In the wake of Jonas Mekas’ death, First is reposting Bruce Jackson’s tribute to the great film preservationist James Card.
Culturewatch
Against “Affirmation”
Nathan Osborne’s empathetic angles on yearnings of this generation of “teentwenties” reminded your editor to check 4thWaveNow–a website that provides a forum for parents and other allies who resist the credo of “affirmation” that pushes young people with gender trouble to pursue medical “solutions” to their problems.
Preface: What I Want to Be
The summer of 1957, when I was sixteen, I had entered the 18-and-unders, at the USTA sponsored Clay Court Championships at the Newton Tennis & Squash Club, in hopes of ending a four tournament out-in-the-first-round losing streak.
TV Diary III: “My Brilliant Friend”
Laurie Stone posted on My Brilliant Friend–the TV adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novels—as each episode appeared. Here are her responses to the final shows of the season…
Rebecca Roanhorse Reimagines The Future of Dinétah
Trail of Lightning, by Rebecca Roanhorse, (pp. 304) Saga Press, NY, NY; hardcover, © 2018
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving was Joel DeMott’s first movie. It was screened at Tom DeMott’s Memorial on Dec. 1 (nearly 50 years after she made it). Tommy–Jo’s first roommate/fan–would be beaming now if he revisited her visions of him and the DeMott fam. Click on “Read More” to watch Thanksgiving. Use the following password: Amherst
Homegoing & Tom DeMott’s Hidden Obit
I gave the following talk and reading from my brother Tom’s prose at his Memorial after we screened Thanksgiving—our sister Joel’s movie (unsynched but fully in the flow) of a DeMott family celebration ca. 1970. I jumped off from the rapturous sequence in the movie where Jo used a great Motown track “Truly Yours” to soundtrack images of little sister Megan dancing and Tom listening/looking like a rock dream—saved (barely) from male model fineness by his broken nose…
Love Stories: Black and White, His and Hers, Then and Now
Bob Liss gives love for love in this review of Earl Monroe’s history of basketball…
TV Diary II: “My Brilliant Friend”
Laurie Stone has been posting on My Brilliant Friend–the TV adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novels—as each episode appears…
Attack of the Yellow Vests
Richard Goldstein filed this piece the day before the French government rolled back the proposed fuel tax increases that have sparked protests throughout the country.
TV Diary: “My Brilliant Friend”
Laurie Stone has been posting on My Brilliant Friend–the TV adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novels—as each episode appears. Here are her first three shots.
Part Three (Redux)
Karen Hornick’s 2015 post on Elena Ferrante’s novels–and the uses of seriality–is right on time again.
Baader-Meinhof Blues
I’ve made love in every way possible, she said. I don’t believe you, I said. In every way possible? In every way, she said, and I didn’t say anything (I preferred to shut up, maybe I was embarrassed) but I believed her.
Tom DeMott R.I.P.
Tom DeMott died suddenly from a heart attack in his New York City apartment on October 23rd.
Mondays in the Sun: Tom DeMott and the Promise of Happiness
The author first met Tom on Anna Maria Island in Florida. He wrote these reflections about his then new–but now late–friend a year or so ago…