The Narrow Path: A Tone Poem for Christmas
Sean MurphyYou are alone. You are back in the city and you are alone as you emerge into the open and empty space, stepping out from the stale depths of the…
My Kind of Christmas Music (Revisited)
Tchaikovsky Corelli Bach A couple from John Fahey The Who Chuck Berry a three-fer from Jethro Tull! Sonny Boy The Godfather Donny Satchmo Ella! (An embarrassment of riches here, here,…
What We Talk About When We Talk About Sex (In Fiction)
WRITING ABOUT SEX is like engaging in sex: it’s hard. Or, it should be. It’s that time of year again, where we can count on three things: shopping-related stress during…
Brooklyn Reading #8: Drinking
May 29, 2014. It was billed as a throwback to the old Beatnik days, minus the bongos and clove cigarettes. As such, New York City was a mandatory locale; Brooklyn…
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead: The Play’s The Thing (Revisited)
Spoiler alert: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern die. They are, in fact, already dead. And they always have been. But you knew that already, right? Another spoiler: You, too, shall die one…
Peter O’Toole, R.I.P. (Revisited)
They're all gone. Burton, then Harris, then Reed, then Taylor. And now, O'Toole. Yes, it all begins and ends with his once-in-a-millennium turn as T.E. Lawrence, and attention must be…
Sui generis on the rocks: Christopher Hitchens (Revisited)
The best way to compliment a writer, as a reader, is to recommend their work to others. That I wholeheartedly do, and have done. The best way to compliment a…
The Terror Card, Torture and You or, The Evil of Banality (Revisited)
6/09: Anyone who happened to miss this piece by Lakhdar Boumediene, entitled My Guantánamo Nightmare should check it out, here. Here is a taste of the sickening, yet predictable torment this…
Brooklyn Reading #7: Not To Mention A Nice Life
May 29, 2014. It was billed as a throwback to the old Beatnik days, minus the bongos and clove cigarettes. As such, New York City was a mandatory locale; Brooklyn…
7 + 1 From McCoy Tyner For His 76th
McCoy Tyner turns 76 years young today. In a saner and more soulful world, Tyner would be a household name. As it is, he remains an American treasure, a remarkable…