About Brian Wright

Hello, I'm Brian Wright, the proprietor and chief content provider to this Web opinion and review site. The Coffee Coaster (thecoffeecoaster.com) has been around since late 2006, and in early 2012 I finally decided to give the site a major makeover with this Wordpress implementation. My views are 'wholistic libertarian,' meaning focused on the spiritual--I like to use the word: essentual--evolution we will need, individually, in order to reach the New Paradigm of peace, freedom, and abundance. Let's help one another in the process.

Movie Review: The Thorn Birds (1983)

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Brian Wright

1980s series works via great performances _ 8/10

Ralph de Bricassart: [telling the legend of the thorn bird to Meggie] There’s a story… a legend, about a bird that sings just once in its life. From the moment it leaves its nest, it searches for a thorn tree… and never rests until it’s found one. And then it sings… more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. And singing, it impales itself on the longest, sharpest thorn. But, as it dies, it rises above its own agony, to outsing the lark and the nightingale. The thorn bird pays its life for just one song, but the whole world stills to listen, and God in his heaven smiles.
Young Meggie Cleary: What does it mean, Father?
Ralph de Bricassart: That the best… is bought only at the cost of great pain. Continue reading →

Guest Column: Television News, the Stage Play

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Brian Wright

There is a bit of magic to it
by Jon Rappoport

Excerpt from full column here.

Images sent over thousands of miles, well-lit anchors who seem alert to everything of importance taking place in our world, field reporters in far-flung places who pop up and respond instantly to the anchors and deliver close-up accounts of vital events. Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: Leaving Fat City

Posted on January 5, 2014 by Brian Wright

Leaving Fat City
Maybe Oprah shows us the way out

This is an early column of mine (December 2006) that seems fitting to recycle at this time of year…

In some of my writings, and in my conversation, I’ve been insensitive and negative toward people who have a glaring weight problem. Recently, when I came to realize one of my friends is truly suffering from the problem, I felt the need to make amends.

Jack (not his real name) has gotten noticeably larger, too. He’s a great guy, and I care about him, about his health and longevity. All he seems to get from his friends, including me, is laughter or offhand comments about fatsos. My column today is partly an attempt to redeem myself. Continue reading →

Book Review: Technopoly

Posted on January 3, 2014 by Brian Wright

by Neil Postman
The surrender of culture to technology

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end. — Thoreau

Neil Postman is the prophet of the Second Enlightenment, the one that “builds a bridge” to the First Enlightenment of the 18th century. The former chair of the department of communications arts and sciences at New York University has a thing about technology and language. Reading any of his books—and I did review his Building a Bridge to the 18th Century—gives one the pure joy of seeing a first-class literary mind wrestling conceptually with the neverending stimulus-response “stuff” coming at humankind through the unchecked machinery of wretched excess. Continue reading →

Movie Review: Robin Hood (2010)

Posted on January 1, 2014 by Brian Wright

Prince of Thieves rallies the Magna Carta __ 5/10

Prince John: [sarcastically] Would every man have a castle?
Robin Longstride: In England, every man’s home *is* his castle.

So whatever you think you know about Robin Hood, throw it out the window before inserting this DVD in the player. Otherwise, it will conflict with not only history but with every account of the band of merrie men we all grew up with… from the 1950s TV series on Disney, to Robin and Marian with Sir Sean Connery (1979), to Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves in 1991. And I guess there’s a Robin Hood BBC TV series available, who knew? Finally, another one I haven’t seen but may be the best of the bunch, the original Hollywood Errol Flynn version the Adventures of Robin Hood. It’s a trip to browse Robin Hood on Netflix or Amazon. Continue reading →

Guest Column: NSA Treason

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Brian Wright

Of Course, NSA Blanket Data Collection is Unconstitutional
by Theo Caldwell

The recent decision of Federal Judge Richard Leon, that the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of Americans’ communication records does violence to the Constitution, demonstrates a rare convergence of elite jurisprudence and common sense.

While this is by no means the last word on the matter – Judge Leon stayed his own ruling, noting that the debate will likely end up before the Supreme Court – it is encouraging to see prominent legal minds alight upon the self-evident conclusion that mass surveillance of Americans is very wrong. Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: New Political Party

Posted on December 29, 2013 by Brian Wright

A realistic option for real people?

Santa Botzi Boy

My column tonight is dedicated to my Rose’s ever so unique and adorable cat, simply named Botzi, or the Botz, who at nine years young, succumbed on Christmas Eve Day to various ailments. Here he is in a healthy, happy time spreading Yuletide cheer to all the good little kits and kids. I’ll miss you, little guy. Sigh.

How is the Botz connected to the need of American humans for a common sense, non-warlord political party? The Botz, bless his little heart, suffered from nervous system disorders that grew more stressful as the years passed—internal conflict causing one part of him to be in discord with another.

I see his condition as analogous to the Democrats and the Republicans fighting each other, when they’re both symptoms of the same fatal disease of the global state. Continue reading →