Category: Opinion

“Why Read [and Write] Fiction in a Bad World?”

Found this on Gawker.Com.  Good stuff. If you’re a writer, think of it as “Why WRITE Fiction in a Bad World?”

And, yes, for all practical purposes there’s no reason for all of who write to be crying and feeling guilty because let’s face it. There’s nothing all that special about our planet’s current circumstances. Hasn’t it always been this way?

Is she reading or writing? How about both, dammit? Both!

 By MORTEN HØI JENSEN

n 1932, Samuel Beckett paid a visit to the Paris apartment of Walter Lowenfels, an American poet and member of the Communist Party. Sunk in a corner of the living room, looking like “a forest ranger in a Western,” Beckett listened forbearingly as Lowenfels lurched into passionate speech about the need for anonymity in the arts and the terrible material conditions of society. Increasingly frustrated by the silence of his guest, Lowenfels suddenly exclaimed: “You sit there saying nothing while the world is going to pieces. What do you want? What do you want to do?” To which Beckett offered the languid response: “Walter, all I want to do is sit on my ass and fart and think of Dante.” read article

Dawn McElligott: Howard Hesseman has gone “Gentle, Into that Good Night”

by Dawn McElligott

Howard Hesseman, the actor who portrayed a man experiencing a rebirth on WKRP in Cincinnati, passed away on January 29th at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

His third wife, Caroline DuCroc, was at his side when he died of complications from colon cancer.  The actor had no biological children, but he did have three god-children, Hamish, Grace and Chet.  Hamish and Grace were also present at his passing. read article

LB: Speaking of Copyright…

by Larry Brody

Breathes there a creator so rare that they disagree with this masterful reaction by Wiley Miller to recent events in the copyright world?

It takes a most admirable amount of chutzpah to thumb your nose at Walt Disney. read article

LB: “Retirement Blues?”

by Larry Brody

I’m thinking that the heading on this post could also apply to this cartoon by Wiley:

Don’t get me wrong. It doesn’t apply to me, oh no, no. read article

LB: Peter Bogdanovich RIP

by Larry Brody

Bogdanovich & Boris Karloff back when Bogdanovich began his ascent

LB’S NOTE: I’ve been thinking about Peter Bogdanovich’s death and wishing there was something I could add to the discussion of one of the most influential film directors of the 1970s.

I met him once during the ’80s, via my then business managers, and he was quite pleasant in a Hollywood sort of way. My management, however, wasn’t exactly fond of him. Something to do with the fact that he only got in touch with them when he needed money for a project.

This shouldn’t have been a negative because my managers’ main business was in fact lending people money in exchange for a percentage of the take. But their policy was to never – absolutely never – invest in the film biz, which, they said, they had told Bogdanovich myriad times so why did he keep insisting on wine-and-dining and pitching them time after time? read article