-
-
-
Recent Posts
- March 2024 Viewing Diary
- “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
- “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
- “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
- “As a cinematographer, I was always attracted to stories that have the potential to be told with as few words as possible.” — Reed Morano
- “At some point, you have to set down the past. At some point, you have to accept that everyone was doing their best. At some point, you have to gather yourself up, and go onward into your life.” — Olivia Laing
- “It’s just one of the mysteries of filmmaking that sometimes you do something that you don’t even think it’s important, then it turns out to be.” –Lili Horvát
- “Ballet taught me to stay close to style and tone. Literature taught me to be concerned about the moral life.” — Joan Acocella
Recent Comments
- Biff Dorsey on March 2024 Viewing Diary
- Robert Valente on For Joseph Cotten’s birthday: Gaslight: His Listening Is Active
- Anne Whitehouse on 2023 Books Read
- sheila on My new column at Liberties magazine: First up: acting and film criticism and how the twain meet
- Jessie on My new column at Liberties magazine: First up: acting and film criticism and how the twain meet
- sheila on My new column at Liberties magazine: First up: acting and film criticism and how the twain meet
- sheila on My new column at Liberties magazine: First up: acting and film criticism and how the twain meet
- sheila on “For I am of the seed of the WELCH WOMAN and speak the truth from my heart.” Happy Birthday, Poet Christopher Smart
- Melissa Sutherland on “For I am of the seed of the WELCH WOMAN and speak the truth from my heart.” Happy Birthday, Poet Christopher Smart
- Carolyn Clarke on “For I am of the seed of the WELCH WOMAN and speak the truth from my heart.” Happy Birthday, Poet Christopher Smart
- Lyrie on My new column at Liberties magazine: First up: acting and film criticism and how the twain meet
- mutecypher on My new column at Liberties magazine: First up: acting and film criticism and how the twain meet
- Mike Molloy on Three unknowable men from the same angle
- sheila on Three unknowable men from the same angle
- Mike Molloy on Three unknowable men from the same angle
- Shaharee Vyaas on The Books: “Finnegans Wake” (James Joyce)
- Mike Molloy on “The only thing an actor owes his public is not to bore them.” — Marlon Brando
- sheila on “The only thing an actor owes his public is not to bore them.” — Marlon Brando
- sheila on “The only thing an actor owes his public is not to bore them.” — Marlon Brando
- sheila on “The only thing an actor owes his public is not to bore them.” — Marlon Brando
Categories
Archives
-
Tag Archives: David Bowie
“Here I was, stuck in the middle of a dying nation with all these funny looking children who didn’t even realize the world was coming to an end, and now on top of everything else they expected me to turn my room into a hippie crash pad!” — Lester Bangs
It’s his birthday today. A lot of ink has been spilled on Lester Bangs, including on this site. My feelings for him are as chaotic as his writing style. There are times I read him and I think, almost wildly, … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Music, On This Day, writers
Tagged David Bowie, Lester Bangs, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones
4 Comments
December 2022 Viewing Diary
The Whale (2022; d. Darren Aronofsky) I thought it was appalling, and not just for the obvious reasons (i.e. his body is viewed as literally a movie monster, with all these horror-movie shots of his gigantic ankles, etc.) And it … 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, historical drama, Hungary, Isabelle Huppert, Kentucker Audley, Natasha Richardson, Paul Schrader, Paul Thomas Anderson, Preston Sturges, Punch-Drunk Love, Russia, Sandrine Bonnaire, screwball, thrillers, Ukraine, war, women directors
3 Comments
2022 Mirror moments, part 2
Moonage Daydream, directed by Brett Morgen Benediction, directed by Terrence Davies
Music Monday: Bowie, Fatima Mansions & Walker Brothers: 3 Versions of Nite Flights: Original/2 Copies, by Brendan O’Malley
My talented brother Brendan O’Malley is an amazing writer and actor. He’s wonderful in the recent You & Me, directed by Alexander Baack. (I interviewed Baack about the film here.) His most recent gig was story editor/writer on the hit … Continue reading
The Man Who Fell to Earth loves Elvis movies
Because of course he would. They had the same birthday. From Nicolas Roeg’s great The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976).
Two Obsessives: Pat McCurdy and I Discuss Elvis
Pat McCurdy and I go way WAY back. He’s a brilliant songwriter and performer in the Milwaukee/Chicago area. I first saw him play in Chicago. (Well, actually, this isn’t true. I first saw him when I was 12 or 13 … Continue reading
Year in Review: Shooting My Mouth Off in 2016
I look at this and I wonder why I always feel like I haven’t done jack-squat. Or, at the very least, I could do more. Well, I always can do more. Regardless, here are links to some of the things … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Books, Movies, On This Day, Personal, RIP
Tagged Abbas Kiarostami, Baz Luhrmann, Buddy Holly, Camille Paglia, Carrie Fisher, Carroll Baker, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, Chantal Akerman, Compulsion, David Bowie, Dean Stockwell, Dolly Parton, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Elizabeth Bishop, Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis Presley, Eminem, friends, Gena Rowlands, George Stevens, Gilda, Isabelle Huppert, James Dean, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, July and Half of August, Katherine Dunn, Langston Hughes, Little Richard, Marion Cotillard, Marlon Brando, Matthias Schoenaerts, Merle Haggard, Mia Hansen-Løve, Miriam Hopkins, Patricia Highsmith, Rebecca Hall, Richard Linklater, Rocky, Sam Cooke, Shakespeare, Something Wild, Stephen King, Sudden Fear, Supernatural, Sylvester Stallone, Tennessee Williams, The Great Gatsby, Wanda Jackson, women directors, year in writing, Zac Efron
6 Comments
Rock. Stars.
Keith Richards. Tina Turner. David Bowie.
R.I.P. David Bowie
He helped show what was possible. He embodied possibility. He was true to himself and part of that meant willingness to change. Not even willingness: he had to change, because he was alive. And human beings are not static. And … Continue reading