Bright Moments*
Sean MurphyQuestion: What’s it all about? Answer: I don’t know. But I do know a few things. I know some of the things that make me tick. Even though I write…
Mo Max
Last time I celebrated the mighty Max Roach (check out the glory, here) there was not a ton of material on YouTube. A couple of years later and all kinds…
Rebellion*
i. Question: What are you rebelling against? Answer: Whaddya got? The thing most adjusted adults eventually understand is that everyone who marches to that proverbial different beat does so not…
Five Songs to Welcome Spring
The incomparable John Fahey with the appropriately titled "When The Springtime Comes Again": Janácek's String Quartet "Intimate Letters", 3rd Movement: John Coltrane: "Equinox": Bob Marley, "Natural Mystic": Jethro Tull: "March,…
Deconstruction* (Revisited)
I. Il n’y pas hors-texte. Or, there is nothing outside the text. If the names Barthes, Foucault and Saussure (for starters) mean nothing to you, it would be difficult to…
The Things They Carry, Continued…
Two stories from today's New York Times. What a coincidence. ON THIS DAY On March 16, 1968, during the Vietnam War, the My Lai Massacre was carried out by…
Demotion*
My neighbor, whose name I’ve of course forgotten—if in fact I ever knew it in the first place—(and, being roughly my age, never objects to and always answers my irrefutably…
3.14: Happy Pi Day
If you've never seen Pi, Darren Aronofsky's first (and best) movie, I strongly encourage you to check it out. (Hint: it's not just a number; it's a concept of existence. Or…
Tasting China The Way Peter Chang Intended (Revisited)
And I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Well, it felt that way as I drove alone, into the deep country dark of 29 North, heading for the place…
Compassion*
License registration, no I ain’t got none, But I got a clear conscience ‘bout the things that I done… When you find yourself singing Bruce Springsteen lyrics in New Jersey…