Categories
Archives
-

-
Recent Posts
- “If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.” — Edward Hopper
- Happy Birthday, Edward Herrmann
- “The rhythm is jazz.” — Hart Crane
- “When I have an idea, I turn down the flame, as if it were a little alcohol stove, as low as it will go. Then it explodes, and that is my idea.” — Ernest Hemingway
- July 20, 1969: Tranquility
- “The reality is you don’t arrive, you don’t have a crone ceremony and suddenly get wisdom.” — Olympia Dukakis
- R.I.P. Jennifer Finch
- “I think something once broken and put back together is even stronger.” — Jared Padalecki
- “Didacticism is the death of art.” — poet Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson
- “Free Enterprise. The American Dream. Horatio Alger gone mad on drugs in Las Vegas. Do it now. Pure Gonzo journalism.” — Hunter S. Thompson
Recent Comments
- sheila on “Why can’t people take me as a regular singer without making a bogeyman out of me?” — Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
- Ken on “Why can’t people take me as a regular singer without making a bogeyman out of me?” — Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
- 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 R.I.P. Jennifer Finch
- sheila on “I think something once broken and put back together is even stronger.” — Jared Padalecki
- Lyrie on Physical Media Booklet Essay: Being scholarly about movies that don’t exist
- Lyrie on “I think something once broken and put back together is even stronger.” — Jared Padalecki
- Lyrie on R.I.P. Jennifer Finch
- Lyrie on “I think something once broken and put back together is even stronger.” — Jared Padalecki
- sheila on “I’m not a yesterday’s woman. I’m a tomorrow’s woman.” — Barbara Stanwyck
- sheila on Happy Birthday, Chips Moman
- Ken on “I’m not a yesterday’s woman. I’m a tomorrow’s woman.” — Barbara Stanwyck
- Tony McCrorie on Happy Birthday, Chips Moman
- sheila on “Reality is diabolical.” — Ingmar Bergman
- sheila on Happy Birthday, Thomas Mitchell
- sheila on “Art is theft, art is armed robbery, art is not pleasing your mother.” — Janet Malcolm
- Roger Green on “Reality is diabolical.” — Ingmar Bergman
- Xandra de Vocht on The Books: “The Great Nebula in Orion” (Lanford Wilson)
- Bryan Summers on Happy Birthday, Thomas Mitchell
-
Tag Archives: Joan Didion
April 2020 Viewing Diary
Almost Love (2020; d. Mike Doyle) This movie really irritated me. I reviewed for Ebert. Lovesick. (original title Scrotal Recall) (2014/2016/2018; d. Tom Edge) Again. I finished it up last month and started a re-watch immediately. Johnny Flynn crush going … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Canada, comedy, documentary, drama, England, Germany, Hitler, Ireland, Joan Didion, Johnny Flynn, Leonardo DiCaprio, romantic drama, Slings & Arrows, Steven Spielberg, Supernatural, Sweden, Syria, Taiwan, Tuesday Weld, women directors
2 Comments
2018 Books Read
2018 Books Read 1. Tamburlaine, Part 1, by Christopher Marlowe I finished 2017 with Paradise Lost, in the mood to continue with rigorous challenging poetry. I decided to read the complete plays of Christopher Marlowe (re-read in most cases). The … Continue reading
Posted in Books, James Joyce
Tagged Animal Farm, Annie Proulx, books read, Christopher Hitchens, Christopher Marlowe, Clifford Odets, Edgar Allan Poe, England, Evelyn Waugh, fiction, Finnegans Wake, friends, George Orwell, H.L. Mencken, Hunter S. Thompson, Ian McEwan, Ireland, Italy, Jack Kerouac, Joan Didion, nonfiction, Olivia Laing, Pauline Kael, poetry, Poland, politics, Robert Kaplan, Romania, Ron Chernow, Russia, Ryszard Kapuściński, Sergei Kirov, Stalin, The Soccer War, Tom Wolfe, true crime, Truman Capote, Victor Serge, Waiting for Lefty
7 Comments
Year in Review: Running my mouth in 2018
Thanks, everyone, who hangs out here, who likes what I do, whether you’re an Elvis fan, a Supernatural fan, a general cinephile, a book-lover, or just someone who’s been checking in periodically for almost 16 years – WHAT? – I … Continue reading
Posted in James Joyce, Movies, Television
Tagged Anne V. Coates, Burt Reynolds, documentary, Doris Day, Dorothy Malone, Elvis Presley, England, Finnegans Wake, Frank Sinatra, Gena Rowlands, Germany, Gold Diggers of 1933, Grace Kelly, Hal Ashby, Howard Hughes, Ian McEwan, James Cagney, Joan Didion, Joaquin Phoenix, Julie Christie, Lynne Ramsay, Mexico, Minnie and Moskowitz, Natalie Portman, Paul Thomas Anderson, Play It As It Lays, Robert Altman, Russia, Sanaa Lathan, South Korea, Supernatural, Warren Beatty, women directors, Woody Allen, year in writing
10 Comments
Flick Lit: August 2018 issue of Sight & Sound
I’m very happy to make my “debut” in the new issue of Sight & Sound – available on newsstands now (or via digital subscription). In their cover feature, “Flick Lit,” 100 critics weigh in on 100 novels about the movies. … Continue reading
2017 Books Read
I got into a good rhythm with reading this year. I did a lot of re-reading, going back to books I haven’t read in 20 years or whatever. It was fun, like a reunion with an old friend. Much of … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged 1984, A.S. Byatt, Bette Davis, books read, Camille Paglia, Christopher Hitchens, Edgar Allan Poe, England, France, George Orwell, Hannah Arendt, Herman Melville, Hitler, Ireland, Jack London, Janet Malcolm, Jean Renoir, Jeanette Winterson, Joan Crawford, Joan Didion, John Milton, Kim Stanley, Mark Danielewski, Mary Astor, Mary Gaitskill, Olivia Laing, Poland, politics, Robert Altman, Robert Conquest, Robert Kaplan, Russia, S.E. Hinton, Shirley Jackson, Tana French, Tennessee Williams, The Great Terror, war
4 Comments
November 2017 Viewing Diary
This viewing diary may be tough going for those of you who are not Supernatural fans. But there’s a lot more mixed in there that is not that damn show. I was on a viewing tear, in general, to get … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Afghanistan, Agnes Varda, Cate Blanchett, Dennis Hopper, documentary, England, France, Isabelle Huppert, Israel, Joachim Trier, Joan Didion, Kentucker Audley, Kristen Stewart, Paul Thomas Anderson, Robert Altman, Russia, Sebastián Lelio, Steven Spielberg, Supernatural, Terrence Malick, Tiffany Haddish, women directors
29 Comments
2015 Books Read
Even I am impressed with how much I read this year. Along the course of the year, occasionally I’d think to myself, “Good job, Sheila, with your Self-Imposed Reading Plan!” I’ve read a lot of new novels (not really my … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged A.S. Byatt, Alexander Hamilton, Baseball A Literary Anthology, books read, Christopher Hitchens, Christopher Marlowe, Edvard Radzinsky, Elvis Presley, Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Eliot, Hannah Arendt, Hunter S. Thompson, Ireland, J.D. Salinger, Jeanette Winterson, Jincy Willett, Joan Didion, John Banville, John Wayne, Joshua Ferris, Lorrie Moore, Machiavelli, Margaret Atwood, Norman Rush, Patricia Highsmith, Paul Zindel, Rasputin, Rebecca West, Ron Chernow, Russia, science, Seamus Heaney, Vietnam, W.H. Auden, William Shakespeare, William Styron
22 Comments
2013 Books Read
It’s been a hell of a year. Devastating as well as redemptive. I started it out in Memphis, and end it here in New Jersey. And now my new niece Pearl has arrived! It’s been both a busy year as … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged A.S. Byatt, Anne Fadiman, Annie Proulx, Arthur Koestler, Balkans, books read, Darkness at Noon, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Edvard Radzinsky, Elinor Lipman, England, friends, George Eliot, H.L. Mencken, Henry James, Herman Melville, Hungary, Ireland, J.D. Salinger, Jeanette Winterson, Joan Acocella, Joan Didion, John Banville, Joseph Heller, Joshua Ferris, Lester Bangs, Lorrie Moore, Patricia Highsmith, Philip K. Dick, Russia, Sam Cooke, Stalin, Tana French, The Netherlands, The Only Game In Town, Thomas Carlyle, Victor Serge, William Shakespeare, Yugoslavia
33 Comments

