Creeping Vacuity
The latest issue of The New York Review has one of those self-aggrandizing full-page ads from the Harvard University Press, in which they list recent award-winning titles. I used to enjoy reading these...
View Article"Intelligence Does Not Work That Way"
This morning’s “state of play” report on the BBC News Web site, written just before our do-nothing Congress decides to do something when nothing would be preferable, included an interesting statement...
View ArticleObama As His Own Critic
Now that we have heard Barack Obama’s speech and had our fill of pundits’ reactions to that speech, I thought it might be interesting to harvest a reply form Obama himself, taken from a message he had...
View ArticleBecoming Aware of Other Voices
Last week saw the launch of Al Jazeera America. To my surprise (and delight), Comcast assigned it the channel slot previously held by Current TV (which had been bought out by Al Jazeera). As a result,...
View ArticleReactionary Avant-Gardism
I just read a fascinating column by Peter Aspden for the Life & Arts section of the Web site for the Financial Times. This was published under the title “Puccini versus the Twitterverse;” and I do...
View ArticleThe Past Future of Recording
Today’s progress through the Decca collection of the complete works of Benjamin Britten brought me to “The Burning Fiery Furnace.” It therefore seemed appropriate that I follow up the listening...
View ArticleThanks Jeff Bezos, But …
At 12:46 PM (Pacific Time) today, Desiree Everts DeNunzio filed a story on CNET News to the effect that the The Washington Post had dropped its paywall to provide more readers with access to...
View ArticleFour-Hand is Not Necessarily Easier!
I find myself in the midst of an interesting confrontation with the piano music of Maurice Ravel. My general opinion is that just about everything he wrote for two hands is above my pay grade. However,...
View ArticleReliable Mail Delivery
It used to be that physical mail would be delivered reliably no matter how adverse the conditions were (as in rain, snow, and sleet). My guess is that most of the current generation using electronic...
View ArticleSearching for Solutions to Aging?
I just finished reading Technology Reporter Jane Wakefield’s latest piece on the BBC News Web site entitled “Google spin-off Calico to search for answers to ageing.” Early in the article she quotes...
View ArticleBicycle Follies Cross the Pond
For a while, probably as a result of spending most of my time away from home as a pedestrian on the streets of San Francisco, I was writing about what I called the “defiance culture” of cyclists. When...
View ArticleProfiles in Cowardice
This past Wednesday, Gary Wills put up a particularly caustic post on NYRBlog entitle “Back Door Secession.” By taking a historical point of view, he could compare current TEA Party activities, which I...
View ArticleSnob Pornography
I have not seen much written about The Kraus Project, Jonathan Franzen’s latest book, which was released at the beginning of this month. This does not surprise me. Ours is not a culture that knows very...
View ArticleWe’re Totally Fed Up (and What That Connotes)
The latest article on Al Jazeera English about the current stagnation of our government has a really great photograph from Reuters that should not be missed. It shows people protesting the stalemate;...
View ArticleSpamming the NSA
I just read David Gerwitz’ amusing contribution to ZDNet about how much spam must be overloading the NSA as a result of all the electronic mail they are consuming. In the interest of trying to make...
View ArticleAnother Kind of Bailout
Most people by now know that HealthCare.gov Web site, the “digital portal” to the benefits provided by the Affordable Care Act, was launched in a seriously broken state. Today, President Barack Obama...
View ArticleEdith Wharton’s Anthropological Stance
I have been working my way through Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence. I have any number to things to complain about in her style, beginning with her decision to pile more characters into her...
View ArticleThe Deceptive Abstraction of Music Notation
I have been doing background reading in a variety of areas as a result of my completing my traversal of Music, Language, and the Brain by Aniruddh D. Patel. I have already discussed a tendency in that...
View ArticleInsomnia
Did anyone notice that insomnia, as a reaction to a traumatic situation, emerged as the narrative theme used in both NCIS and NCIS: LA, each of which treated it in a different manner? Posted by...
View ArticleA Macabre (but Amusing) Juxtaposition
This week’s Bay Guardian announces its cover story with the single word DEATH on the cover. Since this is the issue for both Halloween and Dia de los Muertos, this is not surprising, nor is the grim...
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