by Sam Juliano
As we approach the end of April, we will focus on the annual Allan Fish Online Film Festival, which is entering its eighth year. In early May, I will send out a group e-mail to those who have previously participated, and later, I will put together a schedule.
I have reached 55,000 words in writing my third novel, Mikey’s Absolution, and have outlined the basic plot for the fourth novel, Roses for Saoirse. I am pleased with how everything is progressing.
I will once again be serving as a chaperone for the annual Washington D.C. 8th grade school trip, to be staged on May 8th through the 10th.
Voting on the 1983 Best Song Poll continues through Saturday, April 27th. I’m urging readers to check out the song list Tony D’Ambra has faithfully posted after every result!
The ratings for this past week’s two films seen in theaters are as follows:
Housekeeping For Beginners ****
Sasquatch Sunset ***
Wishing everyone a great week!
Howard Stern interviews President Biden today. This is a big “eff you” to the NYT and its entrenched anti-Biden narratives. Also, the Times would not ease up on Biden even if he granted them an interview because the paper of record has devolved into a Republican rag. It’s all a rinse and repeat of the Times’ 2016 jihad against Hillary.
Mark, am I missing something? You are saying that THE NEW YORK TIMES is anti-Biden and pro-Trump and that it has now become a “Republican rag?” Explain what has happened. As you know I despise Trump and right wing ideology and always thought the TIMES were super-liberal and on our side.
The Trump-besotted NYT has almost single-handedly made Biden’s age an issue in the upcoming election while soft-pedaling Trump’s insanity, his threat to democracy, his stupidity, his lying, or as the Times euphemistically puts it, his “untruths.” (Biden is less than four years older than Trump.) Otoh, there’s little coverage stating that the stock market is at an all-time high, that Biden’s economy has added 14 million new jobs, that crime is actually down in major U.S. cities, the number of folks with health insurance has increased, that unemployment is at its lowest since 1969. This is above-the-fold front page news yet the Times buries these positive Biden stories on page A15 or A20, focusing instead on Biden tripping over a sandbag or mixing up the names of world leaders. (Meanwhile, Trump thinks Obama is still president.)
The NYT editorial page is larded with right-wing pundits like Bret Stephens, Pamela Paul (Stephens’s ex-wife), indefatigable Hillary-hater Maureen Dowd, Ross Douthat, “liberal” Frank Bruni, an erstwhile food critic who asks readers to “celebrate” insurrectionist House Speaker Mike Johnson who, to his credit, managed to pass an aid package to Ukraine. The nefarious Johnson is also the architect of a lawsuit seeking to overturn Biden’s 2020 wins in several Midwest swing states. Just recently the paper of record published some “Trump Respects Women, Most Men Say” garbage by inauspicious new hire Jess Bidgood. The mind boggles at such journalistic malpractice. Trump brags about overturning Roe vs. Wade!
Yes, the Times is still full of wonderful writing, but its political reportage is a swamp of abysmal both-sidesism and false equivalencies. (If I’m overreacting it’s because I’m scared shitless of a second Trump presidency.)
Gee Sam, I sincerely hope I haven’t offended you by giving the NYT some well-deserved hell. If corporate media help elect Trump again, perhaps we’ll meet up in the gulag.
In happier news, I just revisited Mary Harron’s I Shot Andy Warhol and was once agained bowled over by Lili Taylor’s ferocious performance. A paradoxically funny and frightening portrait of misandry and mental illness set in the go-go 1960s. Taylor is the Rodney Dangerfield of actors—she gets no respect from AMPAS, and this burns me up.
Btw, Dogfight, with Taylor and the tragic River Phoenix, just dropped on Criterion with an essay by Christina Newland and an interview with Taylor and director Nancy Savoca conducted by Mary Harron herself. Never seen the film and I trust Newland’s taste, so I’m itching to buy this one.
Hot stuff comin’ through—86 degrees here in the Midwest tomorrow.
Mark, you haven’t offended me at all. your answer was honest and warranted. I am going to answer you at length tomorrow. thank you my friend.