PicoBlog

Chaim Topol—known professionally simply as Topol—passed away this week at the age of 87. He is best known for playing Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, both on stage and on film, but he played other roles too, including the Greek smuggler Columbo in For Your Eyes Only—the first James Bond movie I ever saw—and the biblical patriarch Abraham in The Genesis Project’s word-for-word adaptation of the book of Genesis.

Rochester’s Fifth Frame Brewing Co. wants to open a taproom and restaurant in Irondequoit’s Summerville neighborhood, according to a pending application before the Irondequoit Town Board. The new spot would be located at 5370 St. Paul Blvd., home of the former Summerville Grill restaurant and bar. The Town Board will meet on Thursday, Feb. 22, to consider a resolution to schedule a hearing. If approved, the Town Board would host a public hearing on Tuesday, March 19.

The last time I required blood drawn at a regional hospital, they summoned an advanced clinical practitioner (ACP) to do the job instead of a phleb. My veins make like over-cooked spaghetti; they slither away before collapsing if you try to pierce them with a sharp object. “We’ve bleeped ******”, the nurse reassured me; “they have never failed.” I felt a bit sorry for the ACP. That’s too much for any one person to live up to.

Hi paid Substack members, Film Club is a new feature I started up over on my Patreon. For these I choose a film, write out some notes and then open the comments for discussion. There’s not many people here in the the paid substack (since I don’t actively promote it or have regularly scheduled paid content) so I don’t know how much of a discussion we can… ncG1vNJzZmismKS6or%2FFpaCgoKRjwLau0q2YnKNemLyue89onaKknWKwrcHBZqeroaOku6a%2B0mZpaWlj

If there’s one kind of film that’s guaranteed to hit me right in the feels, it’s a gay one that focuses on first love, whether it is consummated or whether it hangs over the present. In Lie with Me (original French title Arrête avec tes mensonges), both elements of first love are in play. Richly shot and evocatively told, director Olivier Peyon has given us a film which forces us to reckon with the power of memory and loss to change out lives for both the better and for the worse.

Hello, dear reader! Do you like what you read here at Omnivorous? Do you like reading fun but insightful takes on all things pop culture? Do you like supporting indie writers? If so, then please consider becoming a subscriber and get the newsletter delivered straight to your inbox. There are a number of paid options, but you can also sign up for free! Every little bit helps. Thanks for reading and now, on with the show!

Joel Potrykus’s thoughtful, ugly, independent filmmaking heralds the artist as one of the last hopes for contemporary American cinema. His depictions of “losers” could easily be spiteful or malevolent, but they’re cherished, witnessed, and valued in their desperate quests. His feature films include Ape (2012), Buzzard (2014), The Alchemist Cookbook (2016), and Relaxer (2018). With his newest feature Vulcanizadora (2024), which premieres June 8th at the Tribeca Film Festival, Potrykus is as contemplative and grisly as ever.

A couple of weeks ago, I got to have a Zoom call with Rob Reiner, which resulted in this JTA story about the new documentary that he produced, God and Country. The movie is about the rise of Christian nationalism, especially in conjunction with the Trump era. I was able to get the interview in the day before Reiner was getting on a plane to start shooting the sequel to This is Spinal Tap.

I wasn’t surprised to hear that German saxophonist (and visual artist; never forget that he was a painter and sculptor first, an assistant to and friend of Nam June Paik in the early ’60s, and designed almost all of his own album covers in a unique, blocky, instantly recognizable style) Peter Brötzmann had died — last week, in his sleep, at home in Wuppertal. He’d been ill for some time with a serious lung condition that got worse during the pandemic; and after a short string of European dates he suffered a major health crisis, offering the following update on social media (in all caps, as was frequently his style):