[contextly_auto_sidebar] About a week ago, I saw something called Bella Gaia at Cal Tech's Beckmann Auditorium. I'm still not sure what it was. (At the very least, this was a film with live dancers and musicians in some places.) Overall, it struck me as a cross between a '70s planetarium show, Koyaanisqatsi, and a Thievery Corporation concert. I'll very much look forward to whatever … [Read more...]
Robinson Jeffers and Big Sur
"NO major American poet has been treated worse by posterity than Robinson Jeffers," poet/critic dana gioia wrote in 1987, lamenting the lack of scholarly attention, an up-to-date selected poems, or a full-dress biography of this california writer who was once read voraciously and still inspires environmentalists. a few things have changed since then, but the great poet of california's central … [Read more...]
Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss
TODAY i'm wishing a happy 105th to one of the greatest writers this country has known, and one i've come to appreciate more as i've revisited him for the sake of my son. (i only regret that the good doctor did not have the good fortune to be born an aquarius.) there are many wonderful authors for little kids -- lucy cousins, eric carle, byron barton, ezra jack keats -- but for an adult who loves … [Read more...]
GREAT OVERLOOKED NOVEL
Over the last couple years i covered books, mostly novels, almost exclusively, and there's no way anyone can read everything. but let me call james howard kunstler's "world made by hand" my favorite undersung novel of '08, or something along those lines. the book is the tale of a little village in upstate new york in a world suspiciously like ours, but after resources have run out almost entirely. … [Read more...]
FIRST POST: BACK FROM THE DEAD + NYT
Hi Gang, I'm glad to report that after a period of enforced silence I'm back with a few stories I'm proud of.Here's the first, a New York Times piece on a 70s cult novel called "Ecotopia."The novel is not as well written or nuanced as Ursula Le Guin's "The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia," which by coincidence i reread at about the same time (that is tough company)... but it's a "novel of ideas" … [Read more...]