I’m a sucker for chalk art, so I always look forward to the Denver Chalk Art Festival. I’m apparently not the only one, either, as the crowd shot below suggests. The crowds seem to be getting larger each year, too, and I suppose it’s easy to understand why. June in Denver, Larimer Square, fantastic artists […]
Tag Archives: popular culture
Stuart O'Steen is not a crook
But he is Richard Nixon. Stuart, longtime friend to S&R, is a veteran stage actor who portrays the former president in the Longmont (Colorado) Theatre Company‘s ambitious take on Frost/Nixon. I had the great pleasure of recently seeing the production. As a politics junkie and student of American political history, particularly of the Watergate debacle, […]
Banished from the English language: "flip-flopper"
Every once in awhile a new term/catchphrase/buzzword/meme catches fire here in the US. Sometimes it’s a function of the fact that our incredibly plastic language, with its myriad dynamic influences (everything from media to subcultural to ethnic to technological) sort of inherently generates new words. Other times the term is a result of political or […]
Kindles, books and libraries
OK, so I got a Kindle. This is a major step, for someone who is as much of a book junkie as I am. Actually, more like a book magnet. And after decades of buying books, they add up. Especially since I’m a packrat, as Mrs W never tires of pointing out, and living in […]
NASA, American exceptionalism, and me: older, and less viable
Fourth in a series As a child turning teen in the late 1950s, the black-and-white RCA in the living room received only three channels … well, four, but we didn’t watch PBS. So I read. Newspapers, of course (after Dad finished sports and Mom finished news). And books. The library was only two blocks away, […]
Aliens and the Imagination
What is an alien? Someone not of my own species? Of my own country (cue political flatulence)? Of my own neighborhood? How about of my own planet? How have governments used UFOs? All of these were subject to lively (but short) series of talks this evening at the British Library, where tonight’s talks focused on […]
If a news story claims knowlege of public opinion, test the claim
When a news story claims certainty in expressing public opinion — or uses sources that claim such — readers should be wary. Such is the case with a Friday NPR story that commingled analysis, reporting, and commentary (without a commentary label) about the impact of “tough economic news” on President Obama’s re-election prospects. Some phrasing […]
Who owns the story of the future?
Back to the British Library this evening for another interesting panel discussion as part of their Science Fiction series, this one on “Who owns the story of the future?” Given the extent to which we’ve seen the media get compromised by corporate ownership over the past two decades, at least in the US, this turns […]
Albums you should listen to: Are We Dead Yet? by Starlight Drive
Jared Featherstone is developing a long history as a musical artist, first as a member of D.C. indie darlings Washington Social Club, and more recently as leader of Starlight Drive, a project he pursues when he can spare time from his “day job” as writing center coordinator at James Madison University. The Starlight Drive project […]
Tunesday: the whole world as one small room…
Jeffrey Dean Foster and Friends Review – Concert Performance: An Evening with Jeffrey Dean Foster and Friends featuring Special Guests Greg Humphreys, Sam Frazier and Snüzz (Britt Harper Uzzell). April 29th, 2011. Hanes Brands Theater, Winston-Salem, NC. Photo Credit: Merch Mike. As we become a distributed culture, one of the things that, instead of being […]
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”
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Russ Wellen: Fundamentally, I agree with both of you. It's just…
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Samuel Smith: I think this about sums it up. You have both moral…
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“See You in Hell” and the dominatrix garage: The Lost Patrol drops a new video, and btw, the CD is fantastic | Scholars and Rogues: […] in nearly 30 posts here at S&R, and …
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A Walkaway: Polk County, Florida was hit by three different hu…
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Jim Booth: You could also find The Fred Chappell Reader - gre…
