April 2011

A “Rose in the Desert” Smells Like Shit

April 25, 2011

I mean not to diminish but heighten in significance the state repression and murder currently being executed across Syria by reminding us all of what I had intended to write of at the time, the creepiest, most morally repugnant journalism of the year – Joan Juliet Buck‘s “A Rose in the Desert,” for Vogue, with [...]

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Hatikva at Bergen Belson: April 20, 1945

April 20, 2011

On April 20, 1945, only five days after their liberation and on the eve of the Sabbath, with dead still on the ground and with people dying daily, inmates at Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp sang the Jewish anthem of hope “Hatikva.” It was recorded by the BBC. The lyric for Hatikva was originally written in [...]

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Kenya, Conservatives and Colonialism

April 15, 2011

It really sticks in my craw. But that’s all right. I have a large craw. I suck it down and then I spit it out. I spit it out. According to the The Times of London (behind paywall) last week, Government efforts to cover up one of the worst episodes in British colonial history have [...]

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As It Happens…

April 6, 2011

Life needs attending to. And there is writing to do. So I’m going on hiatus. A month? We’ll see. Hear me tweet. Read my Facebook. Watch me not resist a post or two. Until then… Share Tweet Subscribe to comments on this post Email

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Birtherism and the Yearning for Reboot

April 4, 2011

Who is a conspiracy theorist but a diviner of the world’s order? What is a conspiracy theory but that order? In a world where either God or his plan – the teleological tit – has gone missing, the conspiracy is cold comfort: life has a meaning, though it may be to no one’s liking. Satan, [...]

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CineFile – Farley Granger

April 3, 2011

Farley Granger, who died a week ago today, was a second level movie star for only a brief period – the late ’40s through the mid ’50s – but any fan of Hollywood’s Golden Age, even that tail end, will inevitably know him for his appearances in two notable Alfred Hitchcock films, Rope and and [...]

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Eating Poetry (XXIV) – The Zen of Alice

April 2, 2011

LIFE IS BUT A DREAM Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) A boat, beneath a sunny sky Lingering onward dreamily In an evening of July– Children three that nestle near, Eager eye and willing ear, Pleased a simple tale to hear– Long has paled that sunny sky; Echoes fade and memories die; Autumn frosts have slain July. Still [...]

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