Categories
Archives
-
-
-
-
Recent Posts
- “Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.” — Suzi Quatro
- 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Twelfth Night: or, What You Will
- “Literature is the written expression of revolt against expected things.” Happy Birthday to the least happy man ever, Thomas Hardy
- “I’m not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “[My ambition is to] give something to our literature which will be our own.” — Walt Whitman
- “I don’t want to show things, but to give people the desire to see.” — Agnès Varda
- “I never made a message picture, and I hope I never do.” — Howard Hawks
- “If I am going to be a poet at all, I am going to be POET and not NEGRO POET.” — poet Countee Cullen
- Reviews: Currents (2026)
- Reviews: Forge (2026)
Recent Comments
- 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
- Maddy on “I’m not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful.” – Marilyn Monroe
- Mike Molloy on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on “I never made a message picture, and I hope I never do.” — Howard Hawks
- Bryan Summers on “I never made a message picture, and I hope I never do.” — Howard Hawks
- Lyrie on “I just love telling stories. That’s what we do and it’s a good business to be in, especially if you know you have talent.” –Jensen Ackles
- Kendra Williams on Josh White, singer of “the fighting blues”
- sheila on “I dont want to just do just country type stuff the rest of my life. I want to do some different things.” — Charlie Rich
- sheila on The Books: “Awake and Sing” (Clifford Odets)
- Jincy Willett on “There’s nobody as good as the Ramones, never will be.” — Joey Ramone
- Bill Wolfe on “I dont want to just do just country type stuff the rest of my life. I want to do some different things.” — Charlie Rich
- Donn Harris on The Books: “Awake and Sing” (Clifford Odets)
- sheila on “Listen, I never meant to make money. I never wanted it. I’m a singer, man.” — Gene Vincent
- Pat on “Listen, I never meant to make money. I never wanted it. I’m a singer, man.” — Gene Vincent
- sheila on “There’s nobody as good as the Ramones, never will be.” — Joey Ramone
- Jincy Willett on “There’s nobody as good as the Ramones, never will be.” — Joey Ramone
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Hamlet
- Biff Dorsey on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Hamlet
-
Tag Archives: Elizabeth Taylor
The Books: Sex, Art, and American Culture; “Elizabeth Taylor: Hollywood’s Pagan Queen,” by Camille Paglia
NEXT BOOK on the essays shelf: Sex, Art, and American Culture: Essays, by Camille Paglia. When Elizabeth Taylor died it felt like the end of an era. Something vital had left the landscape. One of our Movie Goddesses, and unlike … Continue reading
September 2015 Viewing Diary
I got a pretty big writing assignment this past month, with a deadline of October 5. So I’ve been working hard, researching, as the below list will probably show. Not ready to talk about it yet, still working on the … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies
Tagged Agnes Varda, Alan Ladd, Anna Karina, Canada, Charles Vidor, Charlton Heston, Claude Chabrol, Dana Andrews, documentary, Doris Day, Elizabeth Taylor, England, France, Fred Astaire, Fritz Lang, Gilda, Gloria Grahame, Guillermo del Toro, Iran, Iranian film, Irene Dunne, J. Miller Tobin, Jafar Panahi, James Cagney, Jean-Luc Godard, John Wayne, Laura Dern, Maggie Smith, Marilyn Monroe, Mélanie Laurent, Mexico, Otto Preminger, Out of the Past, Paul Thomas Anderson, Ramin Bahrani, Rita Hayworth, Robert Mitchum, Supernatural, Terrence Malick
159 Comments
Happy Birthday, Montgomery Clift
Kim Morgan writes in her not-to-be-missed essay on Clift: Clift’s eyes held secrets, and not merely the secrets we know about after discovering his real life. There’s more to Clift than hiding homosexuality, thereâs pain and romance and passion and … Continue reading
The Books: The Cleopatra Papers, by Jack Brodsky and Nathan Weiss
Next book on the Hollywood shelf: The Cleopatra Papers: A Private Correspondence, by Jack Brodsky and Nathan Weiss. It’s been a while since I’ve done a Book Excerpt. For those of you new to me, I have been going through … Continue reading
Thank You, James Wolcott …
for including me in such illustrious company. And MUBI has an incredible compilation of all of the Elizabeth Taylor tributes out there. It will keep me busy for days to come.
“It’s My Life Now. And It Will Be … Until There’s a Cure.”
I got this clip from one of my best friends, Alexandra Billings, who wrote on her Facebook page when she posted the clip: When I was diagnosed with AIDS in 1984, no one would come near me. People were afraid … Continue reading
Montgomery Clift on Elizabeth Taylor: “You know how it is when you love somebody terribly but you can’t describe why? That’s how I love Bessie Mae.”
Excerpt from Patricia Bosworth’s Montgomery Clift: A Biography. Kevin McCarthy describes the tragic car accident that almost killed Montgomery Clift and ruined his face. McCarthy and Clift had been hanging out at Elizabeth Taylor’s home (which she shared with then … Continue reading
“I’m Sorry, Folks. I’m Not Used to Acting.”
I remember very well Elizabeth Taylor’s stint on General Hospital (it was my show, back in the day), but I remember even better that she was featured on a Bloopers show. Thanks to the magic of Youtube, I have found … Continue reading
Paul Newman’s TCM Tribute to Elizabeth Taylor
He gets her right. Not a lot of people did.