Writings, Reviews, Cultural Criticism
The category, Heart, is for posts that make us feel.
Orwell observed that the manipulations of language are important to the machinations of power. He observed it in the gradual impoverishment of vocabulary (newspeak). But he only identified half the matter. He failed to note a corresponding impoverishment of musicality in speech.
There’s something poignant about those green apples all crowded against the dirty window. Who knows where they’ve come from. Some bear wounds. Some yellow in the light.
A piece in the Guardian made light of Yukon signs that advise residents to social distance by keeping one caribou apart or, in the absence of caribou, four ravens. Ah, those crazy Canucks! If you read to the end of the article, you’ll note some standard Toronto measures, too. Keep one hockey stick apart or,…
I hate the thought of spending good money on a new lens and not using it. So, instead of stalking wildlife in Toronto’s ravines, I’ve played Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window, propping my gear on a tripod and waiting to see what happens in neighbouring buildings.
Douglas Coupland announced that his pet dog had died of Covid-19. I was a reporter at the presser and smirked when he started to cry. Other reporters scowled at me and accused me of being heartless and insensitive.
Let’s bust up this concrete lockdown and hurry back to going nowhere.
I wonder how we will return to normal. Will we allow our children to play freely? Or will we regulate public play? Maybe the state won’t need to regulate childhood interactions. Maybe it will be enough for anxious parents to hover on the edges of our playgrounds.
I went to work and my boss told me I’d have to start working from home. I said I was happy to go along with the new rules, but I did have one question: how do spies work from home?
Garth Kaminski ascended to the throne on May 7th, 2019, the day on which the lead story on all the major television networks declared that Josh Hannon had died and on which the top trending Twitter hashtag was #worldsfattestman.
I wonder if there is such a thing as a literature of self-isolation. I suppose there is if I say there is. All I have to do is find examples and thread them together in some coherent account.
I think it was Jean Mohr who recommended that all serious photographers produce a self-portrait at least once a month. I can’t locate the source of the quote, so I don’t know the reasons for his recommendation. However, I can come up with some reasons on my own.
A standard question during a psychiatric intake interview is: Do you ever feel that the people around you can read your mind? I wonder if our cultural habits have rendered this question obsolete.
Whenever I embrace the future, there inevitably follows a feeling of disappointment as I discover that the future is just the past wrapped in a shiny new package.
when Christ blew out the candle
darkness hit the road
three days down on my knees
fumbling for matches from Joe’s
What will be the longterm consequences of this pandemic. Will it permanently alter the way we gather in public? Will public authorities take greater care to manage crowd control? Will photographers ever again be able to follow Capa’s dictum as we try to document what happens in the streets of our cities?