The Company You Keep — An Old Liberal Looks at Old Radicals
It’s long been a puzzle to me why the sizzling years in the United States from say, 1963 to 1975, …
Category Archives: Art & Culture
Stop The War (The Cats Are Killing Themselves)
Michael Herr mentions this old classic in the opening pages of his Vietnam war memoir/reportage, Dispatches. Stop The War (The …
No Man’s Land: A Novel from Vietnam by Duong Thu Huong
I couldn’t have been more surprised when our guide in Hanoi, a Vietnamese Catholic, mentioned offhandedly that some soldiers coming …
Behind the Red Mist — Fiction from Vietnam
I first encountered Ho Anh Thai’s fiction at it’s fantastical best in the wonderful Whereabouts volume of Vietnam: A Traveller’s …
The Gatekeepers: An Israeli Documentary
The Gatekeepers, an Israeli documentary by Dror Moreh is a coup most film makers could only dream of: not only …
Chinese Cooking
I had a Chinese girlfriend once. Her mother was an opera singer – of the other kind. She always seemed …
A Poem — to Focus in My Distraction
While I’m struggling to think through my five week trip through Southeast Asia, and not having it rise in the …
To A Very Young Lady, Separated — A Poem, Jaime Gil de Biedma
To A Very Young Lady, Separated In the year since you married, sweet beautiful breasts, you have found the fruits …
Laos and the Legacies of War
When the mind turns to South East Asia and war, Vietnam and Cambodia come quickly to mind. For most, Laos might …
Reading Vietnam
Packed with my travel duffle for a 5 week trip to South East Asia is one of the indispensable series of books …
Confucius: Reading the Secular Among the Buddhists
For some reason, heading out for a 5 week trip to South East Asia, I retrieved my 1972 copy of …
A Monkish Day, Luang Prabang, Laos
We woke at 5 a.m. yesterday morning to join others in Luang Prabang offering alms of sticky rice to the …