With the Tuscan… male
DESPERATELY DELUSIONAL Elisa Vittoria Scarton Detti, nearing 30, seeks stereotypical tall, dark and handsome Italian man. Must be passionate, stubborn [...]
Honoring words
Casual borrowing of meaingful political and ideological concepts can push sane debate toward ill-advised fringes and beyond. Take fascism. During [...]
In Darkness
In Anthony Byrne's dimly lit thriller, Natalie Dormer is Sofia, a blind concert pianist who at first blush seems demurely [...]
The Emissary
Set in a future Japan that along with the rest of the planet has endured a soil-sickening eco-environmental catastrophe, Yoko [...]
Good times, and bad
Liberal elitism can be as exasperating as conservative buffoonery. Both indulge caricature and cliché, sly or loud. Consider a recent [...]
Puritans like me
It's commencement speech season. I have never been under the illusion that any educational institution would ever ask me to [...]
The legacy spell
I can't sleep lately. I get to bed reasonably early, usually by 11 p.m., to then wake up at 3 [...]
Dressing for imposters
After six months, my Manhattan art class, "Drawing the Figure," was coming to an end. Fellow students and I faced [...]
Lock, load, duck
Among the earliest clichés pinned on "ugly American" tourism in postwar Europe was a tendency to shout. If locals didn't [...]
Peace through Taiko
I recently heard a performance of Japanese "Taiko" drumming that had a very strange and unexpected effect on me. While [...]
The House That Jack Buit
First, let's avoid covering a climax gruesomely grandiose enough to warrant its own chapter. Let's instead focus on the more [...]