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Recent Posts
- “Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius.” — poet/engraver/visionary William Blake
- “You can’t dance in a long dress.” — Tina Turner
- Happy Birthday, Emir Kusturica
- “What’s the difference between an exile and an expatriate? It seems to me that an Englishman in France is an expat, but an Irishman is an exile.” — Irish poet Derek Mahon
- Posters in Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves (2023)
- “[I wish] to trace the gradual action of ordinary causes rather than exceptional.” — George Eliot
- “There were so many things I wanted to say, stream-of-consciousness things, designs and patterns while listening to music. I felt I might be able to say [them] if I had an unending canvas.” — pioneering experimental animator Mary Ellen Bute
- The (Fractured) Male Gaze
- “Being understood is not the most essential thing in life.” — Jodie Foster
- Happy Birthday, Graham Parker
Recent Comments
- Chris on “There were so many things I wanted to say, stream-of-consciousness things, designs and patterns while listening to music. I felt I might be able to say [them] if I had an unending canvas.” — pioneering experimental animator Mary Ellen Bute
- Mitch Berg on “What’s the difference between an exile and an expatriate? It seems to me that an Englishman in France is an expat, but an Irishman is an exile.” — Irish poet Derek Mahon
- Sean Giere on “I don’t like being approached by people who look at me too intensely, who needed something from me that I didn’t have. I don’t represent anything.” — Liz Phair
- Jessie on Review: May December (2023)
- Jessie on Review: Holy Frit (2023)
- Jessie on She’s not a bad person. Honest she isn’t: Kerry O’Malley in David Fincher’s The Killer
- Ginny SH on “There’s nothing you can tell me about guilt.” — Martin Scorsese
- Clary on The (Fractured) Male Gaze
- sheila on “I don’t like being approached by people who look at me too intensely, who needed something from me that I didn’t have. I don’t represent anything.” — Liz Phair
- SeanGiere on “I don’t like being approached by people who look at me too intensely, who needed something from me that I didn’t have. I don’t represent anything.” — Liz Phair
- sheila on She’s not a bad person. Honest she isn’t: Kerry O’Malley in David Fincher’s The Killer
- Melissa Sutherland on She’s not a bad person. Honest she isn’t: Kerry O’Malley in David Fincher’s The Killer
- sheila on “There’s nothing you can tell me about guilt.” — Martin Scorsese
- sheila on “There’s nothing you can tell me about guilt.” — Martin Scorsese
- sheila on Review: May December (2023)
- sheila on Talking 1953 movies with Jason Bailey and Mike Hull: A Very Good Year podcast
- sheila on Review: Holy Frit (2023)
- sheila on “Given as much to the gutter as to the gods” — Nick Tosches
- sheila on She’s not a bad person. Honest she isn’t: Kerry O’Malley in David Fincher’s The Killer
- sheila on She’s not a bad person. Honest she isn’t: Kerry O’Malley in David Fincher’s The Killer
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Category Archives: Personal
On This Day: October 27, 2004
And nothing was the same ever again. Here is a beautiful essay by my brother Brendan about the family tradition of the Red Sox, as embodied by my crazy godfather, Uncle Jimmy. My stomach still clenches in anxiety when I … 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
“The problem with taking amps to a shop is that they come back sounding like another amp.” — Stevie Ray Vaughan
It’s his birthday today. It’s a bonus he came along in an era of TV specials, and televised performances, and video-taped blah blah blah, because there are tons of live performance clips – and you can’t really get the totality … Continue reading
Meeting Elia Kazan
For Elia Kazan’s birthday I met Elia Kazan once. He showed up at a production of Clifford Odets’ Awake and Sing, which was being put on at the Actors Studio. I was involved in the production as a general Girl … Continue reading
Posted in Directors, On This Day, Personal
Tagged Actors Studio, Awake and Sing, Clifford Odets, Elia Kazan
11 Comments
An Ode to E.B. White and a Very Special Teacher
I post this every year at the beginning of the school year, in honor of all the teachers out there – the teachers I know, and the teachers I’ve had.Teachers are on the front lines of every boneheaded political ideological … Continue reading
In the Welter of packing-Chaos, there is one comforting constant:
It will be the last thing I take down, and the first thing I put up on the other side.
Substack: Catching up with interesting people saying interesting things
Link roundup on my Substack, to my own stuff, yes, but also to some things I’ve read over the last month I adore: a beautiful piece by my friend Charlie on Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers, an interview with director Susan … Continue reading
Posted in Movies, Personal
Tagged Joan Didion, Play It As It Lays, Substack, Tuesday Weld
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I’ve gone National
Since I don’t really go on Twitter anymore (oh, excuse me, I mean “X” – the secondhand embarrassment for the whole “X” thing is so strong I don’t feel I can participate. It’s so STUPID) … but anyway. Because I’m … Continue reading
Posted in Movies, Personal
18 Comments
“There are no ‘old’ movies really – only movies you have already seen and ones you haven’t.” — Peter Bogdanovich
A re-post of the huge thing I wrote after Bogdanovich died, ending with my personal encounter with him where he kissed my hand. I cannot sufficiently express what his films have meant to me, let alone his writing about films … Continue reading
Posted in Directors, Movies, Personal
Tagged Paper Moon, Peter Bogdanovich, They All Laughed, What's Up Doc
8 Comments