EST. 1984
El Cementerio de Granada / Granada, Nicaragua (2015)
DANGER around every corner, they warn. Scorpions and disease, landslides and string-rays, ladrones and murderers, lava and corruption. Sunlight!
“Don't go up there! You'll be robbed.”
“Up there? But that's where I came from. It's beautiful. So peaceful.”
“Burglars. They'll take your things, traveler.”
“But I carry nothing, look at me!”
Trousset encyclopedia, Paris (1886)
I woke up in a winter fog
to sobbing girls and a dying dog
poor bull had ate a pair of tights
vet said at best he had two more nights
300,000 BC: Man tames fire.
21 BC: The first collapsible umbrellas are created in Asia, allowing for humans to stay dry while walking outdoors.
Read more
A young & hungry & Giant Sud points to a bright future ahead during Blauvelt Bowl 14 / Photo: Chris Lee , AP (2014)
CHICAGO, IL (AP): The confetti was light and wet and eerily-sticky, but it fell hard and true nonetheless from the darkened rafters of Melnicks, of Snickers, of Rockit, of Stout. It fell in Echo Hill and in Medford, in The Mission and the East Bay, upon the carpet of the JCA Hebrew School and Amherst Regional High, on the Isle of Enchantment and the City of Dreams, in the western 'Burbs and in River North. From the shores of Lake Merritt to the Frog pond and Oak Knoll, from the mighty Atlantic to the over-sized Pacific, from the Asbury kitchen sink to the fresh and delicious winter waters of Lake Michigan.
Read more
Photo credit: Dwight Sipler (2012)
HOW can Whole Foods charge as much as they do for lettuce that's covered in dirt? –COOPER E., BOSTON, MA
Dear Mr. E – In the current consumer climate of the developed Western world, dirt symbolizes "real," earthy, true. Organic. Chemical-free. Your grandpa's crops. To many, that dirt will be a badge of its its origin, of its humble beginnings somewhere just below the topsoil...
Read more
Amherst, MA / Photo credit: Joe Boudreau (2008)
I loved nothing more in those days than seeing Amherst through the eyes of outsiders. I'd bring my worlds together, old and new, and watch them collide and dance in what was always a wildly-entertaining and insightful ballet of social dynamics, raw and unscripted. It was a hobby I'd developed, almost an obsession, reserved for the worthy few fortunate enough to get the invite. A damn fine way, I'd found, to get some perspective on where I came from. And in turn, who I was.
"Come see Amherst," I'd say, when I was ready. When they were ready. "You'll like it."
Image credit: T. Johannot (1843), oldbookillustrations.com
"A written word is the choicest of relics... the work of art nearest to life itself." –Thoreau, Walden (1854)
All Content C...