Category Archives: On This Day

“If it hadn’t been for the videocassette, I may not have had a career at all.” — Kurt Russell

Posted on March 17, 2025 by sheila

It’s his birthday today. How I love him. I grew up with him. The Computer Who Wore Tennis Shoes. I remember that being screened for us in grade school in what they called “the multi-purpose room” (lol: gym, cafeteria, theatre). … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day | Tagged , , , | 19 Comments

“A pas de deux is a dialogue of love. How can there be conversation if one partner is dumb?” — Rudolf Nureyev

Posted on March 17, 2025 by sheila

Joan Acocella, dance critic for The New Yorker: Almost everyone who describes Nureyev eventually compares him to an animal. They bore you to death with this, but it was true. Rudolf Nureyev’s solo debut on American TV, 1963 All quotes … Continue reading →

Posted in On This Day | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

“The Greeks already understood that there was more interest in portraying an unusual character than a usual character – that is the purpose of films and theatre.” — Isabelle Huppert

Posted on March 16, 2025 by sheila

It’s her birthday today. Nobody like her. She’s almost in her own category. Her work is mysterious. It feels like she gives the wheel over totally to her subconscious. You never feel the puppet-strings of the actress. She never even … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

“Life was bitter and I was not. All around me was poverty and sordidness but I refused to see it that way. By turning it into jokes, I made it bearable.” — Max Shulman

Posted on March 14, 2025 by sheila

It’s Max Shulman’s birthday. Who the hell is Max Shulman, you may ask? Or some of you may ask? He was one of the most popular humorists of his day, who reached his peak of popularity in the 1950s. He’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, On This Day, writers | Tagged | 10 Comments

“I couldn’t keep a dog and a James Joyce and a bookshop.” — Sylvia Beach

Posted on March 14, 2025 by sheila

It’s her birthday today. Sylvia Beach is one of my heroes due to her influential bookshop in Paris (Shakespeare & Co.), and her nurturing of the writers of that time. You know, minor writers like James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, James Joyce, On This Day | Tagged , , , | 17 Comments

“Make the most of what you have and enjoy being female; enjoy being you.” — Bunny Yeager

Posted on March 13, 2025 by sheila

“I want to show off how beautiful my subjects are, whether its a cheetah or a live girl or two of them together.” — Bunny Yeager It’s the birthday of model and pin-up photographer Bunny Yeager. She is most famous … Continue reading →

Posted in Art/Photography, On This Day | Tagged , | 7 Comments

“I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.” — Jack Kerouac

Posted on March 12, 2025 by sheila

It’s his birthday today. In Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe paints a pretty brutal picture of Jack Kerouac, at a party in New York, when the Hippie Bus rolled into town. (Robert Stone was also at that party. He … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, On This Day, writers | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

“I am not descended from flesh. I am God.”: It’s Vaslav Nijinsky’s Birthday

Posted on March 12, 2025 by sheila

From Tennessee Williams’ semi-autobiographical last play, Something Cloudy, Something Clear: CLARE. [to Kip] I’m about to deliver a lecture to him on making concessions in art. KIP. For or against? CLARE. I think any kind of artist — a painter … Continue reading →

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“A good director must be able to inspire whoever he was coaching so that the actor would live the scene. Make-believe must become reality.” — Raoul Walsh

Posted on March 11, 2025 by sheila

It’s his birthday today. Raoul Wash directed a number of great films (in a career as vast as his, the names stick out), but one also thinks of the great PERFORMANCES in these great films, often from actors who were … Continue reading →

Posted in Directors, Movies, On This Day | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

“I’ve never thought of my characters as being sad. On the contrary, they are full of life. They didn’t choose tragedy. Tragedy chose them.” — Juliette Binoche

Posted on March 9, 2025 by sheila

Blue, d. Krzysztof Kieslowski (1993) It’s her birthday today. I first saw her in Unbearable Lightness of Being, so so many years ago, a frighteningly long time ago. There’s the scene where she and Daniel Day-Lewis have sex for the … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day | Tagged , , | 3 Comments