@ewbarker.bsky.social
Writer; recovering film scholar; holistic grader; center-left child of the 60s.
John Lennon was born 85 years ago today in the working class city of Liverpool. This is a tune I really liked when I was 18, from the album “Mind Games,” released on October 29, 1973.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=q90T...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=q90T...
Bring On The Lucie (Freda Peeple) (Remastered 2010)
YouTube video by John Lennon - Topic
www.youtube.com
October 9, 2025 at 10:28 PM
John Lennon was born 85 years ago today in the working class city of Liverpool. This is a tune I really liked when I was 18, from the album “Mind Games,” released on October 29, 1973.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=q90T...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=q90T...
Happy Birthday to the one and only Barbara Stanwyck, born this day in 1907.
a group of people are dancing in a room .
ALT: a group of people are dancing in a room .
media.tenor.com
July 16, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Happy Birthday to the one and only Barbara Stanwyck, born this day in 1907.
Reposted
I've had so many exchanges like this. One common retort ppl have after I list the many harmful impacts of AI is "but it generates output so fast!"
This is how insane people sound when you tell them why A.I. is bad
July 16, 2025 at 3:52 PM
I've had so many exchanges like this. One common retort ppl have after I list the many harmful impacts of AI is "but it generates output so fast!"
I've been saying this for awhile now--that the constitutional crisis was here--but I'm grateful others are catching up. Now then: what can be done about it?
Trump is defying a 9-0 Supreme Court ruling against him. The Constitutional Crisis is no longer some abstract idea, it's right here staring us in the face.
April 14, 2025 at 9:54 PM
I've been saying this for awhile now--that the constitutional crisis was here--but I'm grateful others are catching up. Now then: what can be done about it?
Reposted
What the actual fuck:
March 27, 2025 at 6:45 PM
What the actual fuck:
Reposted
I see more criticism here of Democrats in Congress than I do condemnation of Republicans.
And yet it is the GOP who are enabling Trump.
It tells me a lot when I see you regularly bash our side but say nothing, ever, about the other.
Reflect on your choices. You may be helping the fascists.
And yet it is the GOP who are enabling Trump.
It tells me a lot when I see you regularly bash our side but say nothing, ever, about the other.
Reflect on your choices. You may be helping the fascists.
February 4, 2025 at 3:14 AM
I see more criticism here of Democrats in Congress than I do condemnation of Republicans.
And yet it is the GOP who are enabling Trump.
It tells me a lot when I see you regularly bash our side but say nothing, ever, about the other.
Reflect on your choices. You may be helping the fascists.
And yet it is the GOP who are enabling Trump.
It tells me a lot when I see you regularly bash our side but say nothing, ever, about the other.
Reflect on your choices. You may be helping the fascists.
50th ANNIVERSARIES OF LANDMARK FILMS IN 2025
Mirror (Mar 7)
Shampoo (Mar 13)
The Passenger (Apr 9)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Apr 9)
Seven Beauties (May 4)
1/3
Mirror (Mar 7)
Shampoo (Mar 13)
The Passenger (Apr 9)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Apr 9)
Seven Beauties (May 4)
1/3
January 14, 2025 at 9:29 PM
50th ANNIVERSARIES OF LANDMARK FILMS IN 2025
Mirror (Mar 7)
Shampoo (Mar 13)
The Passenger (Apr 9)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Apr 9)
Seven Beauties (May 4)
1/3
Mirror (Mar 7)
Shampoo (Mar 13)
The Passenger (Apr 9)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Apr 9)
Seven Beauties (May 4)
1/3
Reposted
Reposted
Break time.
Not entirely sure why, but this dude makes me happy. You?
Not entirely sure why, but this dude makes me happy. You?
January 4, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Break time.
Not entirely sure why, but this dude makes me happy. You?
Not entirely sure why, but this dude makes me happy. You?
Remembering professor of language, writer, and WW I veteran J.R.R. Tolkien, who transformed High Fantasy literature, born in Bloemfontein, South Africa on this day in 1892.
January 3, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Remembering professor of language, writer, and WW I veteran J.R.R. Tolkien, who transformed High Fantasy literature, born in Bloemfontein, South Africa on this day in 1892.
Reposted
Happy New Year, I guess
December 31, 2024 at 1:08 PM
Happy New Year, I guess
10 of the 100-something films I have seen the most
2001
The Godfather
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
King Kong (1933)
Top Hat
Casablanca
Goldfinger
The Court Jester
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Rear Window
Rio Bravo
#filmsky
bsky.app/profile/bcdr...
2001
The Godfather
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
King Kong (1933)
Top Hat
Casablanca
Goldfinger
The Court Jester
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Rear Window
Rio Bravo
#filmsky
bsky.app/profile/bcdr...
This place will never be an adequate replacement for Twitter, because not once in this game have I seen someone criticize someone else's taste in films.
#filmsky
#filmsky
OK, I'm doing this again.
Lady of Burlesque
Love and Death
March of the Wooden Soldiers
The Prisoner of Second Avenue
Psycho
Rosemary's Baby
A Star Is Born (Cukor)
Street Scene
Sunset Boulevard
The Sunshine Boys
Lady of Burlesque
Love and Death
March of the Wooden Soldiers
The Prisoner of Second Avenue
Psycho
Rosemary's Baby
A Star Is Born (Cukor)
Street Scene
Sunset Boulevard
The Sunshine Boys
December 16, 2024 at 1:15 PM
10 of the 100-something films I have seen the most
2001
The Godfather
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
King Kong (1933)
Top Hat
Casablanca
Goldfinger
The Court Jester
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Rear Window
Rio Bravo
#filmsky
bsky.app/profile/bcdr...
2001
The Godfather
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
King Kong (1933)
Top Hat
Casablanca
Goldfinger
The Court Jester
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Rear Window
Rio Bravo
#filmsky
bsky.app/profile/bcdr...
Remembering poet Rainer Maria Rilke, born in Prague on this day in 1875.
For beauty is nothing
but the beginning of terror, which we still are just able to endure,
and we are so awed because it serenely disdains
to annihilate us. Every angel is terrifying.”
– first elegy, ‘Duino Elegies’ (1922)
For beauty is nothing
but the beginning of terror, which we still are just able to endure,
and we are so awed because it serenely disdains
to annihilate us. Every angel is terrifying.”
– first elegy, ‘Duino Elegies’ (1922)
December 4, 2024 at 2:06 PM
Remembering poet Rainer Maria Rilke, born in Prague on this day in 1875.
For beauty is nothing
but the beginning of terror, which we still are just able to endure,
and we are so awed because it serenely disdains
to annihilate us. Every angel is terrifying.”
– first elegy, ‘Duino Elegies’ (1922)
For beauty is nothing
but the beginning of terror, which we still are just able to endure,
and we are so awed because it serenely disdains
to annihilate us. Every angel is terrifying.”
– first elegy, ‘Duino Elegies’ (1922)
November’s Top First Time Viewings
Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924, Germany) [pictured]
The Iron Claw (2023)
Top Rewatches
Scarface (1932)
From Russia with Love (1963, UK-US)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966, Italy-Spain)
Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924, Germany) [pictured]
The Iron Claw (2023)
Top Rewatches
Scarface (1932)
From Russia with Love (1963, UK-US)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966, Italy-Spain)
December 3, 2024 at 1:38 PM
November’s Top First Time Viewings
Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924, Germany) [pictured]
The Iron Claw (2023)
Top Rewatches
Scarface (1932)
From Russia with Love (1963, UK-US)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966, Italy-Spain)
Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924, Germany) [pictured]
The Iron Claw (2023)
Top Rewatches
Scarface (1932)
From Russia with Love (1963, UK-US)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966, Italy-Spain)
The best essays make us see and/or appreciate our favorite films in a new way. This essay nearly brought a tear to my eye with its comprehensive understanding not only of what makes Paper Moon a great film, but of how it got that way.
bsky.app/profile/mark...
bsky.app/profile/mark...
Happy to be able to share my essay for the new Criterion release of Paper Moon, a movie I have loved since I saw it as a a kid, and was thrilled to have the chance to revisit. www.criterion.com/current/post...
Paper Moon: Partners in Crime
In this tragicomic road movie about a Bible-selling con man and his precocious young charge, Peter Bogdanovich brings Depression-era America to vivid life without sentimentality or nostalgia.
www.criterion.com
November 27, 2024 at 11:48 AM
The best essays make us see and/or appreciate our favorite films in a new way. This essay nearly brought a tear to my eye with its comprehensive understanding not only of what makes Paper Moon a great film, but of how it got that way.
bsky.app/profile/mark...
bsky.app/profile/mark...
Written when I was conducting my own living room retrospective of Bogart’s career. He remains one of the most important movie stars of all-time, a vanishing species. Now streaming on the Criterion Channel, Tubi, and Watch TCM.
letterboxd.com/eric_barker/...
letterboxd.com/eric_barker/...
A ★★★★★ review of The Maltese Falcon (1941)
“We didn’t exactly believe your story, Miss Wonderly. We believed your two hundred dollars.” – Sam Spade In 1941, the studios appeared to be taking chances on new blood, while American anxieties over ...
letterboxd.com
November 25, 2024 at 3:26 PM
Written when I was conducting my own living room retrospective of Bogart’s career. He remains one of the most important movie stars of all-time, a vanishing species. Now streaming on the Criterion Channel, Tubi, and Watch TCM.
letterboxd.com/eric_barker/...
letterboxd.com/eric_barker/...
Reposted
I guess since Trump is appointing everyone who worked on Project 2025 he must’ve just heard about it.
November 23, 2024 at 9:44 PM
I guess since Trump is appointing everyone who worked on Project 2025 he must’ve just heard about it.
Reposted
The problem with pieces like this, which are countless, is the prevailing media assumption that left-of-center Americans need constant corrective instruction about how to be in and engage with the world, whereas right-of-center Americans are simply to be observed in awe, like rainbows or mountains.
Opinion - The problem with Bluesky: It won’t broaden our horizons: In the wake of Donald Trump’s election win, the social-media platform has enjoyed a surge of new users looking for an alternative to Elon Musk’s X. But will it be useful, if it just creates an echo chamber for the left?
The problem with Bluesky: It won’t broaden our horizons
In the wake of Donald Trump’s election win, the social-media platform has enjoyed a surge of new users looking for an alternative to Elon Musk’s X. But will it be useful, if it just creates an echo chamber for the left?
www.theglobeandmail.com
November 22, 2024 at 4:41 PM
The problem with pieces like this, which are countless, is the prevailing media assumption that left-of-center Americans need constant corrective instruction about how to be in and engage with the world, whereas right-of-center Americans are simply to be observed in awe, like rainbows or mountains.
Happy 89th birthday to Herb Alpert, born this day in L.A.'s Boyle Heights in 1935, famous trumpeter, band leader, songwriter, and co-founder of A&M Records. Important contributor to the soundtrack of my childhood.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAo1...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAo1...
Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass perform "A Taste of Honey"
YouTube video by Herb Alpert
www.youtube.com
November 20, 2024 at 7:36 PM
Happy 89th birthday to Herb Alpert, born this day in L.A.'s Boyle Heights in 1935, famous trumpeter, band leader, songwriter, and co-founder of A&M Records. Important contributor to the soundtrack of my childhood.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAo1...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAo1...
Reposted
Now that I've fled Leon's site for bluer skies, I'm sure I'll be called an #Ex-X, but personally, I'll always consider myself a #TwitterQuitter.
November 18, 2024 at 11:01 PM
Now that I've fled Leon's site for bluer skies, I'm sure I'll be called an #Ex-X, but personally, I'll always consider myself a #TwitterQuitter.
This is how you become a writer: just pick one of the things that is deeply wrong with you. Make it a character. Now send it on a self-help journey or try to kill it. Now call it a book.
November 19, 2024 at 11:08 AM
A happy 82nd birthday to the great Martin Charles Scorsese, film director, producer, scholar, teacher, and preservationist, born in Queens, New York on this day in 1942.
November 17, 2024 at 8:32 PM
A happy 82nd birthday to the great Martin Charles Scorsese, film director, producer, scholar, teacher, and preservationist, born in Queens, New York on this day in 1942.