“Funny Pages,” a scruffy, grungy, likably tossed-together sketchbook of a low-budget indie comedy, typifies a paradox that now runs through a great deal of independent cinema. The movie, set in a humdrum New Jersey suburbia, unfolds on the moldy bottom rung of the comic-book ladder. It centers on two friends who are obsessed with drawing … Read more
My earliest reading memoryI read children’s comics voraciously from a very young age, starting with Bimbo (aged four or five) and progressing via the Dandy and Beano to the Victor and the Hotspur. Then there were the comic strips in the Sunday Post newspaper – Oor Wullie and the Broons. I did try drawing my … Read more
June 7, 2022, 4:55am Friendly reminder that it’s important to take breaks in your day. go on Take a walk. If you end up at your local library or the closest bookstore, well, that happens. If you find yourself walking out with a book (or two or nine), we’ve all been there! * Kali Fajardo-Anstine, … Read more
Jackie Chan’s autobiography shines some light on his most dangerous stunts. The book reveals what makes the martial arts sequences cooler than ever. Jackie Chan‘s book successfully makes his most dangerous stunts seem even cooler. I Am Jackie Chan proves that there is something behind Jackie’s life-threatening stunts that he does not show. Jackie Chan’s … Read more
On the red carpet at the Kennedy Center in Washington in April, comedian and activist Jon Stewart was asked if he would ever consider running for political office. “Show business is a good training ground ego and arrogance-wise for politics,” he told the Guardian, “but the art of compromise and the different transactional natures of … Read more
Once upon a time there was no time at all. And in weight, mass, height, volume. None of the gauges and instruments we use to make sense of the world around us existed. They hadn’t been invented yet. And although the physical properties measurements refer to existed before the human names coined to describe them, … Read more
Why would a photographer spend a few years embedded with New York Police Department homicide detectives? For Theo Wenner, it came down to his interest in the mythology of detectives in American culture that is along the lines of a Western or baseball. “It’s such an interesting sub-culture with so many traditions, codes and things … Read more
Paul Ginsborg’s book A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics 1943-88 begins: “Italy in 1943 was little changed, outside of its major cities, since the time of Garibaldi and Cavour. It was still predominantly a peasant country, of great and unspoiled natural beauty, of sleepy provincial cities, of enduring poverty, especially in the South, … Read more
This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Mystery and romance are two genres that, in my opinion, pair perfectly together. Often when I’m looking for a novel in one of these genres, I look for mystery novel books that have elements of the other. To … Read more
MARK KENNEDY Associated Press NEW YORK — On Valentine’s Day 1972, an opened off-Broadway musical needing a lot of love. It was already $20,000 in debt, and the reviews were mixed to poor. A decision had to be made: Keep going or give it the kiss off? The choice to continue was a risky but … Read more