Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Why can't writers be rock stars?
Excerpt from my review of Gonzo - The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson:
Why can’t writers be rock stars?
A cavalcade of celebrities: writers, actors, politicians; and non-celebrities: family and friends, help Depp tell the story of how this Kentucky hick (as Thompson was known to refer to himself) raised himself out of obscurity; as a young kid with ambition to a beat sports writer to a muck-racking political journalist, to ultimately becoming the most famous writer in America; or as Hunter Thompson once queried, Why can’t writers be rock stars?It is said early on that Mr. Thompson would sit for hours at his typewriter and copy word for word his favorite novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, over and over again, until he was able to thoroughly understand the way in which a genuine craftsman constructed a great piece of writing.
Cronenberg and Reprise
David Cronenberg's History of Violence
A Consideration of the Brooding Director's Psycho-Sexual Evolution
Read more: http://film-directors.suite101.com/article.cfm/david_cronenbergs_history_of_violence#ixzz0SEqHnqQK
Reprise (2006)
Review of the Literate and Moving Norwegian Film
Co-written and directed by Joachim Trier, Reprise is an insightful film about the writer's life, and the compromises an artist makes for love and friendship.
Read more: http://european-films.suite101.com/article.cfm/reprise_2006#ixzz0SEqsJmSJ
A Consideration of the Brooding Director's Psycho-Sexual Evolution
Read more: http://film-directors.suite101.com/article.cfm/david_cronenbergs_history_of_violence#ixzz0SEqHnqQK
Reprise (2006)
Review of the Literate and Moving Norwegian Film
Co-written and directed by Joachim Trier, Reprise is an insightful film about the writer's life, and the compromises an artist makes for love and friendship.
Read more: http://european-films.suite101.com/article.cfm/reprise_2006#ixzz0SEqsJmSJ
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Prick Up Your Ears
Prick Up Your Ears by John Lahr
The Biography of Joe Orton
John Lahr's 1978 biography tells the wildly entertaining and compelling story of the incomparable 1960's British playwright Joe Orton, who was murdered at the age of 34.
It’s hard to imagine anything more tragic than an artist struck down in the prime of their life, just as they are about to fulfill their greatest potential. And when the tragic story is told as brilliantly as John Lahr’s Prick Up Your Ears, the impact is all the more powerful.
Read more: http://biographiesmemoirs.suite101.com/article.cfm/prick_up_your_ears_by_john_lahr#ixzz0RyxVIN7S
Monday, September 21, 2009
Autumn Sonata
Ingmar Bergman wrote and directed Autumn Sonata, and as is implicit in the title, the film establishes a tone of somber reflection, on life, loss, and regret.
In one of the more powerful scenes in Autumn Sonata, Bergman asks the viewer to study the faces of Charlotte and Eva, as they each take turns playing Chopin for one another; and as each one plays, Bergman focuses on the face of the listener; leaving their respective reactions open to interpretation.
And as Charlotte explains to Eva (and Eva takes as lecture), Chopin's music dealt with pain and suffering through beauty and longing expressions, but, was never sentimental (which could also describe Ingmar Bergman and Autumn Sonata precisely).
Read more: http://foreignfilms.suite101.com/article.cfm/autumn_sonata_1978_film_by_ingmar_bergman#ixzz0RlSUMBR4
In one of the more powerful scenes in Autumn Sonata, Bergman asks the viewer to study the faces of Charlotte and Eva, as they each take turns playing Chopin for one another; and as each one plays, Bergman focuses on the face of the listener; leaving their respective reactions open to interpretation.
And as Charlotte explains to Eva (and Eva takes as lecture), Chopin's music dealt with pain and suffering through beauty and longing expressions, but, was never sentimental (which could also describe Ingmar Bergman and Autumn Sonata precisely).
Read more: http://foreignfilms.suite101.com/article.cfm/autumn_sonata_1978_film_by_ingmar_bergman#ixzz0RlSUMBR4
Sunday, September 20, 2009
The Moon and D.H. Lawrence
The moon's gravitational pull upon the earth and all its inhabitants, has long held a magnetic allure; poets and philosophers, and the spiritually-inclined, look to the moon for answers, to the emotional and psychological tremblings that trouble the soul; which falls right in line with D.H. Lawrence's raison d'etre; as an artist consumed by emotional, physical, and spiritual connectivity; all encompassed in the moon.
Read more: http://poetry.suite101.com/article.cfm/dh_lawrence_two_moon_poems#ixzz0RhjdcLSu
Read more: http://poetry.suite101.com/article.cfm/dh_lawrence_two_moon_poems#ixzz0RhjdcLSu
Friday, September 18, 2009
Poe Poems on Death and Dying
The Conqueror Worm and "Alone" are two of the more thoughtful-provoking poems by the Godfather of Goth, Edgar Allan Poe.
Both poems confront the inescapable specter of death; a specter that haunts the human mind, body and soul, every day up to and including the day (or night) it arrives to claim another victim.
Alice, in a boat beneath a sunny sky
A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky by Lewis Carroll
A Poem from Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There
A Boat beneath a Sunny Sky is a stirring poem, especially when read unencumbered by serendipitous subtext (though Lewis Carroll makes such inclinations unavoidable).
Read more: http://poetry.suite101.com/article.cfm/a_boat_beneath_a_sunny_sky_by_lewis_carroll
A Poem from Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There
A Boat beneath a Sunny Sky is a stirring poem, especially when read unencumbered by serendipitous subtext (though Lewis Carroll makes such inclinations unavoidable).
Read more: http://poetry.suite101.com/article.cfm/a_boat_beneath_a_sunny_sky_by_lewis_carroll
Monday, September 14, 2009
I want to believe...
I want to believe the best of my fellow Americans; I really do; But...
Charles Darwin film 'too controversial for religious America'
A British film about Charles Darwin has failed to find a US distributor because his theory of evolution is too controversial for American audiences, according to its producer.
US distributors have resolutely passed on a film which will prove hugely divisive in a country where, according to a Gallup poll conducted in February, only 39 per cent of Americans believe in the theory of evolution.
Read the entire article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6173399/Charles-Darwin-film-too-controversial-for-religious-America.html
Charles Darwin film 'too controversial for religious America'
A British film about Charles Darwin has failed to find a US distributor because his theory of evolution is too controversial for American audiences, according to its producer.
US distributors have resolutely passed on a film which will prove hugely divisive in a country where, according to a Gallup poll conducted in February, only 39 per cent of Americans believe in the theory of evolution.
Read the entire article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6173399/Charles-Darwin-film-too-controversial-for-religious-America.html
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Gretel in Darkness
My latest poetry piece covers one of my favorite poems, Gretel in Darkness...
Louise Glück delves into her German roots to re-imagine the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel, in the aftermath; told from the perspective of Gretel; as a lonely, emotionally fragile young woman, haunted by memories of her violent near-death experience with her brother
Louise Glück delves into her German roots to re-imagine the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel, in the aftermath; told from the perspective of Gretel; as a lonely, emotionally fragile young woman, haunted by memories of her violent near-death experience with her brother
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Woe is me! President Obama spoke to school children!
Oh, woe is me! My 10-year-old daughter went to school this morning as a bright, talented, and independent-minded honor student. But, what am I to do now? When I picked my daughter up from school, she had become a different person; physically, she looks the same, but, her eyes are glassy and cold; her personality, sapped of energy and life. When my daughter speaks, she speaks in monotone, emotionless newspeak. Oh, why oh why didn't we listen to the right-wingers running through the streets like Kevin McCarthy from Invasion of the Body Snatchers, warning us that the President's speech to the school children of America would do irreparable damage. And now, it's too late. Goddamit! It's too late!
Sunday, September 6, 2009
I Cried Over Beautiful Things...
The following four poems by the great American poet Carl Sandburg, come tied together by the autumnal equinox, but also compliment one another in more subtle ways.
I CRIED over beautiful things knowing no beautiful thing lasts...
Read more: Carl Sandburg – Four Autumn Poems
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Plan 9 From Outer Space: Magic-Cinema-Elixir
Perhaps, The Amazing Criswell truly did possess powers beyond our understanding, when he tilted his soft-serve-styled quaff in our direction, and pierced the screen and time ad infinitum with his eyes of slate-gray, and stated:
Greetings, my friend. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future. You are interested in the unknown... the mysterious. The unexplainable…
And we all answer in unison, Yes!
Yes, Criswell, yes, we are interested in the future, for this is where are going to spend the rest of our lives, watching Plan 9 From Outer Space; whenever we're down or feeling defeated; whenever our troubles seem insurmountable; like some kind of magic-cinema-elixir, Plan 9 From Outer Space has mysterious powers to soothe the soul, and make everything all better.
Greetings, my friend. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future. You are interested in the unknown... the mysterious. The unexplainable…
And we all answer in unison, Yes!
Yes, Criswell, yes, we are interested in the future, for this is where are going to spend the rest of our lives, watching Plan 9 From Outer Space; whenever we're down or feeling defeated; whenever our troubles seem insurmountable; like some kind of magic-cinema-elixir, Plan 9 From Outer Space has mysterious powers to soothe the soul, and make everything all better.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Godzilla in Mexico
Godzilla in Mexico tells an apocalyptic tale, as experienced by a father and son:
Listen carefully, my son: bombs were falling
over Mexico City...
Some modern readers may find the poem reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road (or vice versa), but, uniquely crafted in Bolaño's voice and tone; and not nearly as bleak. Bolaño writes with a human touch, a child's oblivion:
You'd just finished eating and were watching
cartoons on TV.
Read more: Godzilla in Mexico by Roberto Bolano
Listen carefully, my son: bombs were falling
over Mexico City...
Some modern readers may find the poem reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road (or vice versa), but, uniquely crafted in Bolaño's voice and tone; and not nearly as bleak. Bolaño writes with a human touch, a child's oblivion:
You'd just finished eating and were watching
cartoons on TV.
Read more: Godzilla in Mexico by Roberto Bolano
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