Today is the 100th anniversary of Black History Month. Am I in trouble for mentioning this? substack.com/home/post/p-...

In time for Awards Season, the latest version of my Personal Best Movies from the year I was born till now. If you're scoring, there's 6 westerns (& if you count "Yojimbo"), 3 tie finishes & as of this year, 2 Black vampire movies, neither of which, I say with mild regret, is "Blacula."

Always nice to hear from you, Susan Campbell.

My Personal Best of 2025 (sans jazz records)

My Gene's Best Jazz Records debut on Substack. substack.com/home/post/p-...

I'll save you a lot of reading: unless Mamdani starts taking money from Turks and roasting leprechauns - and even then - there is no way in hell Stefanik is going to win New York a year after this election in the city.

I'd been working on this one for so long that if often felt as though I'd been writing it my whole life. In a peculiar way, maybe I have... www.thenation.com/article/arch...

Once more to the Cave of Wonders. Happy 95th birthday, Sonny Rollins.

Belichick, you know ... it's like if I ran for Mayor of Fresno ...

FWIW...

Today marks Year Four of Ferdinand's insertion into my life. Read the attached to find our what that sentence means.

Still trying to get the hang of this thing. But at least it's no longer calling itself "Gene's Substack." Baby steps.

Mal Waldron is 100 open.substack.com/pub/thatgene...

Oscar Peterson, the Frank Lloyd Wright of Swing, turns 100 today. And what do I mean by that analogy? This is what I mean. www.youtube.com/watch?v=agi5...

I do not as yet see full-blown war. They are telling Iran in private it's over. The nuclear program has likely not and will not be destroyed, but it has been set far back. I don't see the collapse of the regime, either. The region is now monumentally more unstable. This could all change in an hour.

Lest we forget: "It's a dog-eat-dog, world, Sam and I'm wearing Milk Bone underwear." -- Norm Peterson, Boston barfly.

8 years ago, The Thing To Do (for want of a better phrase) was to (re)read "1984" to get, I guess, a "sense" of whatever was about to, so to speak, Happen Here. Read it again, like now, & if you really want to know why it's happening again, read Orwell's "Politics & the English Language."

Going through the motions. After March 2, it's back to Euro-Noir novels & Big East B-Ball. geneseymour.com?p=4029

You know a movie is great when it makes you forget who, where, & at times like this, even WHAT you are. This is a great movie. #Flowisthebestof2024

"Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing." Clive James

My shiny new BookForum review of Philip Freeman's most excellent & much needed Cecil Taylor biography. www.bookforum.com/print/3103/t...

Not an Oscar voter, never was, never will be, But if I were voting now for Best Picture, it would come down to either "Anora" or "Nickel Boys." If Harris had won, I'd go with Nickel Boys." But because it was The Other One, I'd go with "Anora" because it's closer to The Way Things Are Now.

“That’s not something you’ll get on the MGM backlot.” In this excerpt from our recent “LOA at the Movies” panel, film critics Mike Sragow, @selfstyledsiren.bsky.social, @geneseymour.bsky.social, and @carrierickey.bsky.social discuss the overlooked 1949 adaptation of Faulkner’s Intruder in the Dust.

"Keep your eye on the donut and not the hole." Copy that, Special Agent Cole. #RIPDavidLynch.

If you're like me (& lots of luck if you are), you likely can't wait for this year to go away while dreading whatever's waiting for us after the...um...Ball Drops. But I can't let go off '24 without acknowledging some of the things that made me happy and/or think harder over the previous 12 months.

Thought Chris Rock's latest "SNL" hosting gig felt a little off, especially the monologue -- except for one deceptively offhand reference to Elon Musk as an "African American." Don't know if anybody else noticed it, but as a Black man, I'm thinking, "Maybe it's time to (re)define our terms."

Maybe the Grinch would be nicer if every five minutes a dude wasn’t singing songs about what a piece of shit he is

Happily gobbled up all of "Black Doves" till midnight like a tin of Christmas cookies. Emma Peel & John Steed retrofitted for the 21st century with moral ambiguities & digital spice (though no AI as yet) & its own gleeful layering of outrageous improbabilities. Cozy up!

Juan Soto & now this. How's your day going?

Good. www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/...

My Top Ten Jazz Albums for 2024. Not yours or anybody else's (unless they happen to agree with me.) geneseymour.com?p=3931&fbcli...

Whatever my quibbles with "Wicked, Part One"(& there are many, beginning with the fact that it IS a "Part One"), they have little to do with its two leads. My (in vain) holiday wish is that Ervino & Grande take this one into the stratosphere. No one besides me is brave enough to ask them.

Also: from here on, whenever a member of the working press or the GOP blathers about a politician's "good character" being more important than any other attribute, I will incant just 3 words: President. Donald. Trump.

I'm willing to concede that the "optics" surrounding the Hunter Biden pardon aren't ideal. But since the myriad unpleasantness of last month & beyond, "optics" is one of those buzzwords I'm ready to jettison from my life. With little regret.

This was the first & for all intents and purposes the last presidential candidate I'd ever wanted to volunteer for from the jump. RIP, Fred Harris & thank you for your service. www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...

I've been hearing a lot about Who We Really Are as Americans since Election Day & I won't argue at all with the grim evidence submitted by the overall results. But I'm also going to add, for the record, that this, too, is America: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOEt...