Meet Me in Waikiki, and Martin Short Has My Name in His Mouth
San Francisco Film Critics Drag Me In, Honolulu Noir, and “I’m on TV, Ma”
Bay Area Film Critics’ Circle - I’ve Been Branded
I’m honored this fall, by my peers, to be inducted into the Bay Area Film Critics’ Circle.
THANK YOU to all my colleagues and readers who supported my work.
We’re TV and film critics, often long in the tooth— but that’s what it takes to be marinated in thousands of movies and shows. I love being in their number, our shared history.
We’re the West Coast eye that never sleeps! We often have a unique view on the pictures that are informed by our Pacific Rim post. Take that, you New York smarties!
I’ve been a freelance movie/tv reviewer since the late 70s! High school underground press, college paper, The LA Weekly, the American socialist press.
When I moved to Northern California, I wrote for the SF Chronicle and Examiner, the old weeklies, (so much has disappeared!), the San Francisco Book Review, and On Our Backs, of course. I joined the then-tiny board of the Frameline Film Festival, and toured the world with my queer movie shows. I loved those days!
I got my first national break with Penthouse Forum, who hired me to be the first woman to review and cover the “adult movie” trade, before anyone in the mainstream media did such a thing.
“Do you know who I am?” I asked the Penthouse Forum editor, thinking they’d dialed the wrong number. “Lesbian, feminist, snot-nosed?”
“Yes, yes, that’s why,” he said. And off we went! I wrote the entire improbable story, “The Birth of a Blue Movie Critic.”
I quit my day job thanks to the flicks!
Years later, I was inducted into the 4th Estate of the XRCO Hall of Fame, whom I guarantee you, work a hell of a lot harder than the “Hollywood Foreign Press Association.”
Again, the XRCO was virtually all men, (except for late Stephanie Martin!)— many gay men in particular— who knew the entire film business from the inside out, going back to the dawn of Hollywood. I learned so much.
I’ve never stopped “losing it at the movies,” as Pauline Kael said. I love writing original reviews for you here, in my Sight and Sound section, and also at Neal Pollack’s Book & Film Globe.
First Movie I Ever Saw: “Island of the Blue Dolphins”
Movie That Made Me Realized I Had Grown Up: Altman’s 3 Women
Most Recent Movie Watched: Last night, I watched a French live concert of Rahsaan Roland Kirk from Paris in 1970– “Roland Kirk and the Vibration Society.” Incredible. It’s almost impossible to find in the US because of licensing issues, but you can watch it on a jazz streaming service called: Stingray DJazz, which you’ll see on the Amazon link.
Latest TV Binge: Watching “Homicide: Life on the Street” on Peacock, because it’s the 1st time it’s streaming, and with subtitles! Heaven.
I haven’t seen it since it aired on broadcast television. The DVD set was terrible, the sound was mixed in a cement truck. This latest release is such a labor of love.
Honolulu Noir — Meet Me @ the Hawaiian Launch Party!
Honolulu Noir, edited by legendary Hawaiian author Chris McKinney, is coming out this fall. I was delighted to introduce the editor to Akashic’s Noir Series.
I’m going to fly out for the book launch party at Da’ Shop on November 23, and I would LUV to see you!
Honolulu, like my town of Santa Cruz, is a surfer-tourist-trip, haha, where a “Happy Vacation” trope covers up the story of a real city, searing colonial history, and a working class culture.
Sure, there’s a million picture postcards, but contemporary Hawaiian literature, not to mention the true crime genre, is off the beaten trail.
In these pages, you’ll find Kiana Davenport, Don Wallace, Stephanie Han, Christy Passion, Morgan Miryung McKinney, Alan Brennert, Lono Waiwai’ole, Mindy Eun Soo Pennybacker, Scott Kikkawa, Tom Gammarino, B.A. Kobayashi, Michelle Cruz Skinner, and Chris McKinney — each with a different murder on their mind! ;-)
Only Murders in the Building - the Susie Easter Egg
I had no idea this nice shout-out was coming!
I know a couple people who write on the show, like Madeleine George, who I wrote and worked with on Audible’s Dykes to Watch Out For. I think this must’ve been her spontaneous inspiration, unless Martin is my new fan.
Who among us hasn’t screamed uselessly at our devices?
so fab babe!
Congrats.