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- “One day I hope I can write happier poems, but most of the things I think about aren’t very cheerful.” — poet Philip Larkin
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- On This Day: August 7, 1934: “It must always be remembered that his locale was Celtic and his season Spring.”
- “These kids only want to talk about acting method and motivation. in my day all we talked about was screwing and overtime.” — Robert Mitchum
- “I wrote as much as seventy lines at one time, and used to go shouting them about the fields after dark.” — Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- Podcast: Jen Johans and I discuss Dana Andrews
- “Poets, the best of them, are a very chameleonic race.” — Percy Bysshe Shelley
- “There is one Metallica. We have many styles, it’s called Metallica.” — James Hetfield
- “The trouble with Hollywood is everybody is crazy for money.” — Ann Dvorak
- “He who has never felt, momentarily, what madness is has but a mouthful of brains.” — Herman Melville
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- Becca on Diary Friday: “OK, it wasn’t just a normal assembly. It was a CONCERT from a rock group – Freedom Jam.”
- sheila on Substack: My first press badge
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- sheila on Dynamic Duo #49
- Biff Dorsey on Dynamic Duo #49
- sheila on “Why can’t people take me as a regular singer without making a bogeyman out of me?” — Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
- Ken on “Why can’t people take me as a regular singer without making a bogeyman out of me?” — Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
- sheila on Physical Media Booklet Essay: Being scholarly about movies that don’t exist
- sheila on Physical Media Booklet Essay: Being scholarly about movies that don’t exist
- sheila on R.I.P. Jennifer Finch
- sheila on “I think something once broken and put back together is even stronger.” — Jared Padalecki
- Lyrie on Physical Media Booklet Essay: Being scholarly about movies that don’t exist
- Lyrie on “I think something once broken and put back together is even stronger.” — Jared Padalecki
- Lyrie on R.I.P. Jennifer Finch
- Lyrie on “I think something once broken and put back together is even stronger.” — Jared Padalecki
- sheila on “I’m not a yesterday’s woman. I’m a tomorrow’s woman.” — Barbara Stanwyck
- sheila on Happy Birthday, Chips Moman
- Ken on “I’m not a yesterday’s woman. I’m a tomorrow’s woman.” — Barbara Stanwyck
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- sheila on “Reality is diabolical.” — Ingmar Bergman
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Tag Archives: Vietnam
April 2022 Viewing Diary
When I first got the Raging Bull gig, I began a re-watch of all the Scorsese-De Niro movies – at least the ones clustered around that period. I grew up on these films. These movies were huge to me as … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Anjelica Huston, biopic, Brian De Palma, Canada, Christopher Walken, comedy, Dana Andrews, documentary, drama, Elia Kazan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, France, historical drama, Italy, Jack Nicholson, Jane Fonda, Joan Didion, John Cazale, Liza Minnelli, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Mickey Rourke, musicals, Ray Milland, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Robert Mitchum, romantic drama, Russia, sci-fi, Tuesday Weld, Ukraine, Vietnam, women directors, WWII
12 Comments
December 2020 Viewing Diary
I hope you like The X-Files. Look forward to hearing from fans of the show. The past couple of months have been heart-wrenching for my family. It will continue to be so. We are struggling under the weight of the … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged animation, Aubrey Plaza, biopic, children's movies, Citizen Kane, Cliff Bole, comedy, David Fincher, David Nutter, documentary, England, Kim Manners, Orson Welles, Peter Bogdanovich, romantic comedy, romantic drama, sci-fi, South Korea, Supernatural, Vietnam, What's Up Doc, women directors, X-Files
13 Comments
R.I.P. Michael Herr
War journalist and screenwriter Michael Herr has died at the age of 76. His Dispatches, the classic of war journalism and so influential you can’t even measure it, is on most Best Nonfiction Books of All Time worth their salt. … Continue reading
2015 Books Read
Even I am impressed with how much I read this year. Along the course of the year, occasionally I’d think to myself, “Good job, Sheila, with your Self-Imposed Reading Plan!” I’ve read a lot of new novels (not really my … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged A.S. Byatt, Alexander Hamilton, Baseball A Literary Anthology, books read, Christopher Hitchens, Christopher Marlowe, Edvard Radzinsky, Elvis Presley, Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Eliot, Hannah Arendt, Hunter S. Thompson, Ireland, J.D. Salinger, Jeanette Winterson, Jincy Willett, Joan Didion, John Banville, John Wayne, Joshua Ferris, Lorrie Moore, Machiavelli, Margaret Atwood, Norman Rush, Patricia Highsmith, Paul Zindel, Rasputin, Rebecca West, Ron Chernow, Russia, science, Seamus Heaney, Vietnam, W.H. Auden, William Shakespeare, William Styron
22 Comments
My Favorite Films of 2014
My Top 10 (more in-depth commentary, and other writer’s choices over at Rogerebert.com): 1. Beyond the Lights, directed by Gina Prince-Blythewood. 2. Boyhood, directed by Richard Linklater. Review here. 3. Closed Curtain, directed by Jafar Panahi. Review here. 4. Force … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Australia, Bong Joon-Ho, Denmark, documentary, France, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Germany, Iranian film, Jafar Panahi, Jean-Luc Godard, Jim Jarmusch, Josephine Decker, Kristen Stewart, Kristen Wiig, Lars von Trier, Paul Thomas Anderson, Poland, Richard Linklater, South Korea, Sweden, Vietnam, Wes Anderson, Zac Efron
35 Comments
Daughter From Danang (2002); directed by Gail Dolgin and Vicente Franco
Nominated for an Oscar, Daughter From Danang is one of the most emotionally harrowing documentaries I’ve ever seen. Halfway through I started to get a very very bad feeling. Something was approaching, something unforeseen, something completely unexpected. You could feel … Continue reading
Thank You To All Who Serve
I took this photo on Veterans Day, 2008, after watching an outdoor concert given by the USMC band in NYC. “They carried USO stationery and pencils and pens. They carried Sterno, safety pins, trip flares, signal flares, spools of wire, … Continue reading
Matt Zoller Seitz and I Discuss Nancy Savoca’s Dogfight
Dogfight, written by Bob Comfort, and directed by Nancy Savoca, stars Lili Taylor as Rose Fenny, a shy frumpy waitress living in San Francisco in 1963, dreaming of being a folk singer, and River Phoenix, at his very best, as … Continue reading
Viva Vietnam
Ann Margret entertaining US troops in Vietnam, 1966.
The Books: “The Things They Carried’ (Tim O’Brien)
Daily Book Excerpt: Adult fiction: The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien. Fiction? Journalism? Reportage? Memoir? Do we really care? I don’t. But lots of people seem to reallllllly care about those labels. As we have seen time and time … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged fiction, James Frey, Ryszard Kapuściński, The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien, Vietnam, war
16 Comments