I was talking with my brother a few weeks ago, and he asked me if I thought there was such a thing as immoral art - if artists bear any ethical obligations regarding the content of their work.  I said yes.  I think the thing that defines art - what differentiates it from craft - is its attempt to capture and convey human experience.  We turn to art ( Read more... )

There is a cluster of used desk chairs near the staff kitchen, heavy black beasts whose single legs end in wheel-tipped talons, deserving of some ominous corvid plural: an unkindness, a murder.  In point of fact, it is a downsizing of chairs, each the revenant of someone who was here last week, before the conference room convocation, the manila ( Read more... )

Usually when I travel for more than a couple of days, it's to cross something off the big list of places I haven't been yet.  To replace some blank corner of my personal globe with memories and snapshots and anecdotes about some little cafe just off the square...  There's so much world out there, I think to myself, it's a pity not to go see it.  So ( Read more... )

I'm not a joiner.  I'm not really a sports fan.  I ditched every pep rally in high school.  I frequently stand in a corner talking to people I already know at parties.  And yet election days invariably bring out vestiges of team spirit I otherwise completely forget that I have.  I showed up before work at my polling place yesterday morning wearing ( Read more... )

For those who haven't talked to me this week, a quick update:

• My mom had a relapse over the weekend and got quite sick again.  She's back on antibiotics and starting to feel a little better.
• However, I have postponed my trip to the east coast for two weeks so as not to interrupt my soup-provision duties.
• In order to demonstrate that I actually still ( Read more... )

Some of you may be wondering why you haven’t heard much about the election from me recently. Partially this is because I’ve been busy. But it’s also because I try not to blather here just for the sake of it, and I honestly can’t figure out what there is to say to people who at this stage don’t know who to vote for, or are supporting the wrong guy ( Read more... )

Dear B ( Read more... )

Fall has fallen on Los Angeles at last - it arrived Friday evening, on a howling wind that sent dry leaves skittering across the pavement with a sound like a wooden guiro.  The seasons change in half a day here, abrupt but tenuous and I don't know if I'll be wearing a scarf or a t-shirt tomorrow, but for two days it's been crisp air and sharp- ( Read more... )

Briefly, my mom came home from the hospital today, mostly recovered, though still without a good explanation for what made her deathly ill in the first place.  This means, among other things, that I should start existing a bit more again, online and otherwise.  For the time being, as I lack the energy to say anything meaningful, there's a new ( Read more... )

To anyone who may be wondering, I have returned from central Asia and will at some point even post about my travels.  But at the moment my mom is seriously ill and I'm spending all my free time at the hospital, so I don't know exactly when that'll happen.  I hope everyone's had a good September, and I'll be back for real when circumstances permit.