Welcome to a Chronicle of Culture
Posted in Books, Life During Wartime, Music, Politics, Sports, Technology, Visual arts on Sep 5th, 2010
I read The Sunday New York Times, so you don’t have to: Sept. 5
This morning’s coffee is from the island of Java. I’ve loaded the five-CD changer with all John Coltrane.
1, Page One at a glance: Democrats are calculating which of their candidates are hopeless causes in the November election and will [...]
Posted in Life During Wartime, Politics on Aug 27th, 2010
Free speech: How embarrassing
The country was being rushed into war in 2002. And a lot of us knew that. We knew that George W. Bush had no reason to invade Iraq. Despotic as he was, Saddam Hussein had had nothing to do with 9/11, or Al Qaeda. In fact, in one respect, he had been [...]
Posted in Life During Wartime on Aug 19th, 2010
Celebrating the fall of civilization, and The New York Times
The Critical Mass today celebrates it’s 100th posting, since November’s tequila-soaked web-site launch party at Abilene Bar & Lounge. One friend is unimpressed; she told me she’s filed 5,000 blogs.
But this blog doesn’t report on every time I take a shower, although it usually does report [...]
Posted in Life During Wartime on Aug 18th, 2010
Racism is not “Some special interest group”
Dr. Laura Schlessinger has self-immolated. She says after 30 years she’s shutting down her syndicated advice radio show after apologizing for using what we in the media politely call “The N-Word” 11 times during a broadcast last week.
I’d never listened to Schlessinger, although I know she’s important to some people. But [...]
Posted in Books, Life During Wartime, Music, Politics, Science on Aug 15th, 2010
I read The Sunday New York Times, so you don’t have to: Aug. 15
The coffee this morning comes from an island off Sumatra. “You get a geography lesson with every cup,” said my coffee guy, Java Joe, as he filled my usual order for a pound of whatever beans he was roasting that day, and [...]
Posted in Life During Wartime on Aug 11th, 2010
More decline of Western Civilization
John Mayer, the noted pop singer (”Your Body is a Wonderland”) and race-relations expert (”My dick is sort of like a white supremicist”) dedicated his entire show Tuesday night to the Jet Blue flight attendant, Steven Slater, who wigged out after his flight had arrived Sunday at Kennedy Airport. Slater was reportedly hit on [...]
Posted in Life During Wartime on Jul 20th, 2010
The daily ride on Sausage No. 1
My bus – the No. 1, a straight shot from my house to the office downtown – is usually standing-room only. We are a public transit sausage. Every seat is taken and the aisle is packed with people pressed right against each other, a package under one arm, the other arm clinging [...]
Posted in Life During Wartime, Music, Philosophy, Politics, Sports, Visual arts on May 23rd, 2010
I read the Sunday New York Times, so you don’t have to: May 23
First music of the day: The Allman Brothers Band’s Eat a Peach, because it was in the CD player from last night. Two big pork shoulders are already in the smoker, to be joined by a rack or two of ribs as [...]
Posted in Books, Life During Wartime, Music, Philosophy, Politics, Science, Visual arts on May 2nd, 2010
I read The Sunday New York Times, so you don’t have to: May 2
It is a morning of scents here. A salmon, for my friend Frank’s 70th birthday later today, is in the smoker on the deck. The lilacs have peaked, the flowering crabapple tree is an explosion of white blossoms.
1, No one’s shouting “Drill, [...]
Posted in Life During Wartime, Politics on Apr 14th, 2010
“If it weren’t for the state police, those guys would be conducting raids on the village down the street”
I was riding shotgun with a friend, on the way to the liquor store, when he mentioned that one of his wife’s uncles recently had a letter to the editor published in the Ithaca newspaper. “A raving, [...]