(Photo: Masayoshi Sukita, 1977)
There was nothing truly emotional about Bowie but there was something sincere, and this is no contradiction or put down. Continue Reading…
Sweetness And Light: Todd Haynes
A long time ago, in a decade far, far away, an otherwise delightful film buff acquaintance told me bluntly that I was the sentimental kind. Continue Reading…
Only a week after its release on Netflix, the web television series Marvel’s Jessica Jones already has the potential of becoming not only one of those rare cultural cross-over fictions, but a sociocultural watershed moment as well. The response on social media has been astounding and matches the quality of the show’s writing and production: acute and analytical reviews and recaps abound, and it’s been refreshing to see the internet sizzle over something other than cat videos — although I won’t deny those have their merits too sometimes. Continue Reading…
This blog entry is brought to you in part by Hedy Lamarr. Indeed, today’s Google Doodle honoree was the co-inventor and patent-owner of the scientific magic used in our current Wi-Fi and other wireless technology called “frequency hopping.” As the more intricate details behind this invention elude me, it proves easier to celebrate Hedy Lamarr’s multi-faceted brilliance as an inventor, as an independent spirit and as an actor by spotlighting one smaller aspect of her life: her early thespian career, specifically her role as Eva in the groundbreaking Ecstasy.
Au revoir, Chantal Akerman
Chantal Akerman has left us yesterday, apparently of her own doing though I hesitate to write of her own choosing. She entrusts us with so much to watch and ponder, her films and writings encouragements to look at the world with different eyes.
Never Disappear: Rowland S. Howard
Epitome of a talented early bloomer, Australian art school prodigy Rowland S. Howard came up at 16 with his first great work. Unexpectedly to friends and mentors, it would be in the form of a song called “Shivers”, a deceptively clever and touching tune that would create intemperate devotion in his homeland and continue to be covered worldwide nearly 40 years after its inception.
It is a peculiar thing for a woman to find herself forced to walk the tightrope between preconceived definitions of masculinity and femininity but it has been frequent in popular culture and especially in rock and roll, a noticeably masculine world where the lack of varied female role models endure. Thirty-five years ago, at a time when words like cisgender, normative and most discussion of sexual politics were uncommon if not completely absent from everyday conversation, Chrissie Hynde was the cool rock god-and-goddess on the radio, the one to worship in the mainstream pop world.
Lana’s Adolescent Sadness
This might be #throwbackthursday but Lana Del Rey moves resolutely forward: today she announced the track listing of her upcoming Honeymoon LP and it has hardly been a year since her last album emerged, a record that had left me a little cool despite falling hard for “West Coast”, sound and vision.