Some see their story in the firs, in budding green and fallow earth. I see my story in the stone which creaks and grinds and gnashes slow,for life is long and living short. We measure years by walking … Continue reading A Poem to the Orkney Island of Rousay, Scotland
It’s Been Rough 2020 left its mark on Portland. My wife and I saw it in the boarded-up windows and graffiti. We saw it in the empty buildings of businesses shuttered during the pandemic. We saw it in the mask-framed … Continue reading Travel Guide: Hidden Gems in Portland, Oregon
The question seems absurd or even disrespectful on its surface. The hallowed names of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Caravaggio, and others inform every student of art and art history. Leonardo’s Mona Lisa portrait, which is a mere 30 x … Continue reading Scientific Reason Behind Why Renaissance Statues are White
In some dusty corner of the Internet, I have no doubt that there’s a comic about Warhammer Anonymous. Imagine a dungeon-like cellar. Nebbish young men sit in a circle. One by one, they shuffle forward to confess that they, too, like … Continue reading What’s the Deal with Warhammer?
Genyen’s men and children swished around cracks between the shacks surrounding the main road. Daniel Hardy had to squint his sixty-year-old eyes against the muggy mid-afternoon and the Haitian sun, but he saw the marks. Etched on each shoulder, by … Continue reading From the Land of Hunger and Thirst
“Okay, Dad,” a sleepy voice mumbled behind me. It could have been my own. The road’s yellow lines hammered hypnotically into my brain. It was punishment for something, though I wasn’t sure what. I’d forgot where I was going about … Continue reading The Distance Between Dad and Father
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. William Gibson, Neuromancer Movies borrow from film noir more than any other genre. Whether it takes the form of a straightforward homage (L.A. Confidential) or … Continue reading Film Noir: An Introduction to the Genre
First Part of Stranger in a Strange Land In a previous article, I wrote about the history of stranger-friendship and hospitality in Greece and early America. In short, both cultures possessed strong traditions about hosting guests from the unknown. Honor … Continue reading Stranger in a Strange Land: Modern America
Our Flag Means Death’s Premise “Gentleman Pirate” Stede Bonnet was a real pirate, although he was not one of the most capable figures from piracy’s golden age. An aristocrat turned to crime, he sacked ships and slit throats across the … Continue reading Our Flag Means Death Works as a Retelling of Don Quixote