NIECE 2. Don’t you write dark plays? JS. Well I uh

Many years later this man would decide that Bonnie Raitt, a white woman from California, had what it it took & would call her in the middle of the night just to talk about life

Niece 3 drew me ‘in a bar, getting drunk’

NIECE 2. Uncle Justin, are you a Salty Sailor? JS. Oh, I think you know I am. NIECE 2. How much of a Salty Sailor are you? JS. 89 percent. NIECE'S FRIEND. Are you sure it's not 98 percent? JS. Often. (Silence.)

Took a picture of this cat in his shop window. Woman passed, said ‘oh there’s Tomas’

I’ve been working on this for a while. (I tried to find Bobbie more than a decade ago and failed.) Please do give it a read.

Like I said, former bait dog who has every right to be a dick. He’s just nice. Gets his guard dog fix sleeping in soft beds with little girls. Woofs half-heartedly at door knocks. Only snapped at another dog once when it threatened his kids.

He's the only dog I ever met who doesn't try to keep the ball. I throw it; he goes balls to the wall in pursuit, fearless of life and limb, then brings it straight back. He'll be breathless, paws bleeding, & still want to play. When I stop he's like 'ah ok you noticed' but he won't quit.

Brother’s dog: ah yes my dear fellow, not sure where you’ve been, but good to see you, good, good, and I know it’s night but you do know we’re playing ball tomorrow, yes?, yes, because that’s what we do, we play ball, you and I, yes

Not long ago I took someone who knows a lot about movies & has high standards to a 35mm print of There Will Be Blood. For various reasons they’d never seen it. They walked out speechless.

St Paul invented what we call love. He defined it better than anyone. You can say Dolan doesn’t know that, or he knows where the steaks & good claret & blondes are..

@franzkela.bsky.social I put on the 1988 Home Companion while cleaning my house this morning - as you do - & I never knew the theme is a megamix of Whitey saying 'This game's easy, Harry... when you get good pitching, good hitting, and score a few..' Video Dan was as unwell as the rest of us

They already hated each other, but Stephanie (for example) is one of the prettiest songs you’ll ever hear

Fearless warrior for democracy with ‘Slava Ukraini’ bio & feed of Epstein memes replied ‘Who cares?’ to a little girl enjoying life, because no one needs to see that - rt’ing for any other brave patriots like him

In Christian terms Micah is the closest to the Willem Defoe Jesus that I've met.

Proud of my old friend Rev Micah Bucey, Pastor of Judson Church, rock singer, actor - we did Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest together - who was arrested this afternoon at Federal Plaza protesting ICE

Toy Story for sure

Walt - I am not joking - viewed himself as head of the family. That doesn't mean he was warm or fuzzy. Look how he grew up. But you did not fuck with his family. Not a union, not another studio. Nobody. It didn't matter.

Years ago when RN was anonymous & there were rumours he was important, she dm’ed him & begged ‘him’ to come out in NY. I did not. I held her at arm’s length, & before RFK she freaked out at my criticism in DM. I reminded her of this, told her I don’t consort w/ unethical apologists, & blocked her.

Fear & loathing everywhere but at least I get to take my niece to the bookshop on Saturday morning. She's really excited about it.

Mark Rothko: 'I will say without reservations that from my point of view there can be no abstractions. Any shape or area that has not the pulsating concreteness of real flesh and bones, its vulnerability to pleasure or pain is nothing at all.'

Bond is to Brecht as Pinter is to Beckett - refining the revolution, grounding it, pushing it, expanding it, if you work in the theatre & don't know any one of them you're bereft

It was a dm question specific to the person, so I didn't, but I am (occasionally, flatteringly) asked to start a newsletter about theatre & culture & things that wouldn't work over at the other one. I sort of tried but it was the wrong form. I get tempted. New job killing brain so even more tempted.

And if you can't find the emotion, the sound will help you. When Gielgud didn't understand Shakespeare he concentrated on speaking it precisely as it was written, then it came. The sound & the emotion are always one.

Judi Dench credits Peter Hall & John Barton for teaching her Shakespeare. But their way is mechanical if you follow it too closely. That Graham Norton bit is amazing because you zero in on her loosening it - a little here, a lot elsewhere - to let the light in. Scott does similar, but more radical -

Any state attack on speech is disgusting & terrifying but as I (somewhat) joked last night - remember this is Jimmy Kimmel, not Carlin or Hicks. He tells jokes for mom to watch over breakfast. Once they go after THAT, there's no telling what they'll do.

Portishead played live at Eno's concert for Palestine at Wembley last night - from the snippet of tape I saw elsewhere Beth G's voice is all you expect & more - there's maybe a tiny creep of age that deepens it, makes it more interesting

Nixon's plan for China - mostly ignored - was to offer them carrots from the market & use the stick to make them open civil liberties. This was important to him.

I received a really nice message from a Patreon subscriber this morning just asking about plays. They maybe don't read a lot of plays - they're hard to read, even for me - and wanted to know more about how they work on the page vs production. I really appreciate that. I needed it.

I don’t always love Ashbery - as I recall his friend Frank O’Hara dinged him for being impenetrable - but this is seriously gorgeous

I rarely push my own pieces more than a day, but doing it again to say my Republican granddad - a farmer like his father before him - not only hated Trump, he thought the other farmers lining up behind him were insane www.patreon.com/posts/bandit...

Colbert is a good actor, great improviser & a thoughtful, intelligent, & spiritual person. He's real, on earth, as opposed to Carson & Letterman, who weren't, quite - this is what made you want to watch them. The censorship is disgusting but Colbert was wasted asking X about their new movie.

Jimmy Kimmel. Jesus Christ. Jimmy Kimmel is Jay Leno with a better jaw. As opposed to Fallon, who'll be anything for anybody as long as you're buying the next round.

Klein should be shunned. When he enters a restaurant people should look at him like he smells. They should call him an appeaser, a coward, and worse. Let him lecture about it. Let him turn into David Brooks. Rub it in his face.

Actual photo of my artistic brain dying

Never been for me but the health of the theatre can be judged by the amount of cocaine in it - - Director dresses you as a chicken? *sniff* - Director runs rehearsal as a Pinterest board/therapy session? *sniff* I DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS BUT BY GOD I WILL RAM IT DOWN YOUR THROAT

Anniversary, plus a few days, of David Ogilvy's 'How to Write' memo to colleagues, 1982 -

Francis Ford Coppola's instagram is basically just a tribute to the movies & filmmakers he loves - on Robert Redford -

When Friends was on TV I bought drugs/drank with actual criminals a block from this location - 47th & 7th - & sneered at the show & its idea of New York. Still sneer, but..

From Dominic Dromgoole's 2001 book The Full Room, essays on contemporary playwrights. The full entry for Yasmina Reza - Yasmina Reza is very rich. (Yasmina Reza est très riche.)

Several people have been kind enough to say they needed to hear this. I needed to write it, I hope that comes across & I hope it's worth your time too. Free to read.

A kind comment on my Pops/Kirk piece. Pops had a stroke. It affected his speech & breathing. He lingered but was too old to come back. I went to see him in hospital every day. As he went go downhill the nurse called for me as I left. I turned & Pops had raised his arm in a dignified wave.

A teacher once urged me to read Russell because he saw something in my prose. I knew who he was but hadn't read him. I'm not a hair on his head but but I've learned a few things..

- of course Woodward loved him, he made Bob Woodward into a sex symbol - Goldman hated Redford because he kept fucking with the book, which largely meant turning them both into sex symbols (he pointedly published his first draft) - why is this in the Times?

Richardson was the total opposite of Gielgud. Perhaps that's why they were so great together. Gielgud was all smooth technique, refinement - sometimes too much. (He broke through late.) Richardson was a big kid. Round the house he'd do funny voices, tell tall tales, his attention span wandered..

I've long said that Cavett is a nice, well-read, prepared guy, good broadcaster, but his brilliance is that he's such an unassuming Midwestern guy that in a sense his subjects forgot they were on TV. Nobody like that would get a show in a million years.

One of the many charming things about Schwarzenegger is he has zero illusions about being an actor, he sort of still can't believe he's not trimming shrubs in Santa Monica

I've watched Shakespeare all my life, I've watched Judi Dench all my life, including her famous performances on tape. Sonnet 29 on Graham Norton might be the clearest minute of Shakespeare I've seen anywhere. There's clear & there's whatever that is.

Olivier’s recitation is obviously fantastic. The only thing that stops it equalling Judi Dench’s famous turn on Graham Norton is he’s clearly on the spot, afraid. You see it at the end. He could get terrible stage fright. From middle age he’d often be sick before going on.

New niece came on the scene just now 😀