"Boyhood" and Robin Williams Essays at RogerEbert.Com

Hello, dear readers, wherever you are. Just a little update. I've been fortunate enough in the past to have some pieces linked by RogerEbert.com, Slant, the House Next Door, and the Dissolve, and in the past month even more fortunate by having the fine folks at Ebert publish my work on their website, a thrilling honor. 

Richard Linklater's Divine Comedy: "Boyhood"

 The first is an essay about Richard Linklater's Boyhood, probably the best film of this summer, about which I draw some parallels with Dante's Comedy. It's admittedly a little book report-ish, or Lit major-y/Religion minor-y, but fans of The Tree of Life stuff from the past might find worthwhile stuff in it. Please click here to read and share with friends throughout your social media outlets.

The second was sparked by the tragic death of Robin Williams last week. I look at my favorite Williams movie, Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King (1991), written by Richard LaGravenese, and its relationship to trauma, mental illness, and the healing power of storytelling. Click here to read and, again, share. 

Retrieving the Grail: Robin Williams and "The Fisher King"

I will continue to post material at L'etoile Magazine out of Minneapolis. I recently got a bad haircut, which should be keeping me indoors. 

In other news, my friend Tommy Mischke has a new podcast up and running, and I hope you give it a try. The Mischke Roadshow is now several episodes in and has Tommy back in action and form. 

Thanks for visiting,

N

Order your copy of Off the Map: Freedom, Control, and the Future in Michael Mann's Public Enemies, published by Cascade Books, here. 

Shameless Plug for Derek Larson's Awkward Family Photo

Amidst a lot of the housecleaning going on here at the ole Niles Files, during the meantime, the meanwhile, in medias res taco bell, etc, I'm going to plug something for a St. Paul dude, Derek Larson, who has submitted a photo for The Awkward Family Photo contest, or something. As you can see, parents do very cruel things to their children in the name of photographic immortality. Your task, good readers, is to click on this link and vote for Derek's photo five times, so that he can "win the prize" for his family. And thereby the penance for this truly awkward photo may be paid up in full.

I'm on T.D. Mischke's radio show on WCCO every Thursday night, but I was an avid listener going back to the KSTP days, the station where Mischke began when I was a voracious young Republican in 1992 or thereabouts. Derek has been one of Mischke's great chroniclers, archiving shows and great classic bits at his site, Mischke Madness. More than that, apparently he's a fan of the Niles Files. So either he's got really great taste. Or he plainly doesn't. Either way, I dig the man.

Mischke fans looking into his site would be advised to look for the legendary "Mischke Interview," conducted by Derek in, I believe, 2005. It is a great insight into Mischke the man.

Anyway, you have until Tuesday night, the 9th of August, 2011, to vote for Derek and his long-suffering family, and Mischke will apparently continue to wave the flag on his next couple of shows. Maybe this is a subtler version of what he did at KSTP one November night, when he churned out listeners for a guy named Jesse Ventura.