tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76253552858583870362024-02-07T17:51:22.389+00:00Loose SalliesSamuel Johnson defined the essay as 'a loose sally of the mind; an irregular undigested piece; not a regular and orderly composition'.Tom Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01160946526919604377noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625355285858387036.post-25482979225622464322023-11-23T00:04:00.000+00:002023-11-23T00:04:33.715+00:00 <!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Tom Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01160946526919604377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625355285858387036.post-5336409008283156732021-11-01T00:47:00.000+00:002021-11-01T00:47:08.507+00:00Wild Indian: When Symptoms Fail Michael Greyeyes as Makwa/Michael in Wild Indian<!--[if gte mso 9]>
Tom Ryan
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Tom Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01160946526919604377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625355285858387036.post-5050513267834827172018-11-11T16:25:00.000+00:002018-11-11T16:26:37.551+00:00A Poem for Armistice DayThis is my attempt at a poem in the voice of my grandfather, Jim Prendeville. He was
born in 1888 in North Kerry and worked as a farm and bog labourer. He went to
work in the Welsh mines and then enlisted in the British Army. He saw a lot of
front line action and was wounded in 1917. When I was a boy he lived with us
for a few years before his death and he told me lots of stories, including how
Tom Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01160946526919604377noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625355285858387036.post-40988176471453320752014-07-20T23:17:00.000+01:002017-02-02T23:21:54.734+00:00The Unconscious in the Wild West<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Tom Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01160946526919604377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625355285858387036.post-45992606305845963922012-11-18T22:57:00.000+00:002013-01-13T19:39:32.685+00:00I Want Some More<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Tom Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01160946526919604377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625355285858387036.post-53732368010368970532012-07-12T00:25:00.001+01:002013-01-13T19:39:55.183+00:00Breaking Bad: A Verbal Event
[Spoiler Alert]
It's Season Three of 'Breaking Bad'. Jesse is recovering from addiction and trying to get over the loss of his girlfriend. He is attending group therapy for recovering addicts. On one occasion he starts bitching about his job, pretending to the group that he is working in a laundromat instead of telling them the truth - he is working underneath the laundromat in an Tom Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01160946526919604377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625355285858387036.post-28566962441872474482012-06-27T00:32:00.000+01:002013-01-13T19:40:54.582+00:00Jaws: The War Movie
(Spoiler Alert)
The film was released in 1975 when I was fourteen and Watergate was
still very fresh in everybody's mind. I had decided that, if you couldn't trust
the most powerful man in the world, then you should treat all authority figures
with a certain degree of suspicion. While this decision may have may not have
enamoured me to my elders at the time, on the whole it has served me Tom Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01160946526919604377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625355285858387036.post-4049082343287145672011-07-28T00:11:00.001+01:002013-01-13T19:41:16.291+00:00The African Queen
Just saw the restored version of The African Queen on the big screen. Apart from the top-class acting and wonderful direction, the colour of the film (it was shot on Three-strip Technicolor) is something to behold. The cinematographer, Jack Cardiff, worked on everything from The Red Shoes to Death on the Nile. The African Queen must be one of his best - not for the landscapesTom Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01160946526919604377noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625355285858387036.post-75611256195288979542010-10-03T21:49:00.012+01:002013-01-13T19:41:58.045+00:00Penn and Rohmer
Strange that directors Eric Rohmer and Arthur Penn should die within months of each other, because there is a famous cinematic cross-reference between them. In the 1975 thriller 'Night Moves', directed by Penn, the Gene Hackman character has the following immortal line:
I saw a Rohmer film once; it was kinda like watchin' paint dry.
Of course this was a backhanded compliment Tom Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01160946526919604377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625355285858387036.post-24129908981781232422010-04-11T23:45:00.007+01:002013-01-13T19:42:17.298+00:00While You Were Sleeping ...
It’s tough being a horror film fan. One wears one’s perversion on one’s sleeve and this makes it very difficult to pass oneself (I’ll stop soon) off as a middle-class counsellor type. So, don’t tell any of your normal, decent friends about this blog or I’ll be ruined.
So I watched Paranormal Activity recently on DVD. You’ve probably heard how original and clever it is and Tom Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01160946526919604377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7625355285858387036.post-81167280428537405622009-09-22T00:38:00.000+01:002012-06-27T11:31:35.709+01:00Once Upon a Time ...My favourite film is 'Once Upon a Time in the West'. I watched it again recently and, yes, I cried at the crane shot as Claudia Cardinale arrives at the train station. And I remembered the inexplicable smile on the face of the boy who bullied me at school when we see Fonda laughing in the flashback. This time around, I listened to the commentary and discovered that the film was written by Tom Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01160946526919604377noreply@blogger.com0