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Waxing [Cinematically]: Blue Jasmine
There are few things I get to look forward to year after year than Woody Allen’s next movie. The man’s output is just absurd — 44 movies in 47 years — and he continues his somber parade on with more...
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Waxing [Cinematically] The Spectacular Now
Hollywood has gotten really, really good at retelling the same story. Going to see movies these days, I can’t help but shake the “I’ve seen this play out before” feeling, or predicting an ending, or...
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Waxing [Cinematically]: “Gravity”
I had high expectations for Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity. That’s an understatement. I had almost laughably high expectations for it. After seeing the first trailer I said “there’s no way a studio would...
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Waxing [Cinematically]: The Great Gatsby
When I heard a(nother) Great Gatsby movie was being made, I sighed. It won’t work, I said. It hasn’t before, and it won’t this time. The book doesn’t translate. It’s beauty is in the density of...
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Waxing [Literarily]: William Boyd’s ‘Waiting for Sunrise’
I was looking for books that took place in Vienna shortly after the turn of the 20th century. I had read the LA Times book review of Franzen’s Kraus Project and was particularly interested in his...
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Waxing [Literarily]: The Hotel New Hampshire {John Irving}
I’m going to start with a metaphor. We’ll have to see how long I can carry it for. Reading John Irving is like having your mom do your laundry for you. Okay, how far can we take this. For one, Irving,...
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Waxing {Musically] – The War On Drugs – Red Eyes
The War On Drugs (the band) has put out a new single — the first new music we’ve seen since Slave Ambient. I was a late-comer to Slave Ambient (and the band, then, by default) but it hasn’t stopped me...
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Waxing [cinematically]: Boyhood
It’s been five full days since I saw Richard Linklater’s new movie ‘Boyhood’. I’ve thought about it multiple times in each of those days since. In writing this, I’m almost more consumed by my thoughts...
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Waxing [cinematically]: The One I Love
The billing sold me first. Mark Duplass and Elisabeth Moss. And then I read it was really only those two. Ted Danson is in there. For, what, a minute? Two? So we have two favorites. 90 minutes. With...
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Waxing [Cinematically]: The Ending of ‘Short Term 12′
I saw Destin Daniel Cretton’s Short Term 12 three months ago. It hasn’t left my mind since. It’s a movie that sticks with you — thanks to a brilliant cast, great pace, and most of all, a focus on...
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Waxing [Cinematically]: Don Jon
Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Don Jon is the ultimate side-project film. I don’t mean that that to degrade what he has done, nor suggest that it wasn’t given its fair time to produce. It was a good movie; and...
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Waxing [Cinematically]: Dallas Buyers’ Club
I snuck in a watching of Dallas Buyers’ Club just hours before the 2014 Academy Awards and I’m glad I did. It was worth it to see what film carried both the years Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor....
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Waxing [Musically]: Lucinda Williams’‘Car Wheels On A Gravel Road’
It took me seventeen listens to realize that Car Wheels on a Gravel Road is the story of a breakup. It took my slightly fewer listens to realize the lyrical genius of Ms. Williams. See, when you start...
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Waxing [Literarily]: Travels with Charley {John Steinbeck}
There’s been much debate on the reality of what happened with John Steinbeck in 1960. His book, Travels with Charley in Search of America, details some (of his/not his) journeys through that year and...
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Waxing [Literarily]: One Summer [Bill Bryson]
It was on a sunny Saturday in Vancouver, BC that I embarked on two history-learning journeys: (1) starting ‘One Summer’, Bill Bryson’s book on the exciting summer of 1927; and (2) Dan Carlin’s...
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Waxing [Cinematically]: Love & Mercy
Let’s start with a few simple facts on this one. Love & Mercy is a music-focused biopic on Brian Wilson — member of the Beach Boys, producer, and noted recluse for much of the decades after...
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Waxing [Musically]: John Wesley Harding
Starting on March 22, 1965, Bob Dylan released, it the span of 14 months, perhaps the three greatest rock n’ roll albums of all time. The triad output of Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61...
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Waxing [Cinematically]: Gleason
I’ve seen some really good movies lately. I finally saw Philomena which was great. I saw The Verdict, Sidney Lumet’s 1980s courtroom drama with a drunk Bostonian Paul Newman. Pleasure, for sure....
View ArticleWaxing [Poetically] Frank In Love
Some nights you find yourself happening back upon the words of your favorite poet and it’s pure bliss. This one to Vincent, from Frank. Notice the acrostic of it. “We’re all for the captured time of...
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