February 18, 2016
Reagan on the Couch, Part 1
In the late summer of 1976, from the tan shag carpet of our living room in the Taco Flats neighborhood of Cupertino, California, I watched on TV with my brother, […]
February 17, 2016
“I Am Warhol”: On the Arrogance of Kanye
But if you guys that’re investing in the arts, y’all want to invest in the school in Brazil, y’all wanna go to Africa, I am standing up and I’m telling […]
January 31, 2016
Kanye West’s New Slave Daguerreotypes
Kanye West premiered his song and video “New Slaves” by projecting it on the exterior walls of 66 buildings throughout the world. The shots in the video have only two […]
January 17, 2016
Temporary Passings/ Possessions: On Hitchcock’s Vertigo and Carlotta Valdes
“[The Hispanic] has this fear that she’s a dreamwork inside someone else’s skull . . .that if she digs into herself, she won’t find anyone. . . .” […]
January 1, 2016
Gus, All Too Human
“I swear, Gus. You’d argue with a possum.” -Call Is Lonesome Dove the greatest miniseries of all time? I’ve definitely watched it more times than any other miniseries. Watching Roots […]
December 29, 2015
Notes on Love and Violence: Coda
(1) This isn’t a coda, though you want it to be. (2) You just finished Sarah Helm’s “If This Is A Woman: Inside Ravensbruck: Hitler’s Concentration Camp for Women,” […]
December 6, 2015
Uri Ur (Wake Up): On Aviv Geffen and Impossible Homelands
Ha’eymah ha’eyvah shirim shel milchamah vesin’at achim sheb’chol yom goveret. (The terror, the hostility the songs of war and brotherly hate that gets stronger each day.) —Aviv Geffen, “Uri Ur” […]
November 30, 2015
A Moveable Funeral
Sales of Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast spiked in the wake of the Paris terror attacks. The media has framed it as a book that captures the dream of Paris, […]
November 3, 2015
Shorty Short Takes
No, it’s not an article from The Onion. Amazon really DID open a physical bookstore. Wow. Just wow. And speaking of fear, the Prague Writer’s Festival wants YOU this weekend. They’re […]
October 31, 2015
Short Takes
Last-Minute Halloween Costume Ideas are over at BuzzFeed, PopSugar and Ranker. Want to check out how your favorite writers have dressed up throughout the ages? Oh, yes, Susan Sontag as Teddy Bear […]
September 28, 2015
“What You Know, You Know”: Re-Reading Othello
As a man, Iago is a house of mirrors. At bottom, his desire, if it can be called that, is to be at the center, to be powerful even if […]
September 16, 2015
Kayak Morning Blog Post #5: The Bird Who Hesitates Is Not Lost
Throughout this month, we’ll be using the blog to have a conversation about Roger Rosenblatt’s Kayak Morning. Rosenblatt will receive the Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement in New York City […]