Somebody’s Watching You

There’s something of the voyeur in everyone and a lot of it in Gail Albert Halaban. She has shot a series of images under the title ‘Out my window’ which focuses on the views from New York apartments of neighboring buildings and their inhabitants. Who hasn’t caught themselves staring from their 3rd floor 400-foot cell …

Summertime Sex

Old films can be problematic when they deal with the subject of sex. In the 1950’s the idea of a married man engaged in amorous conversation to someone other than his wife would have constituted a severe sanction from a leading clergyman of the age. Even married couples had separate beds in many films. It’s …

Freedom Spanish Style

Alberto Garcia-Alix is a Spanish photographer who I keep coming across in various tumblr’s and blogs around the interweb. From what I can gather, he is part of that generation who came of age in post-Franco Spain. Out of this period of free expression was formed an artistic movement known as la movida Madrilena. Although …

Look into my eyes

Movie stars are made to be watched but Charlotte Rampling seems at times to be watching us back. She has one of the most distinctive and penetrating gazes in film. It reminds me of the look of an animal that is both wary and potentially predatory. It’s a gaze that makes her seem perfectly in …

Dress your Dog

I read somewhere that dogs are essentially studying us, figuring out what we want in order to get food and shelter and benefit from our largesse. It’s a strategy that seems to be working for them. However there are one or two downsides. For example, they might be required to dress as a hot dog …

Words Fail Me. But Not Gore Vidal.

The death of Gore Vidal is a sad blow for all whom like bitchy put-downs. My own personal favorite is his reaction to being physically attacked by Norman Mailer at a cocktail party over a bad review. As he picked himself up off the floor he uttered the timeless words “Once again words fail Norman …