the photo
the info
Dan Carlson
Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
I'm a twentysomething white male with ambitions to be a professional film critic and generally spend my days getting paid to watch movies and write about it. A compulsive reader and stubborn cineaste, I take an often contrary stance to my more fundamentalist peers and upbringing by celebrating the pursuit of the good, and the Good, in life, love, art and film. If you watched enough episodes of certain TV shows — for starters, "The Hungry and the Hunted," "The Cut Man Cometh," "The Body," "The Zeppo," "Waiting in the Wings," "Out of Gas," "April Is the Cruelest Month," "20 Hours in America," "Colonial Day," "An Echolls Family Christmas," "Look Who's Stalking," "The Garage Door," "Charlie Gets Crippled," "Wind Sprints," and "Corner Boys" — you would understand me completely, and you'd also realize that much of my worldview and philosophical insights are heavily influenced by fictional works/programs, and many of the good things I've said in my life are just a regurgitation of someone else's imaginings, or at any rate a heartfelt attempt to interpret them. I guess I was made to be a film critic.
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January 18, 2010
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January 29, 2009
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December 24, 2008
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November 27, 2008
November 2008
October 24, 2008
October 2008
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist
"The Life & Times of Tim"
[Willamette Week]
September 26, 2008
September 2008
August 27, 2008
August 2008
"Battlestar Galactica," Season One
The 2008 Olympics
[Willamette Week]
July 25, 2008
July 2008
Turning Japanese
[Willamette Week]
"Generation Kill"
[Willamette Week]
June 25, 2008
June 2008
May 23, 2008
May 2008
April 25, 2008
April 2008
March 28, 2008
March 2008
"Quarterlife"
[Willamette Week]
February 15, 2008
February 2008
January 28, 2008
January 2008
Clear Eyes, Empty Sets
[Willamette Week]
Strike One
[Willamette Week]
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
The Long and Winding "Road Rules"
[Willamette Week]
December 16, 2007
December 2007
November 25, 2007
November 2007
October 29, 2007
October 2007
Eight Films That Shouldn't Have Won Best Picture
TV Roulette
[Willamette Week]
"Pushing Daisies"
[Willamette Week]
"The Office"
[Willamette Week]
September 28, 2007
September 2007
August 27, 2007
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July 20, 2007
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June 29, 2007
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May 11, 2007
April 27, 2007
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March 17, 2007
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December 26, 2006
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November 23, 2006
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October 21, 2006
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October 1, 2006
September 2006
August 29, 2006
August 2006
July 26, 2006
July 2006
[link goes to PopMatters.com]
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June 28, 2006
June 2006
May 30, 2006
May 2006
April 29, 2006
April 2006
"Patton Oswalt: No Reason to Complain"
[link goes to PopMatters.com]
"Dave Attell's Insomniac Tour"
[link goes to PopMatters.com]
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March 7, 2006
March 2006
[link goes to PopMatters.com]
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February 22, 2006
February 2006
January 7, 2006
January 2006
December 3, 2005
December 2005
[links back to Slowly Going Bald]
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November 5, 2005
November 2005
October 9, 2005
October 2005
September 11, 2005
September 2005
August 11, 2005
August 2005
July 11, 2005
July 2005
[links back to Slowly Going Bald]
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June 11, 2005
June 2005
Essay on Ocean's 12 and John Barth
[link goes to www.metaphilm.com]
[links back to Slowly Going Bald]
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May 11, 2005
May 2005
CD Review: Hacienda Brothers, Hacienda Brothers
[link goes to AmericanaRoots.com]
Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith
[links back to Slowly Going Bald]
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April 11, 2005
April 2005
[links back to Slowly Going Bald]
Essay about editing/censorship
[links back to Slowly Going Bald]
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March 7, 2005
March 2005
February 7, 2005
February 2005
January 7, 2005
January 2005
December 7, 2004
December 2004
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
[links back to Slowly Going Bald]
[links back to Slowly Going Bald]
[links back to Slowly Going Bald]
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November 7, 2004
November 2004
the post
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The Quotes
"The critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising."
— Pauline Kael
"Film lovers are sick people."
— Francois Truffaut
"I hope I strike a blow for chubby bald men everywhere. I hope they rise like an army."
— Paul Giamatti, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, 12/14/04
"Let others praise ancient times, I am glad I was born in these."
— Ovid
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the wisdom
Remembering speechlessly we seek the great forgotten language, the lost lane-end into heaven, a stone, a leaf, an unfound door. Where? When?
O lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back again.
— Look Homeward, Angel, Thomas Wolfe
Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.
— John Stuart Mill
We are all under the same mental calamity; we have all forgotten our names. We have all forgotten what we really are. All that we call common sense and rationality and practicality and positivism only means that for certain dead levels of our life we forget that we have forgotten. All that we call spirit and art and ecstasy only means that for one awful instant we remember that we forget.
— G.K. Chesterton
We were, for the briefest of moments, something greater than the sum of our uncertain parts; we were youth itself, in all its painful glory and sharp joy.
— Me, Fall 2003
Los Angeles, give me some of you! Los Angeles come to me the way I came to you, my feet over your streets, you pretty town I loved you so much, you sad flower in the sand, you pretty town.
— Ask the Dust, John Fante