I understand that the UMass basketball team is having a good season this year. When I first visited UMass, it was the spring of 1996, and I remember barns in Hadley had messages scrawled on them supporting the basketball team during their Final Four run. "We love you, Marcus Camby" and "Go UMass." I moved to Amherst in the fall and I remember ( Read more... )

The fall issue of the UMass Magazine is out and I have three articles in it:

• A High School that's Musical, about Bob Brick, a co-founder of the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts high school.
  
• Stress Case Scenario, about Paul Richards, principal of Needham High School, who has spearheaded a stress-reduction program at his school.
  
• Mind the Gaps, about ( Read more... )

The poet Ezra Pound died the year I was born: 1972. By that time, he was a relic. The period of high modernism with which he was indelibly linked was long passed and his reputation was saddled with the more unsavory parts of his personality: his anti-Semitism, his treasonous wartime radio broadcasts from Italy, and his madness ( Read more... )

I've let a lot of things slide this past month. Perhaps it was some combination of new fatherhood catching up to me and the crashing close of the semester at WNEC. Today I was in South Deerfield, pushing a baby stroller around. Today marked L.'s first day back at school, her maternity leave run out. At GoNomad, I noticed the May issue of Preview ( Read more... )

I haven't seen the physical magazine yet, but the Spring issue of the UMass Magazine is up on the web. I have two stories in this issue. "Retail Therapy" is about Wilson's department store in Greenfield, and "The Buck Starts Here" is about Crane & Co in Dalton, which is the sole source supplier of US currency paper.

The October issue of Preview Massachusetts magazine is out. I just picked up a copy of it today. I have three stories in this month's issue. The theater story is an interview with the playwright Tony Kushner, who is coming to UMass-Amherst on Oct. 9. Instead of giving you the first few paragraphs of the story, as I usually do, I'll give you a ( Read more... )

I seriously contemplated whipping out my camera and taking a digital photo last night at the Bob Hicok reading at UMass. It was held in the Fine Arts Center Gallery where there was an installation of art based on lighting effects. So, from where I was sitting, Hicok was reading at a podium under a spotlight from above, and behind him was this ( Read more... )

While walking on the UMass-Amherst campus yesterday, on my way to catch a bus into Amherst center, I passed by blogger Tom Devine talking to a reporter from TV40. I was going to keep on walking, but they called out to me, as a passer-by, to take their picture. So, after introducing myself, I did. You can see the picture I took, and a picture of Tom ( Read more... )

There was a lot of information in yesterday's New England News Forum conference. One of the panels I enjoyed was the New England Commons panel, where a greater cooperation between the six states of New England was advocated. The New England Futures project that ran in 27 newspapers across New England was something that I paid attention to and in ( Read more... )

Through a link from Silliman's blog, I found this interview with Amherst poet Martin Espada. In it, he talks about the forgotten history of Chile and the political interference of the U.S. Especially interesting, given Bush's current tour of South America. I also watched a DVD of an Argentinian movie, The Official Story the other night, about a ( Read more... )