My Journal
Indians?
What’s with the Indians? Aside from paintings and drawings of Indians plastered all over the book, what’s it got to do with some wise guy New Yorker who wants to “go back to where I used to live when I was a kid in New Hope and see my best friend Smedley Fagan here,...
A 21st century Dean, Brando, Newman, Nicholson
Who are the great movie anti-heroes? Gable? Bogart? Brando? Dean? Newman? Nicholson? AFI picked Bogart as America's favorite movie star - and his appeal was on that basis, the anti-hero - as was Gable's (the King) and all the rest of the aforementioned. Rhett, Rick,...
A 21st Century Catch-22
North Korea! Front page today. Tomorrow? Or by the time you read this? Who knows? But I mention it because I served 13 months in the closest camp of significance to the DMZ where we all knew we were mere cannon fodder (or, at best, speed bumps) if they ever decided to...
Read My Lips: Cool Conversations with Creatives with akaRadioRed
On the Read My Lips stage, where passion beams true, akaRadioRed, on her Scarlett mic in the live-streaming hue, welcomes you to The Opportunities of Creativity today. The show features a trio of Creatives with much to say, including our James Mueller; watch or listen...
LXVI (66): Confessions of St. Augustine (a 21st Century Second Coming)
Not to sound like a numerologist, but if you were to add another 6 to this post, you'd have the number 666. And then, on page 666 (a number not without significance), our hero finally reaches the end of his story, too (more on that in a minute). Because 666, of...
A 21st Century Pauline Kael
Godfather I & II Good Fellas The Graduate One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Amadeus On the waterfront A Streetcar Named Desire Chinatown It Happened One Night Lawrence of Arabia Casablanca Annie Hall You will note every one of those movies was directed by a...
A 21st Century Brando
He was definitely the Godfather of all method actors. He was the one they all looked up to, tried to emulate, and viewed with such reverence that Pacino, going into The Godfather, said, "He's God!" And yet. In my opinion, it's solely based on two performances:...
A 21st Century Jazz Singer
The problem is when some artist comes along and throws everybody for a loop because it's not what they've been conditioned to see. Movies were never questioned until someone got the strange idea of adding dialogue - spoken, no less! - not the tried and proven...
Confessions of St. Augustine (a 21st Century Innocents Abroad) – Sixth Installment
I concluded the last blog with a quote from Shaw: "Those who can, do - those who can't, teach." I don't believe that. What I do believe is teaching can be one of the highest callings. Teachers are the unsung heroes of America. Granted, in the second part of the first...
Confessions of St. Augustine (a 21st Century Innocents Abroad) – Fifth Installment
When I got out of the army I decided to take advantage of the GI Bill and continue my graduate work in literature. One professor and one course stood out in particular: a professor who made Professor Kingsley, played by John Houseman, in The Paper Chase, look like...
Confessions of St. Augustine (a 21st Century Innocents Abroad) – Fourth Installment
After having read all seven volumes of Remembrance of Things Past (or sometimes translated as In Search of Lost Time) by Marcel Proust years ago, I always wanted to go back to Paris again, particularly in light of not only after having completing my trilogy (not to...
Confessions of St. Augustine (a 21st Century Innocents Abroad) – Third Installment
To continue with my take on how much our fantasies have bearing on our lives for good or bad, I can't help but wonder if our trip to Paris is the result of my childhood fantasies: that of wanting to be an Indian only to end up drawing pictures of them and eventually...