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- 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Henry IV, Part 2
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- “It sounds like something from a Woody Guthrie song, but it’s true; I was raised in a freight car.” — Merle Haggard
- 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Henry IV, Part 1
- “There won’t be another Bette Davis. There can’t be.” Mitchell and I discuss Bette Davis
- “I’d marry again if I found a man who had fifteen million dollars, would sign over half to me and guarantee that he’d be dead within a year.” — Bette Davis
- In the Criterion Closet
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Tag Archives: Margaret Atwood
May 2018 Viewing Diary
First Reformed (2018; d. Paul Schrader) The best film of the year thus far. This is not an exaggeration: I had trouble breathing during the final sequence (as in: I felt like I stopped breathing) – and once the film … Continue reading
April 2018 Viewing Diary
Elvis Presley: The Searcher (2018; d. Thom Zimny) New 2-part HBO doc about Elvis. Grateful it exists now. Long overdue artistic redress. I reviewed for Ebert. Morvern Callar (2002; d. Lynne Ramsay) Re-watched in preparation for her latest, You Were … Continue reading
Posted in James Joyce, Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Coen brothers, Costa-Gavras, documentary, Elvis Presley, Finnegans Wake, France, Handmaid's Tale, Japan, Jared Padalecki, Jeff Bridges, Jensen Ackles, Joan Blondell, Leo McCarey, Margaret Atwood, Martha Coolidge, Mervyn LeRoy, Norway, politics, Robert Duvall, Sebastián Lelio, Supernatural, women directors
8 Comments
December 2017 Viewing Diary
Supernatural, Season 11 (2015-16) What an incredible season, right up until the moment …. it was not an incredible season. I hadn’t re-watched in its entirety since it aired, although I cherry-picked favorite episodes to re-watch (of which there are … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Coen brothers, Darren Aronofsky, David Fincher, documentary, Elizabeth Taylor, France, Garrett Hedlund, Georgia, Jack Kerouac, Jean Renoir, Jeremy Renner, John Huston, Julie Harris, Kentucker Audley, Margaret Atwood, Marlon Brando, Michelle Pfeiffer, Richard Gere, Star Wars, Steven Spielberg, Supernatural, women directors, Zodiac
21 Comments
July 2017 Viewing Diary
Six Figures Getting Sick (1966; d. David Lynch) Natalie reminded me of this short film from David Lynch when we were discussing all of the vomit on Twin Peaks: The Return. I went back and watched it – it’s on … Continue reading
June 2017 Viewing Diary
Mad Men, Season 2 – 7 Not sure why I decided to do a re-watch. I think what happened is I watched the pilot and then couldn’t stop myself. It’s been a terrible month. I needed the comfort of the … Continue reading
May 2017 Viewing Diary
Chuck (2017; d. Philippe Falardeau) A movie about the “real life Rocky,” the “bleeder from Bayonne” Chuck Wepner, starring Liev Schreiber. My review for Ebert. Take Me (2017; d. Pat Healy) God, I loved this movie. Please seek it out. … Continue reading
April 2017 Viewing Diary
I just dash these off. Superficial bullet-point analysis for the most part. It’s a good way to keep track of what I’ve seen, for year-end lists, of course, but also for future reference. I also always love the discussions on … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Angela Lansbury, Bette Davis, Cristian Mungiu, documentary, Dogfight, France, Hal Ashby, Humphrey Bogart, Isabelle Huppert, James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Joan Crawford, John Huston, Josephine Decker, July and Half of August, Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Margaret Atwood, Nancy Savoca, Paul Verhoeven, Romania, Shirley MacLaine, Supernatural, Susan Sarandon, Vincente Minnelli, women directors
50 Comments
2015 Books Read
Even I am impressed with how much I read this year. Along the course of the year, occasionally I’d think to myself, “Good job, Sheila, with your Self-Imposed Reading Plan!” I’ve read a lot of new novels (not really my … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged A.S. Byatt, Alexander Hamilton, Baseball A Literary Anthology, books read, Christopher Hitchens, Christopher Marlowe, Edvard Radzinsky, Elvis Presley, Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Eliot, Hannah Arendt, Hunter S. Thompson, Ireland, J.D. Salinger, Jeanette Winterson, Jincy Willett, Joan Didion, John Banville, John Wayne, Joshua Ferris, Lorrie Moore, Machiavelli, Margaret Atwood, Norman Rush, Patricia Highsmith, Paul Zindel, Rasputin, Rebecca West, Ron Chernow, Russia, science, Seamus Heaney, Vietnam, W.H. Auden, William Shakespeare, William Styron
22 Comments
The Books: Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing; “Temptation: Prospero, the Wizard of Oz, Mephisto & Co.; Who waves the wand, pulls the strings, or signs the Devil’s book?”, by Margaret Atwood
On the essays shelf (yes, there are still more books to excerpt in my vast library. I can’t seem to stop this excerpts-from-my-library project. I started it in 2006!) NEXT BOOK: Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing, a … Continue reading