It's been a horrible week. No question about it. Today brings word that Leonard Cohen has died at age 82. Words cannot express the feelings of gratitude I have for his life and his achievement. From his first album in 1967 he accompanied me through my youth and into later days. All the way through. Cohen could only have arisen in the heart of the … [Read more...]
Enlisting Bruce Springsteen to Validate Apartheid Israel
The Times of Israel is what I call "junkbox journalism." In its entire short history, I can't recall it ever broke a major news story. Though it had generated its own set of mini-journalistic scandals: like when one of its bloggers complained that the stress of Operation Protective Edge was making her fat; or another in which a white supremacist posted an … [Read more...]
“September Song”
Politics are on holiday today. It was a beautiful autumn day today in Seattle. I walked through the Washington Park Arboretum (see album) with my dog. The sun shone in the late afternoon, glinting off the hills and houses. Cocoa got to swim in three different pools and had a blast (or should I say, "bath"). The strains of the University of Washington … [Read more...]
Daniel Barenboim: Hated in Israel, Unwelcome in Iran
Daniel Barenboim is far more than a brilliant orchestral conductor. He is a human being, a mensch. Though raised in Israel (but not born there), he has always risen above the insular world-view of many Israelis, especially regarding its relations with its neighbors in the Arab world. Together with Edward Said, he founded the West-Eastern Diwan … [Read more...]