It’s disco night with martinis in the kitchen preparing tomorrow’s dinner. #HappyNewYear2026 Disco Nights (Rock Freak) - GQ youtu.be/wPITlS9DEqU?si…

A treasure trove of great films here; some I still need to see. Some of the most memorable films in cinema history: Rififi. Out of the Past. All About Eve. Ikiru. So many more …

We’re finally cutting the cable-TV cord and going with a streaming service that gives us more channels at significantly less cost. The bad news: I have 53 recorded movies I will lose—until I start over. Got a few more days to decide which ones to watch. #FilmSky #MovieSky

First watch: LATE AUTUMN (Japanese, 1960) explores the same themes of marriage reluctance vs. strong parental-adult child bonds as Ozu’s LATE SPRING (1949). It’s a very good film, just a notch lower. Setsuko Hara effortlessly makes the 11-year acting shift from daughter to mother. #FilmSky

Friday night old-school #horror Why Hammer Films’ THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957) succeeds: ✅ Peter Cushing embodies the mad, amoral scientist ✅ Christopher Lee’s monster is brutal compared to Boris Karloff’s more innocent portrayal in 1931 ✅ Hammer’s reliably good sets and score #FilmSky

Friday night experimenting in the kitchen. Anything could happen.

Off to run errands with Danish duo The Raveonettes. Love the black-and-white noir-ish video for this track, Attack of the Ghost Riders. youtu.be/1gQEvupSrRY?si…

Just watched IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) and it hit harder this time. I’m very fortunate, but I have family and friends this Christmas who are struggling, some with serious health issues and others with job-loss financial difficulties. Never take life for granted. George Bailey knows. #FilmSky

Serious #Christmas dinner prep underway with Marvin while TCM is on in the background with familiar favorites. Up next, CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT (1945). Sure glad our cooking skills are better than Barbara Stanwyck’s. 🤣 Also, I would like to spend a snowy week in that house! #FilmSky

Me, when a friend asks if I remember the story The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen?

Christmas Eve late morning movie in bed with coffee: #NowWatching THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (1940). James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan are quite good as co-workers who don’t like each other but are secretly falling in love as anonymous pen pals. Sweet, non-saccharine film. #FilmSky #MovieSky

First watch: RIO GRANDE (1950), last in John Ford’s cavalry trilogy. It’s a much more personal story of family and (attempted) privilege compared to the first two films in the trilogy, and it’s far less sympathetic toward Apaches than FORT APACHE (1948). 1/2 #FilmSky #western

A Christmas snowfall in the Appalachian Mountains. Remembering a peaceful wintry view from the back porch of my late parents’ house in southeast Kentucky. So different from the summertime greenery.

Today’s to-do list includes checking out the Christmas lights and holiday hustle-bustle in downtown #Detroit and cozying up to a bar for some holiday cheer with Marvin. (photos from previous year)

In tonight’s #NoirAlley feature on TCM—LADY IN THE LAKE (1947)—the viewer becomes the eyes of Philip Marlowe (Robert Montgomery), rarely seen except in mirrors or when talking directly to the camera. Audrey Totter steals the show in this adaptation of a Raymond Chandler mystery. #FilmSky #noir

Barbara Eden is on this 1957 episode of Perry Mason I’m watching, so Jeannie was obviously out of the bottle eight years before she got her own TV show. I’ll show myself out.

First watch: FORT APACHE, the first in John Ford’s cavalry trilogy, made me think of how thrilling it must’ve been to see it in a movie theater in 1948. Even watching at home now, it seemed like a landmark, sophisticated #western with remarkable cinematography… 1/3 #FilmSky #MovieSky

Sometimes the simplest songs have the most to say. It takes a while for the lyrics of this song to kick in, but when they do he has so much to say: Why Can’t We Live Together? - Timmy Thomas youtu.be/KYx2uZRlJCk?si…

Breakfast of champions! And the packaging even matches.

#NowPlaying Curtis Mayfield’s gritty, funky soundtrack, Super Fly (1972)—one of those examples when the music is better than the film. Top track is about a junkie and societal misfit who’s used and abused with fatal consequences. Freddie’s Dead youtu.be/0B6TKClPFQA?si…#MusicSkyky

I once gave my (late) mother a copy of Rob Reiner’s film STAND BY ME (1986) and told her it reminded me of growing up with my close friends in our small Kentucky community, a few miles outside of a once-bustling town. She loved it but said, “I hope you all didn’t ‘cuss’ like that.”😂 #FilmSky

Brown University. Australia. Rob and Michele Reiner. Time for a comfort film to close out this bad-news weekend. #NowWatching THE LADY VANISHES (1938), a #Hitchcock classic. Who doesn’t like a good train-based mystery? #FilmSky #mystery

Nobody told me I’d need an IT degree to hook up the new desktop computer, transfer everything from the old one and try to get the printer working. Technology is not my friend. #ImADinosaur

Waking up to 7°F with a “feels like” temperature of -4°. Is there any reason *not* to stay in bed all day and watch movies?

Hammer Films released a bank heist film, CASH ON DEMAND, in 1961, starring Peter Cushing as a bank manager lured into the scheme after being told his family is being held hostage. It’s good and it’s showing on TCM’s #NoirAlley at midnight EST tonight and 10am Sunday. Worth it. #FilmSky

Treadmill music: One of my favorite electronic tunes of 2025 is from London-based Factory Floor. #NowPlaying Tell Me youtu.be/6j8fd35w4rg?si…

Current view: Frozen strawberry margaritas #ThursdayVibes

First watch: CRY OF THE CITY (1948) Richard Conte is at his #noir best as a cop killer and wounded hospital escapee who places everyone around him at risk in his desperate attempt to elude a detective (Victor Mature), once his friend in the Italian-American NYC neighborhood where they grew up.

Music for cooking breakfast: Stereolab’s Dots and Loops album, led off by this exquisite track about the ill effects of endless consumerism. “We need so damn many things To keep our dazed lives going.” Brakhage youtu.be/FeHdIDeUsEY?si…

It’s a 3B Monday: Burgers and beer at the bar. Marvin has good ideas! #MondayVibes Steppin’ Out youtu.be/7VgNG8theUw?...

Good one! Dorothy Malone chews up the scenes she’s in.

We still haven’t cut the cable-TV cord but our plan is expiring in two days, so I need to call today to see what deal we can get. It feels like preparing for heavy combat.

First watch: RANCHO NOTORIOUS (1952), a Fritz Lang #western. Lang’s #noir films and still-dazzling silent masterpiece METROPOLIS (1927) are his best. Nonetheless, I enjoyed this lesser flick. Vern Haskell (Arthur Kennedy) seeks revenge after his fiancée is raped and killed … 1/2 #FilmSky #MovieSky

Living for the City is a brilliant, harrowing tale of poverty, racism and survival—one of Motown’s most socially relevant tracks. Higher Ground is a top tune as well.

Saturday morning coffee in bed and a sweet little Chistmas tale about a serial killer stalking a sorority house as winter break begins. #NowWatching BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974), a standout, influential film in the slasher genre with plenty of scares. #horror #FilmSky

We spent Thanksgiving in Canada so we decided to cook a turkey and a few sides tonight. Rules are meant to be broken! Marvin is doing the heavy lifting, but I’m helping and playing bartender. #FridayVibes

Getting back into my treadmill routine after a weeklong cold.

First watch: BLIND SPOT (1947) A novelist concocting a crime story about the perfect murder becomes a suspect after a drunken night ends with his unlikable publisher being killed—just like in his story. But did he do it? B-movie #NoirAlley feature is flawed but entertaining. #noir #FilmSky

Music for cooking breakfast: English band The Heart Throbs released a gorgeous, woefully overlooked album, Cleopatra Grip, in 1990, weaving together dream pop and a dash of shoegaze. One of the top tracks: Dreamtime youtu.be/vzMWJRuLdp8?... #MusicSky

Rewatch: IN COLD BLOOD (1967), a chilling, documentary-style film based on Truman Capote’s book about the murder of a family of four in rural Kansas. Filmed on locations where actual crimes occurred, including the family house, it’s unsettling, almost like watching actual events. #FilmSky #MovieSky

That canceled TV show you'll never stop thinking about (One week it was just abruptly gone)

Posting a column I wrote when civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks died in 2005. Today is the 70th anniversary of Mrs. Parks refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. I won a Michigan Press Association award for my column. Treasured memories. #RosaParks #CivilRights

Just noticed there’s a marathon of Six Feet Under on TV and remembered how much I loved that show. The finale may just be the best of any TV show I’ve ever seen.

Sick day movie #2. It’s impossible not to feel a bit better in such beautiful landscapes as those in Merchant-Ivory’s A ROOM WITH A VIEW, especially considering Maggie Smith’s perfect dry wit. #FilmSky #MovieSky

I’ve got a bad cold as we await a big snowstorm, so comfort films it is. #NowWatching Olivia de Havilland and Joseph Cotten use severed body parts and creepy music to convince Bette Davis she’s insane in HUSH…HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE (1964), a favorite psychological #horror film. #FilmSky

Introduce yourself with 5 concerts you've seen. Talking Heads Sonic Youth The B-52s Shonen Knife George Clinton & Parliament-Funkadelic

Friday night earworm: Babes in Toyland unleashed a fierce, raucous go-go rocker complete with exhilarating Babes-mania video In 1995, becoming mixtape darlings for me. Sweet '69 youtu.be/VaGjAhqpX3k?si…

Just heard from one of my best friends since college and he and his husband are selling their home in Lexington, Ky., and moving to San Miguel de Allende, #Mexico. They are beyond excited, can’t stop talking about how friendly and welcoming the people are. So happy for their new life in retirement.

Off into Wednesday afternoon with Saint Etienne #NowPlaying #MusicSky Only Love Can Break Your Heart youtu.be/vZAajrxvDs4?si…

Rewatch: LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (1945) Gene Tierney’s performance as an unstable, obsessively jealous woman is stunning and unsettling in a film that is beautifully shot in Technicolor. Her turn as a monstrous villain is quite possibly my favorite of her roles, tonight at least. #FilmSky #MovieSky