Liars and Saints

I did read Natalie Wood's daughter's memoir, and it's not that great--it has lines like "Moving forward meant letting go of the past"--but here are the tidbits you may want: *The official story about Wood's death: She was on a boat with her husband and with Christopher Walken. Everyone was drinking. Walken said, "It's important that Natalie continues to have a screen career." Wood's husband became angry; he thought this was a boundary violation. There was shouting. Wood went to bed. Later, maybe? Wood became awakened by a dinghy, and she went out to secure it so it wouldn't bang against the side of the boat. She slipped; she was drunk; she sank to her death. Something like this. *Natalie Wood starred in "West Side Story" and in "Gypsy," but the writer, Arthur Laurents, didn't like her. No word on Sondheim's thoughts. *Natalie Wood had a crazy, overbearing stage mother. This mother would go around sa...

I hate almost everything about email, and one thing I especially hate is the autoreply. I hate the autoreply because I feel it shouldn't have to exist; I feel, when I am on vacation from my job, the thought of even *drafting* an email to me should be barred from entering any colleague's head. If I were to write an honest autoreply, it would be this: What are you doing? There is truly nothing that you and I need to discuss for the next week, via email or any other kind of communication. Whatever you wrote below? I won't be reading it when I return. Try again in twelve to fourteen days. Since this isn't possible, I have gone with the following: Thank you for your email; I will be away for the week. If there is an urgent matter, please contact XXXXXXXXX. "Thank you for your email" is bullshit; really, it means, "Good God, you're a piece of work." I considered writing, "With urgent matters, please contact...." But t...

A major treat of parenting has been my rediscovery of folk tales and fairy tales. Not that I ever really forgot them. But now they are back in my life in a big, big way. The gateway drug was James Marshall. Late in his career, Marshall turned to retellings, "Goldilocks" and "Red Ridinghood" among them. Though Marshall stays fairly close to the original (or "pseudo-original") text, his pictures tell their own stories: a shoeless Prince lazily reading novels when he should be dating, a crazed Fairy Godmother sticking halfway out of the frame, a pig in suspenders and a banker hat. Everyone now calls Marshall a genius, and that's fair enough. You can see the joy in the retellings. I've traveled farther afield, with "Rumpelstiltskin" and "The Ugly Duckling." The authors are titans in their own way: Paul Zelinsky and Jerry Pinkney. I think neither has Marshall's sense of humor; neither has Marshall's flair for langu...

Great summer reading is "Something Wonderful," by Todd Purdum. I'll tell you why: *This is a smart, gossipy history of the collaboration between Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Purdum includes many first drafts by Hammerstein (OH was less gifted than Rodgers, according to Sondheim, but OH worked hard) -- and it's a treat to see how, for example, "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" grew out of some bad, bad drafting. *Each major R and H work gets its own chapter, so it's easy to dip in and out while still feeling you have had a full meal. For example, you might say, "I need to know everything possible about SOUTH PACIFIC tonight." Like a short story, the Purdum SOUTH PACIFIC chapter will give you everything you need to know. *If you're a nerd, like yours truly, you might wonder how Celeste Holm landed her role in OKLAHOMA, or how World War II impacted Hammerstein's choices, or how Hammerstein rewrote the ending of...

At times, I feel I have two sons, not one. My older son is my husband. He--Marc--doesn't get much time with the baby during the day, so at bedtime, he is hungry for fun. I want to wind down; Marc wants to tickle the baby. I want to sing soft lullabies; Marc wants to give high-decibel renditions of "Seventy-Six Trombones." For a long while, I could read a book while my baby slowly grew tired. I believed that the deep calm in my soul was somehow flowing out of me and into my baby, who would then fall asleep on his own. Those days are over. My son has discovered that I still exist behind the book, even when the book is blocking a direct line of view. So, as I try to read my gruesome mystery, my son slowly cranes his neck until he is peering at me around the corner of the hardcover; my son has a look of undiluted self-delight. He does not grow bored with this game. My husband learned the game, and now he does it, too; sometimes, I have an infant peering a...

I'm excited about "I'll Be Gone in the Dark," a docuseries set to premiere on HBO this Sunday. I'm excited for a few reasons: *Liz Garbus. You won't see her on camera, but she is the brain behind the story. Garbus's curiosity and intelligence are often on display on TV. They're on display in "There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane" and in "Who Killed Garrett Phillips" -- two of my favorite documentaries. They're on display in "Lost Girls," an intermittently-successful film on Netflix. (Even when Garbus doesn't knock one out of the park, she still gives you a thoughtful study of gender in America, and an opportunity to see Amy Ryan being ballsy, scene after scene.) *Patton Oswalt. "Gone in the Dark" is (oddly) one of the great love stories in recent years, and I look forward to seeing Oswalt describing his efforts to finish his wife's work after her death. *Michelle McNamara. Ms. McNamara ...

As the Fourth approaches....just a moment to remember the greatest "Star-Spangled Banner" of all time, Whitney Houston's: *Houston was 27 years old when she performed this song at the Super Bowl. *She had pre-recorded the song. At the actual event, she sang live into a dead mic. One otherworldly feature of this moment is how utterly at ease Houston seems, despite being viewed closely by trillions of people. *Houston and her team made the song in 4/4 time; it had usually been done in 3/4 time (brisk, a little waltzy). Making things 4/4 meant slowing things down, increasing the level of technical difficulty, creating a bluesy aura. Producers worried that the audience wouldn't like this, and would struggle to sing along. Houston shrugged. Meh. *The recording became a huge hit, and after 9/11, it became a huge hit ONCE AGAIN. The post-9/11 run meant that "Star-Spangled Banner" was the final Top Ten hit of Houston's career. *Whitney Houston w...