After a short hiatus from newsletter writing, The Usonian is back. Check out my latest post in The Usonian reflecting on my time in Reno, with a new announcement about my new sub-blog, The Cyprus Files. Thanks for reading!
Listen to “‘The Panic in Needle Park’ with Harrison Blackman” on the ‘Film at Fifty’ podcast
It was great to be a guest once more on the Film at Fifty podcast, this time discussing the 1971 film The Panic in Needle Park, a performance which launched Al Pacino’s career and netted him the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather.
You can listen to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts! Thanks for listening!
Watch The Brooklyn Rail’s “Summer Series” panel on film
It was an honor to be featured as a panelist on The Brooklyn Rail’s “Summer Series” conversation on film celebrating the first two issues of the new film section alongside three fabulous writers.
You can learn more about the event here and watch a replay of the panel conversation on YouTube here. Thanks for your support!
Honored to be featured on the Princeton University Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies website
I’m honored to be featured alongside my amazing classmate Pria Louka in the Princeton University Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies website. Check out the profile on our Fulbright projects here.
To catch updates from my Fulbright grant period in Cyprus this fall, you can follow my newsletter, The Usonian, for dispatches from the island.
Read “Shariff Korver’s ‘Do Not Hesitate’ (2021)” in The Brooklyn Rail
Check out my review of Shariff Korver’s new film, Do Not Hesitate, as part of The Brooklyn Rail’s 2021 Tribeca Film Festival coverage.
The Dutch-language film explores the international dimensions of the War on Terror, particularly regarding the allied coalition in Afghanistan. The subject is especially relevant given the US military’s contemporary withdrawal from the nation.
Read the essay here to learn more about this war film that also serves as a psychological thriller and a complex character study that explores the trauma of Dutch soldiers given their tenuous relationship with the local population.
Read “The reimagined Mosquito Coast is a Hitchcockian chase thriller with a social critique” in CrimeReads
I’m thrilled to publish an essay in CrimeReads about Paul Theroux’s novel “The Mosquito Coast”, the new Apple TV+ adaptation starring Justin Theroux, and the narrative’s criticism of the American “pioneer spirit.”
Check out the essay here. Thanks for reading!
Read “Paul Revere Williams, Versatile Architect of Tomorrow” in Nevada Humanities
Thrilled to publish a short piece in Nevada Humanities on one of the most influential figures in American architectural history: Paul Revere Williams, the first African American architect in the American Institute of Architects, one of the designers of LAX and thousands of buildings across California and Nevada. Read the article here.
Paul Revere Williams’s legacy in Nevada will be further explored in an exhibition from the Nevada Museum of Art scheduled for next year.
Photo Credit: Cartoon of Paul Revere Williams. (Drawing by Charles Alston, 1943, Public Domain, USA).
Read “‘Neon in Nevada’ and the virtual preservation of Nevada’s fabulous historic signs” in The Usonian
In this week’s issue of The Usonian, I’m excited to bring you a post about Neon in Nevada, a new initiative of the UNR and UNLV libraries to create a digital database of Nevada’s historic neon signs, which are rapidly disappearing.
This is the first edition of The Usonian’s new series, “Urban Feature,” about architecture and design.
Check out the Neon in Nevada post here. To read back issues of The Usonian, go to the newsletter’s homepage. Don’t forget to subscribe!
(Photo by Chelsea S. Miller, used with permission from Neon in Nevada).
Read “A Conversation with Writer, Editor, and Literary Translator Aaron Robertson” in The Usonian
In this week’s Usonian newsletter, I’m thrilled to present an interview with writer, editor, and literary translator Aaron Robertson.
We talked about translating Igiaba Scego’s novel “Beyond Babylon” from the Italian, his influences from John McPhee to Spider-Man, and his next book, “The Black Utopians.”
Check out the interview here.
Read “Blake Edwards’s ‘Experiment in Terror’ (1962)” in The Brooklyn Rail
I’m thrilled to publish a piece in The Brooklyn Rail involving five of my favorite subjects: film noir, Alfred Hitchcock, David Lynch, Lana Del Rey, and the LA Dodgers.
Check out my essay on the influential film noir, “Experiment in Terror” (1962) here. Thanks for reading!
