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“Strangers and Mirrors”: On Two Noirs from Orson Welles [by David Lehman]
Today The American Scholar posted my essay on The Stranger and The Lady from Shanghai, two late 1940s noirs from Orson Welles. Here are the opening paragraphs, with a link to the piece at The American…
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“Abstand” (a dispatch from Berlin) [by Kathleen Heil]
In German, there are various nouns that can be used to convey what we mean by the word distance in English: Zwischenraum, Abstand, the cognate Distanz. With its repellent prefix, Abstand is the one…
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“Beautiful Chaos”: Revised Obit for Hache Carillo (alias Herman Carroll) [in the Washington Post]
On the ambiguities of cultural appropriation, the powers of the imagination, and the great American tradition of springing from your Platonic conception of yourself, this article from today's Washington Post is must reading. It…
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Herbie Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage” [a Jamie Katz Recommendation]
Jamie Katz has been asked to select the ten musical albums that have made the greatest impact on him. He posts one album cover per day for ten consecutive days. This is his choice…
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“Check Back on May 22, 2021” [by Milton Obenzinger]
Today is my birthday May 22, 2020And my parents come to visitSitting on the couch after arriving from the deadThey whisper with each otherIn Polish that I can almost understandAnd they ask questions“Are you…
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Julius Jaffe: The Analects (5) [by Mitch Sisskind]
RABBI RABINOWITZ Julius Jaffe approached Rabbi Rabinowitz. He said, "I will marry Esther Tabachnik. I am 118 years old." Rabbi Rabinowitz said, "'Today I have begotten you.' (Psalms 2:7) On certain days — every…
