Frankly, my dear, you probably should give a damn: “1939 represents Old Hollywood at its best — the studio system, the star system, the way they made movies,” says Thomas S. Hisochak, author of 1939: Hollywood’s Greatest Year. “Whatever you liked about movies, it was there. 1939 did it all and did it well.” …
When Chris Rock hosted the eighty-eighth Academy Awards in 2016, he oversaw managed decline — a tough gig. No more exhausted gag runs through Hollywood than the Oscars. You couldn’t make jokes about how long the ceremony is; they’ve all been made. You couldn’t joke about how white it is, it always returned to …
The South is a haven for recording artists to take to studios in towns large and small. Probably the best known of these are in the Northwest Alabama town of Muscle Shoals, home of Rick Hall’s FAME Recording Studios, at 603 Avalon Ave. Artists including The Allman Brothers Band and The Rolling Stones have …
Maybe they didn’t win the Oscar, but these movies and stars won our hearts. Ever since 1929, the Academy Awards have honored some of our greatest cinematic performances and films — but they don’t always get it right. Welcome to the “snub club.” It’s a group of epic films, iconic directors and big-screen superstars …
And “so it goes,” to quote author Kurt Vonnegut, who knew a thing or two about indulgences and vice — but also time travel — and who lived through changes I can only imagine. I’ve been reading — er, listening to, rather — an audiobook of Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five.” Vonnegut uses the phrase, “So …