Will You Be My Valentine?
Porter White I believe. If Charlie Brown has his Great Pumpkin, I have my Valentine Rabbit. Annually on the lustful February V-day, the Rabbit, fluff-relative to the Tooth Fairy & Co., descends to my parents’ house and bestows enigmatic heart-shaped stickers upon plates and tumblers. Some years: holographic stickers; some: tastefully-red opaque. Why I know […]
Sly and his Family Ride Again
Sly Stone, swooping out of history like a glittery geriatric pterodactyl, gave his first public performance in nineteen years at the sometimes-luscious 48th Grammys, on this past Wednesday. He was a sight, even a specter of soul. One of his hands was wrapped in white gauze as it massaged, most gingerly, a willing keyboard. (Too […]
The Final Countdown
I love this show as much as FOX hates it, which is a lot. I mean, running the last four new episodes all at once, up against the opening ceremonies of the OLYMPICS?!
Norah Vincent
My first internet date was with a right-wing lesbian — evidence that for grad students, the Princeton dating scene is indeed wretched.
Why I’ll Wait for the Movie
I was supposed to write a review for Norah Vincent’s new book, Self-Made Man but I decided not to for a very simple reason: Books are stupid. Despite efforts in the past ten years to make books more like movies, they are still held back by their least attractive feature – words. So why read […]
Is Feminism Finished?
Betty Friedan and Wendy Wasserstein died five days apart. The conventional wisdom is that feminism is dead, and reading their obituaries, it felt true. Friedan built a movement of her friends and neighbors, changing everything they knew about the world of women. Wasserstein wrote eloquently about the choices and challenges facing her generation as they […]
Burn, Denmark, Burn
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.
Don’t Wait for Godot
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 do complete justice to the text of Beckett’s mid-twentieth-century masterwork given the requirement for such […]
Lone Star Gracchi
“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.”
