In an earlier review of books from my 2013 reading list, I looked at poetry by one of North Carolina’s best writers, Fred Chappell. This next installment looks at one of his finest novels, the poetic and (one guesses) semi-autobiographical Brighten the Corner Where You Are. In a way, to call this work a novel is to debase it. Chappell is […]
Archive | American Culture RSS feed for this archive
You’re not geeky enough for our con
I really should enjoy cons. But cliquishness and pettiness by my fellow geeks drove me away, and recent reports suggest not much has changed in the decade since I last attended a con.
ArtSunday: What to see, where it is, how to get there…
The review for my most recent completed book from the 2013 reading list has been giving me fits. I finished this book several days ago – but it’s not, as my wife Lea commented, the sort of book one generally reads straight through. But I did, so here I am. In a typically whimsical moment, I put a guidebook on my […]
ArtSunday: If everything is possible, is anything possible…?
As promised earlier this week, this book review from my 2013 reading list looks at Professor Arthur C. Danto’s series of lectures on fine art (part of the Mellon series), Contemporary Art and the Pale of History, published as part of the Bollingen Series by Princeton University Press as After The End of Art: Contemporary Art and the Pale of History. I go […]
“Where Girls Grow Strong” – and Boy Scouts follow
Yesterday was a sort-of victory for LGBT youth: the Boy Scouts of America lifted the ban on LGBT scouts, after gathering over a million signatures to allow homosexual scouts to join. From the Huffington Post: The Boy Scouts of America have reportedly voted 61-38 to allow gay Scouts. According to multiple media sources, the scouting […]
I hate handguns, but I have still considered owning one
I’d never own a handgun to protect myself from the government. Protesting myself my armed fellow Americans who are terrified of the government, on the other hand….
Redneck jokes are racist
I am not one of those people that believes in reverse discrimination, and that old white males are struggling for equality in a pitiless world run by women and people of color. (Affirmative action is a bad idea, but a necessary one to counteract a worse one, segregation and institutionalized povertization of the black underclass.) So […]
ArtSunday: You can take the boy out of the working class, but can you take the working class out of the boy?
As I’ve noted before, I grew up working class in the South. My neighborhood, my school, my family and friends, it all oscillated between “redneck” and “white trash,” and yes, there’s a difference. I wrote not long ago about the challenges facing those of us trying to climb the socio-economic ladder when nothing in our upbringing […]
Maira Kalman’s The Principles of Uncertainty: an appreciation of New York and New Yorkishness by a New Yorker
Maira Kalman’s collage/slam book/illustrated diary The Principles of Uncertainty probably deserves better than it’s going to get here. This latest completed read from my 2013 reading list has put-up job written (and drawn) all over it. While this book has charm, it also has smarm in abundance. Only a New Yorker with “the right connections” – in publishing, in society, in […]
Quick! OMG! Hurry! Tomorrow’s the second Sunday of May!
To better prepare readers of The Atlantic for appropriate ways to observe Mother’s Day, Nicole Russell, in an article captioned “[t]he second Sunday of May is a source of frustration and disappointment for men and women alike,” shares a little history and some pointers. Yet, somehow, she managed to contribute to the disappointment by including this […]
Goddamned wasteful gummit spending: Who’s the highest (over)paid “public servant” in your state? (WTF?)
A Special Guest Commentary From Randy Wayne Boudreau, Grand Dragon of the Alabama Tea Party All right thinking citizen patriots hate gummit. Wasteful bureaucrats living off hard workers like you and me. Might as well be welfare queens. And now, thanks to the good folks at Deadspin – private, non-union workers, I should note – […]
WordsDay: Articles of faith…
I returned to the history genre for the next book in the 2013 reading list – or so I thought. The Road to Salem is a “constructed” memoir – historian and archivist Adelaide Fries (a descendant of the original Moravian settlers she writes about) tells, though the use of the autobiography of Anna Catharina Antes- Kalberlahn/Reuter/Heinzmann/Ernst (yep, she was […]
Amanda, Gina, and Michelle survived, but not all women in Cleveland are that lucky
Today Cleveland celebrates the return of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight. We feel a collective sense of gratitude and amazement at their survival and reappearance. I listened to versions of their story covered locally, nationally, and internationally and that feeling seems nearly universal. But they were gone for a decade. Gina disappeared when […]
Showdown looming between the NRA and 3-D printed guns
There’s about to be a really interesting showdown: the NRA versus 3-D printed guns. The NRA had its national convention during the first weekend in May in Houston. NRA Vice-President Wayne LaPierre proclaimed, “We will never back away from our resolve to defend our rights and the rights of all law-abiding American gun owners.” Well, […]
George Lakoff gives conservatives way too much credit
Personal responsibility does not a moral system make. We’re all indebted to the influential linguist George Lakoff for applying his work to politics in recent years. Among his invaluable contributions has been his perspective on framing. For example: It’s a general principle: Unless you frame yourself, others will frame you — the media, your enemies, […]
Tim Brando is an embarrassment to old white males everywhere
Tim Brando, the sportscaster, tweeted this yesterday. Tim Brando ✔@TimBrando @CallMeG_Unit Simple Being a a Christian White male over 50 that’s raised a family means nothing in today’s culture. The sad truth. Period. He got the most flak for arguing that Collins isn’t a hero. Obviously, he feels disrespected and undervalued. But why? Tim graduated with […]
S&R Honors
Click here to learn more about past honorees...- S&R Nonfiction: “The Nobodies,” by Jennifer Pocock
- “See You in Hell” and the dominatrix garage: The Lost Patrol drops a new video, and btw, the CD is fantastic
- Iran’s election nuclear, but not nuked
- More light! More light! Reviewing Fred Chappell’s Brighten the Corner Where You Are
- Happy Father’s Day: "The Day Daddy Died"
- Mystery Unraveled: How a white, moderate, married, churchgoing, middle-class, middle-aged woman could vote for Obama
- An open letter to Burt Rutan, regarding his WSJ commentary on human-caused climate disruption
- Meet the men of Match.com: Really, guys, are you serious?
- Climate scientists still besieged
- Pelosi on Bush: “He’s not worth impeaching”
-
Frank Dilatush: And while decent men argue morality and honor, war…
-
A Walkaway: Then Satan must care more about justice and truth …
-
RetroHound: See, I don't think it's God's judgement, it's Sata…
-
Ben Leib: Beautifully penned. The desperation of the situat…
-
Russ Wellen: Fundamentally, I agree with both of you. It's just…
