occasionalreview.blogspot.com
The Occasional Review: Exit Strategy of the Soul, by Ron Sexsmith
http://occasionalreview.blogspot.com/2008/09/exit-strategy-of-soul-by-ron-sexsmith.html
Friday, September 12, 2008. Exit Strategy of the Soul, by Ron Sexsmith. The only source of happiness that Sexsmith reliably returns to is the lost paradise of childhood. And if he occasionally gets sentimental, which he does, I am also moved by his music in a way that I'm not by even the best modern songwriters. Songs like "Seem to Recall" reach down into a place that few pieces of music have ever accessed for me. It's one on one, you and your soul. Just look around this train is full. As for the show, S...
occasionalreview.blogspot.com
The Occasional Review: Two New Interviews: Lewis Hyde and Stephen Harrod Buhner
http://occasionalreview.blogspot.com/2015/01/two-new-interviews-lewis-hyde-and.html
Saturday, January 10, 2015. Two New Interviews: Lewis Hyde and Stephen Harrod Buhner. Things have been quiet with me recently, but two interviews I did over the past few years were recently published. An interview with Lewis Hyde was published in the online section. And Trickster Makes This World. The second interview is with Stephen Harrod Buhner, which came out in the December issue of The Sun. Which I have been trying to crack for a good decade. You can read a portion of the interview online. Hi, I re...
occasionalreview.blogspot.com
The Occasional Review: A Few Notes on Election Spending
http://occasionalreview.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-few-notes-on-election-spending.html
Thursday, October 25, 2012. A Few Notes on Election Spending. Of course, without real determination, one cannot entirely escape these people. In Massachusetts, where I live, the most expensive congressional race in the country is taking place. I have been forced to pay some small quantity of attention to it, and this has produced the single political thought that has occurred to me during this election season, which I would like to share. I have heard estimates for the total cost of the presidential race...
occasionalreview.blogspot.com
The Occasional Review: Forever Endeavour, by Ron Sexsmith
http://occasionalreview.blogspot.com/2013/03/forever-endeavour-by-ron-sexsmith.html
Sunday, March 03, 2013. Forever Endeavour, by Ron Sexsmith. About my love for Ron Sexsmith's music. I own all of his albums, and have come to expect, every few years, another infusion of the spirit that has filled his work since his first eponymous album. Along with folk songs, and some classics by Dylan, Sam Cooke, and the old soul and country legends, I sing Ron's songs every few weeks just to feel them moving through me. I picked up Sexsmith's most recent album, Forever Endeavour. People often talk ab...
occasionalreview.blogspot.com
The Occasional Review: Fantasy Sports and the Destruction of Awe
http://occasionalreview.blogspot.com/2012/02/fantasy-sports-and-destruction-of-awe.html
Monday, February 20, 2012. Fantasy Sports and the Destruction of Awe. Sports have been a big part of my life ever since I came to America. I spent afternoons playing basketball and football with my friends, of course, but there was an exponentially larger amount of time spent watching games, checking scores in the paper, and listening to chatter on the radio—the whole business of following. Us, it sometimes seemed—as a way of developing an identity and a sense of consequence. I suppose most people know h...
occasionalreview.blogspot.com
The Occasional Review: Paul et Virginie, by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre
http://occasionalreview.blogspot.com/2011/05/paul-et-virginie-by-bernardin-de-saint.html
Thursday, May 19, 2011. Paul et Virginie, by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. I became interested in this largely forgotten novel because of a passage in Edward Goldsmith's The Way. Which I wrote about a few months ago. In response to arguments about the essential randomness of nature, Goldsmith quotes a passage from Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's Etudes de la Nature. Which were once famous. At the end of these volumes, though, Bernardin placed the small novel Paul et Virginie. To Alexander von Humboldt. A copy a...
occasionalreview.blogspot.com
The Occasional Review: To Each His Own, by Leonardo Sciascia
http://occasionalreview.blogspot.com/2007/05/to-each-his-own-by-leonardo-sciascia.html
Saturday, May 05, 2007. To Each His Own, by Leonardo Sciascia. I read an article. What do you do when you read stories like this, along with reports. Of accidentally gunning down families at roadblocks and people fishing by the river? What's an adequate response to the immensity of these injustices, especially in a war with so little justification? I discovered Sciascia through a list. Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom). The Sun, Crazyhorse, The Believer. If I can help you with your writing, produce a pi...
occasionalreview.blogspot.com
The Occasional Review: Solnit, Abbey, Day: Three American Anarchists
http://occasionalreview.blogspot.com/2012/11/solnit-abbey-day-three-american.html
Wednesday, November 28, 2012. Solnit, Abbey, Day: Three American Anarchists. My latest essay for Dark Mountain has just been posted. It covers a good Rebecca Solnit book about the communities that form after natural disasters, an Edward Abbey novel about a post-apocalyptic America, and Dorothy Day's memoir The Long Loneliness. Also, readers of this blog may remember that I am a fan of the Sicilian writer Leonardo Sciascia. I reviewed another novel of his called Equal Danger. I am a writer and editor....
occasionalreview.blogspot.com
The Occasional Review: My Mortal Enemy, by Willa Cather
http://occasionalreview.blogspot.com/2007/02/my-mortal-enemy-by-willa-cather.html
Saturday, February 03, 2007. My Mortal Enemy, by Willa Cather. I've read three of Willa Cather's books - My Ántonia. In middle school, and again recently; A Lost Lady. In college; and The Professor's House. A few months ago - and liked all of them. They were all basically written at a stretch, it turns out, between 1918 and 1925. I will need to verify this further, but after reading My Mortal Enemy. Was written in 1926, a year after The Professor's House. When he is walking around Washington, D.C....
occasionalreview.blogspot.com
The Occasional Review: Stephen King's Misery and the Uses of Horror
http://occasionalreview.blogspot.com/2010/08/stephen-kings-misery-and-uses-of-horror.html
Wednesday, August 04, 2010. And the Uses of Horror. Little by little, Sheldon realizes that his caretaker is deeply deranged. Annie becomes furious when she reads his latest romance, because Sheldon has killed off the series' main character, Misery Chastain, whom he desperately wanted to be rid of. Annie also forces Paul to burn his latest stab at literary respectability, Fast Cars. Is about as good as the modern Gothic novel gets, so I think it is worth exploring how it works on a reader. King is clearl...
