OH CINEMA, WHERE YOU GONNA RUN? Some very quick notes on a few of the movies I’ve watched demi-recently. The Cockettes: You can find out why I wanted to watch this documentary about an avant-garde hippie-esque drag group here–the Geerdes quote is great. I think I tried to use it in the Weekly Standard once but they scrubbed it…. The movie is a labor of love, but if you weren’t there you probably don’t care about the ramshackle performances, and... Read more

“FATHER, WE’RE READY FOR THAT HOMILY ON CONTRACEPTION NOW.“ Read more

THE CULTURE OF FEAR OF DIVORCE is the subject of my article in the current American Conservative. It’s subscribers-only, at least for now, but here is the opening: If America has endured a “divorce revolution” since California passed no-fault divorce in 1969, we’ve now entered the counterrevolutionary phase. Divorce rates have fallen from their peak in the early ’80s, the deep pain often felt by children of divorce is openly acknowledged and respected, and young Americans typically express both fear... Read more

The disciples of John approached Jesus and said,“Why do we and the Pharisees fast much,but your disciples do not fast?”Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mournas long as the bridegroom is with them?The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,and then they will fast.”–Matthew 9:14-5, today’s reading I like this because it works against the temptation to view Lent as a self-improvement project. I don’t like self-improvement and I’m not good at it! This passage... Read more

KITCHEN… BUSINESS TRIPS?: These don’t really rise to the level of “adventures,” but they were tasty, so here you go. Socca with diced apple, herbs, and grated parmesan. The cheese melts a little and the whole thing is like an herby cheese danish kind of thing. I think it was a Fuji apple. Veggie chili w/apple. I was super-dubious about this but I needed to get rid of the rest of the apple, so I threw it into my chili.... Read more

“THE REDEEMED SURREALISTS”: I sort of review an art show, at Crisis… In Norse mythology, the earth was formed from the body of Ymir, the father of the frost giants. His blood became the ocean, and his skull the sky. It’s a grim vision of life, and yet a strikingly anthropomorphic one: The world is shaped like a man and the man is dead. more Read more

PAVLOVA’S “DYING SWAN.” Feverish. Via Ratty. Read more

“Lord, let man dissolve in prayer! How would I be there underground without God? Rakitin’s lying: if God is driven from the earth, we’ll meet him underground! It’s impossible for a convict to be without God, even more impossible than for a non-convict!”–Mitya, TBK. The real crime is cutting his whole impassioned, careening, caterwauling speech. This chapter (“A Hymn and a Secret” in the Pevear/Volonkhosky translation) didn’t strike me the first time I read Karamazov, but this time around it... Read more

WHAT DO SINGLE PEOPLE NEED FROM THE CHURCH? Read more

Every murder turns on a bright hot light… and a lot of people, innocent or not, have to walk out of the shadows to stand investigation.—The Naked City Read more