I read to my brother at bedtime when he was little. Because his name is Max, Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are was a no-brainer. He was rarely bad like the Max in the book but liked to hear about him all the same.

My first Sendak book wasn’t Wild Things but In The Night Kitchen. I was probably too old to be reading it when I picked it up but I was just learning English, plus, I mostly loved it for the art. Mickey in a costume made of batter flying his droopy doughy prop plane around the fat Nazi-ish chefs.

Later, there was an awful live-action Wild Things movie written by Dave Eggers with a bunch of Freudian horseshit backstory. Even the great Gandolfini couldn’t rescue that trainwreck. Doubt my brother Max saw it. At least I hope he didn’t.

Tonight—Monday, June 12th, 2023—at the Music Box Theatre, there will be a 25th anniversary screening of Wild Things. Not Sendak’s or Eggers’ but my friend John’s great Florida-set twist-and-turn thriller starring Matt Dillon, Neve Campbell, Denise Richards, Bill Murray, Theresa Russell, et al. I’m doing a talk onstage with John and his producer, Steve, after the movie.

Hope to see you there.

Go see some art at the Rainbo.

Listen to Baden Powell play “Round Midnight”.