Categories
Archives
-
-
-
-
Recent Posts
- The book cover reveal!
- “Knowledge is a polite word for dead but not buried imagination…think twice before you think.” — E.E. Cummings
- September 2025 Snapshots
- Upcoming dates: Frankenstein
- Getting unstuck
- “Where am I coming from? Where am I going? A fusillade of question marks.” — Ciarán Carson
- Frankenstein coming to life …
- “I grew up believing that I was fundamentally powerless.” — Thom Yorke
- Frankenstein and Tiffany, part deux
- “I want to live, not pose!” — Carole Lombard
Recent Comments
- sheila on Getting unstuck
- Daniel V. on Getting unstuck
- sheila on That’ll Learn Ya reunites
- joe franco on That’ll Learn Ya reunites
- sheila on “When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley
- Kristen Westergaard on “When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley
- sheila on Upcoming dates: Frankenstein
- Frances on Upcoming dates: Frankenstein
- sheila on Upcoming dates: Frankenstein
- sheila on Getting unstuck
- Frances on Upcoming dates: Frankenstein
- Walter Biggins on Getting unstuck
- Amir Lauber on All That Jazz: Remembering and Loving Erzebet Foldi
- sheila on “When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley
- sheila on “When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley
- Krsten Westergaard on “When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley
- sheila on Premiere of Frankenstein official trailer!
- sheila on Premiere of Frankenstein official trailer!
- Sheila Welch on Premiere of Frankenstein official trailer!
- sheila on “I wish I had not been so reserved.” — Joseph Cornell’s final words
-
Tag Archives: war
“My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.” — WWI poet Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owen, one of the best “war poets” of World War I, was born on this day in 1893. He was killed in battle in 1918, just seven days before the Armistice. He was 25 years old. His poetry was … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged Dylan Thomas, England, Harold Bloom, poetry, T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, war, WWI
33 Comments
2020 Books Read
What a year, huh. What a dumpster-fire year. I read a lot, mostly in the mornings, and it helped create rituals for the days, which often seemed endlessly the same, interchangeable. I read a lot of long and challenging books … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Austria, ballet, Ballets Russes, Belfast, Biography, books read, Croatia, Czechoslovakia, Czeslaw Milosz, dance, Dubravka Ugrešić, Elinor Lipman, Elizabeth Bishop, Eminem, essays, Ezra Pound, fiction, H.D., Hannah Arendt, Hitler, Ireland, Jane Austen, Jean Arthur, Marcel Proust, Nick Tosches, nonfiction, Olivia Laing, poetry, Poland, politics, Rebecca West, Robert Kaplan, Roman empire, Russia, Ryszard Kapuściński, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Shirley Jackson, Stalin, true crime, Ukraine, war, WWII, Yugoslavia
38 Comments
November 2020 Viewing Diary
Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993; d. Steven Zaillian) Popped this fave in because I was still revved up by Queen’s Gambit … I love this movie so much. Makes me cry every time. Supernatural, Season 15, episode 17 “Unity” (2020; … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Bill Murray, Bong Joon-Ho, comedy, documentary, drama, Dylan Thomas, England, Germany, Italy, Romania, Russia, sci-fi, South Korea, Spike Lee, sports movies, Supernatural, Wales, war, X-Files
6 Comments
Armistice Day Anniversary
Robert Graves, who enlisted in the Royal Welch Fusiliers on the outbreak of war, was injured so badly in the Battle of the Somme he was expected to die. He saw unimaginable horrors and lived to tell the tale. His … Continue reading
Stuff I’ve Been Reading
Made Men: The Story of Goodfellas, by Glenn Kenny Glenn is a friend of mine and I’ve been looking forward to reading his book on the making-of Goodfellas. Glenn is an amazing writer (he blogs at Some Came Running: he … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Movies
Tagged Belfast, fiction, Ireland, Martin Scorsese, Memoirs, nonfiction, Russia, Stalin, stuff I've been reading, true crime, war, WWII
15 Comments
Understanding Propaganda and Newspeak: Book Recommendation
J.P. Stern’s Hitler: The Führer and the people was published in 1974 but remains unmatched in breaking down and laying out the reasons behind the hold Hitler had, the psychological and emotional hold he had on his people. It’s a … Continue reading
“a crowd, a throng, a mob …” — Ryszard Kapuściński
“It is an interesting subject: superfluous people in the service of brute power … these people to whom no one pays attention, whom no one needs, can form into a crowd, a throng, a mob, which has an opinion about … Continue reading
Thoughtcrime and 2+2=5: This is how it’s done
Symes’ monologue to Winston Smith, in George Orwell’s 1984: “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words … Continue reading
Review: The Flood (2020)
New movie about the refugee crisis in Europe: a woman has to judge whether or not a refugee’s claims for political asylum are warranted. My review of The Flood is up at Ebert.
My Social-Distancing “#StayTheFHome” Reading List
Have a lot of writing to do, plus my day job, which I already do remotely (so hanging around in my apartment with my cat is not all that big an adjustment), although having three weeks of perishable food lined … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Austria, Biography, D.H. Lawrence, Elizabeth Bishop, Ezra Pound, H.D., Marcel Proust, Nick Tosches, Russia, Stefan Zweig, stuff I've been reading, true crime, war
8 Comments