Roger Ebert

[pzarquon]

I miss Gene Siskel, but I still like Roger Ebert. Even, and especially, when I disagree with him. But as you probably know, "Ebert & Roeper" has actually been "Roeper & Guest" as Ebert has struggled with throat cancer.

Well, Ebert could be doing better, and he won't be back on the job full-time any time soon, but he's decided he's not going to hide his illness (http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/355049,cst-nws-ebert24.article), and he's going to his "Overlooked Film Festival (http://www.ebertfest.com/)," whether his handlers think he should or not.So when I turn up in Urbana, I will be wearing a gauze bandage around my neck, and my mouth will be seen to droop. So it goes. I have been very sick, am getting better and this is how it looks. I still have my brain and my typing fingers...

We spend too much time hiding illness. There is an assumption that I must always look the same. I hope to look better than I look now. But I’m not going to miss my festival.Good for him.

[scrivener]

Ebert remains, I believe, the only writer to win a Pulitzer for film criticism. Agree with him or not, you gotta acknowledge that the man can write. He has influenced my appreciation of film more than anyone else in the world, and one of my greatest filmgoing experiences ever was during a three-day seminar during the HIFF when he led a frame-by-frame examination of Citizen Kane. He sat in the audience with us ("democracy in the dark," he called it), right in front of me, in fact, and anyone who wanted to could say "stop" and make a comment about what was going on.

He's been mostly out of commission for a couple of years, and my enjoyment of film, perhaps coincidentally or perhaps not, has also waned during this time. I think it's awesome that he's attending his festival (which will officially change its name to EbertFest), but I'm with his physicians. I'd rather he not strain himself. I can't imagine a world without Ebert's writing. I don't want to consider the possibility that it will happen someday.

[Leo Lakio]

Ebert remains, I believe, the only writer to win a Pulitzer for film criticism.Not quite:
Stephen Hunter, Washington Post, 2003.
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal, 2005.

But Ebert was first, way back in 1975; nearly thirty years passed before any one else earned it.

[buzz1941]

Roger is a genuine guy. I like him a lot, both as a writer and as a man.

[Pua'i Mana'o]

if there was *ever* a clip that I could find on youtube (or upload there), it would be Ebert's response to Halloween 3. I must have been 13-14 yrs old at the time. Humor burned forever into my psyche...

[scrivener]

Two excellent little updates. First: A loving "welcome back (http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1636520-1,00.html)" by Richard Corliss in Time. Second: Ebert finally returns to his Movie Answer Man (http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=ANSWERMAN) column, one of my favorite bi-weekly reads (I usually can't wait until the Sundays it's usually printed and read early by typing in the archived URL before the publish date -- something that does not work on my sudoku puzzles in the SB, by the way).

[Palolo Joe]

(I usually can't wait until the Sundays it's usually printed and read early by typing in the archived URL before the publish date -- something that does not work on my sudoku puzzles in the SB, by the way).
Your blatant self-promotion is getting kind of tiresome, IMO.

[scrivener]

Your blatant self-promotion is getting kind of tiresome, IMO.
Really? Have I been doing that a lot lately? Sorry. I didn't mean it as self-promotions. It's just a big part of my life, like my job or my studies, so I guess it comes up a lot.

[Leo Lakio]

Really? Have I been doing that a lot lately? Sorry. I didn't mean it as self-promotions. It's just a big part of my life, like my job or my studies, so I guess it comes up a lot.A quick search of HT archives shows you having used the word "sudoku" in your posts (outside of the thread specifically titled "Sudoku") seven times in the past two years - the last three occasions prior to this thread being Dec. 10, Oct. 30 and Sep. 29 of 2006.

You may want to do research into more effective methods of "self-promotion" - if you are using HT for that purpose, you are doing a lousy job.

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Really? Have I been doing that a lot lately? Sorry. I didn't mean it as self-promotions. It's just a big part of my life, like my job or my studies, so I guess it comes up a lot.

and your blatant humble nature is even more tiresome. Cut it out, willya? :p

[blueyecicle]

A quick search of HT archives shows you having used the word "sudoku" in your posts (outside of the thread specifically titled "Sudoku") seven times in the past two years - the last three occasions prior to this thread being Dec. 10, Oct. 30 and Sep. 29 of 2006.

You may want to do research into more effective methods of "self-promotion" - if you are using HT for that purpose, you are doing a lousy job.

Leo, somedays you make me laugh out loud so hard I almost wet myself!! People in my house think I am insane!