I used to write a lot about Long Island and Queens, but it’s taken me a long time to write about Brooklyn. I’ve been living here eight years now, in the neighborhood variously known as Prospect … Read the rest
“It is happening again.” A distressed old man on a mysterious stage speaks these words slowly and painfully in the climactic episodes of David Lynch’s brilliant “Twin Peaks”.
Genocide is happening again in more than one region of planet earth today. We talk about Israel’s violence in Palestine on the … Read the rest
Dear reader: I wrote this for World BEYOND War, where I’m director of technology. While this isn’t about me, it feels like one of the most personal things I’ve ever written, because I had to dig deep and work hard to try to explain my most elusive beliefs about … Read the rest
I threw the I Ching for America the other day.
This is a good spiritual practice when you come to a moment in your life when things are changing fast and you want to get a grip on what’s happening. My own version of this ancient Chinese tradition is quite … Read the rest
“Out demons out!” I don’t know why it’s feels so cathartic to me every time I listen to the recording on the 1968 Fugs album “Tenderness Junction” of a historic event a year before, the exorcism and attempted levitation of the Pentagon in USA’s capital city by a determined group … Read the rest
I spent the final days of 2023 desperately scrambling to complete two episodes for the two podcasts that represent the clashing sides of my brain.
I was possessed by a superstitious idea that I needed to launch both episodes before 2024 began – a superstition I probably manufactured as a … Read the rest
Jack Kerouac was born 100 years ago today, on March 12, 1922. I wrote a poem about this.
… Read the restThe poets are coming out of the woodwork lately
Called by a voice, and our careworn restless souls
Jack Kerouac! We called you famous for a book
He stared at me, waiting for an answer. At home we didn’t get in other people’s faces like that. You talked towards a space and the other person had a choice of entering or not entering …
I was today years old a few months ago when I first heard … Read the rest
I’m reading Diane di Prima’s “Revolutionary Letters” this morning. The great Beat poet died this weekend. I haven’t heard many details yet – the news hit social media late last night – but since this is the morning of October 26 2020 here in USA where our Supreme Court is … Read the rest
