image “borrowed” from stlog
Donald Finkel is one of those poets I’ve yet to get around to seriously reading but whose poems stand out enough that I actually remember them long after serendipitously discovering them in journals such as The Paris Review and The Chicago Review. Finkel’s name also comes up regularly in conversations and interviews [...]

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Sad news. William Claxton, photographer responsible for many iconic images of jazz musicians and celebrities, has died. Along with pictures by William Gottlieb, Herman Leonard and Milt Hinton, when I think of jazz, photos by Claxton come to mind. A variety can be seen on his site.
 
 

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No one will ever talk me out of my love for the Big American triad of Faulkner, Fitzgerald and (yes) Hemingway. By now I’ve probably heard all the criticisms and they are irrelevant in the face of the work itself.
Anyway, anyone who has spent much time with either of the latter two will have [...]

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Hail and farewell, Lois Maxwell, best known as Miss Moneypenny

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There were many imitators and satirists, but just one master…

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Author of perhaps the only great novel that actually begins “it was a dark and stormy night,” Madeleine L’Engle has died. It’s probably not an exaggeration to say that I owe a significant portion of the good things in my life– and a number of lifelong obsessions– to the cornerstone experience of reading A Wrinkle [...]

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Among contemporary philosophers, I know of none who equalled Rorty in confronting his colleagues - and not only them - over the decades with new perspectives, new insights and new formulations. This awe-inspiring creativity owes much to the Romantic spirit of the poet who no longer concealed himself behind the academic philosopher.
Habermas responds to the [...]

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Another good one gone.
Like many, I met Kurt Vonnegut through his much anthologized story, Harrison Bergeron. I was at the perfect age to read it: old enough to understand that this was a different kind of story– one of philosophy and moral and dark humor– but young enough not to be so jaded as to [...]

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On a completely different note, John Inman– best known as Mr. Humphries in “Are You Being Served”– has also passed away…

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On a distant shore, miles from land
stands the ebony totem in ebony sand
a dream in a mist of gray…
on a far distant shore…
The pebble that stood alone
and driftwood lies half buried
warm shallow waters sweep shells
so the cockles shine…
A bare winding carcass, stark
shimmers as flies scoop up meat, an empty way…
dry tears…
crisp flax squeaks tall reeds
make [...]

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