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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
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- “Ballet taught me to stay close to style and tone. Literature taught me to be concerned about the moral life.” — Joan Acocella
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- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
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- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
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- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Mike Molloy on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on March 2026 Snapshots
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- Helen Erwin Schinske on “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- Maddy on “I don’t really know why, but danger has always been an important thing in my life – to see how far I could lean without falling, how fast I could go without cracking up.” — William Holden
- sheila on “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
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Tag Archives: Christopher Walken
“Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress. When I get fed up with one, I spend the night with the other.” — Anton Chekhov
It’s his birthday today. Anton Chekhov, letter to actress (and wife) Olga Knipper January 2, 1901 “Describe at least one rehearsal of Three Sisters for me. Isn’t there anything which needs adding or subtracting? Are you acting well, my darling? … Continue reading
Posted in On This Day, Theatre, writers
Tagged Anton Chekhov, Christopher Walken, Maureen Stapleton, Olympia Dukakis, scripts, The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull
9 Comments
December 2022 Viewing Diary
The Whale (2022; d. Darren Aronofsky) I thought it was appalling, and not for the obvious reasons. His body is viewed as literally a movie monster, with all these horror-movie shots of his gigantic ankles, etc.) It felt tired and … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged action movies, animation, Austria, Brad Pitt, Brian De Palma, Charles Dickens, Christopher Walken, Claude Chabrol, Claudette Colbert, comedy, coming of age, Czechoslovakia, Darren Aronofsky, David Bowie, documentary, drama, England, France, Germany, heist movies, historical drama, Hungary, India, Isabelle Huppert, Kentucker Audley, Natasha Richardson, Paul Schrader, Paul Thomas Anderson, Preston Sturges, Punch-Drunk Love, Russia, Sandrine Bonnaire, screwball comedy, thrillers, Ukraine, war, women directors
3 Comments
April 2022 Viewing Diary
When I first got the Raging Bull gig, I began a re-watch of all the Scorsese-De Niro movies – at least the ones clustered around that period. I grew up on these films. These movies were huge to me as … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Anjelica Huston, biopic, Brian De Palma, Canada, Christopher Walken, comedy, Dana Andrews, documentary, drama, Elia Kazan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, France, historical drama, Italy, Jack Nicholson, Jane Fonda, Joan Didion, John Cazale, Liza Minnelli, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Mickey Rourke, musicals, Ray Milland, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Robert Mitchum, romantic drama, Russia, sci-fi, Tuesday Weld, Ukraine, Vietnam, women directors, WWII
12 Comments
The Key to Streetcar Named Desire is Stella, and Don’t Let Anyone Tell You Different: A Review of Who Am I This Time? (1982)
A re-post, because I’ve got love and theatre on the brain. Is it not monstrous that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Could force his soul so to his own conceit That from her … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged A Streetcar Named Desire, Christopher Walken, comedy, literary adaptation, reviews, Susan Sarandon, Tennessee Williams
10 Comments
R.I.P. Tony Scott
Dennis Hopper on shooting the scene with Christopher Walken in True Romance: Everywhere I go, all over the world, I was just in China making a film, I was just in South Africa making a film, I made a film … Continue reading
Posted in Directors, RIP
Tagged Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper, Quentin Tarantino, Tony Scott, True Romance
4 Comments
The Books: The Actor’s Chekhov: Interviews with Nikos Psacharopoulos and the Company of the Williamstown Theatre Festival, on the Plays of Anton Chekhov, edited by Jean Hackett
Daily Book Excerpt: Theatre Next book on the acting/theatre shelf is The Actor’s Chekhov : Interviews with Nikos Psacharopoulos and the Company of the Williamstown Theatre Festival, on the Plays of Anton Chekhov , edited by Jean Hackett Amy Irving, … Continue reading
It’s Christopher Walken’s Birthday. Let’s Misbehave.
In honor of his birthday, let’s enjoy his show-stopping number in Pennies From Heaven. I love how the cinematography here is old-school dance cinematography from the days of Astaire and Rogers and Cyd Charisse: Full body captured, including the feet … Continue reading
Who Am I This Time? (1982); Dir. Jonathan Demme
Is it not monstrous that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Could force his soul so to his own conceit That from her working all his visage wann’d, Tears in his eyes, distraction in’s … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Christopher Walken, Jonathan Demme, Susan Sarandon, Tennessee Williams
30 Comments
Some Island snapshots
— “I cannot imagine how a casual reference to Suetonius and Petronius Arbiter can be construed into evidence of a desire to impress by an assumption of superior knowledge. I should fancy that the most ordinary of scholars is perfectly … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged Andrei Tarkovsky, Block Island, Christopher Walken, Deborah Kerr, E.E. Cummings, Emily Dickinson, Evelyn Waugh, Frank Capra, Gary Cooper, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Hope, In a Lonely Place, Keri Hulme, Oscar Wilde, Patricia Neal, snapshots, T.S. Eliot, The Bone People
10 Comments
Acting Chekhov: a compilation of quotes.
All excerpts below from The Actor’s Chekhov: Nikos Psacharopoulos and the Company of the Williamstown Theatre Festival, on the Plays of Anton Chekhov – a book I adore. It’s extensive interviews with all of the actors who were “regulars” at … Continue reading

