Monthly Archives: June 2014

Undercover Travel

These are places I may be going this summer: Tel Aviv, Berlin, Madrid, Menorca, Barcelona. Then again, I may not. There’s a spy in me.   I use guises.  A writer needs a certain anonymity. In this existential “spy” stance, there … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Undercover Travel

Shadowing my Shadow

I am shadowing my shadow.  It’s an odd situation, one I’m not used to, but yes, I follow behind and cannot catch up.  I see my shadow legs stretching far ahead; no matter how I scurry, the stick legs slide … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Shadowing my Shadow

Vicarious Travel

Before Internet, the color and variety of the “outside” world – outside the adolescent bedroom, outside the Soviet Union or the dictatorship that prohibited travel or rural village – came through international sports competitions. The World Cup.  The Olympics.  Kids … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Vicarious Travel

That Mysterious Creative Process

I have a particular tic when I do interviews.  While talking to the artist, often a musician, it will have registered that I’m looking at a regular person.  I’ll try to align that ordinary person before me with the extraordinary … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments Off on That Mysterious Creative Process

Icarus, World War II Hero

The sheer compression of  emotion in Matisse’s artist’s book, Jazz, is stunning.  It is both joyous and violent, an explosion, and the viewer marvels that Matisse was both deliberately and spontaneously capable of ordering and expressing the essence of his … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

“HERE”

Here, on the promontory above a collection of tents in the desert, stands a foreign prophet.  The prophet, Balaam, has traveled many miles; he looks down on the tent people, and something moves inside him, the hideous thing that distorts … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments Off on “HERE”