of playing cards alone — is often regarded with disdain. Solitaire players are viewed as slackers wasting time when they should be doing something productive. Solitaire is even seen as a pathetic pursuit — a game for outcasts and loners of...
Racine on TV: ‘Around the Corner with John McGivern’
For a few months now, we've been watching Around the Corner with John McGivern on Milwaukee Public Television. It usually airs Thursday nights at 7:30 on WMVS Channel 10, and Friday nights at 8:00 on WMVT Channel 36. The show is a breezy...
‘The Coming Jobs War,’ by Gallup CEO Jim Clifton
Watch any TV these days, and the title of Gallup CEO Jim Clifton's recent book hardly seems prophetic. Companies tout job creation on commercials, news reports obsess over workforce and unemployment statistics, and candidates push tax plans aimed at small business and...
‘Looking for a City’: YouTube videos of Southern Gospel song
It's funny how one random item on the Web can lead you through a tunnel of connections you never imagined yourself following. Today's rabbit hole was pointed out by my friend Phil Inzinga of the Inzinga and Spinozi Afternoon Show on 96.9 BOB FM in Oklahoma City....
Price of gas when Obama took office: $1.81
$1.81: The price of gas when Obama took office. In the past few days, I have seen this meme spreading on Facebook — and back in September, Michele Bachmann was saying, "The day that President Obama took office, gasoline was $1.79 a gallon." Many Facebook commenters...
Bob Dylan’s memoirs: ‘Chronicles: Volume One’
On my living room bookshelf, next to a few other books about the singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, was an autobiography from 2004 I had bought some time ago, but not yet read. Chronicles: Volume One is a hardback of moderate size, containing 293 rough, deckle edge pages...
Ryan Gosling movie: ‘Lars and the Real Girl’ (2007)
Imagine if the late comedian Andy Kaufman made a feature film. Picture a movie with an authentic indy drama feel and a sturdy cast — but revolving around a ludicrous predicament which is uncomfortable to begin with, and then continues on and on until the absurdity...
‘I Love You Phillip Morris’ (Jim Carrey movie, 2009)
What I Love You Phillip Morris (trailer above) has going for it is a great story. The saga of impostor and con artist Steven Jay Russell is unbelievable, outrageous — it's beyond your wildest imagination. It's also a true story. This point is emphasized during the...
Grover Norquist and the tax pledge = Rumpelstiltskin
Watching this 60 Minutes segment on Grover Norquist and his Americans for Tax Reform pledge this past Sunday night — "The Pledge: Grover Norquist's hold on the GOP" — it occurred to me that his story has some very familiar aspects. Think...
Mark Twain tried surfing in Hawaii
Preparing to visit Hawaii for the first time a decade ago, I read Mark Twain's Letters from Hawaii, a collection of the Sacramento Union writer's dispatches in 1866 from what were then known as the Sandwich Islands. Twain's letters are an enthralling portrait of...
‘Jack Goes Boating’ (Philip Seymour Hoffman movie, 2010)
Jack Goes Boating (trailer above) arrived in our mailbox the other day. Philip Seymour Hoffman both directs (his debut) and stars as Jack, a severely timid and unsophisticated man who works as a limo driver for his uncle's company in Manhattan. Halting and...
We Energies coal ash spills into Lake Michigan
Wisconsin news made The Rachel Maddow Show again last night. That's because on Monday, coal ash from the grounds of We Energies' Oak Creek Power Plant was swept into Lake Michigan when a shoreline bluff collapsed during construction — ironically, for an air quality...
‘Once Upon a Time,’ ‘Grimm’: New TV from old tales
Two of the new TV series we have sampled over the last couple of weekends have some things in common. Both are hour-long scripted dramas which layer fantasy and supernatural elements onto the everyday, modern world. Both also link back to the realm of classic fairy...