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- “There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad.” — Charlotte Brontë
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- Review: The Ugly Stepsister (2025)
- “I don’t like being approached by people who look at me too intensely, who needed something from me that I didn’t have. I don’t represent anything.” — Liz Phair
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- “Some syllables are swords.” — Metaphysical poet Henry Vaughan
- “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- “All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.” — Charlie Chaplin
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Tag Archives: Afghanistan
Review: Retrograde (2022)
A documentary about the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan after nearly 20 years. It’s heart-breaking. I have a Special Forces pal, who was over there in the earliest stages. I thought of him often. I can’t repeat his stories, of … Continue reading
NYFCC 2021 Awards
Early this month, the New York Film Critics Circle met up at Lincoln Center – in person – for the first time in over a year – to vote on our 2021 awards. The awards show is being held in … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Afghanistan, animation, comedy, Denmark, documentary, drama, Japan, Lady Gaga, musicals, Norway, Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Spielberg, women directors
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Recommended Books: Non-Fiction
I have been meaning to do a Part 2 to my Recommended Books: Fiction list – put together years ago. I wanted to recommend non-fiction, from history books to biographies to essays to whatever. Here is the Non-Fiction list. I’ve … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Founding Fathers, Theatre
Tagged Abraham Lincoln, Afghanistan, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Alexander Hamilton, Austria, Balkan Ghosts, Balkans, baseball, Belfast, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Catherine Drinker-Bowen, Central Asia, China, Crowds and Power, Dava Sobel, David McCullough, Edmund Burke, Edvard Radzinsky, Elias Canetti, Elvis Presley, England, Federalist Papers, Founding Brothers, France, Germany, Group Theatre, Gulag Archipelago, Hitler, Hunter S. Thompson, Imperium, Ireland, Iris Chang, Isaac Newton, James Madison, Janet Malcolm, Japan, Joseph Ellis, Michael Schmidt, Miracle at Philadelphia, nonfiction, Olivia Laing, Philip Gourevitch, poetry, Primo Levi, Rasputin, Rebecca West, Red Sox, Robert Conquest, Robert Kaplan, Roman empire, Russia, Rwanda, Ryszard Kapuściński, science, Serbia, Shakespeare, Stalin, The Great Terror, The Soccer War, Tom Wolfe, true crime, Ukraine, Vincent Bugliosi, WWI, WWII, Yugoslavia
19 Comments
Bookshelf Tour #9
The books of Robert Conquest: first and foremost his masterpiece, one of the most important books of the 20th century: The Great Terror: A Reassessment, but also Reflections on a Ravaged Century, The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Afghanistan, Balkans, bookshelves, politics, Robert Conquest, Russia, The Great Terror, war
9 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
Bookshelf Tour #8
Welcome to the Tyranny section of my bookshelves. First up: Collapse of Communism by the correspondents of The New York Times. A really interesting in-real-time book about the various gigantic events which signaled the crackup of the Soviet Union, as … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Afghanistan, bookshelves, Hannah Arendt, Iran, Iris Chang, Russia, Ryszard Kapuściński
4 Comments
Restoring the lost films of Afghanistan
In the midst of mostly wretched news, worldwide, nationally, and everywhere else, this story has inspired me so much. The anti-culture anti-life anti-future Taliban, who would prefer that we all live in the 12th century, went on a rampage after … Continue reading
2012 Books Read
Live from Memphis. Here are the books I read in 2012. 1. My Life with Elvis – by Becky Yancey. The first book published after Elvis’ death from one of the insiders on his team. She worked in the office … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Afghanistan, books read, Christopher Hitchens, Diane Keaton, Elvis Presley, Iran, Janet Malcolm, Joan Didion, Rebecca West, Stephen King, Vladimir Nabokov
22 Comments
The Books: The Essential Rumi
Daily Book Excerpt: Poetry. Next book on the shelf: The Essential Rumi, translations by Coleman Barks with John Moyne Ptolemy Tompkins wrote in Time Asia Edition on September 30, 2002 Jalaluddin Rumi was, among many other things, a lover of … Continue reading
National Poetry Month: Rumi
The Reed Flute’s Song – by Rumi Listen to the story told by the reed, of being separated, “Since I was cut from the reedbed, I have made this crying sound. Anyone apart from someone he loves understands what I … Continue reading