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Continue reading →: Paul Cantor, RIP
I was shocked to learn today (H/T to FB friend Shal Marriott) of the death (on February 26, 2022) of Paul Cantor, the American literary critic who was the Clifton Waller Barrett Professor in the English Department at the University of Virginia. Paul was 76. Born in Brooklyn, New York…
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Continue reading →: Song of the Day #1932
Song of the Day: The Untouchables (“Soundtrack Suite”) [YouTube link], composed by Ennio Morricone, is one of the highlights to this 1987 prohibition-era crime film, directed by Brian De Palma, and starring Kevin Costner (as Eliot Ness), Robert De Niro (as Al Capone), Andy Garcia, and the Oscar-winning Sean Connery.…
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Continue reading →: Song of the Day #1931
Song of the Day: In the Line of Fire (“Soundtrack Suite”) [YouTube link], composed by Ennio Morricone, provides a musical landscape of tension that undergirds this 1993 political action thriller starring Clint Eastwood, Rene Russo, and the maniacal Oscar-nominated John Malkovich. This is the first of two back-to-back suites from…
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Continue reading →: Classic Insult Humor
After a recent discussion on Notablog that examined cancel culture and comedy, I was watching the film “Touch of Evil” (1958), starring Orson Welles, and I got a kick out of the fact that Welles—who also directed and wrote the screenplay for the film—incorporated a jab at his own weight…
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Continue reading →: Ukraine & Moral Outrage
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, I have read quite a few articles by libertarians and fellow travelers who are understandably concerned about US intervention overseas. An article at antiwar.com highlights US hypocrisy in its stance toward the Putin regime, while other writers express the hope that President Biden will show…
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Continue reading →: Song of the Day #1930
Song of the Day: The Adventures of Robin Hood (“Soundtrack Suite”) [YouTube link], composed by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, features grand themes from the Oscar-winning score to this rousing 1938 swashbuckling adventure, directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley. It stars Errol Flynn in the title role, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains,…
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Continue reading →: Song of the Day #1929
Song of the Day: King Kong (“Soundtrack Suite”) [YouTube link], composed by Max Steiner, is credited as the first score written in a way to parallel, enhance, and support the narrative to a film—and “movie music” has never been the same since. So singular was Steiner’s achievement for this 1933…
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Continue reading →: Song of the Day #1928
Song of the Day: Summer of ’42 (“Soundtrack Suite”) [YouTube link], composed by Michel Legrand, provides a glimpse of this deeply romantic Oscar-winning score for the 1971 tender coming-of-age film, starring Jennifer O’Neill and Gary Grimes. On this date, 90 years ago, in 1932, the Legendary Legrand was born.
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Continue reading →: DWR (5): On Cancel Culture, Comedy, and Compassion
The other day, in the New York Daily News, one of my favorite comic strips, “Pearls Before Swine”, by Stephan Pastis, featured this commentary on our age: “The Judgment Age”… or maybe, the “Snap-Judgment Age”… either way, Pastis is just touching upon a very touchy subject. In my ongoing Facebook…
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Continue reading →: Song of the Day #1927
Song of the Day: Lady Usher (“Suite”) [site link], composed by Michael Gordon Shapiro, is a lovely suite of selections from the soundtrack to this 2021 creepy thriller with a twist, based on Edgar Allan Poe‘s Gothic tale, “The Fall of the House of Usher.” My friend Mike outdoes himself…
