(In case there was any doubt)…from an interview with Tennessee Williams: "I'm not a typical homosexual. I can identify completely with Blanche — we are both hysterics — with Alma [Winehouse], and even with Stanley, though I did have trouble with some of the butch characters. If you understand schizophrenics, I'm not really a dualContinue reading “Tennessee Williams: I’m not a typical homosexual”
Category Archives: art and humor
Dumb headline of the year: Sugar bombs edition
Washington Post, you're better than this: Some Children's Cereals Packed with Sugar, Study Finds Really? Didn't Calvin tells us this, what, twenty-five years ago? I know, it's a study by the Environmental Working Group, but that's no excuse for the lack of imagination. Here's Grist's: Cereal Offenders Ah. That's better.
Glee: Best TV show ever? A neuroscientific perspective
About ten years ago, while pursuing a story on the roots of depression, I tracked down the great scientist Jaak Panksepp, originator of the field of affective — that is, emotional — neuroscience, and he kindly let me interview him over the phone for half an hour. Panksepp has spent years studying the physiology ofContinue reading “Glee: Best TV show ever? A neuroscientific perspective”
Now with the forecast tonight, our new weatherman — Tennessee Williams!
True story: In an attempt to stir up interest in Small Craft Warnings, one of his best late plays, in the l970's Tennessee Williams not only resorted to playing a character on stage, but made appearances around the New York, to attract attention and spread the word. This didn't always go well. [From Dotson Rader'sContinue reading “Now with the forecast tonight, our new weatherman — Tennessee Williams!”
A third-rate cartoonist we just can’t forget: James Thurber
From Roger Ebert's spectacular Twitter feed, in memory of the incomparable James Thurber, classic essay/set of drawings, via the Library of America, called Lady on the Bookcase. Goes something like this… One day twelve years ago an outraged cartoonist, four of whose drawings had been rejected in a clump by The New Yorker, stormed into the office ofContinue reading “A third-rate cartoonist we just can’t forget: James Thurber”
The frustration of the long-term unemployed: The Onion
From the Pew Research Center [pdf link], the General Accounting Office [pdf link] and the Washington Post, the hard news about older unemployed people: Bad news…55 to 64-year-olds have fared worst in the recession than any other demographic. But from The Onion, the same kind of news — Matt Millen on TV simply too muchContinue reading “The frustration of the long-term unemployed: The Onion”
Tennessee Williams tells a story about Truman Capote
From Dotson Rader's great, great Tennessee: Cry of the Heart, 1985 Rader writes: Tennessee went on to talk about the one time Truman came to Key West. "It was two years ago. he had flown to Key West from Mexico, where he was to stay with Mrs. [Lee] Radiwill but left in a hurry becauseContinue reading “Tennessee Williams tells a story about Truman Capote”
The not-in-denial drinker: Dwight Macdonald
Asked once why he drank so much, critic and editor Dwight Macdonald replied: "I'm an alcoholic, Goddammit it!" From a really terrific NYTimes Book Review piece on a new collection of Macdonald's acerbic criticism, Dwight Macdonald's War on Mediocrity, last Sunday. Few reviews are so entertaining, but then, few critics (or writers, for that matter)Continue reading “The not-in-denial drinker: Dwight Macdonald”
Alfred Hitchock on global warming
Well, not exactly. But in his "Picture of the Week" feature on his chatty blog, Peter Bogdanovich — who directed one of the great pictures of my youth, The Last Picture Show — has some interesting thoughts from Hitch on nature and revenge re: The Birds: When I asked Hitch what he felt the movieContinue reading “Alfred Hitchock on global warming”
Climate change in Canada: the funny version
Here's an editorial cartoon about global warming, from a young artist… …who notes that countless species are migrating northward to survive. But Stephanie McMillan is right on another count, too: Climate change is coming to Canada, and could cost as much as $5 billion a year by 2020, and 20-42 billion by 2050, accordingContinue reading “Climate change in Canada: the funny version”
Kit Stolz 