The more things change, the more they stay the same. That’s the idea behind Lois Weber’s 1915 film, Hypocrites, a morality play that finds parallels between the medieval period and 1910s America. It’s also the thought that races through your brain … Continue reading HYPOCRITES
All the images were all very simple images, but I just wanted to record things that I didn’t see people recording and painting at that time. You know, I wanted to record my own history—or a different history—and that’s what … Continue reading WOJNAROWICZ: F**K YOU F*GGOT F**KER
The poor dope—he always wanted a pool. Well, in the end, he got himself a pool. —Joe Gillis, Sunset Boulevard Selma Blair wanted to be a writer. Then her English teacher saw her act and told her, “You’re an actress.” Not … Continue reading INTRODUCING, SELMA BLAIR
Wildflowers, released in 1994, was Tom Petty’s fastest-selling album. It went triple platinum in just nine months and became the album Petty cited as his best. And considering the personal turmoil Petty went through during the making of Wildflowers, its success … Continue reading TOM PETTY, SOMEWHERE YOU FEEL FREE
Tall, skinny, blond, and lonely, Connie wants to meet someone and go somewhere. Where really doesn’t matter, and who she doesn’t know yet—maybe someone who looks like James Dean and sings like James Taylor. She’s only 15, so there’s a … Continue reading SMOOTH TALK
A woman in a scarlet dress with a large hoop skirt strolls around an empty soundstage. On the stage is her spacious apartment. The apartment has several rooms, each one decorated with bright colors and paintings of nude women. Thanks … Continue reading THE HUMAN VOICE
History has a nasty little habit of being reductive. Life unfolds with such a multitude of specificity it’s damn easy to be overwhelmed by it all. So we generalize, we categorize. Anything that doesn’t fit is extricated. Then, after enough … Continue reading WOODLANDS DARK AND DAYS BEWITCHED: A HISTORY OF FOLK HORROR
Born Marianne Joan Elliott-Said, Poly Styrene picked her stage name out of the phone book because she wanted something that sounded plastic. This was Britain in the 1970s, and the cultural landscape was changing. Punk music was taking the scene … Continue reading POLY STYRENE: I AM A CLICHÉ
The Inheritance opens with a static image: A diagram of a notched wheel labeled, “African/American Ritual Mode.” Under the wheel, a legend depicts the icons for preachers, sacred images, congregation, chorus, and elders. All icons are represented in the diagram, and … Continue reading THE INHERITANCE
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