Justin Sherin

I'm not sure I follow you, could you elaborate

Playwright, actor, screenwriter, critic, novelist, diarist - he could’ve been famous for any one but did the rest anyway. An entertainer, but not cuddly; no one has a colder eye on England. New book of diaries & essays imminent. I have such immense respect for him.

One of the best parts about the Scorsese doc is him going to Broadway when Liza Minnelli hired him & realising he didn't have a clue what he was doing. (Her new book says he wanted his own dressing room, which is when she knew she had to sack him.)

* Western theatre, Eastern theatre is a lot older

Movies are barely 100 yrs old, but they can be art. People talk about even stupid movies like they're art. Especially people who make them. No one would dare direct a movie without knowing his business, right?

The theatre is 2000 years old, but ah, hell, just lines on a page...

It is. Since 2016 the London Transport Museum has done tours of Down Street tube (closed 1932), which Churchill used when Number 10 & the War Rooms (specially built under the Treasury) were being repaired. It isn't restored like the War Rooms but is maybe more evocative for that.

Lord Soames likes to tell of intruding on his grandfather's bath, aged 5 -

SOAMES. Grandad, are you the greatest man in the world?

CHURCHILL. Yes. Now bugger off.

Churchill was a decent writer; drunken racist, & disgraceful politician - I mean actually bad at the business of politics - who happened to have a limited, singular, & immense talent for seeing Hitler coming & knitting together a coalition to beat him

The thought of 38yo Rev. so-and-so going through pictures from the event & saying 'Il capo ne sarà entusiasta!' is hilarious

Military man to his bones, honor was important to Butterfield. He did it because Nixon was rude to him. Almost certainly unintentionally; Nixon had to prepare for everything, & he caught him unprepared. For Butterfield that marked him as weak...

The Butterfield/Woodward book is probably Woodward's best writing on Nixon. He mostly kept out of it & let Butterfield talk. Butterfield had some really evocative details about Nixon's character (the secretary on the helicopter, for example) & let them speak for themselves.

Jesus

Biffo cries for help as his feet are trapped in cement. BIFFO: Help!

Beano #915, January 30, 1960

Biffo defeats his fencing instructor by means of a Biffo-shaped protective shield strapped in front of his body, preventing him from being stabbed while the instructor hasn't the faintest clue of what is going on. This is how one becomes invincible in fencing.

Beano #1165, November 14, 1964

Keep the faith my brother

I don't know if I'm a part of this or not, but on the outside chance they scraped me for papers on Nixon or the Royal Court rehearsal room in 1966 (heh), I wrote to them saying take me off if I'm there; you never have permission to use my name, image, or writing; and if you do my lawyers are ready

OK I’m old. But the point stands

Watching Iverson was like watching the best playground basketball player who ever lived.

Iverson had a rough start in life, overcame it, appears to have learned from his mistakes, & achieved something like real wisdom alongside his basketball brilliance

Growing up in Philly when Kobe was in school was interesting because Iverson was there too.

As long as you built the team around AI, he'd lead by example - a little guy who played fearless & hurt, a terror on defense, us-against them.

Kobe took Brandy to prom & padded his stats accordingly.

25 yrs ago when I sold suits, my grandmother bought me a pair of Florsheims. This was a big deal to her. Coming from the 40s & 50s it was a proper shoe for a proper job. The shoes were fine for my silly job but I otherwise didn't have the heart to tell her..

Phanatic = uncle who the parents tense up about because he'll tell moderately filthy stories & let you drink, but they know he'll die to defend you

Gritty = drug dealer who never left your hometown, blasts music at all hours but sinks profit into food banks for some reason

The capacity of Philadelphia & only Philadelphia mascots to be equal figures of pure good & evil is remarkable, yet totally appropriate

Cary Grant shows up. He looks as excited to meet Elvis as other people are to meet Cary Grant.

Vegas Elvis is not my bag, but good god the new concert doc is great. He’s still sober. The effect is so weird, he’s doing a Vegas show but he’s clearly thrilled to play twice a night, it’s like combination circus & house party.

While on the subject of Eno and blowups during production (apologies for my handheld capture)

😨😨😨

Marking this to get a bit of help with the Spanish

🤪

Nice NJ Italian boy wants to be famous, develops rudimentary AI to perfect dentist office music, becomes famous, pivots from music bore to wine/arena football bore