Tokyo to Sendai
“Don’t follow in the footsteps of the old poets, seek what they have sought,” Matsuo Bashō says, in the Hass translation. Too late: I am in Sendai, Japan, to begin walking a segment of Bashō’s Narrow Road.
By Todd Decker
On the Narrow Road to the Interior
I will be writing from Japan over the next weeks, thanks to The Newman Exploration Center and a Newman Exploration Travel Fund Grant, funded by the Eric P. & Evelyn Newman Foundation, at Washington University in St. Louis.
My main activity will be to walk a segment of poet Matsuo…
Meet, Greet, and Gaze Lovingly Into Stars’ Eyes
Ever wonder what your favorite actors from old TV shows are up to? There is a chance they are down at the Hollywood Show, a fan meet-and-greet at the LAX Westin, as well as in Las Vegas and Chicago. It is in its 40th year.
The…
The Only Thing You Done Was Yesterday
Spoilers ahead.
After 12 seconds of a mysterious global blackout, the world of Yesterday becomes just a little different from ours. There is Pepsi, but no Coke; Stones but no Beatles. It is as if the secret conceit of the movie, directed by Danny Boyle…
Like Ice Sitting on a Cold Stove
Good writing, like any craft or art, convinces us of its inevitability. “It’s like all your sentences always existed, just waiting around in Style Heaven, or wherever, for you to fetch them down,” the admiring student in Wonder Boys says.
Maybe the better word is intentionality: the confidence that a…
Foraging the Good Stuff
Rob Connoley, who owns Bulrush STL, was foraging near I-170 this morning with three of his staff. Bulrush is the newly-opened restaurant in St. Louis with “contemporary interpretations of historic (1820-1870) Ozark cuisine.”
“Everything is made from scratch, every single day,” Rob said as he…
Pompeii and the Deep Unease of Absence
The St. Louis Science Center has an exhibit now called “Pompeii: The Exhibition,” with 150 artifacts on loan from the Naples National Archaeology Museum. “A volcano awakens, a city vanishes,” signs say.
Visitors must look first at artifacts of everyday life in Pompeii, then stand through a short CGI movie…
A Simpsons Table Read, but Homer Not Happy
“Tim” went to a table read last week for a new episode of the Simpsons, on the Fox Studios lot in Los Angeles. The series is in its historic 30th season, and the episode would not air for a year. He got tickets because a visiting friend knew someone who…
The Male Dreams of His Repose
Maybe you remember the Sean Connery ad. Not the one for Jim Beam or Suntory whiskey, or Smirnoff vodka, or Japanese yogurt, or Apple computers, or Rolex watches, or vaguely nautical clothing. I mean the 2008 campaign for Louis Vuitton bags, shot by Annie Leibowitz, with…
Considering How My Light is Spent
The spider came out of the molding in the bathroom, saw me, and scurried back into the jamb. It meant me no harm, and if given voice might even admit I am of some use in it making a living.
We serve other creatures in many ways, some of them…
Yossarian Lives, But Not at Hulu
The first season (six episodes) of the new series Catch-22, co-directed and executive-produced by George Clooney, is available now on Hulu. I was cautiously optimistic, going by the trailer that loads up the novel-like bits, and by the enthusiasm of author Joseph Heller’s daughter on social…
The Merciful Scale of Life
For some butterflies, all of life is a few summer days of nectar and copulation, a few sweet nights of frogs singing from the ditch.
Scale matters. A very brief life does not see much, and if lucky, sees only good. A flea can live like a burgher on a…