My Journal

Confessions of St. Augustine (A 21st Century Outsider)
Confessions of St. Augustine (A 21st Century Outsider)

Remember The Outsiders? And that famous question? Who was the casting director for that one?... Let's see, you had Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio, Rob Lowe, C. Thomas Howell, Emilio Estevez, Diane Lane - all of whom were essentially unknown at...

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Confessions of St. Augustine (a 21st Century Rousseau)
Confessions of St. Augustine (a 21st Century Rousseau)

Yes, we've explored this one a number of times, but now let's explore the results: In the foreground, as noted on previous occasions is a plastic Coors beer cup. To the left of it, a kerosene lantern. Between it and that rectangular looking box is a buffalo robe. The...

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Confessions of St. Augustine (a 21st Century Main Street II)
Confessions of St. Augustine (a 21st Century Main Street II)

Not technically a Main Street, but every town (at least in the past) had its edge of the town (now they tend to all run together - e.g., Boshington - urban sprawl from Boston to Washington with hardly a break in between. And if nothing else, the railroad tracks at...

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Confessions of St. Augustine (a 21st Century Main Street)
Confessions of St. Augustine (a 21st Century Main Street)

Unlike Sinclair Lewis's love-hate relationship with Main Street America, our hero waxes nostalgic on a Tom Sawyer's America that's as harmless as a Mayberry, R.F.D. Not out of naivete but more out of loss. Loss for an Eden haunts his art throughout the book. An...

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Confessions of St Augustine (a 21st Century James Dean)
Confessions of St Augustine (a 21st Century James Dean)

A special tribute to James Dean. In the history of film - who better than Dean typified the troubled teen? Certainly not Brando. In fact, in The Wild One - we don't see him as a teen. Or any of Newman's. Or Nicholson's. Granted there were a lot of good ones long after...

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LXXXI (81): A 21st Century?

Okay, we've made a lot of outrageous claims here, so let's just examine them a little more closely. Let's take Daniel Burt's book The Novel 100: A Ranking of the Greatest Novels of all Time. There are lots of lists, but this is as good as any, better than most, if not...

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A voice of the 21st Century?
A voice of the 21st Century?

Art defines a people. Has any culture developed without its being defined by its art? Not only our conception of them - but their perception of themselves? Could the Greeks and the Romans have achieved what they did without the very art that defined them? Or has...

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Lists
Lists

Interesting categorization. Top 10. Top 100. One of my son-in-laws said Rolling Stone peaked years ago, and all they're good for now is making lists. Top 100 songs, singers, albums, etc., you've heard them all - whether it's AFI or all the other credible institutions...

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