Luciano was born in 1913 in a New York tenement, the first American descendant of Sicilian immigrants who’d settled in New York’s Lower East Side, an area that would eventually, once the early-century wave of Italian newcomers had pretty much completely taken the place over, be known as Little Italy. As a freshly minted U.S. native, he went by his middle name, Charles, but everyone just called him Charlie. He grew up in a four room apartment that he shared with eight other people, his parents, his siblings, and two borders they rented the kitchen out to as a bedroom.Read More
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ACT ONE
Once upon a time, back before we could search for movie trailers on YouTube, or shatter our expectations with Rotten Tomatoes, or stumble over some mad spoiler at BirthMoviesDeath.com, the easiest way to find out what films were coming around was the poster box in front of the theater. As a free-range ragamuffin, rattling around the streets of Portsmouth, making mischief after school, I would always take time to swing up Chestnut street to see what the old Civic had in store.Read More
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I just got a message from my Netflix account asking for my rating of a bunch of recent movies. If I do this, they say, they can focus the recommendations they make for other films I might enjoy watching.
Based on what I have streamed in the past, Netflix thinks I love British detective TV shows (which is true) and also teen comedies (not so much) and action films and costume dramas and romantic comedies, with a sprinkling of dramas thrown in. In other words, I’m all over the map. Accordingly, I get recommendations for a mixed bag of movies, very few of which are really my cup of tea, but all of which share a genre with something I’ve watched in the past.Read More
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Oscar’s self-inflicted wounds are starting to knit together and the temperature of the film world has returned to normal. The trailers at the MallPlexx 28 are wall-to-wall with explosions, comic-book characters, and summer teen-hero crap. Everything, in other words, is back to normal, which means that film lovers are pretty much on their own for a while, unless you count rays of hope like Get Out, which is killing it.Read More
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Well, that was interesting. The Oscars I mean. It’s like the ceremony felt the need to challenge the Super Bowl for drama, coming up with a surprise ending that kept people glued to their TV sets long after they should have gone to bed.
I can’t complain, because the better film (Moonlight) finally got its due. All’s well that ends well, and despite a few questionable calls (Emma Stone … really?), the night was a success, even Jimmy Kimmell. And the affection shown for movies should fill us all with a burning desire to see more great movies, no matter how late we have to stay up.Read More
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Two years ago, while the seacoast community was reeling from another heroin-induced death, we at The Music Hall felt strongly that we needed to start talking about this epidemic and the very real impact it was having. Part of our mission is to be a place that inspires conversations and from that, our Let’s Talk About series came to life. We called together experts in education, treatment, recovery, and law enforcement to have a moderated discussion. Community members were invited to join us to talk about what we could do to help end this epidemic. Participants ranged from recovering addicts, parents looking for ways to talk to their children about drugs, seacoast residents, and legislators. That night, we were also joined by a couple of filmmakers, who were creating a documentary on effects heroin has on a community.Read More
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Oscar nominations and the ceremony are a great help in getting through February, especially for entertainment writers/bloggers and talking heads. Lots of these folks favor the Who Will Win vs. Who Should Win format. This give a writer a chance to show off his/her insider chops, demonstrating a deep familiarity with Hollywood, the Academy and pop culture trends while also playing the higher role of arts critic.Read More
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Snow. Yes, we had a lot of snow. It’s February, and we often get a lot of snow in February. But while it’s customary to mention the weather in conversation, it’s my belief that we badly need something else to talk about, as the intellectual content of snow is negligible. (Note: you get a pass if you’ve had a slip-and-fall, fender bender, been stuck in a drift or had a horrible/wonderful shoveling experience.)Read More
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