Now More Than Ever, We Need Jacob Bronowski
If you have never watched “The Ascent of Man” or remember it from years ago but have not watched it since, watch it again.
By Ben Fulton
Why Your Child’s First Rock Concert Matters More Than You Think
Watching my daughter bob her head in time to the music, her fist pumping, I saw that she was in a moment all her own, along with others who followed the same band, all in moments of their own. It was a temporary collective, a bonding with strangers by the odd osmosis of music that grabs the young consciousness at almost every corner of being.
On Becoming a “Morning Person”
Once you get in the habit, you soon discover that 7 am simply will not do. The 8 am hour is the stuff of horror, and 9 am is for louts with the blood pressure of a year-old marshmallow. Only 5:30 or earlier will suffice, when the gray light of dawn verges on the cusp of its full spectrum.
The Exuberant Joy of British Kids Eating U.S. Thanksgiving Food
The joy of this video is it makes our Thanksgiving food new again, even to Americans who know it year after year, every late November. If we cannot be grateful for something made new, how could we possibly be worthy of our own holiday?
Streaming Killed More Than Just Music
To find what you sought was an object earned. There was no “file” piped through the internet.
When Childhood Trading Cards and History Lessons Collide
Art Spiegelman, the force behind both Wacky Packages and the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Maus,” is that rare artist who knows great art may disregard the precision brush strokes of attempting “the masterpiece.”
Nick Cave’s “The Mercy Seat” Is the Best Halloween Song You Have Never Heard
“The Mercy Seat” is a five-minute tour of a death-row inmate’s dirge and final thoughts before death by electric chair pits an ancient Old Testament object against New Testament teachings, turns everyday objects into hallucinations, and laughs at the idea of knowing truth from falsehood, or justice from mercy, when faced with death.
The Magical Metropolis of Our Dreams Becomes a Real Ghost Town
Given several decades, money, and a certain angle on history perhaps planned cities can and do work on some level, and for certain people. The problem with politicians’ well-laid plans is that they rarely work for anyone but the well-off.
Why Dawn of the Dead is the Seventies’ Ultimate Coming-of-Age Movie
“Dawn of the Dead” turns life and death upside down. Life is a stress-soaked struggle to survive, while death is a lurching, subconscious walk through old, submerged impulses until you die again—by firearm, machete, or blunt force. And why do people refuse to die? Because they want to go shopping.
How a Millais Painting Wages Elegant Battle against Climate Change
A painting cannot give us back days of fall lost. But if we gaze at a painting capable of imparting its own unique sensations, we can at least travel to a different place of mind, a consciousness that might move us forward or even shake us to action.
How I Was Told That Joseph Stalin Was a Mass Murderer Because He Was Abused by His Mother
I heard my most memorable account of Joseph Stalin while sitting in the pews of a Presbyterian church. I was near late adolescence, young enough to be bored by a church service but old enough to take intermittent interest.
Get Ready for Roadkill
Roadkill resides at the end of the spectrum where our adoration for animals ends and nuisance begins.