Lewis Hyde is one of those non-famous writers who is eagerly read by the famous with bigger audiences (ecologist Paul Shepard is another). So as a kind of preview of ideas that others will eventually repackage, here’s the undiluted original. Calling Hyde original is ironic, given one premise in this book, which is that almost […]
William S. Kowinski
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Atlas of Oceans: An Ecological Survey of Underwater Life
We live by the Pacific but, like just about everybody else, we live on land. Beyond the shores, for most of us, the oceans are a practical mystery. This book is timely for two reasons: Knowledge of the oceans — especially below the surface — has grown considerably in recent years. And because, amidst our […]
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Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography
Yes, it’s a celebrity bio. Though it’s on the cover of Vanity Fair, it’s also in the New York Times Book Review. Pretty boy celebrities are people, too — and an actor who lives in a world populated by the most accomplished film and stage artists, as well as the Washington political equivalents, is positioned […]
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Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould
Nearly 30 years after his death, pianist Glenn Gould remains an icon. He’s one of the few classical musicians revered by peers who also has awestruck fans without expertise in that area of music. I’m one of those. I’ve collected his recordings, read two biographies, and have listened to few pieces of music — and […]
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Who is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin About Him?)
Harry Nilsson was a musical force in the early 1970s as a singer and songwriter, though he never quite became a star. But as this DVD demonstrates, he did achieve a mythological status and musical immortality. At one time or another I owned the first 10 of his 15 albums and I still have four: […]
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Maine Stage
Almost, Maine, now on stage at Redwood Curtain, is a collection of love stories told in 10 scenes with two people in each, united only by the time and place: a winter night in a mythical, unincorporated town in rural northern Maine. Only a couple of the 19 characters recur in more than one scene […]
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Othello in Eureka
For those seeing their first production of Shakespeare’s Othello, North Coast Repertory Theatre in Eureka provides stylish and vivid entertainment as well as impressive individual moments and plenty of food for thought. But there are reasons that people return to this play (and other classics) even when they know the story of Othello the Moor, […]
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Stoppard’s Start
Celebrated for his erudition and wit, British playwright Tom Stoppard never went to college. Although he was admired for his stagecraft, his only experience in theatre was as a newspaper drama critic. His “overnight success,” Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead, took years before an Oxford student group did it in 1966. It nearly failed, until […]
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Nicholas Black Elk: Medicine Man, Missionary Mystic
Thanks to Black Elk Speaks by poet John Neihardt, and to a lesser extent, The Sacred Pipe by Professor Joseph Epes Brown, Black Elk has become one of the most famous American Indians in history — even though he was not a great warrior or leader. These books are about his spiritual visions and beliefs. […]
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The Turquoise Ledge: A Memoir
If somehow this civilization survives much longer, I expect that Leslie Marmon Silko will be judged a major American writer — especially because in order to survive, it’s likely this civilization will need to pay attention to her perspective. While Ceremony, her first novel, is her most familiar (partly because its handy brevity makes it […]
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Xtra in Arcata
Under different circumstances, the four plays that HSU hosted during the mid-February Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival would be major theatrical events on the North Coast. This is especially true of Xtigone, a re-telling of the Antigone myth to address urban gun violence, by Chicago playwright and actor Nambi E. Kelley, presented here by […]
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Ribald Requiem
In the 1980s Amadeus — both play and movie — caused a sensation. When British playwright Peter Shaffer portrayed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in his 20s as an “obscene child,” and the forgotten composer Antonio Salieri as his murderer — either literally (in the movie) or figuratively (in the play) — many splashy media debates ensued. […]