Alexander Stuart

Photograph by Dwayne Moser. This beautiful apartment complex in Los Angeles is called the Hightower or High Tower Complex (the High Tower name refers to the central elevator, I believe), and was designed in 1935-1936 by architect  Carl Kay - and made famous in 1973 by my favorite film, Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (see Why I Love Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye ). Although Altman used the building as Philip Marlowe's apartment in his somewhat post-modern Long Goodbye (the film plays with references to Old Hollywood and opens and closes with the song, Hooray For Hollywood ), the building has another direct connection to Raymond Chandler. It was apparently the inspiration for Chandler in his book, The High Window (the first Chandler novel I ever read), in which Chandler describes the residence of Philip Marlowe as being on the cliffs above High Tower Drive in a building with a fancy elevator tower. (Thanks to the Society of Architectural Historians Southern

Limbaugh: courtesy of The Wrap. Rush Limbaugh has made a career of spreading prejudice, hatred and offense in the name of so-called entertainment, but his remarks about co-ed Sandra Fluke last week hopefully might derail his career. I wonder how Rupert Murdoch , owner of Fox News , or the owners of Clear Channel , the vast media corporation that broadcasts Limbaugh's radio shows, would react if Limbaugh called their own daughters "sluts and prostitutes." Limbaugh brings nothing to the public debate but divisiveness, hate speech (perhaps not under the strict legal definition, but certainly speech that provokes and encourages oppressive and sometimes aggressive views) and cynicism. What kindness, compassion or inclusiveness does he offer? The Wrap has an excellent article titled, Will Rush Limbaugh's "Slut" Remarks Derail His Career? Along with reporting the encouraging news that, in addition to two radio stations that have already canceled Limb

Glory B. original artwork by Teri Gower. While looking through materials for my workshop on Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye and its influence on my life and work, I came across this original artwork for the cover of my first novel, Glory B. - published in 1983, some years before The War Zone , which my publishers chose to promote as my first novel (it being my first serious literary one). Glory B. was my attempt to write a kind of Pop Art novel about California, cults (particularly est or Erhard Seminars Training , which fascinated me at the time both as something rather clever and something rather suspect) and the music business. The novel featured a not-very-good singer, Gloria Bergen, who is spotted by a music producer looking to try something new, who recognizes that she has charisma, if not singing talent, and decides to start a cult, called Cult, around her.  Its slogan is, "Less is More." The book was hugely influenced both by Altman's The Long Goodby

On Saturday March 3rd from 12:30pm to 3:30pm, please come join me for my next workshop at the Central Sierra Arts Council - and my  favorite film of all time (it has some competition, but I really love this movie): Robert Altman’s astonishing, groundbreaking, quirky, funny, sometimes dark, mostly mysterious, semi-gangster, semi-whodunit, always entertaining and fun 1973 adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s classic Philip Marlowe novel, The Long Goodbye.   (One of the major innovations of the film is that it is set in the 1970s, and not the 40s or 50s like other classic Chandler and hard-boiled detective movies such as The Maltese Falcon.) I love this film for too many reasons to list here, and it has had a vast influence on both my life and my writing. (See my earlier blog post, Why I Love Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye, for some sense of my passion.)   Both the book (written in 1953) and the movie (filmed 20 years later, but somehow in a different universe) ma