Table and Teaser
April’s articles roundup with a preview of what’s in progress for May
This month’s Autonomia introduced Heartstrings. These will be personal tales of formative things, journeys and works of art. The first story’s about a song.
Friday with Fred Astaire returned on Easter Sunday. A new movie review about Ireland’s The Quiet Girl posted as well as shorts about new media and the centenary of an old, wise and thoughtful broadcaster. Because I think its theme matters, I reviewed Joel Schumacher’s pointed, cautionary tale, Falling Down, released in 1993.
That was the year which, this month, marks my first paid journalism, a 30-year milestone I’ll commemorate throughout ‘23. Read the first story here.
Table of contents
April contents include:
Review of Turner Classic Movies Classic Film Festival in Hollywood
30th anniversary movie review of Falling Down starring Michael Douglas
Introduction of Heartstrings, chronicling Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer”
Review of Easter Parade starring Judy Garland and Fred Astaire
The Quiet Girl movie review (or listen to the podcast)
Look for more articles pegged to my 30 years in the press. These will be free to read. For anyone interested, note that, as a starting point for my writing career, I went against the popular advice to strictly write what you know. Instead, in my initial pitch, I chose to begin by focusing on what I value. I did know the topic—The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand—and I knew it well. But I knew the topic was a higher value. I also knew that it was widely misunderstood. This helped me to approach writing the article as similar to solving a problem.
Teaser
May’s articles will showcase certain classic movies.
Among the movies are the Howard Hawks alternative to a heralded film about a town that won’t defend itself, High Noon. It’s Rio Bravo (1959) with John Wayne, Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson, which I watched in Sid Grauman’s Chinese Theater. In the same theater, I also watched American Graffiti and Casablanca (stand by for a delayed review of Noah Isenberg’s book about the 1942 film).
I am moved by each film. Each review provides reasons to re-think, watch and indulge these seminal movies, which all revolve around a lone man’s most vital choice. Each article will examine the role of music—in song—within each movie. These will be written for the reader who has never seen American Graffiti, Rio Bravo and Casablanca—which pierce predominant fallacies of the Forties, the Fifties and the Sixties—and I’m confident my reviews will be even more enriching for the reader who has seen them.
You will also be able to read or preview the newest review in the Clint Eastwood Movies series and I’ll post the first article in the Liza Minnelli Movies series, which I announced on Liza’s birthday. Because Autonomia’s original movie star series mostly features artists who have died—Garbo, McCrea, Stanwyck and Astaire—the three new series on Minnelli, Eastwood and Stallone examine movies by artists who live. All of May’s reviews will be amply previewed for everyone. They’ll be wholly accessible for the paid subscriber.
Have you noticed that today’s media’s changing fast? Major media’s changing faster. History shows that media purges and surges will come faster and faster. Today’s publishers and streamers comply with prevailing government influence and control. Amazon, Netflix and Penguin Random House purge, ruin and withdraw works of art based on irrational ideas. Last week, America’s top broadcasting voice, Tucker Carlson (whose series I reviewed two years ago), among others, was silenced.
As dissent to prevailing views—particularly steadfast, reliable and independent voices of reason—chokes and disappears under tighter government control, Autonomia offers an alternative to state-sponsored or favored and ad-supported media. The free press is based on free trade and Autonomia is a free and independent press publishing for its third year. The reader can upgrade to a paid subscription.
Or you can bestow a gift subscription, which is ideal for someone’s birthday, graduation or encouragement. The paid subscription supports Autonomia’s research, production and promotion. In other words, your paid subscription matters. Table and Teaser is a free monthly preview of coming stories with a table of previous contents.
