Mark Harris

@markharris.bsky.social

114543 Followers 1172 Following

Writer, husband, etc. Books: Pictures at a Revolution (2008), Five Came Back (2014), Mike Nichols: A Life (2021), gay cultural history (2027). Lately: T, New York, etc. Past: EW, Grantland, younger. I am not Mark Hamill so I cannot "stick to acting."

Live updates: President Trump claims U.S. election system ‘falls catastrophically short’ of ensuring integrity
A sunset that is every color of fire.
On ABC, Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, said he had had dinner with Mr. Graham last week in Ankara, Turkey on Mr. Graham’s 71st birthday. Mr. Coons recalled his intense political battles with Mr. Graham even as he remembered him fondly. “We had knock-down, drag-out fights,” he said. He pointed to the confirmation process for Brett M. Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court as “exceptionally ugly” and said “there were other things he did I really, really disagreed with and thought were bad choices and violated our shared values. But I also saw him in his best moments, fighting fiercely for the underdog in America.”
From an NYT essay on looksmaxxing: "There have always been men who cared about how they looked--remember metrosexuals--but grooming used to be more associated with women and gay men."
Emergency! lunchbox, circa 1973, with Johnny and Roy rescuing two little boys who were doing something they shouldn't have been doing.
Ross Douthat: Rod Dreher, welcome to "Interesting Times." Rod Dreher: At last, Ross, you've scraped the bottom of the barrel.
DEADLINE headline: ‘Widow’s Bay’ & ‘Pluribus’ Helped Apple Land Record Emmy Noms, Apple’s Matt Cherniss Says “Quantity Over Quality” Strategy Is Paying Off
The Boxoffice Mojo chart, which was clearly not looked at by any human being.
Original hardcover of Portnoy's Complaint, by Philip Roth.
The book on the shelf. Also, there's a well-worn omnibus edition of Len Deighton's Game, Set & Match that someone should grab.
Beginning of a 5-star review on Amazon: "Just as J.D. Vance did with his book, 'The Hillbilly Elligy.' he was able..."
Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), David Hockney,1972.
Hollywood Reporter headline: Louis C.K., Jay Leno and Stephen A. Smith Among Big Names Set for Bill Maher's Mark Twain Prize Ceremony (Exclusive)
NYT headline: '60 Minutes' is a 'Cage Full of Tigers.' Can Nick Bilton Lead it?
"Comedian Double Feature: Lenny and Mr. Saturday Night."
As described.
YouTube's tent, plopped down on Lincoln Center's eastern plaza with the slogan "Welcome to the YouTube Era"; presumably this is part of TV Upfront week.
Headline and subhead from The Hollywood Reporter: EZRA KLEIN, SO HOT RIGHT NOW Thanks to his best-selling book and blockbuster podcast, the liberal wonk of the Obama years has become one of NYT's brightest stars--and an unlikely thirst trap. But is his deep-thinking approach suited to our clickbait world?
Closeup of three children in the Oval Office simultaneously conveying glacial boredom, stupefaction, and weary skepticism as Trump blathers on and on.
NYT headline: Kennedy Starts a Push to Help American Quit Antidepressants
NYT headline: In Narrowing Voting Rights Act, Conservative Justices See Progress on Racism
Mark Harris--The Man from Atlantis!
Lead to a NYT Magazine piece by Mel Gussow: Meryl Streep, Meryl Streep, Meryl Streep. The name may still be unfamiliar to the general public, but soon it should echo from coast to coast, like those classic trains, the Super Chief and the Twentieth Century Limited, rocketing over their tracks. In glass-towered talent agencies, Hollywood studios, and offices of Broadway producers — wherever deals are made and careers launched — people in the know are asking for Streep, more Streep. That's Streep as in sweep.
NYT headline: 5 Resistance Museums Recall the Bravery of 'Ordinary People'
Spelling Bee: OPINIONHOLE
Noah Wyle grabbing (in a nice way) Patrick Ball by the lapels.
Current streak: 1
An optician store called "Jeffrey's Manhattan Eyeland."
According to AI, I am dead and my Mike Nichols book was published posthumously. Silver lining, I guess, is that I also wrote novels.
Glenn Close in Dangerous Liaisons, alone, weeping, and wiping off her elaborate makeup after a mortifying public humiliation.
"Bad taste and autocratic instincts tend to go together for a reason, because the purpose of autocratic design is to overawe rather than intrigue or delight; to erase beauty, which elicits a sense of humanity and reverence, with largeness, which elicits fear."
A No Kings protest sign in the form of a giant Wordle grid reading FELON THIEF LOSER CREEP FRAUD TRUMP Not entirely accurate in terms of gameplay but close enough.
New sign: Welcome to Manhattan: Hello, gorgeous! (street sign)
People magazine news alert: Charlie Kirk's Mentor Jeff Webb, the Father of Modern Cheerleading, Dies in Freak Pickleball Accident
Trump's Truth Social Post: "Robert Mueller just died. Good, I'm glad he's dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people."
Well, I’m not quite sure. I get what you’re saying. I’m not saying there’s absolutely zero to it. If I made the strongest possible version of my argument, I might grant you that. But I think we have all sorts of cases where people have said: Yes, I, as a white guy, was told to take my name off this script that I had written because they didn’t want a white screenwriter, and I did the work and somebody else got credit. We have enough of those stories to suggest that this is a real thing that is going on. And certainly, if you look at, say, the Academy Awards — and very few people know this — where, in the last few years, there’s all sorts of explicit quotas of racial — not just racial, but all sorts of things that you have to check off. Again, I think we’ve got smoking guns here. It’s not just that I’m saying the number is different, so it’s wrong.
Ad from "Klyr Men": "You know that flushed, red look after shaving or a long day? It makes you look tired--even if you're not..."
It was going on one, two in the morning, and we were shooting what I felt was an important scene for me, when he makes an attempt to be quote-unquote straight, in a suit, and at the end of it he gets emotional and locks himself in the other room. And I felt like, I’m not getting what I want—I’m not happy with it. Mike was happy with it. He called me the next day and said, “I know you weren’t happy with the scene last night. Believe me, we wouldn’t have gone home if I had felt we weren’t getting it.” And then he sort of became my psychiatrist and said, “You find it difficult to be happy, don’t you? You find it difficult to enjoy things.” And I said, “Well, sometimes. Last night was about feeling too tired and not feeling I was reaching what I needed to reach for the scene.” He talked to me then about when he was making, I don’t know whether it was Virginia Woolf or The Graduate. He said, “I didn’t enjoy it for a second. I was worried about so many things.” And then he said, “You know, this is never going to happen again quite this way. You should try to allow yourself to enjoy this more. Take a minute a day, and then add a minute the next day, and another minute. Pretty soon, you’ll have hours of happiness.”
From a Time magazine interview: Asked if Americans should worry about Iran retaliating against Americans on U.S. soil, President Donald Trump responded, “I guess.”
The Towering Inferno! Slogan: One Tiny Spark Becomes a Night of Blazing Suspense!
Mayor Zohran Mamdani is again flooding the airwaves and social media with snappy videos of himself in a custom Carhartt jacket, warning New Yorkers to stay safe. He is again holding news conferences at the city’s emergency operations headquarters, surrounded by top aides in outerwear bearing agency emblems. And he is again at the helm of a government operation that, by virtue of its complexity and general unwieldiness, can lend itself to people falling through the cracks.
NEWS ALERT: Woman Undergoes Quadruple Amputation After a Lick from Her Dog Leads to Sepsis: 'It Could Happen to Anybody'
Prince Andrew, photographed in a car leaving the police station after his arrest, looking like he was simultaneously hit with a tranquilizer dart and a shock to his testicles, with one red eyeball for good measure. Congratulations to Reuters's Phil Noble for getting this shot.
Still older than old AF.
William Holden in The Towering Inferno, looking old AF.
Northanger Abbey, Villette, Trio, Secrets and Surprises, Missing Joseph, A Is for Alibi, Edith's Diary, Glamorous Powers, The War Between the Tates, The Good Mother, Them, Excellent Women, The Bridesmaid, The Greenlanders, The Ice House
Let’s walk back to where we started. What motivates Trump? The answer is simple: racism. You might also say ego and raw self-interest, but the two are connected. Racism, among other things, is a kind of chauvinism, a belief in one’s inherent superiority, based on nothing other than a meaningless accident of birth. It’s an ideology that papers over feelings of inadequacy, that tells you that — no matter what you have or have not accomplished in your life — you’re still better than someone, some group. Let’s suppose you’re the spoiled son of a self-made man. Let’s suppose that, despite your flash and bravado, you’ve failed at virtually everything you’ve tried. You’re the laughingstock of polite society, a punchline for the privileged. You think you’re superior enough to be the president of the United States — the highest honor in your country — but the actual president is a man of humble origins, a minority of the kind your family didn’t even rent to when you were in the landlord business. And he is claiming power that rightfully belongs to you. He’s even mocking you, ridiculing you for all the world to see. For years, a cottage industry of political observers has contorted itself to obscure and occlude the obvious. That regardless of what others see in him, Trump’s entire political career — from his embrace of birtherism to his hatred of birthright citizenship — cannot be understood outside the context of his bitter, deep-seated racism.
Did you know that Trump himself had not posted the video when you defended it? Why would you accuse people who were offended by a racist video of lying about their reactions? What percentage of Trump's Truth Social posts are made by someone else? What percentage of Trump's Truth Social posts are made without his knowledge? How many people aside from Trump have access to his social media account? Who are those people? Which of Trump's other Truth Social posts were posted by someone else? How can anyone be sure that posts under Trump's name come from Trump? Why should anyone believe that this particular post did not come from Trump since it is consistent with his well-reported history of racist remarks and conduct? If people can't be sure any post is his, why should anyone take any post under his name either literally or seriously? What was the impulse for the staffer to make that post? Has the staffer been disciplined in any way? Will the staffer continue to have access to his account? What does it say about Trump's judgment that he would choose a staffer with this kind of judgment to have access to his account? Is the anonymous staffer a hastily invented concoction to which you pivoted once you realized that the story was going to outgrow your attempts to dismiss it? How do you react to the almost universal condemnation of the post? The President's late-night posting sprees are filled with lapses in taste and judgment as well as threats and pronouncements that go nowhere. What does that say about the President's emotional stability? What does it say about the President's honesty? What does it say about the President's credibility? Hasn't your own credibility been damaged by your defense of something widely seen as indefensible? What does it say about you that you were comfortable not only defending the video but attacking those who were offended by it? Doesn't the amount of lying Trump does, and that you do for him, undermine your ability to be trusted on anything?
"By the time he returned to New York, May's impulsive marriage was all but over--barely a blip in the memory of either party to it. (Asked more than fifty years later about the long-forgotten nuptials, Harnick said, 'Elaine and I were never married--well, yes, we were, my goodness! It was very unfortunate. She initiated divorce proceedings a couple of months later.")
John Joseph O'Connor was a fat cannibal American Catholic prelate who wore black skirts and served as Archbishop of New York from 1984 until his death in 2000, and was made a cardinal in 1985. Wikipedia
Rating for Melania: 4 out of 100.
"The temperature in Minneapolis is dangerously high. There is an urgent need for the federal agents deployed to the city to step back and take a breath before more Americans are hurt or killed. [Highlighted]: Those protesting the Trump administration have an equal obligation to avoid violence.
NYT headline: "Videos Appear to Contradict Federal Accounts of Fatal Shooting"
NYT headline: "Trump seems to confuse Greenland and Iceland."
The famous Green Lantern/Green Arrow cover in which they discover that Speedy is a junkie.
The Criterion cover image for Point Blank.
A needlepointed image of Jack Nicholson trying to break through the door in The Shining...
I can't do it justice, I'm sorry. It is very colorful and minutely detailed and is about 24"x30". Ernest Thesiger was a magnificent old character actor and wrote a book about needlepointing.