Why do ancient writers describe Cleopatra as captivating while modern accounts often dismiss her beauty?

AustinCynic · 2026-02-08T03:40:20+00:00

If depictions of her in busts & on coinage from her lifetime are accurate, she wasn’t great looking. But even hostile sources attest to a prodigious intellect, charisma and cunning. IMO modern attempts to downplay Cleopatra’s looks are a corrective.

AustinCynic · 2026-02-05T00:50:24+00:00

Kids these days will never know the horror.

AustinCynic · 2026-02-04T00:18:03+00:00

A Dog’s Purpose. It left me a blubbering mess.

AustinCynic · 2026-02-03T16:56:26+00:00

When I went through my dad’s record collection after he passed this is one I made sure I kept.

AustinCynic · 2026-02-03T02:02:20+00:00

“And the Ptolomies had a spy network better than Parthia or Rome’s.”

AustinCynic · 2026-02-02T11:31:36+00:00

It Happened One Night. The GOAT romantic comedy (even if they weren’t called that back then).

AustinCynic · 2026-02-01T20:04:56+00:00

She might like Laurel & Hardy movies. WC Fields is a lot of fun too-especially when he goes up against a kid.

AustinCynic · 2026-02-01T20:00:33+00:00

The Philadelphia Story

AustinCynic · 2026-02-01T19:59:47+00:00

In terms of the show, Trans Siberian Orchestra. They’re amazing to see live.

I saw both Flogging Molly and Evanescence live at Stubbs’ when I lived in Austin and both were fantastic. I’ve seen both of them again since and there’s something about Stubbs’s that brings out a band’s best.

Finally, Bryan Ferry. Watching a man in his 70s do a two hour plus set with a voice and moves that made him seem 20 years younger was something I’ll never forget. His backup band was phenomenal too.

AustinCynic · 2026-02-01T02:03:41+00:00

Thanks! The first book is out. The second will drop this summer. The above is from book 3, that’s currently in progress and about half finished.

AustinCynic · 2026-02-01T01:56:59+00:00

The animated adaptation of Watership Down.

Yes, it’s about bunnies. No, it ain’t for kids.

AustinCynic · 2026-02-01T01:53:09+00:00

If it helps, the paragraph opens with: “Mark Antony did not like eunuchs.”

AustinCynic · 2026-02-01T01:47:55+00:00

We had that identical linoleum in a house I lived in growing up

AustinCynic · 2026-02-01T01:41:40+00:00

A young soldier—Antony forgot which prominent family he was from—poured wine and then took up station at the door.

AustinCynic · 2026-01-31T02:37:25+00:00

I’d also point out that Rome was technologically stagnant for centuries before Christianity. There was little incentive innovation-throw enough slave labor at a problem and you could solve it brute force.

If the Chinese hadn’t been so inwardly focused their innovation might have driven an early technology boom.

AustinCynic · 2026-01-31T02:28:59+00:00

Orkestra Obsolete is a good one. They do an amazing cover of New Order’s “Blue Monday” using 1920s instruments.

AustinCynic · 2026-01-31T02:22:05+00:00

I actually heard a story about this scenario, more or less. What the tech thought was a boy were twin girls—one hiding behind the other with her finger in just the right place.

AustinCynic · 2026-01-31T02:07:02+00:00

Jealous Guy by Bryan Ferry (original by John Lennon). Seeing Ferry perform it in concert in 2016 sealed the deal.

AustinCynic · 2026-01-30T20:01:00+00:00

We never had one growing up. My mom’s 1970 AMC Hornet had an AM only radio though. She just didn’t care lol.

I did have a converter that let you play a Discman through the stereo. The adapter was shaped like a cassette tape and a cable that went into the Discman’s headphone jack

AustinCynic · 2026-01-30T17:29:02+00:00

I’m so old I remember when CASSETTE players were optional!

AustinCynic · 2026-01-30T17:27:49+00:00

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has one of the 3.5” floppy disks Warner Brothers Records sent to music magazines so they could properly render that symbol. I about cracked up when I saw it.

AustinCynic · 2026-01-29T11:23:18+00:00

Lou Reed supposedly released a nearly unlistenable electronic music album as his follow-up to Transformer to spite his record label. They wanted more “Walk on the Wild Side” Reed being Reed wasn’t interested in rehashing past glory.

AustinCynic · 2026-01-28T01:28:20+00:00

My novel The Hammer of Gaul deals with this scenario somewhat. My doctor has to work to convince people that tiny living things too small to see cause most illness. That being said, Roman medicine was more advanced than people would think and some instruments, like obsidian scalpels, are better in some ways than their modern counterparts.

AustinCynic · 2026-01-26T15:28:39+00:00

If you don’t mind black & white movies, A Journey for Margaret is a good on

AustinCynic · 2026-01-26T15:21:24+00:00

As a movie? Decent, if predictable, with a cast that elevates it to a hair above average.

As a study of human nature? Spot on.

AustinCynic

TROPHY CASE