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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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Category Archives: On This Day
“Carelessness on the part of revolutionaries has always been the best aid the police have.” — Victor Serge
Ever since my late-in-the-day discovery of Victor Serge (whose birthday it is today), a man I should have discovered much MUCH earlier, considering my interest in totalitarian regimes / dissident voices / revolution / Russia – I have read as … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged fiction, Memoirs, nonfiction, Russia, Victor Serge, war
2 Comments
“Be open to change. Allow yourself to be revised.” — Maggie Smith
Whatever I say here cannot compete with my friend Dan Callahan’s superb tribute over on Ebert. He knows her and her way of working and her response to life (a NEGATIVE response) better than anyone. He devoted a chapter to … Continue reading
“Everything we ever did was just spur of the moment.” — Scotty Moore
“Scotty Moore was my hero. There’s a little jazz in his playing, some great country licks and a grounding in the blues as well. It’s never been duplicated. I can’t copy it.” — Keith Richards It’s the birthday of Scotty … Continue reading
“In America, sex is an obsession, in other parts of the world it’s a fact.” — Marlene Dietrich
I knew why I love taxis, yes subways are only fun when you’re feeling sexy and who feels sexy after The Blue Angel well maybe a little bit — Frank O’Hara It’s Marlene Dietrich’s birthday today. When I interviewed Dan … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Germany, Josef von Sternberg, Marlene Dietrich
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“The realization of ignorance is the first act of knowing.” — Jean Toomer
Poet/novelist Jean Toomer was born on this day in 1894. He died in 1967. He saw some shit. Toomer’s family tree encompasses the diversity of pre-and-post-Civil War South: slaves, freemen, black, white. His father, Nathan Toomer, was born into slavery. … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged Camille Paglia, fiction, Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes, poetry
2 Comments
“I have respect for my profession. I worked hard at it.” — Humphrey Bogart
What an unlikely movie star, on the face of it. Consider the face. The face is now iconic, and “movie star” makes total sense in retrospect. He feels inevitable. But in the ’30s there was no prediction that he would … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Humphrey Bogart, In a Lonely Place, The Maltese Falcon
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“There is no other way to break the frozen cinematic conventions than through a complete derangement of the official cinematic senses.” — Jonas Mekas
When the avant-garde filmmaker (he referred to himself often as a “film diarist” died at the age of 96, the outpouring of tributes was overwhelming (and, in many cases, instructive. There was a lot I didn’t know.) My fellow NYFFC … Continue reading
“I wish I had not been so reserved.” — Joseph Cornell’s final words
Today is the birthday of artist Joseph Cornell. “Cornell is superb. I first saw the Medici Slot Machine when I was in college. Oh, I loved it. To think one could have bought some of those things then. He was … Continue reading
Posted in Art/Photography, On This Day
Tagged art, Elizabeth Bishop, Joseph Cornell, Lauren Bacall
7 Comments
“It is a pity that the poet should be compelled to impart interest and force to his subject, instead of receiving them from it.” — poet and critic Matthew Arnold
“My poems represent, on the whole, the main movement of mind of the last quarter of a century, and thus they will probably have their day as people become conscious to themselves of what that movement of mind is, and … Continue reading
“The people must grant a hearing to the best poets they have, else they will never have better.” — Harriet Monroe
“I started in early with Shakespeare, Byron, Shelley, with Dickens and Thackeray; and always the book-lined library gave me a friendly assurance of companionship with lively and interesting people, gave me friends of the spirit to ease my loneliness.” – … Continue reading