THE AMBERSONS, THE AUTOMOBILE, AND ORSON WELLES’ BRAZIL
THE AUTOMOBILE HERE happens to be driven by a guy named Morgan, but it’s not the English sports car. Instead, Orson Welles’ second film, The Magnificent Ambersons, 1942, is a … Continue reading
“BREAK A LEG?” NO, “TOI, TOI, TOI”
HERE ARE SEVERAL OPERATIC SUPERSTITIONS cited by Henry Stewart in his “Operapedia” feature in Opera News, April 2023. As usual, I do added sleuthing as well. Spitting Image. Stewart recalls … Continue reading
VIV’S LINES
DAUGHTER SUZ AND I RECENTLY caught the last part of Gone With the Wind. Each of us had seen this near-4-hour epic before, but this didn’t lessen the entertainment of … Continue reading
FRATER, CAN YOU SPARE A DENARIUS? PART 2
TODAY WE CONTINUE WITH TIDBITS gleaned from Michael Kulikowski’s “What the Badger Found,” London Review of Books, February 2, 2023. The Drachm. Kurlikowski describes, “… the large silver coin that … Continue reading
FRATER, CAN YOU SPARE A DENARIUS? PART 1
HAVE YOU STOPPED USING COINS TOO? Credit card and online transactions have all but eliminated my use of metallic cash. I used to collect them in a baggie and, once … Continue reading
XERXES, SERSE, DEFT MARKETING, AND PRONOUNCING THE COMPOSER’S NAME
AWHILE BACK WHEN I TRAVELED a lot, I enjoyed live performances of the Michigan Opera Theatre, including a memorable Magic Flute enjoyed with a bunch of Detroit teenagers. Now renamed … Continue reading
MARY STUART—CRYPTOQUEEN
TUDOR TIMES WERE RICH in skullduggery: Henry VIII’s serial nuptuals, his daughter Elizabeth I’s spymaster Francis Walsingham, and her tough-love/hate relationship with Mary, Queen of Scots. Being a lapsed Catholic, … Continue reading
CUNK ON EVERYTHING
PHILOMENA CUNK HAS CALLED HERSELF a cultural ambassador. I call her portrayer Diane Morgan a British wit who has worked with satirist Charlie Brooker to produce zany off-kilter humor. In … Continue reading
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT—WITH A LOT OF REWRITES AND AD-LIBS
IN 1940 HIS GIRL FRIDAY WAS ORIGINALLY perceived as merely a remake of The Front Page, a 1931 (i.e., pre-Code) screwball comedy: “A bold-faced reprint of what was—and still remains—the … Continue reading
ONLINE ADS
LIKE MOST OF US, I spend a goodly amount of time online, amidst what turns out to be a highly complex environment of advertising. I learned elements of the latter … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 