READING LIST
I was involved in a discussion recently, probably in response to various Ray Bradbury tributes (see earlier entry), about those books that have proven most influential in my life. I'm big on lists, so I thought I would give it a go and reflect a little on those titles that helped inform me or define me as I grew up. Time to get personal. Let's try things roughly chronologically: 1. The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins by Dr. Seuss This was early Seuss, writte
GILT-EDGED BONDS
There are many different methods for evaluating the James Bond franchise. Today it is likely that most people who have seen as many as two dozen James Bond films have not read a single Bond book or Bond story by the man who created the character or by those who have tried to maintain that legacy. So whether their first James Bond was Sean Connery or George Lazenby, or Roger Moore, or Timothy Dalton, or Pierce Brosnan, or Daniel Craig, it is more likely that their notion of th
BLACK SWAN
I was lucky to have reached adulthood at approximately the same time the world of ballet hit its Golden Age. A recent commentary by...
FURY IN HER SOUL
After an absurdly long wait, the late Laura Nyro was finally recognized by her peers, with induction to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year. Nyro, seen above in my favorite photo of her, was sui generis. There was no one quite like her. She didn't really fit into the pop/rock niche, though she penned classic pop tunes such as "Stoned Soul Picnic" and "Eli's Coming", both hits for other artists, and had a minor hit on rock stations with "Save the Country". She sa
TOP TEN FILMS 2012 POLL
Back in October, I concluded a series of entries on the iconic Sight & Sound Top Ten Films poll, undertaken every decade by the esteemed British film journal. I discussed the changing views of critics over the last sixty years (the first poll was published in 1952). I quibbled about the wrongheaded decision in the 2002 poll to allow The Godfather and The Godfather Part II to be considered a single work (That's just wrong!). I made some tentative predictions (mostly mistaken)
GOLDEN APPLE OF THE SUN
Curiosity, the newly landed Mars rover, took a short drive today on a Martian plain that will forever be known as Bradbury Landing. NASA...
MTV Part III BLASHFIELD BRILLIANCE
Many now prominent directors created initial buzz within the burgeoning form of the MTV video. David Fincher and Spike Jonze come to mind. In the mid 80s, Jim Blashfield created a look in his videos that garnered him many awards and made him much in demand by many members of rock and pop royalty. His videos were undertaken in pastiche mode--snippets of photos and art woven together, transmogrification in stop motion. A typical visual trope would be the emergence of a singer
SHUFFLING OFF THIS MORTAL COIL
The theatre world lost two mavericks not too long ago, and I thought they deserved some recognition for their work. The Scotsman Nicol Williamson left us in late January at the age of 75. Cancer. Hard to believe he lasted that long given the way he pretty much grabbed life by the throat and wrestled it to the ground. Playwright John Osborne thought him the greatest actor since Brando and playwright Samuel Beckett opined that Nicol was "touched by genius". As encomiums go...
MTV 1980s Part II (Pool Boys)
Here's Part II of my retrospective of classic 1980s MTV videos. First up is George Thorogood and his band the Delaware Destroyers. In Year Two of MTV, "Bad to the Bone" proved to be one of the most spirited videos in this new format. Many of the directors of music videos were content to show the band in a static environment or create a montage of images and quick edits to catch the eye. Most of them today look pretty lame. Not "Bad to the Bone," the title cut from Thorogoo
CAVETT/BURTON
I have looked wistfully at my earlier days recalling the hours I spent watching prime time and late night talk shows, enthralled by many hours of hilarity or serious, reflective conversation. Nothing like it exists on commercial television today, and public television shows like Charlie Rose seem, more often than not, to be much more about Charlie Rose's views than anything interesting he might elicit from his guests. I fondly recall the free-for-alls on The Dick Cavett Show
