The only tense for art is the present: The book is or The movie is. The work still exists or there would be no reason to review it and no reason for anyone to read the review.
Almost every month, Vanity Fair gives space to Dominick Dunne, the world's dullest professional writer. He is a horrible human being, as his own writing makes clear. And he is relentlessly uninformative. For example, the only thing one could learn from his coverage of Phil Spector's first murder trial is that Mr. Dunne saw Spector in the men's room.
The review linked above is of Dunne's 2001 book, but his recent work in the magazine shows that he has not improved with age. His tedious piece in the February 2008 Vanity Fair is characteristic. Although it promises "new insights on Diana's death," the only observation Dunne delivers is that about the death of the former Princess of Wales, "perhaps the point is that there never will be a complete picture."
Dunne remains mean-spirited, as with his assertion about the former wife of Paul McCartney, the one-legged Heather Mills: "Heather's biggest asset has always been her handicap." Dunne continues to bore with his inconsequential name-dropping: "Brad and Angelina were staying at Claridge's, where I was staying, and Martin, the great hall porter, found me a good seat, where I sat for 40 minutes, waiting to see them walk through the lobby as the paparazzi screamed at them from outside."
Epinions uses a search engine that actually hides reviews. I'm not wilde about it. Epinions has come up with scores of ingenious ways of putting reviews where they can't be found easily, everything short of locking them in a reading jail. If this is how the site treats its writers, it doesn't deserve to have any.
Ed Grover's last words for Epinions members and links to tributes to him are on: his profile page.
Even knowing that it was likely that Ed would not survive lung cancer did little to prepare me for the news that wordwalker delivered. With Ed, it was somehow possible to believe that determination could trump disease. He inspired affection, even among those of us who knew him not well enough.
"Liberation" by the Pet Shop Boys, a splendid love song:
Keolo and Kapono Beamer released "Honolulu City Lights" when I was in high school. About 30 years later, this woman put the haunting song to pictures of her visit:
This page used to be packed with links to writing by some of the many exceptional writers with whom Epinions is blessed. Unfortunately, I deleted them accidentally. Some of them are preserved on something I call the Epinions Hall of Fame and Miscellany.
Provided below are other links, some of which are incomplete and unpolished but which nonetheless contain guidance that is worth at least considering.
EPINIONS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION: Links to terrific writing by gifted Epinions writers who also have posted on other Web sites.
COMMENTSMENT and COMMENTSMENT II: Two efforts to encourage Epinions newcomers. The first was quite successful, but the second suffered from bad timing. It took place too shortly after a protest against some misguided Epinions policies in which many writers wrote scathing reviews that have since been deleted from Epinions. Some of those reviews are preserved here: Epinions Blows Dog.
WRITE-OFFS VALHALLA: Often Epinions writers encourage people to join them to write reviews in coordinated efforts related to a specific theme. Past write-offs have celebrated Charles Darwin, John Steinbeck and women who visit grocery stores while dressed like French prostitutes.
This is a terrific tool from the good people at JavaScript Kit. It counts the number of words in a piece. It comes in handy, for instance, if one wants to participate in sleeper54's Lean-n-Mean challenges to write succinctly, details of which are on his profile page.
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