“THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH” PART 1
AMERICAN PLAYWRIGHT Thornton Wilder called The Skin of Our Teeth “the most ambitious project I have ever approached.” And no wonder. The play mixes the early 1940s with prehistoric times, … Continue reading
YOU VOTE, GRRL!
THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY of victory for British suffragettes is celebrated in the February 2018 issue of BBC History, though the magazine notes that this victory was a nuanced one. To … Continue reading
OPERATIC CARS PART 2
WHO WOULD have guessed the closeness of automobiles and opera? We move from yesterday’s Wagner Ring Cycle links to those involving Verdi, Gounod, Berg, and back to Wagner again. A … Continue reading
OPERATIC CARS PART 1
I’M LISTENING to Richard Wagner’s Siegfried, the third opera of his epic Ring Cycle. Early on, in Scene 2, the Wanderer (actually top god Wotan in disguise) tells an interminable … Continue reading
MY PRICELESS ORIGINALS
TRUMP’S BOASTING that he owns priceless original art has encouraged me to identify several priceless originals in my stuff. Trump’s Renoir.You may recall the article in news.artnet.com, October 18, 2017, … Continue reading
AN HOMAGE TO DR. STRANGELOVE
THE FULL name of Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 political satire flick is Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. And I cannot imagine a more … Continue reading
CORPORATIONS—THE GOOD AND THE BAD
A CORPORATION is a legally authorized entity formed to pursue a particular goal. It might be manufacturing lightbulbs, selling firearms, or myriad other endeavors of modern civilization. Two things recently … Continue reading
TREACHERY—AN ETYMOLOGICAL AND EDUCATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
SEEKING AN example of unmitigated treachery, I offer Trump and DeVos’ recent proposal for educational aspects in the fiscal 2019 federal budget. According to whitehouse.gov, “The President is responsible for … Continue reading
VIKING MOJO
JUAN COLE is the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan, with a speciality in the relationships of the Muslim world with the West. I … Continue reading
BERNSTEIN’S (AND VOLTAIRE’S) CANDIDE
I’M IN GOOD company asking whether Leonard Bernstein’s Candide is an opera, an operetta, or a musical comedy. No less than the composer himself asked the same question, with his … Continue reading
