WARNING: Contains spoilers for the 1986 movie Crossroads (not the 2002 Britney Spears film). If you haven’t seen it, I wholeheartedly recommend it. I recently rewatched Walter Hill’s movie Crossroads, and was surprised by how much I had internalized its depiction of the relationship between music and magic, and how that had influenced my own Tufa novels. I first saw it … Read More
High Hopes: is talent finite?
This weekend, I finally listened to High Hopes, the most recent Bruce Springsteen album. Yes, it came out on January 14, and I bought it then, but I hadn’t listened to it. There were many times when I listened to a new Springsteen album multiple times on its release day, and almost exclusively for days after that. But something’s happened to … Read More
Epiphany in slow motion, with blood
A few months ago I found myself seized with the urge to see anything and everything by filmmaker Sam Peckinpah. Up until then I’d seen only the highlights of his career–The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs, The Getaway. So I started watching, in no particular order. I wasn’t sure why I was driven to do this, but I get these periodic … Read More