STEPHEN VINCENT BENÉT’S NIGHTMARE NUMBER THREE
BY WAY OF background, my meager appreciation of poetry seems to have come through vastly different means: “Whan that Aprille, with his shoures soote/The droghte of March hath perced to … Continue reading
THE OPERA AIN’T OVER TILL … WAIT! IT IS OVER!
IMAGINE: TEN OPERAS performed in the time of a single Wagner Götterdämmerung! Seth Colter Walls offered an example of this in “A Grand History of Small Operas,” The New York … Continue reading
HUMOR LURKING IN EXASPERATION
“IT’S ENOUGH TO make you laugh,” the adage goes. And, these days, there’s humor to be encountered in matters that are also exasperating and deadly serious. In particular, consider the … Continue reading
BEASTLY AND NAIVE PART 2
THE FAUVISTS RECEIVED their “beastly” moniker in the early 20th century because of their intense colors that more than surpassed nature: Reality was downright ignored. Today in Part 2, we … Continue reading
BEASTLY AND NAIVE PART 1
IN THE FIRST years of the twentieth century, Fauve and Naive painting were bridges between impressionism and abstract modernism. Fauvists were the “wild beasts.” At least one Fauvist called a … Continue reading
LET’S CELEBRATE THE VOA, NOT CORRUPT IT! PART 2
FOR ALMOST 78 years now, the Voice of America has showcased American values around the world by broadcasting a valuable commodity: truth. These days, however, Trumpian strategies could corrupt its … Continue reading
LET’S CELEBRATE THE VOA, NOT CORRUPT IT! PART 1
IN AN EVER-GROWING list of things Trump and his connivers are corrupting, the Voice of America may be next. Imagine if this highly regarded international news service had the reputation … Continue reading
AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE AWAITED
FOR 30 YEARS, Anne Glenconner was a lady in waiting for Princess Margaret, younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II. Now in her late 80s, Glenconner has got around to writing … Continue reading
ARCHIGRAM—AN ARCHITECTURAL COLLECTIVE OF WHIMSY
JONATHAN MEADES’ “SIGHTBITES,” in the London Review of Books, May 21, 2020, summed up Archigram perfectly: “They formed in the early 1960s and over the next decade or so produced … Continue reading
ON TUMBLING ICONS
WE AMERICANS AREN’T the only ones soul-searching about what to do with historic icons that no longer reflect modern times. In the London Review of Books, June 12, 2020, Rebecca … Continue reading
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