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- “I’d love to play someone who is extremely charming, but first I’ll have to learn how to be charming.”” — Kate Lyn Sheil
- “That is no country for old men.” — William Butler Yeats
- Review: O Horizon (2026)
- Physical Media Booklet Essay: Being scholarly about movies that don’t exist
- “Language most shows a man. Speak that I may see thee.” — Ben Jonson
- “What good is a character who’s always winking at the audience to let them in on the secret?” –Gene Wilder
- “I couldn’t do no yodelin’, so I turned to howlin’ and it’s done me just fine.”– Howlin’ Wolf
- “If you have to be in a soap opera try not to get the worst role.” — Judy Garland
- Mike Doughty, if you’re out there …
- Happy Birthday to “Mr. Excitement”, Jackie Wilson
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- Lyrie on “Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.” — Suzi Quatro
- Mike Molloy on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Sheila on “Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.” — Suzi Quatro
- sheila on “Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.” — Suzi Quatro
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- Lyrie on “Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.” — Suzi Quatro
- sheila on Review: Carolina Caroline (2026
- sheila on “Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.” — Suzi Quatro
- Lyrie on “Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.” — Suzi Quatro
- Lyrie on Review: Carolina Caroline (2026
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- sheila on “Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.” — Suzi Quatro
- sheila on “Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.” — Suzi Quatro
- sheila on “I’m not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful.” – Marilyn Monroe
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
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Author Archives: sheila
“I’d love to play someone who is extremely charming, but first I’ll have to learn how to be charming.”” — Kate Lyn Sheil
I’ve written enough about Kate Lyn Sheil’s projects I figured she’s due her own post. It’s her birthday today. Sheil is ubiquitous in the American indie scene – and there is still an indie scene, although distribution has changed. If … Continue reading
“That is no country for old men.” — William Butler Yeats
“I thought we might bring the halves together if we had a national literature that made Ireland beautiful in the memory, and yet had been freed of provincialism by an exacting criticism, a European pose.” — W.B. Yeats William Butler … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged Algernon Charles Swinburne, Camille Paglia, Edmund Spenser, Elizabeth Bishop, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Harold Bloom, Ireland, Irish poetry, Jeanette Winterson, John Millington Synge, Jonathan Swift, Louis MacNeice, Maud Gonne, Michael Schmidt, Philip Larkin, poetry, Rebecca West, Richard Ellmann, Seamus Heaney, T.S. Eliot, Ted Hughes, Ulysses, W.B. Yeats, W.H. Auden
15 Comments
Review: O Horizon (2026)
Despite an appearance by Aimee Mann – playing herself – where she sings two songs in their entirety – O Horizon is a slow generalized chore. Plus there’s the Sackler connection, which has to be acknowledged. I reviewed for Ebert.
Physical Media Booklet Essay: Being scholarly about movies that don’t exist
It’s okay now to talk about what I wrote about for Sean Abley’s zine PHYSICAL MEDIA BOOKLET ESSAY. Sean’s pitch was along the lines of: “You know how some movies show fictional movies within them?” Examples: the soap opera in … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
3 Comments
“Language most shows a man. Speak that I may see thee.” — Ben Jonson
“O rare Benn Johnson.” — Jonson’s incorrectly-spelled epitaph in Westminster Abbey It’s his birthday today. Ben Jonson did everything. Plays, poems, satires, elegies, epigrams. His talent was wide and flexible. Everything he wrote feels inevitable. However, as Michael Schmidt writes … Continue reading
“What good is a character who’s always winking at the audience to let them in on the secret?” –Gene Wilder
It’s his birthday today. Where does the humor lie? Can this moment be broken down to discover its secret? Is it the eye pan to the right? Is it the delayed eyebrow raise? Is it what’s happening with his mouth? … Continue reading
“I couldn’t do no yodelin’, so I turned to howlin’ and it’s done me just fine.”– Howlin’ Wolf
Chester Burnett, who would eventually become the legendary Howlin’ Wolf, was born on this day in 1901. He is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the “early influences” category. He is in the Memphis Music Hall of … Continue reading
Posted in Music, On This Day
Tagged Howlin' Wolf, James Burton, Sam Phillips, Sun Records, The Rolling Stones
3 Comments
“If you have to be in a soap opera try not to get the worst role.” — Judy Garland
It’s the great, the irreplaceable, Judy Garland’s birthday. The screengrab above is from John Cassavetes’ 1963 film A Child is Waiting. This film is not really well-known, except among Cassavetes/Garland completists – but some serious Cassavetes fans don’t know about … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged John Cassavetes, Judy Garland, Stanley Kramer
6 Comments
Mike Doughty, if you’re out there …
It’s singer-songwriter Mike Doughty’s birthday today. My brother Brendan introduced me to Doughty’s music back in the day – specifically the album Skittish, which I still own – because I still believe in owning my music, not renting it from … Continue reading
Happy Birthday to “Mr. Excitement”, Jackie Wilson
Jackie Wilson’s voice is otherworldly. He had a four-octave range. You listen and there are times where you can’t even believe what you’re hearing. Wilson started out in Detroit talent contests, where he had a tendency to win. Big fish … Continue reading