The western ideal of clothing is couture: One garment being made to fit one woman perfectly at one moment in her life. A more eastern approach to clothing is you have a big piece of fabric and you wrap it around you in some way. Therefore the whole concept of fit is completely different. HavingRead moreRead more

Optimism from the 2008 election. “Jesus Was a Community Organizer; Pilate Was a Governor:” Or, a Few Words About Why I Support Barack Hussein Obama I am not interested here in the spreading of rumors, of campaigns of misinformation, or of the cultivation of fear. I am not interested in hate-mongering or in questioning theRead moreRead more

I just saw Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette,” a film that manages to be lightweight, ahistorical, and yet weighted with deep truths about royalty all at once.  How does it pull off this bizarre trifecta?  Well, by taking as its subject a female royal: while kings, emperors, and tsars were leaders of nations, the women whoRead moreRead more

I’ve been recently meditating on a quote from Ta-Nehisi Coates, which I posted here before:   The problems of democracy, like the problems of monogamy, are very real. In championing both (one for myself, the other for my country) I’ve never done so out of sense of ultimate solutions, but out of a sense that eachRead moreRead more

I’ve been long away from the Internet.  Fear not; more posts are a-brewin’.   In the meantime, a couple points of interest:   1.  NPR takes on the notion that popular art and bad art are necessarily related. 2.  Rebecca Solnit observes the changing face of San Francisco. 3.  A fascinating look at a newRead moreRead more

I experience this as a kind of violence against language.   -Ta-Nehisi Coates, dressing down David Mamet’s latest schlocktacular.   Also: this explains a very good deal about the (imperfect, non-egalitarian, embedded-patriarchy) world.

I’ve been excited for weeks about the opening of the film adaptation of “Les Mis”: a big, sprawling, spectacular and semi-insane musical based on the novel (to which all of those same adjectives also apply).  I saw the movie and came away deeply satisfied with a problematic product – even the best art is almostRead moreRead more

On gun control, and America’s gun culture:   1.  A bit of history – for instance, did you know Ronald Reagan used to be pro-gun control? 2.  A bit of perspective – the falseness of using mass shootings as a guidepost for a sane gun policy. 3.  Thoughts from TNC and friends about the vastRead moreRead more

I was going to post about “The Mindy Project”, and the portrayal of women in this year’s sitcoms.  But something else has come up.   Of course.  You know what I’m talking about; everyone does.  The mass murder of elementary schoolers – of six-year-olds – is horrific on a level far beyond politics, beyond politicization.Read moreRead more

I’ve been in Miami for the past week, spending time with the Cuban half of my family in sub-tropical warmth and being surprised by more than just the weather.  This is, in large part, because in Miami I am immersed in Spanish: I hear it, I speak it, I think it, and the world isRead moreRead more