Trailer: "Life During Wartime"

This looks sublime. Limited release July 23rd.

Director: Todd Solondz (of Welcome to the Dollhouse fame... there is a movie that broke my heart).

Update! Playing at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago starting Aug. 6th! 

"Am I Blue" Hoagy Carmichael

An old favorite, the scene with a glowingly adorable babyfaced Hoagy Carmichael, Lauren Bacall, and Humphrey Bogart from To Have & Have Not (1944).

Tea leaves.

Stunning July morning in Chicago, taken on my back porch.

Poem: "Calm Before"

Calm Before

I.

Pass through light
where the haloed rain seeks
shelter, unwinding north
in great, heaving exhalations.

The heart is a hummingbird, hovering.

Fingers, trembling blades,
        grass in a dim summer
        rain laced by fireflies, you catch
                me behind glass,
                breathless.

II.

Pass the rough light
where hallowed brains speak
of shelter, suddenly recoiling
in great, heaving exclamations.

I pour myself a little pitcher
all cartilage and sound,
and last week's forgotten earring.

The mind is full of champagne,
the mouth, wet with celebration––
        bubbles breathe softly,
        head aloft, like the silence
        after a song.




                    - JVH

R.I.P. Harvey Pekar (1935-2010)

"Hark! A Vagrant!" Comics from Kate Beaton

Canadian Kate Beaton only started her webcomic, Hark! A Vagrant! a few years ago, but her bi-weekly dose of historical and social satire has really taken off in a wonderful way. Her sense of humor is nerdy yet tongue-in-cheek. She skewers political figures from history (Jane Austen or Marie Curie jokes, anyone?), and lovingly pokes fun at her own life in Canada. Discovered via my little sister, here are a handful of my favorites.

Kate Beaton, Surly Wonder Woman, found here.

Kate Beaton, Where is Franklin?, found here.

Kate Beaton, I'm a a boat., found here.

Kate Beaton, Fitzgeralds, found here.

Kate Beaton, Canada jokes, found here. 

Click the image for a larger version.