"I'm Talking About Shaft" - The Novel and the Film

Dona Nobis Pacem - Opera Orlando's "Silent Night"

A look at Opera Orlando's 2026 production of the Pulitzer Prize winning "Silent Night," a 2011 opera about the Christmas Truce of 1914.

Give Me Your Hand - "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)"

A deep dive into the fantastic Iranian vampire fairy tale Western film "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night," written and directed by Iranian-American filmmaker Ana Lily Amirpour. You should watch this movie.

The Lonely Dragon - "Coriolanus" (2011)

A look at the 2011 film adaptation of Shakepeare's "Coriolanus," directed by and starring Ralph Fiennes. It's staged with a late 90s Balkan War aesthetic and is pretty awesome, both as a film and as an adaptation. "Coriolanus" is relatively obscure for a Shakespearean tragedy and is rarely performed. (A quick straw poll of my friends revealed most of them had never heard of it.) I *really* like the play and I'm very happy to have a good film adaptation of it, especially since my chances of seeing it on stage are pretty low.

No Coexistence With Monsters - "The Keep"

A deep dive into the obscure 1983 horror film "The Keep," directed by Michael Mann and the slightly less obscure 1981 F. Paul Wilson novel it's based on. The premise is great: German soldiers occupying a keep in Romania during World War 2 get slaughtered by a supernatural force. While the book is enjoyable and interesting (though it doesn't stick the landing). the film is a wreck, plagued with production problems and savaged in the final edit. This was a really fun one to think about from an adaptation perspective.

"I'm Talking About Shaft" - The Novel and the Film

A deep dive into the classic 1971 blaxploitation film "Shaft" and the 1970 novel it is based on. The film is good and very important to both film and pop-culture. The book is *really* good and it's interesting to see how different it is than the movie despite the events being largely the same.