The summer of 1957, when I was sixteen, I had entered the 18-and-unders, at the USTA sponsored Clay Court Championships at the Newton Tennis & Squash Club, in hopes of ending a four tournament out-in-the-first-round losing streak.
Culturewatch
TV Diary III: “My Brilliant Friend”
Laurie Stone posted on My Brilliant Friend–the TV adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novels—as each episode appeared. Here are her responses to the final shows of the season…
Rebecca Roanhorse Reimagines The Future of Dinétah
Trail of Lightning, by Rebecca Roanhorse, (pp. 304) Saga Press, NY, NY; hardcover, © 2018
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving was Joel DeMott’s first movie. It was screened at Tom DeMott’s Memorial on Dec. 1 (nearly 50 years after she made it). Tommy–Jo’s first roommate/fan–would be beaming now if he revisited her visions of him and the DeMott fam. Click on “Read More” to watch Thanksgiving. Use the following password: Amherst
Homegoing & Tom DeMott’s Hidden Obit
I gave the following talk and reading from my brother Tom’s prose at his Memorial after we screened Thanksgiving—our sister Joel’s movie (unsynched but fully in the flow) of a DeMott family celebration ca. 1970. I jumped off from the rapturous sequence in the movie where Jo used a great Motown track “Truly Yours” to soundtrack images of little sister Megan dancing and Tom listening/looking like a rock dream—saved (barely) from male model fineness by his broken nose…
Love Stories: Black and White, His and Hers, Then and Now
Bob Liss gives love for love in this review of Earl Monroe’s history of basketball…
TV Diary II: “My Brilliant Friend”
Laurie Stone has been posting on My Brilliant Friend–the TV adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novels—as each episode appears…
Attack of the Yellow Vests
Richard Goldstein filed this piece the day before the French government rolled back the proposed fuel tax increases that have sparked protests throughout the country.
TV Diary: “My Brilliant Friend”
Laurie Stone has been posting on My Brilliant Friend–the TV adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novels—as each episode appears. Here are her first three shots.
Part Three (Redux)
Karen Hornick’s 2015 post on Elena Ferrante’s novels–and the uses of seriality–is right on time again.
Baader-Meinhof Blues
I’ve made love in every way possible, she said. I don’t believe you, I said. In every way possible? In every way, she said, and I didn’t say anything (I preferred to shut up, maybe I was embarrassed) but I believed her.
Tom DeMott R.I.P.
Tom DeMott died suddenly from a heart attack in his New York City apartment on October 23rd.
Mondays in the Sun: Tom DeMott and the Promise of Happiness
The author first met Tom on Anna Maria Island in Florida. He wrote these reflections about his then new–but now late–friend a year or so ago…
Port of Shadows (Excerpt from Library of Congress’s “The Unknown Kerouac”)
What follows is the conclusion of “I Wish I Were You”–the concluding story in the new Library of Congress volume:The Unknown Kerouac: Rare, Unpublished and Newly Translated Writings. “I Wish I Were You” is a dark story, but I believe my Beat brother Tom DeMott would’ve found the light in it. B.D.
The Bitch Whistle
The appointment of Brett Kavanaugh is a stark reminder of patriarchal power, but also a catalyst of militance and mobilization. Suburban women—the so-called soccer moms—are a major swing vote, and in the midterms their feelings about sexual harassment could be a decisive factor, at least when it comes to the House. But beneath the outrage and determination is a more complicated picture. To ignore it is to suffer the results.
Ventilator Blues
From sea to shining sea aging white males gather on playgrounds confused about who they are and certain that someone has it in for them. They may be playing golf or pickle ball rather than putting on the pads for football, but many still worry about how to gain and keep power and how to affirm their sexual identities. For many, women are trophies.
Keil’s Tree of Life
Charlie Keil caught up with Aretha Franklin’s “Tree of Life” last week. When your editor mentioned there were other wonders on Franklin’s Rare and Unreleased CDs, Keil mused about another rare Ree: “I think I still have somewhere a 45 rpm single of Aretha’s ‘Precious Lord’ that I picked up at Chess Records office.” Keil responded to Aretha’s call with this shapely poem …