Journey to the East: Food, Operas, and Humidity
I'd waited for almost three years to get on a plane headed for Europe. And Paris did not disappoint. Balmy summer weather, baguettes as good as my memories, and a few days to kill roaming the city, and some great museums before my night at the opera—Parsifal—arrived....
Desert Bomb: Dune
Before I get down to serious ripping and shredding, I need to get this off my chest. As a baby boomer, I read and thrilled to Frank Herbert's prescient, imaginative, and mythic futuristic novel. Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, of murky self-important Arrival fame,...
Desert Bomb: Part II
Just thinking about continuing my assessment of Denis Villeneuve's bloated bomb makes me reach for the gin. You'll recall I decided to address whether ponderous camerawork, massive explosions and a behemoth score can actually substitute for a script, dramatic tension,...
Last Call: Poems by Stephen Kessler
Last Call: Poems by Stephen Kessler Essayist, translator, pundit, and poet Stephen Kessler has been courting the muses for over 50 years. In his latest, largest, and 12th collection of poems, Last Call, Kessler's elegant technique explores Santa Cruz, music, lost...
Northern Lights: Images from Per Forsström
If Edvard Munch had been a photographer he might have been Per Forsström, a Stockholm-based new wave polaroid photographer whose growing oeuvre evokes the ambiguity of dreams. And like dreams, Forsström's work is filled with seductive alliances between his skilled...
Inside the Flame
A book of sensory adventure: The rituals, passions and discoveries of an engaged life.