Roll the Stone Away: Jethro Tull’s ‘A Passion Play’ at 50
Sean MurphyDuring the years between my senior year in high school and my sophomore year of college Jethro Tull went from being an important band in my life to, by far,…
September 11
(From 9/11/21.) An absolutely gorgeous, cloudless September day, just like 20 years ago. I spent a couple of indescribably serene hours kayaking around the Katama Great Pond with my brother…
Labor Day Rant: Unpaid Internships are Evil
First off, with very few exceptions, unpaid internships are immoral and disgusting. Any business, especially a multi-million dollar tech behemoth, that justifies not paying interns is evil. But because the…
For My Mother, on Her 80th Birthday
i. August 2002 – August 2023 (August 23, 1943 - August 23, 2023) Twenty-one years, and on what would be her 80th birthday. I’m of course of a certain age…
1455 PRESENTS: A CONVERSATION WITH BEN PURKERT, AUTHOR OF ‘THE MEN CAN’T BE SAVED’
Writers strikes. Fear and Loathing of all-things-AI. Cutbacks within the industry and academia. One could be forgiven for assuming it’s all bad news all the time, so when a genuine feel-good story unfolds within…
8/15/79: Apocalypse Now
Released in theaters on this date, 44 years ago. Anyone out there who has not seen this movie? Anyone who hasn't seen it several times? Like most masterpieces, nothing can…
Robbie Robertson: The Man in the Band
When it comes to The Band, I've always been inflexible in my opinion that their best work was entirely a team effort, the sum greater than the considerable brilliance of…
Be at Peace, Sweet Sinéad
She was brave. She was beautiful. She was brilliant. We all found our lives enriched thanks to her gift and, as is so often the case with our most fragile…
The Struggle of Memory against Forgetting: Why Milan Kundera Matters
i. Kundera almost killed me, still in my creative cradle, a writer needing nourishment. He arrived in my life too early. As a reader, it wasn’t soon enough, as what…
Original Poem: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY, 1967: MUHAMMAD ALI REFUSES ARMY INDUCTION*
My thanks to Words & Sports Quarterly for publishing my poem about how America handled Muhammad Ali and his (spiritually & politically astute, prescient) conscientious objection to the Vietnam war.…