Monthly Archives: July 2010

From my Files: Philip-Lorca diCorcia’s “Intimate Portraits, Anonymous Crowds”

(This review originally appeared in the March 2002 issue of artsMedia, a Boston arts magazine which has since ceased publication.) Intimate Portraits, Anonymous Crowds Philip-Lorca diCorcia at the Barbara Krakow Gallery, March 2002 The photographs which make up this exhibition … Continue reading

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Evergreen on Commonwealth Avenue

I teach undergraduate writing at Boston University. I also do something else, something less visible, less instructive.  Throughout the year and for four to eight weeks each semester and during the summer, I “teach” a course in the short story. … Continue reading

Posted in Aging, well enough, Learning, Ordinary places, Teaching | Leave a comment

Twenty+ Best Films Ever, a very arbitrary list

A subjective and very biased list of films that have endured the passage of time, the transition to Netflix, and the ripeness of aging. Give me these  films (in no particular order), a cup of tea, and the company of  … Continue reading

Posted in Aging, well enough, Cinéphilia | 5 Comments

French 1: Verbs to Burn

To Have and to Be:  The bedrock verbs of  French.  That’s what A.B., who pumps gas to make a living, said a while back in May when I was merely entertaining the idea of achieving fluency in French, (See the … Continue reading

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Breaking bread with Mtabbal (Weekend reprise)

Mtabbal~~ In Jordan and Palestine, this heavenly eggplant dish of several layers of taste is called mtabbal. The Lebanese call it baba ghannoush. I go with the former. Mtabbal is a simple but subtle dish which should be consumed at … Continue reading

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Breaking bread with Tabboulé/ (Weekend reprise)

Before the Breaking Bread page moves to a regular category and is archived, I’ll run the two recipes once again for a festive table. First, the modest tabboulé made with an abundance of the the princely parsley. Tomorrow evening, mtabbal … Continue reading

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At MFA, Boston: Truffaut and Godard–the end of a friendship

Emmanuel Laurent’s Two in the Wave is the remarkable account of the troubled friendship of Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard: the former the son of abandonment and poverty, the latter a descendant from a patrician family. That Truffaut, after the … Continue reading

Posted in Cinéphilia, Languages and readings, Ordinary places, Passages and Homes | 2 Comments