
The trap door called drawing
Human beings are rarely the neat sum of neat parts, something columnist Elaine Luti began to understand when she first learned to draw.

Where winter is here
I’m on an extended vacation back home in Australia, and I’m feeling my age. Not my literal age but my [...]

The making of the unreasonable actor
I come from a reasonable family. Until recently, this would have been the kind of comforting remark I could say [...]

Apocalypse Now: Final Cut
In 1969, the Rolling Stones released "Let it Bleed," an album whose liner notes begged listeners to "Play it loud." [...]

When Capricorn equals Naples
What often struck me when I lived in Italy was the way people identified themselves as from Tuscany, the Veneto [...]

Once atop the Pompidou
We met Kevin and his partner Scott in the vast public plaza outside the Centre Pompidou. It was a crisp [...]

Calling Los Angeles home
I grew up in Los Angeles, but it is such a vast metropolis that saying that only leads to another [...]

The dirty truth
It was nearly 10 years ago that I first saw the Sahara Desert. I was traveling through Morocco at the [...]

Rentals in the afterlife
I hope to arrive at my death late, in love and a little drunk. • from the writings of ancient [...]

From Bologna to Iowa City
When I studied at the University of Bologna my junior year of college, I loved having friends from all over [...]