Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Monday, February 24, 2020
Sunday, February 23, 2020
Saturday, February 22, 2020
Thursday, February 20, 2020
Ben Affleck
"People with compulsive behavior, and I am one, have this kind of basic discomfort all the time that they're trying to make go away. You're trying to make yourself feel better with eating or drinking or sex or gambling or shopping or whatever. But that ends up making your life worse. Then you do more of it to make that discomfort go away. Then the real pain starts. It becomes a vicious cycle you can't break. That's at least what happened to me."
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
Charles Portis (and thinking of Ronald, Andy's Cousin)
I'm really looking forward to reading this and knowing that it exists, The Dog of the South (1979)
From The New Yorker "What Charles Portis Taught Us" by Wells Tower postscript
In part, I love Portis because I feel less mean when I read him. It's not just that his novels are gentle and funny; it's that Portis's books have a way of conscripting the reader into their governing virtues - punctuality, automotive maintenance, straight talk, emotional continence. Puny virtues, as Portis himself once put it, yet it is a great and comforting gift (in these days especially) to offer readers escape into a place where such virtues reign.
It's hard to know whether Portis's work ushered much comfort into his own life. My sense is that he was lonely. I imagine he had a fair bit in common with Jimmy Burns, described in 'Gringos' as a "hard worker," "solitary as a snake," and, yes, "punctual." Portis never married and had no children. He never published another novel after 'Gringos,' from 1991.
From The New Yorker "What Charles Portis Taught Us" by Wells Tower postscript
In part, I love Portis because I feel less mean when I read him. It's not just that his novels are gentle and funny; it's that Portis's books have a way of conscripting the reader into their governing virtues - punctuality, automotive maintenance, straight talk, emotional continence. Puny virtues, as Portis himself once put it, yet it is a great and comforting gift (in these days especially) to offer readers escape into a place where such virtues reign.
It's hard to know whether Portis's work ushered much comfort into his own life. My sense is that he was lonely. I imagine he had a fair bit in common with Jimmy Burns, described in 'Gringos' as a "hard worker," "solitary as a snake," and, yes, "punctual." Portis never married and had no children. He never published another novel after 'Gringos,' from 1991.
Sunday, February 9, 2020
Meet the Nominees 2020
No better way to celebrate Oscar morning than listening to the nuts & bolts of the craft with a cup of coffee.
Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Can a Person Change? (Scorsese on The Irishman)
The opening shot of Irishman, in a sense, played itself out by listening to..."In the Still of the Night." And when I heard the song, I just knew we had to be floating down the hall at this assisted living facility and wind up on this old man sitting in a chair. I get it.
I knew that...it would be compared to the long take in Copacabana in Goodfellas. But it didn't matter, because ultimately, it's been 20 years, and so I've spent a lot of time in these places and hospitals and emergency rooms and assisted living places...[with] people having difficult times in their lives and also people at the end of their lives. I know the routines. I know what it's like in the middle of night in the hospital while you're waiting because a patient is very close to you. What do you do? You just sit there. Nurses go by. The light changes. Lives go by. Beds go floating by. And all these lives, we know nothing about them. They just become old and gone. And it's a whole life has gone by, in a way.
But it's the mood and tone of those places that I spent a lot of time in.
I knew that...it would be compared to the long take in Copacabana in Goodfellas. But it didn't matter, because ultimately, it's been 20 years, and so I've spent a lot of time in these places and hospitals and emergency rooms and assisted living places...[with] people having difficult times in their lives and also people at the end of their lives. I know the routines. I know what it's like in the middle of night in the hospital while you're waiting because a patient is very close to you. What do you do? You just sit there. Nurses go by. The light changes. Lives go by. Beds go floating by. And all these lives, we know nothing about them. They just become old and gone. And it's a whole life has gone by, in a way.
But it's the mood and tone of those places that I spent a lot of time in.
Monday, January 13, 2020
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Tuesday, January 7, 2020
Monday, January 6, 2020
Friday, January 3, 2020
Little Women (Keystone Landmark)
My Mom's two favorite genres are: 1) The Sound of Music, and 2) Little Women
...so every twenty-five years (when Little Women is re-made) it's a movie date.
*Still love Gillian Armstrong's '94 version. Winona Ryder as Jo still glows. And so does Saorise Ronan.
*Mr. Laurence (Chris Cooper) and Beth's quiet connection is a nice addition from Gerwig.
...so every twenty-five years (when Little Women is re-made) it's a movie date.
*Still love Gillian Armstrong's '94 version. Winona Ryder as Jo still glows. And so does Saorise Ronan.
*Mr. Laurence (Chris Cooper) and Beth's quiet connection is a nice addition from Gerwig.
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