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Tag Archives: Photography
Our “White Lotus,” Or Life as a Set-Jetter
So last year my family got the itch to take an unplanned springtime beach vacation. Long story short: We had nothing booked, and only a vague notion of where we might want to go. Florida is nice enough, sure, but … Continue reading
On Sleeping With Dogs
So I sleep with dogs. (You got a problem with that?) Actually that should be “dog,” singular, a particularly cantankerous Beagle-Terrier mutt named Swishy. Although in my head I think “dogs,” plural, because Swish is not the first dog I’ve … Continue reading
Posted in Love of Dogs, Photography, Sleeping With Pets, Uncategorized
Tagged Love of Dogs, Photography, Sleeping With Pets
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On the Film Version of Kobo Abe's novel "Woman in the Dunes" & the Passing of Robert Osborne
So I’m sorry to say I just heard the news that the great emcee of Turner Classic Movies, Robert Osborne, has passed away at the age of eighty-four. He was like the Walter Cronkite of Old Hollywood classics. He always … Continue reading
On Adventures Gone Wrong: Stephane Gerson's "Disaster Falls" and Jason Kersten's "Journal of the Dead"
So I stumbled upon a book that touches close to home for me, as a naturalist who drags his young daughter with him to various outdoor locales seething with both beauty and danger, filled with the confidence and aplomb that … Continue reading
On the Death of Kent Haruf: One of Our Finest Novelists, and a Friend
So on this snowy morning it’s a sad day to hear of the passing of Kent Haruf, author of Plainsong (1999), Eventide (2004), and Benediction (2013), among others. (For more details, see a piece in the Washington Post, here.) Although I … Continue reading
Posted in books, books/film
Tagged Book Reviewing, Fiction Writing, Good Fiction, Kent Haruf, Photography, The Bird Saviors, The West
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The Heat Is On: Melting Santas and Family Values in the Era of Climate Change
So I haven’t blogged in—oh, just about forever (over two months)—but I’ve been fine and dandy, thank you very much, and trying to keep my ducks in a row: Besides being a professor, and all that entails, mainly I’ve been … Continue reading
Posted in Climate Change, The West
Tagged Climate Change, Drought, Photography, The Bird Saviors, The West, Water Crisis, Wildfires
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My Dashcam, My Selfie: On Sherry Turkle's Assertion in "Alone Together" That We're All Cyborgs Now
So I enjoyed this insight into the Digital Age in Sherry Turkle’s Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other (2011): “We are all cyborgs now” (274, ebook edition). She goes on to explain the … Continue reading
Posted in books
Tagged Book Reviewing, Digital Distraction, Photography, Sherry Turkle's Alone Together
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On Being in the Center of Everything, With a Nod to the Master, Vladimir Nabokov
So I’ve just returned to my home in State College, Pennsylvania, a name that must rank high on a list of Least Imaginative Monikers, but it does have an odd distinction: It’s (more or less) exactly in the center of … Continue reading
Posted in Art, books/film, The West
Tagged Book Reviewing, Fiction Writing, Good Fiction, Photography, The Bird Saviors, The West, Vladimir Nabokov
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Rafting the Green River & Digging for Trilobites: What We Do in the West
So I haven’t been blogging for a while because I’ve been manning the oars of a white water (well, sometimes brown, green, or just a little frothy) raft in central Utah, the 84-mile stretch of the Green River from Sand … Continue reading
Review of Kent Wascom's "The Blood of Heaven," Plus a Mission Debrief
So my review of Kent Wascom’s impressive debut novel, The Blood of Heaven, appears today in the Dallas Morning News, here. It’s a rollicking book, and I have to say I keep thinking of that Hatfields & McCoys miniseries whenever … Continue reading