Boy. A guy goes to bed early, and all sorts of hell can break loose. I am not going to clean up the mess left by Lex G in various below posts. Because, as Jed Leland said of Charles Foster Kane’s Declaration of Principles, I have a hunch it might turn out to be pretty important. No, not really. It’s actually because I want to sadistically throw it back in his face someday if and when he finally changes his behavior. No, not that either. But finally, and for real, it’s because, well, voila: behold the internet, and isn’t it just too sad? Or something. I blame Jeff Jarvis, really. (n.b., that’s a joke. Honest. Jeff Jarvis, I blame nothing on you.)
But yes, from hereon in, the fellow is no longer welcome here, and I’d appreciate it if the other fine people who comment here would just do me the favor of ignoring him if he turns up. That is, don’t treat his comments as if they’re part of any thread, because they will be gone as soon as I’m able to delete them. Thank you.
And yes, it’s true; I AM bald. But hey, at least I’ve got my mental health.
Amusing to see the (over)reaction. I picture Lex as a minor character drawn with steam coming out of his ears and swirling cyclonic voids for eyes from Robert Crumb’s HUP, chasing after Devil Girl yet doused with a deus ex machina bucket of unsavory gloop in the final panel.
Glenn – your blog, your house, your hospitality. Kudos to you – you’ve been way more tolerant than I would have been.
Criterion just announced a NIGHT OF THE HUNTER Blu-Ray too.
– When you’re right,you’re right. But you never say, “I told you so.”
– So what am I right about?
– Well, I’ll tell you. But first you gotta promise not to say I told you so.
– I never say that, and I don’t like people who do.
– Personally, I think you was right. I think that Mink and Bernie
was in it together.
– I told you so.
Adiós, LexG. Guess you just couldn’t get the QC down.
Not to question your wisdom – glad you’re banning him and all – but let me run this by you:
1) He makes a dumb remark on an especially inappropriate thread. No longer than a few lines. (Yes, this is after – how long, months? – tons of childish behavior.)
2) You devote an entire, carefully written blog post in direct response to him. With pictures. Exactly what he was looking for.
3) You retire for the evening.
4)
5) You write http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2010/08/on-appearing-to-have-struck-a-nerve.html
I can’t quite seem to figure out #4. Anyone?
I’m just sayin’.
Well, despite all that…
It’s good to know that Manohla will be coming back.
And also Glenn, I’m glad you–as Bloom would say–overcame your anxiety. Even if not objecting your inclusion on this poll is all that constitutes is NOT bitching about being on the list.
Anyway, I voted for you, and hope that others do the same.
And maybe someone could tell me:
What was LexG asking for an apology from you for?
@Jaime: Re #4 – I think you may have missed LexG’s reappearance on a couple of threads below. I think his comments there MAY have offended Glenn somewhat…
It’s all my fault.
LexG is a classic bully – he stirs shit up then acts offended when he’s called out (while his fans ignore his vile taunts). It’s fairly bipolar, hence Well’s unsurprising adoption of Lex as his id.
@ James Wolcott: Don’t be too hard on yourself, friend. We’ve all been enablers before.
@ Jaime: I, too, am not quite sure I follow you. If you’re saying that I deliberately goaded Lex into crossing a line so I could have an excuse to ban him, you’re really giving me credit for being cleverer than I actually am, for which I thank you. No, honestly, I did not foresee Lex going as ballistically ad hominem as he did; I mean, my oldest friends and I called each other “dicks” all the time (in college, granted), and there was no real harm done. But he used it as a cue to be even more of a dick—and a far, far creepier one—than usual. Which is weird in many respects, but particularly in the respect that when things get hairy—for him, that is—he immediately retreats into this “it’s my comic persona! In real life I’m an amiable cinephile milquetoast” stance. Which doesn’t quite jibe with the rage exhibited in his comeback posts, or the various posts signed “I Love Cum” that I’ve been deleting much of the morning. Any way, I’m just hoping he sobers up, shuts up, goes away and stays away, and takes his vag with him.
@ markj – I know. Hence the “Just sayin’.” Point being, it seems strange to have expected anything OTHER than what happened, given the circumstances (I’m tempted to call it “the pitch”), given LexG’s past behavior, given the long-established and unchanged pattern of trolls since the dawn of the internet…
Trolls want nothing more than to be fed. For optimal results, feed him a big, late meal and leave him to roam free overnight.
“If you’re saying that I deliberately goaded Lex into crossing a line so I could have an excuse to ban him, you’re really giving me credit for being cleverer than I actually am, for which I thank you.”
I wouldn’t take it to that conclusion – simply that I’m having trouble with anyone acting surprised at the result. Not the magnitude of the result, just the choice LexG made not to sit quiet after having a whole post designed to call him a dick.
“No, honestly, I did not foresee Lex going as ballistically ad hominem as he did; I mean, my oldest friends and I called each other “dicks” all the time (in college, granted), and there was no real harm done.”
LexG is like a college chum with whom you share playful, punchy banter?
I’m not saying that you put the 2‑liter of Jim Bean in his hand and wheeled him up to his internet terminal. But… you wrote a long post that concluded (correctly) that he’s a dick with behavioral issues (one of them being a lack of self-control), and I picture you then turning in for the night, saying “Okay internet, be good while I’m away.” It’s like, if you’re at a remote, English country manor and you’re in a room with a bunch of murder suspects, and the power suddenly goes out, you should maybe duck.
Anyway, I feel I’ve gone from understating my point to overstating, so maybe I should just leave it alone…
AAAAnyway, loved the piece on PSYCHO.
Yes, how dare you ‘retire for the night’ like some country squire, when you should have stayed up to monitor the situation, in a state of readiness, like Dustin Hoffman in Straw Dogs, maybe not the best example.
Still, I blame myself.
I’m trying to think which character from STRAW DOGS Lex might be. I’m thinking an amalgamation.
As a country squire, I resemble that remark.
Now we’ll never learn how to pick up babes.
I like Lex … and I do believe that much of his “work” is shtick. But this felt different. At MCN at least, he usually alternates between “bad Lex,” with rants about vag and young actresses feet and the like, and “good Lex,” with astute comments about the content and visual style of films. Then there’s “drunk Lex,” or perhaps “manic Lex.” His, uh, tenure here at Some Came Running seemed to progress from “bad” to “manic,” with no stops in between. I’m guessing he thought Glenn “got” his shtick, and would tolerate and perhaps even welcome his presence here, knowing that “good Lex” would eventually appear. Then he got spurned (while in his cups, I suspect) and overreacted, to say the least. The tenor of his rants against Glenn are harsher than anything I’ve seen from him at MCN (others may disagree), and were no doubt intended to result in his banishment from this site, which I’m sure he came to realize would afford him little to no opportunity for making new fans.
The thing is, lex knows exactly at what site he can push his shtick. He doesn’t post the EAT CUM BITCH crap he leaves at Poland’s site (or my blog) over at HE. He doesn’t pull out his PALIN 2012 there either.
When lex wants to write about film he can be a perceptive writer – as long as it’s not anything foreign or animation or black&white – which dulls his perception. But like Wells, he’s a sociopath, determined to make enemies of those he deigns to spend his time with.
And of course, lex forgets that Wells asked his readers to chip in to help him a couple years back. This was before Wells went full-on misanthropic of course.
Banned. Not banned. It doesn’t matter. The fact that Glenn has to spend his morning (and foreseeable mornings to come) monitoring threads for Lex in other forms in an effort to quickly delete, is just an indication that Lex still has the upper hand. More than anything, he wants attention. It doesn’t matter how he gets it or what form it holds, he just wants attention. Glenn, stop giving it to him. Not just with your words, but with all the time of monitoring. He’s sitting in his mother’s basement with a big, shit eating grin because he knows he still has you by the balls. Stop giving him that privilege. Follow your earlier advice. Let him continue to post and make a STRONG recommendation to everyone to just ignore him. The less attention he gets, the less relevant he is (and the less verbal ammunition he’ll have on other sites). Let him back in the room to yell, whine and complain while no one pays him the slightest bit of attention. Don’t give him any more of your time and mental energy.
Lex, by the way, you’re a coward. In every sense of the word, you are a coward.
Hmmm, I underestimated this guy’s backstory – it’s more convoluted than a pro wrestling narrative.
The cunt even managed (deservedly) to lose a lot of supporters over at Wells by insisting, in characteristically uningratiating style, that ‘Alien Resurrection’ was superior to ‘Aliens’.
There’s just no need to supply a platform for that type of behavior.
Thank you, Glenn.
I don’t intend to weigh in more than this, but I do have to say it’s peculiar, and a little dispiriting, to see otherwise reasonable people imply that I should cut some kind of slack for a guy who wrote, and I quote, “And tell me you weren’t thinking of co-star Sasha when you fucked your wife those weeks you were filming, old fuck.”
Really? Really?
Those used to be known as…what’s the phrase?…oh yes, “fighting words.” But hey, it’s the internet, he’s a troll, and I need to take it on the chin. Sure. Gotcha.
Sometimes I wonder whether or not Lee Siegel had a point, after all. And just so everybody knows, I haven’t heard a peep from any trolls since working hours began on the West Coast. Big man, Mr. G. TCB and all that.
Well yes, precisely, Glenn. And I knew that was the line that he’d crossed the minute I read it.
To misquote an enraged Michael Corleone: “On my BLOG. That my FAMILY reads. Where my WIFE posts.”
No, you bring families into something? You are done, son.
The silence from Wells on this will be deafening. I guess it’s tough to hear when you’re hiding in the same garage with lex.
Mr. Kenny, congratulations on lacking the self-defeating moral pretentiousness that has held Mr. Poland back from banning him.
@ Glenn: Let this not-altogether unreasonable person do whatever small part he can to combat your dis-spiritedness; the line he crossed was unforgiveable, vile, and completely undeserving of slack. Spouses are off-limits.
After reading some of those awful comments I now would like nothing more than to see Lex G’s gimmick-brother ZODIAC MOTHERFUCKER lay down some ownage on that piece of shit. ZMF has his own troubling issues, but he’d never stoop as low as Lex did.
Hitchcock post: 8 comments.
LexG post: 28 comments.
SIGH.
[Comment deleted]
Glenn, I don’t see any suggestions here, from reasonable people or otherwise, to cut Lex any slack. Jaime suggested you shouldn’t be surprised that the troll fed on the meal you left out, but I wouldn’t say that equals slack-cutting. And my post may have begun “I like Lex,” but I certainly didn’t (and don’t) condone anything he wrote or even disagree with the ban. Everyone else seems to be on board with the decision, too, at least in this thread. So don’t be dispirited! The only reader you’ll lose over this is Lex (once we stop mentioning him in posts, that is).
Looks like we’re both part of the problem now.
How bout them movies, huh? Happy birthday, Maureen O’Hara! 90 years young and I’ll bet she’s still a stunner.
Kent-
I know it’s a little late but in answer to your question in a previous thread as to why culture is in the toilet I’ll quote Oliver C in an earlier post on this one.…:
“The cunt even managed (deservedly) to lose a lot of supporters over at Wells by insisting, in characteristically uningratiating style, that ‘Alien Resurrection’ was superior to ‘Aliens’.”
it was said in regards to the man of the hour but it really doesn’t matter. This whole culture has been infantilized and duped into buying comic books and remebering stars’ names.…and thinking in terms of “supporter’s” or markets. The disruptiveness, vitriol and lashing out makes sense with everything considered…the references to Taylor Lautner or whomever do not as far as I’m concerned. Hope that’s not too boring for you
Hey, aside from Gilbert Shelton (and the Criterion release of ‘Crumb’, if that counts), I haven’t bought any comic books for almost a decade.
Oh man … just read Lex’s rights-killing posts.
And I thought *I* could be a dick?!?!!?
Urethra Franklin -
I see your point, and thanks for a thoughtful, if mysteriously bitter, reply.
It seems to me that it’s not “culture” that’s gone to hell in a handbasket – everybody has always thought that’s where it’s going – but that consumerism has been given pride of place for, let’s say, the last 25 years. There is an option, of course: don’t pay attention to Supporters and Detractors, Scores and Pure, AM and Metro, the people who keep appearing regularly on the covers of People and the Enquirer and a thousand websites, the guys and girls who parade through Hot Chicks with Douchbags.
But one thing I don’t get: why do disruptiveness and vitriol make sense, but references to Taylor Lautner or whoever else don’t?
Wow. Having just caught up with LexG’s comments, I can only support the move to ban him from the site. He’s clearly unhinged – desperate for attention, no matter how unpleasant, requiring the reaction of others – positive or otherwise – to satisfy his own sense of self-worth. What other reason can there be for such inane, barbed insults – bald, has-been, career over, etc? LexG is clearly someone unhappy with their own life and feels the need to attack whenever possible. the whole BITCH CUM SUCK etc nonsense is just defensive ammunition. You simply can’t take a troll like this seriously.
Ah yes, now I have seen the full story. I think it can be summed up by simply looking at the times his posts arrived:
2:18 AM
2:34 AM
4:40 AM
5:31 AM
5:33 AM
He’s a troubled person in need of therapy and/or medication. Banning him brings him one step closer to hitting bottom, which is what he needs.
Glenn, I sincerely thank you. Particularly since the monumental asshole went after someone I happen to know over at HE.
Kent-
in response to “But one thing I don’t get: why do disruptiveness and vitriol make sense, but references to Taylor Lautner or whoever else don’t?”
I don’t know. All I do know is every time someone mentions… or I mention Taylor Lautner I seem to get a splitting migraine headache and yet when people yell expletives at me I feel great…or at least juiced. I couldn;‘t tell you why.…maybe it’s a matter of preference…or temperment…maybe you feel the same way
let me know what your approach is to ignoring the commercialism…I’ve thought about what you said before regarding us always thinking that culture is in the bowl but I’ve come to the conclusion that while pop culture may have always been just as trivial or us old folks may have thought so the depletion of our personal resources and the ferocity of it’s deployment is at a peak…so is the propensity for some sort of escape…and the aggressive defence of it
I will say in response to Jeff’s post- and I don’t want to defend anybody- that with the way things are going though if you don’t wake up at strange hours during the night you’re probably quite a bit crazier than someone who in fact does.…
give em’ meds!
but yeah all bullshit aside that Lex guy was pretty fucking mean
Enough about Lex. Here’s something really important:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2010–08-17-lostskeleton17_ST_N.htm
Cadavra, I sympathize with Blamire, but as a fan I’m just glad I’ll finally get to see these movies. I loved LOST SKELETON. Furthermore, I can’t wait to read his book for short horror/Western stories!
lost skeleton is a pile of shit
Cadavra, earlier tonight I went to Amoeba and purchased both DVDs. I will spread the word as much as I can!
Urethra:
Re: 10:48 – Ha!
Re: 01:52 – NO!
Oh, and I see now that all times listed are Eastern, so He Who Shall Not Be Named was in fact only up until 2:33. Never mind.
“but yeah all bullshit aside that Lex guy was pretty fucking mean”
i guess you would know. SKELETON rules.
enjoy fattening yourself up on whatever garbage you want. It’s going to be impossible for me to have a conversation with a bunch of intellectuals who learned everything they know about life from the revenge of the nerds series. You’ve got all the angles covered and you’re all über hip and up on it all. Stay well
Uh-huh.
Good Lord. All I can say to Urethra is that in many ways, it’s hard to be a scientist’s wife – the wife of a scientist. But in other ways it’s good. Really good.
Uh- huh what?! uh huh yeah your diapers leaking? or uh huh yeah anyday now your testicles are gonna drop? which one?
or do you work for fucking big pharma?
“he needs to be on medication”. You corny ass motherfucker. So what a guy drinks or posts at 2 am or 5 am. What do you do while the worlds falling to pieces? Jerk off to images of the catwoman in green lantern underoes. I met twenty people this week who read the same article that said “nerds” were cool. Fuck you!
that post was for Jeff McDonald…
Bill I’m not sure what you’re talking about. I must have missed that book. I’m sure this will set me up for some kind of ridicule by the smarty smart smartypantses here but so be it. We can’t all be super genuises…ha!
skeletons still sucks!!!!
Jeff: If memory serves, doesn’t Lex work at night? If so, that would explain the timing of his posts.
Urethra: Shockingly, you’re not the only person who doesn’t like LOST SKELETON. So what? Has there ever been a movie that didn’t have some people who disliked it? Get a grip.
Never saw the movie it’s your flippancy I didn’t like
Now you fancy yourself Norman Mailer?
That’s right, people, Urethra Franklin doesn’t care for YOUR flippancy. What was that line from “Annie Hall,” about being due back on the planet Earth?
you’ve got an encyclopedic knowledge of film but can you do the twist?
i’ll tell you another thing…i really don’t think this internet thing is too good for communication
Well, since you ask: like our friend…wait for it…Sam “Can” Cook, I may shake it like a bowl of soup.
I’ll shaker like a quaker that’s way off the richter…pull your card, paint ‚a picture just like Gerhardt Richter
watch now some assholes gonna tell me gerhardt richter doesn’t paint
Just a suggestion, Urethra: You might wanna cool it with the reflexive, and possibly self-fulfilling, negativity here. For what it’s worth, I’ve expressed my enthusiasm for Richter’s artwork and writing, here and elsewhere, and never gotten slagged for it. That may have something to do with my status as king of the back-scratching snobs, of course, but what can I do?
I love all of you (not in any kind of sexual way) and I’m happy to be alive. Good night to all of you…may you dream of kittens and ladybugs and awake to a brighter day
Urethra
If I ever doubted the wisdom of turning off comments on my blog, this thread has made me stop doubting.