Letters at 3AM: Effete!

It's never too late to see yourself as you are

"...I suppose one arrives at a self-image by equal parts fate, chance, and intent..."

April 14, 2006 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

Bob Dylan says he doesn't know how a guy like him came out of a place like Hibbing. He's been saying things like that for 40 years and I don't know a rock critic who doesn't take him at his word. But I also don't know a rock critic who's been to Hibbing. I wanted to see for myself.

"...into Minnesota through Fargo last spring, the land was flat and moist and green. The sky was wide as..."

March 17, 2006 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

On the 25th anniversary of John Lennon's death, Micahel Ventura revisits the column he wrote at the time of Lennon's murder when the pain was fresh

"...Random. The first song to play was John Lennon's oh-so-Beatles-esque tune from Plastic Ono Band: "Look at me –..."

Dec. 9, 2005 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

Stanley Crawford's 1966 novel 'GASCOYNE' has been out of print for 35 years, a literary crime redressed this month by the Overlook Press

"...Before we proceed it must be noted that in GASCOYNE the word GASCOYNE is spelled in caps..."

Nov. 25, 2005 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

Right now, and for at least the next three years of this administration, the United States of America is not being governed. Hurricane Katrina demonstrated, and Iraq every day confirms, that the powers-that-be are dysfunctional. We are on our own.

"...subjects too long ... just when I'm hoping I've exaggerated to myself and to you about the crisis I..."

Nov. 11, 2005 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

People of all political persuasions are beginning to face the reality that Americans' demand for oil is outpacing our supply and refining capacity, which in turn will cripple our economy's ability to grow. Our disposable society will become a scavenging society, and, on the brighter side, a more inventive society.

"...after we've stopped expecting anything intelligent from Congress, a conservative from Maryland has turned the tables on us all...."

Oct. 14, 2005 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

Are the Panhandle's many roadside monuments to Christ testaments of faith or unadmitted doubt, or some of both?

"...the sun, 19 stories high, visible for miles in that flat land. One may wonder whether something so large..."

Sept. 2, 2005 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

The sapping of America's economic and technological dominance is a boon for the world. Many are gaining from the decline of a few.

"...It was easy to hop around that way after reading page one of The New York..."

Aug. 19, 2005 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

We are a community, we and the creatures. There are only a few tenths of a percent of difference between the chimpanzees' DNA and ours, yours, mine.

"...At the habitat of the chimpanzees, a stupendous cacophony! Chimps..."

Aug. 5, 2005 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

We take cars for granted, yet people have been living like this only a short time, and, when this era exhausts itself, people may never live like this again. What will they think of us, I wonder.

"...West. Across the street, Ronna's Video for Adults – Private Video Booths – Open 24 Hours. It's about noon,..."

June 10, 2005 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

Our Ecstatic Days' is that rarest of creatures: a great novel. The first great American novel of the 21st century. Steve Erickson has discovered the secret of creating a novel that is not a book but an organism. Proust did it. Joyce almost did it. Faulkner sometimes did it. Marquez did it. Yes, that's the company Steve's keeping in Our Ecstatic Days.'

"...is good. Really good." The book was Days Between Stations, Steve Erickson's first published novel. In my review I..."

March 4, 2005 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

Despite the change in inhabitants, the buildings, people, and mood of the old immigrant neighborhoods haven't changed. The streets still whisper the same cautionary advice: Survive and get out.

"...little he may have been 5. We lived on Decatur Street, in Brooklyn, off Knickerbocker Avenue. Few streets were..."

Dec. 24, 2004 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

'The 9 / 11 Commission Report' only shows us how much we still do not know about what happened on that day

"...11 (pp. 35-46) focus on President Bush and his administration's behavior on 9/11. Eleven happens also to be the..."

Sept. 3, 2004 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

Americans and Iraqis are dying for Bush's pride and his hopes of re-election

"...of last year, a U.S. colonel announced from the battlefront: "We own Baghdad." A year later to the day,..."

April 16, 2004 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

In the world of Charlie Chaplin chaos reigns … and is celebrated: The Little Tramp turns 90

"...and reveled in Sennett's only theme: chaos. One event that sort of makes sense leads to another that makes..."

Feb. 20, 2004 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

Although it may sound like hooey in the retelling, this is the story of the author's discovery of his soul's expression.

"...Lamb, Voltaire, and Emerson, it was seen as a contemplation: The writer essayed (attempted) the consideration of a subject...."

Jan. 9, 2004 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

Memories of the first stirring of Self and Soul.

"...York City, 1950. I was 5 years old. I watched a group of boys my age kick another 5-year-old..."

Dec. 12, 2003 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

"Mediocrity is never passive; it avenges itself for its deprivation." -- Nelson Algren

"...on the Wild Side. (Yes, it's Algren's phrase; years later, Lou Reed copped it.) In a 1965 memoir, Notes..."

Oct. 31, 2003 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

Forgive Elia Kazan his sins, but never forget his lousy deeds.

"...Elia Kazan [stage and film director]: "That's correct."..."

Oct. 17, 2003 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

Having children used to be necessary for a family's economic survival; in the last century it has instead become a choice.

"...-- recipes on how to raise 'em, feed 'em, educate 'em. But one most basic question goes unasked and..."

Oct. 3, 2003 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

We have replaced our concept of the heroic with the superheroic, and the sense of the possible with the impossible.

"...happened to the idea of being human. The most blatant examples are, as usual, on the screen: Spider-Man, The..."

July 25, 2003 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

Stanley Crawford's new book, The River in Winter: New and Selected Essays, reminds us that we must all do our part.

"...What is sanity? The Oxford definition has gotta be tongue-in-cheek:..."

June 27, 2003 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

We call them "retirees," although in other cultures and eras they would be elders, but if they had anything real to do they wouldn't be coming here to Jean, Nevada.

"...Two gaudy, cheap-looking, neon-lit structures constitute most of what there is of Jean, Nevada, one on each side..."

May 2, 2003 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

In 2002, cinema has been the healthiest of our arts. The movies' range and variety relieve what has otherwise been a bleak time for our culture and our Constitution.

"...ricocheted off the polished surfaces of a film false at its core. Director Todd Haynes apparently thinks that upwardly..."

Jan. 3, 2003 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

"...The Pacific Coast Highway: What Randolph Bourne wrote in 1917 could have been written..."

Oct. 18, 2002 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

The White House is intent on totalitarian measures and war; it employs incoherence because it cannot speak plainly of its machinations.

"...In July a New York Times/CBS poll revealed that 45% of Americans thought "other people are really running..."

Sept. 20, 2002 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

"..."Bedtime" is not a Mediterranean concept. My family and relatives still lived in as much a Sicilian, Mediterranean rhythm..."

Aug. 23, 2002 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

Four meditations on three undefinable words: I love you.

"...FIRST MEDITATION: A language is not its words. A language is..."

July 12, 2002 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

The gargoyles guarding the great cathedrals are a part of religion, a part of humanity, even a part of God. You come to be redeemed, but it's possible you'll be devoured.

"...In my teens my Catholicism ripped in two. Emotionally, I very much wanted to..."

May 3, 2002 Column by Michael Ventura

Letters at 3AM

Michael Ventura observes the great John Cassavetes at work on the set of his next-to-last movie Love Streams.

"...darkness of John Cassavetes' living room beside the camera that filmed his last scene as an actor -- isn't..."

March 8, 2002 Column by Michael Ventura

« 1    ‹ BACK    5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14     NEXT ›    26 »