President's Corner
Pop Picks – November 13, 2023
Posted on November 13, 2023
What I’m listening to: With the daily drumbeat of war and heartbreaking suffering from too many corners of the world, especially the Mideast and Ukraine these days, I have returned to Henryk Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3, sometimes called the “The Symphony of Sorrowful Songs.” It is a gorgeous hour-long piece in three parts, sad and beautiful at […]
Read More »Pop Picks – June 26, 2023
Posted on June 26, 2023
What I’m reading: I envy anyone who has not read the Patrick O’Brian series of seafaring novels centered on 19th-century British Navy Captain Jack Aubrey and his surgeon companion, Stephen Maturin. I say “envy,” because I devoured them years ago and while a second reading will be satisfying, it can’t have the thrill and delight […]
Read More »Pop Picks – June 1, 2023
Posted on June 1, 2023
What I’m reading: Ways of Being, by James Bridle, is one of those books that has me walking through the world in a new way. As we talk about artificial intelligence, Bridle is reframing my sense of intelligence in profound ways. Just note the subtitle: Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for Planetary Intelligence. Mind-blowing and I find […]
Read More »Pop Picks – December 26, 2022
Posted on December 26, 2022
What I’m watching: Be warned, if you start watching the Irish dark comedy Bad Sisters, you’re likely to just stay on the couch binge watching all ten episodes of what was the best series on television in 2022. A murder mystery with one of the worst villains/victims in recent history (not a plot spoiler, as you know […]
Read More »Pop Picks – November 7, 2022
Posted on November 7, 2022
What I’m watching: I’ve long thought that Jennifer Lawrence’s acting in 2010’s Winter’s Bone was her best work and a tour de force. Then we watched Causeway, the new film released on Apple TV+. After going with blockbuster and conventional Hollywood fare in ways that made me despair for her best self (even if she cleaned up professionally), […]
Read More »Pop Picks – September 7, 2022
Posted on September 7, 2022
What I’m watching: Just saw Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis and absolutely loved it. Critics mostly were “meh” and it rated only a 78% on Rotten Tomatoes. I say this as someone who doesn’t love musicals nor biopics in general, but this was so much fun. Mostly because of Luhrmann’s baroque style, visual vocabulary, and strap-yourself-in pacing. He is […]
Read More »Pop Picks – August 10, 2022
Posted on August 10, 2022
What I’m reading: I’m in an Antarctica state of mind and used a 16-hour plane ride and then being laid low by Covid to read two splendid books: Alfred Lansing’s 1959 Endurance, the best book about Ernest Shackleton’s incredible voyage, and Sara Wheeler’s Terra Incognita, her 1996 adventure travel book which is as much about a spiritual […]
Read More »Pop Picks – April 25, 2022
Posted on April 25, 2022
What I’m reading Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet is stunningly good. And searing in parts, as it goes deep into the grief of losing a child in ways that are almost unbearable to read, unimaginable as it is to any parent. It’s also the intimate story of Agnes, Shakespeare’s wife (he is actually a secondary character), their marriage, family, and journey. […]
Read More »Pop Picks – February 28, 2022
Posted on February 28, 2022
What I’m reading Just finished Laura Spinney’s 2017 Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed The World. Reading about a pandemic that killed more than 50 million people may sound like the last thing one wants to do given the last two years, but we need to start making sense of […]
Read More »Pop Picks – January 10, 2022
Posted on January 10, 2022
What I’m reading: The minute it came out, I bought Colson Whitehead’s Harlem Shuffle and cancelled all plans to read it in almost one sitting. I’d read a catalog if he wrote it. Set in Harlem in the 1960s, it’s the story of Ray Carney, owner of a furniture store trying to achieve the American dream for his family, […]
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