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- “I don’t want to show things, but to give people the desire to see.” — Agnès Varda
- “I never made a message picture, and I hope I never do.” — Howard Hawks
- “If I am going to be a poet at all, I am going to be POET and not NEGRO POET.” — poet Countee Cullen
- Reviews: Currents (2026)
- Reviews: Forge (2026)
- “Only the bad directors tell you how to read a line, how to define your character. The good ones let you do your job.” — Carroll Baker
- “I never heard the term ‘rockabilly’ back then. Nobody did…When people asked what music we played, we were rock ’n’ rollers.” — Sonny Burgess
- “I am in a prison: one wall is the avant-garde, the other wall is the past, and I want to escape.” — György Ligeti
- An Acting Lesson: John Wayne and the “Reality of the Doing”
- “I don’t call myself a poet, because I don’t like the word. I’m a trapeze artist.” – Bob Dylan
Recent Comments
- Bryan Summers on “I never made a message picture, and I hope I never do.” — Howard Hawks
- Lyrie on “I just love telling stories. That’s what we do and it’s a good business to be in, especially if you know you have talent.” –Jensen Ackles
- Kendra Williams on Josh White, singer of “the fighting blues”
- sheila on “I dont want to just do just country type stuff the rest of my life. I want to do some different things.” — Charlie Rich
- sheila on The Books: “Awake and Sing” (Clifford Odets)
- Jincy Willett on “There’s nobody as good as the Ramones, never will be.” — Joey Ramone
- Bill Wolfe on “I dont want to just do just country type stuff the rest of my life. I want to do some different things.” — Charlie Rich
- Donn Harris on The Books: “Awake and Sing” (Clifford Odets)
- sheila on “Listen, I never meant to make money. I never wanted it. I’m a singer, man.” — Gene Vincent
- Pat on “Listen, I never meant to make money. I never wanted it. I’m a singer, man.” — Gene Vincent
- sheila on “There’s nobody as good as the Ramones, never will be.” — Joey Ramone
- Jincy Willett on “There’s nobody as good as the Ramones, never will be.” — Joey Ramone
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Hamlet
- Biff Dorsey on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Hamlet
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Hamlet
- Dave on Review: The Chronology of Water (2025)
- Biff Dorsey on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Hamlet
- sheila on “I just love telling stories. That’s what we do and it’s a good business to be in, especially if you know you have talent.” –Jensen Ackles
- sheila on Miscast? Mayyyybe.
- sheila on “You are not acting so much as being. The result is realism.” — Gary Cooper
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Tag Archives: Frances Farmer
“I didn’t think then, and I still don’t, that I was actually sick.” — Frances Farmer
“She’ll come back as fire To burn all the liars And leave a blanket of ash on the ground.” — Nirvana, “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle” It’s her birthday today. When Nirvana’s album In Utero came out … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day, Theatre
Tagged Clifford Odets, Frances Farmer, Group Theatre
22 Comments
Year in Review: Running my mouth in 2020, Part 2
Here’s part 1, a list of things I’ve written for other outlets. This list, then, is a hodge-podge of the things I’ve written here this year. Anyone familiar with this joint knows that I do tribute posts for people’s birthdays. … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Books, Movies, Music, Personal, writers
Tagged A. E. Housman, Alexander Pope, Anna Karina, Anne Spencer, Austin Clarke, Ballets Russes, baseball, Basil Bunting, dance, Eminem, England, France, Frances Farmer, friends, Harlem Renaissance, Hediyeh Tehrani, Hope, Iranian film, Irish poetry, John Donne, Melvin B. Tolson, Nick Tosches, Nijinsky, Philip Larkin, poetry, Poland, Rhode Island, Robert Frost, Romania, Scott Walker, Stanley Kubrick, women directors, year in writing
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March 2017 Viewing Diary
The Goddess (1958; d. John Cromwell) Written by Paddy Chayevsky. Starring Kim Stanley and Lloyd Bridges. Stanley plays a character clearly based on Marilyn Monroe, rather extraordinary when you consider Monroe was still alive. It’s a brutal movie about stardom … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Bette Davis, Carroll Baker, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, documentary, England, Frances Farmer, Horton Foote, Israel, Jack Garfein, Joan Crawford, John Huston, July and Half of August, Kim Stanley, Orson Welles, Ralph Meeker, Robert Aldrich, Supernatural, Sydney Pollack, Tennessee Williams, Tommy Lee Jones, women directors
59 Comments
Frances Farmer: The “Come and Get It” Story
An absolutely brilliant 2-part post about Frances Farmer, one of Hollywood’s sadder tales. Part 1 is here. In this post the Siren addresses the myths about Frances Farmer – set in stone by the 1982 film Frances – while still … Continue reading