Marginalia #50: Breece D’J Pancake, What a Way to Go!, Guy Klucevsek with Mister Rogers

Breece D’J Pancake hailed from West Virginia and writes like an Appalachian blend of Ernest Hemingway and early Cormac McCarthy, infused with the dark humor of Denis Johnson. While reading this collection, Jesus’ Son by Johnson often came to mind, possibly influenced by Pancake.

Pancake’s writing is both gorgeous and devastating, capturing the lives and deaths of people in Appalachia with a raw, poignant clarity. His stories, only twelve in total, were mostly published in The New Yorker. Despite this success, Pancake tragically committed suicide in 1979. I’m unsure if there is any other work available from him.

I stumbled upon a gem in the Shirley MacLaine Collection that I hadn’t heard of before. What caught my eye was a still of a room painted floor-to-ceiling in a vibrant purple-pink hue. This movie features an impressive cast, including Paul Newman, Dick Van Dyke, Robert Mitchum, Gene Kelly, and Dean Martin, among others. Edith Head’s costumes are glorious, and the production design is outrageous and fun.

The movie itself is delightfully goofy. MacLaine’s character becomes a multi-millionaire because her husbands achieve fame and fortune, but each meets an untimely death related to their work. Believing she’s cursed, she seeks help from a psychiatrist and decides to give away her wealth. It’s fun, goofy, and often a visual treat.

I circle back to Guy Klucevsek’s music every few years. I had never seen this clip from Mister Roger’s in which you can hear both his phenomenal playing and composing.

I make a weekly playlist for The Drunken Odyssey. The most recent Musicalia is available here.

I recently got to go back to the Film Maudit 2.0 festival and reviewed two whole piles of surreal and weird shorts. Part one is here and part two is available here.