Rothko's Rolodex

There was a Friday in March, not long ago. At long last, I was where I have always wanted to be, and never reached until recently: Eretz Israel, specifically Yerushalayim. We were there with our Chabad community, for nearly two weeks. Each day magnified my desire to be there, at last sated. But at the… Continue reading

Back to the rotting Conestoga that is WordPress. I am recovering from a broken ankle, pulmonary embolism, and DVT, and there is no time like the present. I have a cast on my leg, my butt in a hospital bed, and hours on my hands to type in this moribund blog. I have no desire… Continue reading

Well, prior to today, I last posted on this thing in 2014. That is eight years, not ten. Eight Years After is not a song. The penultimate post, titled METROPOLITAN LIFE, is one of my favorites. I’m happy to say that Mario Batali no longer slings truffles at Eataly, down the block from the Stanford… Continue reading

It’s been a whole decade since I wrote on this thing. The old rock band Ten Years After, whose name I always liked, had a hit called “I’d Love to Change the World.” You’d hear it on PLJ and NEW; very George Harrison guitar, to me at least. At that time I was less than… Continue reading

Walking in NY, there’s a pilgrimage spot, a place I need to be. Long gone to me, decades since I popped in after a lit-agent lunch. When I surprised someone in medias res, in the middle of work, in crew-neck sweater fresh from the drafting table. Uninvited, I showed up. I was tacky and unkind.… Continue reading

I’m sitting in a parking lot and should be entering a restaurant. Instead I can’t stop writing in my head. About Lou Reed, whose music I adored for so much of my life, for bad times and good, who died today and whose death was expected. I was dreading his death for certain selfish, self-involved… Continue reading

Originally posted on Rothko's Rolodex: Lately I’ve been obsessed with the sky photography of experimental geographer and scholar of classified satellites, Trevor Paglen. Paglen documents stealth military installations, a dark world of covert domes and fortified fences he shoots from great distances, often with cameras meant for astronomy. He does gorgeous work and is… Continue reading

If you weren’t an English major, this link will take you to Wallace Stevens’ “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.” It’s a poem about visual perspective. There are times when you take pains to observe the life in your periphery, when things move and when they stay still. Fixity and motion. So yeah. February 8,… Continue reading