Book Signing at The Mysterious Bookshop

 I'll be signing books at The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City this Tuesday, Oct. 21st. I haven't done an event in New York in a while, so it'll be fun to be back.

You Will Never See Me

As Willie Nelson once wrote, ain't it funny how time slips away? I started this blog before I'd released my first book, about a million years ago.

Now, I don't really blog anymore. This blog exists now mostly as a dusty repository of old posts, as well as a place to list (strictly for my own amusement) the movies I'm watching. But I did want to come over here today to announce that my new book, YOU WILL NEVER SEE ME is out now. It's my seventh novel, and my first set in Chicago, where I live. 

I'll post a little more about the roll out of the book as things happen. Interviews, live events, that sort of thing, but I wanted to document it here.

I'm happy it's out in the world. It's a good one, I think. I hope you'll read it and agree. 

At the Movies in 2025

 

A running list of what I've seen on the big screen this year:

1. Babygirl (2024)- AMC Village Crossing 18

2. Blood and Black Lace (1964)- Music Box Theater (January Giallo)

3. The Brutalist (2024)- Music Box Theater

4. Corpse Mania (1981)- Music Box Theater (January Giallo)

5. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)- NEIU (CFS)

6. Your Vice Is A Locked Door And Only I Have The Key (1972)- Music Box Theater (January Giallo)

7. Scarface (1932)- Music Box Theater

8. His Girl Friday (1940)- Music Box Theater

9. House of 1000 Corpses (2003)- Music Box Theater

10. The Monkey (2025)- Music Box Theater

11. Casablanca (1942)- Music Box Theater

12. Captain America: Brave New World (2025)- Regal City North

13. Only Angels Have Wings (1939)- Music Box Theater

14. Pinocchio (1940)- Music Box Theater

15. To Have and Have Not (1944)- Music Box Theater

16. Universal Language (2025)- Gene Siskel Film Center 

17. After Dark, My Sweet (1990)- Doc Films

18. Interstellar (2014)- Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville 

19. Last Breath (2025)- Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville

20. Eraserhead (1977)- Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville

21. Three Colors: Blue (1993)- Gene Siskel Film Center

22. Mickey 17 (2025)- Music Box Theater

23. Blue Velvet (1986)- Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville

24. Wild at Heart (1990)-Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville 

25. Black Bag (2025)-Lake Theater Oak Park

26. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (2025)-Music Box Theater

27. The Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge (1989)- Music Box Theater

28. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)- Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville

29. Eight Men Out (1988)- Music Box Theater

30. Lost Highway (1997)- Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville

31. History is Made at Night (1937)- NEIU Chicago Film Society 

32. Mulholland Drive (2001)- Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville

33. Out of Sight (1998)- Music Box Theater

34. Lost Highway (1997)- Music Box Theater

35. Wild at Heart (1990)- Music Box Theater

36. The Hidden (1987)- Music Box Theater

37. I Know Catherine, the Log Lady (2025)- Music Box Theater

38. From the Head (2011)- Music Box Theater

39. Drop (2025)-Lake Theater

40. The Short Films of David Lynch (various)-Music Box Theater

41. River's Edge (1986)-Music Box Theater

42. Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)-Music Box Theater

43. Inland Empire (2006)-Music Box Theater

44. Rabbits (2002)-Music Box Theater

45. Lynch (2007)-Music Box Theater

46. Sinners (2025)-Lake Theater

47. The Shrouds (2025)-Music Box Theater

48. The Keep (1983)-Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville 

49. Sinners (2nd time) (2025)-Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville

50. Thunderbolts* (2025)-Lake Theater

51. Trouble Every Day (2001)-Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville 

52. Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1938)-Doc Films

53. The Addiction (1994)-Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville 

54. Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025)-Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville 

55. Mission: Impossible-The Final Reckoning (2025)-Regal City North IMAX

56. High Noon (1952)-Facets (Birthday showing)

57. Friendship (2025)-Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville 

58. The Heiress (1949)-Music Box Theater

59. Unforgiven (1992)-Music Box Theater

60. Ballerina (2025)-Lake Theater

61. The Phoenician Scheme (2025)-Music Box Theater

62. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)-Pickwick Theater

63. Materialists (2025)-AMC NewCity 

64. The Royal Tenenbaums (2000)-Music Box Theater

65. Crimson Tide (1995)-Music Box Theater 

66. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)-Gene Siskel Film Center

67. The Hunger (1983)-Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville

68. Detention (2011)-Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville

69. The Lusty Men (1952)-Doc Films

70. Fright Night (1985)-Music Box Theater

71. The French Connection (1971)-Music Box Theater

72. The Beastmaster (1982)-Music Box Theater

73. Phantasm (1979)-Music Box Theater

74. Superman (2025)-Regal City North

75. You're Not There (2025)-Music Box Theater

76. Day of the Dead (1975)-Music Box Theater

77. Hud (1963)-Music Box Theater

78. Alligator (1980)-Music Box Theater

79. Rats: Night of Terror (1984)-Music Box Theater 

80. Zombie 5: Killer Birds (1988)-Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville 

81. Eddington (2025)-Music Box Theater

82. Kill the Jockey (2025)-Music Box Theater

83. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)-Music Box Theater

84. Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)-Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville 

85. Together (2025)-Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville

86. Seven Samurai (1954)-Music Box Theater

87. Yojimbo (1961)-Music Box Theater

88. Ikiru (1952)-Music Box Theater

89. Cecil B. Demented (2000)-Music Box Theater

90. Rashomon (1950)-Music Box Theater

91. The Player (1992)-Gene Siskel Film Center 

92. East of Wall (2025)-Music Box Theater

93. Weapons (2025)-Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville

94. Highest 2 Lowest (2025)-Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville

95. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989)-Leather Archives & Museum 

96. The Ninth Heart (1979)-Music Box Theater 

97. Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood (2019)-Music Box Theater

98. Went Up the Hill (2025)-Gene Siskel Film Center 

99. The Grifters (1990)-Music Box Theater- Noir City Chicago 

100. The Killing (1956)-Music Box Theater - NCC

101. Detour (1945)-Music Box Theater -NCC

102. Gun Crazy (1950)-Music Box Theater -NCC

103. Out of the Past (1947)-Music Box Theater - NCC

104. My True Story (1951)-Music Box Theater -NCC

105. Tension (1949)-Music Box Theater -NCC

106. The Prowler (1951)-Music Box Theater -NCC

107. The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)-Music Box Theater -NCC

108. Phantom Lady (1944)-Music Box Theater -NCC

109. Cry Danger (1951)-Music Box Theater -NCC

110. Alias Nick Beale (1949)-Music Box Theater -NCC

111. Scarlet Street (1945)-Music Box Theater -NCC

112. Murder, My Sweet (1944)-Music Box Theater -NCC

113. Caught Stealing (2025)-Regal City North

114. Touch of Evil (1958)-Pickwick Theater

115. Saving Private Ryan (1998)-Regal City North

116. One Battle After Another (2025)-Music Box Theater

117. Mildred Pierce (1945)-Doc Films

118. Slap Shot (1977)-Pickwick Theater

119. Hour of the Wolf (1968)-Music Box Theater

120. Bugonia (2025)-Music Box Theater

121. All the President’s Men (1976)-Pickwick Theater

122. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)-Facets

123. Sudden Fear (1952)-Doc Films

124. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)-Music Box

125. Flamingo Road (1949)-Doc Films

126. Gummo (1997)-Facets

127. Branded to Kill (1967)-Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville

128. Wicked: For Good (2025)-NewCity AMC

129. Jay Kelly (2025)-Music Box Theater

130. Barefoot in the Park (1967)-Gene Siskel Film Center

131. Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (2006)-Regal City North

132. Hamnet (2025)-Lake Theater

133. The Secret Agent (2025)-Alamo Drafthouse Los Angeles

134. Resurrection (2025)-Gene Siskel Film Center

135. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)-Alamo Drafthouse Wrigleyville

136. No Other Choice (2025)-Music Box Theater 

Judy Garland: Radio Actor

In addition to her legendary career as a movie star, Judy Garland also spent a lot of time acting on the radio in the 40s and 50s. This part of her career often gets overlooked for a couple reasons. First, the size of her accomplishments on film (with classics like THE WIZARD OF OZ, MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, and A STAR IS BORN) and onstage (she was one of the most popular performers of her era, culminating in her iconic 1961 live album JUDY AT CARNEGIE HALL) simply dwarfs everything else she ever did. The other reason is because of the disappearance of the medium itself. Dramatic radio, a massively popular medium in the 30s and 40s, went into quick decline with the rise of television in the 50s. Everyone knows that the invention of TV hurt the movie business, but it laid waste to radio—particularly dramatic radio.

I’ve compiled the following annotated list of Judy’s dramatic performances on radio. Please note, this list does not include the hundreds of appearances she made on shows where she appeared as herself to do an interview or sing a song or two. This is a list of her work as a radio actor.

 

1940

10-28: Strike Up the Band - Lux Radio Theatre. With Mickey Rooney. An adaptation of their film of the same name. Judy did more work for Lux Radio Theatre than any other show, and happily most of these have survived.

1941

1-26: Love’s New Sweet Song – Silver Theater CBS. This full episode might be lost, though a brief clip of Judy singing has survived. According to author Scott Schechter, Judy cowrote the story for this show and cowrote the song she sings.

10-12: Eternally Yours -Part I – Silver Theater CBS. This one might also be lost. I can’t find much information about it. The program usually specialized in original dramatic works, but occasionally did movie adaptations, and I wonder if this wasn’t a production of the 1939 Loretta Young movie. Part one of two.

10-19: Eternally Yours -Part II – Silver Theater CBS. Part two of two.

11-9: Babes in Arms - Screen Guild Theater. With Mickey Rooney. An adaptation of their 1939 film.

11-17: Merton of the Movies - Lux Radio Theatre. With Mickey Rooney. An adaptation of the play of the same name. I think this might be the only time Judy and Mickey acted in a radio show that was not an adaptation of one of their films. 

1942

10-12: Morning Glory - Lux Radio Theatre. With John Payne.

12-28: A Star is Born - Lux Radio Theatre. With Walter Pidgeon. This is an adaptation of the 1937 David O. Selznik drama. It was Judy’s first attempt at the character of Esther Blodgett and inspired her to eventually tackle the role on film (as a musical) later on. 

1943

3-22: For Me and My Gal – Screen Guild Players, CBS. With Gene Kelly and Dick Powell. An adaptation of Judy and Gene’s 1942 film.

12-12: Ringside Table – Silver Theater, CBS. With Alan Ladd. This one also appears to be lost.

1946

1-28: The Clock - Lux Radio Theatre. With John Hodiak. An adaptation of Judy’s 1945 film.

9-14: Holiday – Hollywood Star Time. Not sure if this one has survived. An adaptation of the 1938 Katharine Hepburn film.  

11-21: Drive In – Suspense. This one is readily available and is a real treat. Judy does radio noir! Suspense was just about the best show of its kind and Judy’s episode—where she plays a carhop who makes the mistake of accepting a lift home from the wrong man—is a real nailbiter. It’ll make you wish she did more of this kind of thing.

12-2: Meet Me In St. Louis - Lux Radio Theatre. With Margaret O’Brien. An adaptation of Judy and Margaret’s 1944 film.

1950

11-5: Alice Adams – The Theater Guild on the Air, NBC. With Thomas Mitchell. An adaptation of the 1935 Katharine Hepburn film.  

12-25: The Wizard of Oz - Lux Radio Theatre. Do I even have to say? An adaptation of Judy’s 1939 film.

1951

2-15: Cinderella – The Hallmark Playhouse. Judy as the title character.

1953

2-16: Lady in the Dark - Lux Radio Theatre. With John Lund. An adaptation of the 1944 film. Pretty dated and sexist, but if you’ve seen BABYGIRL you’ll see some funny parallels with this story. This was, I believe, Judy's last dramatic role on radio. 

This is list is only complete in the sense that it has all the performances I know of, but, of course, I'd always love to discover more. Let me know of any I missed!

2024 at the Movies - In Review

 

I had a pretty great year at the movies this year. I saw 107 movies in theaters of all shapes and sizes. (That's only one down from last year. And unlike last year, funny enough, I did not attend a movie showing outside of the greater Chicago area in 2024.)

As always, while I saw quite a few new films (36 in all) released in 2024, I saw a lot more films from previous eras (71). Of those 71 films, I saw the most from the 1970s (16), followed by the 1950s (10) and the 1980s (10), 1940s (8), 1960s (6), 1990s (5), 2010s (5), 2020s (4), 1930s (3), 2000s (3), and (1) film from the 1920s. I didn't see any film at the theater this year that predated 1920.

My favorite place to see movies remains the Music Box Theater, where I saw 41 films in 2024. This was followed by Facets (11), Doc Films (9), the Gene Siskel Film Center (7), Hollywood Blvd Cinema in Woodbridge (3) and the great Pickwick Theater in Park Ridge (4). I saw (4) films in the small museum at the freakshow-themed Sideshow Gelato, as well as films at places like Thalia Hall, NEIU, and Chicago Filmmakers. For more new release mainstream stuff, I went to Regal City North (9), AMC NewCity (7), AMC Village Crossing (4), and AMC River East (1).

Among new releases, my favorites (in no order) were THE SUBSTANCE, MEMOIR OF A SNAIL, THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE, ANORA, HANDLING THE UNDEAD, KINDS OF KINDNESS, JANET PLANET, CONCLAVE, A REAL PAIN, and WICKED. I enjoyed JOKER 2 and HORIZON more than most people. I thought MEGALOPOLIS was pretty terrible, FURIOSA was good-but-unnecessary, while both CIVIL WAR and LOVE LIES BLEEDING were movies I wish had stronger third acts. Both DUNE 2 and THE BIKERIDERS were, while not lifechanging, well worth the trip to the theater. 

I saw too many great old movies to list here, but highlights would have to include seeing favorites like THE WIZARD OF OZ, IN A LONELY PLACE, PULP FICTION, ZERO FOCUS, and THE FALL. My biggest discovery of the year was the Mexican masterpiece of film noir VICTIMS OF SIN that I saw at Noir City Chicago at the Music Box.

All in all, a great year at the movies.

Peggie Castle 1927-1973

 

I'm not writing much nonfiction these days because I'm busy with writing novels and teaching classes, but today is the birthday of Peggie Castle so I thought I'd post a link to the 2013 article I wrote about her for NOIR CITY magazine. The Girl They Loved To Kill: The Many Deaths of Peggie Castle is a deep dive into the haunting life and tragic career of an actress that too few people remember today. I got more than a little obsessed with Peggie when I wrote this piece, so if it reads like something of a love letter...well, that's what happens when you spend your time chasing beautiful shadows in the dark. 

The Devil's Ground: THE VIOLENT BEAR IT AWAY and THE GOSPEL OF MARK

 

The title of Flannery O'Connor's 1960 novel THE VIOLENT BEAR IT AWAY comes from the Gospel of Matthew (11:12), but as I reread O'Connor's book recently, I was reminded more of the Gospel of Mark.

Mark differs from the other gospels in being shorter, leaner, and less expository. It has no virgin birth. Indeed, starting out, it tells us nothing at all of Jesus's early life. In Mark, Jesus simply appears among the anonymous throng of people coming from Galilee to be baptized by John the Baptist in the wilderness. Upon being baptized by the prophet, however, Jesus is immediately driven into the wilderness by the Spirit. "And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan, and was with the wild beasts." When he returns, he begins a ministry of exorcism and faith healing that he tries, repeatedly, to keep secret. While the Jesus of Mark does some teaching (though far less than in the other Gospels), he is more a man of action. And that action tends to be confronting a world of demons (including the infamous demon collective known as Legion). At the end, Christ is crucified and dies alone uttering the final words "My god, my god, why have you forsaken me." The oldest copies of Mark didn't even have a resurrection appearance. The book ended originally at Mark 16:8, with women coming to the tomb, finding it empty, and running away. The final verse reads, "Trembling and bewildered, they fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid."

THE VIOLENT BEAR IT AWAY is no Christ allegory, and I don't mean to imply that its story resembles the plot of Mark's Gospel. But O'Connor's second novel (like her first, WISE BLOOD) is obsessively focused on what she once called "the action of grace in ground held largely by the devil." One need only to read Mark again to see that this also happens to be the central thrust of that evangelist's narrative. 

O'Connor's novel follows Francis Marion Tarwater, a young man running away from his calling to be a prophet. The action of the novel hinges on the death of Tarwater's great-uncle, a wild-eyed fanatic who kidnapped the boy years before and raised him in a cabin the woods, preparing him to be a prophet. When the old man dies, however, the boy tries to shrug off his calling--getting drunk and burning down the old man's house--then heads into the city to see his other uncle, an atheist schoolteacher named Rayber. But Francis finds himself fighting the urge to baptize Rayber's young son Bishop, an act that itself was prophesied by the old man before his death.   

Although WISE BLOOD and THE VILOLENT BEAR IT AWAY share many characteristics--both are about young men attempting to run away from God, both are darkly comic, and both are unmistakably the work of a Catholic author filtering her vision through the lens of Southern Protestant fundamentalism--the second book more closely resembles Mark's vision of a demonic world. If WISE BLOOD is about a man tormented by God's grace, THE VIOLENT BEAR IT AWAY is about a man tempted by Satan and his devil possessed followers. The ghostly 'stranger' who appears at Tarwater's side, whispering in his ear to forsake his calling to preach, takes a physical form in the book's penultimate chapter, when a hitchhiking Tarwater is picked up, drugged, and raped by a stranger in a lavender suit. In the dense symbolism of the novel--the stranger takes both Tarwater's prized hat and a corkscrew bottle opener given to him by the atheist schoolteacher--Tarwater is stripped of everything he has relied on and is left naked in the woods.

This last part reminded me of two of the strangest lines in Mark--indeed, two of the oddest lines in all of the Bible--verses 14:51-52. At the Garden, when Jesus is being arrested and all his disciples have abandoned him, we are told "And there followed him a certain young man having a linen cast about his naked body, and they laid hold on him. And the young man left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked." Who is this young man? Why is he the last one with Jesus, and why is he dressed only in a sheet? Why is Mark the only writer to report his existence? We're never told, but it bears repeating that Mark is a strange, cryptic book compared to the other Gospels. In this book, where secrecy is the coin of the realm, mysteries remain intact because the narrative is more about mystery than revelation.

Like the naked young man in the Garden, Tarwater flees, and he returns to the ashes of his great-uncle's burned down house. He hears a call to "GO WARN THE CHILDREN OF GOD OF THE TERRIBLE SPEED OF MERCY." Smearing himself with dirt from the old man's grave, he prepares to begin his journey "toward the dark city, where the children of God lay sleeping."

In both O'Connor's novel and Mark's Gospel, the prose is pared down and spare, working in the service of a vision rich in dark symbolism and mystery. Neither author reveals all they know. Or, perhaps a better way to put it is this: for both Flannery O'Connor and Mark the Evangelist, the mystery is the revelation.