Brendan

This sent me back to your conversation with Labatut

The shot right after the wedding scene of Keanu walking down a torch-lit corridor while laughing like a cartoon villain brings me great cheer

I usually wait till the weekend to listen, so I didn't know till yesterday that Backlisted is doing a live show at 92NY in October (!!!)

I metaphorically jumped on those tickets, & it's a good thing this is the internet because I might have physically shoved people out of the way for them

A preview screening of Sweet Smell of Success was poorly received, as Tony Curtis fans were expecting him to play one of his typical nice guy roles and instead were presented with the scheming Sidney Falco. Mackendrick remembered seeing audience members "curling up, crossing their arms and legs, recoiling from the screen in disgust".[19] Burt Lancaster's fans were not thrilled with their idol either, "finding the film too static and talky".[19] The film was a box-office failure, and Hecht blamed his producing partner Hill. "The night of the preview, Harold said to me, 'You know you've wrecked our company? We're going to lose over a million dollars on this picture,'" Hill recalled.[19] According to Lehman, Lancaster blamed him, claiming that: "Burt threatened me at a party after the preview. He said, 'You didn't have to leave – you could have made this a much better picture. I ought to beat you up.' I said, 'Go ahead – I could use the money.'"[19] Variety estimated the film lost at least $400,000 on its initial run.

Completely in character for a guy who threatened to beat up the screenwriter after “Sweet Smell of Success” bombed (still one of my favorite movies ftr)

Haven't had the chance! My girlfriend is the cool one with the turntable, but I'll be imposing it on her soon enough

Return Journey to Swansea, read by Dylan Thomas and supporting cast

Found this the other day. I don't know whether it's anything or not, but it seems cool to me

Not to mention that the constitution gives oversight of the federal district to Congress, not the executive

I live in NJ and can attest the law only applies to humans

Gonna have to disagree with you there! It's one of the best novels I've ever read, though I prefer Anna Karenina over it

Also, sure, I goosed my numbers this month by reading five shortish novels instead of two or three big ones, but I'm also plodding my way through a 1000-page biography of Sylvia Plath, and the next novel on my pile is volume five of Proust (La Prisonnière) 😬

A stack of eight books on the left that I read this month: * Gwendoline Riley, "First Love" * Jean Rhys, "Wide Sargasso Sea" * Ursula Parrott, "Ex-Wife" * Virginia Woolf, "Mrs. Dalloway" * Sylvia Townsend Warner, "Lolly Willowes" * Reginald Dwayne Betts, "Doggerel" * Eamon Grennan, "Still Life With Waterfall" * Layli Long Soldier, "Whereas" A stack of only two books on the right that I bought this month: * Joy Williams, "Breaking & Entering" * Don Carpenter, "Hard Rain Falling"

July in reading: eight books read (l.) and two bought (r.)

YTD totals: 30 read, 16 bought

— finally starting to make a noticeable dent in my TBR situation

#booksky #litfic

You're wrong about part of that: Louisiana's population is barely half that of the city's (4.6 million to 8.8 million), which makes your comparison even more striking

... before 1948 it was a British territory, and before 1918 it was a province of the Ottoman Empire

🍿

“journalists dawdled around ... unwilling to challenge the IDF’s reports”

That’s bullshit, and if you don’t know it you don’t actually read the paper. Contradictions of official statements with observed facts on the ground is routine and always has been

Vibes and people “saying it” aren’t the same thing as documentary fact-gathering and analysis, especially not on this kind of scale

I think a lot of folks just assumed this already—I saw a bunch of comments yesterday along the lines of “yeah, duh, NYT” (except with swears). Some people don’t seem to appreciate the time and effort it takes to uncover actual evidence for something like this, or why it’s important to do so.

Merriam has (have?) finally Gone Too Far

i don’t know how relevant this is, but this Lydia Davis / Penguin Classics edition is literally the most reflective book i own. with the lights out and my blackout curtains drawn i can still see it glimmering on the shelf across from my bed

anyway yeah this book fucks; enjoy

I forgot this book is also signed! Definitely one of my better random Strand finds of the past several years

#booksky

James Mason socks Martin Landau in the face after learning that Eva Marie Saint is a government agent who wants to steal his MacGuffin

Only Eve/Eva could inspire the most homoerotic face-punch in movie history

RIP Michael Madsen, author of much more interesting poems than James Franco

[CW for pretty much everything in the poem; I opened the book at random]

#booksky #litfic

oh she’s way in the background

I haven’t read any of her work before, and I’m looking forward! It’s near the top of the TBR pile

A line drawing of the Roman emperor Nero with a boner, staring at a boy standing on a pedestal and apparently with his ass in the front

The first edition of NEAR THE OCEAN included illustrations by Sydney Nolan, and I think this one deserves to be on BlueSky

Books read: * Joan Didion, SALVADOR * Henry James, WHAT MAISIE KNEW * Ted Hughes, GAUDETE (1st. ed., Harper & Row, 1977) * Robert Lowell, NEAR THE OCEAN (1st. ed., FSG, 1967) Books bought: * Katie Kitamura, INTIMACIES * THE ESSENTIAL RUTH STONE, edited by Bianca Stone * Layli Long Soldier, WHEREAS

Books read (l.) and boughr (r.) in June

YTD: 22 read, 14 bought

#booksky #litfic

lmao his stupid plaque has its own wikipedia page

In Renovation of Golf Club, Donald Trump Also Dressed Up History (Published 2015)

Seems like a good spot to re-up this gem in which DJT calls himself “a big history fan” after the NYT called him out for installing a plaque at his Virginia golf club commemorating a nonexistent Civil War battle

(“River of Blood” still makes me laugh)

“mozzerella [sic], which is nothing more than rich cream” 💀

the pizza in 1860 sounds awesome, tbh. this is outstanding victorian food writing and now i want some pizza

According to the DVD commentary he was wasted when they shot that scene 🫡