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- For Father’s Day:
- “I paint the things I see and believe.” — Henry Ossawa Tanner
- “I like variety in poetry. I love how it comes in so many guises. As rock lyric, as rap, as note on a fridge.” — Paul Muldoon
- “Some of the time, when you’re walking out there where the air is thin, you just hope you can walk back again.” — Gena Rowlands
- “There are a great many colored people who are ashamed of the cake-walk, but I think they ought to be proud of it.” — James Weldon Johnson
- Bloomsday past and present
- “You should approach Joyce’s Ulysses as the illiterate Baptist preacher approaches the Old Testament: with faith.” — William Faulkner
- Happy Birthday, Vilmos Zsigmond
- “That incident ruined my reputation for 10 years. Get one Beatle drunk and look what happens!” — Harry Nilsson
- “I’m not very popular here with those inside the system, as you might guess. I never wanted to be.” — Waylon Jennings
Recent Comments
- Mike Molloy on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Twelfth Night: or, What You Will
- 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
- sheila on Physical Media Booklet Essay: Being scholarly about movies that don’t exist
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Bryan Summers on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Twelfth Night: or, What You Will
- Jincy Willett on Physical Media Booklet Essay: Being scholarly about movies that don’t exist
- Dan on Physical Media Booklet Essay: Being scholarly about movies that don’t exist
- Reba on Physical Media Booklet Essay: Being scholarly about movies that don’t exist
- 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
- Lyrie 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
- Lyrie on “Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.” — Suzi Quatro
- sheila on Review: Carolina Caroline (2026
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Monthly Archives: May 2006
“The work is not written in English, or in any other language, as language is commonly known.”
From the archives: a baffled review of Finnegans Wake. It’s very funny reading. I love how he says that this is a book where “all is considered”. That’s pretty much the size of it. And listen to THIS language: “In … Continue reading
The Books: Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself (Judy Blume)
Next book on my YA fiction shelf: Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself by Judy Blume. In the author’s note at the end of this book, Blume reveals that this is her most autobiographical book. The book takes place in … Continue reading
The Books: “Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great” (Judy Blume)
Moving along with my book excerpt project. I am now actually done with my history/american biography bookshelf, sniff, sniff. It didn’t take me as long to get through as the first bookshelf – because the first bookshelf is mostly plays, … Continue reading
The Books: “His Excellency: George Washington” (Joseph Ellis)
Daily Excerpt continues: Next book in my American history section is His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph Ellis Hard to believe but this is the last book on this particular bookshelf (at least the last one I’ve READ. I hav … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Founding Fathers
Tagged George Washington, His Excellency, Joseph Ellis, politics, US history, war
1 Comment
The Books: “George Washington : A Life” (Willard Sterne Randall)
Daily Excerpt: Next book in my American history section is George Washington: A Life (Galahad Edition) by Willard Sterne Randall A huge book – this was the first biography I’ve ever read of Washington, actually. My main interests had been … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Founding Fathers
Tagged George Washington, politics, US history, war
Comments Off on The Books: “George Washington : A Life” (Willard Sterne Randall)
David Thomson Snippets:
I have been devouring David Thomson’s massive 20 pound book The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Expanded and Updated. The snippets I’ve excerpted below are just a tiny FRACTION of what he writes about all these people – his essay … Continue reading
David Thomson: George Arliss
“You can tell his Disraeli from his Voltaire because the former has a spit curl on his forehead and the latter wears a mobcap, and it’s in the scrupulous deployment of makeup and costume that Arliss shines. Not that he … Continue reading
David Thomson: Bibi Andersson
“She needed such a holiday to prepare for one of the most harrowing female roles the screen has presented: Nurse Alma in Persona (66, Bergman). That this masterpiece owed so much to Bibi Andersson was acknowledgement of her greater emotional … Continue reading
Posted in Actors
Tagged Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Persona
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David Thomson: Paul Thomas Anderson
“It is also the case that anyone as good and smart as Anderson should be more perceptibly self-critical. In fact, Magnolia is his most youthful and indulgent film — and Hard Eight, his best and most austere. But there are … Continue reading
David Thomson: Pedro Almodóvar
(I’ll see any movie Almodóvar makes.) Thomson writes: “Almodóvar was one of the most welcome explosions of the eighties and a sign of the new Spain. Whereas Carlos Saura (nearly twenty years older than Almodóvar) made intensely measured and psychologically … Continue reading