I wasn’t going to write about Heather Armstrong (who committed suicide a couple of weeks ago), but then realized I had some stuff to say. Wrote some thoughts on my Substack.
Thank you so much for stopping by. If you like what I do, and if you feel inclined to support my work, here’s a link to my Venmo account. And I’ve launched a Substack, Sheila Variations 2.0, if you’d like to subscribe.
There’s this really cool site/project called NYC 1920 – a day by day archive of events in NYC exactly 100 years ago. It’s created and edited by a friend of mine, author/scholar/literature professor Jonathan Goldman, whom I met through the boisterous James-Joyce-fans/scholars-and-Modernists-fans-in-general community here in New York. Most entries in NYC 1920 are by Jonathan but he asked me to contribute. So I wrote about filmmaking pioneer Oscar Micheaux’s second film Within Our Gates, which began its 5 day run at the Lincoln Theatre in Harlem on this day. Micheaux had his own studio, he produced over 40 films (which he also wrote and directed), he was in charge of what he put out, he developed products, purchasing material and then developing it. The majority of his films are (sadly) lost.
Here’s my post on NYC 1920 about Micheaux’s Within Our Gates.
Definitely bookmark the site! It’s a pit stop I make every day since it’s laid out in calendar format, and Jonathan digs up the coolest stuff by scouring old newspaper clippings.
Thank you so much for stopping by. If you like what I do, and if you feel inclined to support my work, here’s a link to my Venmo account. And I’ve launched a Substack, Sheila Variations 2.0, if you’d like to subscribe.
I reviewed this extremely effective multiple-Cesar-winning crime/procedural film for Ebert.
For my Substack paid subscribers, I wrote another piece about Eve Babitz: her impossible to imitate voice and the courage it takes to live life as a female swashbuckling romantic.
Thank you so much for stopping by. If you like what I do, and if you feel inclined to support my work, here’s a link to my Venmo account. And I’ve launched a Substack, Sheila Variations 2.0, if you’d like to subscribe.
What a tragedy, that this unforgettable sui generis writer would die, just as she started writing again, after twenty years of total silence. So now, we have what we have from her. She made her mark. At least she lived long enough to see her long-forgotten work recognized and re-published, with accolades and praise, everyone realizing – just in time – that she was a very important writer, one of THE “California” writers – but so much her own person she stands alone. She’s hard to categorize and even more difficult to excerpt. Her writing is so of-a-piece, so perfectly intertwined. And her voice is unmistakable.
Here’s the big piece I wrote when she died.
Thank you so much for stopping by. If you like what I do, and if you feel inclined to support my work, here’s a link to my Venmo account. And I’ve launched a Substack, Sheila Variations 2.0, if you’d like to subscribe.
Thank you so much for stopping by. If you like what I do, and if you feel inclined to support my work, here’s a link to my Venmo account. And I’ve launched a Substack, Sheila Variations 2.0, if you’d like to subscribe.
I reviewed It Ain’t Over, a documentary about Yogi Berra. It’s pretty emotional and I liked it a lot.
Thank you so much for stopping by. If you like what I do, and if you feel inclined to support my work, here’s a link to my Venmo account. And I’ve launched a Substack, Sheila Variations 2.0, if you’d like to subscribe.
It’s been a while. March and April were a whirlwind. February too.
— I worked on this. It was a challenging one, and a little different for me. I loved the challenge.
— Michael messaged me (you know. Michael. This Michael.) when he heard the news about After Hours and he was flipping out. It’s his favorite movie of all time. I asked him “Did we talk about that ever??” He said he didn’t think we did. Imagine the weirdness of this. Our relationship is so strange and special. We were CHILDREN when we “went out” (I mean, not literally, but, whatever.), and here we are, still in touch, and I am hired by Criterion to write the booklet essay for his favorite movie. It’s perfect.
— Speaking of Michael, he wrote Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves! There were all these red carpet pictures of him and I’m super proud. When it opened at the theatre down the street for me, there was a line down the block of D&D fans, all dressed up, waiting to see it. I sent Michael a pic.
— I went to Ebertfest. It’s been years because of the pandemic. It was a last-minute decision. I decided to go for multiple reasons. 2023 is my 10-year anniversary going to Ebertfest – the same way it was my 10-year anniversary going nuts in Memphis and getting diagnosed bipolar. I went to Memphis this year at the same time to commemorate how far I have come. I thought, “what the hell, let’s do the same for Ebertfest.” The first year I went, I was still so out of my mind, in the first month of being diagnosed, and … Mum came with me. I don’t remember how that decision was made. In retrospect, I think she came to just support me. (sob.) She ended up coming to Ebertfest for 4, 5 years in a row. It was this yearly thing we did. The other reason I suddenly decided to go: there are so many people I only saw once a year – Ebertfest people – people I really like, people I looked forward to seeing. The last time I went to Ebertfest was 2018 or 2019, I can’t remember, and I had no idea then I should be saying GOODBYE to all these people, other audience members, panelists, ushers, all the people I looked forward to seeing. So I was excited. I flew to Chicago, Mitchell picked me up at O’Hare, and we drove down to Champaign-Urbana together. This will be his third time accompanying me. We only stayed two days of the festival and it felt like we were there a week. The opening night film was Nine Days (which I reviewed), and had a great time interviewing the talented director Edson Oda and executive producer Jason Michael Berman onstage after the screening. It was incredible seeing that beautiful film on a large screen (one of the largest), and to FEEL the audience listening around me – 1200, 1300 people listening closely – it’s one of my favorite sounds in the world.
— Spent a couple days in Chicago afterwards with Mitchell and Christopher. We lazed about, we walked along the lake shore (experiencing a lightning-fast and sudden blizzard – horizontally driving snow and everything), we got together with Emma and her boyfriend Ben, it was a wonderful (albeit short) visit.
— I’m in a Ulysses reading group this year. It’s been tough to keep up, but I am doing the reading and having an absolute BLAST with it.
— Meanwhile, I was getting ready for this. It was postponed a couple of times for various reasons but we finally got the date nailed down. I prepared my notes for my introductory speech.
— MEANWHILE, in the middle of all this, I got a message from Criterion that Martin Scorsese wanted to talk to me. Now we have already made contact – or, he has made contact with me – and I have met him on a couple of occasions (the 50th anniversary gala of the Film Society at Licoln Center, and a couple of the NYFCC dinner awards) but I am sure he wouldn’t remember me. He only knows me now from the Raging Bull video-essay and now the After Hours essay. He has to approve everything on these Criterion releases. Everything I wrote was sent to him for approval and/or notes. So. He wanted to talk.
— A couple weeks passed. I was in contact with one of his assistants. He was busy. Of course. Marty is always busy. But finally a time was found.
— Martin Scorsese called me and we proceeded to talk for forty minutes. About everything. He talked to me about my Raging Bull essay and we talked a lot about After Hours, but then we talked about other things. I made him laugh. He said at one point, “I grew up in Little Italy–” and I wanted to say, “I know, Marty. We all know.” He was funny and extremely nice. It was amazing. I went into the call nervous. But about five minutes in, I was no longer nervous. He put me at ease. He told me the next time we meet to please introduce myself using the words ‘Raging Bull After Hours’ so he would be sure to remember me. “I’m old.” he confessed. And you KNOW I will. It was incredible.
— Five days later I was introducing Viva Las Vegas at the Paris Theatre in New York. It was a great event. Great turnout. Lots of friends, lots of people I didn’t know. My speech went great. The movie was so much fun. The whole thing couldn’t have gone better. Went out for drinks afterwards with a random group of my friends, none of whom knew each other outside of me – so we all bonded together, and became a group as we ate and drank. It’s my favorite thing. People meeting and connecting. I was so happy.
— To re-cap: In the same week I
1. had a 40-minute phone conversation with Martin Scorsese
and
2. introduced Viva Las Vegas at the Paris Theatre.
— It was only on the following day when it occurred to me: “Okay so … for this week at least … I’ve been living the dream.”
“Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what’s a heaven for?”
— Robert Browning “Andrea del Sarto”
It’s Robert Browning’s birthday today.
“Imperial”. Spoken like a true Victorian.
We had to read Robert Browning’s poem “Meeting at Night” in 11th grade, and it was the first Browning I read. This was the era when I started getting into poetry, stuff I discovered on my own, not just the Irish stuff I always heard at home. This was the year I discovered Sylvia Plath, Robinson Jeffers, Edna St. Vincent Millay, T.S. Eliot, and I started “getting it.” I was figuring out how to read a poem, how to focus my attention on it, developing the “poetry reading” skill, which is a skill … This is not always an easy thing to do, especially for a 16-year-old wondering why the Band President doesn’t ask her to the Toga dance.
Robert Browning’s “Meeting at Night” transported me. I didn’t know anything about him. I didn’t know anything about his famous romance, and his even more famous poet wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. I met Robert Browning pure, on his own ground. And my response to “Meeting at Night” had to do with the adjectives in the first four lines. They launched me into the stratosphere, the pure pleasure of them. Those adjectives are perfect but also unexpected, if you look closer. The “startled” waves (so great) and “fiery ringlets”, the “yellow half-moon”, the “long black land” … I could see it all. I grew up in the Ocean State and knew all about the moodiness of the sea. Browning’s language fed my soul. It pleased me. Maybe that’s a weird word to use, but it’s true. Pleasure is very underrated.
I.
The grey sea and the long black land;
And the yellow half-moon large and low;
And the startled little waves that leap
In fiery ringlets from their sleep,
As I gain the cove with pushing prow,
And quench its speed i’ the slushy sand.
II.
Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;
Three fields to cross till a farm appears;
A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
And blue spurt of a lighted match,
And a voice less loud, thro’ its joys and fears,
Than the two hearts beating each to each!
^^ This promo, gigantic on the Paris Theatre website, is now my favorite thing on the planet. My name up there, my outlet, and the MASSIVE faces of Elvis and Ann-Margret. Life is a curious thing. You never know where your passions will take you!
The Paris Theater is the oldest arthouse theatre in New York (it opened its doors in 1948). It’s an amazing location too, on the southern end of Central Park, facing the park, with a great old-school marquee. It’s a gorgeous theatre, gorgeous interior too. I’ve seen a bunch of things there (including the Directors Guild screening of Phantom Thread, with the QA after with all of them, Daniel Day Lewis, Paul Thomas Anderson, Lesley Manville, and Vicki Krieps. They all were there.
The Paris and the NYFCC has an ongoing collaboration: each NYFCC member can choose a movie to screen, and the screenings happen every other Sunday at 3 p.m. The NYFCC member will introduce the film (and sometimes – like with Moonstruck – there’s a QA afterwards, moderated by the member). It’s been a great lineup of films. I thought long and hard about what I wanted to screen for my pick. I knew I wanted to screen an Elvis movie, but I waffled on what it should be. King Creole? Jailhouse Rock? They were strong front-runners. I even thought about introducing maybe lesser-known movies – like Girl Happy – or, my personal favorite, Live a Little Love a Little. But then I thought: No. There is only one choice for this screening. And that is Viva Las Vegas.
And, AND, the Paris Theatre got us a 35mm print of the film from Paramount. Viva Las Vegas in 35 mm!!
I can’t wait. I know I have readers from all over the world, but if you happen to live in the New York-ish area, feel free to grab a ticket and come join the fun!
I loved this movie. It makes me want to read the book. I reviewed for Ebert. I know I use that Yeats quote a lot but #sorrynotsorry no one said it better.
Thank you so much for stopping by. If you like what I do, and if you feel inclined to support my work, here’s a link to my Venmo account. And I’ve launched a Substack, Sheila Variations 2.0, if you’d like to subscribe.
