Portrait in Love and Acid: On the Burns-Novick 'Hemingway'

My old newspaper, the Kansas City Star, which was Hemingway’s old newspaper, asked me to weigh in on the PBS biography, “Hemingway.” Why not? I spent a dozen hours watching the six-hour series twice and I caught eight of the nine pre-show panel discussions, which amounted to one of the most extraordinary promotional campaigns I’ve ever witnessed. I can’t say I’m one of Ken Burns’s biggest fans, but it’s hard not to be impressed by the sheer procession of material he and his colleagues manage to corral and by the compelling testimony they extract from their lineup of experts, several of whom I know. The documentary’s story line comes down to “he was complicated, more complicated than you ever thought.” Well, yes, but….Here’s a link to my essay-review:

https://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/tv/article250128694.html

Image above: Sketch by Luis Quintanilla.

Remembering Raul Villarreal

I just got the horrible news that our friend Raul Villarreal (left above), painter, traveler, and bon vivant, has died after a heart attack last night. We've gotten to know Raul in recent years in #Hemingway circles. Spent time with him last year in Paris, where the photo was taken, and then a week in Havana with him and Mike Curry (right) in December. Raul and Mike, colleagues at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Fla., have been showing a documentary they produced about Hemingway, Cuba and Key West, which features interviews with Valerie Hemingway (center) and others. Raul came to the U.S. from Cuba as a boy. His father had been Hemingway's major domo, the man who ran the Finca Vigia household outside Havana, for several years and then, after the Cuban takeover, managed the house as the Hemingway Museum. Raul published a book about his father, "Hemingway's Cuban Son," a decade ago. It was an honor to meet Rene, Raul's father, back then, and of course to have known Raul's large spirit ever since. Carol Zastoupil showed her Cuba paintings at an exhibit Raul curated a couple of years ago at Santa Fe College. And I hooked Raul up a few years back with Robert Stewart at New Letters, who published some of his paintings in an issue with a section on Cuba. This is just so depressing. RIP, hermano. Abrazos to Rita and all who knew him.