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Tag Archives: The Great Gatsby
“Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald
So you see that old libel that we were cynics and skeptics was nonsense from the beginning. On the contrary we were the great believers. — F. Scott Fitzgerald, “My Generation” It’s his birthday today. First off, here’s a piece … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged Baz Luhrmann, essays, F. Scott Fitzgerald, fiction, The Great Gatsby
21 Comments
“I swear my next project is going to be something really simple and focused and minimal.” — Baz Luhrmann
It’s his birthday today. “I think what I’m saying is, when you get to where I am in your journey, you just have to start to accept that there’s something inside you that you’ve been trying to get out and … Continue reading
Posted in Directors, Movies, On This Day, Theatre
Tagged Australia, Baz Luhrmann, Ewan McGregor, Leonardo DiCaprio, Nicole Kidman, The Great Gatsby
9 Comments
Year in Review: Running my mouth in 2016
I look at this and I wonder why I always feel like I haven’t done jack-squat. Or, at the very least, I could do more. Well, I always can do more. Regardless, here are links to some of the things … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Books, Movies, On This Day, Personal, RIP
Tagged Abbas Kiarostami, Baz Luhrmann, Buddy Holly, Camille Paglia, Carrie Fisher, Carroll Baker, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, Chantal Akerman, Compulsion, David Bowie, Dean Stockwell, Dolly Parton, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Elizabeth Bishop, Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis Presley, Eminem, friends, Gena Rowlands, George Stevens, Gilda, Isabelle Huppert, James Dean, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, July and Half of August, Katherine Dunn, Langston Hughes, Little Richard, Marion Cotillard, Marlon Brando, Matthias Schoenaerts, Merle Haggard, Mia Hansen-Løve, Miriam Hopkins, Patricia Highsmith, Rebecca Hall, Richard Linklater, Rocky, Sam Cooke, Something Wild, Stephen King, Sudden Fear, Supernatural, Sylvester Stallone, Tennessee Williams, The Great Gatsby, Wanda Jackson, William Shakespeare, women directors, year in writing, Zac Efron
6 Comments
2016 Books Read
I’ve enjoyed myself this year with reading. I have finally bounced back from 2009 and 2010, when I was so out of my mind that I could barely read anymore. (Larry McMurtry describes a similar thing happening to him post-heart … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Baz Luhrmann, books read, Camille Paglia, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, David Thomson, East of Eden, Elia Kazan, Elvis Presley, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Horton Foote, James Agee, James Salter, Jerry Lee Lewis, John Steinbeck, Katherine Dunn, Mark Danielewski, Nick Tosches, Pauline Kael, Robert Kaplan, Shane Leslie, Stephen King, Tana French, Tennessee Williams, The Great Gatsby, William Faulkner
19 Comments
Riotous Excursions: Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby
I contributed a piece to Bright Wall Dark Room’s August “Literary Adaptations” issue, and I wrote on a film I’ve been wanting to write about – and celebrate – for a long time (or, ever since it came out): Baz … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Baz Luhrmann, drama, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Leonardo DiCaprio, reviews, The Great Gatsby
21 Comments
July 2016 Viewing Diary
The Great Gatsby (2013; d. Baz Luhrmann) Watched 3 times. Never written about it before. I think there’s a genius in it. The Great Gatsby (1974; d. Jack Clayton) Never written about it before. I DON’T think there’s a genius … Continue reading
Ebertfest 2014: Life Itself (2014), directed by Steve James
Last night, the 16th annual Roger Ebert Film Festival opened with a screening of Life Itself, the documentary on Roger Ebert’s life (based on his amazing memoir of the same name), directed by Steve James. Steve James’ Hoop Dreams was … Continue reading
Happy Birthday, F. Scott Fitzgerald
So you see that old libel that we were cynics and skeptics was nonsense from the beginning. On the contrary we were the great believers. — F. Scott Fitzgerald, “My Generation” Fitzgerald was one of those writers I liked right … Continue reading
Posted in On This Day, writers
Tagged F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Zelda Fitzgerald
21 Comments
Happy Birthday, F. Scott Fitzgerald
So you see that old libel that we were cynics and skeptics was nonsense from the beginning. On the contrary we were the great believers. — F. Scott Fitzgerald, “My Generation” F. Scott Fitzgerald was born on this day in … Continue reading

