Goth, funk, Mary Todd Lincoln + links
YOU BLOW IT
It’s finally Friday, although I started my weekend early at Oh, Mary! last night:
I’ve seen the play twice now (with Cole Escola and Betty Gilpin in the lead), and I’m not opposed to a third, provided my bank account can support it. Gilpin wraps her run March 16, with the unbreakable Tituss Burgess taking over on March 18. These are urgent times for laughter, and Oh, Mary! gives and gives and gives some more.
sly lives!
Questlove’s excellent Sly Stone documentary features everyone you wanna see save for the man himself: George Clinton, Chaka Khan, André 3000, D’Angelo.
It also shows archival interviews with the rule- and genre-breaking genius (born Sylvester Stewart), in which Mike Douglas and Maria Shriver and others say the most uninformed, cringeworthy things right to his face. (Shriver: You were at that place every musician wants to be. You get there, and you blow it!”)
Sly Lives! The Burden of Black Genius is fun and compelling with a lot to teach. After I watched it, I couldn’t help but think back to some of the artists I’ve interviewed over the years. I always asked about the what — the album, the film, the thing they were there to promote — but I didn’t always ask enough about the why or the how or the actual art of it all. Much of Sly Stone’s career was tangled up in drugs and addiction, but it couldn’t have been easy to be thrust in a world where people just take and take and take some more.
The film is on Hulu. In 2023, Sly Stone released a memoir (with Ben Greenman), which is now in paperback.
the oscars
Five days ago is ancient history, so what else can we say about the Academy Awards? Gold was won, gum was flung, and Isabella Rossellini wore a gorgeous blue velvet dress. I can’t believe I watched the whole thing and let my kid stay up, although I still remember staying up in 1988 to see Dirty Dancing win Best Song and Cher in that wild dress that seems pretty ho-hummable now.
(The only thing I didn’t count on was my 12-year-old begging to see Anora, which I will not permit until at least 2038.)
marjorie prime
How did I miss 2017’s sapphire of a film about grief and AI with an all-star cast including Jon Hamm, Geena Davis, Tim Robbins and Lois Smith? It’s based on a play and feels like a play, and it’s scary-relevant but also moving. See it for free (with limited commercials) on Tubi.
book club
Hark, a new book club selection! Get Lol Tolhurst’s Goth: A History, and plan to chat about it on Zoom at the end of the month.
The book includes lots of photos, anecdotes about Tolhurst’s time in The Cure and chapters devoted to Sylvia Plath, Nico, Joy Division, Bauhaus and many more things that defined your identity in high school (and maybe now, too).
From the introduction:
From The Doors (of perception) to The Cure and further, I’m searching for the essence that has always resonated with dark seekers. Some identify as Goths; others do not, but we are all the same tribe. These are my people.
links + things
R.I.P. to George Lowe, the voice of Space Ghost.
Our friend Bill King remembers talking to Dolly Parton about her husband, Carl Dean, in 1984. Dean died last week at age 82.
Here’s a history of “Blinded by the Light,” which has one of the most famous/embarrassing misheard lyrics in rock history.
Ione Skye is revealing a lot in her well-titled memoir, Say Everything.
This year’s Audie Award winners (for audiobooks) include Kate McKinnon and Barbra Streisand. Here’s the full list.
Why are writers “leaving journalism in droves”? I have some theories. (One: It doesn’t pay rent. Two: The stress’ll kill you. Three: Have I mentioned that you should consider upgrading to a paid subscription of this Substack?)
Short stories by Harper Lee will debut in a book this fall.
Here’s a trailer for Being Maria, which tells the story of Last Tango in Paris star Maria Schneider. (Matt Dillon plays Marlon Brando.)
In Sacramento, Michael Cera and Michael Angarano hit the highway while pregnant Kristen Stewart stays home and trims her cool bangs:
And in the dark sci-fi film The Assessment, an “assessor” (Alicia Vikander) determines whether Elizabeth Olsen and Himesh Patel are fit to have a child. I’m guessing the answer is no!
Oh, and here’s a tiny indie movie about a comics shop:
Stay true, use a coaster, see ya next time.
all my tattoos are on the inside,
anne sexton
jump | wail | whale
