Poet Karen Rigby’s “Norma Desmond Descending the Staircase as Salome” inspired The Straddler to rewatch the final scene of Sunset Boulevard, in which Gloria Swanson, as Norma Desmond, as Salome, lost in fantasy, descends the stairs for the close-up she is famously “ready for.”
The following is a single side of a conversation The Straddler conducted with writer and filmmaker Peter Davis, perhaps best known for his Academy Award-winning 1974 documentary film Hearts and Minds, which examined the Vietnam War.
On November 22, 1963, young women’s apparel-maker Abraham Zapruder recorded the most infamous 26-second film in American history.
KAREN RIGBY Norma Desmond Descending the Staircase as Salome Sunset Boulevard, 1950 The heart’s declensions beat against the newsreel storm.
[B]ecause you can make anything into an object by treating it this way.
George W. Bush’s presidency was marked by a number of noteworthy events.
Harrow the house of the dead; look shining at New styles of architecture, a change of heart.
