Another version of “Lady Chatterly’s Lover” is coming to the US after the San Francisco Film Festival and winning 5 Césars (the French Oscar). For those who’ve never read D. H. Lawrence’s book or seen the other, usually tawdry, versions, Lord Chatterly is a wheelchair user after an injury in World War I. As is […]
In last Sunday’s Book Review section in the San Francisco Chronicle Sanford D. Horwitt reviewed Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness by Joshua Wolf She. “whatever greatness Lincoln achieved cannot be explained as a triumph over personal suffering. Rather, it must be accounted for as an outgrowth of the same […]
It seems that with few exceptions most punk bands that have a disability-related title don’t have much to do with disability. They’re great names, though: The Chocolate Wheelchair, Handicap Parking, Wheelchair Groupie, Crotchless Leather Wheelchair, and Wheelchair Getaway Driver. One anomaly is the Angry Amputees, a San Francisco band. One of their members is a […]
According to a blurb in American Photo there is a new photo book out. It’s by Amelia Davis. She’s documenting with portraits people who share her MS identity, e.g. Richard Pryor. The title is My Story (Demos Medical Publishing). I haven’t seen any of the portraits from the book yet, but her web site has […]
KPFA, the Bay Area’s Pacifica station, now has a disability show. It’s Pushing the Limits. Broadcast at 6:30 PM on Sundays, it’s broadcast on the web and archived on KPFA’s web site. On Sunday, February 15 they broadcast a half hour show on blind blues singers, “Blind, Black, and Singing the Blues.” Please excuse the […]
I’m fascinated that disability keeps showing up in different venues. The Triplets of Bellville is an animated movie from France, Canada, Belgium, and the UK. The primary character is the Grandmother. Her right shoe has a significant lift, so when she walks she makes a clumping noise. It’s a style of orthopedic shoe one just […]
Sunday, September 14, HBO is broadcasting a new mini-series, Carnivale. Surprisingly it has a little person, Michael J. Anderson, as the lead. Usually stories about people with disabilities feature an able-bodied actor in the lead role. It will be interesting to see if he is assisted by an able-bodied rescuer as is usual on TV […]
I found a new aspect of disability history, the Invalid Corps, while reading “The Gangs of New York.” Even though the members of the Corps were not considered able-bodied enough to serve in the regular army some units were armed. Those were among the first troops to attempt quelling the mobs in the 1863 New […]
“Cripple” jumped out at me while reading “The Gangs of New York,” Herbert Asbury’s book that inspired Scorcese’s movie of the same name. While describing the Bowery at the turn of the last century he said, “Probably no American City has ever been able to boast of resorts as depraved as… the Cripples’ Home, and […]
I think that disability culture is starting to break out. On the Yahoo Disabilities and Disabled news page, the lead story was an LA Times review of a German art show, The [Im]Perfect Human Being. From the story as well as the web site, it appears to be a heady mix of the avant garde, […]