This is a song from the great and often unjustly overlooked Austin-based rocker James McMurtry about — he says as he says introducing this new song — “18th century feudalism and primogeniture and their combined effects on modern-day American redneck culture.” After playing to countless “rooms full of rednecks” in Texas and other Western states,Continue reading “Sons of the Second Son; or, origin of the redneck, by James McMurtry”
Category Archives: art and humor
10 Years of Reading Ojai
A decade of conversations with notable writers in and around Ojai.
John Lennon’s Lullaby
This year I stumbled upon a spectacularly good story about the often-overlooked song that concludes the White Album, a record that John Lennon thought included some of his best work with the Beatles. That song is “Good Night.” You may recall the lush orchestration, the soothing, and Ringo — not John — singing with aContinue reading “John Lennon’s Lullaby”
Nature’s Revenge: T.C. Boyle on “Blue Skies”
Here’s this quarter’s book feature for Ojai Quarterly, an allusive interview with the delightful-if-doomy T.C. Boyle. (Think that’s part of Boyle’s brilliance: he embeds an awareness of the end of his characters’ lives into the storytelling — so often we see characters up against their uniquely-driven fates. Worse, they know it — which makes usContinue reading “Nature’s Revenge: T.C. Boyle on “Blue Skies””
Neil Young live in 3D 2023
Neil Young toured smaller arenas this summer on the West Coast, playing solo, mostly acoustic, often on a piano or organ. I saw him in Napa with friends, I’m fortunate to be able to say, and honestly, you could hear the reverence in the crowd. There was a hush when he picked up the guitarContinue reading “Neil Young live in 3D 2023”
Orwell and the earth
When [the critic] Woodcock compared Orwell to Antaeus, who draws his strength from the earth, he might have also meant that he drew his intellectual strength from the specific and the tangible and from firsthand experience. It set him at odds with an era in which ideologies led many astray, not least as doctrines defendingContinue reading “Orwell and the earth”
the new solar system
Beatrice Wood stars again
Beatrice, the artist and icon, still lives on in the hearts and minds of Ojai residents, despite passing away 25 years ago.
Global warming is a hoax
Soul-making is a crafting, said James Hillman
Soul-making is like any other imaginative activity. It requires crafting, just as does politics, agriculture, the arts, love relations, war, or the winning of any natural resource. What is given won’t get us through; something must be made of it. From The Dream and the Underworld, by James Hillman, a deeply informed exploration of theContinue reading “Soul-making is a crafting, said James Hillman”
Kit Stolz 