When was the last time Denmark did something to piss you off? What about Hamlet’s homeland really grinds your gears? Personally, Sweyn Forkbeard’s invasion of England in the eleventh century pains me still, as if it happened yesterday.
What a supremely difficult task it would be to make Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot a theatrical catastrophe given the rich nature of the existentialism, the slap-stick comedy, the downright absurdism. That said, what a trying undertaking it is to … Read More
“Although neither of us is particularly loud, I guess you could say I’ve always been a little bit more introverted, a little quieter,” Castro said, describing his relationship with his twin brother, Joaquin. “But Joaquin and I have different ideas about politics and how to serve the people. I felt that I could help more people on a day-to-day basis in the city government. And so,” he finished, a quiet determination in his voice. “Here I am.”
Bicker is an important rite of passage for people with a creeping suspicion that they might be cool. Champagne bubbles and dreams of Ivy League grandeur saturate even the most level of heads. Some even go so far as to … Read More
When Stephen Harper was elected the new Prime Minister of Canada, American liberals freaked out. I have one thing to say in response: chill out, seriously.
When asked how he maintains his creative process, the artist Robert Rauschenberg, 81, says that he trusts in his materials without relying on the comfort of sureness and certainty. “Sometimes,” he continues, “Jack Daniels helps too.” It doesn’t come as … Read More
“Slavery was not a side-show in American History. It was the main event.” So says James Oliver Horton, history professor at George Washington University.
At the awkward gathering of New York area students who had been accepted to Princeton, the father of another black student approached me as I poured myself a glass of ginger ale. “You know, we have to stick together,” he … Read More
I drove by Red Robin the other day. It sits on the corner of La Cumbre Plaza. About everything else in the mall has changed in the ten years since I last set foot in Red Robin, filling up with … Read More
The thirtieth anniversary edition of Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run came out a few months back. For better or worse, we have all chosen to spend four years in Springsteen country, and truth be told, he’s kind of hard to avoid
BOX You’d handed me the thing because I’d asked to read your letters, made in Romania— not that you’d been there yourself, but from an aunt, you spoke, half-crazy. And because it was a puzzle, you said: Open it. You … Read More
In 1968 John Sinclair of the band DC5 wrote that “rock and roll music is a weapon of cultural revolution.” But this overtly political attitude – emblematic of 1960’s music, or at least of the retelling of the story of … Read More