The 1,000th Entry and Remembering a Friend

On Oct. 19, 2008, I launched my second blog "The Daily Vampire" after much deliberation. And, as it turns out, it has become an even grander success than my original "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time," which originated with AOL and remains active.

Many of my fellow blogger friends, with the exception of Chris Knight from Reidsville, NC, who sort of became famous for his over-the-top "Star Wars" themed ad when he ran for county school board in 2006, have either decided to dedicate more time to their wives and families or atually get some office work done.

But, I image Chris and myself will be at this until we are old men in nursing homes who are playing checkers with the staff.

SIDEBAR: On a much more serious note, I want to take a moment to personally recognize my friend and mentor Dr. Klaus Phillips of Hollins University, a man I knew for 24 years since I was a 17-year-old high school student.

He died unexpectedly last week at the age of 64.

In 1987, when we first met, Klaus had orgazined a video and filmmaking program for area high school students in Roanoke, Va. When he showed us a Jim Jarmusch film called "Down By Law," featuring the singer/actor Tom Waits and a then-unknown Roberto Benigni (who later became an Oscar-winner), he opened a whole new world to me. From that day forward, I have taken film very seriously as an art form and as a way to learn how other people live, irregradless if they are coal miners in West Virginia or village dwellers in Mali.

In 2002, I became a student in the Hollins University film studies program, which Klaus founded. The school announced on its web site that a scholarship in Klaus Phillips' name has been established. For more details, one can log onto the school's web site at www.hollins.edu

Quote of the Moment- Jay McInerney

Today, we continue our series of quotes from famous people from New England with a quip by Jay McInerney (b.1955, Hartford, Conn.) who is best-known for his break-through novel "Bright Ligths, Big City," a contemporary literary classic which was published when he was only 29 years old in 1984. The film became the basis for a Michael J. Fox movie of the same name is 1988, which wasn't successful partly because Fox was miscast as Robert Redford has been for the 1974 film version of "The Great Gatsby."

Other McInerney novels include "The Story of My Life" (1988) and "The Good Life"
(2006). "The Story of Life" is noteable because it features the character of Alison Poole, who is based on Rielle Hunter, the John Edwards mistress who once dated McInerney.

McInerney is also a contemporary of fellow novelist Bret Easton Ellis ("Less Than Zero," "American Psycho") and Tama Janowitz ("Slaves of New York"), who happens to be an alumnus of Hollins University, which is one of my two collegiate alma maters.

While researching this, we learned that McInerney is now on his fourth marriage, and he is a wine columnist for "The Wall Street Journal," which is having a very bad week due to Rupert Murdoch phone-hacking scandal.

Here is the quote from McInerney; we imagine it is in reference to "The Good Life" which is about the effects of 9/11 on America, ironically the Twin Towers were on the cover of "Bright Ligths, Big City":

"I've always written about the larger social events of the moment. It just seemed like I had to confront this one."

Quote of the Week- Lillian Hellman

Today, we feature a quote from the dashing, very liberal late playwright Lillian Hellman (1907-1984) who was romantic partners with the late crime fiction writer Dashiel Hammett (he penned "The Maltese Falcon").

Hellman remains best-known for her early plays "The Children's Hour" (1934) and "The Little Foxes" (1939). She was also a victim of the HUAC witch-hunt.

I saw an excellent production of "The Children's Hour" at Hollins University in Roanoke, Va., a few years ago and an outstanding performance of "The Little Foxes" at Triad Stage in Greensboro, NC.

Here is her quote:

"Cynicism is an unpleasant way to say the truth."