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The blues and the truth by degrees
As much as I love a good old-fashioned Sunday paper in print, the online version of today’s New York Times has a leg up on the hard copy: a multimedia version of the cover story of the Times Magazine, “The Ballad of Geeshie and Elvie.” It’s a fascinating account of the search for information about… Read more
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One nation?
The Second American Civil War began not with a cannonball but with a tweet. In the early morning of November 9, 2016, the defeated right-wing Republican presidential nominee* called on his followers to “Resist this socialist plague by any means necessary. Be ready to quit these ‘United States’ to build a new nation where we… Read more
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Believe in…you know
We’re not there yet. After dealing us a pair of historic storms that shut down the city for days on end, the weather gods are playing cat-and-mouse with our hopes. Monday was a t-shirt day, the temperature leaping into the 70s while the sun brightened the green of the new grass, warming both our bodies… Read more
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Center of the mindless
When I was growing up in Michigan back in the late 60s and early 70s, we took a lot of pride in all the great Detroit rock bands that the rest of the country hadn’t discovered yet. We had the MC5, Iggy and the Stooges, Mitch Ryder, the Rationals, and of course Bob Seger, who… Read more
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“Booming” officially bust
Well, that didn’t take long. The New York Times has announced that its online Booming section, which I wrote about when it first sprouted, is going away. Say it isn’t so. Can’t you just hear the anguish from the aging multitudes, suddenly and forever deprived of a defining voice, a place to call home in… Read more
Stories from the South and the subconscious