Categories
Archives
-
-
-
-
Recent Posts
- 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
Recent Comments
- sheila on March 2026 Snapshots
- sheila 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
- Jessie on March 2026 Snapshots
- 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
- Helen Erwin Schinske on “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
- Joseph Pedulla on Susan Hayward Sleeps Raw
- sheila on “For I am of the seed of the WELCH WOMAN and speak the truth from my heart.” — Christopher Smart
- P Nickel on “The realization of ignorance is the first act of knowing.” — Jean Toomer
- Melissa Sutherland on “For I am of the seed of the WELCH WOMAN and speak the truth from my heart.” — Christopher Smart
- Bryce on The Books: “Nine Stories”- ‘The Laughing Man’ (J.D. Salinger)
- sheila on March 2026 Snapshots
- Troy on March 2026 Snapshots
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Henry IV, Part 1
- Ian on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Henry IV, Part 1
- sheila on Happy Birthday, Dean Stockwell
- jeanie laub on Happy Birthday, Dean Stockwell
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Henry IV, Part 1
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Henry IV, Part 1
-
Tag Archives: Roald Dahl
2025 Books Read
I ended last year with a flurry of Oscar Wilde’s short stories, declaring I’d read all the plays in 2025. I mean, there were only five, sadly, due to the homophobic violence of his own society. I know these plays … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Anton Chekhov, Austria, books read, Charles Lamb, children's books, Croatia, Czechoslovakia, Czeslaw Milosz, David Lynch, Dubravka Ugrešić, England, essays, fiction, France, Frankenstein, Germany, Guillermo del Toro, Hungary, Ireland, Jane Austen, Janet Malcolm, John Keats, Lord Byron, Mark Danielewski, Mary Gaitskill, Mary Shelley, Matthew Arnold, Memoirs, nonfiction, Oscar Wilde, poetry, Poland, politics, Rebecca West, Roald Dahl, Robert Kaplan, Robert Louis Stevenson, Russia, sci-fi, Scotland, scripts, Spain, The Beatles, Twin Peaks, William Shakespeare, Yugoslavia
12 Comments
For Film Comment: Reviews of The Night Digger (1971) and Alice, Sweet Alice (1976)
I had so much fun watching, researching, and writing up these two (somewhat) little-known films, The Night Digger (1971), starring Patricia Neal (adaptation by her husband Roald Dahl: her second role post-stroke), and Alice, Sweet Alice, a bonkers religious-horror movie … Continue reading
The Books: “As I Am: An Autobiography” (Patricia Neal)
Daily Book Excerpt: Entertainment Biography/Memoir: As I Am: An Autobiography, by Patricia Neal This is one of those rare books where my response to it was, “Dear God, it’s me, Sheila. Could you please give Patricia Neal a break? Hasn’t … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Books
Tagged entertainment biography, Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal, Paul Newman, Roald Dahl
9 Comments
“the essence of [Roald] Dahl is his willingness to let children triumph over adults”
A fantastic in-depth article about Roald Dahl in The New Yorker. You won’t want to miss this one, if you’re a fan of his books. What IS it about Dahl’s work that is so enduring? And why is it so … Continue reading
The Books: “The Magic Finger” (Roald Dahl)
Next book in my Daily Book Excerpt: We’re still in the picture book section. The following book was one of my favorites as a kid. My sister Jean gave it to me as a gift a couple Christmases ago, and … Continue reading