Well, sad to say, in spite of our death grip on "the string," someone, something kept grabbing it out of our hands. Between the Iraq "war," Bush and friends' assault on civil liberties, the RIAA wasting endless time and money trying to shut down file swaps, the depressing deification of those godawful Krispy Kreme donuts — well, you get the idea. We're late because the zeitgeist couldn't keep its hands off our string!

But not to worry. Life's again a beautiful thing, particularly with these handy rose-colored glasses. It's amazing how good the world looks when you can't see it.

Still, we urge you to open your eyes — only briefly, we wouldn't want to waste precious perception time, or frighten you more than you already are — and check out the latest Bright Lights. As usual for the last umpteen issues, there's no overall theme. "Variety is best," my wizened, drunken granny used to say, "especially in a magazine devoted to cinema!"

BL associate editor Alan Vanneman shook some — only some — of the venom off his goose quill this time, with pithy reviews of Fred & Rita in You'll Never Get Rich, Billie Holiday and Satchmo in the otherwise dreadful New Orleans, underrated goddess Ginger Rogers, and jazz compilation DVDs.

New writers this issue include Richard Shaw, eloquently expounding on Ingmar Bergman and Euro cinema; Alan Kohn, finding much to praise in John Garfield and Out of the Fog; Ren Hsieh, describing with elan Better Luck Tomorrow; Seth Nesenholtz, audaciously analyzing the queer subtext in Will Smith's movies; and A. Jay Adler, ingeniously investigating imitation in film. Welcome, comrades!

Beloved BL regulars are also here in force. Andrew Grossman continues his amazing deep-sea dive into the roiling waters of realism, artificiality, music, and cinema started in issue 37. Bob Castle weighs in with a thoughtful study of Fellini's rarely discussed Orchestra Rehearsal. Megan Ratner reports with panache on a French film fest in New York and uncovers the pleasures of I Know Where I'm Going on DVD. Scott Thill, editor of the fantabulous zine Morphizm, gives a hot look-see at In a Lonely Place on the occasion of its DVD release. Robert Ecksel meticulously examines Auto Focus and Bowling for Columbine. Matt Kennedy grandly fetes Griffith on the occasion of Kino's juicy boxed set of DVDs. Our Brit pal Richard Armstrong turns a loving eye toward the glory days of film culture. Another Brit, Ben Dickenson, slams the 75th Oscar ceremony with verve.

From my well-guarded eyrie in the Palace of the Perverts, yours truly offers an interview with Warhol superstar Holly Woodlawn (interviewed), a review of gay art-porn pioneer Wakefield Poole's movies on DVD, and a round-up of recent queer and queer-inflected movies.

Please note that when I'm not at the palace, guarding the archives, filching the jewels, or holding court, I can be found somewhere nearby, looking for that string.