Categories
Archives
-

-
Recent Posts
- “I prefer a national film to an international film.” — Jean-Paul Belmondo
- “Sometimes I can sing it when I can’t say it.” — Carl Perkins
- “I never wanted to be this famous. I never imagined this life for myself.” — Kristen Stewart
- 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Henry IV, Part 2
- “I never was good at sightseeing yet it must be done.” — William Wordsworth
- “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
Recent Comments
- 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
- Bryan Summers on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Henry IV, Part 1
- sheila on In the Criterion Closet
- DBW on In the Criterion Closet
- sheila on Coming soon …
- sheila on March 2026 Snapshots
- Maddy on Coming soon …
- Maddy on March 2026 Snapshots
- sheila on March 2026 Snapshots
- Dan on March 2026 Snapshots
- Sheila on “Life was bitter and I was not. All around me was poverty and sordidness but I refused to see it that way. By turning it into jokes, I made it bearable.” — Max Shulman
- Robert McCarville on “Life was bitter and I was not. All around me was poverty and sordidness but I refused to see it that way. By turning it into jokes, I made it bearable.” — Max Shulman
-
Tag Archives: Steve Martin
May 2022 Viewing Diary
This was the month of watching only the first two episodes of various television series. I just couldn’t keep going – not because they’re bad, but because … I have other things I have to do and/or watch. Robert De … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Al Pacino, Brad Pitt, comedy, Diane Keaton, documentary, drama, Dustin Hoffman, Elvis Presley, England, Frankenstein, Germany, Jack Black, Kurt Russell, Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese, Mary Shelley, Michael Mann, Owen Wilson, Robert De Niro, Robert Mitchum, romantic comedy, Sanaa Lathan, Sandra Bullock, Shelley Winters, Steve Martin, Sylvester Stallone, Tony Scott, women directors
13 Comments
Recommended Books: Memoirs
More recommendations: Recommended Fiction Recommended Non-Fiction MEMOIRS The Fervent Years: The Group Theatre And The Thirties, by Harold Clurman Probably the most famous of all the Group Theatre-related books. Harold Clurman writes his memories of that time and what those … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Books, Directors, Music, writers
Tagged African Queen, Anjelica Huston, Austria, Baby Doll, Benjamin Franklin, Born Standing Up, Bruce Springsteen, Carroll Baker, Charles Grodin, Czechoslovakia, Diane Keaton, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Elia Kazan, Ellen Terry, Elvis Presley, Frank McCourt, Ginger Rogers, Goldie Hawn, Group Theatre, Harold Clurman, Ireland, James Salter, Jeanette Winterson, John Strasberg, Katharine Hepburn, Kathleen Turner, Lana Turner, Lauren Bacall, Lee Strasberg, Marlon Brando, Maud Gonne, Memoirs, Patricia Bosworth, Primo Levi, Robert Evans, Rosalind Russell, Russia, Shane Leslie, Shelley Winters, Shirley MacLaine, Stefan Zweig, Steve Martin, The Kid Stays In the Picture, Victor Serge, WWII
2 Comments
Seen Recently: 42 (2013), Renegade Girl (1946), All of Me (1984)
42 directed by Brian Helgeland First, go read this conversation by my two pals, Odie Henderson and Steven Boone. They discuss 42. I had already been excited to see it, because I love baseball movies, and I love Harrison Ford, … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Ann Savage, baseball, comedy, Harrison Ford, Lily Tomlin, reviews, sports movies, Steve Martin, westerns
6 Comments
What Mirabelle Needs Is Some Omniscient Voice
EXCERPT FROM Shopgirl, by Steve Martin the weekend It is 9 a.m., and for the second time that morning Mirabelle is awake. The first time was two hours earlier when Jeremy slipped out, giving her a kiss good-bye that was … Continue reading
Steve Martin: “I Had a Weird Act …”
A beautiful anecdote about a young Steve Martin meeting Elvis Presley in Vegas. Great payoff.
Waiting for the omniscient voice
EXCERPT FROM Shopgirl by Steve Martin the weekend It is 9 a.m., and for the second time that morning Mirabelle is awake. The first time was two hours earlier when Jeremy slipped out, giving her a kiss good-bye that was … Continue reading
The Books: “Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life” (Steve Martin)
Daily Book Excerpt: Entertainment Biography/Memoir: Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life, by Steve Martin If I had been in college in the late 70s as opposed to in grade school, I would have been a Steve Martin fanatic. As it … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Books
Tagged Born Standing Up, E.E. Cummings, entertainment biography, Lewis Carroll, Shopgirl, Steve Martin
13 Comments
The Books: “Shopgirl: A Novella” (Steve Martin)
Daily Book Excerpt: Adult fiction: Shopgirl: A Novella by Steve Martin I have great fondness for this lovely and piercing short book. Steve Martin, as a writer (his plays, his essays in The New Yorker, his stories) has always touched … Continue reading

