Chris Barsanti's Blog, page 130

Quote of the Day: The Easter Rising

On this day in 1916, Irish rebels rose up around the country. The short-lived Easter Risingto establish a free Irish Republic was put down by British forces on April 29.

From W.B. Yeats’s commemorative epic poem, “Easter 1916“:

We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead.
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?
I write it out in a verse —
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utt...

Writer’s Desk: Writing a (Sex) Scene

Every now and then when you’re writing fiction it’s time to figure out the scene(s) where a couple of your characters well, you know, ahem…

With some handy advice for how to handle such delicate moments, here’s Marc Almond, who after a dozen steps for things to keep in mind, comes up with this bit of inspiration:

Bonus Step! Step 13: Read the Song of Songs.
The Song of Songs, for those of you who haven’t read the Bible in a while, is a long erotic poem that somehow got smuggled into the Old...

Weekend Reading: March 25, 2016

Maybe it’s time to help out Tunisia and Kurdistan, before it’s too late. Mittens learns how to zing the Donald. When AI goes racist. Conspiracy uncovered! Clearly, critics who pan Batman vs. Supermanhave been paid off by Marvel, right? The late, great Phife Dawg gets this tribute on Atlanta drive-time TV. John McCain, Hemingway, and one brave Communist. Print and read: David Sedaris likes to shop for clothes in Tokyo; unfortunately, he also likes culottes.

Screening Room: ‘Midnight Special’

Midnight Special, the new film from Jeff Nichols (Mud, the upcomingLoving), opened this past weekend. My review is atEyes Wide Open:

There’s nothing more American than a chase scene. That’s one of the reasons that, looking back on Jeff Nichols’s somber science-fiction thriller Midnight Special, it’s the moments of movement and noise that come to mind. The dark Texas and Louisiana highways, an old Detroit beater with its deeply thrumming engine, the hushed sentinel lines of trees on either si...

Writer’s Desk: Updike on Scheduling

One of the hardest things to deal with as a writer can be figuring out how much you have to do. Is it pages or hours of writing in a day that mark achievement? John Updike, who wrote a few books in his time, had a good answer:

Since I’ve gone to some trouble not to teach, and not to have any other employment, I have no reason not to go to my desk after breakfast and work there until lunch. So, I work three or four hours in the morning, and it’s not all covering blank paper with beautiful phra...

Weekend Reading: March 18, 2016

How would you break up the banks, anyway? Men quit books faster than women, and other surprising finds from literary moneyball. Next up at Universal Studios: the Walking Dead…something. When robots can tell a joke, then come talk to us about artificial intelligence. Sothat’s why Lorne Michaels banned the Replacements from Saturday Night Live . The “Ferguson Effect” as the Keyser Söze of criminology. Of Trump, tomatoes, Wendy’s, and slave labor. Why a punk anniversary is ridiculous; burn it al...

Screening Room: ‘The Brainwashing of My Dad’

It’s the kind of thing too many people are familiar with. Once middle-of-the-road parents suddenly, after immersing themselves in Fox News and talk radio, turn into angry ditto-heads, sending email forwards filled with birther conspiracy theories and ALL CAPS freakout. That’s what happened to filmmaker Jen Senko, who chronicled the experience in a new documentary.

The Brainwashing of My Dadopens this week in limited release. My review is atFilm Journal International:

Presenting itself as a C...

Writer’s Desk: Tips from F. Scott Fitzgerald

A few tips from the great F. Scott Fitzgerald, compiled from the handy collectionF. Scott Fitzgerald on Writing:

1: Start by taking notes.
2: Make a detailed outline of your story.
3: Don’t describe your work-in-progress to anyone.
4: Create people, not types.
5: Use familiar words.
6: Use verbs, not adjectives, to keep your sentences moving.
7: Be ruthless.

If you can follow even three of those closely enough, you’ll be well on your way.

Weekend Reading: March 11, 2016

Proposing at the bookstore. Curious about how Trump would be as commander in chief? Just watchStarship Troopers. “Tomorrow Belongs to Me,” new-millennium propaganda, andthe USA Freedom Kids. Teddy Roosevelt, the Whigs, the Southern Strategy, and other reasons why the GOP, if it splits, will quickly reform. Would you like your entire genome sequenced and sent to your cellphone for about $1,000? You’re in luck! Obama writes introduction to latest volume of The Complete Peanuts , which he calls...

Screening Room: ‘Creative Control’

What happens when disaffected, sociopathic hipsters become even more detached from reality? See Benjamin Dickinson’s sci-fi satireCreative Controlto find out.

Creative Control opens this week in limited release.My review is atFilm Journal International:

The meeting convened at the beginning of Benjamin Dickinson’s tech-frazzledCreative Control contains a nearly perfect example of what a dead soul sounds like. A passive-aggressive free-fire zone of territorial scrapping, greed and ambition di...