PUCCINI’S WORLD TOUR PART 2
YESTERDAY, WE began Puccini’s World Tour in Nagasaki, Japan. Today, it’s in California during the Gold Rush and Peking, China, in a Middle Age fairyland. La Fanciulla del West, The … Continue reading
PUCCINI’S WORLD TOUR PART 1
RICHARD WAGNER VISITED the underworld Nibelheim and the upperworld Valhalla in his epic Ring Cycle, but a much more practical world tour is offered by Giacomo Puccini in his Madama … Continue reading
ON POLITICAL BRILLIANCE
WHAT WITH this being Election Day, and indeed one of the more important elections in our nation’s history, I offer thoughts from three Americans of unalloyed brilliance: Mark Twain, Will … Continue reading
CHARLES FLETCHER LUMMIS—NOT A STEREOTYPICAL LIBRARIAN PART 2
YESTERDAY, IN SimanaitisSays, Charles Fletcher Lummis left Harvard early, married his first Mrs. Lummis, walked across the U.S. in knickers and tomato-red knee socks to a job with the fledgling … Continue reading
CHARLES FLETCHER LUMMIS—NOT A STEREOTYPICAL LIBRARIAN PART 1
I REMEMBER HAVING a crush on my junior high school librarian. She was tall, lithe, and wore glasses and a shirtwaist dress. Alas, or maybe fortunately, the affair came to … Continue reading
TINTYPES—MAKE THE AMERICAN MUSICAL GREAT AGAIN
IF EVER THERE was a Broadway musical revue that’s ripe for revival these days, it’s Tintypes. The Tintypes revue was originally produced by the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. It … Continue reading
EXPANDING ON ENGLISH MYTHS PART 2
ST. GEORGE, HIS DRAGON, and Robin Hood and his Merry Men are familiar myths. Yesterday in Part 1, an article in the London Review of Books got us started with … Continue reading
EXPANDING ON ENGLISH MYTHS PART 1
MYTHS ARE ur-memories, tales of our striving for one thing or another. The London Review of Books, October 11, 2018, discussed two English myths that even us ’Mericans recognize: St. … Continue reading
PERFORMANCE ART—SHREDDER STYLE
WHO IS BANKSY? The answer: Nobody knows the identity of this anonymous British graffiti artist/vandal/political activist/performance artist/vulgarian/satirist. Have I missed any more accurate descriptors? I also think of him (I … Continue reading
A PARABLE ON FLOUR POWER
A CULINARY FEATURE about tortillas brought to mind abuses of power, one even directed against my own ordinarily placid lifestyle. The article “A Homemade Flour Tortilla to Rival Its Corn … Continue reading
