Peaceable Kingdom 2017.

Peaceable Kingdom 2017.

Bryony Bensly (British, contemporary) 

Hibernation, 2017

Oil on canvas

Can anyone name the source of the quotation? (Hint: Off Broadway)

No one? (after 5 years; more a comment on my crickets than on any level of recognition or intelligence)

OK, the song "Much More" from the smash Obie champion hit of 1960 (is it still the champion? IDK), The F**********.

“Please, God, Please, Don’t Let Me Be Normal!”

Sigourney Weaver’s High School Yearbook Picture.1967

Wonderful overview from the writer above on the delights of this great work, and thank goodness for a shout to the under-appreciated Michael Hordern, absolute perfection in every scene, the nuances are glory to behold. (Both he and Sim, indeed the whole cast, including the astonishing Kathleen Harrison, I wonder at their working method to achieve such wonders.)

@thetoymakers replied to this post:

Something holiday-like would be nice. Everything is on its ear this year and we are all making do.

Allow me to recommend my all-time favorite Christmas film. It’s an adaptation of A Christmas Carol, and so is usually known by that title, though it’s “Scrooge” on the title cards. It is also much more tinged by genuine suffering than any other adaptation I have seen, which makes the joy of the final sequence that much sweeter.

It boasts absolutely gorgeous black-and-white cinematography, with deep chiaroscuro effects (think early David Lean.) The Irish director, Brian Desmond-Hurst, was a survivor of WWI, including the Gallipoli campaign, and was a noted exponent of both noir films and controversial social issue dramas, and he brings those sensibilities, I think, to this film. [Sidebar: I think Dickens adaptations should be generally much more edgy/challenging than they generally are, due to the lionizing popular devotion Dickens inspired in his later years, and the status he and his works have attained in the English canon.] 

Anyway. The film is scripted by Noel Langley (who also wrote the screenplay for The Wizard of Oz.) It stars, gloriously, Alistair Sim as Scrooge. Here he is ascending the stairs after his encounter with the door-knocker:

But it really is an ensemble film, to my mind. I’ve long thought that the fact that it was made in a damaged London at the height of postwar austerity must have something to do with the way in which it handles resilience, hardship, and hope. In any case, it is wonderful. I love the Cratchits with my whole heart, and it’s a treat to see Michael Hordern (who would play Scrooge a quarter-century later) as the ghost of Jacob Marley, shrieking and wailing with spectral abandon. Though I haven’t checked running times exhaustively, I also have the sense that this film spends longer with Scrooge on Christmas Day than most adaptations do, and I love that, too. Happy viewing!

People writing legislation that cannot even tell you what mRNA is🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

Holding the suicidal device that destroyed his youth and killed him before 60. Enjoy.

Humphrey Bogart, December 25, 1899 - January 14, 1957.