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- “I never told a joke in my life.” — Andy Kaufman
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- Shadow and pools of light
- “Precision and accuracy are necessary for both white and black writers. ‘A black aesthetic’ should not be an excuse for sloppy writing.” — poet and publisher Dudley Randall
- “When I was discovered, everything happened like dominos. I don’t know how to talk about it now because it’s too mindblowing. It’s so unreal, and yet it’s real.” — Faye Dunaway
- Mirrors #24
- Turn on the goose
- “As long as they pay me my salary, they can give me a broom and I’ll sweep the stage. I don’t give a damn. I want the money.” – Kay Francis
- “Fear urged him to go back, but growth drove him on.” — White Fang, by Jack London
- “I can pick a good song, but I sure couldn’t pick a good man.” — Ruth Brown
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- Melissa Sutherland on “I never told a joke in my life.” — Andy Kaufman
- Leena Myller on “It wasn’t there, and then it was there.” David Lynch on Elvis
- Leena Myller on “It wasn’t there, and then it was there.” David Lynch on Elvis
- sheila on “When I was discovered, everything happened like dominos. I don’t know how to talk about it now because it’s too mindblowing. It’s so unreal, and yet it’s real.” — Faye Dunaway
- Maddy on “When I was discovered, everything happened like dominos. I don’t know how to talk about it now because it’s too mindblowing. It’s so unreal, and yet it’s real.” — Faye Dunaway
- sheila on “When I was discovered, everything happened like dominos. I don’t know how to talk about it now because it’s too mindblowing. It’s so unreal, and yet it’s real.” — Faye Dunaway
- Maddy on “When I was discovered, everything happened like dominos. I don’t know how to talk about it now because it’s too mindblowing. It’s so unreal, and yet it’s real.” — Faye Dunaway
- sheila on “I can pick a good song, but I sure couldn’t pick a good man.” — Ruth Brown
- Clary on “I can pick a good song, but I sure couldn’t pick a good man.” — Ruth Brown
- sheila on Colm Tóibín, Gary Indiana, and Los Angeles
- Maddy on Colm Tóibín, Gary Indiana, and Los Angeles
- sheila on Colm Tóibín, Gary Indiana, and Los Angeles
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- Scott Abraham on Colm Tóibín, Gary Indiana, and Los Angeles
- sheila on Colm Tóibín, Gary Indiana, and Los Angeles
- Scott Abraham on Colm Tóibín, Gary Indiana, and Los Angeles
- sheila on “Boredom is very important in life. It helps you feel when something is wrong.” — John Strasberg
- Marta on “Boredom is very important in life. It helps you feel when something is wrong.” — John Strasberg
- sheila on “We’re not breaking new ground. We’re trying to be entertaining within a format that’s familiar.” — Walter Hill
- Dan on “We’re not breaking new ground. We’re trying to be entertaining within a format that’s familiar.” — Walter Hill
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Tag Archives: WWI
For Busby Berkeley’s birthday: Remember My Forgotten Man and Sucker Punch
I wrote a piece originally for the Musings blog at Oscilloscope (it was included in a book!), and now lives on my site (since it’s off the Musings blog). It’s about the similarities between Busby Berkeley’s Gold Diggers of 1933 … Continue reading
Posted in Movies, On This Day
Tagged Busby Berkeley, dance, Gold Diggers of 1933, Joan Blondell, Mervyn LeRoy, musicals, Sucker Punch, war, WWI
15 Comments
“In the 20s, you were a face. And that was enough. In the 30s, you also had to be a voice. And your voice had to match your face, if you can imagine that.” — Joan Blondell
It’s Joan Blondell’s birthday today. I am sure I saw Joan Blondell in her 1930s movies when I was a kid, although maybe not the Pre-Codes. That would come later. My real introduction to her, though, came through her performance … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Busby Berkeley, Elvis Presley, Gold Diggers of 1933, James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Mervyn LeRoy, WWI
15 Comments
“Didacticism is the death of art.” — poet Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson
Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson wrote about the intersections in her mixed-race identity: Native-American, Caucasian, Black and Creole – in various books (of poetry and prose), as well as in her diary. She was very devoted to writing and determined to be … Continue reading
June 28, 1914: “But if ever a man went anywhere of his own free will, Franz Ferdinand went to Sarajevo.”
June 28, 1914: Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie – setting out in their motorcade in Sarajevo that fateful morning, as the assassins, unseen, move into position. Here are two excerpts from Rebecca West’s towering Black Lamb and Grey … Continue reading
“I couldn’t keep a dog and a James Joyce and a bookshop.” — Sylvia Beach
It’s her birthday today. Sylvia Beach is one of my heroes due to her influential bookshop in Paris (Shakespeare & Co.), and her nurturing of the writers of that time. You know, minor writers like James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, and … Continue reading
Movies I Loved in 2022
It is the month of Top 10 Lists. I’ve submitted a few to different sites. And … each list is slightly different. Because I’m not a list person and I don’t rank things and I really don’t like to argue … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged action movies, Argentina, Aubrey Plaza, Australia, Austria, Baz Luhrmann, biopic, comedy, coming of age, documentary, drama, Elvis Presley, England, France, Georgia, historical drama, India, Iranian film, Jackass, Jafar Panahi, Kentucker Audley, poetry, Poland, romantic comedy, romantic drama, Scotland, South Korea, Steven Spielberg, Sweden, thrillers, true crime, Ukraine, war movies, women directors, WWI
30 Comments
“My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.” — WWI poet Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owen, one of the best “war poets” of World War I, was born on this day in 1893. He was killed in battle in 1918, just seven days before the Armistice. He was 25 years old. His poetry was … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged Dylan Thomas, England, Harold Bloom, poetry, T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, war, WWI
33 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
A Perfect Double Bill: Sucker Punch (2011) and The Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
I have been wanting to write this essay for 7 years (ever since I saw Sucker Punch, basically). Why didn’t I? Because I was busy writing reviews and getting writing jobs and taking assignments. I do have a little folder … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Busby Berkeley, fantasy movies, Gold Diggers of 1933, Mervyn LeRoy, musicals, reviews, WWI
5 Comments