Categories
Archives
-
-
-
-
Recent Posts
- “My mother gave me my drive but my father gave me my dreams.” — Liza Minnelli
- “I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.” — Jack Kerouac
- “I am not descended from flesh. I am God.”: It’s Vaslav Nijinsky’s Birthday
- “My aim is to imply rather than to overstate. Whenever the reader participates with his own interpretation, I feel that the book is much more successful.” — Ezra Jack Keats
- “A good director must be able to inspire whoever he was coaching so that the actor would live the scene. Make-believe must become reality.” — Raoul Walsh
- February 2026 Snapshots
- “I’ve never thought of my characters as being sad. On the contrary, they are full of life. They didn’t choose tragedy. Tragedy chose them.” — Juliette Binoche
- Happy Birthday, “Mr. Personality” Lloyd Price
- For International Women’s Day: Ladies I Love
- “Have you ever noticed how a cat stretches after a nap? We can learn from watching animals.” — Cyd Charisse
Recent Comments
- sheila on “I am not descended from flesh. I am God.”: It’s Vaslav Nijinsky’s Birthday
- dres on Supernatural: Season 2, Episode 12: “Nightshifter”
- Frances on “I am not descended from flesh. I am God.”: It’s Vaslav Nijinsky’s Birthday
- sheila on February 2026 Snapshots
- wgh. on February 2026 Snapshots
- dres on Supernatural: Season 2, Episode 11: “Playthings”
- dennis on Happy Birthday, John Garfield
- dennis on Happy Birthday, John Garfield
- Dennis on John Garfield in We Were Strangers (1949)
- dennis on John Garfield in We Were Strangers (1949)
- mutecpher on Supernatural: Season 2, Episode 9: “Croatoan”
- 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
- dres on Supernatural: Season 2, Episode 9: “Croatoan”
- mutecypher on Supernatural: Season 2, Episode 9: “Croatoan”
- dres on Supernatural: Season 2, Episode 10: “Hunted”
- dres on Supernatural: Season 2, Episode 9: “Croatoan”
- dres on Supernatural: Season 2, Episode 8: “Crossroad Blues”
- Michael James Cobb on “The hope is that in rediscovering Chicago, audiences will rediscover what theater was. It was sophisticated, complicated, adult.” — Ann Reinking
- dres on Supernatural: Season 2, Episode 7: “The Usual Suspects”
- mutecypher 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
-
Tag Archives: Shakespeare
On This Day: October 25, 1415: “We Few, We Happy Few.”
Happy Anniversary of The Battle of Agincourt Today is the feast day of Saints Crispin and Crispinian, cobblers by trade (and patron saints thereof, although Vatican II nixed them from the calendar), fierce warriors of their faith, martyred in 286. … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, On This Day, Theatre
Tagged England, Laurence Olivier, Shakespeare, war
9 Comments
R.I.P. Michael Gambon
All the headlines mention Dumbledore. and I get it. Fine. But Dumbledore Shmumbledore. Michael Gambon’s stage career was spectacular. He played everything (see him here as King Lear), and when I heard he passed, I thought immediately of a hilarious … Continue reading
March 2023 Viewing Diary
March was a bitch. Working on a big single project which sucked up all of my attention. Marathon not a sprint. I can’t do things half-way. This project was never ever out of my mind. I’m close to the finish … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged biopic, Claudette Colbert, documentary, Dorothy Arzner, drama, England, Fredric March, horror, Ireland, Pre-Code, reviews, Shakespeare, short films, Supernatural, women directors
3 Comments
Review: The Lost King (2023)
Ah, the Ricardians. I check in with them on occasion to see what they’re up to, because I love people who care SO MUCH about something, and who back it up with research – and – naturally – in 2012, … Continue reading
2022 Books Read
Some re-reads this year, but a lot of new-to-me authors as well. New novels written by faves. Been a year of upheaval and transitions. I’ve managed to keep up my regular reading schedule. I just don’t feel right if I’m … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged A.S. Byatt, Alfred Hitchcock, Anne Fadiman, art, Australia, Biography, books read, Canada, Christopher Hitchens, Edmund Burke, Elinor Lipman, England, entertainment biography, essays, Eve Babitz, friends, Germany, Greece, Hitler, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Janet Malcolm, Joan Didion, Joseph Cornell, Lorrie Moore, Machiavelli, Master and Margarita, Memoirs, Michael Curtiz, Mikhail Bulgakov, Mitford sisters, nonfiction, Paul Zindel, politics, Quentin Tarantino, Robert De Niro, Russia, Ryszard Kapuściński, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Shakespeare, The Beatles, Tom Wolfe, true crime, Victor Klemperer, Victor Serge, war, William Hazlitt, William Wordsworth, WWII, YA fiction
10 Comments
“Great balls of fire! My friend, Roderigo!” Jerry Lee Lewis as Iago
A re-post in honor of the Killer. R.I.P. In 1968, there was a short-lived production of Othello in Los Angeles, a dream project of producer Jack Good, who wrote a loose adaptation filled with rock ‘n roll songs. He called … Continue reading
My second move in a year
Library getting packed up again. I’m too old for this shit. So this bookcase is half-packed and what is there is random, but it makes a pretty funny collage. — Dad’s book on Anglo-Irish literature (dedicated to Mum) — my … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Movies, Personal
Tagged Annie Proulx, Bringing Up Baby, Elvis Presley, family, Federalist Papers, Liz Phair, Marcel Proust, Pauline Kael, Shakespeare
2 Comments
Interpreting Lady Macbeth: Sarah Siddons vs. Ellen Terry
For Shakespeare’s Birthday Ellen Terry Sarah Siddons Michael Holroyd’s A Strange Eventful History: The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving, and Their Remarkable Families tells the story of 19th century theatre-manager Henry Irving, and his lead actress Ellen Terry. … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, On This Day
Tagged Charles Lamb, Ellen Terry, Henry James, Macbeth, Oscar Wilde, Sarah Siddons, Shakespeare
15 Comments
Recommended Books: Non-Fiction
I have been meaning to do a Part 2 to my Recommended Books: Fiction list – put together years ago. I wanted to recommend non-fiction, from history books to biographies to essays to whatever. Here is the Non-Fiction list. I’ve … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Founding Fathers, Theatre
Tagged Abraham Lincoln, Afghanistan, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Alexander Hamilton, Austria, Balkan Ghosts, Balkans, baseball, Belfast, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Catherine Drinker-Bowen, Central Asia, China, Crowds and Power, Dava Sobel, David McCullough, Edmund Burke, Edvard Radzinsky, Elias Canetti, Elvis Presley, England, Federalist Papers, Founding Brothers, France, Germany, Group Theatre, Gulag Archipelago, Hitler, Hunter S. Thompson, Imperium, Ireland, Iris Chang, Isaac Newton, James Madison, Janet Malcolm, Japan, Joseph Ellis, Michael Schmidt, Miracle at Philadelphia, nonfiction, Olivia Laing, Philip Gourevitch, poetry, Primo Levi, Rasputin, Rebecca West, Red Sox, Robert Conquest, Robert Kaplan, Roman empire, Russia, Rwanda, Ryszard Kapuściński, science, Serbia, Shakespeare, Stalin, The Great Terror, The Soccer War, Tom Wolfe, true crime, Ukraine, Vincent Bugliosi, WWI, WWII, Yugoslavia
19 Comments