Child's Play Thesearesome of my fav-orite child-hood draw-ings. John was our wonderful tabby.Pup with stuff on his head (possibly a butterfly).Birthday card for Mom. Love the purple whiskers.Another card for Mom.Ah, the old human-rabbit hybrid.I like the way the lion and the tiger are licking their chops.Endnote: Cross-posted at Facebook.

Read more »

Auto-graphs: Celebs and PensOnce up-on a time, I liked to ask celeb-rities for their au-tographs. That time ended long ago, coinciding with an increase in the number of interviews I've conducted with various entertainment figures over the years (it seems more appropriate to ask a celeb for their signature if you purchased a ticket to their film and/or performance than during the course of a publicist-arranged con-versation). Here are a few of my favorites, with more to come.***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** Former label guy Glenn Boothe secured Arthur Lee's autograph for me when the musician played NYC (sometime in the late-'

Read more »

Movie of the Month: Part 10I recently reviewed the follow-ing film for Video Librarian, and thought the results were worth sharing.AUDIENCE OF ONE [***1/2](Michael Jacobs, US, 2007, 88 mins.)Note: slightly revised from the original text.The Bay Area has produced numerous filmmaking entities ov-er the years, notably George Lucas, but Richard Grazowskyis something else altogether. A Pentecostal pastor based in SanFrancisco, he receives a message from God to make a multi-million-dollar movie, and sets out to fulfill that mission.As he explains, "The message of Christ was to dream big," so hesells his house, solicits donations from parishioners, forms Wha

Read more »

September ReviewsThese are the reviews and other pieces I'm working on this month.Amazon DVDs: Not Forgotten (withSimon Baker and PazVega), and No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - the Complete First Season (with Jill Scott) [three-disc set]. Very happy myeditor assigned the latteras I recently reviewed adocumentary about Bot-swana, as seen through the eyes of Alexander McCall Smith.Still playing: Cold Souls, Food, Inc., and Public Enemies.***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** Not since Oscar Micheaux had an African American film-maker taken such complete control of the creative process.-- MoMA on 1971's Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song**

Read more »