1,012 words
The best present I’ve given myself over this holiday season was the two hours and thirteen minutes I sat in a mostly empty theater on a rainy afternoon watching Midway (2019) the latest epic film by the great Roland Emmerich. (more…)
Typical Feminist
1,057 words
So I’m sitting in my local suburban library doing my writing thing and at a table across the room some old ladies have gathered for “Senior Crafts Hour”. One of the younger librarians appears with a box of paper and glue and scissors. They are going to do collage, or maybe they’re just going to cut things out and glue them to other things. (more…)
1,459 words
Tara Westover
Educated: A Memoir
New York: Penguin, 2018
The original marketing plan for Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover was as a “fish-out-of-water” story. In this case the fish is young Tara, the daughter of survivalist, fundamentalist Mormons who live off the grid in Idaho. (more…)
Pieter de Grebber, God Inviting Christ to Sit on the Throne at His Right Hand (1645)
1,245 words
I was at one of my Twelve Step meetings the other day, and as happens to all such groups sooner or later, they are going through their “God is sexist” moment.
In case you don’t know, all the Twelve Step groups – Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, and a host of others – are “God-based” programs. (more…)
The Chopin Museum in Warsaw.
3,952 words
September 24, 2018
Very cold, blustery morning. This is what you picture Warsaw to look like: grey skies, brisk wind, and Polish people bundled in their fur coats, scarves, and Russian hats. Might be time to bust out my Marmot puffer jacket. Thank God I stuffed that into the little side panel on my suitcase as an afterthought in August. I’m gonna need it.
Walking around now thinking about Ewelina, the woman I met at the Soho Factory. That was her name, with the “w” pronounced as a “v.” (more…)
4,542 words
September 21, 2018
Reading Breitbart News online this morning. Sometimes I get depressed and I don’t want to be on either side of these political fights. The Leftists are deranged, controlling, addicted to their power, and the Right appear to be without sympathy or empathy for anyone but themselves. And yet, it is the Right’s point of view that always feels right to me. (more…)
4,601 words
9.16.2108 – Krakow
Walked around the cobbled streets of Krakow today with my iPod on. Krakow is a beautiful and slightly sad little city. A high recommend, for a day. It was Sunday, that was good luck, so there were priests running around, and nuns, and churches doing their masses and services . . . Catholic all. Poland is totally Catholic.
The Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM), Tallin, Estonia
1,615 words
When You Say
We Belong to the Light
We Belong to the Thunder
July–October 2019
First of all, the actual building and location of the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia has a great, youthful, Do-It-Yourself aesthetic. It’s informally known as the EKKM (cool). Its entrance is a dirt trail (keeps the art snobs away). It’s located in a small cluster of falling down Communist-era factory buildings (awesome). (more…)
Max Beckmann, The Night (Die Nacht), 1918-19.
1,689 words
I’ve been staying in some hostels on my recent trip to Europe. A situation that happens: I arrive late, enter a dark dorm room, crawl into one of the empty bunk beds, and wake up the next morning to find several young women asleep in the beds around me. Except for the thought, “Where are my pants?” it’s not a serious problem. But it does make you wonder why the girls don’t have a separate room. (more…)
