Gene Seymour
@geneseymour.bsky.social
Writer, Jazz geek, Professional Spectator
Pinned
Gene Seymour
@geneseymour.bsky.social
· Feb 15
"Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing."
Clive James
Clive James
Today is the 100th anniversary of Black History Month. Am I in trouble for mentioning this? substack.com/home/post/p-...
History as an Inalienable Right
Why Every Month Should Be Black History Month
substack.com
February 7, 2026 at 2:35 PM
Today is the 100th anniversary of Black History Month. Am I in trouble for mentioning this? substack.com/home/post/p-...
In time for Awards Season, the latest version of my Personal Best Movies from the year I was born till now. If you're scoring, there's 6 westerns (& if you count "Yojimbo"), 3 tie finishes & as of this year, 2 Black vampire movies, neither of which, I say with mild regret, is "Blacula."
Seymour's Movies
My List of Personal Best Movies for Every Year I've Been Alive (Ties Included, If Not Required)
substack.com
January 24, 2026 at 4:31 PM
In time for Awards Season, the latest version of my Personal Best Movies from the year I was born till now. If you're scoring, there's 6 westerns (& if you count "Yojimbo"), 3 tie finishes & as of this year, 2 Black vampire movies, neither of which, I say with mild regret, is "Blacula."
Always nice to hear from you, Susan Campbell.
Susan Campbell (opinion): Let's meet the standards of Edward R. Murrow
Revisiting the legacy of Edward R. Murrow, columnist Susan Campbell declares, 'This is the journalism I signed up for'
www.ctinsider.com
January 15, 2026 at 1:25 PM
Always nice to hear from you, Susan Campbell.
My Personal Best of 2025 (sans jazz records)
Gene Seymour's Favorite Things About 2025
With an additional nod & a wink to Paige Bueckers, both for what's happened so far & whatever comes next...
thatgeneseymour52.substack.com
December 18, 2025 at 4:23 PM
My Personal Best of 2025 (sans jazz records)
My Gene's Best Jazz Records debut on Substack. substack.com/home/post/p-...
Gene Seymour's Top Ten Jazz Recordings of 2025
Casting the net once more for sound over noise
substack.com
December 5, 2025 at 10:09 PM
My Gene's Best Jazz Records debut on Substack. substack.com/home/post/p-...
Reposted by Gene Seymour
I'll save you a lot of reading: unless Mamdani starts taking money from Turks and roasting leprechauns - and even then - there is no way in hell Stefanik is going to win New York a year after this election in the city.
November 7, 2025 at 12:01 AM
I'll save you a lot of reading: unless Mamdani starts taking money from Turks and roasting leprechauns - and even then - there is no way in hell Stefanik is going to win New York a year after this election in the city.
I'd been working on this one for so long that if often felt as though I'd been writing it my whole life. In a peculiar way, maybe I have...
www.thenation.com/article/arch...
www.thenation.com/article/arch...
Chester Himes’s Harlem Noirs
Himes helped reinvent the idea of the detective novel. He also transformed it into a powerful vehicle for social criticism.
www.thenation.com
October 14, 2025 at 3:28 PM
I'd been working on this one for so long that if often felt as though I'd been writing it my whole life. In a peculiar way, maybe I have...
www.thenation.com/article/arch...
www.thenation.com/article/arch...
Once more to the Cave of Wonders. Happy 95th birthday, Sonny Rollins.
Sonny Rollins - Blue 7
YouTube video by JazzTuna
www.youtube.com
September 7, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Once more to the Cave of Wonders. Happy 95th birthday, Sonny Rollins.
Reposted by Gene Seymour
Belichick, you know ... it's like if I ran for Mayor of Fresno ...
September 2, 2025 at 2:55 AM
Belichick, you know ... it's like if I ran for Mayor of Fresno ...
FWIW...
An Objectively Subjective List of Top Ten Political Novels
The Art of the Art of the Possible
thatgeneseymour52.substack.com
September 1, 2025 at 3:38 PM
FWIW...
Today marks Year Four of Ferdinand's insertion into my life. Read the attached to find our what that sentence means.
In Which I Get My New Aortic Valve & Take it Out For Walks — That Gene Seymour
geneseymour.com
August 27, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Today marks Year Four of Ferdinand's insertion into my life. Read the attached to find our what that sentence means.
Still trying to get the hang of this thing. But at least it's no longer calling itself "Gene's Substack." Baby steps.
Soft-Boiled Resistance
Be Like Charles Simic (& If You Can't, Then Be-Bop)
thatgeneseymour52.substack.com
August 20, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Still trying to get the hang of this thing. But at least it's no longer calling itself "Gene's Substack." Baby steps.
Mal Waldron is 100
open.substack.com/pub/thatgene...
open.substack.com/pub/thatgene...
Mal Waldron is 100
A brief retro tribute to a legacy with long, deep shadows
open.substack.com
August 17, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Mal Waldron is 100
open.substack.com/pub/thatgene...
open.substack.com/pub/thatgene...
Oscar Peterson, the Frank Lloyd Wright of Swing, turns 100 today. And what do I mean by that analogy? This is what I mean. www.youtube.com/watch?v=agi5...
Kadota's Blues (Live At The London House, Chicago, 1961)
YouTube video by Oscar Peterson - Topic
www.youtube.com
August 15, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Oscar Peterson, the Frank Lloyd Wright of Swing, turns 100 today. And what do I mean by that analogy? This is what I mean. www.youtube.com/watch?v=agi5...
Reposted by Gene Seymour
I do not as yet see full-blown war. They are telling Iran in private it's over. The nuclear program has likely not and will not be destroyed, but it has been set far back. I don't see the collapse of the regime, either. The region is now monumentally more unstable.
This could all change in an hour.
This could all change in an hour.
June 22, 2025 at 6:35 PM
I do not as yet see full-blown war. They are telling Iran in private it's over. The nuclear program has likely not and will not be destroyed, but it has been set far back. I don't see the collapse of the regime, either. The region is now monumentally more unstable.
This could all change in an hour.
This could all change in an hour.
Lest we forget: "It's a dog-eat-dog, world, Sam and I'm wearing Milk Bone underwear." -- Norm Peterson, Boston barfly.
May 21, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Lest we forget: "It's a dog-eat-dog, world, Sam and I'm wearing Milk Bone underwear." -- Norm Peterson, Boston barfly.
8 years ago, The Thing To Do (for want of a better phrase) was to (re)read "1984" to get, I guess, a "sense" of whatever was about to, so to speak, Happen Here. Read it again, like now, & if you really want to know why it's happening again, read Orwell's "Politics & the English Language."
February 26, 2025 at 4:54 PM
8 years ago, The Thing To Do (for want of a better phrase) was to (re)read "1984" to get, I guess, a "sense" of whatever was about to, so to speak, Happen Here. Read it again, like now, & if you really want to know why it's happening again, read Orwell's "Politics & the English Language."
Going through the motions. After March 2, it's back to Euro-Noir novels & Big East B-Ball. geneseymour.com?p=4029
Seymour Movies Thinks It’s Too Old For This Oscars Shit — That Gene Seymour
geneseymour.com
February 23, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Going through the motions. After March 2, it's back to Euro-Noir novels & Big East B-Ball. geneseymour.com?p=4029
You know a movie is great when it makes you forget who, where, & at times like this, even WHAT you are. This is a great movie. #Flowisthebestof2024
February 16, 2025 at 9:21 PM
You know a movie is great when it makes you forget who, where, & at times like this, even WHAT you are. This is a great movie. #Flowisthebestof2024
"Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing."
Clive James
Clive James
February 15, 2025 at 8:41 PM
"Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing."
Clive James
Clive James
My shiny new BookForum review of Philip Freeman's most excellent & much needed Cecil Taylor biography. www.bookforum.com/print/3103/t...
Tinker Taylor
How a progressive jazz legend reconfigured the way we experience music – Gene Seymour
www.bookforum.com
February 12, 2025 at 3:03 PM
My shiny new BookForum review of Philip Freeman's most excellent & much needed Cecil Taylor biography. www.bookforum.com/print/3103/t...
Not an Oscar voter, never was, never will be, But if I were voting now for Best Picture, it would come down to either "Anora" or "Nickel Boys." If Harris had won, I'd go with Nickel Boys." But because it was The Other One, I'd go with "Anora" because it's closer to The Way Things Are Now.
February 11, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Not an Oscar voter, never was, never will be, But if I were voting now for Best Picture, it would come down to either "Anora" or "Nickel Boys." If Harris had won, I'd go with Nickel Boys." But because it was The Other One, I'd go with "Anora" because it's closer to The Way Things Are Now.
Reposted by Gene Seymour
“That’s not something you’ll get on the MGM backlot.” In this excerpt from our recent “LOA at the Movies” panel, film critics Mike Sragow, @selfstyledsiren.bsky.social, @geneseymour.bsky.social, and @carrierickey.bsky.social discuss the overlooked 1949 adaptation of Faulkner’s Intruder in the Dust.
LOA at the Movies Discusses Intruder in the Dust (1949)
YouTube video by Library of America
www.youtube.com
January 21, 2025 at 2:28 PM
“That’s not something you’ll get on the MGM backlot.” In this excerpt from our recent “LOA at the Movies” panel, film critics Mike Sragow, @selfstyledsiren.bsky.social, @geneseymour.bsky.social, and @carrierickey.bsky.social discuss the overlooked 1949 adaptation of Faulkner’s Intruder in the Dust.