Brilliant, diamond facets glisten, radiant as if finger fitted suns. Worn as rings, nuptial treasures, they showcase love, true, unbreakable, obvious, radiant as any bride’s smile, impervious as trust that has no hardness scale.
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (7/10 Rating) Released October 21, 2005 (Limited) For rent/purchase on all major platforms. Genre: Bumbling Detective, Dark Comedy, Satire, Whodunnit, Crime, Mystery R: Language, Violence, and Sexuality/Nudity 1h 43m One of my hopes with this column is to find genuine film gems I missed when they came out twenty years... Read More
No, this isn’t about global warming. But if there can be “Christmas in July,” well, perhaps there can be “July in October!” (not as big a jump as the former, and in the opposite direction). One day back in July, I set out on my regular walk at Ballou Park. The day was already starting... Read More
(Scene: Solly is repainting an outside door jamb at home. Mamie breezes in from her morning exercise.) Mamie: Something happened at the gym today. Solly: What? M: I visited a parallel universe. S: …Wait, what…?? M: Parallel universes are real. S (head cocked, brush frozen in mid-stroke): …Whaaaat…? M (nodding in certainty): Finally. Proof for... Read More
After eight years of painstaking research and collaboration with over 100 artists worldwide, Johnny Selman’s Peace Post project—a collection of 198 digital stamps honoring peace advocates from every sovereign nation—is finally complete. It’s been many miles from Martinsville, Virginia, where his creative journey began. Small-Town Roots, Big-World Vision Growing up in 1980s Martinsville, Selman belonged... Read More
In a modest courthouse square in Yanceyville, North Carolina, a young girl once strapped on a toy gun and holster, accompanying her sheriff father on moonshine raids through the rural backwoods of Caswell County. That fearless child would grow up to become Maud Gatewood, one of the South’s most acclaimed artists and a woman who... Read More
The Labor Day holiday is often thought of as the end of summer, but the calendar shows September 22nd as the last day of summer. If you live in South-Central Virginia, the summer heat does not stop until October. By that time, one may really want a break from the summer heat. This is one... Read More
Strength. How must it be measured? What is its nature? Metal or mental? Useful? Or not? Consider its worth. Can it help? Or heal? When is its use apropos? Only the weaker ones know, to treasure their strength for use in ways that guard them.
In early fall of last year, I was driving south on Piedmont Drive with the afternoon sun in my eyes, while approaching the permanently closed Hibachi Grill and Supreme Buffet, up ahead and to my right. To my “late-afternoon sun-blinded amazement,” I was able to make out a number of sunlit windshields in the parking... Read More
Movies You Missed from 20 years ago by Josh Lucia The Greatest Game Ever Played (6/10 Rating) Released September 30, 2005 Streaming on Disney+, For rent/purchase on all major platforms. Genre: Docudrama, Period Drama, Biography, Drama, Sport PG: Some brief mild language 2h This may not be the greatest film ever, but within the... Read More