B.G. Firmani
@bgfirmani.bsky.social
Writer with a day job. Longtime New Yorker. Believer that while the arc of the moral universe may be long, it bends toward justice.
Finché c'è vita, c'è speranza.
https://www.bgfirmani.com/
Finché c'è vita, c'è speranza.
https://www.bgfirmani.com/
#amwatching Jafar Panahi’s subtle, funny, moving 3 FACES (2018) with Behnaz Jafari and Marziyeh Rezael playing a young woman determined to follow her dream. Filmmaker Panahi is to me a model of the artist/activist: inspiring, committed, fearless. @criterionchannl.bsky.social #filmsky #IranianFilm
December 8, 2025 at 1:51 AM
#amwatching Jafar Panahi’s subtle, funny, moving 3 FACES (2018) with Behnaz Jafari and Marziyeh Rezael playing a young woman determined to follow her dream. Filmmaker Panahi is to me a model of the artist/activist: inspiring, committed, fearless. @criterionchannl.bsky.social #filmsky #IranianFilm
"Of the over 500 men who entered the forest, only 194 were rescued." Another library sale find, this melancholy little curio, HISTORY AND RHYMES OF THE LOST BATTALION, from 1929, by "Buck Private" McCollum, one who lived to tell. www.pritzkermilitary.org/explore/muse... #WW1 #booksky #LostBattalion
November 19, 2025 at 11:36 PM
"Of the over 500 men who entered the forest, only 194 were rescued." Another library sale find, this melancholy little curio, HISTORY AND RHYMES OF THE LOST BATTALION, from 1929, by "Buck Private" McCollum, one who lived to tell. www.pritzkermilitary.org/explore/muse... #WW1 #booksky #LostBattalion
Someone needs to talk about @ghoward1950.bsky.social and Edwin Frank, founder and editor of the NYRB Classics, discussing Gerry's THE INSIDER: Malcolm Cowley and the Triumph of American Literature at @greenlightbklyn.bsky.social on Weds, 11/5 @ 7:30. greenlightbookstore.com/event/2025-1... #booksky
November 4, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Someone needs to talk about @ghoward1950.bsky.social and Edwin Frank, founder and editor of the NYRB Classics, discussing Gerry's THE INSIDER: Malcolm Cowley and the Triumph of American Literature at @greenlightbklyn.bsky.social on Weds, 11/5 @ 7:30. greenlightbookstore.com/event/2025-1... #booksky
Found at a library sale in Kent, CT, this beautiful and powerfully spooky edition of Gustav Meyrink's DER GOLEM, in the original German. With lithographs by Hugo Steiner-Prag. Published by Kurt Wolff in Leipzig, 1915. #booksky #vanishedworld
October 31, 2025 at 11:15 PM
Found at a library sale in Kent, CT, this beautiful and powerfully spooky edition of Gustav Meyrink's DER GOLEM, in the original German. With lithographs by Hugo Steiner-Prag. Published by Kurt Wolff in Leipzig, 1915. #booksky #vanishedworld
Enjoy 4 great renditions of “All You Fascists Bound to Lose”
Woody's original! www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwcK...
Nina Hagen! www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMDg...
Billy Bragg! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq75...
Resistance Revival Chorus + Rhiannon Giddens!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWUa...
#Antifascist #Resist
Woody's original! www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwcK...
Nina Hagen! www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMDg...
Billy Bragg! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq75...
Resistance Revival Chorus + Rhiannon Giddens!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWUa...
#Antifascist #Resist
October 19, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Enjoy 4 great renditions of “All You Fascists Bound to Lose”
Woody's original! www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwcK...
Nina Hagen! www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMDg...
Billy Bragg! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq75...
Resistance Revival Chorus + Rhiannon Giddens!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWUa...
#Antifascist #Resist
Woody's original! www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwcK...
Nina Hagen! www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMDg...
Billy Bragg! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq75...
Resistance Revival Chorus + Rhiannon Giddens!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWUa...
#Antifascist #Resist
#amreading ONE WAY OR ANOTHER by Leonardo Sciascia (translated by Sacha Rabinovitch) which chucks out the conventions of a #whodunit for something much more refractory and mysterious, a sort of meditation on power and culpability. #booksky
October 16, 2025 at 11:17 PM
#amreading ONE WAY OR ANOTHER by Leonardo Sciascia (translated by Sacha Rabinovitch) which chucks out the conventions of a #whodunit for something much more refractory and mysterious, a sort of meditation on power and culpability. #booksky
Terrific #documentary, “The Piccirilli Factor,” by Eduardo Montes-Bradley, about six #Italian #immigrant stone carver/sculptor brothers working in the Bronx who made some of NYC's most beloved sculptures.
www.montesbradley.com
calandrainstitute.org/events/the-p...
@calandrainstitute.bsky.social
www.montesbradley.com
calandrainstitute.org/events/the-p...
@calandrainstitute.bsky.social
October 8, 2025 at 1:05 AM
Terrific #documentary, “The Piccirilli Factor,” by Eduardo Montes-Bradley, about six #Italian #immigrant stone carver/sculptor brothers working in the Bronx who made some of NYC's most beloved sculptures.
www.montesbradley.com
calandrainstitute.org/events/the-p...
@calandrainstitute.bsky.social
www.montesbradley.com
calandrainstitute.org/events/the-p...
@calandrainstitute.bsky.social
#amreading CONUNDRUM by Jan Morris. Only a writer of such style, wit, and singularity would write of her sex change: "It was inevitable and it was deeply satisfying - like a sentence which, defying its own subordinate clauses, reaches a classical conclusion in the end." #booksky
September 26, 2025 at 9:22 PM
#amreading CONUNDRUM by Jan Morris. Only a writer of such style, wit, and singularity would write of her sex change: "It was inevitable and it was deeply satisfying - like a sentence which, defying its own subordinate clauses, reaches a classical conclusion in the end." #booksky
Most Holy Redeemer, an #EastVillage #Catholic church of surpassing beauty, is on the chopping block. It was built in 1851 to serve the #German immigrant community. Sign GVSHP's petition - p2a.co/k1lzcji - to keep it from the fate of Dorothy Day's Church of the Nativity.
evgrieve.com/search/label...
evgrieve.com/search/label...
September 22, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Most Holy Redeemer, an #EastVillage #Catholic church of surpassing beauty, is on the chopping block. It was built in 1851 to serve the #German immigrant community. Sign GVSHP's petition - p2a.co/k1lzcji - to keep it from the fate of Dorothy Day's Church of the Nativity.
evgrieve.com/search/label...
evgrieve.com/search/label...
I'm so sad to hear that Bluestockings is closing. This was a great bookstore as well as a community gathering place. They will be missed. #booksky bluestockings.com
September 22, 2025 at 10:52 PM
I'm so sad to hear that Bluestockings is closing. This was a great bookstore as well as a community gathering place. They will be missed. #booksky bluestockings.com
"I try all things, I achieve what I can."
The writing desk of #HermanMelville at Arrowhead outside Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he wrote MOBY DICK. In the distance is a view of Mt. Greylock. Totally lovely people at Arrowhead, real tenders of the flame. berkshirehistory.org #Berkshires #booksky
The writing desk of #HermanMelville at Arrowhead outside Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he wrote MOBY DICK. In the distance is a view of Mt. Greylock. Totally lovely people at Arrowhead, real tenders of the flame. berkshirehistory.org #Berkshires #booksky
September 4, 2025 at 10:56 PM
"I try all things, I achieve what I can."
The writing desk of #HermanMelville at Arrowhead outside Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he wrote MOBY DICK. In the distance is a view of Mt. Greylock. Totally lovely people at Arrowhead, real tenders of the flame. berkshirehistory.org #Berkshires #booksky
The writing desk of #HermanMelville at Arrowhead outside Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he wrote MOBY DICK. In the distance is a view of Mt. Greylock. Totally lovely people at Arrowhead, real tenders of the flame. berkshirehistory.org #Berkshires #booksky
… somehow I wound up with *two* copies of LAFCADIO’S ADVENTURES and still never have been able to get into Gide’s writing. But Gorey's cover is a beaut, and I love how he re-drew the price to show the crucial ten-cent increase. #Booksky #EdwardGorey
August 19, 2025 at 1:17 AM
… somehow I wound up with *two* copies of LAFCADIO’S ADVENTURES and still never have been able to get into Gide’s writing. But Gorey's cover is a beaut, and I love how he re-drew the price to show the crucial ten-cent increase. #Booksky #EdwardGorey
For @ghoward1950.bsky.social, one of my favorite Edward Gorey covers, for NINETEENTH CENTURY GERMAN TALES (1959), edited by the tireless Angel Flores. #booksky
August 6, 2025 at 11:47 PM
For @ghoward1950.bsky.social, one of my favorite Edward Gorey covers, for NINETEENTH CENTURY GERMAN TALES (1959), edited by the tireless Angel Flores. #booksky
Seen at an estate sale in Pittsfield, MA, this weekend, a first edition of a novel that I love, DISTURBANCES IN THE FIELD (1983) by the vastly underappreciated Lynne Sharon Schwartz. With the cool old Edvard Munch print on the front and a blurb from Max Apple on the back. #booksky
August 6, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Seen at an estate sale in Pittsfield, MA, this weekend, a first edition of a novel that I love, DISTURBANCES IN THE FIELD (1983) by the vastly underappreciated Lynne Sharon Schwartz. With the cool old Edvard Munch print on the front and a blurb from Max Apple on the back. #booksky
Billie Holiday and her dog Mister, New York, NY, c. 1947, William P. Gottlieb, photographer. My grandmom Elsie Brandi Firmani Ciunci and her dog Herky, Elsmere, DE, c. early 1970s, taken by my Uncle Ray. I do love a lady and her #dog.
August 5, 2025 at 11:06 PM
Billie Holiday and her dog Mister, New York, NY, c. 1947, William P. Gottlieb, photographer. My grandmom Elsie Brandi Firmani Ciunci and her dog Herky, Elsmere, DE, c. early 1970s, taken by my Uncle Ray. I do love a lady and her #dog.
#amreading THE TARTAR STEPPE (1940) by Dino Buzzati, trans. Stuart C. Hood. Often called “Kafkaesque,” this novel seems to me less sinister and more melancholy, somehow deeply #Italian. Captures the slow drip of passing time, the surprise of aging, but is also lyrical, dreamlike, lovely. #booksky
August 5, 2025 at 10:51 PM
#amreading THE TARTAR STEPPE (1940) by Dino Buzzati, trans. Stuart C. Hood. Often called “Kafkaesque,” this novel seems to me less sinister and more melancholy, somehow deeply #Italian. Captures the slow drip of passing time, the surprise of aging, but is also lyrical, dreamlike, lovely. #booksky
#amreading WEEP NOT, CHILD (1964) by the great Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. So many moods and textures in this brilliant #novel: dreamy, clear-eyed, absurdist, heartbroken, enduring. The young protagonist Njoroge’s unyielding quest for learning is particularly moving. And the ending is beautiful. #booksky
July 24, 2025 at 12:47 AM
#amreading WEEP NOT, CHILD (1964) by the great Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. So many moods and textures in this brilliant #novel: dreamy, clear-eyed, absurdist, heartbroken, enduring. The young protagonist Njoroge’s unyielding quest for learning is particularly moving. And the ending is beautiful. #booksky
Rest in peace, Uncle Ray Firmani, who peacefully departed the planet early this morning. #WWII B-17 "Flying Fortress" pilot awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for extraordinary heroism, longtime #Delaware resident, first-generation #ItalianAmerican. He was 103. www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGFI...
July 20, 2025 at 11:13 PM
Rest in peace, Uncle Ray Firmani, who peacefully departed the planet early this morning. #WWII B-17 "Flying Fortress" pilot awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for extraordinary heroism, longtime #Delaware resident, first-generation #ItalianAmerican. He was 103. www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGFI...
“Democracy is not a state. It's an act.” Beautiful, spirited turnout for the #GoodTrouble rally in #NYC celebrating the life of fearless John Lewis - and standing up against the malicious, racist, fascist trump regime. #JohnLewisDay #FightBack
July 18, 2025 at 12:49 AM
“Democracy is not a state. It's an act.” Beautiful, spirited turnout for the #GoodTrouble rally in #NYC celebrating the life of fearless John Lewis - and standing up against the malicious, racist, fascist trump regime. #JohnLewisDay #FightBack
“Don’t they know evil when they see it?” #nowwatching Terrence Malick’s A HIDDEN LIFE that tells the story of Franz Jägerstätter, who refused to swear an oath to Hitler and was murdered for it. Too lyrical for its own good, still this is a powerful #film about one person standing against #fascism.
July 15, 2025 at 10:04 PM
“Don’t they know evil when they see it?” #nowwatching Terrence Malick’s A HIDDEN LIFE that tells the story of Franz Jägerstätter, who refused to swear an oath to Hitler and was murdered for it. Too lyrical for its own good, still this is a powerful #film about one person standing against #fascism.
#amreading DANTE: A LIFE by RWB Lewis. An elegant gem of a biography, published when he was 84. Lewis had a wide-open mind. Discussing the Tuscan idiom “vo significando” (“I go signifying”) he talks of how the word is “so dexterously employed in current American black literary commentary.” #booksky
July 2, 2025 at 12:08 AM
#amreading DANTE: A LIFE by RWB Lewis. An elegant gem of a biography, published when he was 84. Lewis had a wide-open mind. Discussing the Tuscan idiom “vo significando” (“I go signifying”) he talks of how the word is “so dexterously employed in current American black literary commentary.” #booksky
#amreading THE SECRET LIFE OF THE LONELY DOLL by Jean Nathan. A sympathetic and unexpectedly moving #biography of Dare Wright, #photographer and children’s book author, who was kept an eternal child by her toxic mother. Strangely gothic fractured fairy tale. #booksky
July 2, 2025 at 12:02 AM
#amreading THE SECRET LIFE OF THE LONELY DOLL by Jean Nathan. A sympathetic and unexpectedly moving #biography of Dare Wright, #photographer and children’s book author, who was kept an eternal child by her toxic mother. Strangely gothic fractured fairy tale. #booksky
#amreading FLOATING IN A MOST PECULIAR WAY by Louis Chude-Sokei, born in the short-lived nation of #Biafra in West Africa, raised in #Jamaica, reunited with his mother in the US. A complex #memoir of displacement and trauma, told slantwise with the insight of many years. Loved this #book. #booksky
June 25, 2025 at 10:53 PM
#amreading Elyn R. Saks' harrowing THE CENTER CANNOT HOLD: MY JOURNEY THROUGH MADNESS. What a brave, relentless woman, who lived through hell but never gave up. Blasted to bits my clueless assumptions about mental illness. Her TED talk is also pretty amazing:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6CI... #booksky
www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6CI... #booksky
June 11, 2025 at 12:37 AM
#amreading Elyn R. Saks' harrowing THE CENTER CANNOT HOLD: MY JOURNEY THROUGH MADNESS. What a brave, relentless woman, who lived through hell but never gave up. Blasted to bits my clueless assumptions about mental illness. Her TED talk is also pretty amazing:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6CI... #booksky
www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6CI... #booksky
Celebrating my brilliant & dear old professor from #Barnard, William Chapman Sharpe, retiring after many years of teaching. First took a class with him in '87, when I was a clueless youngster. Took an armload of books as he clears out his office...bittersweet. barnard.edu/profiles/wil... #booksky
May 30, 2025 at 1:01 AM
Celebrating my brilliant & dear old professor from #Barnard, William Chapman Sharpe, retiring after many years of teaching. First took a class with him in '87, when I was a clueless youngster. Took an armload of books as he clears out his office...bittersweet. barnard.edu/profiles/wil... #booksky