14 Friday Jun 2019
Posted in Books, Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, Music, Updates
≈ Comments Off on ‘Madame X’ is a Birthday Girl
In my 35+ years of fandom, this is the first time a Madonna album has dropped on my birthday – and it’s a masterpiece! As well as the delectable Madame X, I also got a copy of Marilyn Monroe In Spain, a wonderful book by the artist, author and museum owner, Frederic Cabanas … “Saludos a todos mis amigos!”
24 Friday May 2019
Posted in Art and Photography, Books, Profumo Affair, Updates, Wicked Baby, Writing
≈ Comments Off on ‘Dear Christine’ Draws Back the Curtains
Tags
Caroline Coon, Cathy Lomax, Christine Keeler, Claudia Clare, Dear Christine, Fionn Wilson, Helen Billinghurst, Newcastle, Sadie Hennessy, Tara Hanks, Vane Gallery
Dear Christine: A Tribute to Christine Keeler, a new exhibition curated by Fionn Wilson, will open at the Vane Gallery in Newcastle on June 1st (open from 12-5 pm on Wednesdays to Saturdays.) During its four week-stay, there will also be a series of lectures and workshops hosted by artists Caroline Coon, Claudia Clare, Sadie Hennessy, Helen Billinghurst and Cathy Lomax. Whether you see Christine Keeler as a Sixties icon or political figure, the women behind Dear Christine are, at long last, bringing her humanity into public view. Continue reading
30 Tuesday Apr 2019
Posted in Art and Photography, Books, Fiction, Film, Marilyn Monroe
≈ Comments Off on Marilyn’s Monsters
Tags
Betty Boop, Bus Stop, Comic Book, Fairy Tale, Fantasy, Gothic Horror, Graphic Novel, Humanoids, Life Drawn, Love Happy, Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn's Monsters, Sugar Kane, The Seven Year Itch, Tommy Redolfi
Marilyn Monroe has long been an inspiration to artists and writers. Among the many books devoted to her life and image are a number of comics and graphic novels. Kathryn Hyatt’s Marilyn: The Story of a Woman (1996) and Dana Gachman’s recent contribution to the Tribute series both opt for fairly conventional, if sympathetic narratives. It is from outside the USA that more imaginative retellings have emerged, such as Sergio Toppi’s 16-page comic, plus two full-length books: Jean-Francois Charles’ Shooting Star (2006) and Jose Correa’s Dreams of a Butterfly (2012.)
Tommy Redolfi’s Holy Wood was first published in France in 2016, and is now available in English as Marilyn’s Monsters, published by Life Drawn, a literary imprint from comic book publisher Humanoids. The French-born Redolfi now lives in Los Angeles, and has made several films as well as other graphic novels, including a 2007 tome about one of Marilyn’s idols, Mae West. Marilyn’s Monsters comes with an endorsement from cult filmmaker David Cronenberg: “A brilliant, hallucinatory meditation on the phenomenon of Marilyn Monroe. It will alter your understanding of both Hollywood and Marilyn.” Continue reading
20 Sunday Jan 2019
Posted in Books, History, Marilyn Monroe, Non-Fiction
≈ Comments Off on The Ladies of Rockhaven
Tags
Agnes Richards, California, Crescenta Valley, Elisa Jordan, Feminism, Gladys Monroe, Glendale, Marilyn Monroe, Rockhaven Sanitarium
Nestled among the hills and mountain ranges just beyond Los Angeles, Crescenta Valley was home to the indigenous Tongva people for thousands of years. During the Spanish colonial period it became part of the San Gabriel Mission. By the late 1800s, its warm, dry climate was attracting both tourists and health seekers, and after his wife’s death from tuberculosis, Dr. Benjamin Briggs moved there to build a sanitarium for those suffering from lung ailments. His success encouraged others to follow suit, including Merritt Kimball who founded a sanitarium for psychiatric patients. Perhaps the most unique of these pioneering establishments was Rockhaven, a sanctuary for vulnerable women opened by Agnes Richards in the 1920s. Continue reading
18 Tuesday Dec 2018
Posted in Art and Photography, Books, Fiction, Film, Music, Non-Fiction
≈ Comments Off on 2018: A Year In Books
Tags
#Bronte200, A View of the Empire at Sunset, Anna Maria Ortese, Aunt Branwell and the Bronte Legacy, Bettie Page, Bettie Page: The Lost Years, Billie Holiday, Black Dahlia, Black Dahlia Red Rose, Brandon Hobson, Brass, Brontё, Camille Laurens, Caryl Phillips, Cesare Pavese, David Lynch, Devil's Advocates, Don't Skip Out On Me, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Edgar Degas, Evening Descends Upon the Hills, Evening in Paradise, Freak Kingdom, Frida Kahlo, Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up, Hunter S. Thompson, Jean Rhys, Lindsay Hallam, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, Lucia Berlin, Maura McHugh, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Native American Literature, Nick Holland, Olga Tokarcsuk, Ottessa Moshfegh, Piu Eatwell, Rachel Kushner, Religion Around Billie Holiday, Sarah Weinman, Taylor Brown, The Beautiful Summer, The Blacker the Berry..., The Gods of Howl Mountain, The Mars Room, The Real Lolita, Timothy Denevi, Tori Rodriguez, Tracey Fessenden, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Vladimir Nabokov, Wallace Thurman, Welcome Home, Where the Dead Sit Talking, Willy Vlautin, Xhenet Aliu, You Are Always With Me: Letters to Mama
With her third novel, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh confirms herself as a major writer of our time. This darkly comic tale follows the sleepy adventures of a young, beautiful and rich but miserable New Yorker who embarks on a drug-fuelled sabbatical at the dawn of the 21st century. Moshfegh’s mischievous delight in the squalid details of everyday life powers her absurd yet visionary narrative. Continue reading
18 Tuesday Dec 2018
Posted in Books, Film, Marilyn Monroe, Non-Fiction, Television
≈ Comments Off on 2018: A Year in Film and TV
Tags
Amanda Seyfried, Amy Adams, Andrew Norman, BlackKKlansman, Carnival of Souls, Carnivale, Charles Casillo, Charlize Theron, Claire Trevor, Diana Dors, Elisa Jordan, Elizabeth Debicki, First Reformed, Frances McDormand, Greta Gerwig, Harry Dean Stanton, Howard Hughes, I Am Not A Witch, Joaquin Phoenix, Julia Garner, Karina Longworth, Lady Bird, Lean On Pete, Leave No Trace, Louise Brooks, Lucky, Marilyn Monroe, Michelle Morgan, Netflix, Ozark, Peterloo, Private Life, River's Edge, Saoirse Ronan, Sharp Objects, Shoplifters, Spike Lee, Sweet Country, Tamara Jenkins, The Florida Project, The Rape of Recy Taylor, The Rider, The Ruth Ellis Files, Thomas Gladysz, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Tommy Redolfi, Tully, Widows, You Were Never Really Here
I’m lucky enough to live just around the corner from the Duke of York’s, England’s oldest independent cinema; and so this year I made the most of my Picturehouse membership. I like movies that blend a touch of realism with a sense of style: Sean Baker’s The Florida Project, Mike Leigh’s Peterloo and Kore-Eda Hirokazu’s Shoplifters satisfied those needs. Continue reading
17 Monday Dec 2018
Posted in Amy Winehouse, Books, Film, Lana Del Rey, Madonna, Music, Non-Fiction
≈ Comments Off on 2018: A Year in Music
Tags
All Nerve, Amy Winehouse, Back to Amy, Back to Black, Beautiful Game, Blake Wood, Bobbie Gentry, Cat Power, Charles Moriarty, Chris Wade, Comeback Kid, David Bowie, Fado, Jack Antonoff, Lana Del Rey, Lissie, Madonna, Madonna in the Eighties, Mariners Apartment Complex, Matthew Rettenmund, Mazzy Star, Mercury Rev, MLVC60, My Wild West, Nico, Nico 1988, Norman Fucking Rockwell, Piano & A Microphone 1983, Portugal, Prince, Quentin Harrison, Record Redux: Madonna, Record Store Day, Sharon Van Etten, The Breeders, The Girl From Chickasaw County, Wanderer, Woman
She may have left the stage decades ago, but 2018 was a vintage year for die-hard fans of the mysterious Bobbie Gentry, with a rare vinyl release on Record Store Day followed in September by a career-spanning CD box-set, The Girl From Chickasaw County. Continue reading
05 Wednesday Dec 2018
Posted in Books, Film, Marilyn Monroe, Non-Fiction
≈ Comments Off on Marilyn: A Public Icon, in Private
Tags
Charles Casillo, J. Randy Taraborrelli, Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Monroe: The Private Life of a Public Icon
Charles Casillo is a multi-talented author, actor and screenwriter. His books include the novel, The Marilyn Diaries – a reimagining of Monroe’s final years – and a biography of the novelist and gay icon, John Rechy. Casillo was also a consultant and researcher for J. Randy Taraborrelli’s The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe. In an appendix, Taraborrelli acknowledged Casillo as one of the “true experts” on Marilyn’s life, an “’ultimate’ Marilyn Monroe fan who understands her character and personality so well.” Now almost a decade later, with Marilyn Monroe: The Private Life of a Public Icon finally published, Taraborrelli hails it as “the book he was always meant to write.” Continue reading
24 Saturday Nov 2018
Tags
Barney Ruditsky, Bobby kennedy, Celebrity, Clark Gable, Confidential, Dan Dailey, Dick Powell, Dorothy Dandridge, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Gossip, Hollywood Research Incorporated, Howard Rushmore, Jeanne Carmen, Jerry Giesler, Joe DiMaggio, Joe Schenck, Johnnie Ray, Marilyn Monroe, Milton Greene, Nicholas Ray, Robert F. Kennedy, Robert Harrison, Robert Mitchum, Robert Slatzer, Rory Calhoun, Samantha Barbas, Scandal, Sonny Tufts, Tabloid, Wrong Door Raid
Samantha Barbas is a professor of law at the University of Buffalo, specialising in the history of America’s mass media. Her previous publications include Movie Crazy: Fans, Stars, and the Cult of Celebrity (2001), and The First Lady of Hollywood: A Biography of Louella Parsons (2005.) In her latest book, Confidential Confidential: The Inside Story of Hollywood’s Notorious Scandal Magazine, she explores the lurid history and aftermath of a 1950s publishing phenomenon. Continue reading
10 Saturday Nov 2018
Posted in Books, Film, History, Jeanne Eagels, Non-Fiction, Theatre, Updates, Writing
≈ Comments Off on Turning a New Page With Jeanne
I’m glad to tell you all that Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed (Revised and Updated) is now available in hardcover and paperback. A full 90 pages longer than the first edition, and with new photos, it will be our last word on Jeanne’s remarkable life and career. So if you’re looking for a meaty biography to read this Christmas, make sure to buy this new edition as the older version will soon be unavailable. I’ve updated all the links to order from Amazon and other stores here.
