Lancelot Links

Sunday August 03, 2014

Lancelot Links

Dig if you will the picture: Scenes from “Purple Rain” then and now, via the Current in Minneapolis.
This is great: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer on the value of reading literature, in general, and Proust in particular, in The New York Review of Books.
Ken Levine, former comedy writer on “Cheers,” as well as (I believe) “The Tony Randall Show,” as well as (I'm pretty sure) a year as the Mariners color announcer, writes about “The comedy writing rule of 2s.”
My friend Jim Walsh gives us 12 reasons he loved “Boyhood.” I'm particularly down with No. 7.
In “Boyhood,” the father, played by Ethan Hawke, gives his son, played by Ellar Coltrane, a CD he compiled of post-Beatles Beatles songs: John, George, Ringo, Wings. Apparently it was a concept that started with Hawke, rather than writer-director Richard Linklater, but I particularly dug it because *I* always wanted to do it. That's how you get a new Beatles album, I always thought: Put the solo releases of the Beatles in one album. Apparently Hawke thought the same. Here's the playlist. The letter's not bad, either.
Speaking of: Last month, Nathan Heller gave us a nice profile on Richard Linklater in The New Yorker. I finally got around to it. So should you.
The Devault-Graves Agency in Memphis is publishing the first J.D. Salinger book in 50 years. Well, “book.” It's three of Salinger's early stories: two written before WWII, one during. My thoughts on them here.
You know that famous shot of Sophia Loren eyeing Jayne Mansfield's boobs in a low-cut dress? It wasn't boob envy. There are other, better photos from that evening. Sophia is at turns stunned, disbelieving, amused. My favorite is the last: Sophia cracking up. Because ... what else do you do?
Remember “End of Watch” from 2012 starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena? It made my top 10 list that year. No. 2, to be exact. Well, its writer-director, David Ayer, after a brief dalliance with Schwarzenegger, is back with a World War II movie starring Brad Pitt. Fingers crossed.
Jeff Bridges throws out the first pitch at a Dodgers game. In classic “Dude” fashion, he bowls it.
Long read of the week: Evan Osnos' excellent New Yorker profile, “The Evolution of Joe Biden.” Will the vice president run for president in 2016? Despite a life-long urge to hold the position, not to mention a fear of retirement, not to mention all that hasn't been done, you get the feeling ... no. He's probably a better man for it, too.