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- “In France, I’m an auteur; in Germany, a filmmaker; in Britain; a genre film director; and, in the USA, a bum.” — John Carpenter
- NYFCC essay: “My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow”
- December 2025 Viewing Diary
- Solidarity, or: The boy in the green bandana
- “Precision and accuracy are necessary for both white and black writers. ‘A black aesthetic’ should not be an excuse for sloppy writing.” — poet and publisher Dudley Randall
- “To me, survival is the game – that’s the hardest part. I just wanna play music.” — Dave Grohl
- “When I was discovered, everything happened like dominos. I don’t know how to talk about it now because it’s too mindblowing. It’s so unreal, and yet it’s real.” — Faye Dunaway
- “As long as they pay me my salary, they can give me a broom and I’ll sweep the stage. I don’t give a damn. I want the money.” – Kay Francis
- “I look back on my life and draw one great generalization: IT WAS MY REFUSAL TO TAKE CAUTIOUS ADVICE THAT MADE ME.” — Jack London
- “I can pick a good song, but I sure couldn’t pick a good man.” — Ruth Brown
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- Norm Anderson on “Carelessness on the part of revolutionaries has always been the best aid the police have.” — Victor Serge
- mutecypher on Solidarity, or: The boy in the green bandana
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- sheila on “It’s a situation I’ve never been able to fathom. One minute, it seemed I had more movie offers than I could handle, the next — no one wanted me.” — Sal Mineo
- Gemstone on “It’s a situation I’ve never been able to fathom. One minute, it seemed I had more movie offers than I could handle, the next — no one wanted me.” — Sal Mineo
- sheila on Talking with Rachel Dratch: Frankenstein is woo-woo adjacent.
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Tag Archives: art
April/May 2023 Viewing Diary
River of Grass (1994; d. Kelly Reichardt) Reichardt’s first film. Wendy and Lucy (2008; d. Kelly Reichardt) The start of Reichardt’s collaboration with Michelle Williams. Showing Up (2023; d. Kelly Reichardt) Reichardt’s latest. I reviewed for Ebert. It’s fine. Her … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Ann-Margret, art, baseball, Belgium, crime movies, documentary, drama, Elvis Presley, France, friends, Italy, Japan, Little Richard, musicals, reviews, silent films, South Korea, The Netherlands, women directors
14 Comments
Review: Close to Vermeer (2023)
I liked hanging out with the people in this documentary, I liked soaking up their passion and expertise. I reviewed for Ebert. Thank you so much for stopping by. If you like what I do, and if you … Continue reading
Posted in Art/Photography, Movies
Tagged art, documentary, reviews, The Netherlands, women directors
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2022 Books Read
Some re-reads this year, but a lot of new-to-me authors as well. New novels written by faves. Been a year of upheaval and transitions. I’ve managed to keep up my regular reading schedule. I just don’t feel right if I’m … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged A.S. Byatt, Alfred Hitchcock, Anne Fadiman, art, Australia, Biography, books read, Canada, Christopher Hitchens, Edmund Burke, Elinor Lipman, England, entertainment biography, essays, Eve Babitz, friends, Germany, Greece, Hitler, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Janet Malcolm, Joan Didion, Joseph Cornell, Lorrie Moore, Machiavelli, Master and Margarita, Memoirs, Michael Curtiz, Mikhail Bulgakov, Mitford sisters, nonfiction, Paul Zindel, politics, Quentin Tarantino, Robert De Niro, Russia, Ryszard Kapuściński, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Shakespeare, The Beatles, Tom Wolfe, true crime, Victor Klemperer, Victor Serge, war, William Hazlitt, William Wordsworth, WWII, YA fiction
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Assassinate me tender
This outrageously sexy shot of Elvis sleeping with abandon in Love Me Tender – a movie where he plays a guy who is the opposite of sexy throughout, if that’s even possible (and it is) – calls to mind (if … Continue reading
Photo of the Day: Maxfield Parrish
Sometimes the sky does shit you can’t even believe is real. But there it is. And I am thankful for my aunt Regina’s Maxfield Parrish book, which I LOVED looking at as a child. Add to this one of the … Continue reading
It’s All Just “Too Much”
Two weeks ago, I received a gift from my cousin Kerry, a commissioned piece of artwork from the gifted Sari Lennick, showing Elvis, superimposed over a couple of pages from Stephen King’s On Writing. It’s already on my wall, where … Continue reading
Focus on The King. Make that Two Kings.
My cousin Kerry O’Malley is amazing. A gift arrived in the mail yesterday: a piece of artwork commissioned for me by Kerry! The artist is Sari Lennick, whose work is fascinating and thought-provoking in re: collage of words/pictures/art. Lennick takes … Continue reading
Review: The gorgeous Ruben Brandt, Collector (2019)
I love this film! It’s an animated art-survey course, as filtered through an international art-heist caper. So much fun. Gorgeous! My review of Ruben Brandt, Collector is now up at Rogerebert.com.
Posted in Art/Photography, Movies
Tagged animation, art, heist movies, Hungary, reviews
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Review: Never Look Away (2018)
My review of Never Look Away, directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (whose The Lives of Others won Best Foreign Film almost 10 years ago), is now up at Ebert. I knew nothing about it going in, and in the … Continue reading