The schoolhouse used in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963).

Still from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.

Northern CA Hitchcock tourism. The schoolhouse from The Birds. Bodega.

Standing outside of the house featured in Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943).

Still from Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943).

Northern CA Hitchcock tourism. The house used in Shadow of a Doubt. Santa Rosa.

The Pitt (for me anyway) is like "golden age" cable shows like The Soproanos or The Wire in that, aside from Wyle, I did not know any of the actors (except I recognized the last name Dourif!!) and they are all so good!! Like the days before shows had famous people and movie stars.

I can see that! (side note: I wish Dr Abbot were either my best friend or my father, haven't decided ... something about that confidence he exudes but also hugging and mentioning he has a therapist. want him to hold me.)

Also, on reflection, as a viewer, I don't feel I was necessarily forgiving of Robby's flaws, just discovering new shadings of the character, like Mel's overbearing protectiveness of her sister, Whitaker's trouble with boundaries etc.

Huh. This is interesting. With Robby I assumed it was strictly character-driven. A stubborn resistance to examining his own behavior and flaws, the things Langdon points out. And Wyle is such a likable actor--queasy-making to watch what he can do with a cutting look or remark.

Got my email confirmation that Point Blank has been shipped! (also one that I earned $50 in rewards!!)

All right well this is a good piece and I also very much love and appreciate the reference of its title.

Is this partly why The Pitt is hitting so hard, feels strangely revolutionary? in that first ep. you see Robby show up, talk to people. You get a sense something is up with him that day, and then everything flows with brutal linearity and slow character work.

That's true. It was in relation to their movie The Rip. They also said execs wanted dialogue to reiterate plot points, for viewers who were only half watching. I was surprised to learn these things though I guess I shouldn't have been.

I read a piece recently in which Affleck/Damon discussed this. Netflix (I think, probably others) now demands a third-act-level action sequence in the first act.

Not to get too "back in my day" but... Tony Soprano sitting silently contemplating that piece of art in Dr Melfi's office.

I assume the cannon-fire in medias res openings are about hooking viewers immediately?

Something that sort of aligns is how actors in older shows and movies look. My wife and I were watching The Rockford Files and James Garner was such a massive star and the character is even a ladies man yet he looks like a dude you might see at the store and is this possible anymore?

When I first started to notice Brookner's novels around in used Vintage Contemporaries editions circa late 1990s I was fascinated by her author photo. Her gaze was so piercing. And her prose is like that I think, scrupulously unsentimental, cuts to the bone.

'I know, you see, that whatever you feel for me, or perhaps I should say, once felt for me, I am, as Swann said of Odette, not your type.'

Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac

Listening to it in my Discman over & over late at night when I couldn't sleep in high school. Even though I was only 14-15 "Catapult" made me feel so profoundly melancholy like something had passed from my life already & I was older now somehow. Half conscious in small house in rural MI listening

Pynchon gazes straight at camera in exasperation, then a cutaway to him being interviewed by unseen crew making documentary about the prize.

Also, that's the episode where Claire dies, right? You'll have to refresh my memory, but I believe the first episode of the next season just kind of plows on to the next case? Maybe now fans would demand to know explicitly how every character was processing Kincaid's death.

Right! There was even a brief atmospheric soundtrack moment, Cowboy Junkies' version of "Sweet Jane" playing over Rey's moment of transgression (with a young Jennifer Garner!).

Yes! I have thought about that episode ever since. Also there was the McCoy/Claire Kincaid ambiguity that (as far as I know) was never spelled out. just little flashes. Somewhat similar to Santos/Garcia, although of course that becomes more overt.

Such a great piece! I personally love the shadings and between-the-line readings. And talking of the OG L & O, I remember this one stunning episode where the characters witness a prisoner execution & then we are plunged for an hour into their personal lives. Which never happened! It was shocking.

Adam Mars-Jones · Do lobotomies have a smell? Adèle Yon’s ‘Mon vrai nom est Elisabeth’ Adèle Yon says that she enjoys it when the archives lose their footing (‘perdent les pédales’), revealing their...

With thanks to @lrb.co.uk where I learned about the book!
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

MON VRAI NOM EST ELISABETH by Adèle Yon.

I am currently making my slow way through MON VRAI NOM EST ELISABETH with a dictionary and my verbs book. The book was a hit in France and will be out in the US at some point I gather. An investigation, presented in a farrago of forms, into the tragic life of the author's great-grandmother.

❤️ j'adore

then strangely state that "tacky" can somewhat approximate Oriane's pun "but cannot improve on Scott Moncrieff's brilliant rendering: Teaser Augustus." So one wonders, why change it?)

Ah, thanks for this! I have only glanced at Nelson's Swann translation(s). I have other nits to pick with Bush, various Britishisms e.g. "candyfloss", "you can be at his by 11", and he is (I think) the first translator to switch up "Teaser Augustus", changing it to Tacky the Proud. (The notes

All other versions (I believe) have some formulation similar to Treharne: "where I had asked her to dine with me"; "if I had dined there without her" which just sounds more elegant to me. Supper.. maybe reminds me too much of something my stepfather would say 😂

In Oxford GUERMANTES WAY the word "supper" is used twice in quick succession, in relation to ill-fated Mme de Stermaria dinner invitation, translated from "dîner" and "dîné" and... I don't know, not sure I can accept "supper" in #Proust.... or is that quibbling or too narrow?

De ses débuts de jeune recrue (« Les Reines du music-hall », « Ève ») à sa starification absolue (« Niagara », « Certains l'aiment chaud »), Marilyn Monroe se sera constamment vu nier son statut d'actrice.