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- June 28, 1914: “But if ever a man went anywhere of his own free will, Franz Ferdinand went to Sarajevo.”
- “I know why the caged bird sings, ah me…” — poet Paul Laurence Dunbar
- “[Poetry is] a way of trying to come to peace with the world.” — poet Lucille Clifton
- “The films that I love are very straightforward stories, like really old-fashioned stuff.” — Paul Thomas Anderson
- A Personal Memory: or: What Dog Day Afternoon Means to Me
- Happy Birthday, Hediyeh Tehrani
- “All I actually wanted was for my work to be useful.”–Claudius Afolabi Siffre
- “I knew that I had a facility with words and a power of facing unpleasant facts.” — George Orwell
- “People are always asking me if I thought Elvis was a handsome man and my answer is ‘I am not blind you know’!” — Millie Kirkham
- Physical Media Booklet Essay: The Podcast
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- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Twelfth Night: or, What You Will
- sheila on Physical Media Booklet Essay: Being scholarly about movies that don’t exist
- sheila on Physical Media Booklet Essay: Being scholarly about movies that don’t exist
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Category Archives: On This Day
Happy Birthday, Leadbelly
From Tennessee Williams’ play Orpheus Descending: LADY: What’s all that writing on it? VAL: Autographs of musicians I run into here and there. LADY: Can I see it? VAL: Turn on that light above you. [She switches on green-shaded bulb … Continue reading
At the Lorraine Motel
Taken in Memphis, 2018, on the wall outside the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel
Posted in On This Day
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“I’m not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I’m not dumb… and I also know that I’m not blonde.” — Dolly Parton
An American original. Born on this day. A living legend. A national treasure. I have too many favorite Dolly Parton songs to list, and I love her stuff with Porter Wagoner. Speaking of which, have you seen the episode of … Continue reading
“I don’t think my books should be in prison libraries.” — Patricia Highsmith
It’s Patricia Highsmith’s birthday today. He wouldn’t have killed someone just to save Derwatt Ltd. or even Bernard, Tom supposed. Tom had killed Murchison because Murchison had realized, in the cellar, that he had impersonated Derwatt. Tom had killed Murchison … Continue reading
“I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person. Or he became me.” — Archie Leach
As my friend Mitchell observed: To this day, people say, “Oh so-and-so’s the new Cary Grant.” Cary Grant was acting in 1930. We’re talking 70 years ago. Almost 80 years ago, and we’re still referring to people as the “new … Continue reading
“I never told a joke in my life.” — Andy Kaufman
How could you describe Andy Kaufman (who was born on this day) to a generation who did not grow up seeing him on late-night talk shows, cameos on Saturday Night Live, his own TV specials? How on earth could you … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, On This Day, Television
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“In France, I’m an auteur; in Germany, a filmmaker; in Britain; a genre film director; and, in the USA, a bum.” — John Carpenter
“An Elvis movie is always worth watching because of Elvis.” – Kurt Russell John Carpenter, director: In dealing with Elvis, I’m bringing a lot of my own feelings to it and how I feel about him, and how I interpret … Continue reading
“Precision and accuracy are necessary for both white and black writers. ‘A black aesthetic’ should not be an excuse for sloppy writing.” — poet and publisher Dudley Randall
“How else can a black writer write than out of his black experience? Yet what we tend to overlook is that our common humanity makes it possible to write a love poem, for instance, without a word of race, or … Continue reading
“To me, survival is the game – that’s the hardest part. I just wanna play music.” — Dave Grohl
“How Kurt could even think we’d make a ripple in this ridiculous mainstream world of polished pop music was beyond me. It was beyond everyone. It made absolutely no sense. It was simply unimaginable. It was the type of hopeless, … Continue reading
“When I was discovered, everything happened like dominos. I don’t know how to talk about it now because it’s too mindblowing. It’s so unreal, and yet it’s real.” — Faye Dunaway
Bonnie and Clyde It’s her birthday today. I haven’t written all that much about Faye Dunaway – at least in a concentrated way – although I’ve seen all of her big and rightfully iconic performances many times. I think she’s … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Arizona Dream, Faye Dunaway, Jerry Lewis, Johnny Depp
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