Category Archives: art and humor

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)”

McKibben/Toles: Ignore the climate/disaster connection!

It's long been my contention that environmental writers, artists, and speakers have to access the full range of human emotion to make the case for the urgency of action needed to preserve our existing climate — even bitterness, if necessary. Science and earnest appeals to reason simply aren't enough.  So it's good, in a rhetoricalContinue reading “McKibben/Toles: Ignore the climate/disaster connection!”

The “peculiar, newsworthy,” Republican style of illicit sex

The New York Times has many famous columnists, and one funny one: Gail Collins. Which brings us to sex. What is it with Republicans lately? Is there something about being a leader of the family-values party that makes you want to go out and commit adultery? They certainly don’t have a lock on the infidelityContinue reading “The “peculiar, newsworthy,” Republican style of illicit sex”

The Seven Steps of Global Warming (a primer for deniers, by Toles)

According to Wunderblog's Jeff Masters. this month we've seen $2 billion damage on the Mississippi, a diastrous 300-year flood in Alberta, and flooding in Colombia the likes of which has never been seen. He quotes Colombia's president, Juan Manuel Santos, who after 500+ deaths, said, "the tragedy the country is going through has no precedents in ourContinue reading “The Seven Steps of Global Warming (a primer for deniers, by Toles)”

The paradox of being hard yet soft: Tennessee Williams

In l942, Tennessee Williams, living in Greenwich Village, down to his last ten dollars, at work on a fragment of a play called The Paper Lantern, about a woman named Blanche, living on a plantation called Belle Reve…began to recover the vision he long had lost in his left eye. In his diary, on theContinue reading “The paradox of being hard yet soft: Tennessee Williams”

Go blue! The problem with sports as politics

The play-offs (and Ted Rall) remind me that the sports mindset, as the President might say, has its limits.  I hear Noam Chomsky also has some views on sports. In Manufacturing Consent, in front of an adoring audience, he marvels out loud at the intelligence with which "Joe Six Pack" types can on the radioContinue reading “Go blue! The problem with sports as politics”

Still destroying the climate, but having less fun

Because Americans are driving less, mostly due to the recession (total greenhouse gas emissions are down a pretty stunning 6%, the Energy Information recently reported) the federal government doesn't have the money it needs to fully fund its highway program. But still, all the politicians agree that raising the gas tax is off the table,Continue reading “Still destroying the climate, but having less fun”

A Streetcar Named Desire, by Thomas Hart Benton

The Notebooks of Tennessee Williams, as compiled, databased, and published by Margaret Bradham Thornton, are one of the most astonishing acts of scholarship I have seen (and I have seen plenty).  One example: Here's a painting called Poker Night, by Thomas Hart Benton, based on what we know of as A Streetcar Named Desire, givenContinue reading “A Streetcar Named Desire, by Thomas Hart Benton”

Diablo Canyon for Dummies (by Steve Brodner)

Though I'm not crazy about web videos, this is a real charmer, and a good primer about Diablo Canyon, which supplies much of central CA with power.  http://www.slatev.com/media/swfs/SlateGroupPlayer.swf < Because both a local Republican and a Democratic Congressperson have made an issue of PG&E's amazing lack of competence regarding this plant, PG&E has put offContinue reading “Diablo Canyon for Dummies (by Steve Brodner)”