Month / March 2006

by Edward Champion

The Bat Segundo Show #27

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Author: Ron Hogan

Condition of Bat Segundo: Frightened of the 1970s, abdicating his position to a maniac.

Subjects Discussed: David Frum’s How We Got Here, Peter Bogdonavich, how filmmakers and actors are responsible for their own legacies, Karen Black, the accidental nature of casting, whether or not the 1970s is the Great American Movie Decade, Peter Biskind, “one for them, one for me,” George Clooney, David Kipen’s The Schreiber Theory, movies as business vs. movies as art, Hal Ashby, Roger Corman, Brian De Palma, The Muppet Movie as Joseph Campbell-Candide epic and the film’s influences, what Ron did while crashing at Mark’s, the problems of post-1970 photographic film, coffee table book vs. chronicle of 1970s cinema, the influence of film critics, Shaft Goes to Africa, film against instantaneous culture, the culture of scrutiny, television shows on DVD, and a good deal of idle speculation.

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by Edward Champion

Call Me Traditional, But Mothers Aren’t Meant to Be “Imbibed” By Their Sons Like This

    Elle: “A therapist might suggest that Flanagan disowns the aspects of herself that don’t fit into her nostalgic picture of her mother, pre-fall, then projects the hated parts onto other women, simultaneously distorting herself and them. Why does she so strenuously romanticize her mother? For that matter, why does she come off as so terrified that her children might hate her? Even after she hired a nanny, she writes, she barely left the house, which she herself calls ‘possibly pathological.’ ‘I had to be there not to share in the labor, but to exert my presence, to make sure my beloved sons were imbibing as much of me, their mother, as they were of her.’ (Even odder, Flanagan says that during her self-imposed home detention she suffered from ‘depression.’) If I didn’t know better, I’d think Flanagan harbors some unacknowledged fury at her mother, and not just for having the temerity to go back to work.” (via Jenny D)

by Edward Champion

Hopefully I Hope Elder Statesmen Will Learn How to Speak English Again

Tim O’Brien: “Watch your modifiers. Do not write this sentence: `Hopefully, the teacher will give me an A.’ The teacher isn’t hoping, you are. Do write: `I hope the teacher gives me an A.’ If you don’t know the proper usage of the word, `hopefully,’ I hopefully recommend you don’t use the word at all. Moreover, if you don’t watch your grammar, I must sternly warn you, you could end up president.” (via Bookninja)