This explains Montreal's complicated system of municipal politics better than anything else I've read or seen. www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpFp...

1965 - Scopitone machines come to Des Moines, Iowa.

Kind of interesting article on the success of newspaper inserts offering information on television programming. The secret, it seems, is getting rid of the old programming grid.

Last week, I acquired a collection of 175 Canadian restaurant and hospitality industry magazines from the years 1952-1971. I'll donate them to a food studies research centre, but, in the meantime, I did a quick gallery of the covers. willstraw.com/canadian-foo...

Very happy about this special issue of the Revue internationale des francophonies (on « Les scènes culturelles à l’ère de la découvrabilité numérique") with an interview with me by Hela Zahar and translation of my "Scenes and Sensibilities" from 2001! publications-prairial.fr/rif/index.ph...

From the excellent Miguel Cavarubbias exhibit in Mexico City, "United Nations," 1942.

From the excellent Miguel Cavarubbias exhibit in Mexico City, "William Shakespeare and Metro Goldwyn Mayer," 1936.

A big congratulations to my friend and former post-doc Jamie Jelinski, for this very interesting look at how transit systems document graffiti and the bureaucratic means by which they do so. www.jamiejelinski.ca/scene-of-cri...

Jean-Pierre Faye a 100 ans (Le Corps miroir) diacritik.com/2025/07/19/l...

Bravo à Marie-Pier Luneau and Harold Bérubé for this new issue of mens: revue d’histoire intellectuelle et culturelle, devoted to crime magazines in Quebec. I have an article on the magazine Détective (1964-1968.) Accessible via Erudit, if your institution subscribes. www.erudit.org/fr/revues/me...

Döden er et kjaertegn (Death is a Caress), the 1949 Norwegian film by Edith Carlmar, is often considered the first film noir directed by a woman. Tonight we watched a 1953 film by Carlmar, Ung Frue Forsvunnet (A Young Woman Missing), a very good drama about drug addiction.

Nice to see that this book is out, with a free download. I have a chapter on "Night Studies" www.puec.unam.mx/index.php/co...

Bess Flowers, Queen of the Dress Extras, in Something in the Wind (1947), one of Deanna Durbin's last films.

Waiting for me on my return from holiday: The New York Daily Column (1968-1969), made up almost entirely of signed columns.

World Refugee Day is June 20. Dr. Candida Rifkind's timely new book, Graphic Refuge, explores recent narratives about a range of refugee experiences, from war, displacement, and perilous sea crossings to detention camps, resettlement schemes, and second-generation diasporas. LEARN MORE ⬇️

I wish the newly-betrothed couple all the very best, but I'd kill for a movie in which a couple of low-brow comedians crashed this fancy event. "Dishes included truffle agnolotti, chilled English pea soup and an American Wagyu bavette and grilled prawns." www.nytimes.com/2025/06/14/u...

Magazine history: The opening of Slander (1957), one of a handful of Hollywood films responding to the post-Confidential boom in celebrity scandal magazines .

I missed the Drawn & Quarterly lunch of this fine piece of cultural history because I was out of town, then had to wait to get it while D&Q replenished their stock. It's a fascinating book, full of scenes I watched from the edges and people I still know.

History of a Belgian nightlife magazine b-i-n-g-o.be/article/out-...

📺 Les 20 et 21/11 prochain aura lieu à @sorbonneparis1.bsky.social un colloque sur les émissions de variétés à la TV que j'ai le plaisir de co-organiser avec G. Soulez, S. Denis et C. Rudent 🎶 🎥 ✨ Nous attendons vos propositions de communication jusqu'au 1er juillet Plus d'infos: calenda.org/1264387

At the M+ Museum in Hong Kong - hard to imagine what this would involve

Barcelona announces a new, comprehensive plan for the night. Links to media reports (mostly in Spanish, but the official announcement is translated into English) may be found here. theurbannight.com

Fascinating book.

Nice when the mail brings new books by friends.

If you are around next week, we'll have a book launch at DTD Lab (722 Preston Ave, Charlottesville, VA) on May 2, 4:00pm, with a reception to follow from 5:00 to 7:00pm. Book talks in other cities and countries will happen in the fall.

Mon dieu!

Appel à communications : Variétés et télévision : circulation et cristallisation 1949-1987 (20-21/11/2025, Paris) lpcm.hypotheses.org/37510

Mon «alma mater» a préféré jouer de surobéissance préventive pour ne pas froisser le gouvernement #Trump.

This was a very good book, fascinating and impeccably researched!

Coming this autumn . ..