Sleeping Muse and Falling Rocket

     Why do I confuse Jonathan Melvoin of The Smashing Pumpkins with Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon?

Robert Shaw bullied Richard Dreyfuss on the set while making Jaws.

Giacometti and some of his work

"Everybody was sitting very still, as if to call attention to how still they were sitting."   --  Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest

A lyric I love: " Pretty woman I don't believe you, you're not the truth No one could look as good as you. Mercy."

"I Put Rodin in one pocket,  Michelangelo  in the other, and I walk towards the sun ..." -  Stanislaw Szukalski

In 1984, two films came out that Roger Ebert pointed out were pretty much the same. Both about spoiled, over-sexed and potty-mouthed musical prodigies who wore the same costumes. And both were great!

"Chaplin wasn't the funniest. I wasn't the funniest. This man was the funniest." - Buster Keaton 

The drama teacher at Fairport High School in Fairport, N.Y., was reluctant to produce Death of a Salesman with such young actors...until she met 16 year old student Philip Seymour Hoffman. Opening night of his performance as Willy Loman, 500 cheering teenagers rose to their feet en masse as he stepped forward in the curtain call.  Afterward the director encountered Hoffman's mother in the hallway and asked: "Did you know?" "No..."

Dashiell Hammett is to Raymond Chandler as Verdi is to Puccini. Discuss.

Author and illustrator Edward Gorey's step-mother was singer Corinna Mura, who appeared in Casablanca, singing La Marseillaise.

38 years ago today, Billy Joel was out drinking with some friends. And the news came on the TV. Joel moved over to the bar's piano and spent the rest of the night singing John Lennon songs. A concert I wish I could have heard.

"Got a match?  ... Thanks.... Going to the fights tonight? ... I hear Ike Bush takes a dive in the sixth.... It oughta be straight: I got from Whisper.... Yeah, they all are."  -- Dashiell Hammett

Making Cocoa For Kingsley Amis It was a dream I had last week And some kind of record seemed vital. I knew it wouldn't be much of a poem But I love the title. ―  Wendy Cope,

Hammett's Continental Op was only 5' 6".