Hi, Froghouse

Now, this is a lede. Roger Ebert is now my favorite living critic, in any genre, and it happened all at once. Everything he writes is clean, engaging, thoughtful, soulful, and wry. This is just one example.

The Dukes of Hazzard

BY ROGER EBERT / August 5, 2005

"The Dukes of Hazzard" is a comedy about two cousins who are closer'n brothers, and their car, which is smarter'n they are. It's a retread of a sitcom that ran from about 1979 to 1985, years during which I was able to find better ways to pass my time. Yes, it is still another TV program I have never ever seen. As this list grows, it provides more and more clues about why I am so smart and cheerful.

Or this, from the Sahara review:

BY ROGER EBERT / April 8, 2005

... I treasure the movie's preposterous plot. It's so completely over the top, it can see reality only in its rear-view mirror. What can you say about a movie based on the premise that a Confederate ironclad ship from the Civil War is buried beneath the sands of the Sahara, having ventured there 150 years ago when the region was, obviously, damper than it is now?

Matthew McConaughey plays Dirk Pitt, the movie's hero, who is searching for the legendary ship. Dirk Pitt. Now that is a name. Dirk Pitt. Or Pitt, Dirk. Makes Brad Pitt sound like William Pitt.

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Roger Ebert has rhythm. Rhythm cannot be taught, I'm afraid. Rhythm is the alpha and omega of syle. The great critic George Bernard Shaw said that "effectiveness of assertion" is the alpha and omega of style: "He who has nothing to assert has no style and can have none." Fair enough, but incomplete. Plenty of people have something to assert, and no style with which to do so.

Rhythm is the alpha and omega of style.

Rhythm, rhythm, rhythm.

Do you hear me?