I’m not at liberty to say how a secret message came for you today
And now, perhaps the most ridiculous story I’ve shared in any electronic space. First some background: I, like around 12,000 others, am a yearly participant in the world’s largest trivia contest in the sleepy burg of Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Because … Continue reading I’m not at liberty to say how a secret message came for you today
I just can’t find the time to write my mind the way I want it to read
A few months ago, in an attempt to perform a smaller version of a “clean sweep” of our house (the pragmatic advice of that one Australian guy employed by TLC continuously rings in our ears) we unearthed an old Ziploc filled with mementos. Finally, after toting this around for years, the time has come to get rid of these stray bits. This means another of my many exercises in closure through nostalgia. So, the collected items were dumped into a handy box– –and then the process begun by pulling them out one by one. These are the first five items … Continue reading I just can’t find the time to write my mind the way I want it to read
Smile like they do in movies
12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet, 1957). Lumet’s feature debut is a master class in shot construction. Contained almost entirely within a tight jury room as twelve men engage in deliberations over a murder case that grow increasingly heated, Lumet manages to make the visuals dynamic without resorting to trick shots. Instead, the film is filled with expertly staged and blocked sequences. The camera slyly follows a character as he moves about the room, catching the quiet reactions of everyone else, the facial expressions of those in deep consideration telling as full of a story as the words they share. Henry … Continue reading Smile like they do in movies
The age of miracles, the age of sound, well there’s a golden age comin’ round comin’ round comin’ round
Periodically, I have endeavored to make an ongoing contribution to scientific scholarship by cataloging the advances created and crafted by the resident genius of New York’s Baxter Building, Dr. Reed Richards. Recently I discovered an unfortunate omission in my research. You see, I totally missed this inventions: I mean…a molecular twangulator equipped with a cosmic beanie cap and powered by respiration? How did I miss this breakthrough? Clearly, I need to reconsider my methodology. (The researcher who did unearth this device did so on a quite famous Website, but I found it via a different source.) Continue reading The age of miracles, the age of sound, well there’s a golden age comin’ round comin’ round comin’ round
One for Friday: The Weeds, “Nancy Sinatra”
This little corner of the Interweb was framed-up and drywalled in large part because the place where I have been posting for the past several years seems to have picked up an infestation of fiduciary termites. So the time to branch out to wondrous new URLs is now. For the time being, everything that’s posted here will also be posted there. Except on Fridays. For over three years, Fridays have been devoted to a feature I shamelessly stole from Tom Spurgeon’s “The Comics Reporter” site. I list five songs (or albums or something music-related) on a given topic and ask … Continue reading One for Friday: The Weeds, “Nancy Sinatra”
I wanna see movies of my dreams
Man on Wire (James Marsh, 2008). In 1974, tightrope walker Phillippe Petit recruited some accomplices and strung a cable between the two towers of the World Trade Center. He then walked out on it, performing a feat of jaw-dropping daring some 110 stories above the crowded pavement. Marsh’s riveting documentary combines old footage, new interviews with key participants and spare reenactments to fully convey the colossal tension of the act and the freewheeling fearlessness that drove Petit to do it. Petit, naturally, is the film’s greatest asset, spinning stories about his bygone triumphs with an enthralling enthusiasm. If he doesn’t … Continue reading I wanna see movies of my dreams
Everybody says they want a million bucks but I’d rather have a million days with you
Ever since director Danny Boyle trained his camera on Ewan McGregor and his blokes racing through the streets, it’s been clear that he’s a relentless visual stylist. Boyle is feverishly interested in finding new, dynamic ways to tell stories through … Continue reading Everybody says they want a million bucks but I’d rather have a million days with you
The Button-Down Mind of David Fincher
David Fincher’s new film begins by establishing it’s framing sequence. An elderly woman lies dying in a hospital bed, a storm raging outside the window and her worried adult daughter by her side. The old woman tells a fable-like story … Continue reading The Button-Down Mind of David Fincher
