Sinners

I'm avoiding talking about current events today. Enough already. Sometimes good art is what you need. We watched "Sinners" for the first time last night. On streaming, not on the big screen, which is probably a crime against art. Let me start out with a few caveats: I don't like horror movies. The horror books …

2025 and into 2026

Listen, normally I do an end of December post about all the things I read/watched/paid attention to during the previous year - you know, the traditional "year-end wrap up." I usually enjoy doing it: it's a good reminder of the things past, of the year that was, that there was joy and darkness and light …

Movie Review: Angel’s Egg

Ok, This movie came out in 1985. It's a Japanese animated movie by Mamoru Oshii. I saw it this afternoon. This is the description from Letterboxed: Under a sky where clouds make sound as they move. In the ruins of a strange city, a young girl takes care of a large egg she holds carefully in …

In praise of public libraries

Public libraries are the best. Other libraries are great: I remember in grad school having a class in the Harvard Theater Collection and what a special and wonderful class that was - filled with archival material that was just one extraordinary bit of history after another. But academic libraries and special collections of that sort …

The End of 2024

2024 was a real roller coaster of a year, wasn't it? It started out deceptively mild, no real horrors (except the ongoing wars and genocides ... let's not forget those). But it ended with a bang slap in the face for those of us in the US - and generally world wide an alarming resurgence …

Review: Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood

Spoiler Alert: I am going to talk about the end of this movie in this review, because it is key to my feelings about this movie. It came out in 2019, it's now 2024, so no apologies. Also, if you haven't seen it and don't want spoilers ... don't read this. Any of it. First, …

This is the end … of 2023

This is a list of favorites and things from this year. Because if I don't list them, will I remember they happened? And will I remember they happened in 2023? Memory and time gets weird these days (was that five years ago? More like 10? Really?? Who knew?). Favorite Fiction I read this year: Thistlefoot, Station …

The end of 2022

What is there to say about 2022? It wasn't all bad? Amid the dread, there were some signs of hope? So, perhaps I'll default to a list of favorites: Favorite books I read in 2022, in no particular order: Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson - reframed my thinking on racism in America dramatically; The Rose Code, …

Not quite a review: The Batman; or, why it’s actually a bit subversive and good

Recently, my partner did a Twitter poll (he does a lot of those on various topics), and I was the fourth to do it. The poll was comparing The Batman with Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, and asked which was better - with the final choice being "Both Bad." The other three people …