Chris Wallach
Some people are able to focus, laser-like, on one thing—athletes, musicians, scientists. For Chris Wallach, it’s mindfulness. It’s a gift. It’s a talent she’s deliberately cultivated over the last many years. It’s a whole set…
Author: Mark J. Chmiel
Problematizing My Faves: Susie Linfield on Noam Chomsky
Dear Max, The following passages are from Susie Linfield’s book, The Lions’ Den: Zionism and the Left from Hannah Arendt to Noam Chomsky. While the focus is on Middle East matters, you may see some…
Zosima’s Two Tweets Today Aren’t Trending
Above all, avoid lies, all lies, especially the lie to yourself. Keep watch on your own lie and examine it every hour, every minute. And avoid contempt, both of others and of yourself: what seems…
Somewhere Along the Line the Pearl Would Be Handed to Me
In the bar I told Dean, “Hell, man, I know very well you didn’t come to me only to want to become a writer, and after all what do I really know about it except…
Friday 9 September 2022
… Later I’m back in New York sitting around with Irwin and Simon and Raphael and Lazarus, and now we’re famous writers more or less, but they wonder why I’m so sunk now, so unexcited…
Sempre Avanti
Dear CaterinaWhat I want— To mediate with you for 60 minutesAnd not a peep from me Our eyes closed I’ll silently chantA mantra to you, for you Quelle surprise … I missed youAnd often did…
Written in the Margins of “Golden Eternity”
Jack Kerouac, The Scripture of the Golden EternityCity Lights Pocket Poet Series #51Introductions by Anne Waldman and Eric Mottram I had fun sparring with Jackie K with his slapdash scripture. I am Jack, that’s for…
Share the Wealth: Writing with Yael
#1Last Night’s Email from Jessica Flier I write, becauseFirst and foremost, I must!But also – because,Of you.To take the broken heart and expose itbring the carefully concealed underbelly to the surfaceresisting the urge to hide…
Andrew Wimmer
Advocate of Whitmanian adhesiveness, instigator of Stop Torture Now, critic of power and its minions, exemplar of generosity and hospitality par excellence, Andrew Wimmer has enriched and expanded my life for 25 years. You’ll come…
Problematizing My Faves: A Conservative Remembers Allen Ginsberg
Norman Podhoretz, Ex-Friends: Falling out with Allen Ginsberg, Lionel & Diana Trilling, Lillian Hellman, Hannah Arendt, and Norman Mailer In a recent post, I acknowledged finally paying closer attention to the second precept of Thich…