Monthly Archives: June 2011

Jack Warner meets Tennessee Williams (or thinks he does)

From Dotson Rader's spectacularly colorful memoir of Tennessee Williams, Cry of the Heart, about his much older friend and lover, here's a note about Williams and Los Angeles:  "Los Angeles [was] a city Tennessee hated more than any other in the world.  "I always feel like a whore there," [he said]. "I don't appreciate worksContinue reading “Jack Warner meets Tennessee Williams (or thinks he does)”

Saving the climate by stopping the tar sands pipeline

Many of this country's most illustrious poets, writers, scientists, and preservationists  are calling for volunteers to come to Washington D.C. this summer to risk arrest to stop construction of a massive tar sands pipeline from Alberta to Texas. This pipeline, the Keystone XL, could destroy any chance we have of preventing runaway global warming.  How muchContinue reading “Saving the climate by stopping the tar sands pipeline”

A Republican compares climatologists to doctors

A nice piece in the Columbia Journalism Review's science writing blog — The Observatory — looks at the reluctance of the Republican field to utter the word "climate" in their most recent debate.  If none of the presidential candidates mentioned climate, it is likely because they have already made it abundantly clear that they areContinue reading “A Republican compares climatologists to doctors”

A new American class: the involuntarily retired

Our local daily newspaper has an excellent story on a new class of unhappy Americans: the involutarily retired. Kim Lamb Gregory introduces the idea with a study, and then grounds it in Ventura County reality: "We are witnessing the birth of a new class — the involuntarily retired," said a report called "The Shattered American Dream."Continue reading “A new American class: the involuntarily retired”

The Grand Canyon of the Colorado: l901

From Our National Parks, published in 1901: No matter how far you have wandered hitherto, or how many famous gorges and valleys you have seen, this one, the Grand Cañon of the Colorado, will seem as novel to you, as unearthly in the color and grandeur and quantity of its architecture, as if you hadContinue reading “The Grand Canyon of the Colorado: l901”

Dawn Upshaw takes a bullet for Ojai Music Fest

That's what it looks like in this picture, from a preview last Friday from NPR: The featured music at the Ojai Music festival this year, Winds of Destiny, came from American composer George Crumb, which NPR helpfully allows us to hear next to the preview. It's stunning — in a festival sort of way. Mark Swed, of theContinue reading “Dawn Upshaw takes a bullet for Ojai Music Fest”

Tennessee Williams: The literary factory

In l937, when Tennessee Williams was twenty-six and just beginning to write plays as well as poems and stories, he and a friend named Clark Mills, who grew up to be a professor of French and poetry, set up what they called a "literary factory" in the basement of Mills' parents' home in St Louis.Continue reading “Tennessee Williams: The literary factory”

Gary Snyder: Still startling after all these years

Gary Snyder appeared last week at the Central Library in Los Angeles, as part of a tribute to his late friend Lew Welch. Snyder was in top form, about as focused and hard-hitting and charming as any man standing at a lectern could hope to be. We all should be so smart at eighty. OrContinue reading “Gary Snyder: Still startling after all these years”