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- 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- “I don’t represent anything.” — Liz Phair
- “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
- “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
- “Even though I’m writing about very dark material, it still feels like an escape hatch.” — 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
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- sheila on “For I am of the seed of the WELCH WOMAN and speak the truth from my heart.” — Christopher Smart
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- Bryce on The Books: “Nine Stories”- ‘The Laughing Man’ (J.D. Salinger)
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Tag Archives: Mary Astor
“I was never totally involved in movies. I was making someone else’s dream come true. Not mine.” — Mary Astor
“The reminder that there are people who have worse troubles than you is not an effective pain-killer.” — Mary Astor It’s her birthday today. Her memoir is great, by the way. Her story was told – by everyone else – … Continue reading
July 2022 Viewing Diary
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019; d. Quentin Tarantino) I like it more every time I see it. I’ve seen it maybe 7 or 8 times. Desert Fury (1947; d. Lewis Allen) I adore this messed-up homoerotic Technicolor fever-dream. … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Australia, Baz Luhrmann, Brad Pitt, comedy, documentary, drama, Elvis Presley, film noir, France, Georgia, Juliette Binoche, Kurt Russell, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mary Astor, Peter Bogdanovich, Quentin Tarantino, Rebecca Hall, Robert Altman, romantic drama, Supernatural, What's Up Doc, women directors
65 Comments
Mary Astor’s wardrobe for her tough-talking butch-matriarch in Desert Fury
Let’s hear it for Edith Head’s conception and design of Mary Astor’s wardrobe in Desert Fury (1947) and its elegant-but-decadent-baroque-butch aesthetic. This Technicolor noir is now streaming on Criterion, and you should see it while it’s there. The film is … Continue reading
2017 Books Read
I got into a good rhythm with reading this year. I did a lot of re-reading, going back to books I haven’t read in 20 years or whatever. It was fun, like a reunion with an old friend. Much of … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged 1984, A.S. Byatt, Bette Davis, books read, Camille Paglia, Christopher Hitchens, Edgar Allan Poe, England, France, George Orwell, Hannah Arendt, Herman Melville, Hitler, Ireland, Jack London, Janet Malcolm, Jean Renoir, Jeanette Winterson, Joan Crawford, Joan Didion, John Milton, Kim Stanley, Mark Danielewski, Mary Astor, Mary Gaitskill, Olivia Laing, Poland, politics, Robert Altman, Robert Conquest, Robert Kaplan, Russia, S.E. Hinton, Shirley Jackson, Tana French, Tennessee Williams, The Great Terror, war
4 Comments
Year in Review: Running my mouth in 2017
It’s been a God-awful year in so many unprecedented ways. It’s also been a great year for me professionally (which has brought with it its own set of challenges.) Here are some of the things I’ve written this year. Reviews, … Continue reading
Posted in Movies, Television
Tagged Actors Studio, B.B. King, Bette Davis, Carrie Fisher, Cate Blanchett, Chuck Berry, documentary, East of Eden, Elvis Presley, Greta Gerwig, Groundhog Day, Harry Dean Stanton, Howard Hawks, Isabelle Huppert, Jack Garfein, Jerry Lewis, Joachim Trier, Joan Crawford, John Steinbeck, July and Half of August, Kim Stanley, Kristen Stewart, Mary Astor, Pat McCurdy, Robert Duvall, Sam Shepard, Sofia Coppola, Supernatural, William Faulkner, women directors, year in writing
15 Comments
Book Review: Mary Astor’s Purple Diary: The Great American Sex Scandal of 1936, written and illustrated by Edward Sorel
I reviewed this absolutely wonderful book for Rogerebert.com.
Mary Astor’s Sex Life On Trial
In light of the following recent text exchange … … between Mitchell and myself, I would like to announce the publication of two books, which will be sold as companion volumes: I Miss Sluts, by Sheila O’Malley Where’s Mary Fucking … Continue reading
Other Men’s Women (1931); Dir. William Wellman
The romantic-triangle set against an environment of machines and technology was territory William Wellman had covered before (in Wings, most notably), and here, in Other Men’s Women, instead of planes, like in Wings, we’ve got trains. Male friendship and work … Continue reading