Chris Barsanti's Blog, page 156
February 1, 2015
Writer’s Corner: Hitting Your Word Count
Some writers can work anywhere, in any circumstances, with any implements, on a schedule that only their muse is herself fully comprehending. The rest of us need to set goals.
Take Graham Greene. According to legend, he wrote 500 words a day, no more and no less. Take this recollection from writer and editorMichael Korda, who was introduced to Greene while cruising on a private yacht in the Antibes in 1950 (as one does):
An early riser, [Greene]appeared on deck at first light, found a seat in t...
January 30, 2015
Department of Weekend Reading: January 30, 2015
RoboCop’s guide to Renaissance Florence.
And there goes the middle class.
Kobani finally liberated from ISIS; Kurdish fighters “danced by firelight into the night.”
Going Clear filmmakers onwhy Tom Cruise and John Travolta need to come clean about Scientology.
The New Yorker moves downtown; ah, the memories.
New Pope’s favorite apocalyptic novel.
Mayor of New York: Repent, for the end is nigh.
When in Phoenix (it could happen), check out the First Draft Book Bar.
Print and read: Oddly, thebirthplace o...
January 29, 2015
New in Theaters: The Oscar Nominated Short Films
Ireland’s Oscar-nominated short film ‘Boogaloo and Graham’ (ShortsHD)
Every year at the Oscars, the same four or five feature films are mentioned over and over again. Then they come to the shorts category and everybody looks confused since there was never anywhere to see the things. That’s changed in recent years with the increasing popularity (in arthouses, at least) of the Oscar nominated short film programs.
All three programs (Live-Action, Documentary, and Animation) open in limited release...
January 26, 2015
In Books: ‘All the Light We Cannot See’
German soldiers march through Paris, June 1940 (German Federal Archive)
Sometimes it can just take you a while to get around to that book that everybody has been reading. Anthony Doerr’s fairly beloved novelAll the Light We Cannot See has been hanging around on the bestseller lists pretty much since it was published last summer, and for good reason. It’s not just the France-during-the-occupation setting or the gorgeous language, though both of those attributes help, of course. It has a magic t...
January 25, 2015
Writer’s Corner: Getting Under the Skin
Sometimes you write a piece, a poem, a scribble, a book, and that’s all it is. Just the thing there, no more and no less. There is of course, absolutely nothing wrong with that. The world would be far too complex to live in if we spent our time looking for nuance in every bit of text that we came across.
But there’s writing and then there’s writing. It’s that second kind which some of us are aiming for. That’s the kind that acts like glue, or a song you can’t get out of your head, an itch unde...
January 24, 2015
Screening Room: ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ Deserves to Win It All
Ralph Fiennes lives it up while he can in ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ (Fox Searchlight)
Wes Anderson’sThe Grand Budapest Hotelwas nominated for nine (count ‘em) Academy Awards. There’s no guessing exactly how it will fare up against the competition from Birdman andBoyhood, but it’s easy to say that whatever awards those films don’t get, should be sentBudapest‘s way.
My article about the film is at Short Ends & Leader:
Wes Anderson isn’t our greatest living filmmaker; his style is too narrowly def...
January 23, 2015
Department of Weekend Reading: January 23, 2015
Stay Florida, Florida.
The ever-stylish and fiendishly talented Joan Didion.
For this new James Patterson book, you’ll also get a couple nights on the town … and an explosion.
The real blame for why the West ignored the latest round of Boko Haram attacks lies here.
Author ofThe Boy Who Came Back from Heaven admits that, no, he didn’t actually make it to the pearly gates.
“Where the hell is the damn plow”? There are no libertarians in a Buffalo blizzard, it would seem.
Guns, gun owners, and lies eve...
January 18, 2015
Writer’s Corner: Do the Work
Roddy Doyle (photo by Jon Kay)
When an author’sresume includes such masterpieces as the Barrytown trilogy (The Commitments, The Snapper, The Van), it’s generally best to listen to what they have to say…at least when it comes to writing.
Herewith some rules for writersfrom the great Roddy Doyle about calming down and getting on with it when you’re blocked:
Do be kind to yourself. Fill pages as quickly as possible; double space, or write on every second line. Regard every new page as a small trium...
January 17, 2015
Department of Herzog: The Minnesota Declaration
Werner Herzog (photo by Erinc Salor)
Back in 1999, the always forward-looking Walker Art Center in Minneapolis hosted a career retrospective for the Quixote-like filmmakerWerner Herzog. He was years pasthis early narrative successes likeAquirre, the Wrath of Godand yet to hit the later bumper crop of documentaries that started with 2005’sGrizzly Man.
Still, Herzog came bristling with ideas, like the intellectual guerrilla he is. As part of the event, he issued his “Minnesota Declaration: Truth...
January 16, 2015
Department of Weekend Reading: January 16, 2015
This omnivorous list of everything that Steven Soderbergh read, watched, and listened to in 2014 is a good guide to his artistic approach.
Ministry to New Order and the Beastie Boys: The greatest albums of 1989.
Mark Ronson and how Michael Chabon helped write the funk.
How could this go wrong? FAA says CNN can use their own drones.
Also: putting people who don’t believe in science in charge of … science.
After Tahrir Square and everything that followed, Mubarak may still end up going free.
More del...
