Geoff Dyer writes so well it seems somehow demeaning to call him a critic, but that's how the world slots him, pretty much, and in books like "Out of Sheer Rage" — his admiring account of D.H. Lawrence's battles — he helps redefine the form. At only 56, last week Dyer suffered a stroke, while livingContinue reading “Pain can lead to growth: Geoff Dyer (and the research)”
Category Archives: culture
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel like eating…everything
Dana Goodyear, the editor/poet/reporter (for The New Yorker) has focused in the last couple of years on the weird edges of foodie culture of today. At least from a traditonalist's perspective, the foodie culure of today has evolved from deliciousness, to hipness, to eating what others haven't — and decadence. Anything that Moves is anContinue reading “It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel like eating…everything”
I can’t pretend to be interested in your books: Chekhov
A Times review of a"Seagull" set in Ireland during the time of "the Troubles" doesn't love the production but brings its wit out lovingly nonetheless. Among the production’s freshest scenes is the brief colloquy between the bluntly bitter Mary and Aston. Mary’s no-nonsense approach to the impossibility of finding lasting love is in contrast toContinue reading “I can’t pretend to be interested in your books: Chekhov”
Fevered: Global warming facts you probably don’t know
Am reviewing expert science reporter Linda Marsa's Fevered, about a hotter planet and what that means for human health. (Spoiler: It's not great news, although "heat adaptation" is possible in many cases.) Though I'm not yet finished, must say I'm impressed with this book. Perhaps the best climate change book I've read since Tim Flannery'sContinue reading “Fevered: Global warming facts you probably don’t know”
Is it over for the blockbuster movie in Hollywood?
Back in June, director Steven Spielberg — who helped launch the mega blockbuster in Hollywood –surprised insiders by predicting that the era of the franchise/merchandizing movie was drawing to a close. As recounted by the acerbic Timothy Egan, in the NY Times: Steven Spielberg, who nearly invented the summer blockbuster with “Jaws,” was ruminating about theContinue reading “Is it over for the blockbuster movie in Hollywood?”
John Luther Adams at Ojai Music Fest (outdoors)
Thanks to a video maven from Bart's Books, here's what the final movement of composer John Luther Adams' Strange and Silent Music looked like this morning at Besant Hill in Upper Ojai. During the entrancing performance, which began on the drums, moved to the east for a soft thudding playing of the gongs, to theContinue reading “John Luther Adams at Ojai Music Fest (outdoors)”
Climate Myths: The Campaign against Climate Science
Energy analyst Dr. John Berger's Climate Myths: The Campaign against Climate Science expertly separates climate fact from misinformation, and is especially good at reminding us of past deceptions put out by fossil fuel companies. Who can forget, for instance, The Greening Earth Society? "A creation of the Western Fuels Association," writes Berger, "…this benevolent-sounding "green organization"Continue reading “Climate Myths: The Campaign against Climate Science”
The Driven American: Unable to wander freely
From Edmund White's gloriously thoughtful The Flâneur:: The flâneur [city walker/wanderer] is by definition endowed with enormous leisure, someone who can take off a morning or afternoon for undirected ambling, since a specific goal or a close rationing of tme is antithetical to the true spirit of the flâneur. An excess of the work ethicContinue reading “The Driven American: Unable to wander freely”
The global warming novel from l962: The Drowned World
In 1962, in his second novel, The Drowned World, J.G. Ballard told a story of steadily rising global temperatures, of ice caps melting and rising seas, of humidity and rains and lizards moving into skyscrapers. It's an extraordinary book, for its imagination and artistry and language, but also for its vison of global warming. MightContinue reading “The global warming novel from l962: The Drowned World”
The Wind from Nowhere: the first natural disaster novel?
J.G. Ballard, although slotted as a science-fiction writer, is in some senses a writer who has lost all faith, in God or man. Perhaps it's natural, then, that he was one of the first (perhaps the first) to write a novel about a natural disaster that overtakes the world: The Wind from Nowhere. What's fascinatingContinue reading “The Wind from Nowhere: the first natural disaster novel?”
Kit Stolz 