Category: death

• Monday Mix 01092017: Bowie

  Jan 9

  A year ago David Bowie died. It broke my heart. Though I never met him or saw him perform live, he helped define the context of my life and thinking,… more ›

• All Apologies

  Mar 13

  Any time an apology is issued, we need to ask why. Just who exactly is she apologizing to? Can you apologize to the dead?Or is this merely an exercise in… more ›

• Dead Babies

  Mar 31

  At the edge of my undergraduate alma mater lies a cemetery for those who died in a nearby, long-since-vanished house for unwed mothers. I wonder who these poor mothers were.… more ›

• Tears for Auschwitz

  Jan 28

  From October 1995 to February 1996 I lived in Poland. I was conducting research on representations of the Holocaust, both historical as well as artistic, for my master’s thesis. Concurrently,… more ›

• Eulogy for Lou Reed

  Nov 7

  I didn’t know Lou Reed. No, I never met the man. Yet I am certain, because of the authenticity I perceived in his songs, that I nevertheless knew him, albeit… more ›

• Sep 19

  … death is both the trace we dread and the loss of all trace.  – Edmond Jabès more ›

• Oblivion Oblivion Oblivion

  Jul 23

  This spring I read the collection of short stories entitled The Cannibal Night by Mexican author Luis Jorge Boone, expertly translated by George Henson. These stories reminded me about what… more ›

• Times Roman

  Jul 11

  Below are some of my photos from a recent trip to Rome. This collection is of architectural ruins and art/historical objects that I found compelling. Colosseo I Colosseo II Bernini’s… more ›

• Is this about Laura?

  Jun 5

  How do we transmit grief? Loss? Via tears and via telephone. The receiver dropped on the wooden floor, whose grain links the message to the cord spiraling back to the… more ›

• Legend

  Feb 27

  I don’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t know of Van Cliburn. From small-town east Texas, he became a legend–and one of my heroes–of both classical music… more ›