Category Archives: art and humor

2018 headline: “Finland’s president denies telling Trump that his country rakes its forests”

This is an actual headline on the homepage of the Washington Post this evening. To explain the misleading: Prez Trump said that the President of Finland told him that Finland had many forests but no problem with forest fires. “He called it a forest nation,” Trump said, “and they spent a lot of time onContinue reading “2018 headline: “Finland’s president denies telling Trump that his country rakes its forests””

Summer’s End (via John Prine)

John Prine brought out a record this year, his first in thirteen years, that has fans and critics alike raving (and won the Artist of the Year Award at the Americana awards in Nashville). The best song on the record — or at least the prettiest — is Summer’s End, of which I cannot getContinue reading “Summer’s End (via John Prine)”

Puttering about in a Small Land (Philip K. Dick book review)

Ojai through the eyes of a great American writer Philip K. Dick, now widely considered the most brilliant of all science fiction writers, wrote hundreds of extraordinarily imaginative stories and forty-four novels, and — like an innovative artist who only becomes famous after his death — in recent years has had his work splashed acrossContinue reading “Puttering about in a Small Land (Philip K. Dick book review)”

The Not-Quite-Sober John Muir (review)

Here’s a book review/essay I wrote a while back for a journal called Wild Earth, that I repost here on A Change in the Wind because I want it to be Google-able. Below the fold I’ll put it the remainder of the review in a standard font. For Muir admirers, please let me say itContinue reading “The Not-Quite-Sober John Muir (review)”

Greatest hurricane movie ever? Key Largo

Key Largo has to be the greatest hurricane movie ever, and one of starriest pictures of all time. The cast will knock you out: Beginning with Bogart and Bacall, and including Lionel Barrymore, Claire Trevor and Edgar G. Robinson, for crying out loud, who dominates the picture as a gangster threatened by the power ofContinue reading “Greatest hurricane movie ever? Key Largo”

Dear Sam Shepherd I miss you already

One of the most American of us all died yesterday. Sam Shepherd, I miss you today.                                       In tribute, let me quote a short piece from his countless marvelous writings. This one happens to be about hisContinue reading “Dear Sam Shepherd I miss you already”

Garrison Keiller on the piousness of climate activists

Humorists and contrarians so often seem to drink from the same well, as Garrison Keiller did this week in mocking Trump, Trump supporters, climate activists, Europeans, the Chinese, smokers, and himself in a column this week. No sensuous pleasure can compare to the thrill of righteousness, and when the poor schlump [Trump] stood in theContinue reading “Garrison Keiller on the piousness of climate activists”

What is the musical analog of poetry? (Moonlight)

Composer Nicholas Brittel talks to Song Exploder about how he discovered the theme to Moonlight: On what drew him to Moonlight: When I first read [the script], I was just overwhelmed by this feeling of beauty and poetry, that was really the starting point for my personal experience with the film. There was just thisContinue reading “What is the musical analog of poetry? (Moonlight)”