Someone told me once that I lived a monkish life. She meant something vaguely Buddhist rather than vaguely Catholic, I think, but when pressed she said only that I was bald, lived quietly, read books and wrote a lot, and liked to walk and cook as if they were meditative activities. I […]
The December 2024 murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson by alleged gunman Luigi Mangione on the streets of New York City had all the hallmarks of a bold revolutionary act, broadly spelled out in three words inscribed on cartridge cases found at the murder scene: “Delay,” “Deny,” “Depose.” For revolutionaries in waiting, […]
The Candyman films (1992 and 2021) set out to tell a harrowing narrative of historical and modern-day racial violence in Chicago. Oddly, this began when director Bernard Rose bought the rights to Clive Barker’s novella The Forbidden. The Forbidden dealt with themes of class and social abandonment in the UK. Still, Rose, […]
The biannual Art & Design sale at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, in St. Louis’ Metro East, was as well-attended last weekend as usual. Visitors shopped in the atrium of the Art & Design building for ceramics as well as glass, metal, photo, and print objects. Proceeds funded the Wagner Potters Association, […]
The fabric is Scottish broadcloth, a white as warm as the sunlit cathedral stone. The colors have the pure brilliance of the stained glass. The design is clean, strong, and radiant; I cannot imagine anything more joyful. Or riskier. In a time when many Catholics are growing more conservative, the Archbishop of Paris […]
On Monday, November 25, Leonard Slatkin and the Chamber Music Society of St. Louis will present D.BachL, presumably pronounced “debacle,” a tribute to the composer Peter Schickele (who died on January 16 at age 88) and his comical alter ego, P.D.Q. Bach. It is sure to be a night of fun […]
My assignment (this was years ago) was to profile Archbishop Justin Rigali. A shy, diffident man who had zero desire to talk to the press. Frantic for insight, I did the usual sharklike circling, interviewing everyone I could find who knew him well. But the most helpful interview was with John Padberg, a […]
Many of us are old enough to remember the 1970s and its endless debates, battles, and even “war of the sexes,” when feminism emerged from its nascent forms and became a seismic force. How many of us, by contrast, cringe at the seemingly endless debate of what it means to “be […]
My only trip to Paris was a three-day whirlwind many years ago. With no time for the Louvre, I went instead to the Rodin Museum—and fell in love. The white roses climbing a stone wall outside the entrance; the stillness inside, despite the crowd; sunlight streaming through floor-to-ceiling arched windows, lighting the sculptures’ […]
Horror film connoisseurs are not born. They are made. They are made after watching endless iterations of the jump scare, after several trips to the kitchen or bathroom while basic plot points mount into ratcheting tension, and after nerves and stomach are steeled against dry heaves while viewing mind-bending scenes of […]