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Recent Posts
- “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- “All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.” — Charlie Chaplin
- “As a cinematographer, I was always attracted to stories that have the potential to be told with as few words as possible.” — Reed Morano
- “At some point, you have to set down the past. At some point, you have to accept that everyone was doing their best. At some point, you have to gather yourself up, and go onward into your life.” — Olivia Laing
- “It’s just one of the mysteries of filmmaking that sometimes you do something that you don’t even think it’s important, then it turns out to be.” –Lili Horvát
- “Ballet taught me to stay close to style and tone. Literature taught me to be concerned about the moral life.” — Joan Acocella
- “I wanted to deliver a work that could be read universally as the-thing-in-itself but that would also sustain those extensions of meaning that our disastrously complicated local predicament made both urgent and desirable.” — Seamus Heaney
- “I don’t think you go to a play to forget, or to a movie to be distracted. I think life generally is a distraction and that going to a movie is a way to get back, not go away.” — Tom Noonan
- “If you don’t see the book you want on the shelves, write it.” — Beverly Cleary
- “For I am of the seed of the WELCH WOMAN and speak the truth from my heart.” Happy Birthday, Poet Christopher Smart
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- sheila on My new column at Liberties magazine: First up: acting and film criticism and how the twain meet
- sheila on My new column at Liberties magazine: First up: acting and film criticism and how the twain meet
- sheila on “For I am of the seed of the WELCH WOMAN and speak the truth from my heart.” Happy Birthday, Poet Christopher Smart
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- Carolyn Clarke on “For I am of the seed of the WELCH WOMAN and speak the truth from my heart.” Happy Birthday, Poet Christopher Smart
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- Shaharee Vyaas on The Books: “Finnegans Wake” (James Joyce)
- Mike Molloy on “The only thing an actor owes his public is not to bore them.” — Marlon Brando
- sheila on “The only thing an actor owes his public is not to bore them.” — Marlon Brando
- sheila on “The only thing an actor owes his public is not to bore them.” — Marlon Brando
- sheila on “The only thing an actor owes his public is not to bore them.” — Marlon Brando
- Mike Molloy on “The only thing an actor owes his public is not to bore them.” — Marlon Brando
- sheila on “That’s the Irish People all over – they treat a serious thing as a joke and a joke as a serious thing.” — Seán O’Casey, Shadow of a Gunman
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Tag Archives: family
“To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
“People ask me: ‘What is punk? How do you define punk?’ Here’s how I define punk: It’s a free space. It could be called jazz. It could be called hip-hop. It could be called blues, or rock, or beat. It … Continue reading
“Listen, you know this: If there’s not a rebellious youth culture, there’s no culture at all. It’s absolutely essential. It is the future. This is what we’re supposed to do as a species, is advance ideas.” — John Lydon (a.k.a. Johnny Rotten)
I love this 2012 interview with John Lydon, where he is asked about his “anarchist” stance, and whether or not he still identifies as an anarchist. Here is how the conversation goes: “I’m the same as I ever was.” But … Continue reading
2023 in Snapshots
I started 2023 in Memphis. The first photo I took in the new year is dated January 1, and it’s of the Graceland gates, circa 4:30, 5 in the morning. I was on my way to the airport and figured … Continue reading
November 2023 Viewing Diary
After Everything (2018; d. Hannah Marks, Joey Power) In early November, I holed up in a cozy little house in Connecticut with Allison and Carol. I had to work the whole time, which was a bummer but the night was … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged animation, biopic, Chile, Christian Petzold, coming of age, David Fincher, documentary, drama, Elvis Presley, England, family, France, Germany, historical drama, Isabelle Adjani, Japan, Julianne Moore, July and Half of August, Mélanie Laurent, Mexico, Russia, short film, Sofia Coppola, South Korea, thrillers, Tilda Swinton, Ukraine, women directors
3 Comments
Happy Birthday, Graham Parker
My first boyfriend was super into Graham Parker, and basically introduced me to his music. He was a constant in our (super unhappy and stressful) “household”. It was my brother, though, as always, who contextualized Parker for me, who got … Continue reading
“If you feel blocked, do not turn to others, but look inside, in silence, for the enemy of your progress.” — Jeff Buckley
For Jeff Buckley’s Birthday First: My brother Brendan, in his 50 Best Albums list, which I posted here during 2020, wrote about Grace. But it’s about so much more. It’s about the time in which Grace came out, and what … Continue reading
Posted in Music, On This Day
Tagged 50 Best Albums, Chicago, family, friends, Jeff Buckley
18 Comments
She’s not a bad person. Honest she isn’t: Kerry O’Malley in David Fincher’s The Killer
“I guess I am begging.” My breath caught when my cousin Kerry O’Malley said this line in David Fincher’s The Killer, now streaming on Netflix. Her face, her tone, her collapsed body language, was all so open and so desperate, … Continue reading
“I always hope, with everything we do, that people hear these and they wanna go make their own music.” — Dan Zanes
Dan Zanes came to me through my brother Brendan, who got into Zanes’ music when Cashel – my dear nephew Cashel – now a college graduate – !!! – was a small child. For Dan Zanes’ birthday, I wanted to … Continue reading
Today, the Sheila Variations is old enough to drink.
The above pic of me – taken by Michael – graced the top of my original blog, when I set it up 21 years ago today. I never should have put my picture up – it led to a lot … Continue reading
Posted in On This Day, Personal
Tagged Block Island, Cary Grant, Croatia, Dean Stockwell, Elvis Presley, family, friends, Hope, Humphrey Bogart, Iran, Ireland, Jafar Panahi, Joanna Hogg, July and Half of August, Martin Scorsese, Memphis, politics, September 11, Supernatural, Tilda Swinton, war
103 Comments
“I mean, that’s the community of what we do, the difference between me and a streaming service. You actually know it’s me.” — Bob Mould
What is the point of having created such an embarrassingly massive archive, without finding ways to resurrect some of it, point to it, say “Here. Read this.” The whole birthday-post-thing is not how this blog started and it really only … Continue reading