http://www.larybloom.net/blog/index.htmlennoemail@noemail.org (Lary Bloom)Fri, 02 Mar 2007 10:38:15 PSTBlogger http://www2.blogger.com1151This is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site, subject to copyright and fair use.http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/mTvIB2k-KMc/when-is-blog-not-blog.htmlLary BloomFri, 02 Mar 2007 10:38:15 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-7035594319741730879Everybody has a blog nowadays. Except me. That is, I don't have an active blog for two reasons. The first is that, blessedly, I have other outlets. And the second is, well, I forget what the second is, except that it may be that we've all reached the Blogger Saturation Point. Enough already. I will, from time to time update this space, but only when moved. For now, thanks for reading, and being http://www.larybloom.net/blog/2007/03/when-is-blog-not-blog.htmlhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/3yZH6qpVb-A/sonic-boo.htmlLary BloomMon, 13 Nov 2006 08:21:20 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-116343488067661106The good citizens of Seattle have rejected a measure that would have revamped its basketball arena with public funds. And so the Supersonics apparently will move elsewhere. Rick Horrow must feel, this morning, like George W. Bush. Rick is the marketing genius who over a 20-year period convinced city fathers and mothers around the country to float bonds or hike taxes in the short term in order http://www.larybloom.net/blog/2006/11/sonic-boo.htmlhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/ALo57ZY9Tsk/party-line.htmlLary BloomTue, 07 Nov 2006 08:39:01 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-116291754165371801A long line at the polling place this morning -- so pleased to be waiting in it. The kind of line usually reserved for presidential years. But then, in a way, this is a presidential year -- a year in which citizens are doing something in addition to to pulling a lever in support of this one or that for the Senate or Governor's office or Legislature. There are larger issues at stake including thehttp://www.larybloom.net/blog/2006/11/party-line.htmlhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/MrIQdpZ1ElA/explanation.htmlLary BloomWed, 01 Nov 2006 09:31:17 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-116240227745663904My dentist pointed out that this blog has been idle since May. I've heard this from others too, including a former student of mine who has found fruitful work as a reporter in Alaska. A writer in the midwest wonders what gives. What gives is information and opinion overload. Not my condition. Our collective condition. There is a blog clog, and I am not eager to contribute to the pollution. http://www.larybloom.net/blog/2006/11/explanation.htmlhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/yh86_wMlD7k/stanley-kunitz-remembered.htmlLary BloomSun, 21 May 2006 08:31:30 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-114781288653914573Last night, I read "The Testing Tree" aloud. I'd heard Stanley Kunitz read it back when he was only 93 years old. He read it forcefully that night in the sunken garden at the Hill-Stead museum, and he spoke directly to me, it seemed -- it was a poem about my own childhood, and all that was at stake in the private games I concocted. After the news of the death of Stanley Kunitz at the age of 100,http://www.larybloom.net/blog/2006/05/stanley-kunitz-remembered.htmlhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/-muPPxd9QGM/pardoning-bill-gates.htmlLary BloomFri, 12 May 2006 11:14:32 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-114725992795991087As Bill Gates struggles to fend off Google's challenge, he at least no longer has to worry about me. I have taken my name off of the Bill Gates Critics list ever since my conversation a few days ago with a nice fellow in Bombay named Anup. Gates knows he has critics, though I have not bothered him with my issues. I haven't said, "Why is it, Bill, that everything about Microsoft is in a languagehttp://www.larybloom.net/blog/2006/05/pardoning-bill-gates.htmlhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/6Rrk-ywg8Ac/wally-lamb-and-his-flock.htmlLary BloomMon, 24 Apr 2006 10:12:33 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-114589861572756078On Sunday afternoon, Wally Lamb came to an auditorium in Deep River. He brought with him two of the 11 co-authors of Couldn't Keep It To Myself, the collection of memoirs that stirred all the trouble at the highest levels of Connecticut government a couple of years ago. I have known Wally for more than 20 years, since he submitted his first piece of fiction to me when I edited Northeast http://www.larybloom.net/blog/2006/04/wally-lamb-and-his-flock.htmlhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/eUe8gSnghEc/twains-minister-at-war.htmlLary BloomFri, 21 Apr 2006 06:26:20 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-114562598068885109Last night, I went to R.J. Julia book store in Madison to hear Steve Courtney talk about his new book, a collection of the Civil War letters of the Reverand Joseph Twichell. This isn't the book Steve first set out to produce. Back when we were colleagues at Northeast magazine, he began working on Twichell's biography. But then the opportunity came to co-edit letters, in a collection at Yale, http://www.larybloom.net/blog/2006/04/twains-minister-at-war.htmlhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/CPHREQC_NX0/new-pharaohs.htmlLary BloomFri, 14 Apr 2006 05:31:03 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-114501786353303146The Passover Seder tried to keep on track, and not disintegrate into familiar political commentary. This was not easy. I asked the question, at the beginning of the meal, how the story of Exodus relates to today. We managed, not surprisingly, to mention Darfur, and a few Middle Eastern countries in the news. I wanted to focus on this issue: What does a person in America do about the suffering of http://www.larybloom.net/blog/2006/04/new-pharaohs.htmlhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/ddGUbCZ3Dl0/kristof-awards.htmlLary BloomMon, 10 Apr 2006 03:39:52 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-114466559200648333Pulitzer Prize judges will soon announce their choices for 2006 awards. In my view, there is no competition in commentary category -- Nicholas D. Kristof, of the New York Times, wins by acclamation. Any other result would be a farce. In fact, they should rename the Pulitzers the Kristofs. Who else has had the courage to report from the most dangerous spot on earth? And I don't mean the Green http://www.larybloom.net/blog/2006/04/kristof-awards.htmlhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/yYfuuf_K69s/chief-wahoo-proudly.htmlLary BloomSun, 09 Apr 2006 08:47:22 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-114459764296138899The poet David Holdt sent me a gift the other day. He explained that years ago his children bought him a Cleveland Indians jacket, and that he no longer wears it. He tried to think of someone to give it to -- in New England, there is something less than a great demand for Tribe memorabilia (though I have often argued, to deaf ears, that the Indians are Connecticut's real home team, because they http://www.larybloom.net/blog/2006/04/chief-wahoo-proudly.htmlhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/vCtxYiv9cGE/blue-blood-bluegrass-blues.htmlLary BloomThu, 06 Apr 2006 06:03:57 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-114432863791195461Barry Bingham Jr. died earlier this week. Unless you live in Louisville, you may not have noted his passing, or recall his soft voice and enormous handlebar mustache. But if you are an Honorary Kentucky Colonel, you know very well that Barry Bingham Jr. and the Bingham family made big news among the bluegrass set. Bingham, like his father before him, was publisher of the Louisville Courier http://www.larybloom.net/blog/2006/04/blue-blood-bluegrass-blues.htmlhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/aXrpoeIOcrY/o-jackie.htmlLary BloomTue, 04 Apr 2006 07:59:27 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-114416276692611562For many years, I tried to convince Jackie McLean that we should collaborate on his life story. But he was reluctant. Besides, he said, that if he did decide to undertake an autobiography he would likely do it with a jazz writer. I objected. "Yours isn't a 'jazz' story as much as it is the story of an American triumph.' " That is, while it's true that Jackie Mac, as friends referred to him, http://www.larybloom.net/blog/2006/04/o-jackie.htmlhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/YuaVCksa1_g/fear-never-struck-out.htmlLary BloomSat, 01 Apr 2006 05:17:03 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-114389679476352368Last night, TMC showed the 1957 film, Fear Strikes Out. I couldn't bear to watch it. Tony Perkins was not at all convincing in portraying an athlete; his Jimmy Piersall, the mentally ill centerfielder, could hardly throw a baseball. (in other films,, Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig, William Bendix as Babe Ruth, and Ronald Reagan as Grover Cleveland Alexander at least had some natural athletic grace). http://www.larybloom.net/blog/2006/04/fear-never-struck-out.htmlhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/7Awlto0lTmU/bloch-party.htmlLary BloomWed, 29 Mar 2006 04:24:44 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-114363440287936435As I was saying about Scotty Bloch.... Last night's reading of my new play, Worth Avenue, drew 185 people -- seven more than capacity at the Chester Meeting House, but please don't mention this to the fire marshal. All went swimmingly until Act 5, when, in the middle of Scotty Bloch's intense monologue about widows in Miami Beach (and the fifth and last role she played during the evening), one http://www.larybloom.net/blog/2006/03/bloch-party.htmlhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/ivpMJD7vdrc/enduring-talents.htmlLary BloomTue, 28 Mar 2006 03:59:48 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-114354715387601031I sat in the balcony of the Chester Meeting House last night and watched what was happening on stage -- one of the final rehearsals for tonight's reading of Worth Avenue, a play I have written. I was watching, in particular, Scotty Bloch and Peter Walker. She is an actress who, in the neighborhood of 80, has enormous vitality.(Woody Allen noticed this when he cast her in several movies.) In http://www.larybloom.net/blog/2006/03/enduring-talents.htmlhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/wTO5PWjaXUE/how-democrats-can-get-it-together.htmlLary BloomSat, 25 Mar 2006 03:33:32 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-114328641083060162The Democratic Party has been taking hits for its lack of unified and effective response to the mess that the Republicans have gotten us into. Even The New Yorker magazine, which is staunch anti-Bush in its commentary, offers a thumbs down -- "pathetic and ungrammatical" -- on the new Democratic slogan for the 2006 Congressional campaign, "Together, We Can Do Better." So I have come to the http://www.larybloom.net/blog/2006/03/how-democrats-can-get-it-together.htmlhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/QzR8OahVGmw/seeing-every-word-no-more.htmlLary BloomFri, 24 Mar 2006 08:53:46 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-114321922625900166After 37 years, it appears as if the National Theatre of the Deaf's survival is threatened. It is a victim of an array of difficulties, including a slash in federal funding. The Courant has weighed in with its predictable editorial lament -- about how the company has been a national and international treasure. (David Hays, its founder, likes to say that it's the only theater company that played http://www.larybloom.net/blog/2006/03/seeing-every-word-no-more.htmlhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/ua_YJ2aa_Kk/blue-state-dinner-parties.htmlLary BloomThu, 23 Mar 2006 10:15:09 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-114313478372766473And so it goes -- the talk at Connecticut dinner parties, at least the ones I have been to, give George W. Bush no respect. As the wine flows and the evenings proceed, our president is accused of this and that, and, piteous fellow, almost never defended. Last night, he was raked over the coals, or at least over the delicious pasta, for his new strategy of blaming the media for the troubles in http://www.larybloom.net/blog/2006/03/blue-state-dinner-parties.htmlhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/vW1A6zFuTcg/few-good-and-candid-men.htmlLary BloomWed, 22 Mar 2006 03:34:46 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-114302728634419104On Monday night, a new memoir class gathered, this time at the Chester Library. Every memoir course I have taught in the last few years has been different in terms of quality of writing, but most have had one thing in common: scarcity of men. The new class is typical in this regard: nine women and one man. How to account for this? Is is that women are more willing to record honestly fateful http://www.larybloom.net/blog/2006/03/few-good-and-candid-men.htmlhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/SsTDx_fVjss/code-breakers.htmlLary BloomTue, 21 Mar 2006 10:57:20 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-114296743875148293Dan Brown is getting it from all sides -- in court, and in church. The Da Vinci Code is Devilish, it is argued. Or, it is a work of plagiarism. Or both. This, it turns out, is something of a benefit for Brown and Random House. It means that no one is focusing on Brown's real crime: bad writing. In the Court of Literary High Crimes and Misdemeanors, Brown would stand accused of Blatant http://www.larybloom.net/blog/2006/03/code-breakers.htmlhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/nH7dA_cq03A/all-sports-thats-fit-to-print.htmlLary BloomMon, 20 Mar 2006 11:32:48 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-114287188428618361There was a fairly obvious error in my edition of the Hartford Courant this morning. I scoured page one for the usual action photo of the UConn Huskies (men's or women's basketball team). But it was nowhere to be found. Instead, the editor who the made choices for page one apparently had the ridiculous idea that the third anniversary of the war in Iraq is more important than yesterday's score, http://www.larybloom.net/blog/2006/03/all-sports-thats-fit-to-print.htmlhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/yMvETrhfYac/reading-aloud-allowed.htmlLary BloomSun, 19 Mar 2006 08:01:14 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-114278388085933989Most every day, about 4 p.m., Suzanne and I read aloud to each other. That is, we allow ourselves to read aloud, interrupting whatever else may be on the agenda. This, as it turns out, is not a particularly expeditious way to consume a novel, memoir, or other genre. Books take longer when they are read aloud. But the phenomenon of the emergence of Recorded Books and Books on Tape, etc., has http://www.larybloom.net/blog/2006/03/reading-aloud-allowed.htmlhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/0qtUNEe9EF0/nine-trillion-thank-yous.htmlLary BloomSat, 18 Mar 2006 04:50:41 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-114268426320356905A nine trillion dollar debt -- what a good idea the Republicans in Congress have. Inspiring. Instructive. I've been looking at my own bank account, and the problem with it is that I have been thinking the old-fashioned way: that I'm supposed to have money in it. What a dope I am. I'm reminded now of the old saying: "If you owe the bank $10,000 you've got a problem, but if you owe the bank http://www.larybloom.net/blog/2006/03/nine-trillion-thank-yous.htmlhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheBloomBlog/~3/x3Ds5DqpSVs/showtime.htmlLary BloomFri, 17 Mar 2006 04:32:32 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17078117.post-114259875204690690I dropped by the historic Goodspeed Opera House the other night to check on rehearsals. John Sebastian DeNicola was in the orchestra pit, leading his musicians through his own score while, on stage, actors tried to get the timing and movements right. John was his ebullient self, and you'd never know he was suffering from a head cold and the usual pre-opening night panic. John once was an http://www.larybloom.net/blog/2006/03/showtime.html