Happy Chanukah!
[NOTE: This is a slightly edited version of a previous post.] This is the first night of Chanukah, and I wish everyone a happy one. Chanukah is about a successful revolt and a miracle of light: The miracle of the … Continue reading →
Category Archives: Arts
And speaking of The Grand Inquisitor (which I often do) – note what’s been happening in Seattle and LA
What is the Seattle City Council contemplating these days? This: In October, the Seattle City Council floated legislation to provide an exemption from prosecution for misdemeanor crimes for any citizen who suffers from poverty, homelessness, addiction, or mental illness. Under … Continue reading →
S’awright
If you’re of a certain age, you may remember Señor Wences from the Ed Sullivan Show. I loved him, and would watch the show every Sunday night, always hoping he’d be on: Wences (real name: Wenceslao Moreno) had a pretty … Continue reading →
Cry me…
…a river. I’m not putting this up as some sort of message. Nothing but the music:
Continue reading →Knee songs
It struck me the other day that there are a lot of songs with knees in them. Yes, knees, those things in the middle of your legs. I could probably find a lot more songs if I looked it up, … Continue reading →
The war on art: Of Mice and Men
The school system in Burbank, California has added the following five books to its “banned in Burbank” list: Until further notice, teachers in the area will not be able to include on their curriculum Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, … Continue reading →
Ann Miller looked like a woman as a kid
Escapism. Watch about the first 13 minutes. Ann Miller lied about her age big time when she began her career, but she got away with it because she looked like a woman. She had a very protective mother to keep … Continue reading →
The Democrats redefine the phrase “court-packing” to meet their needs
Of course they do – because they believe (correctly IMHO) that they can get away with it. They do it in unison, even though it’s a preposterous notion to use the phrase in this novel way – to mean appointing … Continue reading →
Forever Young
Here’s commenter Bryan Lovely, speaking about the 1973 Bob Dylan song [see *NOTE below] : “Forever Young” sure has a different meaning in my fifties than when I was nineteen. Still love that song. May God bless and keep you … Continue reading →
Thanks for the dance – posthumous Leonard Cohen songs
Somehow I missed the fact that a while back Leonard Cohen’s son and some other musicians and technicians put out a recording of posthumous new songs by Cohen, who had recorded the bare bones of them when he was near … Continue reading →
Caring about truth, caring about liberty
Not everyone cares about either of the above. And among those who care, not everyone cares equally. To some, truth and/or liberty (usually both together) are essential. They are things worth pursuing to the utmost, and even in some cases … Continue reading →
Dostoevsky’s Demons and Orwell’s Hate
As I’ve written before, when I was in college in the late 60s I happened to take a course called Russian Intellectual History. I had always liked Russian lit, I’d been told the prof was good, and the course seemed … Continue reading →