Arts Literacy in the Coming Recovery
As the economy begins to recover and arts programs have an opportunity to be restored (one hopes), let’s not make the mistake of returning to the way things were. The financial crisis has given...
View ArticleThe Anthologist by Nicholoson Baker
Nicholson Baker’s new novel THE ANTHOLOGIST. It’s a fascinating tour through the mind and life of a man trying to put together an anthology of poetry. The protagonist is a not-so-great writer whose...
View Article“The Anthologist”
For anyone with an interest in poets and poetry–including in the strangeness of the genre–I recommend Nicholson Baker’s new book The Anthologist. Take a tour of the quirky and erratic thoughts of a...
View ArticleThe Albany decision: Humanism vs. barbarism once again
I write these lines having just finished reading a series of essays on the opposition between “humanism” and “barbarism” in the Renaissance. Among the first “humanists” were a group of individuals who...
View ArticleU.C. Berkeley and the “Arts Race”
The New York Times recently (Nov. 16, 2014) proclaimed what many of us have long known to be true: there is an “arts race” among the nation’s elite universities. In recent years, some of the finest...
View ArticleHealing Cuba
One can scarcely open a travel magazine or newspaper in these months in the thawing of U.S.-Cuba relations without finding something about the vibrant art scene in Havana — about the jazz clubs like La...
View ArticleHow did Trump come to be? Trump and the media
As many Americans disbelieve how Donald Trump came to be the presidential nominee of the Republican Party, most jaws simply drop. Then there are the familiar explanations, most of which echo...
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