Moore got cred as an oracle by correctly guessing that his fellow citizens from Michigan were going to vote for Trump, and Hillary Clinton avoided campaigning in Wisconsin and Michigan because of her weaknesses as a candidate. So the implication is that weak Democratic response in Flint leads directly to Hillary losing Michigan and thus the Electoral College. That, of course, and the way the Democratic establishment shoved aside the radical possibilities offered by Bernie Sanders. The last part, then, is the same gloomy argument you hear from Bernie-bros on Facebook. These last two years have been as politically frightening as any in our history, but the paranoia here is sometimes out of control. An example is when Moore dubs Trump » Read More

Oddly, it seems Joan Jett has quite a good reputation. The inspiring Bad Reputation, named after her early 1980s hit, is a paean to the veteran rocker. She gets praise from Iggy Pop and Blondie's Deborah Harry; we learn of her good influence on artists as different as Miley Cyrus, Darby Crash, Laura Jane Grace and actor Michael J. Fox. We note her days as a hard-charging musician, as a stand-up person who travelled to Iraq and Bosnia to entertain the troops, and her work for animal rights. Jett's excessive drinking in the rough times after her first band, The Runaways, broke up are about the only character deficits admitted to here. » Read More

The show is vibrant from the jump, with the set pieces rendered like an ornate Turkish palace, complete with tall domes and turrets towering above the stage and drawing the eye in. This is extended in the second act when the set is transformed into a magnificent topiary garden with leaves covering every square inch. The setting and ambiance is further reinforced by dynamic mood lighting, casting the stage in soft, early-evening oranges and purples or high-noon desert white light depending on the scene. This attention to detail extends to the costumes, which are an assorted blast of bright colors, textures, and arabesque patterns that transport the audience to the show's Ottoman time period. » Read More

The sounds of a Oaxacan marketplace emanate from one corner of a gallery in the Triton Museum of Art. The sounds are coming from a small speaker covered by a fruit crate that faces Viviana Paredes' steel and glass sculpture Ser y Comer, a street cart displaying ears of corn in a handwoven basket. The basket itself is nestled inside a mound of dried, pale yellow kernels that threaten to spill over the cart's edges. Paredes has etched the word "ESQUITES" in capital letters onto one of the glass, side panels. The cart itself stands on top of a platform made from a dozen wooden fruit crates. In "Alimentos: Glass Work by Viviana Paredes," the artist says she wanted to remind people of Mexico's rich cultural heritage as it pertains to "a » Read More

In Robert Frost's 1914 poem "Mending Wall," the narrator doesn't say, "Good fences make good neighbors." His neighbor does. He wants to mend the stone wall that divides their properties. Instead, it's the narrator, the poet's alter ego, who, after their encounter, asks himself, "If I could put a notion in his head:'Why do they make good neighbors?'" Frost continues with this line of inquiry a few lines later wondering, "Before I built a wall I'd ask to know/What I was walling in or walling out." Fences, as we've discovered in recent years, have come to symbolize political ideologies that favor division over unity. » Read More

A hundred years ago, the word "teenager" had yet to make its debut in the American lexicon. Not only was there no word to describe that awkward stage between childhood and adulthood, there was also very little social context to explain the concept that we so easily identify today. But a few decades later, when suburbanization spread and the middle class grew, so did a young, new market audience. Automobiles brought autonomy, and suddenly, young people had a vehicle for exploring and understanding the world around them. Cue the Thunder Road drag race scene from Grease. » Read More

Two-and-a-half years ago, the anti-man-about-town visited the gravesite of legendary author Jorge Luis Borges in Geneva, Switzerland. Borges was a unique figure at the top of 20th century literature and a major influence on me, so in Geneva I made a desperate pact with him. Standing at his grave, I said: "Alright old man, I will keep writing, just show me how to make a living. Give me a sign. Anything." Sure enough, I was awarded a fellowship soon thereafter. I guess he was looking over my shoulder. That was in 2016, but just a few weeks ago in downtown San Jose, Borges spun back into my orbit from multiple dimensions at once, just to make sure I was still writing and keeping up my end of the bargain. » Read More

You might also give some consideration to your look. I'm not saying you should wear a monocle and carry a cane, but maybe grow a little facial hair and dress and accessorize like an adult. Finally, there's a little secret to getting treated as somebody's equal, and it's acting the part. If some graying co-worker makes age-related cracks about your tech usage, don't go all woundypants. Laugh and tease 'em right back, telling them they should just ask you directly when they want your tech-savvy millennial help with texting nudies from their side-entry bathtub. » Read More

In one sense, a "patron saint" is a Catholic saint who is a heavenly advocate for a person, group, activity, thing or place. St. Jude is the patron saint of lost causes, for instance. St. Francis of Assisi is the guardian of animal welfare, and St. Kentigern is the protector against verbal abusers. "Patron saint" may also be invoked poetically to refer to a person who serves as a special guide or influence. For example, in one of his short stories, Nathaniel Hawthorne refers to a veteran nurse as "the patron saint of young physicians." In accordance with current astrological omens, I invite you to fantasize about persons, groups, activities, things or places for whom you might be the patron saint. To spur your imagination, here are some » Read More