Pets in ‘The Savages’

I was pretty sure I’d like The Savages — Laura Linney as a depressed playwright/temp, Philip Seymour Hoffman as a thwarted, dysfunctional prof endlessly working on a book about Brecht, sibling rivalry, wounded narcissism, what’s not to like? But I liked it even more than I expected. (Maybe I just like movies [...]

Sarah’s MFA show!

Sarah’s thesis show [not images, just an ad] is up! The reception was on Friday night. She was one of 7 MFA Fine Arts students in the show, along with two photographers, a metal-worker, ceramacist, sculptor.
I think her paintings are fantastic — beautiful, strange, complex — and the show seems to be a [...]

Wallace Stegner’s ‘Crossing to Safety’

I just read Wallace Stegner’s novel Crossing to Safety, his last I think, published in 1987 when he was in his late 70s. Sarah read it and was somewhat blown away by its anthropology of certain institutions and icons of WASP New England life, especially the grandmother who’s on the board of the Shady [...]

9 Reasons I love Los Campesinos!

9. Phony World Music name meaning “the peasants” (they are from Cardiff, Wales)
8. Song title: “”This Is How You Spell ‘Hahaha, We Destroyed the Hopes and Dreams of a Generation of Faux-Romantics’”
7. Do justice to illustrious lineage of UK art-school punks (Mekons, Joy Division, Buzzcocks, Art Brut)
6. Simultaneously sound totally sarcastic and totally [...]

Imaginary animals: kosher or treyf?

I would’ve figured the rooster-swallow-chicken-snake-goose-lobster-stag-fish hybrid was not kosher, but I would not necessarily have known why. And it seems almost unfair that a 99% fish hippocamp would be treyf just because it contains 1% horse.

Overheard during a viewing of Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales

“Why does he do that thing with his fingers?” [alluding to the Rock's signature gesture, a nervous twiddling to express nervousness or fear]
“If he twiddles his fingers any more, I’m going to scream.”
“I didn’t realize he was a twin.” “Never mind.”
“That’s the guy from Highlander!”
“Why are the Red Hot Chili Peppers in charge of that [...]

In the Puppet Gardens

My friend Jonathan Bolton has edited and translated (and written an afterward for) a selection of poetry from the long career of the Czech poet Ivan Wernisch, In the Puppet Gardens: Selected Poems, 1963-2005.
I was immediately drawn into these strange & memorable poems. Sometimes they reminded me a bit of Marianne Moore, perhaps because [...]

Horace Mann Facebook scandal

I just came across this New York Magazine article about a Facebook scandal at an elite NY prep school. The article generated controversy and a whole lot of letters/response.
My overwhelming response is relief that I don’t have to worry about NYC private school insanity for my kids…

Earthquake!

We woke up at 5:30 a.m. — the bed was rattling and shaking. We were confused and thought maybe it was a lightning storm; we learned this morning that parts of the lower Midwest were hit with a 5.4 earthquake!
On my sister-in-law’s suggestion, I submitted a report to Did you Feel It?

A single expletive

A funny example of the professoriate’s role in explaining/interpreting baseball’s magical thinking.
The article quotes professors of Early Modern history, comparative literature, and anthropology on the question of the efficacy of the David Ortiz jersey buried (and then dug up) outside Yankee stadium — an attempted curse on the Yankees apparently thwarted, or perhaps not. [...]