Dispatches Archives - Page 50 of 183

Magazines: Lively, Smart, Radioactive, Dead

Jarvis tells that story with no glee. He loves the form as much as I do, and as he recounts the lively history of magazines, he finds the story of larger cultural shifts. The first magazines, he writes, were coffeehouses, curating—before the word came into vogue—the best writing, criticism, poetry, advice, and images. Even the word “magazine” was a French derivation from the Arabic word for storehouse. Those smooth pages collected and preserved treasures.

Arts & Letters | Dispatches

The Beloved Poet-King Eddie Balchowsky

By Jeannette Cooperman

Eddie Balchowsky’s lifestyle had its romance. But it also meant periods of homelessness, nights curled up in a friend’s bathtub to sleep, periods of depression so deep he had to be hospitalized. None of that tore away his kindness.

Society & Culture | Dispatches

Hollywood Goes for the Partisan Jugular with Civil War

By Ben Fulton

The film’s strategic map already has commentators in conniptions. If Texas and California are not more disparate than cheese and chalk, what brand of politics even motivates this movie, let alone motivations for our second civil war?

Arts & Letters | Dispatches

Goodwill to All

By John Griswold

After a time the bin contents blurred into a single substance the color of meat hash. I grew up with food insecurity and unlivable housing, and the deep misery of poverty is always accessible to me.

Society & Culture | Dispatches

Want a Cure for Doomscrolling? Try P.G. Wodehouse

By Jeannette Cooperman

P.G. Wodehouse (pronounced Woodhouse, just to add a wrinkle) was one of a type I used to despise and now grudgingly admire: those who maintain their equilibrium by refusing to look at anything dark or glum. Sturdy as a hard rubber ball, he bounced along in near-total denial.

Arts & Letters | Dispatches

Is Mickey Mouse Evil, or Are We?

By Jeannette Cooperman

Are we taking revenge on The Mouse, or on ourselves?

Arts & Letters | Dispatches

Represent Yourself Before Others Can Represent You

By John Griswold

Never ask your children or close friends to name or represent you. My son, taking his cue during our conversation from trash bins at the curb, said my classical-poet name could be Bald Trash Can. Later, a friend of thirty years said it should be Dirty Worn-Out Apartment Dweller.

Arts & Letters | Dispatches

Why, and How, the Colors of Mental Health Matter

By Ben Fulton

“Neuro Blooms” shows us how mental states might be projected outside our innermost thoughts, out into the physical world, so that they might be drawn back into our consciousness and reinterpreted in new ways.

Arts & Letters | Dispatches

Poor Things, Us

By Jeannette Cooperman

With “Poor Things,” Yorgos Lanthimos has given us a film that is funny, sharp, poignant, imaginative, and visually stunning. I wonder if he knew his baby-woman would also summon a New Year’s resolution for the other end of life.

Arts & Letters | Dispatches

Let Charles Dickens’s The Chimes Invigorate Your Sense of Hope

By Ben Fulton

“The Chimes” is not likely to be adapted for the screen any time soon, uneven as it is when stacked against “A Christmas Carol.” But Toby Veck can be counted among Dickens’s great, undiscovered characters. And the story’s warning, amidst our own ongoing sour times, rings as true as its namesake.

Arts & Letters | Dispatches