What is it about an other that can be so… well, whatever you wouldn’t come up with yourself? When it comes to creativity — making something new whether on canvas, with sound, in writing, or out of clay – most people work alone. It’s a solitary life, the way of an artist, isn’t it? Then …
It was the Sunday of a holiday weekend, perfect for an extra long paddling adventure. I took off in the kayak with the wind at my back. I know, I know. Never do that. Always start by going uphill, upwind. When you’re tired, you can still get home. But I figured it would be incentive …
This morning, I ran across Cristina Peri Rossi’s State of Exile. Or rather, I learned of its existence, of her work, her experience as a woman without country… finding a way to live new. I happened on it through Ginsberg’s Kaddish as published by the wonderful City Lights Books, San Fran in handy pocket size. …
At what point in writing does one book become another? In the editing, rewriting, re-editing and re-rewriting of a project engaged over years, should we just call it a different book? (The shadow question is, of course, at what point does one pack it away, brush off one’s hands, and turn to something else?) In …
Here’s what I just posted on Huffington Post… and then, here’s the problem with it. Now if only there were about three hundred more 300‘s. Maybe not in blood and gore but movies with kick-ass women from ancient Persia and Greece. Then, more people would get what has so captivated me about Amytis, Cassandane, and …
300, Awesome Ancient Women, and the Perils of Historical Fiction Read More »
Just thinking: Obamacare may well raise America’s creative capital — from the arts to invention, entrepreneurs to public intellectuals. I’m hearing a lot these days in reaction to a CBO study showing that one effect of national health care is that fewer people will work full-time. I cannot tell you how many times I have …
Happy Feast Day of the Ass! No kidding. Animals get short shrift in religious beliefs and practice (apart from the Hindu cow, and sacrifice, of course), so I found it quite wonderful to stumble on an old tradition celebrating the biblical donkey. For a time, Christians seriously honored the animal who brought a pregnant Mary …
Rich guys, all — Herod, the half-blood king of Judea enjoying extravagances still evident today; and those magi, bearing gifts of rare value. Today is epiphany, in western Christian tradition, remembered as the moment when Jesus’ importance became evident to the greater world. Setting aside belief about Jesus’ divinity and all that for a moment …
Herod and the Magi, a Study in Contrast on Epiphany Read More »
And so we’re off! — 2014, a new year, ready or not. Resolutions or not, there’s something about recognizing the end of a year and the beginning of a new one that’s downright refreshing. The earliest public celebrations that we know about are Babylonian, dating back thousands of years. I’ve been spending a lot of …
*A version of this article is also available on The Huffington Post. “We, three kings of Orient are,” intone the guys in robes and crowns. But were they really three, or kings for that matter, and from where exactly did they come? Every year at this time, questions about historicity – what really happened (and …
