Watching for Keira – Almost Nightly
A pirate walked up to me in the mall this holiday weekend as I was loitering outside of Anthropologie, waiting with only moderatre patience for...
What Camus Sees: The Plague Within
There is a scene in The Plague, the relentessly grim post-war novel by existential icon Albert Camus, that still shocks: the hopeless, tortured death struggle...
Defending Edward Hopper
It’s not that Holland Cotter is routinely deranged; the Times art critics wrote a wonderful piece debunking the common myths surrounding Islamic art a while...
Meeting Kirk Douglas
You don’t have to ask Kirk Douglas for his favorite film role – it’s already on his lips. “Van Gogh.” He’s referring to Lust for...
On The Road With America
In honor of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer, here’s a repost of a piece I wrote back in October, when The Road seemed like a metaphor for...
Kurt Vonnegut’s Greatest Generation
Kurt Vonnegut proposed an alternative version of World War II glory, a writhing and brutal portrait of internal turmoil and loss and madness that manifested...
Green Beer and English: The Actors and Poets of St. Patrick
The recent news that the Irish and the English come from the same ancient genetic stock, by and large, should be no shock to anyone...
Rock’s Greatest Covers II: Bob Dylan’s Progeny
A few years ago, the Rolling Stones covered the greatest song in the history of rock n’ roll. No, this list isn’t about that. It’s...
Rock’s Greatest Covers: Patti Tops the List
When Van Morrison wrote the classic Gloria as the B-side to Them’s 1964 hit Baby Please Don’t Go, he couldn’t have suspected what a kid...
The Replacements Come to Monday Nights
I’m writing here about a television series I have never seen, but intend to, as my schedule allows. It’s a replacement series – your garden...
