Author Archives: Kit Stolz

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”

Weird CA weather linked to Arctic Oscillation, global warming

Forecaster extraordinaire Bill Patzert makes the connection, in a story in the Sac Bee:  This year, the blame [for the weird weather in California] falls on a complex interaction between La Niña and another phenomenon called a negative Arctic oscillation, Patzert and others said. La Niña is marked by a cooling of equatorial waters inContinue reading “Weird CA weather linked to Arctic Oscillation, global warming”

Financial analyst: “Pack up and move to the virtual world”

A highly regarded financial analyst tells us not to worry about rising commodity prices, because the developing world is moving away from products made of the real world. Rick Bookstaber writes:  Given our evolved interests a few decades hence, most of us will be spending a fraction of our income on consumption. There just won'tContinue reading “Financial analyst: “Pack up and move to the virtual world””

NBA stats guys pick Miami, but blew it on Dallas/Lakers

Here's an odd fact to mull going into the good-looking NBA Finals war between Dallas and Miami: Not one NBA statistician polled by ESPN picked Dallas to win this bout. Henry Abbott explains: The TrueHoop Stat Geek Smackdown features eight participants. Two pick the Mavericks to win the 2011 NBA Finals — the other sixContinue reading “NBA stats guys pick Miami, but blew it on Dallas/Lakers”

As men become weaker, movie heroes get stronger

That's according to a Harvard psychologist quoted in yesterday's Los Angeles Times.  “As men have lost more economic power, more social power, they’ve wanted to look more pumped up,” [Emily] Fox-Kales said, pointing to the recent recession that disproportionately hit male-dominated jobs like construction and manufacturing. “Muscles have become an accessory, like pickup trucks.” TheContinue reading “As men become weaker, movie heroes get stronger”

Beached white males: the Great Recession comes home

At a graduation ceremony, I visited with middle-aged men of my acquaintance, and found many of them — maybe even a majority — living like me without steady work. When I talked about it a little, they readily admitted they were hurting. Taking construction jobs for a $100 under the table, despite having careers inContinue reading “Beached white males: the Great Recession comes home”