I posted an earlier version of this at ahistoryofnewyork.com. One of the great delights of the decade Cyrus Patell and I spent teaching our Writing New York class was the repeated opportunity to screen clips from Ric Burns’s monumental New York: A Documentary Film. Without a doubt, the highlight of that film is — for […]
Archive for the ‘Philosophy’ category
Pretty songs to get you through your winter crushes
So here it is: the second half of mixmas 2012. This is a much more easy-going set of songs. These songs, unlike part one, don't demand running shoes and gas pedals and hurtling velocity. They feel comfortable in a living room. Or on a brisk walk with a hat and gloves. Or with a glass […]
Happy Birthday, John Cage!
Instead of posting 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence whilst I seat myself at my keyboard, I decided to share the LA Times’ tributes: a storyboard of Cage’s life in LA, a selection of performances of his music, and a slate of events all over the world to commemorate him. And by the by, […]
Being there
I’m falling for Tara. Tara Brach. The woman who combines Western psychology with Eastern spirituality. I’ve alleviated the boredom of my morning physical therapy for back pain by listening to her Radical Acceptance audiobook. It’s kind of awesome. She has ways of dealing with life, the universe and everything. It’s an ideology, but not one […]
Happy interdependence day!
Here’s to the founders of the United States (before it was called such), those revolutionary people who had the courage to move forward in breaking away from Great Britain, knowing that if they failed, death by hanging awaited. As someone who teaches one of the more important revolutionary documents, “Common Sense,” I’d like to point […]
St. Ann’s Kids . . .
Well, my sister finally passed away. It’s been a long time coming since she had lived with Multiple Sclerosis for 25 years. This is a photo of her oldest child with my son. The big kid was adopted into my parents family in 1980. The little one born into the extended clan in 2004. The […]
The Reverse Magoo
I’m not sure why, but for the past few weeks I’ve been thinking a lot about an incident that occurred nearly 28 years ago, the night of my high school senior prom. It’s the night I did some stupid things and one really reckless thing. It’s the night that someone was killed. The reckless thing […]
Nicolas Cage’s Rare $1M Comic Book Found…
… in a Valley storage locker. The original Superman comic book was reportedly stolen in 2000 from Cage’s West Hollywood home, but new information has arisen: a leaked transcript of the police interrogation with the comic book itself. Q: Name? Action Comics: It’s right here on my cover. Action Comics. Can’t you read? Jesus. Q: […]
Post
This post is in response to Stella’s post from last Friday. It is not an argument against anything that Stella wrote, but I was inspired by the subject and some of the comments. Before I go on any further, I should tell you that I’m actually writing this post as a spoken piece which is […]