The Tyranny of the Shirtless PhotoA friend of mine fought cancer for several years. On Friday nights, I would bring him dinner, usually lasagna and salad that we’d split…Nov 14Nov 14
A Life in the TheaterI walked out of a friend’s play the other day. I was going to be supportive, bur apparently there is a limit to my support. I’ve been doing…Aug 9Aug 9
Thoughts on National AnthemMy dog loves his ball. Any ball, really, but in the house we play with a large pink neon bouncing ball, which is seemingly indestructible…Jul 12Jul 12
FEVERSIn his book “Hallucinations,” Oliver Sacks writes about auditory and visual hallucinations, which are quite common, especially as we grow…Mar 17Mar 17
A Year of War & PeaceI was looking for something about War & Peace, and saw Brian E. Denton on Medium did a year of reading the book in 2016. I had done that in…Dec 18, 2023Dec 18, 2023
Duplass and DiscontentsThis morning I read the New Yorker interview with Mark Duplass and his struggle with depression. I was struck by the tools he uses to get…Dec 16, 2023Dec 16, 2023
MaestroI haven’t seen a movie that has made me want to sit down and write for a while. Maestro, the new biopic about Leonard Bernstein has had me…Dec 3, 2023Dec 3, 2023
Saying GoodbyeFlying into Phoenix at sundown, I see the dry cracks on the ground, vine-like trails of water through the desert sparkling, illuminated by…Sep 15, 2023Sep 15, 2023
Critical Kindness.Someone posted something that made me go over and look at the blog I used to write at blogger, Criticlasm — remember blogger? I forget how…Jul 12, 2023Jul 12, 2023
I asked AI to write a poem…I had an idea to ask AI to write a poem in the style of a particular poet. There’s a lot of talk about AI and how it can easily write…May 17, 2023May 17, 2023
