In the late 1990s I became smitten with a Welsh psychedelic pop band, the Super Furry Animals. I first saw them in Boston, then a couple years later in Seattle, where I’d moved, and then a few times in New York City, where I’d moved again. I’d stand in the crowd and imagine a conversation …
Tag Archives: Perspective
“Where Do You Get Your Ideas?”
I was watching a documentary on Kurt Vonnegut the other night. There’s a scene where they take him back to his high school, to the plaque with alumni killed in World War Two. He identifies those he knew, recounting and laughing about how they died. Laughing, obviously, in a “so it goes” way, but still. …
Degustation
I like saltines a lot. I don’t keep them in the house because I’d go through sleeves in a sitting. I like Coca-Cola, too. I hardly ever drink it, in deference to my teeth and sublime physique, but whenever I do I think it’s tasty stuff. *** Years ago I heard an interview on …
Top Jimmy
1968: the assassinations of MLK and RFK, riots, the My Lai Massacre, the Tet Offensive, famine in Biafra, the invasion of Czechoslovakia, the founding of the Khmer Rouge, four submarines mysteriously lost with all hands… And then, on Christmas Eve, William Anders snapped this photo. As a telegram to his crewmate put it: “Thank you …
Rough First Draft
That’s from the January 16, 2020 issue of The Economist. I haven’t seen the current one, but we may be in for quite a year if it mentions limited insurrection.
Sandblasted
Glances, bases, hearts … That’s what I thought people stole. Who knew this too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_theft *** So, I don’t know how I missed this, but apparently we had an interstellar visitor a while back, ‘Oumuamua. I learned about it from this interview with the chairman of Harvard’s astronomy department. I’ve found myself …
Thinking Fast and Slow
In Science I teach that Earth has been around for a long time, and in Ancient Civilizations I teach that humanity has been around for a long time. Monday I’m taking the latter class out to the football field to recreate this video, that they might see which has existed longer: Well, …
The Bricklayer
So you think you’re bad at math? It’s not you, it’s… Uh, anyway. In the Light of What We Know is one of the better novels I’ve read in the past few years, all the more so because it’s a first novel. I was so taken with this one passage that I copied it …