Gene Seymour
@geneseymour.bsky.social
Writer, Jazz geek, Professional Spectator
Pinned
Gene Seymour
@geneseymour.bsky.social
· Feb 15
"Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing."
Clive James
Clive James
Reposted by Gene Seymour
I'll save you a lot of reading: unless Mamdani starts taking money from Turks and roasting leprechauns - and even then - there is no way in hell Stefanik is going to win New York a year after this election in the city.
November 7, 2025 at 12:01 AM
I'll save you a lot of reading: unless Mamdani starts taking money from Turks and roasting leprechauns - and even then - there is no way in hell Stefanik is going to win New York a year after this election in the city.
I'd been working on this one for so long that if often felt as though I'd been writing it my whole life. In a peculiar way, maybe I have...
www.thenation.com/article/arch...
www.thenation.com/article/arch...
Chester Himes’s Harlem Noirs
Himes helped reinvent the idea of the detective novel. He also transformed it into a powerful vehicle for social criticism.
www.thenation.com
October 14, 2025 at 3:28 PM
I'd been working on this one for so long that if often felt as though I'd been writing it my whole life. In a peculiar way, maybe I have...
www.thenation.com/article/arch...
www.thenation.com/article/arch...
Once more to the Cave of Wonders. Happy 95th birthday, Sonny Rollins.
Sonny Rollins - Blue 7
YouTube video by JazzTuna
www.youtube.com
September 7, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Once more to the Cave of Wonders. Happy 95th birthday, Sonny Rollins.
Reposted by Gene Seymour
Belichick, you know ... it's like if I ran for Mayor of Fresno ...
September 2, 2025 at 2:55 AM
Belichick, you know ... it's like if I ran for Mayor of Fresno ...
FWIW...
An Objectively Subjective List of Top Ten Political Novels
The Art of the Art of the Possible
thatgeneseymour52.substack.com
September 1, 2025 at 3:38 PM
FWIW...
Today marks Year Four of Ferdinand's insertion into my life. Read the attached to find our what that sentence means.
In Which I Get My New Aortic Valve & Take it Out For Walks — That Gene Seymour
geneseymour.com
August 27, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Today marks Year Four of Ferdinand's insertion into my life. Read the attached to find our what that sentence means.
Still trying to get the hang of this thing. But at least it's no longer calling itself "Gene's Substack." Baby steps.
Soft-Boiled Resistance
Be Like Charles Simic (& If You Can't, Then Be-Bop)
thatgeneseymour52.substack.com
August 20, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Still trying to get the hang of this thing. But at least it's no longer calling itself "Gene's Substack." Baby steps.
Mal Waldron is 100
open.substack.com/pub/thatgene...
open.substack.com/pub/thatgene...
Mal Waldron is 100
A brief retro tribute to a legacy with long, deep shadows
open.substack.com
August 17, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Mal Waldron is 100
open.substack.com/pub/thatgene...
open.substack.com/pub/thatgene...
Oscar Peterson, the Frank Lloyd Wright of Swing, turns 100 today. And what do I mean by that analogy? This is what I mean. www.youtube.com/watch?v=agi5...
Kadota's Blues (Live At The London House, Chicago, 1961)
YouTube video by Oscar Peterson - Topic
www.youtube.com
August 15, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Oscar Peterson, the Frank Lloyd Wright of Swing, turns 100 today. And what do I mean by that analogy? This is what I mean. www.youtube.com/watch?v=agi5...
Reposted by Gene Seymour
I do not as yet see full-blown war. They are telling Iran in private it's over. The nuclear program has likely not and will not be destroyed, but it has been set far back. I don't see the collapse of the regime, either. The region is now monumentally more unstable.
This could all change in an hour.
This could all change in an hour.
June 22, 2025 at 6:35 PM
I do not as yet see full-blown war. They are telling Iran in private it's over. The nuclear program has likely not and will not be destroyed, but it has been set far back. I don't see the collapse of the regime, either. The region is now monumentally more unstable.
This could all change in an hour.
This could all change in an hour.
Lest we forget: "It's a dog-eat-dog, world, Sam and I'm wearing Milk Bone underwear." -- Norm Peterson, Boston barfly.
May 21, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Lest we forget: "It's a dog-eat-dog, world, Sam and I'm wearing Milk Bone underwear." -- Norm Peterson, Boston barfly.
8 years ago, The Thing To Do (for want of a better phrase) was to (re)read "1984" to get, I guess, a "sense" of whatever was about to, so to speak, Happen Here. Read it again, like now, & if you really want to know why it's happening again, read Orwell's "Politics & the English Language."
February 26, 2025 at 4:54 PM
8 years ago, The Thing To Do (for want of a better phrase) was to (re)read "1984" to get, I guess, a "sense" of whatever was about to, so to speak, Happen Here. Read it again, like now, & if you really want to know why it's happening again, read Orwell's "Politics & the English Language."
Going through the motions. After March 2, it's back to Euro-Noir novels & Big East B-Ball. geneseymour.com?p=4029
Seymour Movies Thinks It’s Too Old For This Oscars Shit — That Gene Seymour
geneseymour.com
February 23, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Going through the motions. After March 2, it's back to Euro-Noir novels & Big East B-Ball. geneseymour.com?p=4029
You know a movie is great when it makes you forget who, where, & at times like this, even WHAT you are. This is a great movie. #Flowisthebestof2024
February 16, 2025 at 9:21 PM
You know a movie is great when it makes you forget who, where, & at times like this, even WHAT you are. This is a great movie. #Flowisthebestof2024
"Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing."
Clive James
Clive James
February 15, 2025 at 8:41 PM
"Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing."
Clive James
Clive James
My shiny new BookForum review of Philip Freeman's most excellent & much needed Cecil Taylor biography. www.bookforum.com/print/3103/t...
Tinker Taylor
How a progressive jazz legend reconfigured the way we experience music – Gene Seymour
www.bookforum.com
February 12, 2025 at 3:03 PM
My shiny new BookForum review of Philip Freeman's most excellent & much needed Cecil Taylor biography. www.bookforum.com/print/3103/t...
Not an Oscar voter, never was, never will be, But if I were voting now for Best Picture, it would come down to either "Anora" or "Nickel Boys." If Harris had won, I'd go with Nickel Boys." But because it was The Other One, I'd go with "Anora" because it's closer to The Way Things Are Now.
February 11, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Not an Oscar voter, never was, never will be, But if I were voting now for Best Picture, it would come down to either "Anora" or "Nickel Boys." If Harris had won, I'd go with Nickel Boys." But because it was The Other One, I'd go with "Anora" because it's closer to The Way Things Are Now.
Reposted by Gene Seymour
“That’s not something you’ll get on the MGM backlot.” In this excerpt from our recent “LOA at the Movies” panel, film critics Mike Sragow, @selfstyledsiren.bsky.social, @geneseymour.bsky.social, and @carrierickey.bsky.social discuss the overlooked 1949 adaptation of Faulkner’s Intruder in the Dust.
LOA at the Movies Discusses Intruder in the Dust (1949)
YouTube video by Library of America
www.youtube.com
January 21, 2025 at 2:28 PM
“That’s not something you’ll get on the MGM backlot.” In this excerpt from our recent “LOA at the Movies” panel, film critics Mike Sragow, @selfstyledsiren.bsky.social, @geneseymour.bsky.social, and @carrierickey.bsky.social discuss the overlooked 1949 adaptation of Faulkner’s Intruder in the Dust.
"Keep your eye on the donut and not the hole." Copy that, Special Agent Cole. #RIPDavidLynch.
January 16, 2025 at 7:41 PM
"Keep your eye on the donut and not the hole." Copy that, Special Agent Cole. #RIPDavidLynch.
If you're like me (& lots of luck if you are), you likely can't wait for this year to go away while dreading whatever's waiting for us after the...um...Ball Drops. But I can't let go off '24 without acknowledging some of the things that made me happy and/or think harder over the previous 12 months.
Gene Seymour’s Favorite Things in 2024 — That Gene Seymour
geneseymour.com
December 26, 2024 at 9:40 PM
If you're like me (& lots of luck if you are), you likely can't wait for this year to go away while dreading whatever's waiting for us after the...um...Ball Drops. But I can't let go off '24 without acknowledging some of the things that made me happy and/or think harder over the previous 12 months.
Thought Chris Rock's latest "SNL" hosting gig felt a little off, especially the monologue -- except for one deceptively offhand reference to Elon Musk as an "African American." Don't know if anybody else noticed it, but as a Black man, I'm thinking, "Maybe it's time to (re)define our terms."
December 16, 2024 at 4:39 PM
Thought Chris Rock's latest "SNL" hosting gig felt a little off, especially the monologue -- except for one deceptively offhand reference to Elon Musk as an "African American." Don't know if anybody else noticed it, but as a Black man, I'm thinking, "Maybe it's time to (re)define our terms."
Reposted by Gene Seymour
Maybe the Grinch would be nicer if every five minutes a dude wasn’t singing songs about what a piece of shit he is
December 2, 2024 at 12:05 AM
Maybe the Grinch would be nicer if every five minutes a dude wasn’t singing songs about what a piece of shit he is
Happily gobbled up all of "Black Doves" till midnight like a tin of Christmas cookies. Emma Peel & John Steed retrofitted for the 21st century with moral ambiguities & digital spice (though no AI as yet) & its own gleeful layering of outrageous improbabilities. Cozy up!
December 12, 2024 at 1:11 PM
Happily gobbled up all of "Black Doves" till midnight like a tin of Christmas cookies. Emma Peel & John Steed retrofitted for the 21st century with moral ambiguities & digital spice (though no AI as yet) & its own gleeful layering of outrageous improbabilities. Cozy up!