Point Omega – DeLilloโs Literary Masterpiece
photo - towards point omega - rlw This book is a meditation held together by the flow of time; time says that one thing must come after another, we do not will this, it is. We can will to erect things, language, to look as though we have arrested the flow but it is a …
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Ukraine – Summing Up – And the Role of the American Press
An excellent story from N + 1, showing some of the roots and political forces of the Ukraine conflict. Given the history of the Ukraine as it is told here, it is clear why simple violence can cut through the web of historical entanglement that refuses to get clear for a life in the present. …
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The Front Page 2.0 – By Michael Kinsley
Just when you thought it was over. From : VANITY FAIR MAGAZINE - MAY 2014 In most hand-wringing debates about the future of newspapers, high-quality journalism is seen as doomed by the Internet. The authorโV.F.โs newest columnistโbegs to disagree. By Michael Kinsley BY CARL MYDANS/TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES.THE WAY IT WAS Multiple editions, breaking …
Ivan Illich & Jerry Brown – Natural Affinities?
THE ART OF SUFFERING by Jerry Brown When in 1976, I first met Ivan Illich at the Green Gulch Farm, he told me that his current focus was the study of economics. Then, I didn't understand that by the word economics, Illich meant a way of life where things are experienced only under assumptions of …
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Robert Bringhurst – Language, Myth and Poetry
I find that Robert Bringhurst brings to the world a unique perspective of humans and their role in nature. He argues the idea that humans are merely part of nature and the idea that we are here to rule nature and to separate it from our lives will not only remove us from reality but …
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Philip Seymour Hoffman
A very serious loss to our culture. Two articles on Hoffman - Open Letters Monthly and The New Yorker. ย In one of those wonderful old theater stories Laurence Olivier is said to have asked another Hoffman, Dustin, as the younger man voluntarily underwent physical abuse in order to convincingly play a tortured prisoner, โmy …
Morris Graves – Northwest Art
A Masterful Story Of American Power – Errol Morris
McGinn’s Departure Is a Loss To the City of Seattle
http://take21.seattlechannel.org/2013/12/20/the-final-interview-mayor-mike-mcginn/ Please view the above link to the video. The interview was conducted by the Seattle Channel which is a service of the City of Seattle. McGinn accomplished much in his time in office. The city is better off because of him. He represents the best of progressive leadership in America. McGinn says this so …
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Mindfulness Comes At A Price
Camille Paglia – Making A Case For Real Gender Differences
American culture and specifically Hollywood TV, is in the process of neutering the males of our society. Masculinity is boxed up and cauterised to fit into the restraints of a fantasy feminine world that is controlled through PC management. Camille Paglia is a woman who sees this clearly. Camille Paglia: A Feminist Defense of …
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“The Quiet American” – David Remnick
The Quiet American - Gaby Wood - The Observer, Saturday 9 September 2006 It's a magazine that runs 10,000-word articles on African states and the pension system, has almost no pictures and is published in black and white. So how does the New Yorker sell more than a million copies a week? Gaby Wood meets David Remnick, its …
Marilynne Robinson – Community vs Tribalism
I have reposted two items: 1) a fragment from an interview of Robinson where she describes the process of how American colleges evolved in the Midwest. 2) the complete essay Imagination & Community from her book of Essays When I Was a Child I Read Books. The imaginative makeup of a writer is established by …
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Robert Davidson – Haida Art – “To Regain Integrity We Have To Re-create The Foundation”
What Henry Wallace Saw Clearly in 1936
"Probably the most damaging indictment that can be made of the capitalistic system is the way in which its emphasis on unfettered individualism results in exploitation of natural resources in a manner to destroy the physical foundation of national longevity." 1936 Henry Wallace FDR's Secretary of Agriculture http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2013/10/14/131014crat_atlarge_ross
This Is How The World Works
The Antigone Poems – Book Review
A book review of: The Antigone Poems by Marie Slaight Drawings by Terrence Tasker 2013, Altaire Production and Publishing Potts Point, Australia December 4, 2013 Poets do not know this terrain. Yet they may meditate on its being, one that is multiplied by galaxies yet named. And here she claims a sun, it is hers. …
Anthropocene – “this civilization is already dead”.
Photo Credit:Jeff DelViscio A startling soldier's story of war and our future. Compact in its unfolding, but strong in its philosophical architecture. Listen up. Driving into Iraq just after the 2003 invasion felt like driving into the future. We convoyed all day, all night, past Army checkpoints and burned-out tanks, till in the blue dawn …
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TOKYO-GA Charity Photo Book
What is TOKYO-GA? "ๆฑไบฌ็ป" means "Tokyo picture" and derives from Wim Wenders' great movie. It is also the name of an international collective of photographers that shoot in Tokyo. We can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/groups/tokyo-ga/ โๆฑไบฌ็ปโใฏๆฑไบฌใใใผในใซๆดปๅใใๅฝ้็ใชๅ็ๅฎถใใกใฎ้ๅฃใงใใโๆฑไบฌ็ปโใจใใๅๅใฏใใดใฃใ ใปใดใงใณใใผในใฎ็ด ๆดใใใๆ ็ปใใๅผ็จใใพใใใ็งใใกใฎๆดปๅใฏใใกใใงใ่ฆใใพใใ http://www.flickr.com/groups/tokyo-ga/ http://www.tokyogaga.com
New Yorker Article – MARCEL REICH-RANICKI (1920-2013) – German Literary Critic – by Sally McGrane
On the cover of this weekendโs Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitungโs feuilleton, Marcel Reich-Ranicki, Germanyโs โLiterary Pope,โ gazes out from the center of the page. The table at which he sits, alone, is set for a formal dinner; his silk tie is rakishly askew. His expression is sovereign but kind, thoughtful, knowing. Below the photoโtaken three years ago, …
Howard Zinn – Be Hopeful
"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys …
A Path To An Ocean Passage
Yellowstone to Yukon – Species Bridge
Shunryลซ Suzuki-rลshi THE WAY-SEEKING MIND
Seymour Hersh on Fixing Journalism With a Hatchet – 2 Articles
Yes. 1. Seymour Hersh on Fixing Journalism With a Hatchet Posted on Sep 27, 2013 Eckehard Schulz/dapdSeymour Hersh. Seymour Hersh, the reporter who exposed the My Lai massacre in 1969 and the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in 2004, wants to shutter the major news bureaus, fire 90 percent of editors and generally make journalists outsiders …
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America Reborn – Martin Walker
An excellent essay on America considering the last 100 years. It is an overview that focuses on highlights and results. It establishes quickly the author's deep experience in the complexity of the society and its inherent conflicts and natures. While the conclusions feel right, the devil is always in the details. Our details are often …
Towards a More Altruistic Society – Matthieu Ricard
Special Human Powers – The Lotus Sutra – Fragments
This is a talk about special powers that people have without knowing it nor using them. This discussion is a transcript of a talk given by Shunryu Suzuki and the transcript lacks fluidity but reflects the actual presentation style of Suzuki. The sutra story shows that through paying attention to what is in front of …
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Salish Archipelago
Zen Master – Gary Snyder and the Art of Life.
Northwesterlies – Doublebluff – Whidbey Island
The Neophyte – Diligence In the Face Of The World
Dogfish Woman – A Bay in the Pacific
Preston Singletary – Tlingit Artist
Grammars of Creation – George Steiner
"Beyond good and evil, beyond reason and social-ethical accountability, rages the drive to create, to engender form." Grammars of Creations George Steiner Jackson Pollock - Untitled (Figure Composition), 1938-41. Colored pencils and graphite on paper
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn – Artist & Advocate
Louise Gluck – Poems 1962-2012
Annie Leibovitz Interview
The Underside of Silicon Valley – Rebecca Solnit
Solnit is a San Francisco native and has written about the town from many perspectives including art, photography and geography. This article appears in "Tom Dispatch" and is part of a dark take on the current explosion of revelations on government spying and recently the FBI's admission that it is using drones domestically. From both …
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Organic in Cascadia: A Sequence of Energies – Paul E Nelson
The Creative Act – Marcel Duchamp
PHOTO - IRVING PENN THE CREATIVE ACT by Marcel Duchamp Let us consider two important factors, the two poles of the creation of art: the artist on the one hand, and on the other the spectator who later becomes the posterity. To all appearances, the artist acts like a mediumistic being who, from the labyrinth …
A Brit Blows America’s Horn – “America The Marvelous”
LETTER FROM LONDON July 2013 America the Marvelous At any liberal-establishment dinner table in London, say, or Paris, the U.S. will figure as a big, fat, dumb child. Enough, says the author, in an adaptation from his new book: America is Europeโs finest inventionโand ultimate aspiration. By A. A. GillIllustration by Barry Blitt KING OF THE WORLD The …
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Saul Bellow: Letters
Excellent writing about a master of fiction and American life. Saul Bellow: Letters In the newly published collected correspondence of Saul Bellow... BY LEO ROBSON PUBLISHED 11 NOVEMBER 2010 Letters Saul Bellow, edited by Benjamin Taylor Penguin, 571pp, ยฃ30 "Of course I am not a Freudian," Saul Bellow wrote to Philip Roth in 1974. "For one fierce …
Thinking Out Loud
Only citizens through their responsive government can monitor and guide the behaviour of corporations and their interaction with people and the natural, fragile earth. We need more people who are intelligent, informed, and unbiased and who articulate the truths that media won't.-rlw
The End, This Time
James Rhodes: ‘Find what you love and let it kill you’
My life as a concert pianist can be frustrating, lonely, demoralising and exhausting. But is it worth it? Yes, without a shadow of a doubt. 'Isn't it worth fighting back in some small way?' Pianist James Rhodes. Photograph: Dave Brown 2012 After the inevitable "How many hours a day do you practice?" and "Show me …
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Islands – Ludovico Einaudi
The Decisive Moment – Henri Cartier-Bresson
An excellent introduction to the man. This is a slide show presentation with Henri narrating. His poetic personality comes through clearly. He has a very unique sense of what photography is to him.
Evening In May
West Pacific Review 