The George Floyd protests spread west across coastal Louisiana yesterday, from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Lake Charles, 30 miles from Texas. The Lake Charles rally, sponsored by the Black Heritage Festival of Louisiana and Black Lives Matter, was held at the busy intersection of Broad and Enterprise streets, just east of […]
Below St. Louis, the face masks disappeared. The sign on the door of the gas station near the St. Francois Mountains said, Please don’t come in here if you have a fever or bad cough. If you cough inside, please do it into your elbow. The second place we stopped, in Arkansas, had locked […]
Formats of food shows are pretty set these days. There are the competitions, brutal or kind. The ones that make food an oddity, a fetish, or glutton’s challenge. The chemistry-for-better-brining sort, often combined with The Traditionalists, who know these things by classical training and mastery. (I binge-watched the America’s Test Kitchen crew, Julia Child, and […]
My elder son tells me he wants adventure. Something memorable. Historic. Being born in the privateer age would have been nice. He worries there are no adventures left. I tell both my sons to notice what is going on and to remember. It is a historic age, of scientific discoveries, national division, political extremes, […]
The new documentary Becoming, released May 6, is the second film from Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions, which signed with Netflix in 2018. Their first film (see my review here) was American Factory, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature last year. American Factory’s power came from showing the culture […]
In keeping with my habit of wondering about people I never see or talk to (and may not know at all), I decided to see how some of them are doing in the crisis. In June of last year I met Rob Connoley, owner of Bulrush STL, a new restaurant in the […]
Doctor Who, “Resolution” New Year’s Special 2019 Written by Chris Chibnall Directed by Wayne Yip Starring Jodie Whittaker, Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill, and Bradley Walsh Guest Starring Daniel Adegboyega, Nicholas Briggs, Nikesh Patel, and Charlotte Ritchie Original Broadcast 1 January 2019 (60 minutes) When the BBC announced in October 2018 that Doctor Who […]
In keeping with my habit of wondering about people I never see or talk to (and may not know at all), I decided to see how some of them are doing in the crisis. LaDonna Tamakawastewin Allard is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and its former historical preservation […]
Nicholas Vreeland is what passes for American royalty. He is the grandson of Diana Vreeland, the famous Editor-in-Chief of Vogue, and related to George Washington and Francis Scott Key. His father, “Freck,” was a longtime CIA officer and diplomat, and Nicky, as his family calls him, was born in Switzerland and grew up in Morocco, […]
Doctor Who, “The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos” Series 11, Episode 10 Written by Chris Chibnall Directed by Jamie Childs Starring Jodie Whittaker, Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill, and Bradley Walsh Guest Starring Mark Addy, Percelle Ascott, Phyllis Logan, and Samuel Oatley Original Broadcast 9 December 2018 (49 minutes) Doctor Who’s Series 11—despite the […]
