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# HeadButler

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## Pages

- [Home](https://headbutler.com/)
- [Want to be a guest Butler?](https://headbutler.com/want-to-be-a-guest-butler/) - If you have a favorite book, movie or musical release that you want to share, I'd love to hear from you. You'll be paid exactly what I get (nothing), but think of the glory. Before you write no more than 1,000 crisp, opinionated and original (that is: not plagiarized) words, you'd be smart to write
- [The new addition](https://headbutler.com/the-new-addition/) - JesseKornbluth.com
- [The Gift of Gifts](https://headbutler.com/the-gift-of-gifts/) - After I abridged and edited A Christmas Carol, I asked myself what a new version would be like. So I wrote one.... I was having a bad year. I turned 45, and felt old --- as old as my father. Then my father died. Then my employer became one of those companies that Amazon is
- [Short Takes](https://headbutler.com/short-takes/)
- [Send page by e-mail](https://headbutler.com/send-page-by-e-mail/)
- [How do I use Head Butler?](https://headbutler.com/how-do-i-use-head-butler/) - I'm no tech wizard, so I had the site designed to be so easy to use even I can find my way around. Let's say you're looking for a book. Just click on BOOKS at the top of this screen, and you'll see an archive, in alphabetical order by title, of every book I've reviewed
- [Disclaimer](https://headbutler.com/disclaimer/) - HeadButler.com is a relentlessly positive site with the occasional consumer warning. But life teaches us that Valentines are not always received in the spirit that inspired them. So let me remind readers that the site is, in the main, just one man's opinion, and that, in the main, I mean well. HeadButler.com welcomes submissions from
- [What's Head Butler? Who is Jesse Kornbluth?](https://headbutler.com/whats-head-butler-who-is-jesse-kornbluth/) - Welcome. I'm Jesse Kornbluth, and I'd like to be your Head Butler --- your cultural concierge. If you feel like you're drowning in media...well, you are. There are just too many books and movies, there's just too much music. You can't keep up. And you can't catch up. There are two typical responses to Too Much.
- [Newsletter Signup](https://headbutler.com/newsletter-signup/)
- [Obligatory Blog Roll](https://headbutler.com/obligatory-blog-roll/)
- [What can I find on Head Butler?](https://headbutler.com/what-can-i-find-on-head-butler/)

## Reviews

- [Paulo Coelho: The Alchemist](https://headbutler.com/reviews/paulo-coelho/) - Book sales can be as hard to verify as movie profits, but I have no trouble believing that "The Alchemist" has sold more than 30 million copies, been translated into more than 50 languages and published in more than 150 countries --- in short, I have no trouble believing that this is one of the world's most popular books.
- [Healthy Aging: A Lifelong Guide to Your Physical and  Spiritual Well-Being](https://headbutler.com/reviews/healthy-aging-lifelong-guide-your-physical-and-spiritual-well-being-andrew-weil/) - "Healthy Aging: A Lifelong Guide to Your Physical and Spiritual Well-Being" is a bomb that may come as a shock to Boomers --- who tend to believe that life started with them and cannot go on without them --- and a total surprise for Millennials. Its newsflash: We all will die. There is no "fountain of youth," no magic elixir that extends life. In 2002, when Weil turned sixty, he noted what that means: "Sixty is about the time that organs of the body begin to fail, when the first signs of age-related disease begin to appear." Can aging be reversed? No. But here comes the second bomb Dr. Weil throws in these pages --- and from his point-of-view, it's pure good news: You can age gracefully. And if you are smart and careful and active and lucky, you will "live as long and as well as possible, then have a rapid decline at the end of life." That is, you're healthy and vital right into your '80s and '90s, and then you get sick and die quickly, with your dignity --- and your wits --- intact. "The goal," he reminds us, "is compression of morbidity, not life extension."
- [Without Limits](https://headbutler.com/reviews/without-limits/) - There are artists who paint by the rules. We call their work “decorative” and forget their names fast. Then there are artists who break the rules and make something new, forcing us to see the world fresh. They're the immortals. Steve Prefontaine said, "Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say, 'I've never seen anyone run like that before.' It's more than just a race, it's a style. It's doing something better than anyone else. It's being creative." Steve Prefontaine. You draw a blank. Well, it was so long ago.... Prefontaine didn't have a low opinion of himself. But he got it right; he was an artist. He took the formula of long-distance running --- hang back, let the front-runner burn himself out, then kick at the end --- and spat on it. Pacing yourself, he believed, was for wimps. His style was to sprint. From start to finish. Go out fast, take the lead, keep the lead --- at any cost. No one had ever run this way. But Steve Prefontaine, painting in time and space, did the impossible, proving that it wasn't impossible at all. He revolutionized long-distance running. Became a hero, a role model, a legend. Was he driven? Of course. He grew up in a hard place --- the logging town of Coos Bay, Oregon --- and there weren't a lot of ways out. He started running as a kid, saw he was good at it, and amped up his effort. It's a simple story: the guy who wins because he can't afford to lose. "Somebody may beat me,” he said, “but they are going to have to bleed to do it." He wanted desperately to go to the University of Oregon at Eugene, but Bill Bowerman --- the legendary coach and, later, co-founder of Nike --- didn't believe in recruiting. But he did send his assistant, Bill Dellinger, to watch Prefontaine at the Oregon State high school cross-country meet. "I had my binoculars and I was probably a good half-mile, 700 yards away, from the start,” Dellinger has recalled, “and I saw this guy as they were called to the line and got to the set position. I saw the look in his eyes, even from a half-mile distance, and the intensity in his face as the gun went off, and I thought that's gotta be Pre." Prefontaine did go to Eugene. He bonded with Bowerman, and he won and won and won ---until the Munich Olympics in 1972. He returned to Oregon, committed to take a medal in 1976. And then, in 1975, he died in a car crash. He was 25. An athlete dying young is an instant legend. Pre was made for the part. He had long dirty-blond hair, a moustache, fierce eyes --- he was the James Dean of running. Attitude? His mouth was always too candid by half. Charisma? His fans called themselves “Pre's People,” and they came out every time he ran at Eugene's Hayward Field, screaming “Pre! Pre! Pre!” He loved them right back: "How can you lose with 12,000 people behind you?" And, in fact, he never lost a race over a mile on that track. Prefontaine was the natural subject for a film. Twenty years after his death, there were two. The one you want to see is “Without Limits,” co-written and directed by Robert Towne, whose writing credits include “Chinatown.” Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner were the producers. Conrad Hall, who won an Oscar for “Butch Cassidy,” was the cinematographer. Billy Crudup played Pre. Donald Sutherland was Bill Bowerman. [To buy the DVD from Amazon, click here. To buy or rent the streaming video, click here. If you have Amazon Prime, the cost of streaming: free.] A distinguished team, but the film made little money, and disappeared. That's tragic, because “Without Limits” is not just inspiring --- hell, most sports movies built around a dead guy are inspiring --- it's thrilling. In Hollywood, they talk about the “arc” of film stories. This has the arc of the classic Bruckheimer movies --- little guy digs deep, finds a big guy inside --- without the car races and jet fighters that make so many of those films corny. The races are blood-pounding; that's a given. But it's what's between them that makes the movie --- Pre was as funny as he was profane. There's a great scene, for example, when Bowerman comes to visit Pre in Coos Bay. He's brought along two of his star runners as advertisements for his program at Eugene. Pre turns to them: “How about an easy 10?” And off they go, into the woods. Cut to: their return. Pre is fresh, the college boys are barely able to breathe. If you have a kid who needs to get his/her ass off the couch, here's your Saturday night viewing. If you're feeling sluggish, ditto. But be warned: “Without Limits” is as seductive as Prefontaine himself --- and as motivating. It can make the lame throw off their crutches, the faint of heart leap for the sky. See it, and believe.
- [Little Miss Sunshine](https://headbutler.com/reviews/little-miss-sunshine/) - The thought that you're watching the best film you may see all year surfaces early in "Little Miss Sunshine" --- like, as soon as you meet the characters. And this is surprising, because anything you may have read about this movie anything I tell you here will make it sound like the kind of forced, unfunny comedy that gives "independent" films a bad name. The dad (Greg Kinnear) is a relentlessly upbeat motivational speaker who is unable to find a publisher. His wife (Toni Collette) is so harried she's misplaced her femininity and has become the family enabler. Their teenage son (Paul Dano) looks like a Columbine killer-in-waiting; he reads Nietzsche, hates everyone in his family and has taken a vow of silence. Their 7-year-old daughter (Abigail Breslin) obsessively watches televised beauty pageants and dreams of winning a kid contest, although she wears huge eyeglasses and is as round as a Weeble. The wife's brother (Steve Carell) has been recently displaced as America's #1 Proust scholar by his ex-boyfriend's new lover. He's botched a suicide attempt and has come to live in the only home that will have him. And just to round out this clan of freaks, there's Kinnear's father (Alan Arkin), a grizzled codger who swears like a sailor, snorts heroin and is the talent coordinator for his granddaughter.
- [The Castle](https://headbutler.com/reviews/castle/) - "The Castle" is not only the funniest Australian comedy ever made --- but then, how many Australian comedies can you name? --- it's one of the most amusing comedies anyone's made in the past few years. Filmed in just 11 days and released in 1999, “The Castle” made the rounds of American art theaters, convulsing tiny audiences. Before they had a change to make their loved ones see it, it was gone. But the Gods of DVD have intervened, and now you can get your mitts on the most loving, funny, feel-good movie since….gee, it's been so long that my memory fails. “The Castle” is inspired by the old saw: “A man's home is his castle.” That is the view of Darryl Kerrigan, an Aussie laborer who lives in a house so close to an airport that planes seem to be crash-landing on his head. Who would want such real estate? As it happens, the airport would --- it needs to expand. And so Darryl is offered a tidy sum of money to move. The thing is, Darryl and his family love their home. There's no check big enough to make them sell. Their neighbors feel the same way. And so they fight back, first using a broken-down comic hack of a lawyer named Dennis DeNuto, and then….but that starts to give away too much. What you do want to know is that your initial view of the Kerrigans is very very wrong. It can't be helped --- they seem like idiots, you have to laugh at them. But as you watch, your feelings will change. You'll start laughing at repeated lines you once thought inane, namely “Ah, the serenity!” and “He must be dreaming” and “It's the vibe.” Soon you're not laughing at them, but with them. And hoping, in the words of one of the many mottos of the Texas Rangers, “ Little man whip a big man every time if the little man is in the right and keeps on coming.” Lovable characters, a plot that children can grasp, no sex, only a few “curse words” --- this is that rarest of fun: fun for the whole family. To buy “The Castle” from Amazon.com, click here.
- [The Fabulous Sylvester](https://headbutler.com/reviews/fabulous-sylvester/) - Back when everyone was pretending that all America could love disco, that it really had nothing to do with homosexuality, Sylvester was openly and proudly gay. "I want to destroy reality when I'm performing," he said, and he did.
- [Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" -- The Authorized Graphic Adaptation](https://headbutler.com/reviews/shirley-jacksons-the-lottery-the-authorized-graphic-adaptation/) - Of all the Jacksonia, I submit that the graphic novel is the most powerful. A world of readers has become, thanks to the movies and the Internet, a world of viewers --- and, in this case, voyeurs. The Rod Stewart song got it right: “Every picture tells a story.” And the pictures Miles Hyman has created do that; in every panel, we get a portrait of passive conformists that is even more chilling today than it was when Jackson’s story was published in 1948.
- [Bonjour Tristesse](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bonjour-tristesse/) - "I had a strong desire to write and some free time,” Françoise Sagan recalled. “And in two or three months, working two or three hours a day, I was done.” Her book, "Bonjour Tristesse," was an instant best-seller in France in 1954. Not bad for an 18-year-old first-time novelist. In case you’re thinking the book is a 130-page stunt --- an easy-to-promote coming-of-age story by a girl just coming-of-age herself --- think again. “Bonjour Tristesse” delivers characters of considerable sophistication in an achingly sophisticated plot in a gloriously sophisticated setting. It’s a smart book and a wise one --- a terrific beach book for readers who like love complicated and sex real. [To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here.] Here’s the set-up. Cécile, the narrator, is the 17-year-old daughter of a 40-year-old advertising executive. Her mother’s dead. Dad's a womanizer. No one much cares that she’s failed her exams and is drifting. Her father has rented a large white villa on the Mediterranean for the summer. It’s the house you dream of: “remote and beautiful, standing on a headline jutting out over the sea, hidden from the road by pine woods. A goat path led down to a small, sunny cove where the sea lapped against rust-colored rocks.” The water? "Cool and transparent.” Ahhhhhh... Instantly, Cécile makes a conquest of Cyril, a 26-year-old who’s even more handsome than his small sailboat. Meanwhile her father, who’s passing the summer with a “mediocre but attractive” young hottie, has invited a second woman to the house --- Anne Larsen, cool, accomplished, his own age, an old friend of his dead wife. Cécile senses trouble. Her “weak, frivolous and unreliable” father is going to dump the hottie and marry sober, mature Anne. This can’t be. Anne doesn’t wait for the wedding ring to start taking responsibility for her future stepdaughter. She decrees that Cécile will stay in her room and read philosophy, in preparation for her exams. And worse: Cécile will not see Cyril again. Hell hath no fury like a teenager scorned --- especially a spoiled, indolent teenager without a thought for anything but her own pleasure. As Cécile says, “I was more gifted in kissing a young man in the warm sunshine than in taking a degree.” And even more: “In order to achieve inner peace, my father and I had to have excitement.” So Cécile sets a plan in motion, brilliantly manipulating the players in this small drama. Is Cécile a monster? Oh, please: She’s 17. If you’re shocked by her machinations --- and her hot, dangerous liaisons with her lover --- chalk it up to Sagan’s expertise as a writer. She knew what she was doing, and she intended to shock her 1950s readers. As she later wrote: "It was inconceivable that a young girl of 17 or 18 should make love without being in love with a boy of her own age, and not be punished for it." And more: People couldn't accept that this girl "should know about her father's love affairs, discuss them with him, and thereby reach a kind of complicity with him on subjects that had until then been taboo between parents and children." “Bonjour Tristesse” was followed by more novels, fast cars and near-fatal accidents, cocaine and courtrooms. None of it brought Sagan love, but then, she swore that she didn’t believe in it: "Are you joking? I believe in passion. Nothing else. Two years, no more. All right, then: three.” There was, apparently, a lot of Cécile in Françoise. Mostly, though, there was talent to burn --- enough talent to singe 20 million book buyers in 22 languages readers for half a century.
- [Weekend Butler: Time accelerates: How many issues of The New Yorker did you get this week? Movies for a rainy weekend. Kids aren't sure: Is the world round? Surprise: Goodhearted people are healthier. Roasted Salmon Glazed With Brown Sugar and Mustard. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-time-accelerates-how-many-issues-of-the-new-yorker-did-you-get-this-week-movies-for-a-rainy-weekend-kids-arent-sure-is-the-world-round-surprise-goodhearted-people-are-healthier/) - GEORGE SANTOS (photo): An appointment in Great Neck. Crossing the street, we noticed that George Santos, the disgraced first-term Congressman, has his office here. Naturally, this called for a photo op. Our visit was well-timed: Santos has declined to tell the court who posted his $183,000 bail. The day after our photo op, a federal
- [Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock](https://headbutler.com/reviews/elizabeth-and-hazel-two-women-of-little-rock/) - Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan were yoked together in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957, when 15-year-old Elizabeth was one of nine African American students trying to integrate a high school and Hazel, a white girl standing right behind her, shrieked: "Go home, nigger! Go back to Africa!" At that exact moment, a photographer snapped their
- [Nick Drake](https://headbutler.com/reviews/five-leaves-left/) - Nick Drake was a riveting character--- six feet, three inches tall, with broad shoulders that he hunched up, like a turtle preparing to hide its head. He started playing guitar at an English boarding school, where, in the mid l960s, he could not help but be influenced by the Beatles. He moved on to Cambridge University, where he was an indifferent student --- all he cared about was writing songs and perfecting them.
- [Summer in the Hamptons: Time for "On Goldman Pond," my short story about Goldman Sachs buying up Hamptons' real estate. It could easily be non-fiction. Or science fiction.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/on-goldman-pond-a-short-story-that-could-easily-be-non-fiction/) - The Solstice is upon us --- it's Peak Hamptons. A friend sent me an Instagram link, showing a container of guacamole from the Seafood Shop in Wainscott. It's $27 a pound. I haven't been to the Hamptons in the summer for years, but I'm confident that Loaves and Fishes really does sell lobster salad at
- [Darker Than the Deepest Sea: The Search for Nick Drake](https://headbutler.com/reviews/darker-deepest-sea-search-nick-drake/) - Darker Than the Deepest Sea: The Search for Nick Drake Trevor Dann Friends said that Nick Drake's music “brushes the ear.” That his songs were like “butterflies chained to anchors.” That his “breathy beige voice” was ideally suited to a message of “gentle doom.” That, far from communicating, he made music that turned inward, as if he were playing for himself. That listening to him was “like being at the bedside of a dying man who wants to tell you a secret but who keeps changing his mind at the last minute.” Which is to say: In a few short years, on the 31 tracks of three CDs, Nick Drake made music that's chilling in its beauty. Chilling and exhilarating at once, to be exact, for that voice and that open-tuned drone of a guitar suck you into to a private world --- your private world. Nick Drake may not have been able to reach out to anyone during the 26 years of his life, but he knew how to do it with his music. He is the Crown Prince of Gentle. As those who have read my wet kiss of a review for Five Leaves Left know, I fell in love with Nick Drake early, when he was just a sad dead guy cherished by the faithful. Now he has a cult. “Pink Moon” was used in a VW commercial a few years ago, and in the following month, there were more sales of Nick Drake CDs than there had been in 30 years. And now there's a biography. Trevor Dunn produced Live Aid. He was head of music programming for BBC TV. If anyone could penetrate the mystery of Nick Drake's life and death, he was in position to do so. And he has, in ways that will probably please Drake addicts and confuse the newly aware and merely curious. The thing is, Drake was a mystery in his life, and his “secret” died with him. Was it that he was a child of privilege who just couldn't take the hard knocks of the music business? (“Hard knocks” is somewhat ironic --- he got his record contract when he was a 19-year-old student at Cambridge.) Did he smoke so much dope that he finally pushed himself into schizophrenia? Could he have been saved if he'd been institutionalized? Or did he just never recover from the conviction that he was supposed to be an overnight star? And, of course: Did he kill himself, or accidentally overdose? It's fascinating to watch Dann follow the breadcrumbs of evidence that Drake left behind. And I find that the prose does what it should: give me fresh respect for the struggles of a sensitive soul crushed by what he felt was fate. Mostly, I'm left with an image from Nick Drake's childhood: the boy standing and conducting when music came on the radio. Knowing how the story plays out, you want to reach across time to that boy. Failing that, you want to close your eyes, listen to the music and let the pictures come. To buy “Darker Than the Deepest Sea” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “Five Leaves Left” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “Bryter Later” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “Pink Moon” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “Way to Blue” from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War](https://headbutler.com/reviews/mmost-dangerous-daniel-ellsberg-and-the-secret-history-of-the-vietnam-war/) - “They came to California to ruin a man. Not to kill him, not literally. But the next best thing.” What kind of book begins like this? A thriller. In this case, a political thriller. Who is the intended reader? The publisher categorizes “Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War” as a Young Adult book, suitable for students as young as 13. And it has won been highly praised in that category. It won the 2016 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Nonfiction. It was a National Book Award finalist and a finalist for the 2015 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature. And it was selected a National Book Award finalist. If you have a kid who likes history…a kid who watches the news, or better, reads it… who is aware that Donald Trump is more than the host of a reality TV show… who has been known to say, “That’s the official story, but what’s the truth?”… get this book.
- [Weekend Update: Weekend Butler, plus...Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, died today. The publisher called this a Young Adult book. It’s better than that: a National Book Award finalist that will thrill -- and challenge and enrage -- adults as well as kids. Read my review. Buy the book for your kids and grandkids --- and for you. Discuss (you can’t not).](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-the-dalai-lama-on-death-just-a-change-of-clothes-watch-paul-mccartney-write-get-back-in-2-5-minutes-bryan-cranston-w-h-auden-drinking-actually-good-for-your-heart-gazp/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: You can become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and to go there, just click here. Again, thank you. - UPDATE: Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, died on June 16, 2023 at 92.
- [Boz Scaggs](https://headbutler.com/reviews/boz-scaggs-0/) - It’s been called “one of the best albums never heard outside San Francisco.” I’d bet my hands that the only readers who know about this CD are 1) senior citizens who were fanatic rock fans in the ‘60s or 2) fans of the singer’s later CDs who have been directed to it or 3) acolytes of Duane Allman. Don’t feel bad if you’re not in one of those cults. The record company hasn’t even created an MP3 version of this record --- and it was recorded in 1969. Classic? Would I be playing it right now if it weren’t? The Boz Scaggs story in a paragraph: At a private school in Dallas, 12-year-old William Royce Scaggs met 12-year-old Steve Miller. They both played guitar, both loved the blues. A band followed, then college, travel, solo efforts. They hooked up again in San Francisco for the first incarnation of the Steve Miller Band. Steve Miller? Him you know. He was the “Gangster of Love.” He recorded "Fly Like An Eagle," "Rock'n Me," "Take the Money and Run,” "Jet Airliner" and "The Joker.” But before he had hit after hit, he was a pure San Franciscan, playing psychedelic rock. With a difference from many others: the Steve Miller Band played in tune. Boz Scaggs played with Miller for his first two, beautiful-then, beautiful-now albums. Then he headed off on his own. “Boz Scaggs” was his first solo CD. It’s like nothing else he recorded, and if you know his hits --- “What Can I Say,” “Lido Shuffle;” “It's Over” and “Lowdown” –- please imagine they were made by a different, smoother, pop singer. [To buy the CD of “Silk Degrees,” which has all those hits, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.] But if you’re the curious sort or have an appreciation for the rare, it’s “Boz Scaggs” you want. The record was co-produced by Jann Wenner, founder of Rolling Stone magazine. Scaggs was backed by the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, the legendary all-white group that supported Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett along with such palefaces as the Rolling Stones and Elton John. And on one 12-minute song, the guitarist is Duane Allman. [To buy the CD of “Boz Scaggs” from Amazon, click here.] Ever bought a CD for one song? Do it again. The song here is “Somebody Loan Me a Dime,” and it is pure sadness. A mournful organ. A piano run. Funeral drums. And then Boz, on his knees: “Somebody loan me a dime/ I need to call my old time used to be…. Somebody loan me a dime/ You know I need a helpin’ hand.” At 4:28 comes a scream. It’s Duane Allman’s guitar. He returns at 7:45 for a solo. It lasts more than four minutes. Along the way, the piano joins him, the organ swirls, horns play tight little flares and the drummer kicks harder --- the band struts in a thrilling mix of Southern blues and rock and roll. There are guitar aficionados who say that Allman ranks just a bit above Clapton in the pantheon --- well, here’s one justification for that heretical view. Prepare to get excited: Nothing compares to that. But the rest of the CD is challenging and original. It’s blues and country and even a big of old-time yodeling. I can understand why poor sales were not the only reason Scaggs reinvented himself as a pop crooner --- with this CD, he nailed every genre he cared about. Time to move on. Enough of me. Here’s Boz. BONUS VIDEO Steve Miller started out before rock videos. But I stumbled upon a rare video, from his second album, that is unlike anything you think of when you conjure San Francisco.
- [The Good Earth](https://headbutler.com/reviews/good-earth/) - I've studied Chinese history and read dozens of books about China, but one book so overshadows all the others that I might as well not have read them --- and I first read that key book when I was about 12. Since 1931, Pearl S. Buck's page-turner of a novel has had that effect on millions of readers. It won the Pulitzer Prize. It won the Nobel. "The Good Earth" was even annointed by Oprah, making any praise from me both minor-key and redundant. I remember it as a lurid tale. Wang Lung, a simple farmer, has sex with O-Lan, his wife! O-Lan gives birth in the fields! [In fact, she doesn't.] Wang Lung visits a brothel! Wang Lung takes a mistress! Several loose women and a few bad men smoke opium! I've just re-read "The Good Earth" --- and it's a different book now. It's still a love story, and a passionate one at that, but the love is named right in the title --- this is a novel about one man's romance with the earth. Wang Lung is a simple peasant, young in the late 19th century but living much as his ancestors did. As the book begins, on his wedding day, his priorities are clear: A soft wind blew glently from the east, a wind mild and murmorous and full of rain. It was a good omen. There would be no rain this day, but within a few days, if this wind continued, there would be water. It was good. Yesterday he had said to his father that if this brazen, glittering sunshine continued, the wheat could not fill in the ear. Now it was as if Heaven had chosen this day to wish him well. Earth would bear fruit. O-Lan is no beauty. But she is a faithful wife and a beast of a worker. And in the fields, the couple achieves a pastoral harmony: "Moving together in a perfect rhythm, without a word, hour after hour, he fell into a union with her which took the pain from his labor." O-Lan, tellingly, works "in the harvest field" almost to the hour she gives birth. Soon after, she returns with the baby, who spends his days on a quilt in the fields as his parents work: "The woman and the child were as brown as the soil and they sat there like figures made of earth." Terrible things happen: drought, famine, flight, violence, theft. But when Wang Lung and his family return to their land, prosperity returns with them. Wang Lung acquires more land. At harvest, his rooms are full of grain and garlic. His family grows. He is a man of respect. But man cannot live in Paradise. Or is it that Paradise itself is under constant threat? Wang Lung now sees the things that money can buy. He encounters women who make him forget O-Lan's many virtues. He takes a mistress, makes her a wife, brings her into his home. And now his home is a nest of troubles, for he has ignored his fields, forgotten his children, and created jealousy that he has no way to handle. It is Pearl S. Buck's great achievement that we are both outraged on O-Lan's behalf and understanding of Wang Lung's longings. And we can only admire how, as we race through the book, we see this is not just a novel about China on the eve on change from a largely agrarian society, it is also a universal book --- a chronicle of the stages of all our loves. We aspire, we attain, and, instead of cultivating what is now ours, we aspire again. And the results usually aren't pretty. Will Wang Lung regain his good sense? Will his sons grow up to manage his fields? Will he notice the gem that is O-Lan before sickness carries her off? In contemporary fiction, these are ridiculous questions; who could care about a silly Chinese farmer's joys about troubles? But once you start reading "The Good Earth" --- a traditional novel, told in a traditional style --- you find you care enormously. Would that there were more books as addictive as this --- for 12-year-old readers and the adults they will become. To buy "The Good Earth" from Amazon.com, click here.
- [A Walk in the Woods](https://headbutler.com/reviews/walk-woods/) - One day you take a walk. And you get an idea: I'll amble the 2,100-mile length of the Appalachian Trail. You have had zany ideas before, but you follow up on this one --- in your Christmas card, you ask many friends to walk the trail with you. Only one responds. He is Stephen Katz, a college buddy who has gone on to abuse alcohol and drugs and is now sober, if not exactly tame. You have not seen him in a decade. The last time you did, you fought. But what the heck --- he's willing to do it, even if he is seriously weight-challenged. So, laden with candy bars and brand-new camping equipment, the two of you fly down to Georgia and start walking.
- [Denis Johnson: Jesus' Son](https://headbutler.com/reviews/jesus-son/) - "Jesus' Son" is one of the ten funniest books I've ever read.
- [Weekend Butler: Do you have/need an air purifier? Van Gogh's Cypresses and a Van Gogh movie. Ban the Bible in schools? Shrimp Salad. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-do-you-have-need-an-air-purifier-van-goghs-cypresses-and-a-van-gogh-movie-a-great-teacher-ban-the-bible-in-schools-shrimp-salad-and-more/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: You can become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and to go there, just click here. Again, thank you. THIS WEEK IN BUTLER: Father’s Day 2023. Thich Nhat Hanh: Teachings on Love. Was “Succession” a
- [Father's Day 2023: Cheap and Cheerful](https://headbutler.com/reviews/fathers-day-2023-cheap-and-cheerful/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: You can become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and to go there, just click here. Again, thank you. -- "The poor can never be made to suffer enough." Jimmy Breslin told me that two
- [Sad News to Share: Jesse Kornbluth passed away peacefully on April 3, 2025](https://headbutler.com/reviews/sad-news-to-share-jesse-kornbluth-passed-away-peacefully-on-april-3-2025/) - Sad News to Share: Jesse Kornbluth passed away peacefully on April 3, 2025 You can read more about Jesse’s life and achievements here. Know that the 20 years that he was the creator of Head Butler --- and your reactions to what he shared here --- brought him such joy. If you want to share a memory of him, you can do so here on Facebook, or write his family using this address. From the family of Jesse Kornbluth
- ["How Lucky I Am to Have Something That Makes Saying Goodbye So Hard" -- A. A. Milne](https://headbutler.com/reviews/how-lucky-i-am-to-have-something-that-makes-saying-goodbye-so-hard/) - Readers of Head Butler: As many of you have noticed, the site has not been updated since late April. Jesse Kornbluth, the site’s creator and editor, first launched HeadButler.com in 2004. However, over the last year, he has experienced a neurological condition that has affected his mobility and reduced his creative output. Consequently, we do not foresee any further updates to the HeadButler.com site or future newsletters. Jesse is now living in an assisted living facility in New York City where he is comfortable and well taken care of. He, his family, and his friends appreciate the outpouring of concern and affection that many of you have shown over the past months. We know from your notes and comments that you are grateful to Jesse for his friendship and the twenty years that he shared his wisdom and wit on HeadButler.com. From the family of Jesse Kornbluth
- [Office Space](https://headbutler.com/reviews/office-space/) - Do you know about “TPS reports?” Do you know the importance of a red stapler? If you can answer YES to both questions, you are smiling at the memory of “Office Space,” a 1999 film that greatly amused you. If you zeroed out, you will want to stream “Office Space” ASAP. [To stream it on
- [In   America](https://headbutler.com/reviews/america/) - Only one film director has made a first film that won Academy Awards for its co-stars: Jim Sheridan, who directed “My Left Foot” in 1989. Brenda Fricker won an Oscar for Best Actress. Daniel Day-Lewis was named Best Actor. A few years later, he directed "In the Name of the Father," which was nominated for
- [Palomino Blackwing Pencils](https://headbutler.com/reviews/palomino-blackwing-pencils/) - In "Heartburn," Nora Ephron's novel about a failing marriage, she describes one of her first husband's peculiar habits. He writes his appointments in pencil in a desk diary. Each night, having fulfilled his obligations, he erases them. On New Year's Eve, his calendar looks as if his year was a blank. I'm thinking he must
- [D.H. Lawrence: The Rocking Horse Winner](https://headbutler.com/reviews/d-h-lawrence-the-rocking-horse-winner/) - There was a woman who was beautiful, who started with all the advantages, yet she had no luck. She married for love, and the love turned to dust. She had bonny children, yet she felt they had been thrust upon her, and she could not love them. They looked at her coldly, as if they
- [The All of It: A Novel](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-all-of-it-a-novel/) - Ann Patchett and a friend were browsing in a used bookstore when her friend spotted a musty copy of “The All of It.” Patchett, who had won the PEN/Faulkner Award for “Bel Canto” and was a year away from opening a bookstore in Nashville, had never heard of it or the author, Jeannette Haien. But
- [My Notorious Life: A Novel](https://headbutler.com/reviews/my-notorious-life-a-novel/) - My wife likes to say that the world's biggest drug problem is testosterone, and that is never truer than when the subject is women and their reproductive freedom. In the late 19th century, men imposed codes that made sure this freedom didn't exist, so Axie Muldoon works in the shadows, using euphemism as her first language...
- [Four Last Songs/ The Year of Living Dangerously](https://headbutler.com/reviews/four-last-songs/) - If you've seen The Year Of Living Dangerously --- Peter Weir's 1982 film about a young journalist looking to make a name for himself in Indonesia --- there are moments you'll never forget. Sigourney Weaver and Mel Gibson in a torrid makeout scene. The random violence and ugliness of Asian politics. And Linda Hunt, playing a soulful and doomed man, sitting alone near the end of the film, as the soundtrack sweeps into Kira Te Kanawa singing one of the “Four Last Songs” of Richard Strauss. It is impossible to hear that music and watch Hunt's performance --- she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress --- and not feel pierced to the heart. For me, the next step was to hear all of those songs and learn what they meant. It's quite the story, with a moral as old as time --- you don't have to be a great person to make great art. Richard Strauss was something of a prodigy. He succeeded early, and he liked success; it was said that “he wrote with one eye on the music and one on the box office.” His popularity made him suspect, and he was considered not quite first-rate. He wasn't hurt. “I may not be a first-rate composer,” he said, “but I am a first-class second-rate composer." Strauss collaborated with the Nazis, though he drew the line at condemning his friends. He was not above fleecing his musicians at cards. A fellow conductor said of him, “We played cards every week for 40 years --- and he was a pig.” And yet. When he was 83, Strauss read “Im Abendrot” (At Sunset), by the noted poet Joseph Eichendorff: Through trouble and joy we have walked hand in hand; we can rest from our wanderings now, above the peaceful countryside. The valleys fall away around us, the sky is already darkening, Only a pair of larks still rise dreamily into the scented air. Come here, and let them fly For soon it will be time to sleep and we must not lose our way in this solitude. O broad, contented peace! So deep in the sunset glow, How exhausted we are with our wandering --- can this then be death? His wife, the singer Pauline de Ahna, was a soprano; he quickly conceived of this poem as lyrics of a song for her. Later, Strauss read the poems of Herman Hesse. He found three that also spoke of approaching death. In just a few months, he had written four songs. He died a year later without ever hearing them performed. These songs were not intended to be grouped together or even sung in the order in which they are usually recorded. No matter --- from their first performance, listeners were struck by their intimacy and sincerity. Yes, sincerity, for here the master showman abandoned his slickness to make the case that death is nothing but a benign stroll into final sunset. And here's the charming factoid. In “Im Abendrot”, Strauss quotes himself --- he uses a motif from one of his earliest works, a piece that won fame for him. Fifty-four years earlier, writing about that piece, he noted, “The hour of death approaches, the soul leaves the body in order to find gloriously achieved in everlasting space those things which could not be fulfilled here below.” A year after finishing these last songs, he would complete the circle with some final remarks: “Dying is just as I composed it.” Who wouldn't like to believe that death is as Strauss saw it? And even if that's only a fond hope, music this remarkably beautiful sounds like Exhibit A in making the case for a divine plan. These songs are serene, and yet they thrill. They give a soprano a chance to display the full range of her gifts, but they are beyond ego. I was reduced to protoplasm by Kira Te Kanawa. Her recording isn't easily available. That's okay. To hear Renee Fleming is to be transported to the same unlikely place --- the gateway to heaven on earth. To buy “Four Last Songs” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy the DVD of “The Year of Living Dangerously” from Amazon.com, click here.
- [After the  Wedding](https://headbutler.com/reviews/after-wedding/) - “After the Wedding” could be the best film I've seen in a decade. And I say that even though I didn't see all of it --- like just about everyone else in that theater, for the entire last half hour I was afflicted by a bout of silent sobbing that wouldn't quit. I cherish that amazing, unforgettable experience: several hundred people weeping together. And then --- I'm not spoiling the movie here --- came a “happy ending” that is perhaps the most satisfying conclusion of any film I've seen in a decade. Satisfying because the characters earned it. There was a huge price for each of them to pay, and they stepped up to it. They earned the right to better. And, because you have lived their struggles with them, you leave the movie with the kind of satisfaction that no studio-financed, movie-by-committee-and-focus-group can give you. [To buy the DVD of “After the Wedding” from Amazon click here. To rent or buy the video stream, click here.] And the punch line of all this praise? The story is pure soap opera. Really. On a low budget, with no-name actors and maybe even this script, “After the Wedding” would be right at home on Lifetime. Consider the plot. Jacob, a Dane in his 30s, works in an orphanage in India. He hasn't been home in 20 years, and that's just fine with him. Bad news: The orphanage is running out of money. Good news: Jørgen, a philanthropist, wants to write the large check that will save it. On one condition: He wants to meet the recipient. The woman who runs the orphanage can't go. Well, Jørgen is Danish, Jacob is Danish. Jacob should go. Reluctantly, Jacob flies to Denmark. Jørgen listens to his pitch for only a few minutes before seeming to lose interest --- it's the weekend of his daughter's wedding. To which Jacob should come. It's not, after all, like he has anything else to do. At the wedding, the first surprise: Helene, Jørgen's wife, was once Jacob's lover. In fact, she was the lover who broke his heart. The lover who sent him scurrying off to India, an orphan hiding among orphans. Other surprises: I'll spare you. And encourage you to read not a word more about the story --- let the twists and turns sear you as they roll out. But I'll go this far: The rich and poor, the white and the colored, Europeans and Indians --- the moral lessons are so easy, aren't they? Or are they? Is Jacob's moral purity really an emblem of superiority? Is Jørgen's privileged life a sign of a rotting soul? You'll judge --- you can't help it --- but when it's over.... When it's over, you'll want to thank director Susanne Bier, a Danish filmmaker whose last film, Brothers, is also a memorably wrenching drama. Mads Mikkelsen --- who plays Jacob (and was the villain in “Casino Royale”) --- will make you forget all other young actors; he's not only shockingly handsome, he can make reticence and distance both intimate and compelling. And Jørgen, played by Rolf Lassgård --- when the film ends, you'll find yourself replaying his performance to take note of all that you missed. And was there ever a trophy wife as radiant, loving and thoughtful as Helene (Sidse Babett Knudsen)? “After the Wedding” was Denmark's entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2007 Academy Awards. It lost to the German film, “The Lives of Others.” I would have voted differently. There are DVDs you rent from Netflix. You watch them, you send them back; you got the amusement you paid for. But sometimes, very rarely, there are DVDs you buy. You buy them because you think they define a time in your life. Or because you think you'll want to watch them again. Or --- as is the case here --- because you want to press the film on someone you love and say, “Here. This. A life-changer.”
- [WEEKEND BUTLER: Jackie O's favorite poet. The Beatles tell all (or most). Judi Dench recites Shakespeare. George Clooney mouths off. Jamie Oliver's chicken.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-jackie-os-favorite-poet-the-beatles-tell-all-or-most-judi-dench-recites-shakespeare-george-clooney-mouths-off-jamie-olivers-chicken/) - BORN: APRIL 29, 1863. DIED: APRIL 29, 1933. WHO AM I? His poem, “Ithaka,” was the favorite of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who had it read at her funeral. Easy to understand why: It’s advice from the poet about going to Ithaca, the Greek island that was home of the mythological hero Odysseus. The poet doesn’t
- [C.P. Cavafy](https://headbutler.com/reviews/cp-cavafy/) - Constantine Petrou Cavafy (1863-1933) may be one of the greatest poets of the last century, but he's mostly known for one poem. It was the favorite of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who had it read at her funeral. Easy to understand why: It's advice from the poet about going to Ithaca, the Greek island that was home of the mythological hero Odysseus. The poet doesn't wish a short, smooth trip for the traveler; he hopes for a long, eventful one. The last lines spell it out: Always keep Ithaca in your mind. To arrive there is your ultimate goal. But do not hurry the voyage at all. It is better to let it last for many years; and to anchor at the island when you are old, rich with all you have gained on the way, not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches. Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage. Without her you would have never set out on the road. She has nothing more to give you. And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you. Wise as you have become, with so much experience, you must already have understood what Ithacas mean. Reduced to dreadful cliché, “It's the journey, not the destination.” And, yes, that's clearly an idea that resonates. Equally interesting about these lines --- maybe more interesting --- is the language. Cavafy produced that poem in 1911, well before poets started to strip their writing of metaphor. He's as blunt as Auden, Lowell or Brodsky; he could be writing today. The irony is that Cavafy hardly published at all. He was born in Turkey to Greek parents, who moved to Liverpool when he was nine and then, when he was fourteen, to Alexandria. For the last quarter century of his life, he lived in the same apartment: “Where could I live better? Under me is a house of ill repute, which caters to the needs of the flesh. Over there is a church, where sins are forgiven. And beyond is the hospital, where we die.” From his work, you wouldn't have known he was a poet, with a powerful influence on other writers. [Decades after his death, his poem, Waiting for the Barbarians, gave J.M. Coetzee the title of his breakthrough novel, and perhaps even the idea for it.] Cavafy was a journalist, then a clerk --- for thirty years --- of the British-run Egyptian Ministry of Public Works. As for his poems, he had many of them privately printed and distributed them only to his friends. Beyond his perfectionism, Cavafy had a good reason to publish privately. While many of his 154 poems deal with classical or historical themes, some --- for me, the best --- are about love and sex. And Cavafy was homosexual. What's powerful here is not just their naked longing, but their distance --- these are encounters remembered long afterward. Consider: When he left, I found, in front of his chair, a bloody rag, part of the dressing, a rag to be thrown straight into the garbage; and I put it to my lips and kept it there a long while the blood of love against my lips. A universal impulse? Of course. As is this: I'd like to speak of this memory… but it's so faded now…as though nothing is left- because it was so long ago, in my early adolescent years. A skin as though of jasmines… that August evening- was it August?- I can still just recall the eyes: blue, I think they were… Ah yes, blue: a sapphire blue. So don't worry if the classical references in his Selected Poems elude you. Regret and loss and separation, these are things you know. What's both spooky and reassuring is that Cavafy may know them exactly as you do and describes them exactly as you might --- if you only dared. To buy Cavafy's “Selected Poems” from Amazon.com, click here. To read some of Cavafy's poems, click here.
- [Jules et Jim](https://headbutler.com/reviews/jules-et-jim/) - Shall we talk about…. love triangles? We will come, in a few paragraphs, to a novel and a movie about a love triangle --- “Jules et Jim.” You may know of, or have even seen, the 1962 movie written and directed by Francois Truffaut. Some critics say it’s Truffaut’s best film; many say it’s one of the best films ever made. [To buy the DVD from Amazon, click here. To buy or rent the streaming video, click here.] The story is compelling. In 1907, Jim, a young French writer, meets Jules, a young Austrian writer. They share everything: "They taught each other their languages; they translated poetry." Some people assume they’re lovers. But their hobby is women, and in the Paris of the Belle Époque, they collect quite a few. Then they meet Kate, who is of another level of magnitude. Jules marries her. They have two children. But love cools, and there is Jim…. First, though, an all-male love triangle: Henri-Pierre Roché, Francois Truffaut ... and me. Henri-Pierre Roché wrote the novel --- his first --- when he was 76. He’d spent his life in the avant-garde; he introduced Picasso to Gertrude Stein. His other interest was women. He married twice, but there were many, many more lovers; as Truffaut writes, “He made a work of art out of his love life.” And his novel is more than a little autobiographical. [To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here.] Francois Truffaut read the book when he was 23. He fell in love with it; Roché wrote even better than his hero, Jean Cocteau. Short sentences. Everyday speech. The novel read like a telegram. Truffaut knew he had to film it, and when he was 29, he did. The style is fluid, exuberant, efficient --- Truffaut effortlessly tells a story that spans three decades. No wonder Warren Beatty wanted him to direct “Bonnie and Clyde.” In 1962, when the film was released, I was 16 years old and new to Milton Academy, a boarding school in the suburbs of Boston. My interests, then as now, were writing, music, movies and my social life --- that is, girls. On Saturday afternoons, you could find me at the Exeter Street Theatre in Boston, devouring foreign films. Ingmar Bergman was my god. Then I saw “Jules et Jim,” and fell in love both with Truffaut and the way Roché had constructed a story that explained everyone and “blamed” no one. And now, all these years later, I find myself writing a novel about…. a love triangle. And, all these years later, I read the novel. It is astonishing. Not just crisp and fast moving as a thriller, but acute in its wisdom about people, about women, about love. At 240 pages, it spins its wheels only occasionally; mostly, I slowed down to mark passages I wanted to think about later, or steal. Like this: An early lover “took her time over everything she did, so that other people found every moment endowed with the same abundant value as she conferred on it.” “Odile was happy all the time. Jim bathed in her blondness at night and the sea by day.” “Jules no longer slept in the same room as Kate. She treated him kindly but strictly.” “Her gospel was that the world was rich and that you could cheat a bit sometimes.” Sex? It perfumes the book. But it is never more explicit than this: She was in his arms now, sitting on his knees, and her voice was deep. This was their first kiss, and it lasted the rest of the night. They didn’t talk; they let their intimacy take hold of them and bring them closer and closer together. She was revealing herself to him in all her splendour. Towards dawn, they became one. Kate’s expression was full of an incredible jubilation and curiosity. This perfect union, and the archaic smile, more accentuated now --- Jim was irresistibly drawn. When he got up to go he was a man in chains. See why Truffaut memorized long passages of the book, why he used so much of it in his movie? See why this story was ripe to be branded on the psyche of an impressionable boy? See why I think you’ll read it as if it was written --- by a master --- only yesterday? BONUS VIDEO One of the most charming moments of the film…
- [The Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons for Working Together](https://headbutler.com/reviews/collaborative-habit-life-lessons-working-together-0/) - The first time I took the elevator to Twyla Tharp’s penthouse was a grey, chilly morning in early April. We sat in her minimalist office that overlooked a terrace that overlooked Central Park, but when you’re in a room with Twyla Tharp, it’s hard to notice anything else. To say she can be intimidating is to understate. Her features are sharp, her hair is no-nonsense white, her glasses are oversized and round. Somewhere below her neck is a small, taut body, and a white shirt and loose jeans, but none of that matters. Only her gaze does, and it was focused on this newcomer with curiosity and skepticism. I thought: I am not worthy. I’m surely not the first to think that. Tharp revolutionized dance with her insistence that classical ballet and modern movement need not be antagonists, and over a 40-year career, she’s explored that breakthrough idea in a dizzying catalogue of greatest hits. She’s choreographed movies. She’s had a Broadway hit. She was anointed with a MacArthur Fellowship, the one that certifies you as a “genius”. And she’s written two books. One is an autobiography, Push Comes to Shove. The other, The Creative Habit; Learn It and Use It for Life, is a surprise --- a wise guide for the general reader about harnessing your personal creativity. It was a book that brought us together. Her new one, The Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons for Working Together, would be published by Simon & Schuster in November. She’d written enough for several volumes, and would, in time, surely have been able to carve a book out of it. But she was also embarking on a new show --- Come Fly With Me, a night of dance built around Frank Sinatra songs --- and her time was tight. If the book was to be published on schedule, someone was needed to help her get to the book’s finish line. I have done this work before, with mixed results. In 1986, I collaborated with Roger Enrico, then the CEO of Pepsi Cola. He worked as hard as I did, all the while running a giant company; all these years later, we still get royalties. Less happy was my experience with Kelsey Grammer. I was hired to write his memoir just six weeks before an inflexible deadline; Grammer gave me little time or guidance, and I succeeded only in turning a total disaster into a mere failure. If I was skittish about signing on to a new collaboration, I had an additional reason --- Twyla Tharp has a reputation as an artist who finds even perfection inadequate; it was easier to picture her as an autocrat than as a collaborator. But I didn’t sense that at our first meeting. She grilled me about Balzac, Tolstoy and Proust; I parried to the best of my ability, painfully aware she’d practically memorized every word they’d written. After a half hour of literary tennis, I suspect we were both pleasantly surprised, she that I had read a book or three, me that that her work ethic seemed fairly reasonable. One thing I should know, she said: She got up early, worked all day, went to bed early. She expected appointments --- ours included --- to begin a few minutes before the appointed hour: ”If you’re not early, you’re late.” I said I understood. And so we began. There was one table in her office --- a venerable Shaker piece that was sufficiently rare that I quickly learned to put a coaster under my water glass. This work surface was bracketed by two chairs and industrial shelving stacked with a video editing system, stereo equipment and books. Up a few steps was a large empty room: a dance studio and rehearsal space. When she didn’t go to the gym --- at 69, she can still bench more weight than I can --- she danced here. It was one of the supreme perks of our time together that she sometimes showed me how the thing was done. From time to time, I’d look outside and imagine us finishing the book in July, reading the manuscript and sipping iced tea in air-conditioned comfort as the park shimmied in the summer heat. Some days it seemed that time would never come --- Twyla Tharp could be fierce. Not that she was ever in a grim mood. It was always, “Good morning, Miss Tharp” and “Hello, my sweet” with us --- formal manners delivered with irony and topspin. The thing was, Twyla Tharp is a one-off. She lives in the now, and she does it with a ferocity I’ve never encountered. I’d bring up some moment from her childhood that stunned or shocked me; she never had an emotional reaction. Stuff happens. It makes you who you are. Move on. Dazzled by her equanimity, I would. And so we did plowed through her collaborations with Billy Joel, Jerome Robbins, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, David Byrne, Richard Avedon, Milos Forman, Norma Kamali and Frank Sinatra. This required considerable discipline, because this book, even more than its predecessor, is for general readers --- the stories are about dance, but as she often said, “Work is work.” And to drive the point home, we dotted the pages with stories of great collaborators: Steve Martin, the Wright Brothers, Marie and Paul Curie. Even the baseball slugger Kirk Gibson makes an appearance. Who wrote what? She wrote everything. No one has ever worked harder; anything I sent to her would come back marked, edited, revised, improved. Nothing I did could have made her dramatically better; my contribution was to buff and suggest, propose and try, and, on the rare occasion, shoot the moon. Throughout, she could not have been more supportive and appreciative. As her dancers know, a “very nice” from Twyla Tharp is a bit more meaningful than it is from almost anyone else. There was only one disappointment. The final month of work on the book involved many meetings at her apartment. Only in the July heat did I learn that I wouldn’t be sipping iced tea in the air-conditioned office --- because her office opens on to her dance studio, it isn’t air-conditioned. Cold air may be good for writers, but it’s bad for dancers. With the terrace door open and the hot air blowing through, I swooned. And I sweated. My eyes smarted; the pages of the manuscript were marked with blotches. I can’t remember a more physically demanding work environment. Or a more rewarding one --- I worked with a genius, and survived, and now, magically, there’s a book. To buy “The Collaborative Habit” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy the Kindle edition of “The Collaborative Habit” from Amazon.com, click here.
- [The Lamed Vav and "The Last of the Just"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-lamed-vav-and-the-last-of-the-just/) - Passover. We were spared the obsessive preparation for this holiday: the special plates, the bitter herbs, the family gathered around the TV for the ritual viewing of the Cecil B. DeMille movie, the line that always cracked us up (Edward G. Robinson taunting Moses, "Where's your God now?"), the scratchy wool pants --- it wasn't
- [Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective](https://headbutler.com/reviews/andy-palacio-amp-garifuna-collective/) - In warm weather, late at night and in the dark, we listen to Watina, the masterpiece by Andy Palacio and the Garufuna Collective. I wrote about this CD when it was released in 2007, and I quickly decided it was the World Music CD of the year. Some of you snapped it up. A few of you wrote to thank me. In January of 2008, with praise from many critics ringing in his ears, Andy Palacio suffered a massive stroke and heart attack, and died. He was just 47. I’d badly underrated this music in 2007. “Watina” is not just one of the best CDs of a random year; it’s one of the best CDs, period. Of course it’s easier to appreciate the greatest musician to come out of Belize when it's summer, and you have some beach time, and your world is reduced to shades of blue and khaki; you can hear the religion, you can welcome the acoustic instruments and the hand drums. But even more, you can be dazzled by the purity --- songs of daily life, performed in a language in danger of extinction. It’s like music from another planet. You’ve never heard anything like it. The back story: In the 1700s, West African slaves were shipwrecked on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent. They intermarried with Arawak Indians and lived peacefully until the English forced them into exile on a small, resource-poor island off Honduras. They moved to the mainland, where their identity has blurred over the centuries. Now there are just 11,500 Garifunans living in Belize --- and the Garifunan language, which is taught in only one village there, has been designated by the United Nations as among the "masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity." Andy Palacio once modified his culture's music so it would have wider appeal. But the threat that it might become extinct encouraged him to return to his roots. And so he assembled all-star Garifunan musicians in a thatched-roof shack on Belize's Caribbean coast and spent four months with that band, playing endangered music deep into the night. It’s not reggae, though reggae is its cousin. It’s not African music, though Africa pounds in its blood. It’s 12 songs, a mosaic of subtle harmonies, led by a singer who can tap deep emotions. It’s hope and frustration, resilience and small triumphs, an irresistible invitation to get up and seize all the pleasure you can. Not you’ll understand a word of it --- you’ll feel the rhythm and just know. It takes a lot to make Americans listen to music recorded beyond our borders. We probably would never have come to love Buena Vista Social Club if renowned musician and producer Ry Cooder hadn't conceived the idea of a CD made by Cuban musicians so old they predate Castro and if Wim Wenders hadn't made an award-winning documentary film that turned seventy-year-olds who were unknown to Americans into brand names. Andy Palacio didn't have Buena Vista's advantages. He was from Belize, the least-populated country in Central America. His music celebrated a culture known to maybe five American Caucasians. And although his record company couldn't be more distinguished in World Music circles --- Jacob Edgar, its founder, was head of A&R at Putamayo --- few of you have heard of him or his sparkling label, Cumbancha. The music industry in America is facing the greatest crisis in its history --- it can't find much to sell that you care about. Well, here are some poor musicians no one ever heard of, who made the recording of their lives without any thought of fame or fortune. And here's a guy in a Vermont farmhouse, lavishing beautiful packaging and energetic promotion on these nonentities. Maybe this is the way greatness always happens. To buy “Watina” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy the MP3 download of “Watina” from Amazon.com, click here. Andy Palacio is one of ten Central American musicians featured on “From Bakabush: The First Ten Years Of Stonetree.” To buy it from Amazon.com, click here. There’s a terrific companion CD, "Umalali: The Garifuna Women’s Project." Read more about it here.
- [WEEKEND BUTLER: O.J. Simpson: a story never told before. Francis Coppola's "best film" (not "The Godfather"). Best Russian film. Romantic song: Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. Sesame Chicken with Cashews and Dates.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-o-j-simpson-a-story-never-told-before-francis-coppolas-best-film-not-the-godfather-best-russian-film-romantic-song-marvin-gaye-and-tammi-terrell-sesame-chicken-with/) - AN O.J. SIMPSON STORY THAT’S NEVER BEEN TOLD by Nicole Minet: I've been waiting 29 years to tell this story about OJ and his days at USC. Now that he's dead (may he burn in hell) I have a story that I signed an NDA for that is no longer valid. I was a junior at
- [Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky](https://headbutler.com/reviews/prokofiev-alexander-nevsky/) - Alexander Nevsky directed by Sergei Eisenstein music by Serge Prokofiev The greatest score in all of film --- so good that it inspired John Williams' shark theme in “Jaws” and James Horner's music for “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.” The greatest battle scene in film --- so good that Mel Gibson surely went to school on it before shooting the “Braveheart” war scenes. Together, one of the most exciting experiences you'll have in front of a screen --- even better if you're able to see it in a concert hall, with a noted orchestra performing the score as the film unspools behind it. Consider: faint strains of violin, the suggestion of a vast frozen space with nothing but gray overhead. Then the blare of brass, the distant call to arms. The tuba enters, serving almost as a kind of drum. Many instruments now, all chugging --- the sound of an army approaching. Then everyone gaining strength, until the orchestra becomes the very madness of battle. At last we hear voices, a chorus chanting in Latin. And again, even louder, trumpets calling men to kill, the bigger brass sounding the march forward, the voices become shouts. And all this is dated 1938. “Alexander Nevsky” is the story of a Russian hero who saved his country --- in 1242. Just as Russia was resisting the Mongols, Pope Gregory IX began to incite the Teutonic Knights to invade the Baltic. Some Russians looked for a way out. Alexander was not interested in deals --- he led his soldiers onto a frozen channel and defeated the Knights. (He'd go on to push the Swedes and Germans back as well.) This was not only a great victory, it was a milestone in the history of warfare --- Russian foot soldiers had routed an army of supposedly unbeatable armored knights on horseback. Why did Eisenstein choose this story? Because he had spent most of the 1930s swanning around Hollywood and making films that delighted neither audiences nor Stalin. Now he was in Stalin's doghouse, on the verge of being denied financing --- or worse. And so, with Germany howling to the East, Eisenstein reasoned that the best way to get back in Stalin's good graces was to make a rousing war movie that ended with a German defeat. Eisenstein usually had problems with budgets, but he conceived, filmed and released “Alexander Nevsky” in less than a year. It was a triumph. The leading actor was Nikolai Cherkassov, the greatest in all of Russia. For Eisenstein's first sound film, the great Prokofiev had written a score that so precisely mimicked the emotion and action the film could easily be edited to match it. And, in the battle on the ice, Eisenstein showed he was more than a master of montage --- he was a great epic director, capable of moving crowds of actors in scenes so complex and natural they looked like documentary footage. But an allegory that warned against the Germans and predicted a rousing Russian victory over them couldn't have been made in Russia at a worse time --- Stalin and Hitler were just concluding a non-aggression pact. “Alexander Nevsky” was suppressed; it wasn't seen in Russian theaters until 1941, when German troops moved East and attacked Russia. For his part, Prokofiev had also traveled to Hollywood, where he observed how composers worked on studio films. That made him an ideal collaborator for Eisenstein; he could write visual music, he could convey speed, and, in fact, he could work quickly. (Prokofiev cranked out “Peter and the Wolf “ in just four days.) Of the many recordings, the Claudio Abbado version, with the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Symphony Chorus, strikes me as the best. Also on the CD is his lighthearted romp, “Lieutenant Kije,” which is to Christmas music what the Pachelbel “Canon” is to weddings. Choosing a format of the movie is trickier. The inexpensive DVD has terrible sound; you'll do better with the inexpensive VHS tape. And, of course, you do best with the more expensive Criterion set, which includes another of Eisenstein's great films. In a pinch: You can download. Great collaborations in difficult times often have ironic endings. Here's one for a trivia contest: Serge Prokofiev died in 1953 --- an hour before Stalin. As a result, there was no notice of his death for days. Stalin is now mostly remembered for his butchery: millions and millions killed. Prokofiev's music, like Eisenstein's movie, has had millions and millions cheering. That's an irony Russians understand instinctively. You'll appreciate it when you watch or listen to “Alexander Nevsky.” To buy the CD of the Abbado recording of Prokofiev's “Alexander Nevsky” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy the VHS of “Alexander Nevsky” with a re-recorded score from Amazon.com, click here. To buy the Criterion DVD set of “Alexander Nevsky” and “Ivan the Terrible” from Amazon.com, click here. For a video download of “Alexander Nevsky” from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Francis Ford Coppola: The Conversation](https://headbutler.com/reviews/francis-ford-coppola-the-conversation/) - In 1972, the entire world watched “The Godfather.” At the Academy Awards, Francis Ford Coppola was appropriately honored --- the film won three Oscars: Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay. In 1974, Coppola released what is generally agreed to be the best sequel in film history. “Godfather II” was the first sequel to
- [Trattoria: Simple and Robust Fare Inspired by the Small Family Restaurants of Italy](https://headbutler.com/reviews/trattoria-simple-and-robust-fare-inspired-small-family-restaurants-italy/) - You want simple? This is it. Easy? Forget about it. Organized? Unless you're dedicated to an exploration of Italian cuisine, this book could be the last time you'll ever need to think about an Italian menu.
- [Weekend Butler: Editor's letter update. Praise for Taylor Swift (Okay: one song). Pulitzer Prize novel. Sharon Olds poem. Blood-pounding movie. Delish cacao a pepe.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-editors-letter-update-praise-for-taylor-swift-okay-one-song-pulitzer-prize-novel-sharon-olds-poem-blood-pounding-movie-delish-cacao-a-pepe/) - UPDATE: LETTER FROM THE EDITOR I rarely do this, but earlier this week, I wrote an editor’s letter about my health, which has been, in the 20 years I’ve been publishing Head Butler, a non-event. But now I will have some surgery on my spine --- nothing major, I said, more like an oil change
- [Tree Lotion CBD Cream](https://headbutler.com/reviews/tree-lotion-cbd-cream/) - Of all the frauds being peddled today --- and the list would stretch from here to Kansas City --- CBD products are in the top ten. Good news. If you ache…. If you are anxious and don’t want to medicate… if you’d like to be more chill at bedtime…I have found something of quality that
- [Stephen King: On Writing](https://headbutler.com/reviews/writing/) - During an interview a few years ago, Stephen King told me about Tennessee Plates , a sadly obscure CD by a country singer named Mark Collie. I bought it. And I will always cherish the line in one of its songs: 'We crossed the Mississippi like an oil slick fire.' King never mentions that line in 'On Writing', but it's just the sort of sentence he'd jump up and down to praise. It's vivid. It's original. And, most of all, it's direct. I have praised another book about writing: Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird. But Ms. Lamott is, as a writer, not to everyone's taste. Stephen King, on the other hand, is one of the most successful writers on the planet --- when he talks, millions listen. They should. Because 'On Writing' is two books, both excellent, for the price of one. The first is a memoir, maybe the closest to an autobiography we'll ever get from King. It's also --- without calling attention to itself --- a lesson in writing. From paragraph two: ''I lived an odd, herky-jerky childhood, raised by a single parent who moved around a lot in my earliest years and who --- I am not completely sure of this --- may have farmed my brother and me out to one of her sisters for awhile because she was economically or emotionally unable to cope with us. Perhaps she was only chasing our father, who piled up all sorts of bills and then did a runout when I was two and my brother David was four." Lesson one: Tell the truth. And skip the charm if none belongs. At six, Stephen wrote a story. Or, rather, copied it. His mother praised it. Stephen was forced to admit it wasn't original. 'Write one of your own, Stevie," his mother said. 'I bet you could do better.' He did. His mother praised it. 'Nothing anyone has said to me since has made me feel any happier.' The young writer was launched. His high school newspaper adviser was his next big influence. 'When you write, you're telling yourself the story,' he told King. "When you rewrite, your job is taking out all the things that are not in the story.' I underlined that; you should too. King married. Two kids in three years. On a teacher's salary. Meanwhile, he wrote and wrote. Men's magazines paid for his kids' medicines. Two novels made not much of a dent in the book world. His wife never wavered: she believed. His third novel was 'Carrie.' It sold to a hardcover publisher for $2,500 --- King had no agent; what did he know about advances? --- and then to a paperback house for $400,000. He got the call on Mother's Day; $200,000 of that advance was his. He looked around his dumpy apartment and cried. Then, in a Maine town where you really couldn't find anything to splurge on, he went out and bought his wife a hair-dryer. [To buy the paperback of 'On Writing' from Amazon click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] How do you follow a story like that? Well, if you're Stephen King, you go right on to this: 'I got drunk for the first time in 1966.' And to where that leads. Alcoholism. His mother dies, sadly, badly. Cocaine addiction follows. His family intervenes. He cleans up. And now --- after a hundred inspiring and brutal pages --- he's ready for Part II, which is his book about writing. Subject, verb, object: that's one 'secret.' Verbs are active, not passive. 'I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs.' Want to be a good writer? Read! A lot! And then write! A lot! And write fast: The first draft of a novel should take no longer than three months. Rewriting: If you haven't removed 10% of your previous draft, you haven't done it. What's great is that King doesn't sit back on his throne in the pantheon and hurl thunderbolts of advice, he offers great examples. Takes you through his own errors. Shows you how you can fix yours. Oh, what a friend we have in Stephen! As the book ends, Stephen King takes us through his late-life trauma --- getting hit by a careless driver as he walks along a Maine highway. His recovery is long. And painful. And the idea of writing seems very distant. One day, his wife helps him to his desk. He lasts an hour and forty minutes. He writes 500 words. When he stops, he's dripping with sweat and howling with pain. But none of that is the point. The point is that he did it. And, the next day, did it again, a little longer. And, eventually, finished his book --- which is this book. 'The scariest moment is always just before you start,' he tells us. That's hard-earned wisdom. There's a lot of it in these pages. You could do a lot worse than learn to write from Stephen King.
- [Eric Hoffer: The True Believer](https://headbutler.com/reviews/true-believer-thoughts-nature-mass-movements/) - Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) is nobody’s ideal of a public intellectual. He barely saw the inside of a school. He spent most of his working life as a longshoreman on the San Francisco docks. Almost every day, he took a three-mile walk. Along the way, thoughts formed. Later they became sentences, then books. Over the years, he wrote ten. “The True Believer” is his masterpiece.
- [Boubacar Traoré](https://headbutler.com/reviews/macire/) - I knew a fair amount about the music of Mali, how it infused America's Delta blues with African rhythm and tuning. But Traore was working at a level beyond anything I'd heard. When he played softly, his guitar was a whispered voice, ghostly and precise; when he played with volume, he was a one-man blues band. And then there was the not inconsiderable factor of his voice, which accessed all the known emotions and the wisdom of the ages.
- [WHAT'S UP? A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR](https://headbutler.com/reviews/whats-up-a-letter-from-the-editor/) - Friends -- In today’s newsletter, I mentioned that I’m following culture remotely --- I have a mobility issue and walk no further than my corner bodega. Several of you wrote me to express support and ask what’s up. Let me explain --- and indicate this can be an opportunity for those of you who’d like
- [I’ve been hobbled and have seen nothing more distant than the corner bodega. And the technical issues with publishing Butler will persist for another day. Thank the Lord for Amazon Prime, where you can find all of these.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/ive-been-hobbled-and-have-seen-nothing-more-distant-than-the-corner-bodega-and-the-technical-issues-with-publishing-butler-will-persist-for-another-day-thank-the-lord-for-amazon-prime-wher/) - Friends - The technical issues with publishing Butler will persist for another day. Thank the Lord for Amazon Prime, where you can find all of these. SUPPORTING BUTLER: Head Butler no longer gets a commission on your Amazon purchases. So the only way you can contribute to Head Butler’s bottom line is to become a patron of this site, and automatically donate
- [Weekend Butler: Watching the eclipse. A POW camp: "We're all Jews here." Song: "I'll never smoke weed with Willie again!" Thrilling sports movie. And... carrots!](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-watching-the-eclipse-a-pow-camp-were-all-jews-here-song-ill-never-smoke-weed-with-willie-again-thrilling-sports-movie-and-carrots/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: Head Butler no longer gets a commission on your Amazon purchases. So the only way you can contribute to Head Butler’s bottom line is to become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and
- [WEEKEND BUTLER: How to watch the eclipse. Song: "I'll never smoke dope with Willie again." A German POW camp: "We're all Jews here!" A thrilling sports movie. And... carrots!](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-how-to-watch-the-eclipse-song-ill-never-smoke-dope-with-willie-again-a-german-pow-camp-were-all-jews-here-a-thrilling-sports-movie-and-carrots/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: Head Butler no longer gets a commission on your Amazon purchases. So the only way you can contribute to Head Butler’s bottom line is to become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and
- [Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: The Little Prince](https://headbutler.com/reviews/antoine-de-saint-exupery-the-little-prince/) - "The Little Prince" is my dream length: 160 pages, 15,000 words. (It was originally 30,000 words, but Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, bless him, ruthlessly cut the text to its core.) It’s also the most popular French book of the last century. Translated into 250 languages. Yearly sales: 2 million copies.
- [Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante](https://headbutler.com/reviews/mozart-sinfonia-concertante/) - It’s believed Mozart wrote it for him to play with the Salzburg court Konzertmeister Antonio Brunetti. Some say they can hear signs of grief in the second movement. Some say that “darker undercurrents” in the C minor andante, reflect his “his smoldering discontent with his Salzburg servitude.” No matter. Just listen to the 24-year-old violinist Julia Fischer and her partner, Gordan Nikolic, as they record some of this piece.
- [They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45](https://headbutler.com/reviews/they-thought-they-were-free-germans-1933-45/) - In 1935, a Jewish reporter from Chicago went to Germany in the hopes of interviewing Adolph Hitler. That didn't happen, so he traveled around the country. What he saw surprised him: Nazism wasn't the tyranny of a diabolical few over helpless millions --- it was a mass movement. In 1951, he returned to Germany....
- [HOLIDAY WEEKEND BUTLER (CAUTION: EMOTIONAL): "Five Easy Pieces." The bill at the Last Supper. Bon Iver. A Danish PSA. Easy Chicken Marbella.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/holiday-weekend-butler-caution-emotional-five-easy-pieces-the-bill-at-the-last-supper-bon-iver-a-danish-psa-easy-chicken-marbella/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: Since the start of 2023, Amazon seems to have gone on a quiet campaign to rid itself of small sites that, collectively, generate revenue worth noticing — and Head Butler no longer gets a commission on your Amazon purchases. So the only way you can contribute to Head Butler’s bottom line is to
- [Tallis Scholars: Miserere](https://headbutler.com/reviews/miserere/) - For my money, the Tallis Scholars are the greatest interpreters of any music that Peter Phillips, their founder, chooses to record. I play this CD every year at Easter. But its power and beauty are such that I don't limit it to two days a year. When I'm famished for beauty, this music calls to me. It will call to you too.
- [John O'Donohue: Our Friend Among the Dead](https://headbutler.com/reviews/john-odonohue/) - “Endings seem to lie in wait,” John O'Donohue wrote. His certainly did. He died in his sleep, January 4, 2008, on vacation near Avignon. He was just 53. I met John O'Donohue only once. I had read Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom, the 1997 book that made him deservedly famous. “Read” is wrong. At 100 words a minute, I had, over weeks, absorbed enough of this deceptively simple exploration of “soul friendship” to grasp that here was an original thinker, a gifted poet and, most astonishing of all, a philosopher who had forged a way of looking at the world that was painfully aware of human frailty but insistent on the triumphal power of divine love. And he wrote beautifully. A book this exciting, you have to talk about it. I mentioned O'Donohue to Sarah Ban Breathnach, the author of the Oprah-annointed Simple Abundance. As luck would have it, she and O'Donohue were friends. And when he came through New York, Sarah generously arranged a dinner. That was the night I learned to drink single malt. And was there ever a better teacher in the art of sipping than an Irish philosopher and mystic who had worn the collar for 19 years? I don't recall what we talked about, and neither can my wife, who does not drink; all I remember is the cascades of laughter, the unbuckled happiness of people who are thrilled to be alive, and together, and sharing good fellowship with sympathetic souls in a nice restaurant on a rainy New York night. An evening like that is so rare I think of it as a religious experience. John O'Donohue, a holy man if ever there was one, had a lot of nights like that. A recent interviewer wrote, in memoriam, about a morning when O'Donohue came to breakfast with a hangover, having polished off an entire bottle of single malt with friends the night before. “The bottle didn't die,” he announced, “without spiritual necessity.” That offhand remark was quintessential O'Donohue. He never failed to connect the worldly with the sacred --- and see it all as holy. As a writer and a man, he reminded me of the priest who was a friend of Proust's. Yes, he believed there was a Hell. But he didn't believe anyone went there. Where do our deepest beliefs come from? Generally from childhood, and then not from what our parents and teachers say, but from what they do and who they are. In John O'Donohue's case, his mother was the family's loving center. His father was a stonemason and farmer --- and, O'Donohue thought, the “holiest man I ever met, priests included.” Sometimes the boy would bring tea to his father as he worked the fields. Often, young John heard him --- praying --- before he saw him. O'Donohue had a superlative education, earned a Ph.D. in philosophical theology from the University of Tubingen, became known as an expert on Hegel and, later, Meister Eckhart. As a priest, he loved the Church's sacramental structure and its mystical and intellectual traditions. He also loved writing. Eventually, an officious bishop made him choose. “The best decision I ever made was to become a priest,” O'Donohue would say, years later, “and I think the second best decision was to resign from public priestly ministry.” In fact, he had his issues with Catholicism, especially its views on sex and women. The Church, he said, “is not trustable in the area of Eros at all.” And it “has a pathological fear of the feminine --- it would sooner allow priests to marry than it would allow women to become priests.” He was just as hard on other denominations. Religious fundamentalists, he said, “only want to lead you back, driven by nostalgia for a past that never existed, to manipulate and control you.... [Their] God tends to be a monolith and an emperor of the blandest singularity.” New Age spirituality, he felt, was a smorgasbord, and undisciplined. Not that he found any comfort in secular life. He scorned the mall, feared for the spiritual health of the young, and had a special dislike for media folk, “non-elected custodians of sensationalism.” His bedrocks were his faith and “the Celtic imagination,” which, he said, “represents a vision of the divine where no one or nothing is excluded.” The blend he created was pure joy: “I think the divine is like a huge smile that breaks somewhere in the sea within you, and gradually comes up again.” O'Donohue was no Pollyanna. He was deeply troubled by bad things happening to good people. But he also saw that “a lot of suffering is just getting rid of dross in yourself, and lingering and hanging in the darkness is often --- I say this against myself --- a failure of imagination, to imagine the door into the light.” So it makes sense that O'Donohue's last book would be nothing but invocations and blessings --- a simple, how-to guide that, in effect, takes him back to his father praying in the fields. By the fact that we live, we are blessed; by the light that shines in our hearts, we have the power to bless others and be blessed by them. Is there a purer, more elementary form of the divine in action? He asks: What is a blessing? His first answer is formal, and expected: “A blessing is a circle of light drawn around a person to protect, heal and strengthen.” But then the poetry enters: “It is a gracious invocation where the human heart pleads with the divine heart.” And then there's the magical factor: “When a blessing is invoked, a window opens in eternal time.” We need to impact one another's lives in this spiritual way, he writes, because the process of living in a post-industrial, media-drenched world moves us further and further from our innate wholeness. Only direct action can breach the distance. Happily, it takes no special training to bless one another. It's just a matter of gathering yourself --- and finding the words. In “To Bless the Space Between Us,” the poet in O'Donohue seeks to break the shackles of dead language. He offers fresh blessings, and on topics the Church might overlook --- not just for a new home, marriage and child, but for the parents of a criminal, for parents who have lost a child, for those experiencing exile, solitude and failure. These blessings look hardship in the face, but only as a challenge. In our souls, and, especially, in our hearts, O'Donohue believed, we are all home. We never left, we never will. How hard it is to hold that thought. And yet, when we take the care of others into our hearts, something happens..... You may not have a problem with the plainspoken language of O'Donohue's blessings. I do. Maybe it's just a writer's discomfort with another writer's words. But the invocations that dot the book --- my God, can this man write! Just one example: Our longing for the eternal kindles our imagination to bless. Regardless of how we configure the eternal, the human heart continues to dream of a state of wholeness, that place where everything comes together, where loss will be made good, where blindness will transform into vision, where damage will be made whole, where the clenched question will open in the house of surprise, where the travails of life's journey will enjoy a homecoming. To invoke a blessing is to call some of that wholeness upon a person now. Death was nothing to John O'Donohue --- a silent friend who walks beside us all our days. And on the other side? “I believe that our friends among the dead really mind us and look out for us,” he wrote. “Often there might be a big boulder of misery over your path about to fall on you, but your friends among the dead hold it back until you have passed by.” Let it be. To buy “To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings” from Amazon, click here. To buy the paperback “Anam Cara” from Amazon, click here. To buy “Conamara Blues” from Amazon, click here. To buy the audio CD of “Wisdom from the Celtic World” from Amazon, click here.
- [Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bloodlands-europe-between-hitler-and-stalin/) - It's important to understand what Putin wants with Ukraine and why “victory” is so important to him. To grasp that, you need to appreciate Ukraine’s historical importance. Here's your cheat sheet.... Ukraine is, literally, the breadbasket of Europe. Because its rich, black soil is ideal for growing grains, it has the ability to feed half
- [The Butler 8-Plex: After torrential rain, Butler goes to the movies (all stream on Amazon Prime)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-butler-8-plex-after-torrential-rain-butler-goes-to-the-movies-all-stream-on-amazon-prime/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: Since the start of 2023, Amazon seems to have gone on a quiet campaign to rid itself of small sites that, collectively, generate revenue worth noticing — and Head Butler no longer gets a commission on your Amazon purchases. So the only way you can contribute to Head Butler’s bottom line is to
- [A Face in the Crowd](https://headbutler.com/reviews/face-crowd/) - Lonesome Rhodes, media rocket, got his start in jail. When we first see him, he's a drifter doing short time in Arkansas. He's cheerful, handsome, and, in a good ole boy way, mildly charismatic --- he's Andy Griffith, in his first movie role.
- [L'Atalante](https://headbutler.com/reviews/latalante-2/) - This is on almost every major critic's list of the "best 100 movies of all time." I've never seen it ranked lower than #15. After Renoir's "Rules of the Game," it's the highest ranked French film. And I'd bet most of you have never heard of it. The movie was made in winter. And on
- [WEEKEND BUTLER: Learning to love paddling out. A short summer novel. A really funny movie. The power of one song. Carrot soup.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-learning-to-love-paddling-out-a-short-summer-novel-a-really-funny-movie-the-power-of-one-song-carrot-soup/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: Since the start of 2023, Amazon seems to have gone on a quiet campaign to rid itself of small sites that, collectively, generate revenue worth noticing — and Head Butler no longer gets a commission on your Amazon purchases. So the only way you can contribute to Head Butler’s bottom line is to
- [Head Butler's Ridiculously Simple Holiday Ham PLUS French Roast Lamb](https://headbutler.com/reviews/head-butlers-holiday-ham/) - The ham recipe has been a holiday favorite of two wives and one long-playing companion, which is more than I can always say about myself. It comes from a long-departed friend, Gene Hovis, a dazzling cook and exceptional human who made it all the way from a small town in North Carolina to the Best
- [GUEST BUTLER TOM FELS: "My mother may not have preferred her supporting roles, but she knew how to identify an outstanding male lead."](https://headbutler.com/reviews/guest-butler-tom-fels-my-mother-may-not-have-preferred-her-supporting-roles-but-she-knew-how-to-identify-an-outstanding-male-lead/) - ABOUT GUEST BUTLER TOM FELS: Considerable history here. In 1969, I was living in a media commune in Western Massachusetts. Conditions were unfavorable. Tom, who was also struggling with an unaccustomed role as a farmer, and I went off to a party in Bennington. I didn’t return. I became a screenwriter and a French chef
- [Michael Clayton](https://headbutler.com/reviews/michael-clayton/) - "When somebody says it’s not about the money,” H.L. Mencken wrote, “it’s about the money.” John Barnett, a prominent Boeing whistle-blower, testified last week about the company’s safety policies at its 787 Dreamliner factory in South Carolina. In his first day of testimony, he raised concerns about Boeing’s manufacturing practices and accused Boeing of retaliating against
- [Weekend Butler: A Rare Gustav Klimt Show. Strangers on Cell Phones on a Train. Margaret Mead. Midnight Music. Mary Oliver. John Le Carre. Artichoke Carbonara.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-a-rare-gustav-klimt-show-strangers-on-cell-phones-on-a-train-margaret-mead-midnight-music-mary-oliver-john-le-carre-artichoke-carbonara/) - I wrote a play about Matisse and knew Bonnard was his friend, but in the mental ranking that art-lovers are prone to, I didn’t consider Bonnard as Matisse’s equal, not nearly. Two years ago, at the Acquavella Gallery, I corrected that --- I saw a rare show of 22 Bonnard paintings three times, one time
- [Weekend Butler: Jimmy Breslin, "Deadline Artist." John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon: A new film. Our daughter's birthday. An overlooked film: "She Said." Wendell Berry.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-jimmy-breslin-deadline-artist-john-lennon-yoko-ono-and-sean-lennon-a-new-film-our-daughters-birthday-an-overlooked-film-she-said-wendell-berry/) - JIMMY BRESLIN, "DEADLINE ARTIST" If you could call anyone the day after 9/11, who would you call? I called Jimmy Breslin. “Security will make you weep,” he said. I didn't understand why that was his comment on planes flying into the World Trade Center, but I wrote it down, and all too soon, I saw
- [Strength in What Remains: A journey of remembrance and forgiveness](https://headbutler.com/reviews/strength-what-remains-journey-remembrance-and-forgiveness/) - A clinic needed a better road. A Belgian construction company gave him an estimate: $50,000, just to make it passable. Deo shared the bad news with the people he hoped to serve. And then..."A woman with a baby crying on her back said to me, 'You will not pay a penny for this road. We become so much sick because we are poor, but we are not poor because we are lazy. We will work on this road with our own hands."
- [We Die Alone](https://headbutler.com/reviews/we-die-alone/) - 1943. The Germans have overrun Norway. But there is a vigorous Norwegian Resistance; in London, an ambitious plan has a dozen tough Norwegians cruising home on what looks like a fishing boat and blowing up a Nazi airfield. As the boat chugs into the harbor of a tiny Norwegian town, the plan is discovered and the boat is blown out of the water. One man swims to safety: Jan Baalsrud. Now he has a fresh challenge --- get out of Norway .
- [Guy de Maupassant: Bel-Ami](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bel-ami/) - The glory of this novel is the exquisite merger of story, character and style. Though you will probably detest George and his methods --- think of a super-slick George Hamilton --- the story moves so fast and the writing is so clean and the smut is just so evocative that you hurtle on despite yourself. There's a dinner party in a Paris restaurant, where good wine and fine food and some ribald suggestions from George enflame the two couples, and then there's a carriage ride back to the home of George's married dinner companion.....
- [Kazuo Ishiguro:  The Remains of the Day](https://headbutler.com/reviews/kazuo-ishiguro-the-remains-of-the-day/) - “The Remains of the Day” won the Booker Prize. The film adaptation was nominated for eight Academy Awards. In 2017 Ishiguro won the Nobel Prize. In his acceptance speech, he talks about this book: The story is about an English butler who realizes, too late in his life, that he has lived his life by
- [Head Butler Garden Supply: How to grow more vegetables with less work and more pleasure.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/head-butler-garden-supply-antique-looking-bird-bath-with-solar-fountain-sun-sleeves-and-an-irresistible-book/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: Since the start of 2023, Amazon seems to have gone on a quiet campaign to rid itself of small sites that, collectively, generate revenue worth noticing — and Head Butler no longer gets a commission on your Amazon purchases. So the only way you can contribute to Head Butler’s bottom line is to
- [Exit West: A Novel](https://headbutler.com/reviews/exit-west-a-novel/) - “Exit West” is easily the best novel --- the best serious book, with the most compelling plot and characters --- I’ve read this year. It is, I submit, the book you most need to read. Yes.. you
- [Act One](https://headbutler.com/reviews/act-one/) - The best Broadway memoir. Ever.
- [Weekend Butler: Leonard Cohen and Marianne Ihlen: So Long, Marianne." Jon Stewart's dog. The poster child for this site: Van Morrison's "Astral Weeks." One-Pot Chicken & Noodles.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-leonard-cohen-and-marianne-ihlen-so-long-marianne-jon-stewarts-dog-the-poster-child-for-this-site-van-morrisons-astral-weeks-one-pot-chicken-noodles/) - MARIANNE AND LEONARD: "I AM SO CLOSE BEHIND YOU THAT IF YOU STRETCH OUT YOUR HAND, I THINK YOU CAN REACH MINE." This story of Marianne Ihlen and Leonard Cohen comes to you courtesy of Letters of Note, an English site that never disappoints. If you have even a nodding acquaintance with Leonard Cohen, you
- [Tim O'Brien: The Things They Carried](https://headbutler.com/reviews/things-they-carried/) - O'Brien delivers a company of American soldiers during the Vietnam war with unsentimental tenderness: the guy who will get his head blown off seconds after smoking a joint, the guy who will commit suicide years after the war, the guy who will die in the muck, the guys who will find him --- and the Vietnamese soldier O'Brien kills. There is no larger war, no deeper significance. Life has been reduced to a jungle and these men.
- [Kara Swisher: Burn Book:  A Tech Love Story](https://headbutler.com/reviews/kara-swisher-burn-book-a-tech-love-story/) - The most important event in Kara Swisher’s life occurred when she was five. Her father had a new job, running a department at Brooklyn Jewish Hospital. He had just bought his first house. But before he could move his family in, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died. “When you’re five, your parents are pretty
- [Randall Jarrell](https://headbutler.com/reviews/complete-poems/) - The Well-to-do Invalid When you first introduced me to your nurse I thought, "She's like your wife." I mean, I thought: "She's like your nurse—" it was your wife. She gave this old friend of her husband’s a pale ingratiating smile; we talked And she agreed with me about everything. I thought: "She’s quite agreeable." You gave a pleased laugh--you were feeling good. She laughed and agreed with you. I said to her -- That is, I didn’t say to her: "You liarl" She held out Her deck of smiles, I cut, and she dealt. Almost as the years have sprung up, fallen back, I’ve seen you in and out of bed; meanwhile, Hovering solicitously alongside, This governess, this mother" In her off-whites --- pretty as a nurse Is thinly and efficiently and optimistically Pretty --- has spoken with an enthusiasm Like winter sunlight, of the comprehensiveness of insurance. If you want it to, it can cover anything. Like the governor on an engine, she has governed Your rashness. And how many sins She has forgiven in her big child! How many times She has telephoned in an emergency For the right specialist! After I’d left your bed she’d take me to the door And tell me about your heart and bowels. When you were up and talking she would listen A long time, oh so long! but go to bed Before we did, with a limp, wan, almost brave "Goodnight!" You are a natural Disaster she has made her own. Meanly Clinging to you, taking care--all praise And understanding outside, and inside all insurance-- She has stood by you like a plaster Joan of Arc. Prematurely tired, prematurely Mature, she has endured Much, indulgently repeating like a piece of white carbon paper The opinions of that boisterous, sick firing, a man. I can see through her but then, who can’t? Her dishonesty is so transparent It has about it a kind of honesty. She has never once said what she thought, done what she wanted, But (as if invented by some old economist And put on an island, to trade with her mate) Has acted in impersonal self-interest. Never to do one thing for its own sake! Year in, year out, with what sincerity You said anything, demanded everything, And she, the liar! Was good to you --- oh, insincerely good, Good for all the worst reasons. Good. And she was nice to me, and I was nice To her: I wanted to be nice to her. She was wrong, and I was right, and I was sick of it. It wasn’t right for her always to be wrong And work so hard and get so little: I felt guilty Because I wasn’t on her side. I was on her side. It was a terrible shock to me when she died. I saw her cheeks red for the first time Among the snowdrifts covering her coffin. And you were up and talking, well with grief. As I realized how easily you’d fill This vacancy, I was sorry For you and for that pale self-sufficient ghost That had tended so long your self-sufficiency. ============ That, friends, is Randall Jarrell, who, if he is known at all, is known for "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner," a poem you read in high school: From my mother's sleep I fell into the State, And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze. Six miles from earth, loosed from the dream of life, I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose. Jarrell is an important poet for many reasons, not least because he was among the first to write in might be described as human speech. And because he looked like a poet. He wore beautiful tweeds. His beard was just-so. He drove a sports car. He was ferociously well-educated. (His wife teasingly called him "arrogant and pretentious." His response: "Wittier than anybody!") His classes were legendary. And he had a tragic death: hit by a car as he walked along a highway at dusk. [To buy the paperback edition of Jarrell's collected poems from Amazon, click here.] And, of course, he was accomplished. In addition to his poems, Jarrell was an acute critic --- those essays are collected in No Other Book --- who could build a case for a writer he loved or destroy an enemy with a line: Oscar Williams's poems, he said, give the impression of "having been written on a typewriter by a typewriter." He wrote a novel satirizing a college literature department. He loved fairy tales, and produced a brilliant translation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I love Jarrell for his later work, especially the poems from the collection, "The Lost World." He has a leering sense of sex, a warmly ironic take on the dance between men and women, and although he certainly understood men, his sympathies seemed to lay with the despair and hopefulness of women. Which is all to say: Despite what he knew, he was a total romantic. "A wish, come true, is life. I have my life," he wrote. Knowing what we do about his second marriage, we know that this satisfaction is not invented. Some favorite lines: While you are, how am I alone?... Be, as you have been, my happiness; Let me sleep beside you, each night, like a spoon; When, starting from my sleep, I groan to you, May your “I love you” send me back to sleep. At morning bring me, grayer for its mirroring, The heavens’ sun perfected in your eyes. A clever reader will plow through this book, pencil in hand, the better to mark lines to steal. Jarrell is that good. And that contemporary --- you won't have to stretch to make his poetry your own. Go ahead. No one will know. And I will never tell.
- [Weekend Butler: One musician's rights are more valuable than Taylor Swift's --- who is he? Must-see TV (It's not Capote and the "swans.") An Ohio dentist...and Maureen Dowd. A Seamus Heaney poem.  Black Pepper and Onion Spaghetti.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-one-musicians-rights-are-more-valuable-than-taylor-swifts-who-is-he-must-see-tv-its-not-capote-and-the-swans-an-ohio-dentist-and-maureen-dowd-a-seamus-heaney-poem/) - I'M SO BORED. AREN'T YOU? Every movie release, every new book from a best-selling author, every music CD that’s taken a decade to be completed --- the hype is relentless, especially in the New York Times, which is so over-excited about everything that you think you must gobble it up or you won’t be part
- [Sandy Bull: Re-Inventions](https://headbutler.com/reviews/re-inventions/) - Sandy Bull's range was boundless: He was a gifted interpreter of Chuck Berry, Bach, fourteenth-century ballades, salsa, samba, and Indian, African and Middle Eastern music. He was accomplished on oud, sarod, six-string bass, pedal steel banjo. He was not only the ultimate eclectic --- he was probably the greatest musician you'll discover (or re-discover) this year.
- [Anne Lamott: Bird by Bird](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bird-bird/) - The title comes from some advice her father gave her brother when he had to write a school report about birds. The kid couldn't figure out a way to do it. His father said: "Bird by bird, buddy." His daughter expands on that advice, cheering you on as she shows you what's important. As a result, well before you finish the book, you're feeling as if you just chugged a double espresso --- awake and alert and full of ideas that you just can't wait to hammer into writing you can be proud of.
- [Canal House: Cook Something: Recipes to Rely On](https://headbutler.com/reviews/canal-house-cook-something-recipes-to-rely-on/) - I have had a ridiculous crush of Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer for two decades, and I have reviewed seven of their books, and each time I say "This one is the best," so there is absolutely no reason to believe me when I say “Canal House: Cook Something: Recipes to Rely On” is their best book and the book you need most and will want to give to new marrieds, recent graduates, clueless millennials, divorced men, and that you, veteran cook that you are, ought to get a copy for yourself, because even though your shelves are groaning with the weight of your cookbook collection, you still find yourself saying “What’s for dinner?” and “I’m having friends for dinner, and I don’t know…”
- [Anna Akhmatova](https://headbutler.com/reviews/anna-akhmatova/) - "Poetry is respected only in this country,” said Russian poet Osip Mandelstam. “There's no place where more people are killed for it.” As jokes go, that's sour. In Russia, it's also true. And by that standard, Anna Akhmatova --- Russia's most beloved female poet --- was lucky. She wasn't executed. It's hard for American readers to grasp how important great poets have been to Russians. And not just to intellectuals --- poets in Russia used to be rock stars. That was Akhmatova, as a 20-something poet in the years before World War I. She wrote warm, intimate poetry that captured a mood in a few words. And she rang the chimes of personal freedom: “We are all boozers here, and sleep around.” Then came the war: “We aged a hundred years, and this/happened in a single hour.” Seriousness became the new order, and politics; Akhmatova suddenly seemed as dated as an old newspaper. After the Revolutions, artists like Akhamatova were forced to sweep the streets. By 1920, she was broke and desperate, and it took a lot of help for her to get work as a librarian. [To buy her "Selected Poems" from Amazon, click here.] In 1921, Nikolay Gumilyov, her former husband, was shot without a trial --- the first important poet to be executed by the Bolsheviks. Akhmatova wrote: He loved three things above all else White peacocks, evensong And faded maps of America. He hated it when children cried, He hated tea with raspberry jam, and female hysterics And I was his wife. By 1923, politically sensitive Russian poets were dismissing Akhmatova, who was then only 32 years old, as “a relic.” She could have left Russia --- she had plenty of incentives. She refused. Russia was the motherland; you undergo any sacrifice necessary to be with her in her time of need. But she was battered at every turn. In 1935, her son, Lee Gumilyov, was arrested. Boris Pasternak wrote to Stalin, and he was released. But he was arrested again in l938, then jailed and tortured for months. Like many other mothers, Akhmatova stood outside Leningrad's Kresty jail every day, hoping to get a package for her son accepted. That experience is at the core of “Requiem”, her greatest poem. She worked on it from l935 to 1940. (There was an unofficial ban on her poetry; it's a measure of the literary climate in the Soviet Union that it wasn't published until 1963 --- in Munich. The complete poem wasn't published in Russia until 1987.) Here's “Instead of a Preface”, which launches the poem: In the terrible years of the Yezhov terror, I spent 17 months waiting in line outside the prison in Leningrad. One day somebody in the crowd identified me. Standing behind was a young woman, with lips blue from the cold, who had of course never heard me called by name before. Now she started out of the torpor common to us all and asked me in a whisper (everyone whispered there), 'Can you describe this?' And I said, 'I can.' Then something like a smile passed over what had once been her face. In Russia, poetry is an oral tradition; her poems were read aloud and memorized. Akhmatova became the Princess Diana of poetry, the people's poet, “the mouth through which a hundred million scream.” In l944, she received an ovation from an audience of 3,000; Stalin knew then he'd have to ruin her. After World War II, he had listening devices shoved into her walls --- she pointedly left the heaps of plaster dust on her floor. She was expelled from the writers' union and lost her ration card. In 1949, her son was rearrested and sentenced to ten years of hard labor; in desperation, she wrote a poem in praise of Stalin. Akhmatova died in 1966. Her poems are still vivid for Russians, who cherish its directness and its lack of politics. American readers not familiar with Russian literature and history may find some of it opaque. But I think anyone can understand and appreciate the most famous lines from “Requiem”: Not under the protection of foreign skies Or saving wings of alien birth, I was there with my people There, where my people unhappily were. To buy Roberta Reeder's biography. “Anna Akhmatova: Poet and Prophet”, click here.
- [Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Love in the Time of Cholera](https://headbutler.com/reviews/love-time-cholera/) - It's one thing to read a book, start to finish, when it's short and packed with dialogue. But "One Hundred Years of Solitude" is 430 pages, with very little dialogue. Love in the Time of Cholera, at 348 pages, is mostly narrative. And yet I started "Solitude" on a rainy morning, read through the day and evening, slept for a few hours while the book infiltrated my dreams, and finished as the sun rose. And yet I started "Cholera" on a summer afternoon at the beach, skipped dinner, and finished at three in the morning, when only the stillness of the night stopped me from jumping and shouting. Marquez is, for me, The Greatest Living Writer. I do not mean the greatest stylist, though he is that. Or the greatest innovator, though I could make the case. I mean the greatest living storyteller --- the creator of the most interesting characters, the most addictive plots, the best endings. Of his masterpieces, I prefer "Love in the Time of Cholera" --- it's a love story. And, like the best of his work, it has its origins in his life. Marquez's parents were an unlikely pair. His father worked in the banana trade in Colombia --- not a prestigious occupation. And he was said to have fathered four illegitimate children. He fell in love with a Colonel's daughter, courting her with his violin, his poetry and endless letters. Her family tried everything to drive him away. He couldn't be discouraged. Eventually the Colonel gave in. Jump forward a generation. Marquez met Mercedes Barcha Pardo when she was 13. Before he left for college, he proposed to her. She agreed, but said she wanted to finish school. In fact, much more kept them apart --- they wouldn't be married for fourteen years. The story of "Cholera" takes the idea of postponed romance to an astonishing extreme. As the novel begins, Dr. Juvenal Urbino, now 81, has been married to Fermina Daza, 72, for more than half a century. "If they had learned anything together," Marquez writes, "it is that wisdom comes to us when it can no longer do any good." But what they had learned suddenly doesn't matter --- Urbino tries to rescue a bird in a tree, falls and dies. His wife feels "an irresistible longing to begin life with him all over again so they could say what they had left unsaid and do everything right that they had done badly." Among the mourners is Florentino Ariza. He is the last to leave. And he has a shocking announcement --- an announcement he has waited half a century to make: "a vow of eternal fidelity and everlasting love." Fermina rejects him completely: "Get out of here...And don't show your face again for the years of life that are left to you....and I hope there are very few of them." That night, sobbing, she realizes she has been thinking more about Florentino Ariza than about her dead husband. Which is only fair, because Ariza "had not stopped thinking of her for a single moment since Fermina Daza had rejected him out of hand after a long and troubled love affair fifty-one years, nine months and four days ago." With that, Marquez returns to their youth, retracing the love affair, the marriage to Urbino, the parallel lives --- and, finally, the resumption of the romance. Ariza has had 622 lovers; Fermina has had none. Yet, in his heart, he has been totally faithful to her. And when she grasps that... "They had lived long enough to know that love was always love, anytime and anyplace, but it was more solid the closer it came to death." This is, you understand, not one of those sappy love stories that populate the best seller lists and become movies destined for a quick sale to TV --- this is about grand passion and the wisdom it conveys. And what wisdom! "It is life, more than death, that has no limits," Marquez writes. If you've ever loved deeply, "Love in the Time of Cholera" will be a familiar map of the human heart. If that kind of love has passed you by, this novel is a magical text that opens the curtain on domestic intimacy; you'll read it with pen in hand, the better to mark great passages. Whatever your situation, few books bring this much joy.
- [Paul Desmond: Take Five](https://headbutler.com/reviews/paul-desmond-take-five/) - And whether you have ever heard of Paul Desmond or not, you do indeed know him —-- he was the alto saxophonist in the Dave Brubeck Quartet. The highest-paid sideman in jazz. And --— oh yeah --— he wrote a little tune called "Take Five."
- [Weekend Butler: Francis Ford Coppola's surveillance thriller, "The Conversation." The marriage of Garcia Marquez & Mercedes Barcha. Artisanal Firewood? Anne Lamott. A classic baseball novel for kids. Louise Glück. Braised asparagus.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-francis-ford-coppolas-surveillance-thriller-the-conversation-the-marriage-of-garcia-marquez-mercedes-barcha-artisanal-firewood-anne-lamott-a-classic-baseball-novel-for-kid/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: Since the start of 2023, Amazon seems to have gone on a quiet campaign to rid itself of small sites that, collectively, generate revenue worth noticing --- and Head Butler no longer gets a commission on your Amazon purchases. Although this site was never designed to be a moneymaker, it was always key
- [A David Bowie Story: "Here's a mask. It's magic. Invisible. Put it on..."](https://headbutler.com/reviews/a-david-bowie-story-heres-a-mask-its-magic-invisible-put-it-on/) - NEIL GAIMAN tells this story. I published it long ago as a Short Take, at the bottom of the main screen. I think about it often, more now than I used to. And I thought: At a time when there is so much to fear... this needs to be permanent. Now it is. I repeat:
- [Weekend Butler: Jon Stewart. Walmart expansion. Tracy Chapman & Annie Lennox.  Mary Oliver. Foo Fighters. Pasta Alla Vodka. And more...](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-jon-stewart-walmart-expansion-tracy-chapman-annie-lennox-mary-oliver-foo-fighters-pasta-alla-vodka-and-more/) - PEARL KORNBLUTH: "THERE IS ALWAYS SOMETHING MORE YOU CAN DO" My mother, Pearl Kornbluth, died in 2020, at 103. Her birthday was this week. One of the perks of being the sole proprietor of a website is that there is no boss who can tell you "no." So here is the tribute/obituary I wrote for
- [These Days Are Ours](https://headbutler.com/reviews/these-days-are-ours/) - My least favorite novel plot: A family gathers at the old summer home and secrets are revealed. A close runner-up: “The Big Chill II,” with slackers getting together twenty seconds after they graduate from college to bemoan the state of the world and wonder where their lives went. In “These Days Are Ours,” Michelle Haimoff’s debut novel, there’s a twist that’s even more deadly --- it’s six months after 9/11….in New York. How hard did I fight liking --- even reading --- this book? As hard as the secretly gay family member of that classy family who changed Mom’s will before murdering her works to keep anyone from going into the basement of the old summer home and finding the new cement behind the oil burner. And the cast! In “These Days Are Ours,” we meet kids who went to private schools and studied semiotics at, like, Brown. They have a friend who sets his backpack down in the park while he plays Frisbee and the cops look through it and bust him for weed. They know Tom Cruise’s last three movie roles. They live with their parents in vast uptown apartments. They have DVF wrap dresses in their closets. The ones with jobs have routines: Morgan Stanley by day, the gym, getting drunk on weekends. And they can all talk in that ironic way you’d expect --- they can picture “the second major attack.” And they know something powerful: The people who died on 9/11 were people who were “doing well.” That is, they had jobs. Which these kids mostly don’t. Hailey, especially, who is the narrator. Unemployment grates on Hailey. Her mother is the publisher of Details Magazine, her stepfather is in the top tier at Conde Nast. --- she’s the “kid of.” Six months after her graduation, you’d think she could score some kind of employment. Or, failing that, a boyfriend. She has her eye on Brenner, who has a prestigious followship he’ll follow up with Harvard Law. She’s slept with him, just once. She’d happily show up for more. Hell, she’d welcome his ring. Fifty pages in, I hated most of these kids. Hated them like they were real people. And then I realized: This is really good writing. Yes, these kids are hateful to me. But I bet, if I were 24 and reading “These Days Are Ours,” I’d be nodding in recognition. [To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] Their challenges and triumphs, their endless texting and meet-ups at bars and ham-fisted attempts at deep wisdom --- strip away the technology and the money, substitute grass for vodka, and, a gazillion years ago, that was me. But I never had to describe, as Michelle Haimoff does, turning a corner and being confronted with Ground Zero: “It looked like King Kong had torn through the skyscraper forest so that he could have a little breathing room.” I’ve read a lot about 9/11, but nothing as good as that. Haimoff has the wit to take her title from “The Obvious Child,” a Paul Simon song: I am remembering a girl when I was young And we said These songs are true These days are ours These tears are free… But no tears are free --- not even the tears of twenty-somethings. And after a while, I began to care about them, about all of them. It’s not my fate to be the child of people who are bigger successes than I’ll ever be, and it’s probably not yours, but if the characters are drawn well enough, yeah, I can see that could be a bitch. And so I began to turn the pages faster to find out what happens for those kids. Come for the shallow, stay for the deep. ============================= I was curious to interview a young writer who was so deft in her first novel. Michelle Haimoff and I met, and, over coffee, had the kind of conversation that was like an echo of her book. JK: Your first fake ID? MH: 14. JK: Who were you in high school? MH: The one staying up all night talking to my friends on the phone, finding out what was really important. JK: Favorite college drink? MH: I didn’t drink until after college. JK: Tattoos? MH: None. JK: How much of your notes for this book were made on bar napkins with rings from glass? MH: More like a box of magazine subscription cards, air-sickness bags --- and napkins. JK: Where were you on 9/11? MH: Argentina. My then boyfriend was living there. I was visiting him. People stopped us in the street to tell us. JK: When did you return to New York? MH: Two weeks later. I didn’t get it. I’d say things like, “Letterman must have had a field day with this.” My friends had to correct me: “No, he was in tears.” JK: And later? MH: I was horrified that New York got beyond it so fast. JK: You write: "I remember Fashion Week, how everyone wore black…” MH: It became a marketing gimmick - the fashion week mourning theme, the 9/11 souvenirs (mugs, snow globes). JK: “Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close…” MH: I couldn’t get through it. JK: You live in LA. Why? MH: My husband. Someone had to move. JK: You compare New York for kids in their 20s to “A Moveable Feast.” How is it to live in Los Angeles? MH: It's like the survivor's colony at the end of “I Am Legend.” JK: A domestic question: Sheets --- does thread count matter? MH: It’s meaningless. It’s much more about where the cotton comes from. JK: What do you listen to? MH: A lot of music on vinyl. We got a turntable as a wedding present. JK: Generations last two or three years. When you were in the post-college cohort... MH: Drinks weren’t $15 then. A vodka tonic was maybe $5 or $6. And sometimes a banker would buy a round. JK: You’re now beyond the just-post-college generation. Do you… MH: I have no idea what they’re like.
- [We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young: La Drang—The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam](https://headbutler.com/reviews/we-were-soldiers-onceand-young/) - Hal Moore died on February 10, 2017 in Auburn, Alabama, a few days before his 95th birthday. In his military career, he reached the heights: United States Army lieutenant general, recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross. But that isn't the reason to read his remarkable book. Hal Moore was a great soldier because he was a great leader. I've written books and speeches and op-eds for gifted CEOs and interviewed leaders in many fields. No one touches Hal Moore. This is the best book on leadership I've ever read.
- [The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss](https://headbutler.com/reviews/hare-amber-eyes-familys-century-art-and-loss/) - "The Hare with Amber Eyes" has, as they say in show biz, everything. The highest echelons of Society in pre-World War I Paris. Nazi thugs and Austrian collaborators. A gay heir who takes refuge in Japan. Style. Seduction. Rothschild-level wealth. Two centuries of anti-Semitism. And 264 pieces of netsuke, the pocket-sized ivory-or-wood sculpture first made in Japan in the 17th century.
- [Weekend Butler: Elmo worries about you. A necessary substack. A minister's eulogy for a murdered grand-daughter.  Music: I'm still obsessed. Poem: a 'happy child' and 'a cornball father.' A toothsome dinner.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-elmo-worries-about-you-a-necessary-substack-a-ministers-eulogy-for-a-murdered-grandfather-music-im-still-obsessed-poem-a-happy-child-and-a-cornball-father-a-toothso/) - ELMO IS CONCERNED “Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?” asked 3-year-old Elmo, the forever star of “Sesame Street,” on X (formerly Twitter). He was promptly flooded with responses, many from people who were stressed to the breaking point. “Elmo, I’m gonna be real: I am at my f—king limit,” wrote a user
- [Fifth Business](https://headbutler.com/reviews/robertson-davies/) - Do you know of the great Canadian writer Robertson Davies? You'd remember the look. Bearded. With an ascot. Though he died in 1995, he seemed like a character out of the 19th century, an actor in a dramatization of Dickens. Davies did not need that eccentric self-presentation to get attention. His books made him a legend in Canada --- and, thanks to "Fifth Business", around the world. And it all started with one image. In 1960, Robertson Davies conjured a Christmas scene in a small town in Canada. One thing happens: A boy throws a snowball at another boy. “That was all there was to it,” he'd later recall, “but it came so often and was so insistent that I had to ask myself, Why is that boy doing that, and what is behind this, and what is going on?" It turns out that there is a rock inside the snowball that Percy Boyd “Boy” Staunton throws at his friend Dunstan “Corky” Ramsey at 5:58 in the afternoon on December 27, 1908. It misses Ramsey --- and hits Mrs. Dempster, wife of the Baptist parson, in the back of the head. She is extremely pregnant, and, when she falls, she goes into labor. Her son, Paul, is born prematurely and must fight for life. Mrs. Dempster is said to be “touched”. “Corky” Ramsey, age 10, is forever wracked with guilt because of the secret he cannot reveal. Only “Boy” Staunton forgets the incident entirely.
- [Robert Caro: Working](https://headbutler.com/reviews/robert-caro-working/) - “Working” is short: 207 pages. But it is the deepest book I’ve read in a long while, and it gives me fresh reasons to admire Caro: his dedication, his character. It tells the story of Caro’s work methods --- years and years of research, years and years of writing and rewriting --- and you get a good idea of his dedication to facts and craft. But more, this is a book about a writer’s soul, about the need to know everything before his fingers touch a keyboard. “Working” is short: 207 pages. But it is the deepest book I’ve read in a long while, and it gives me fresh reasons to admire Caro: his dedication, his character. It tells the story of Caro’s work methods --- years and years of research, years and years of writing and rewriting --- and you get a good idea of his dedication to facts and craft. But more, this is a book about a writer’s soul, about the need to know everything before his fingers touch a keyboard. And why? Because Carol’s subject is power. Local power for Moses, national power for Johnson. These are neither admiring portraits or demolition jobs. They are deep dives into the working of power: how people get it, how they use it, and who they hurt along the way. That last purpose --- who they hurt --- may be the biggest reason for Caro’s books. He knows what others forget or ignore: History may be written by the winners, but it’s made on the backs on the losers.
- [Sunrise Highway](https://headbutler.com/reviews/sunrise-highway/) - Early reviews have made a handy comparison: “the most memorable psychopath since Hannibel Lechter.” I say: more memorable than “Silence of the Lambs,” because for a woman there can be nothing more terrifying than being pulled over on a back road by a cop and realizing his grinning face is the last you will ever see.
- [Weekend Butler: E. Jean Carroll. Leonard Cohen in the Sinai. Arsène Lupin, gentleman burglar. Hurray for the Riff Raff. Marcella Hazan's Bolognese. Elon Musk.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-e-jean-carroll-leonard-cohen-in-the-sinai-arsene-lupin-gentleman-burglar-hurray-for-the-riff-raff-marcella-hazans-bolognese-elon-musk/) - E. JEAN CARROLL Donald Trump was found guilty of forcing himself on E. Jean Carroll (photo, above) in a Bergdorf's dressing room in the mid-1990s. Despite this, he continues to insist that she's "not my type" and that he's never met her. The other day, Trump posted 40 times in less than an hour on
- [George Orwell: The Orwell Reader](https://headbutler.com/reviews/george-orwell-the-orwell-reader/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: Since the start of 2023, Amazon seems to have gone on a quiet campaign to rid itself of small sites that, collectively, generate revenue worth noticing — and Head Butler no longer gets a commission on your Amazon purchases. Although this site was never designed to be a moneymaker, it was always key
- [J.J. Cale](https://headbutler.com/reviews/jj-cale-very-best/) - If your interest in music is casual and anecdotal, you may know that Eric Clapton did not write "Cocaine" and "After Midnight"-- Cale did. If you're a fan, you know more: J.J. Cale was a giant, a protean figure, bound for the pantheon --- an immortal. As a guitarist, Cale stands alongside Hendrix as an innovator. It's a funny pairing, for Cale was the exact opposite of Hendrix. His playing was minimal, in no way showy. It's not overstatement to suggest that Clapton owes him at least one of the last decades of his career. Mark Knopfler would admit he learned a thing or three from Cale. And there were others.
- [PEN PALS: A 15-year-old fan writes to film director John Hughes. He replies. And...](https://headbutler.com/reviews/pen-pals-a-15-year-old-fan-writes-to-film-director-john-hughes-he-replies-and/) - Letters of Note is my guilty pleasure. Its creator, Shaun Usher, says he "lives for letters, lists, and beautiful books," and he doesn't fib. In 2009, his love of correspondence inspired him to launch this site, an online museum of notable letters. It's been visited a hundred million times, has spawned several books and "Letters
- [Donbas: A True Story of an Escape Across Russia](https://headbutler.com/reviews/donbas/) - When I first encountered Jacques Sandulescu, I was a pasty college kid whose idea of exertion involved a highlighter and a textbook. Jacques was twice my age, a giant, rock hard, with hands that swallowed pens whole. Romania was deep in his past, as was his career as a professional boxer; in l968, when we met, he was a Greenwich Village bar owner. Like Big Daddy Lipscomb --- the legendary giant of a football player who used to help opponents up “so the children won't think Big Daddy's mean” --- Jacques was a calming force in every room he entered. You couldn't imagine trouble erupting with him around; he was that big and strong. And, at the same time, peaceful --- he had the kind of calm only people who have passed through fire seem to know. It wasn't until I read his book that I understood the horror Jacques survived. “I was arrested in Brasov on my way to school,” his book begins. And right there your stomach sinks. Because you know what's coming: a terrible story, told in unadorned prose. Well, brace yourself, you're about to be devastated. As “Donbas” opens, Jacques is 16 years old, 6 feet 2 inches tall, 180 pounds. He's the youngest person in the box car filled with Romanians that the Russians are shipping east in January of 1945. But his youth vanishes fast when he watches guards execute some would-be escapees. On one hand, he envies their death: “no more cold, misery, hunger.” On the other, he wants to live. Which means he'll have to escape. This is a book about noticing everything, paying sharp attention, looking for an opening. His first conclusion: Don't try to escape in winter, don't think you can get out of Russia without knowing Russian. [To read Chapter 1, click here. To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here.] But after a few days of working in the coal mines of Donbas (now considered part of the Ukraine), his thoughts turn from escape to survival. The work is wet and cold. A cave-in could come at any time. Exhaustion, exposure, hunger --- death comes in many forms here. I have never read an account of work in a mine that made me so claustrophobic. I found myself reading faster, as if getting to the end of a particularly horrible shift would provide some relief. But it didn't --- above ground, there were sadistic guards and icy winds. “Many prisoners died,” Jacques reports matter-of-factly. “Over half the camp. Four hundred and fifty weak and sick weren't suffering any more.” Jacques is comparatively well off. He is strong and uncomplaining, a good worker. He gets privileges --- when he goes to nearby homes for dinner, it's a delight to read as he eats and eats and eats. But he's never fooled; there's always a power-mad guard around the corner. And one does beat him so badly he almost dies. Which makes it all the more satisfying when, with the permission of a senior officer, Jacques stomps that sadist mercilessly. “It was a good feeling while it lasted,” he says. I think even a pacifist would agree. After two and a half years, his luck runs out. Jacques is trapped in a cave-in and rescued only by a friend's heroic efforts. He fears his legs will be amputated. It's winter, but so what --- he must escape. His legs are running with pus, he is a mass of sores, but he slips onto a train, hides in an open coal car and begins the slow, freezing ride to the West. Books like this have a built-in handicap --- we know the author survived. Only the best of the breed make us forget that there's a happy ending. And this is the best; reading these pages, you will feel cold and hungry, raging with fever, wet and dispirited. But mostly, you will feel Jacques Sandulescu's spirit, his unyielding insistence on life, life in free air, life at all costs. After you put his book down, you will, literally, take a deep breath.
- [Weekend Butler: The "Feels" Issue: Edward Jay Epstein. A Bon Iver love story. Relationship advice from Esther Perel. An exotic tea. Best, easiest soup.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-the-feels-issue/) - EDWARD JAY EPSTEIN The holiday energy drains. You expect there will be a letdown, and there will be hideous headlines from Gaza and Ukraine, and you have a one-word-fits-all explanation: “January.” But when I opened Facebook one recent morning, I was stunned to see a large photo of my friend Edward Jay Epstein and this,
- [Venice](https://headbutler.com/reviews/venice/) - We arrived the day after Christmas. It was cold; at evening concerts held in churches, the musicians wore coats and fingerless gloves. And wet; there were raised wooden walks in the piazza. The expensive restaurants were closed for the holidays. But there were few tourists and fewer cruise ships --- we had a magic week. There is almost no travel experience as pleasurable as walking home from dinner on a street out of a movie when the only footsteps echoing are your own.
- [Willie Ruff: Gregorian Chant, Plain Chant, and Spirituals Recorded in Saint Mark's Cathedral, Venice](https://headbutler.com/reviews/gregorian-chant-plain-chant-and-spirituals-recorded-saint-marks-cathedral-venice/) - It is just like Willie Ruff to take his French horn to Venice to record --- solo --- some of his favorite music: European classics and Southern spirituals. Ruff and Venice were an ideal marriage of musician and setting --- the sweetest of all brass instruments in one of Europe's most sacred spaces.
- [Secret Venice](https://headbutler.com/reviews/secret-venice/) - Four of the prettiest words I know: Venice in the winter. But it’s cold. Yes, it is. We were there the week after Christmas, and at evening concerts held in churches, the musicians wore coats and fingerless gloves. But it floods. True. That’s why they set raised wooden walks in the piazza, so your boots don’t get soaked. But restaurants close for the holidays. Only the most expensive ones. You weren’t planning to patronize them anyway. You get the idea. All the things that are “wrong’ about Venice in the winter are really the things that make it an ideal destination. The cruise ships mostly stay away. There are few honeymoon couples. The foodies go elsewhere. So there you are, in the magic city made more magic because you won’t meet yourself coming and going. In the morning, the fog surrounds you. During the day, you’re almost alone in museums and shops. At night, walking deep into the ghetto to a fish restaurant, the only sound is the echo of your heels. You’ll want a guidebook. And there’s none better than “Secret Venice.” Again, its charm is everything that’s not in its pages: hotel, restaurants, museums, shops. You can get those books anywhere. This is the one that reveals the secrets that are in plain sight as well as the ones locked behind the city’s heavy doors. This is the narrow paperback that won the 2011 Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal in the Travel Guidebooks category. [To buy “Secret Venice” from Amazon, click here.] Fascination begins with the first entry, the sculpture of a head of a man at the Rialto Bridge. It’s the sign of an apothecary that dispensed Teriaca, a cure-all that, until the 1940s, contained opium. The primary ingredient: ground-up vipers, said to work wonders for aging skin. Venice took this concoction seriously; each apothecary that made Teriaca had to display all the ingredients --- vipers included --- outside the shop for three days. Move a floor panel in the entrance of the Casino Venier, and you can look down and see who’s knocking at the door. Two pink marble columns among the white ones in the upper gallery of the Doge’s Palace. Why? The doges stood between them during official ceremonies --- including hangings. “The Eyes of St. Lucy,” a little-known painting of the eyes of a woman who was blinded before being beheaded. Footprints set in stone on the Ponte Santa Fosca that commemorate the ritual fighting that took place there. A fresco showing Marcantonio Bragagin being skinned alive. The significance of the white stone in the Campo San Pietro. A restaurant in a boatyard, where you’re not likely to see a single tourist. A market at the women’s prison. The apartment where Richard Wagner died. Venice’s only underground canal. The Double Garden of the Scuola Vecchia Della Misericordia, on the site of a former Dominican friary. The Venetian bowling club in Santa Croce. And hundreds more. Don’t leave home without it.
- [The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement](https://headbutler.com/reviews/king-years-historic-moments-civil-rights-movement/) - Branch has smartly produced a book that is a primer for millennials, a reminder for adults, and suitable for children. Just 220 pages. In essence, it's the Greatest Hits of his trilogy --- he took 18 of the pivotal events in King's years as a civil rights leader and cut-and-pasted a few pages from his previous writing on each. And so you'd have context, he provides short prefaces.
- [Weekend Butler: Gary Gulman: very funny. Tommy Smothers: great mentor. Jackson Browne: reality check. The richest Nobel poet. Savvy investment advice. Celery-and-apple stuffed roast chicken.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-gary-gulman-very-funny-tommy-smothers-great-mentor-jackson-browne-reality-check-the-richest-nobel-poet-savvy-investment-advice-celery-and-apple-stuffed-roast-chicken/) - GARY GULMAN Let's start with funny. Is he? Very. Watch. Then, if you're like the friends who laughed at this comic (in the photo, above), you'll go on to YouTube and laugh at many more videos from his comedy act. To watch his special on Amazon Prime click here. GUEST ESSAY: CORT CASADY ON TOMMY
- [Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963](https://headbutler.com/reviews/branch/) - Taylor Branch traces King's education, showing how teachers and writers shaped his thought. He introduces us to the men and women who became King's colleagues and takes the time to make them as real as King. And then, of course, he moves into the set pieces: the Freedom Rides, Birmingham, jail. Branch, as a writer, is under King's spell; his prose has a cadence you don't often see in biographies, even in Pulitzer Prize winners.
- [James M. Cain: 'The Postman Always Rings Twice' and 'Double Indemnity'](https://headbutler.com/reviews/james-m-cain-the-postman-always-rings-twice-and-double-indemnity/) - No mystery is simpler than one penned by James M. Cain. The elements of his best books are easily understandable: an unhappily married woman, a susceptible single man, a primal crime, and one very determined investigator. But there's another reason for Cain's reputation as a writer of classic thrillers --- he's the cleanest storyteller in American fiction. A metaphor is a rare event in his writing. It’s subject verb object, again and again. All he does is tell the story.
- [Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin](https://headbutler.com/reviews/eat-me/) - Kenny Shopsin has died. He got the Great Man Obituary --- "Brash Owner of a Quirky Restaurant" -- in The New York Times, which is simple justice. He ran the most original restaurant in the city, had the best --- and worst --- relationships with his clientele, wrote a cookbook like no other, and was full of big ideas that were as important to him as anything he'll put on your plate.
- [Weekend Butler: Claire Keegan, my favorite writer of 2023. Consumer Warning ("Saltburn"). Consumer Applause: "Air." Dolly Parton, philanthropist. "Gezellig." Low-cal Carrot Soup. A Rich Nobel Poet.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-claire-keegan-my-favorite-writer-of-2023-consumer-warning-saltburn-consumer-applause-air-dolly-parton-philanthropist-gezellig-low-cal-carrot-soup-a-rich-nobel-po/) - MY FAVORITE NOVEL OF 2023 Claire Keegan (photo, above) wrote the best novel I read last year. "Small Things Like These" ends abruptly… on page 128. Her previous book is even shorter. As she explains: “When I was young, my mother taught me that if I went to the butcher and was choosing a
- [New Year's Special for Kids and Adults (with NO sports): Matthew McConaughey](https://headbutler.com/reviews/new-years-special-for-kids-and-adults-with-no-sports-matthew-mcconaughey/) - As a young actor, Mathew McConaughey had an unusual problem: too handsome. After small parts in comedies, he broke out as a stripper in "Magic Mike. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor as an AIDS-afflicted cowboy in "Dallas Buyers Club." If you saw "The Wolf of Wall Street," you definitely recall his long
- [Leonard Cohen (1934-2016)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/leonard-cohen/) - For those of us in the Cohen cult, Leonard Cohen is much more than a musician --- he’s our intimate stranger, the poet laureate of our secret lives, our personal bard. The subject of almost all of his songs is love, or, more correctly, the “war between the man and the woman” that may take the form of an incurable disease we call love. Someone said, “You play Leonard after the lovers have left and are in the arms of others.” Not always. Sometimes the women were there, and so was a kind of distress you didn’t understand and didn’t particularly want but couldn’t resist --- like a black-and-blue mark you can’t help pressing, I used to think. There was something about that pain...
- [Holiday Vacation Butler: Movies, Videos, Books and Stories To Divert You While I Go Quiet Until January](https://headbutler.com/reviews/holiday-vacation-butler-movies-videos-books-and-stories-to-divert-you-while-i-go-quiet-until-january/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: Since the start of 2023, Amazon seems to have gone on a quiet campaign to rid itself of small sites that, collectively, generate revenue worth noticing --- and Head Butler no longer gets a commission on your Amazon purchases. Although this site was never designed to be a moneymaker, it was always key
- [Lonely Avenue: The Unlikely Life And Times of Doc Pomus](https://headbutler.com/reviews/lonely-avenue-unlikely-life-and-times-doc-pomus/) - He was short and stubby. He’d had polio at 9; he couldn’t walk without braces and crutches. To see this 16-year-old kid struggle to the stage of a Greenwich Village club in 1943 was to get a taste of what it was like to run into Toulouse Lautrec in a Paris cafe half a century earlier --- you knew this guy was….different. His dreams, for starters. Jerome Felder wanted to stand in a boxing ring and, though he couldn’t move, win the championship. Or fire unhittable fastballs from the pitcher’s mound. And the women --- they’d be lined up for him. In that club, though, Jerome connected with a dream that could come true. He got on stage and sang the only blues song he knew --- and people clapped. The next night, he was back, with a new confidence and a new name: Doc Pomus. He was on his way to becoming the greatest songwriter in the history of early rock ‘n roll. There are books you read because you’re interested in the subject. And then there are books you read because you just happen to pick them up --- and the next thing you knew, your mouth was dry, your heart was racing and you were turning the pages like the secret of life lay just ahead. “Lonely Avenue” was like that for me: a freight train with no brakes, bound for glory and ruin. I have a soft spot for stories about people who make something out of nothing --- people who reach into their guts and share their deepest, rawest feelings in a form that makes us feel them too. The Doc Pomus story is the very best of that breed. A Brooklyn kid who didn’t want to waste his life at a desk. A misfit who found his first home in black blues clubs. A survivor who realized he was never going to make it as a performer and started writing songs because behind-the-scenes was the closest a white, chunky cripple could come to touching an audience. He was in his 30s when he teamed up with an 18-year-old composer named Mort Shuman. And when, unaccountably, he persuaded a virginal blond actress to marry him. A few years later, he chanced upon their wedding invitation, and he remembered what it was like to sit on the sidelines while other men danced with his wife. He picked up a pen and watched the words flow: You can dance Every dance with the guy Who gives you the eye Let him hold you tight You can smile Every smile for the man who held your hand 'Neath the pale moonlight But don't forget who's taking you home And in whose arms you're gonna be So darlin', save the last dance for me… Before Ben E. King recorded that song, Ahmet Ertegun told him the back story. King’s eyes misted. And, as you know, he and the Drifters delivered a record they’ll be playing as long as there are lovers. Silly stuff followed. “Turn Me Loose” and other hits for Fabian, a teen idol “who had a reliable range of four or five notes.” But also, more hits for Ben E. King and the Drifters: "This Magic Moment" and "I Count the Tears." For Dion & the Belmonts, “Teenager in Love.”And, for Elvis, “Suspicion” and “Viva Las Vegas.” If this were just a story about music, it would be fascinating --- Halberstadt introduces us to a world of sleazy promoters, crooked producers, random hangers-on and freaks. All inhabited Doc’s world --- he was not only the ultimate hipster, the insider’s insider, but he had infinite time for stories. To read these pages is to enlarge your world. And then, to read these pages is to watch a world explode and one of its kings have to re-invent himself all over again. What happened? The Beatles. The Stones. And Dylan. “Tin Pan Alley is dead,” Dylan announced. “I killed it.” At 40, Doc was broke again. His weight ballooned to 350 and crutches were out of the question --- now he was chair-bound. His wife divorced him and took the kids. This is where the Doc Pomus story gets really exciting for me, because it’s one thing to be at the bottom when you’ve never seen the top, another to wake up in a fleabag hotel after you’ve known success. Anyone who’s been there will tell you: It’s harder to make it the second time. Poc made it twice. That’s one good reason to read this book: as a fable of disability denied, as the rugged, raw story of a guy in a wheelchair learning how to become the tallest guy in the room. But there’s so much more in these lightning-fast 225 pages. A large claim, but here it is: the story of a great 20th century artist. Oh, come on, you say. The guy wrote pop ditties for pimply kids.His stuff is like Kleenex. Keats and Shakespeare he ain’t. I beg to differ. I say anyone can write arty stuff that only the elite can appreciate; it takes real talent to deliver a clear, powerful message with just a few chords in 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Keats and Shakespeare were immensely talented poets, and popular in their day --- but they never reached a fraction of the people Doc Pomus. And admit it: You can quote five of Doc’s songs for every Shakespeare sonnet you know. One of Motown’s early mottos was, “It’s what’s in the grooves that counts.” On Till the Night Is Gone, you can hear Dylan and The Band and Lou Reed and Aaron Neville and Dion and Rosanne Cash --- the kings and queens of modern music --- pay tribute to the master. Every cut is gold. To buy “Lonely Avenue” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “Till the Night Is Gone: A Tribute to Doc Pomus” from Amazon.com, click here.
- [The Gift of Gifts: A holiday story](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-gift-of-gifts-a-holiday-story/) - I have long wanted to update O.Henry's holiday classic "Gift of the Magi." And now I have.
- [Gifts for Difficult Recipients](https://headbutler.com/reviews/gifts-difficult-recipients/) - GIFTS FOR DIFFICULT RECIPIENTS It's not that these folks are hard to please. It's that they don't fit easily into a neat demographic. (In fact, nobody does. But many people have been persuaded that they are X and Y, which sure makes it easy for marketers to sell stuff to them.) So start by thinking of that hard-to-please friend as you may well think of yourself: as a "group of one." Happily, Butler sees you all as individuals. And --- probably delusionally --- he believes he can help you without breaking a sweat. One way to approach gift-giving is not to look for ONE gift, but to create what I call "kits" --- unrelated items that clearly show you have given your recipient some creative thought. I've done that here. If that's daunting or inappropriate, there is a single gift I like --- for everyone: a Juniper Ridge Gift Pack (and do spring for the $9.95 "not your usual packing job"). Request #1 She is a young East Indian doctor. Dedicated, eager, compassionate, mother of a 4-year-old and 9-year-old, married to a bio-scientist. Special circumstance: This fledging Oncologist is embarking on a life of sadness and joy; she knows how precious each Christmas is. Butler's response: Book: I'd give this woman --- even more for her than for her children --- The Polar Express. For inspiration, I might get her And There Was Light. Music: I would need more clues. Movies: There will be nights when she'll come home and want to zone out in front of a television. Nothing good can come from that. Better she should watch some gentle comedies: Local Hero and The Castle. Request #2 My 84-year-old grandpa has everything. He lives on a 500 acre farm in upstate NY, was a former salesman, horse breeder/owner, and enjoys traveling, hunting, and harassing his grandchildren about becoming Republicans. Butler's response: Charity: a donation to The Heifer Project --- a terrific cause that gives people in rural areas the kinds of animals that will help them be self-reliant. A "share" in a heifer costs $50. A rabbit is $60. If grandpa's got a farm, he'll understand this immediately. Book: I'm thinking the audiobook --- at 84, he may not want to tire his eyes with reading --- of one of the most exciting stories of World War II: We Die Alone. And he'd love A.J. Liebling's memoirs of eating his way through Paris in the 1920s: Between Meals. Music: What could be sweeter to an 84-year-old than the voices of French schoolchildren: Les Choristes. Movies: Does he believe they used to make them better? Then get him the 1937 masterpiece Dodsworth. Request #3: My gay 35-year-old brother has rather quirky interests. Here are some of the things he loves: silly Japanese pop culture, pretty enamel spoons (not the tourist kind), some bands I've never heard of (like Pop! and Deep Dish), extremely luxurious bed sheets, exotic fruit like blood oranges and Yuzu grapefruit and vintage t-shirts. He's a sweet guy and always pretends to appreciate the Banana Republic gift certificates (or whatever) I get him each year, but I'd love to surprise him with a cool gift this year. Butler's response: Products: Mrs. Butler is mad for the Red Swingline Stapler. If he has a chocolate situation, let him be the first in his posse to sample Harry and David Gourmet Moose Munch Bars. Books: Jesus' Son is a sick, funny, easy choice. Music: Bet he hasn't heard Sandy Bull. Got questions? Butler may have answers. So...write. --- Jesse Kornbluth. for HeadButler.com
- [Weekend Butler: The legendary Holiday Ham. How long should a hug last? The end of the Leonard Bernstein movie. Oprah chats with Thich Nhat Hanh. A scathing review. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-the-legendary-holiday-ham-how-long-should-a-hug-last-the-end-of-the-leonard-bernstein-movie-oprah-chats-with-thich-nhat-hanh-a-scathing-review-a-toothsome-recipe/) - December! I seem to have spaced noticing the shortened daylight and the holiday-sales-that-started-in-September. On the theory I’m not the only one… HOLIDAY HAM This recipe has been the favorite of two wives, which is more than I can always say about myself. It comes from a long-departed friend, Gene Hovis, a dazzling cook and exceptional
- [Christmas with the Tallis Scholars](https://headbutler.com/reviews/christmas-tallis-scholars/) - When J.S. Bach wrote “SDG” on the bottom of every composition --- short for “soli deo gloria,” or “to God alone be the glory” --- he wasn't being falsely modest. In his time, individual ego was unthinkable; your purpose in life was to add your small stone to the building of God's cathedral. We hear that collective ambition in the great choral pieces of the Renaissance --- magnificent voices blending together to sing, in harmony, their praise to the Almighty. Today, we hear that holy music, delivered intact, in the recordings of The Tallis Scholars. Founded in 1973 by Peter Phillips, this English group has released 50 CDs and given 1,600 concerts. Over the decades, the Scholars have become the gold standard of Renaissance music --- I hear them every chance I get, and I am always transported. I'm hardly alone; several generations of music-lovers around the world have learned about Renaissance music's gorgeous arcs of flowing sound from the Tallis Scholars. Most of the group's recent releases were recorded at a 16th century church in a remote part of Norfolk, England, notable for its acoustics and the absence of traffic. Here's Peter Phillips on the sound the Scholars try to create in this setting: It's bright, agile and endlessly flexible. It's very well-tuned and blended and soft and seductive, so it draws people in. It's not abrasive, not harsh, but it's not weak either. There's real tension in it. It's a sort of flat paradox, but it's immensely strong and tough and soft and caressing. And over the years, it's gotten more forthright, so it's hard to remain indifferent to it when it's in front of you. It demands attention. People are not there for the words, they're there for the sound of the music. Because it's abstract music, a lot of it, anyway. For abstract music, it's gloriously immediate. As background music, it soothes. As music to contemplate, it's surprisingly powerful. And in live performance, it's sublime.
- [Carlo Scarpa](https://headbutler.com/reviews/carlo-scarpa/) - Scarpa was a great admirer of Frank Lloyd Wright, and he shared Wright’s interest in beams and joints, in different materials presented in juxtaposition. In 1951, Wright visited Venice. Many wanted to be his tour guide. Wright had no use for them. “Which one of you is Scarpa?” he demanded.
- [Johnny U: The Life and Times of John Unitas](https://headbutler.com/reviews/johnny-u-life-and-times-john-unitas/) - His father died when he was five, leaving behind a hard-pressed family and a coal-delivery business. After school, Johnny helped out --- like, before he was ten years old, shoveling three tons of coal into a customer's basement while it was raining. But then, Johnny Unitas dedicated himself to everything he did. Comic books: he could read them for hours. Later, he fell in love with the sports fiction of John Tunis. And, of course, he had infinite time to dream about playing football for Notre Dame. Notre Dame wasn't interested. Louisville was. Notre Dame's mistake. In a game that Louisville lost in a 59-6 rout, Unitas completed 9 of 16 passes, returned 6 kickoffs, made 86% of Louisville's tackles (he played offense and defense), and ran 22 yards for his team's only touchdown. When it was over, he got a huge ovation. No one saw how, in the locker room, he could not raise his arms and his uniform shirt had to be cut off him. If you didn't get goose bumps just then, stay with me. You will. In Johnny Unitas, we are talking about a genuine hero --- and not just because he is regarded, almost universally, as the greatest mid-century football player. Unitas is thrilling to read about, and to think about, because his struggle took place in the open, in real time, with the outcome uncertain and physical pain guaranteed. Unitas never complained. He never made apologies. He had a job to do, and it was his responsibility to get it done. [To buy the paperback edition of “Johnny U” from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] In a time when college football was a big deal and the pros were a bunch of rowdies who earned $5,000 or $6,000, he did that job so well that, like Michael Jordan, he made sport into art. He didn't know about wasted moves. A dancer: watch him drop back to pass. A magician: see him spin and feint. And, above all, a kind of performance artist: the embodiment of leadership. The final score of his first game as quarterback of the Baltimore Colts was a 58-27 loss. The mood on the team bus was sour. Except for Johnny Unitas, who sat with a sportswriter and coolly relived the game, explaining everything that went wrong and suggesting how he would fix it. That was confidence, not bragging --- at the end of the season, he had the best stats for a rookie quarterback in the history of the NFL. The following season, his streak began: He threw 122 touchdown passes in 47 consecutive games. (The previous record: 22 consecutive games.) Any modern quarterback would have needed a new helmet --- to accommodate his swelled head --- early in that streak. Not Unitas. When a teammate bought a house, he helped him lay the kitchen linoleum. In the huddle, before calling a play, he would ask, “Do you need anything? How can I help? What can I do?” Team first. That was Unitas. In the huddle, a black player said that an opponent had called him “nigger.” Unitas said: “Let him through.” And he threw a bullet pass into that guy's head so hard it felled him. To sportswriters, after a game, he described everyone's goofs as his mistakes. He played hurt; he had a Terminator's tolerance for pain. Of course his teammates loved him. “Playing with Johnny Unitas,” one said, “was like being in the huddle with God.” On December 28, 1958, when the Colts played the New York Giants, a national television audience discovered what Baltimore fans already knew. The game was a nailbiter that went into overtime. “John told us, 'We're going to go right down the field and score,'” Alan Ameche recalled. “No doubt about it. You could feel the confidence.” And they did. When it was over, an unemotional Unitas turned and walked off the field. That was, it is said, the game that put professional football on the map, the game that made celebrities out of quarterbacks. You'd never guess that from Unitas --- he was all about the game. (Once, with his nose “bleeding like a running faucet,” he shouted at a concerned ref to get out of the way so he could call the next play.) Eventually, as it does to all athletes, his body betrayed him. He retired without fanfare. And died, in 2002, of a heart attack while working out on an exercise machine. “Action is eloquence,” Shakespeare wrote, and in a time when we mostly see exceptions to that truth, Unitas stands as proof. He didn't talk much. He didn't need to. Who he was and what he believed was displayed every time he walked onto the field. So this book is for men who love the game and romance of football. And it is for women who want to be in relationship with those men. But more, it is for all who once believed in heroes and have been bitterly disappointed by the politicians and business executives who are fierce talk and no guts. Here, at last, is a guy you can understand and respect. A field marshal who led from the front. A tough guy with heart. A leader who understood people and cared about them and looked out for them. “Do you need anything? How can I help? What can I do?” If you're looking for a role model, you could do a lot worse.
- [Thich Nhat Hanh: "Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment, I know this is a wonderful moment."](https://headbutler.com/reviews/thich-nhat-hanh-1926-2022-breathing-in-i-calm-my-body-breathing-out-i-smile-dwelling-in-the-present-moment-i-know-this-is-a-wonderful-moment/) - In 1997, it was my privilege to spend an evening with Thich Nhat Hanh. He didn’t use a telephone, so when I interviewed him for America Online, I had to pick him up and drive him to the office. TNH practiced “walking meditation.” That is, he walked very slowly, breathing very consciously, so that every
- [HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE 2023:Books and Music](https://headbutler.com/reviews/holiday-gift-guide-2020-books-and-music/) - SPOKEN WORD Ruth Draper and Her Company of Characters: Selected Monologues Ruth Draper invented Lily Tomlin. Like this: In a grand 1920’s home, a New York society matron’s Italian lesson is just beginning."'Midway along the pathway of our life,’" she recites with a trill, "’I found myself in a forest dark’ — we say: a
- [LEVOIT Core 300 Air Purifier](https://headbutler.com/reviews/levoit-core-300-air-purifier/) - I wrote about the Levoit Air purifier in January of 2021. If you can remember what our lives were like then, you'll understand why many of you bought one. Some of you thanked me (see below). In July 2021, with COVID spiking again, I updated this piece because Wirecutter --- the New York Times-owned site
- [Rainy Day Butler: 9 films for winter's first storm. Ryan O'Neal. A Hanukah story. And more...](https://headbutler.com/reviews/rainy-day-butler-9-films-for-winters-first-storm-ryan-oneal-a-hanukah-story-and-more/) - First, something NOT for you --- here’s where much of America’s online attention will be focused: the trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI trailer. It has 135 million views in 5 days. “The Grand Theft Auto VI trailer, which is set to “Love Is a Long Road” by Tom Petty, includes zooming speedboats and sports
- [Weekend Butler:  Dolly Parton, rockstar. Bradley Cooper, actor/director/writer. Wisdom: Thich Nhat Hanh & David Hockney. E.B. White defines Democracy. Marcella Hazan's Carbonara.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-dolly-parton-rockstar/) - An unusual week. Two celebrities, famous for a reason bigger than talent: massive intelligence. Don't skip these interviews because you think you know them. You don't. DOLLY PARTON, 77-YEAR-OLD ROCKSTAR Look at the photo (above). That is one fearless star. And candid: “I wanted the rock people to be proud of me. I wanted them
- [The title is not a brag. It really is "The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-title-is-not-a-brag-it-is-really-is-the-only-investment-guide-youll-ever-need/) - Andy Tobias and I were in the same class in college. We were both heavily involved in campus organizations, so we returned to campus a week before the start of the fall term. I was Managing Editor of the literary magazine, which was very distinguished, which is to say, the very small and unimportant New
- [Badenheim  1939](https://headbutler.com/reviews/badenheim-1939/) - When Aharon Appelfeld, one of Israel's greatest writers, The New York Times gave him the "great writer" obituary. But the odds that you know his name or have read him are small. Only a handful of his 40 books were translated into English. It's too bad that Appelfeld didn't write his masterpiece, "Badenheim 1939," under the pen name "Albert Camus" --- if he had, this 148-page novel would be taught alongside "The Stranger" and regarded, rightly, as a modern classic.
- [Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman](https://headbutler.com/reviews/fifth-avenue-5-am-audrey-hepburn-breakfast-tiffanys-and-dawn-modern-woman/) - I’m tired of hearing about “the death of publishing” --- and reading how the fault lies in some toxic combination of APPs and bloggers and social networking. Sorry. It’s the books. Too many books, too many boring books, too many unedited books, too many --- my pet peeve --- overlong books that announce, more bluntly than anything else, publishing’s nearly universal refusal to recognize how the Internet has changed reading habits. (Note to publishers: Goodwill thanks you for every book you send me that’s more than 300 pages). “Fifth Ave, 5 AM” [To buy the book from Amazon, click here. To buy the Kindle edition, click here.] is Exhibit A of the kind of book that could keep me home and happy every night. And that’s so odd, because its nominal topic --- how the film of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” [To buy the book from Amazon, click here. To buy the DVD of the film, click here.] came to be made, and why Audrey Hepburn was so crucial to that effort --- concerns a book I don’t much like and a film I’ve never watched all the way through. The cool thing: you don’t have to care about any of that to love the book. You just have to like dish (and who doesn’t). Paramount’s head of production hated the theme song --- “Moon River.” Babe Paley smoked two packs of cigarettes a day, using an ivory holder. Marilyn Monroe lamented that she never had a home, “not with my own furniture.” Colette “discovered” Hepburn. Akira Kurosawa hated Mickey Rooney. You have to be interested in how things really work --- in this case, how, in a time of prudery and censorship, two smart producers, one savvy director and a sharp screenwriter figured out how to take “a novel with no second act, a nameless gay protagonist, a motiveless drama and an unhappy ending and turn it into a Hollywood movie.” You also have to be interested in a book that has an idea at the center of the narrative --- how Audrey Hepburn, a “good girl princess” as pure as Doris Day, helped to change the American distaste for “bad girls” with a single movie. And, just as much, with “a little black dress” that even the least mouseburger of a secretary could afford. And, finally, you have to respond to a writer who can tell a complicated story in 200 crisp pages --- and who can, at will, fire off zingers like “Truman needed her [Babe Paley] too. She looked good on him.” Or this, also about Capote: “If you could measure a man’s ego by the length of his ego, then this one had no end.” This is a book that’s very inside Hollywood. George Axelrod? Major screenwriter and playwright, almost certainly unknown to you. Mary Jurow and Richard Shepherd --- $10 if you can name, without Google, another movie they produced. Not important stuff, but fun. What’s especially satisfying: where the story begins. Which is to say: much earlier than you think. In 1951, when Audrey Hepburn was not yet magic. With George Axelrod’s 1950s efforts to get sex --- as an adult topic, and reated as such --- into Hollywood movies. With Truman Capote becoming Himself. In short, as in real life, the backstory is key. A feast of a book.
- [Buck Brannaman, the Horse Whisperer](https://headbutler.com/reviews/buck-brannaman-horse-whisperer/) - Buck Brannaman specializes in the improbable. Got a skittish, poorly trained horse? A bucking bronco? A steed who seems not to care about anything? Bring that uncooperative beast to one of Buck’s clinics. Very quickly --- often in a matter of minutes --- he gets your horse ready to ride. No whips are involved, no threats are made. Buck’s methods call for a little stroking with a flag, a steady gaze, a gentle tone. You say you don’t ride? Don’t care about horses? Don’t be a horse’s ass. Stick around. This is more about you --- much more about you --- than it is about Dobbin. Buck Brannaman’s name may not be familiar to you, but you do know who he is. If you read The Horse Whisperer --- or saw the movie in which a magical Montana rancher heals a New York executive, her daughter and her daughter’s horse --- yes, that was Robert Redford playing Buck. And now there’s a documentary about Buck. You can buy the DVD from Amazon here. Or you can buy/rent the video download of the movie and stream it right now. Click here. Or you can make do with Buck's 2001 memoir, "The Faraway Horses: The Adventures and Wisdom of One of America's Most Renowned Horsemen.” [To buy the paperback, click here. For the Kindle download, click here.] What you’ll see, in the book and the film, is a man who was abused and brutalized as a boy --- after he and his brother were removed from his father’s care, his father sent them birthday cards promising to kill them when they turned 18 --- who should have grown up to abuse and brutalize others. Instead, he found some masters. And then looked deep within. And what he saw was this: Bad colts don’t want to be bad, they just don’t know better. To help horses get better, don’t lecture them or punish them. There’s a difference between discipline and punishment. Make it difficult for the horse to do the wrong thing and easy to do the right one. Even if you’re going through something that makes you think your life is over, you can still have a future. When you’re dealing with a kid or an adult or a horse, treat them the way you’d like them to be, not how they are now. And this, the wisest approach to parenting I have ever read: When things start to go wrong with a child, there is nothing wrong with laying down some rules, with being strict and saying no. You can talk to a child, reason with him, but you still need to give him a choice. You need to give him someplace else to go to in his mind, and something else to do so he can succeed. If you don’t, if you wait for him to do the wrong thing because you weren’t paying attention to your responsibilities and then you become angry and beat on him, he won’t learn anything from what he did. He’ll learn to fear you. He’ll learn to be sneaky and covert about what he does. He may never learn to do the right thing. Instead, he is likely to learn nothing but how to fail. Sounds so simple, doesn’t it? And it is, because Buck is plain-spoken and transparent. He has no secrets. Just a code. Which works. This documentary is thrilling to watch. The childhood footage --- it breaks your heart. His fantastic foster parents make you think that foster kids should be removed from cities and placed in good homes in the countryside. Watching him train a horse in less time than it takes to cook a burger is inspiring. Listening to him deal with owners --- he likes to say that most horse problems are people problems. His bluntness when something goes dangerously wrong. His love for his wife. And I could go on…. “Buck” bristles with ideas. When it ends, you’ll feel charged up and excited. And optimistic.
- [Weekend Butler: Anthony Bourdain on Henry Kissinger. Acting your age (How beautiful is Judi Dench?).  A first-class writing retreat in Montana.  Help wanted at the Met Museum (gun required). Making Paul Newman's day. One-pan chicken. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-anthony-bourdain-on-henry-kissinger-acting-your-age-how-beautiful-is-judi-dench-a-first-class-writing-retreat-in-montana-help-wanted-at-the-met-museum-gun-required-making-pa/) - ANTHONY BOURDAIN ON HENRY KISSINGER (OUCH!) “Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands. You will never again be able to open a newspaper and read about that treacherous, prevaricating, murderous scumbag sitting down for a nice chat with Charlie Rose or attending some
- [JFK and Mary Meyer: A Love Story](https://headbutler.com/reviews/jfk-and-mary-meyer-a-love-story/) - On October 12, 1964, eleven months after Kennedy’s assassination and two days before her forty-fourth birthday, Mary Meyer took her noon walk along the towpath of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington. A gunman shot her, execution style, in the head and the heart. She kept a diary. Her family burned it. I reimagined Mary's diary.
- [Beatriz at Dinner](https://headbutler.com/reviews/beatriz-at-dinner/) - Mike White created “White Lotus,” the hugely popular series (ten Primetime Emmys and two Golden Globes) that’s funny, frothy, and takes viewers to pretty locations (Maui, Sicily, and, coming up, Thailand). Think of it as a great blender drink. Mike White also created “Beatriz at Dinner.” It’s intermittently funny and frothy --- but it’s about
- [The Harder They Come](https://headbutler.com/reviews/harder-they-come-1/) - Summer. There's going to be a song, a mood. There always is. This summer, I feel a Bob Marley festival coming on: Red Stripe and jerk chicken in the backyard, "One Love" on the outdoor speakers. This hardly suggests a Marley revival; Marley dead has sold more CDs than he ever did alive. But this year we have fresh Marley media. In the theaters, there's a two-and-a-half-hour documentary about Marley. Want a digital tour? The Marley family has created an enhanced e-book, Listen to Bob Marley: The Man, the Music, the Revolution. One love, one heart Let's get together and feel all right... If only. Not to bore you with the facts, but two jump out for me. Bob Marley's best work was with the Wailers, when the band was called Bob Marley and the Wailers. And as important as the Wailers were, they came after a bunch of lesser-known musicians who transformed the music that was ska into what we know as reggae. Reggae may be the music of love and healing, but it originated in blood, poverty and racism. Our version of this music is really a prettified reggae 2.0, reggae made safe for the tourist board and an airline. In the interest of historical accuracy, let's jump into the Wayback Machine and go back....back..... 1972. President Nixon was taping the meetings that would cause him to resign. The big movies were “The Godfather” and “Cabaret.” The hot music was Pink Floyd's “Dark Side of the Moon” and a new band called The Eagles. A very American year. A very white year. Until a movie and a soundtrack changed everything. "The Harder They Come," the first full-length feature that anyone could remember originating in Jamaica, was released early in 1972. No one noticed the myth-busting drama about Jamaica that substituted violence, marijuana, politics and the music business for endless beaches and picturesque waterfalls. Then it started playing at midnight. A cult formed immediately. [To buy the DVD from Amazon for $8.14, click here. To buy or rent the digital version from Amazon, click here.] The soundtrack was an anthology that's been called “the Sgt. Pepper of reggae.” It featured Jimmy Cliff and Toots & the Maytals and a bunch of obscure talents singing their hearts out in a desperate bid to make some kind of mark on the world.[To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.] Together, the music and the movie made a potent package. And a straightforward one. The plot was simplicity itself: Jimmy Cliff leaves his home in the hills to come to Kingston, hoping to be a pop singer, only to be thwarted in every possible way. Here, at last, was a film that didn't sugarcoat the truth about colonialism and exploitation. It was filmed on the cheap and looked grainy, but that wasn't a flaw --- this kind of film should look as if were made by insurrectionists who stole the film and then took over a lab to develop it. I fell hard for the film and its music. In a matter of months, I was hanging out with Toots, the Jamaican Otis Redding and leader of Toots & The Maytals, and pitching a film idea to Bob Marley, and eating fish stew in a smoky backstage dressing room --- I was completely addicted to reggae music's stutter-step, off-beat appeal. Primitive? Not at all. This was and is some of the most sophisticated music on the planet. It just happens to disguise itself as pop music that makes you want to grab a beer and dance. There's not a weak cut on the CD, not a dull moment in the movie. Oh, to be 26 again, and discovering this stuff for the first time. Well, no. But this is true: Oh, to be in your home when you watch or hear “The Harder They Come” for the first time.
- [Holiday Weekend: Two cheers for no holiday deep thoughts. Edith Wharton (with a stunning bonus). Four movies to stream. Glenn Gould dances! A necessary dish: Mac and Cheese.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/holiday-weekend-two-cheers-for-no-holiday-deep-thoughts-edith-wharton-with-a-stunning-bonus-four-movies-to-stream-glenn-gould-dances-a-necessary-dish-mac-and-cheese/) - REASONS TO BE GRATEFUL I’m not going to tell you that food purchased for use at home is 25 percent more expensive than it was in February 2020. Turkey is up 37 percent; eggs are up 43 percent. I’m not going to suggest, at your family’s Thanksgiving dinner, that you go around the table and
- [The Red Balloon](https://headbutler.com/reviews/red-balloon/) - It's been amusing reading Web reviews of “The Red Balloon.” I gather that, in the 4th to 8th grades, a great many American kids saw the movie in school. Which makes sense --- at 34 minutes long, it's just long enough to kill an entire period. The teacher doesn't have to teach. Maybe if the teacher had said something --- maybe if “The Red Balloon” were shown as an example of metaphor and dreams and the power of imagination, and that dreams and imagination are Good Things --- kids would have loved it. But apparently nothing of the kind was said. And so the story of a French kid in the mid-1950s who is followed around by a balloon seems to have agitated dozens of Americans so much that, decades later, they rush to post their hatred of it. They are fools. Well, let's be kind: They have been betrayed by their “education” and by a culture that, in the main, thinks poetry is for “sissies.” ( I did note: The movies haters were all male.) The fact is --- and please excuse me for talking as if quality were objective, observable fact --- is that this little film is a gem, eminently worthy of its Academy Award for Best Short Film in 1956 and its reputation as one of the Great Films Ever. But don't take my word. Show it to a kid, the younger the better. Twenty-odd years ago, when he was two, my stepson first saw “The Red Balloon.” He soon knew the boy's name --- Pascal --- and groaned and cheered at the appropriate times. And wore out the video before he was tired of it. Later, our daughter watched it. Over and over again. For her, too, Pascal is a friend. What do they see in the story of a French boy and his balloon? Not what we do. They don't, I believe, see that the boy --- an only child --- is lonely, and that the red balloon becomes his best friend. They don't see the restricted, imagination-challenged world of adults, where a balloon that a follows a boy is an annoyance. They don't see the boys who gang up on Pascal and burst his balloon as the brute force of mass stupidity. Nor do they see the flock of balloons that show up at the end and take Pascal flying over Paris as the liberation of art and imagination. No, for kids, “The Red Balloon” is a film set in reality. A boy has a balloon for a friend. Period. Later, he has many balloons for friends. Period. And that is the magic of the movie --- it hits kids at their level. A level where anything is possible. Where magic is afoot every day. And that places “The Red Balloon” up there with “Wizard of Oz” and “E.T.” Got a kid? Get “The Red Balloon.” And, in case you've misplaced it, reclaim your own sense of wonder.
- [Bill Nighy](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bill-nighy/) - “Living” stars Bill Nighy, who is never not flawless. The reviews are exceptional. Do, please, watch the trailer, and you’ll see the appeal of a film about an inhibited, buttoned-up civil servant that seems to have been created expressly for him, and, in fact, was. Nighy doesn’t court publicity, but at 73, he’s well aware
- [NO](https://headbutler.com/reviews/closer/) - "NO,” Chile’s first-ever nominee for Best Foreign film, was never going to be playing in the sixplex next to “Die Hard: The Reunion Tour.” But when it didn’t win the Academy Award, there went the possibility that Americans will even know it exists. Let’s correct that here. In 1973, in a coup supported by the CIA, the Chilean military overthrew the country’s first Socialist government. President Salvador Allende committed suicide; Augusto Pinochet, General of the Army, became dictator. The cleansing of progressives began immediately. When it ended, 3,000 Chileans "disappeared,” 130,000 had been jailed, and 28,000 had been arrested and tortured. In a country with a population of just 10,000,000, I think we can call those numbers “impressive.” In 1988, there was a referendum on Pinochet’s government. It was a straight “yes” or “no” proposition, and few believed that a majority would vote “no” --- or vote at all. The rules of the referendum were simple: Each side got 15 minutes on state-owned television a night for 30 days. For the “yes” team, this was no challenge. All they had to do was show the economic hardship of the Allende years and then showcase all the wonderful "progress" Pinochet had brought to Chile. The “no” side had a real challenge. To show torture and repression would be to remind voters that they had reason to fear their government. That would reinforce hopelessness. But for the progressive ideologues running the “no” campaign, that kind of programming would at least be a raised fist. The “no” team brings in a consultant, Rene Saavedra (Gael Garcia Bernal), a skateboard-riding advertising hotshot from Mexico who couldn’t be less political --- we’ve seen him pitch a cola campaign in terms of the “social reality” of Chile. He looks at the commercial the “no” team has made --- and rejects it. What’s needed, he says, is to treat the referendum like a commercial product and sell it to viewers. Like cola. His approach: forget the past, ignore the present, focus on the future. A future without Pinochet. In short: commercials featuring jingles, a rainbow graphic, wide smiles and a slogan that’s pure sugar --- “Chile, happiness is on its way.” “NO” is about that ad campaign and its effect on the referendum. (The New York Times headline over the rave review of this movie: “Try Freedom: Less Filling! Tastes Great!”) [To buy the expensive DVD from Amazon, click here. To rent or buy the inexpensive streaming video, click here.] The director, Pablo Larraín, shot the movie using rebuilt video cameras from the 1980s. This allowed him to show Pinochet’s speeches and public appearances, TV coverage of political demonstrations and the actual commercials. As a result, almost 30% of the film is footage. (“I still get a lot of comments from people who, after watching the movie, they say: ‘Oh you did a great job with Pinochet. That actor really looks like him,'" the director told an interviewer. “And I’m like, ‘No, no, no, wait.’ ”) When the vote was taken, 55% of the voters marked their ballots “no.” But it’s too simple to say that the “no” commercials were solely responsible. The anti-Pinochet force spent years on a grass-roots effort to register 7.5 million Chileans. And on voting day, they got 96% of those voters to the polls. “NO” is a number of films in one. It’s a romp: the clever young ad man making fun of the staid Establishment. It’s a thriller: Pinochet and his goon squads do not sit idly by as the ad man gains market share. And it’s a primer: It suggests approaches we might use to make change in our own country. But beware: "NO" may give you ideas that, ninety minutes earlier, would have struck you as ridiculous.
- [Greta Gerwig: The movies before “Barbie” (One is sensational!)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/greta-gerwig-the-movies-before-barbie-one-is-sensational/) - I’m very aware that fans spent $337 million on tickets worldwide on its opening weekend, the most ever for the opening weekend of a film this year and the biggest ever for a film written and directed by a woman, and that an astonishing 35% of the opening weekend audience was male and that the
- [Weekend Butler: Two love songs: John Prine & Iris DeMent, The National & Taylor Swift (Yes! Taylor Swift), Best Mashed Potatoes for Thanksgiving](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-two-love-songs-john-prine-iris-dement-the-national-taylor-swift-yes-taylor-swift-best-mashed-potatoes-for-thanksgiving/) - TWO LOVE SONGS (LET’S START WITH THE CHEERY ONE) John Prine & Iris DeMent A glorious love song that could only have been written by John Prine: “In Spite of Ourselves” To listen and smile at the live performance, click here. Sample lyrics: Prine: She don't like her eggs all runny She thinks crossin' her
- [The Letter](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-letter/) - I have praised Dodsworth --- if you haven't watched it, put it high on your list --- in terms so effusive you could think I want to have children with it. “The Letter" is just as good. Maybe better. “If your wife had only shot Hammond once, the whole thing would be absolutely plain sailing.
- [Weekend Butler: The Academy Awards, 2021 films to stream, films to avoid](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-the-academy-awards-films-to-stream-films-to-avoid/) - Below, the kind of service you’d expect from a butler: Amazon Prime links to nominated movies. First, though, some indiscreet opinions that this butler would like to share when the publicists and producers have gone to bed and it’s time to break out drinks-and-smokes and shoot the shit. Like this: I only saw a few
- [Emmylou Harris and Mark Knopfler: All the Roadrunning](https://headbutler.com/reviews/all-roadrunning/) - Talent is the ante. Many have it. What you do with it is what matters. Emmylou Harris and Mark Knopfler are blue-collar workers. They take their immense natural talent, put it to the side and roll up their sleeves, building songs like brick walls --- a note at a time. As the notes pile up, they sound effortless, eternal, as if they could have been served up in no other way. Which is why their CDs feel like houses: solid, honest, as permanent as anything mortals can create.
- [Little Caesars: How Wall Street & Big Business Conspired to Overthrow Franklin D. Roosevelt and Install a Fascist Dictator --- and the Patriot Who Stopped Them](https://headbutler.com/reviews/little-caesars-how-wall-street-big-business-conspired-to-overthrow-franklin-d-roosevelt-and-install-a-fascist-dictator-and-the-patriot-who-stopped-them/) - Rachel Maddow has a new book, Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism, and a podcast that dissects historical efforts to bring Fascism to America. Along the way, she synopsizes the Smedley Butler episode in that campaign. Atrios has a hair-raising story about Donald Trump's plans for an authoritarian government if he's elected President in 2024.
- [Arthur Miller: Focus](https://headbutler.com/reviews/arthur-miller-focus/) - Almost no one knows about Arthur Miller's one and only novel. If you’re aware of “Focus,” it’s probably because of the movie adaptation, starring William H. Macy, Laura Dern and Meat Loaf. But you haven't heard of that, either --- the movie was a flop. So, some thought, was the book. Reviewing it in 1945,The
- [Weekend Butler: The Positivity Issue: Katharine Hepburn, Pema Chodron, Brian Fallon, Kim McCarty, Robert Redford, Steve Prefontaine, 2 poems, beef stew](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-the-positivity-issue-katharine-hepburn-pema-chodron-brian-fallon-kim-mccarty-robert-redford-steve-prefontaine-2-poems-beef-stew/) - I worked on two long projects for months, so I've had a good excuse for reading my own writing and not much else. But the news has been unfailingly painful, and I have maintained two don’t-miss routines. Just before bedtime, my daughter and I text a positive wish for the next day, and we breathe
- [Claridge’s: The Cookbook](https://headbutler.com/reviews/claridges-the-cookbook/) - Claridge’s opened in 1853. From the start, it was viewed as “an annex to Buckingham Palace,” and travelers who require 5-star comfort have followed Queen Victoria’s lead; unlike other venerable institutions, Claridge’s has little need for “marketing” or “branding.” Still, the cookbook is perhaps overdue. “It’s only taken 164 years, so we’re a bit slow with that,” says Chef Martyn Nail, which is just what you’d expect from a man who’s had the same employer for 30 years. He knows: Claridge’s is all about muffled drums, silent workers, a purposeful avoidance of visible change.
- [Short days, long nights. COVID. Politics. A recipe for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Would light therapy brighten your winter?](https://headbutler.com/reviews/short-days-long-nights-covid-politics-a-recipe-for-seasonal-affective-disorder-sad-would-light-therapy-brighten-your-winter/) - Days are shorter, nights longer. Then there’s COVID-19, sure to spike with the cold and more indoor contact. At the same time, because of the cold, we'll enjoy less contact with friends and family and an even more diminished social life. And then there’s the aftermath of the election. A perfect storm. If you are
- [My "lunch" with Nora Ephron, years after her death](https://headbutler.com/reviews/my-lunch-with-nora-ephron-years-after-her-death-in-a-new-book-one-last-lunch-a-final-meal-with-those-who-meant-so-much-to-us/) - Meg Ryan starred in “When Harry Met Sally” and “Sleepless in Seattle” and “You’ve Got Mail” --- movies written and sometimes directed by Nora Ephron. If you’ve thought of her recently, it’s because she is in her first movie in seven years. The Times ran a long interview with Ms. Ryan, not mentioning the obvious:
- [Weekend Butler: "Is this the beginning of the end?" Judi Dench recites Shakespeare. Going to Paris: Meet Van Gogh. Mary Oliver. Holiday savings on CBD cream. Garland Jeffreys movie online. Mmmm: recipe for Mac and Cheese.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-is-this-the-beginning-of-the-end-judi-dench-recites-shakespeare-going-to-paris-meet-van-gogh-mary-oliver-holiday-savings-on-cbd-cream-garland-jeffries-movie-online-mmmm-rec/) - IS THIS THE BEGINNING OF THE END? In the last few days, I’ve had conversations with smart readers and big-time insiders. All were dour. They see Biden losing steam, Trump gaining strength. They missed the videos of Kamala Harris being mobbed by kids, so they don’t take her --- or any other Democrat --- seriously.
- [Theatre Review: "I Can Get It for You Wholesale"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/theatre-review-i-can-get-it-for-you-wholesale/) - Movie week? I interrupt it for a good reason: I saw a play last night that impressed me more than X, an award-winner we left at intermission, and Y, which held us captive until we were limp with inexpressible resentment. It’s “I Can Get It for You Wholesale,” and it’s at the Classic Stage Company,
- [Weekend Butler: The Heroes Issue: A grandfather in Israel, a teacher in America. Plus: Hot yoga. No 2nd burger! Gun-toting judge. Major poem. Toothsome recipe.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-the-heroes-issue-a-grandfather-in-israel-a-teacher-in-america-plus-hot-yoga-no-2nd-burger-gun-toting-judge-major-poem-toothsome-recipe/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: You can become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and to go there, just click here. Again, thank you. THIS WEEK IN BUTLER: David Bowie “magic mask” story. Chavela Vargas. The Lives of Others
- [Chavela Vargas (1919-2012)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/chavela-vargas-1919-2012/) - I never heard of Chavela Vargas until she died. But an email and an obituary got me moving; hours later, limp and in thrall, I knew I’d have to tell you about her. "The Edith Piaf of Mexico," with 80 records to her credit. That's the shorthand. It's too simple.
- [The Lives of Others](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-lives-of-others/) - If you’ve paid any attention to the news recently, you know why I suggest "The Lives of Others." It's not just because it won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2007, but more because we now know that every e-mail we write, every phone call we make, every tweet and Facebook post, is sitting on some government server. Though the NSA isn’t really spying on us --- it won’t dig into our data without first securing the approval of a secret court that, okay, almost always approves such searches --- it’s different if you’re a government employee. Is your co-worker depressed? Stressed? Getting divorced? Suddenly wealthy? If so, you are now expected to report that --- in essence, to spy on a colleague. [To read about the “Insider Threat" program, click here.] But that’s nothing. In countries where the government aggressively spies on its own people, everyone has reason to be afraid. In East Germany in the 1980s, for example, the Stasi --- the secret police --- had 90,000 employees and 173,000 informers. In a country of 16 million people, that’s huge; it means that one of every 63 East Germans collaborated with the Stasi. What does spying do to the people who do it? That’s the question writer/director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck asks in “The Lives of Others.” And he asks it in the simplest possible way. Georg Dreyman is a successful playwright, and not just in the theater. He’s respected by his peers and tolerated by the government: “the only non-subversive writer we have.” He lives with an actress, a great beauty who has the misfortune to come to the attention of a government official. He knows he couldn’t seduce her on the strength of his own charm --- but what if he got Georg Dreyman out of the way? Problem: there’s no dirt on Dreyman. But in the down-is-up world of dictatorships, that only proves he’s guilty of…. something. And so, in the way that officials use their power for personal gain, the Stasi assigns Capt. Gerd Wiesler to eavesdrop on Dreyman. The result is as exciting as Hitchcock’s “Notorious.” [To buy the DVD from Amazon, click here. To rent or buy the streaming video and watch the film now, click here.] Dreyman is a good man. As is Weisler. And the more Wesler learns about Dreyman, the more he admires him. But that, of course, is not what his assignment is about. We may think of oppressive regimes as soul killers that strip choices from the lives of their people. That is how many Germans explain their conduct during the Nazi decades. But that’s not true. We have choices, all of us, each and everything minute. And that is what makes this thrilling movie so powerful --- we see the effect of his nasty work on Weisler. And how his concerns deepen as Dreyman undertakes some forbidden writing. In “The Firm,” the greatest thrills occurred at a Xerox machine. In “The Lives of Others,” a typewriter is as dangerous as a gun. And now? A thumb-drive. But don’t get caught up in the technology. The most dangerous thing, still and always, is an idea.
- [Weekend Butler: Timothy Snyder on the Hamas attack: Israel's reaction is part of the plan. The answer to my Literary Quiz. The answer to weekend dinners: Beef Stew. A Louise Glück poem. Madonna's secret weapon. A Leonard Cohen memory.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-timothy-snyder-on-the-hamas-attack-israels-reaction-is-part-of-the-plan-the-answer-to-my-literary-quiz-the-answer-to-weekend-dinners-beef-stew-a-louise-gluck-poem-madonnas-se/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: You can become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and to go there, just click here. Again, thank you. A PERSONAL NOTE: I was in California last week, on a book tour for "Black
- [The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate―Discoveries from A Secret World](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-hidden-life-of-trees-what-they-feel-how-they-communicate―discoveries-from-a-secret-world/) - “The Hidden Life of Trees" reminds us that an individual tree is an endangered species, likely to die young. A community of trees is a forest. In a forest, a tree can live for hundreds of years. (A spruce tree in Sweden is 9,500 years old.) In that community, “trees experience pain and have memories,
- [Thich Nhat Hanh: Present Moment Wonderful Moment](https://headbutler.com/reviews/present-moment-wonderful-moment/) - Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment, I know this is a wonderful moment. That's it. That's all Thich Nhat Hanh has to say. Yes, you can take his Essential Writings and Teachings on Love and Fragrant Palm Leaves and all the other books of this Vietnamese Zen master and Buddhist scholar and shove them to the side. Grasp this one idea, and you're well down the path to mindfulness. “We often become so busy that we forget what we are doing or even who we are,” Thich Nhat Hanh explains. “When we settle into the present moment, we can see beauties and wonders right before our eyes....We can be very happy just by being aware of what is in front of us.” First, though, there's a hurdle you have to jump. Why would smart, sophisticated, complicated you surrender to anything as simple as... breathing? Thich Nhat Hanh understands our resistance. That's why, in these 75 pages, he has assembled a collection of gathas --- which he defines as “short verses which we can recite during our daily activities to help us dwell in mindfulness" --- and brief commentaries. [To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] His ambitions don't seem large: “When we focus our minds on a gatha, we return to ourselves and become more aware of each action. When the gatha ends, we continue our activity with heightened awareness." And most of the gathas are on topics that may seem distressingly small: opening the window, looking in the mirror, using the toilet, washing your hands, brushing your teeth, getting dressed. But these are the moments of your day. They add up to a life. Start now, start small. Here's a sample of a gatha and Thich Nhat Hanh's commentary: Washing the dishes is like bathing a baby Buddha. The profane is the sacred. Everyday mind is Buddha's mind. And then: If I am incapable of washing dishes joyfully, if I want to finish them quickly so I can go and have dessert and a cup of tea, I will be equally incapable of doing these things joyfully. With the cup in my hands, I will be thinking about what to do next, and the fragrance and the flavor of the tea, together with the pleasure of drinking it, will be lost. I will always be dragged into the future, never able to live in the present moment. The time of dishwashing is as important as the time of meditation. That is why the everyday mind is called the Buddha's mind. “Be here now” --- it's not exactly a new message. What's different about Thich Nhat Hanh's presentation is that he gives you both the home truth and the technology to get to here. And how staggeringly simple this tech is! No need to meditate, no palms to grease, nothing much to learn. You just watch your breath and express a modicum of gratitude. That's too simple for the likes of me, and so, more often than not, I forget my breath and my gratitude, and the miracle of my life becomes an end-of-the-day bonus, my reward for crossing off a few dozen items on my to-do list. By then, of course, I'm angry and frazzled, unfit for gratitude, craving only a new episode of “Law & Order.” And there goes paradise, lost again. Which is not to say I write these gathas off. I always come back. Not every day. But often. Because they're the start, the key that unlocks the first door. And on the other side? Everything I crave. Thich Nhat Hanh's books are gentle reminders. Note to self: Get over myself. And another: I'm just one breath away. Seems so easy, doesn't it? Then you try it and discover that there's almost nothing harder.
- [Thich Nhat Hanh: Essential Writings](https://headbutler.com/reviews/essential-writings/) - Thich Nhat Hanh doesn't use a telephone, so when I interviewed him for America Online, I had to pick him up and drive him to the office. TNH practices “walking meditation.” That is, he walks very slowly, breathing very consciously, so that every breath and step become prayers. I knew this. And walked very slowly. But not slowly enough. Every ten paces, I had to stop and go back. That is not because I am a speedwalker, but because I'm not truly mindful. My loss. For as TNH points out: The Buddha confirmed that it is possible to live happily in the here and the now --- even if you still have lots of pain and sorrow within yourself. Mindful breathing helps you become fully alive. And when you are really there, you can touch all the wonders of life that are available in this very moment for your enjoyment...for your nourishment...and for your healing. This is a very happy man presenting a joyous view of life. You think Buddhism is nihilistic because it lacks a God-figure and does not offer a roadmap to eternal life? Well, listen to this: This body is not me. I am much more than this body. The space of 50 or 60 or 70 years is not my lifespan. It is not true that I did not exist before I was born. It is not true that I will no longer exist after the disintegration of this body. My ground of being is the reality of no birth, no death. No coming, no going. It is like water is the ground of being of a wave. The wave might be afraid of being or non-being. But if she knows that she is water, she will lose all her fear. Nothing is born...nothing dies. Birth and death cannot really touch us. If you know that, you will be able to enjoy every second of your daily life --- even if you are in terminal illness. I take great comfort in those words. And in the notion that meditation can be as simple as a conscious in-breath, a conscious out-breath. And that the key to everything is to be wide-awake --- to be “mindful.” [To buy the paperback of "Essential Writings" from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] Who is Thich Nhat Hahn? He became a monk in Vietnam at 16. He studied Zen (no, Zen is not just a Japanese strain of Buddhism), but in an “engaged” form, so, in the early 1960s, he founded the School of Youth for Social Services --- a Vietnamese Peace Corps --- to help his war-battered countrymen. A university and a magazine followed. In 1966, TNN’s non-violent appeals caused him to be exiled from Vietnam. He taught at Columbia University, then founded a retreat in rural France called Plum Village. Now he comes to America about once a year and gives lectures in a voice so quiet and peaceful you have to lean in to hear him. His themes resonate deeply for me: Do not be bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones… Avoid being narrow-minded… Truth is found in life and not merely in conceptual knowledge…. Do not force others to adopt your views… Do not avoid contact with suffering…. Do not maintain anger or hatred… Do not live with a vocation that is harmful to humans and nature. Dreamer? TNH is the ultimate realist. “Do not believe that I feel that I follow these precepts perfectly,” he says. “I know I fail in many ways. However, I must work toward a goal. These are my goals. No words can replace practice, only practice can make the words.” It has long been clear to me that this peace starts with the personal --- before I can help others create peace, I must be at peace within myself. Over time, I have found that TNH is the teacher who best helps me do this. Maybe you will find that to be true for you as well. TNH is prolific. Where to start? Easy: a 163-page paperback, “The Essential Writings.”
- [Thich Nhat Hanh: Being Peace](https://headbutler.com/reviews/thich-nhat-hanh-being-peace/) - As I write, our government --- that’s Congress, that’s the President --- is on the verge of deciding how badly to hurt the sick, the poor and the aged. I never thought I’d write a sentence like that. But then, I have never witnessed such institutionalized cruelty before. If current views prevail, we will effectively criminalize misfortune --- get fired, become majorly sick, lose your home and you will fall right through the shredded safety net into poverty, misery and premature death. This, in the richest country in the world. This is not about politics. This is about morality. And it makes me furious. Which accomplishes nothing. I’ve read Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Being Peace” before --- it’s his most popular book and his most accessible --- but I picked it up again when I realized I was redlining rage. A dozen years ago, I interviewed TNH, and just to be in his presence is calming. To read him produces the same effect: Life is filled with suffering, but it is also filled with many wonders, like the blue sky, the sunshine, the eyes of a baby. To suffer is not enough. We must also be in touch with the wonders of life. They are within us all around us, everywhere, any time. If we are not happy, if we are not peaceful, we cannot share peace and happiness with others, even those we love, those who live under the same roof. If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and blossom like a flower, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace. Do we need to make a special effort to enjoy the beauty of the blue sky? Do we have to practice to be able to enjoy it? No, we just enjoy it. I can hear the skeptical and cynical say: “This is Buddhism Lite.” True. But it is also Buddhism Essential. And it’s very useful for those of us who aren’t up to Ultimate Buddhism. (To buy the book from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.) TNH delivers several messages here, and all of them are more practical than spiritual. Meditation, for example, is not a way to bliss out looking at a flower, it’s to become “aware of what is going on.” There is a section on the way monks resolve disputes that, if tried in government and business, might make for fast, fair solutions and reduced rancor. And then there are stories that illustrate his points, like this one, about the danger of what we like to call knowledge: A young widower, who loved his five year old son very much, was away on business when bandits came who burned down the whole village and took his son away. When the man returned, he saw the ruins and panicked. The took the burnt corpse of an infant to be his son and cried uncontrollably. He organised a cremation ceremony, collected the ashes and put them in a beautiful little bag which he always kept with him. Soon afterwards, his real son escaped from the bandits and found his way home. He arrived at his father's new cottage at midnight and knocked at the door. The father, still grieving asked: "Who is it?" The child answered, it is me papa, open the door!" But in his agitated state of mind, convinced his son was dead, the father thought that some young boy was making fun of him. He shouted: "Go away" and continued to cry. After some time, the child left. Father and son never saw each other again. After this story, the Buddha said: "Sometime, somewhere, you take something to be the truth. If you cling to it so much, even when the truth comes in person and knocks on your door, you will not open it." Be flexible. Pay attention. Breathe deep. Feel the day. Do all these things, he says, and you are on your way to “being peace.” Only then, he believes, can you be effective. I’m proud, but not altogether stupid. I’ll give love and compassion another try. How about you?
- [Who By Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai](https://headbutler.com/reviews/who-by-fire-leonard-cohen-in-the-sinai/) - In 1973, Leonard Cohen was 39. Living on Hydra, with Suzanne and their child, he was a cult favorite --- in France, it was said that if a girl had only one album, it was his --- but he was miserable. He felt trapped by his family. He found relief only with women and drugs.
- [The Big Goodbye: 'Chinatown' and the Last Years of Hollywood](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-big-goodbye-chinatown-and-the-last-years-of-hollywood/) - Chinatown, for those who know the film, is a metaphor. For Los Angeles, once a desert, now an irrigated suburbia. For power, which makes gods of the rich. And for a moral fog that overhangs a city --- and a nation --- that advertises its virtues and conceals its devices. It’s a great book about LA in 1937, and a great book about us right now, and it has a lot more to feed your head than most of the punditry now passing for wisdom. In case you don’t totally understand the end of the movie --- “Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown” --- 331 pages will hammer that sorry truth home.
- [Louise Glück: Reading her, you get the feeling that her struggle is your struggle, that she somehow knows how it is for you.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/louise-gluck-it-seemed-to-be-extremely-unlikely-that-i-would-ever-have-this-particular-event-the-nobel-prize-to-deal-with-in-my-life/) - Louise Glück --- it’s pronounced “Glick”--- died. Large obit in The Times. Big Butler review for her last book of poems. She won the Nobel Prize for Poetry. She was “unprepared…. I come from a country that is not thought fondly of now, and I’m white, and we’ve had all the prizes. So it seemed
- [Louise Glück: Winter Recipes from the Collective](https://headbutler.com/reviews/louise-gluck-winter-recipes-from-the-collective-poems/) - The best book of short stories I read this year is Louise Glück’s book of poems, “Winter Recipes from the Collective.” 15 poems. 64 pages. And no “poetic” language --- most of those poems are narratives, characters telling stories in language that stings and bites. It’s perhaps not just anecdotal that her father was one
- [Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C](https://headbutler.com/reviews/lypo-spheric-vitamin-c/) - This is not the Vitamin C that you and I regularly take. That Vitamin C may be a wonderfully powerful nutrient. But most of the Vitamin C in pills or capsules never reaches the bloodstream. Estimates of its absorption rate are about 4 per cent. Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C has a 90% absorption rate.
- [The Head Butler Guide to Great Coffee](https://headbutler.com/reviews/a-guide-to-great-coffee/) - Inferior coffee is totally unnecessary. Great coffee beans are widely available, as are inexpensive, quality coffeemakers. The ritual of making Good Coffee is simple, even satisfying. And the pleasure of drinking? Beyond. There are, I’m sure, many roads to Good Coffee. This one works for me. I commend it to you.
- [Weekend Butler: Dalai Lama literary contest (there's a prize). Jesse and Daisy at the Book Fair. The most beautiful car commercial. Why does Air Force One have one more takeoff than landings? Bill Blass Meat Loaf. Mary Oliver. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-dalai-lama-literary-contest-theres-a-prize-jesse-and-daisy-at-the-book-fair-the-most-beautiful-car-commercial-why-does-air-force-one-have-one-more-takeoff-than-landings-bill-bl/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: You can become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and to go there, just click here. Again, thank you. THIS WEEK IN BUTLER: Egyptian Magic. Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic. Free
- [The Blood of My Mother](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-blood-of-my-mother/) - A family of refugees walks a thousand miles to a new home where they’ve been told they can find land to farm. One of them, Eliza, is a young mixed-race girl --- and the great-great-grandmother of Roccie Hill, author of “The Blood of My Mother.” This story starts in 1827, when the promised land, now
- [Robin Williams, 1983: Even Then, You Could See Life Was a Struggle](https://headbutler.com/reviews/robin-williams-1951-2014/) - Robin Williams dead, a suicide on August 11, 2014, at 63? It couldn't be. Oh, but it could --- what he thought was anxiety and depression was undiagnosed Lewy Body Dementia. When I interviewed him for New York Magazine in 1983, I could see that staying grounded --- staying with us --- was a never-ending
- [Egyptian Magic](https://headbutler.com/reviews/egyptian-magic/) - There's really nothing "magic" about Egyptian Magic. The ingredients are olive oil, bees wax, honey, bee pollen, royal jelly and bee propolis. And --- so it says --- "divine love." With the exception of the last ingredient, you could whip it up yourself. But you couldn't improve on the original.
- [Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic](https://headbutler.com/reviews/rubicon-last-years-roman-republic/) - Almost from the beginning, Rome boasted of its virtues and dismissed its flaws. Because it equated “goodness” with “reputation,” it encouraged men to aspire to heroic status through public service. The prizes were fame and fortune. The cost of failure was equally extreme.
- [A rare PSA (free COVID tests).  Rare Jesse news: a public appearance. And 3 movies for those who skip Sunday sports, don't rake leaves, or want news as fiction](https://headbutler.com/reviews/a-rare-psa-free-covid-tests-rare-jesse-news-a-public-appearance-and-3-movies-for-those-who-skip-sunday-sports-dont-rake-leaves-or-want-news-as-fiction/) - Here are movies for those who don't watch Sunday sports, whose leaves are too rain-soaked to rake, and who prefer their news processed through fiction. All the King's Men This 1946 novel, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Robert Penn Warren, is generally considered the greatest of all American political novels. The 1949 film is
- [Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle](https://headbutler.com/reviews/harold-amp-kumar-go-white-castle/) - Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle directed by Danny Leiner Comedy is serious stuff around here. I know this because the last film comedy I wrote up was Napoleon Dynamite, a film that had Mrs. B and me rolling on the floor. (Indeed, we recently saw a kid wearing a "Vote for Pedro" t-shirt on Fifth Avenue and practically fell down laughing.) A devoted reader rented the film. And shot off an angry e-mail: "How can I ever believe you again? That film was so not funny." Really? So sorry, m'dear. Butler is nothing if not brave, and so I have come today to trumpet the virtues of another dumb comedy --- this time, a film made by the director of "Dude, Where's My Car?" Yes, Butler, defender of all that is good and noble. Butler, who loves crystalline writing and rapier wit and high purpose. That Butler. But as Samuel Johnson --- maker of the dictionary and legendary essayist --- liked to say, "No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures." Butler ain't, anyway. So deal with this: "Harold and Kumar" is a stoner movie. And I love stoner movies. This is, in part, a function of age: I was in college when Cheech and Chong were big. At Harvard, in fact. So it was a special thrill to amble down to the Harvard Square cinema and --- surrounded by brainiacs --- watch two idiots make fools of themselves. These guys were in the "C" pantheon for me: Cheech, Chong and Charlie Chaplin. Harold and Kumar are even better characters than Cheech and Chong. For one obvious reason --- they're smart. As "everybody" knows, Korean-Americans and Indian-Americans are great students and solid workers, and these two are no exception. Kumar has perfect MCAT scores; the only thing keeping him out of med school is his attitude. And no young investment banker can crunch the numbers better than Harold. So they can think fast and talk witty. Nice. "Innovative," even. But, like Cheech and Chong, they're stoners. (As the movie begins, an off-screen voice lets us in on the joke: "Jeez, the movie's starting, and I haven't had a hit.") Soon enough, they're inhaling about a quarter ounce of primo weed. And they're deciding that the night won't be complete without a dozen or so "sliders" --- and you do know why they're called that, right? --- at White Castle. At this point, "Harold and Kumar" becomes a seemingly random "quest movie" --- like "Lord of the Rings," just extremely bent. The fact is, White Castles are few and far between in New Jersey. And odd things happen that take the boys off the right road and headed toward --- oh, Princeton. It is at Princeton that a scene occurs which will pretty much decide the film's merits for you. During a hunt for more dope, Harold and Kumar meet some hot Princeton babes who make it clear they'd like nothing better than to get it on. Just then the campus cop sees the boys completing a dope buy. Harold and Kumar escape by hiding in the center stall of the women's bathroom. The two blondes enter, complaining about the tacos they've eaten that day. They go into stalls on either side of the one in which Harold and Kumar are hiding. And then.... And then Mrs. B and I were gasping for air. Weeping with laughter. Screaming "no,...no!" even as we wiped our eyes to see what greater outrage might come next. And outrage does. "Doogie Howser" appears. A skateboard gang shows up. There's a car crash. And more. To their great credit, White Castle never recedes as a grail. You believe Harold and Kumar are gonna make it, and they do --- and you know, as the climax of a movie, it's really satisfying to watch young men consume a stack of burgers apiece. Kind of makes the night worthwhile. Did this film make a ton of money in theatres? Don't know. Don't care. It will make a fortune as a DVD. Because it's not a one-time renter. This is the movie you break out when old friends drop in. If they're in a hurry, just tee up the Princeton sequence --- your friends will thank you. Or they won't. In which case you can quietly cross them off the Christmas card list and move on to people who like to bust a gut laughing. Which camp are you in? Only one way to find out. Press PLAY. To buy "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" from Amazon.com, click here.
- [All the King's Men](https://headbutler.com/reviews/all-kings-men/) - The 1946 novel, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Robert Penn Warren and is generally considered the greatest of all American political novels. It asks two questions. Can an honest politician stay honest and succeed? Can good come from evil? Put another way, can a politician who wants to help his people do corrupt things to gain and maintain power without corrupting himself and tainting whatever he does manage to accomplish? These are heady questions. They are also, if you have looked at a newspaper recently, timely questions. They were timely questions in l943 as well, when Robert Penn Warren started his 700-page meditation on Huey Long, the governor of Louisiana who inspired both admiration and revulsion. It may well be that they have been timely questions in every age --- that these are the questions that reveal the gap between our public ideals and vile behavior. Lord knows, Willie started out honest. Indeed, it's his political opponents who are crooked; they have run this tiny Southern county for years and see no reason why the arrangement shouldn't be permanent. Willie has other ideas. Better, finer ideas. Useless ideas --- in the election, Willie is soundly defeated. But he isn't wrong. His opponents are crooks. And when a school stairway collapses due to shoddy workmanship and children die, Willie's career is revived.
- [Weekend Butler: News you can use: The government wants to mail you 4 free COVID TESTS (really!) What to give food banks. Help a friend in a slump. The official summer soup, winterized. Bette Davis. Somerset Maugham. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-news-you-can-use-the-government-wants-to-mail-you-4-free-covid-tests-really-what-to-give-food-banks-help-a-friend-in-a-slump-the-official-summer-soup-winterized-bette-davis-an/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: You can become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and to go there, just click here. Again, thank you. -- THIS WEEK IN BUTLER: Three Women/Esther Perel. The Blood of My Mother. Who by
- [“Three Women” presents women with problems they can’t fix; they're victims. Esther Perel offers actual wisdom. It's just possible she can help.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/three-women-presents-women-with-problems-they-cant-fix-theyre-victims-esther-perel-offers-actual-wisdom-its-just-possible-she-can-help/) - The more I think about Three Women, the more puzzled I am by the uncritical enthusiasm for it. The women are clearly victims. One is married to a man who doesn’t like to kiss --- and who is supported by their marriage counselor. One has sex with men her husband selects. The most pathetic is
- [Three Women](https://headbutler.com/reviews/three-women/) - I wrote a book called Married Sex: A Love Story, and I can report that writing emotionally credible sex is like climbing Everest in sneakers. That novel cured me of any desire to write or read books with strong sexual plots, which is why I didn’t leap to read “Three Women.” But a seriously smart
- [The State Within](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-state-within/) - I, who never binge, binged "The State Within." There are, I know, many multi-episode intellectual thrillers with British stars who talk smart. Most have the same theme: what’s really going on, the story they never tell you on the news. They suggest that international corporations just might be criminal enterprises and that governments happily do
- [Weekend Butler: In the real world, real news, mostly ugly. In Butlerworld, better news: Actors. Comics. Writers, Movie, Concert Tickets, Roasted Fish](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-in-the-real-world-real-news-mostly-ugly-in-butlerworld-better-news-actors-comics-writers-movie-tickets-roasted-fish/) - IN THE REAL WORLD: Lucian Truscott IV reports: "Election deniers are in charge of elections in 17 states.” Jann Wenner, one of the founders of the Rock Hall of Fame, is removed from its board after giving an interview to the Times deriding female and Black musicians. Eric Clapton raises $2 million for RFK Jr
- [Window of Exposure](https://headbutler.com/reviews/8705/) - Kate Cardenas is a secret operative for the Defense Intelligence Agency stationed in the south of France. Her latest mission? The covert rescue of Hank Cullen, CEO of Cullen Industries—a key American military vendor kidnapped by terrorists outside of Paris. He also happens to be the half-brother of special ops combatant Major Ben Cullen, who was once Kate's lover. Complicated? Very. And thrilling.
- [Asghar Farhadi: Three Remarkable Films](https://headbutler.com/reviews/asghar-farhadi-a-hero/) - Only a handful of directors have won the Best Foreign Film Oscar more than once: Vittorio de Sica and Federico Fellini (four times each), Ingmar Bergman (three times), and René Clément and Akira Kurosawa (twice each). Asghar Farhadi won Best Foreign Language Film Oscars for “A Separation” (2011) and “The Salesman” (2016). In 2021, he
- [Weekend Butler: How would you teach empathy? The Elon Musk bio...killed. Morning Yoga. Talking Heads. The favorite recipe of the NYTimes.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-how-would-you-teach-empathy-the-elon-musk-bio-killed-morning-yoga-talking-heads-the-favorite-recipe-of-the-nytimes/) - WHAT WOULD YOU DO? I DIDN'T WRITE THIS. I FOUND IT ON FACEBOOK, which, amazingly, sometimes delivers something that isn't advertising or an announcement of a death or a long marriage. (Yes, it's true: Amazon is mostly for Boomers and Seniors.) I lead with it because it’s about keeping silent --- and the cost of
- [John O'Donohue: Anam Cara, A Book of Celtic Wisdom](https://headbutler.com/reviews/anam-cara-book-celtic-wisdom/) - O'Donohue suggests that the way to sharpen your spiritual senses is through "Anam Cara," or soul friendship. That means forging affinities with those who are open to deep soul sharing. It's friendship without boundaries: You need a friend who can handle a friendship that intimate, O'Donohue says. And, of course, you need to have that friendship with yourself.
- [Prine on Prine: Interviews and Encounters with John Prine](https://headbutler.com/reviews/prine-on-prine-interviews-and-encounters-with-john-prine/) - John Prine was hanging out at an open mic in a Chicago club, more or less minding his own business, maybe heckling just a little, when someone turned and asked if he thought he could do better. Prine was then a mailman, but he’d been writing songs since he was a teenager who stood in
- ["There is a rose in Spanish Harlem." Correction: There was a rose....](https://headbutler.com/reviews/there-is-a-rose-in-spanish-harlem-correction-there-was-a-rose/) - Walking the track in East Harlem the other day, I spotted this flower. I thought, “There is a rose in Spanish Harlem,” so I snapped a photo and sent it off, with that caption, to a few friends. This morning, when I walked, the rose was gone. And I thought, “Thanks for the reminder.” I
- [Weekend  Butler: John le Carré, Jimmy Buffett, Claire Keegan, Bob Dylan, Patti Smith,  Amor Towles, Seamus Heaney. Enough?](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-john-le-carre-jimmy-buffett-claire-keegan-bob-dylan-patti-smith-amor-towles-seamus-heaney-enough/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: You can become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and to go there, just click here. Again, thank you. — THIS WEEK IN BUTLER: Lift. I could serve up two documentaries that give context
- [John le Carré: Our Kind of Traitor](https://headbutler.com/reviews/our-kind-traitor/) - The book poses the question: Who's more evil? The money launderer or the British bankers? Not a question you've asked yourself, I'd bet.
- [Lift](https://headbutler.com/reviews/lift-2/) - Hi. So much happened in my week off, all of it good, and intensely emotional. Like this: my daughter made the video for the abridged edition of “Black Beauty.” She’s so gifted we didn’t have to talk about edits — I pointed, she executed, and before we knew it, she was done. Like this: I
- [John Le Carre: The Spy Who Came In from the Cold](https://headbutler.com/reviews/john-le-carre-spy-who-came-cold/) - In 1963, David Cornwell published his third novel. Because he was then an agent for British Intelligence, he used, as his government required, a pseudonym: “John Le Carré.” Graham Greene, who pretty much invented the modern spy novel, called "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" "the best spy story I ever read." He understood immediately that, in a decade when James Bond was all the rage, “Spy” revolutionized the spy novel. The Bond books --- and, even more, the Bond movies --- were thrill rides. The suave hero never mussed his tux. He had no need to; his car had more armament than one of Patton’s brigades. The explosions that went off just a few feet from him always were just background flash. And, of course, he possessed the ultimate weapon --- his deadly quips, capable of killing any villain within earshot. For Le Carré, spycraft was the antithesis of a glamour profession. It was thinking and planning, waiting and watching, and lying --- always lying. It operated by a single moral law: results. You may be assured that good people were betrayed along the way. “Spy” was an instant classic precisely because Le Carré showed readers exactly what Intelligence is about --- sometimes a roll of film, more often a list of names, never an atom bomb in a briefcase. Even better, it revealed how the trick is done. And, most of all, it asked a question: Us and Them --- how different are we, really? [To buy “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold” from Amazon, click here. To buy a cheaper, out-of-print edition of “The Spy Who Came In from the Cold” from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here. To buy the DVD of the film of “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold” -- or watch, it free, as a video stream --- from Amazon, click here.] In London, men schemed long and hard to think up ways to misdirect the Communists. In East Berlin, men much like them plotted to deceive and damage the Brits. Between them was the Wall --- and a brightly lit, barb wired checkpoint. The Wall is where this novel starts. Alec Leamas, a 50-year-old British agent, waits at the West Berlin checkpoint for a German --- a British agent --- who’s in danger of being found out. Tonight, he’s crossing over. You get the scene quickly: coffee, cigarettes, idle chatter. And then you see the man on a bicycle. He stops at the East Berlin gate, shows his papers, pedals on. But then he hears something. He pedals faster. Shots are fired. He sags, falls. Leamas, the ultimate realist, “hoped to God he was dead.” The career of Alec Leamas certainly is; he failed to get his man across. And this leads to an opportunity for his employers. They would love to discredit --- or, better --- destroy --- Mundt, head of German Intelligence in East Berlin. The way they’ll do this? Retire Leamas. Watch him sink into booze and despair. Let him be recruited by the East Germans. And then, in his debriefings, let him present these Communists with evidence that Mundt has been taking money from the Brits --- that Mundt is a British agent. This is mental chess. It calls for 24/7 acting skills. And the bar is set high. Leamas, flawlessly failing. Leamas, jailed. Leamas, released and bitter. Lemeas, expertly recruited by the Germans. Leamas, credibly sneering at his new employers. But that’s only technique. Idealism? Patriotism? Le Carré is the first modern spy novelist because he has a hard time telling the difference between the good guys --- that’s us --- and the Commies. Let me interrupt to tell you something important about the author. His mother left home when he was 5 years old; he didn’t see her again until he was 21. His father was “a confidence trickster and a jailbird.” Le Carré has said: ''I was a spy before they ever recruited me. If you are brought up to believe that your home is an extremely dangerous place….” In his writing, he says, 'I always try to identify with one character in a book and appoint him my secret sharer.'' Here, that character is Alec Leamas. But here, there is also a father: Control, the head of MI5. I’m not going to spoil the book for you, but I do ask you to read with one thought in the back of your head: For this writer, what does a father do? Levels upon levels, worlds within worlds --- the experience of reading this novel is anything but relaxing. But if you’re read any of the master’s novels, you know that they deliver a kind of pleasure all their own.
- [The Woman Who Beat The Klan](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-woman-who-beat-the-klan/) - You may not have seen this news: Recently President Biden signed a proclamation establishing the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument in Mississippi and Illinois to “advance civil rights and tell a more complete American story.” I have a connection to that history. In 1955, fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was tortured and lynched in Mississippi.
- [Lift](https://headbutler.com/reviews/lift/) - I was on the bus, on the way to collect our daughter at her best friend’s apartment, so of course I was reading. The book was Lift, Kelly Corrigan’s 84-page snip of a book. My ambition was to finish it in less than 20 minutes --- the time it takes a slow bus, in late afternoon traffic, to get across town. Yes, I read fast and I am often in a hurry to boot, but I was working toward a personal best here for another reason: I had figured the book out. The arc of it was simple. Corrigan’s love letter to her two young daughters becomes a meditation on Rilke’s line, “The knowledge of impermanence that haunts our days is their very fragrance.” That’s an interesting idea. Especially to parents --- we’ve all had it. The ticking clock. How the days are long, but the years are short. How our kids can’t know what they mean to us until they have kids who mean everything to them. That commonality --- feelings that apply to soccer moms and cynical moms alike --- is the reason that “Lift” will be a Mother’s Day gift of choice deep into the next millennium. For Kelly Corrigan is the poet laureate of the ordinary. There’s no cliche she doesn’t kiss on the mouth. If she has a thought that isn’t universal, she suppresses it. No wonder she is staggeringly popular with middle-aged women --- she is her readers. Proof: Her video about women who transcend the dailiness of life, the cruelties of age and the shock of death has been viewed 4,655,000 times since December, 2008. Proof: The Middle Place – her first book, which is about her marriage and her cancer and her dad’s cancer, her kids and her childhood --- is a staple of reading groups. Proof: Her video for “Lift” shows her --- a pleasant person with sensible glasses, a pony tail and a baseball cap she wears in the house --- playing piano (“Heart and Soul”) with her kids, then reading to them from her book. In my version of this video, our kid would flee the camera; these kids soldier on. Which is charming --- or is it exploitative? My resistance started to crumble when Corrigan began to write about her Stage 3 breast cancer, which kills 4 of every 10 women who get it. (She seems to have beaten it, but…) And then there’s the infant with meningitis (“It’s one thing to know your child is in pain, it’s another to attend it”), and a teenaged boy killed in a car crash, and an aunt who is a great woman and wants kids but has no man, and then the pictures at the end, and .. . And yeah, there’s lots about kids having trouble reading “Harry Potter” and feeling bad about small slights and the skinned knees of daily life, but this big stuff --- it accumulates, and then it knocks you down. Yes, I lost it. Because Kelly Corrigan is very good at what she does. It may be sincerity. It is certainly manipulation. Underneath it all may be a mind so calculating --- a writer’s mind --- that she knows exactly where and how to place her detonators. Lord knows there are many. “I am your mother, the first mile of your road,” she writes. And, about her kids, “This was my dream. You were my dream.” Sitting on that bus, I fought back the sobs, but the tears streamed down, for I knew exactly what she meant --- my wife and I had married late and started the fertility challenge even later and it’s pretty much a miracle that we have our kid. So those words that Kelly Corrigan writes? They’re mine. And if you are a parent, yours too, I’d bet. If ever a book ought to come attached to a box of Kleenex, this is it. To buy “Lift” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy the Kindle edition of “Lift” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy the Audio CD of “Lift” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “The Middle Place” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy the Kindle edition of “The Middle Place” from Amazon.com, click here. To visit Kelly Corrigan’s web site, click here.
- [Late Summer 2023: #2](https://headbutler.com/reviews/late-summer-2023-2/) - Another batch of suggestions to amuse and comfort you while I take a few days away from Butler. This one feels lighter. Why? La Rochefoucauld: “No one can look long at the sun or death." And no one can incessantly worry about this and that and the other thing. Enjoy these. But first… health. Because
- [Gilded Mountain](https://headbutler.com/reviews/gilded-mountain/) - “Gilded Mountain” is told in the first person, and Sylvie Pelletier is a heroine and a half. It takes her 464 pages to tell her story because the frame of this story is vast --- it's set in the mountains of Colorado, where Sylvie’s father excavates marble for the impressive buildings of big, prosperous cities.
- [Margaret Renkl: Life is hard. The world is beautiful. And most people are good.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/margaret-renkl-life-is-hard-the-world-is-beautiful-and-most-people-are-good/) - Our 21-year-old daughter doesn’t read the news, but she knows who the good people are and what the bad people want to do to the good people, and she’s seen some cruelty and has heard the grownups talk about Next Steps if we suddenly wake up in a country that wants to hurt everyone who
- [Late Summer 2023: The Best Films](https://headbutler.com/reviews/late-summer-2023-the-best-films/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: You can become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and to go there, just click here. Again, thank you. Head Butler usually takes two holiday weeks a year, one in August, one at Christmas.
- [Weekend Butler: "Oppenheimer" (No thanks), "Killers of the Flower Moon" (And the Oscar goes to...?). Life imitates LeCarre. Married people are 545% happier! Jelly Roll needs a favor! Handle hard better! And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-oppenheimer-no-thanks-killers-of-the-flower-moon-and-the-oscar-goes-to-life-imitates-lecarre-married-people-are-545-happier-jelly-roll-needs-a-favor-handle-hard-be/) - WHY I SKIPPED “OPPENHEIMER.” WHY “KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON” IS A MUST-SEE MOVIE FOR ME “Oppenheimer” has audiences sitting in theaters for 3 hours. “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which opens on October 6, is longer --- 3 hours and 26 minutes. I didn’t see “Oppenheimer,” but when “Killers of the Flower Moon” is
- [Tell No One](https://headbutler.com/reviews/tell-no-one/) - Roger Ebert: "Here is how a thriller should be made." Stephen Holden, The New York Times: "I watched it twice. It was even better the second time. You probably don’t know of this film, though it made many “Top 10” lists. It headed mine for 2008 because it was smart and subtle and…. but why take my overheated word? Let Guest Butler Amanda Vaill, a cooler head, share her thoughts. Guillaume Canet's "Tell No One," a French adaptation of a Harlan Coben novel, won César Awards for its director and its leading actor, François Cluzet. Its plot device seems simple enough: A man whose wife was murdered died eight years previously suddenly starts receiving e-mail messages containing real-time videos of her that appear to have been shot days before. All the messages are marked, "Tell no one." Are they real? Is she alive? These questions acquire additional piquancy when new evidence --- two dead bodies and a hunting rifle that used to belong to the husband's father --- is literally dug up by laborers laying pipe near the murder scene. The police reopen the murder investigation, focusing their suspicions on the husband, while a group of mysterious outside operatives are also tracking him -- and liquidating witnesses who might shed light on the mystery -- while he's trying to find out whether his wife might still be alive. It's a situation straight out of Hitchcock, and handled with Hitchcockian skill. Maybe better, for the husband's desperation -- a compound of grief, love, and improbable hope -- is too hot and naked an emotion for the man who created “Vertigo” and “North By Northwest.” [
- [Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy: A Lost Generation Love Story](https://headbutler.com/reviews/everybody-was-so-young/) - It's easy to read a book like this for the anecdotes about the mighty. But Fitzgerald comes across here as an eternal college boy and a bit of a fool, Hemingway as cold and manipulative. In contrast, the Murphys seem like explorers of the rarest kind --- blessed with money, they set out to find beauty and harmony. That they also found tragedy only makes their story more fascinating.
- [Jesse Malin](https://headbutler.com/reviews/jesse-malin/) - Jesse Malin is the kid with the butterfly net, running down Bleecker Street, snapping up cabs and standpipes and butts of cigarettes. He’s the guy with the shoe box under his bed that's filled with skipping stones from sunny days and bottle caps from bad breakups. He’s the guy who can pick out each individual coin in a Central Park fountain and tell you the wish of every last person who let it fly from her hand. So his music would have you believe. Jesse Malin gets people. He can sift through all the strands of their stories and pluck from them just one thread that will tell their tale in its entirety. Then, stringing it along the neck of his guitar, he’ll tune it, strum it and share it with us all. That’s what makes Malin great. Not billboard advertisements, his name in lights on the marquee, the late night appearances, the radio play --- he's got none of that, which is why you probably haven’t heard of him. But consider this: At the "Light of Day" benefit show last fall, Malin ran into a man to whom he had often been compared, Bruce Springsteen. Malin passed along a copy of his CD. A week later the phone rang. It was Springsteen. He wanted Malin to join him for a Christmas benefit concert in Asbury Park.
- [Frank Costello: A Novel](https://headbutler.com/reviews/frank-costello-a-novel/) - “A lot of people had to die for me to be me.” A chilling, memorable line. And historically accurate. That’s the first achievement of “Frank Costello,” Ronald K. Fried’s novel about “The Prime Minister of the Underworld.” It’s exhaustively researched, and if it reads like non-fiction, it's because much of it is. The reason: Fried
- [A Most Beautiful Thing](https://headbutler.com/reviews/a-most-beautiful-thing/) - "A Most Beautiful Thing" is based on a book by Arshay Cooper. In it, Cooper — who grew up in a violent and drug-and gang-dominated neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago — described the formation of what appears to be the first all-Black high school rowing team, including members of rival gangs who gathered
- [Allbirds: first, you walk. Then you live long and healthy.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/allbirds-the-most-comfortable-shoes-ever-made-really/) - Allbirds? Never heard of them. No one I knew wore them. I bought a pair. They really are "the most comfortable shoes ever made."
- [Weekend Butler: Summer in the City. Aretha Franklin. Robbie Robertson. Bradley Cooper's controversial nose. A $180 book. A Sharon Olds poem. A crisp salad.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-summer-in-the-city-aretha-franklin-robbie-robertson-bradley-coopers-controversial-nose-a-180-book-a-sharon-olds-poem-a-crisp-salad/) - SUMMER IN THE CITY, AND GLAD FOR IT You know Rao’s for its excellent sauce. I know it because I pass the restaurant every morning on my way to the rubberized running track in the park. At 7:30 AM, when I walk, dog-owners visit the restaurant and a very nice assistant brings them kibbles. It’s
- [Joan Schenkar (1942 - 2021): a writer talented enough to write "The Talented Miss Highsmith"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/talented-miss-highsmith-secret-life-and-serious-art-patricia-highsmith/) - She kept 300 snails as pets. She drank a quart of gin a day. She considered robbery worse than murder. She left the United States to live in Europe because of what she called “the Negro problem” --- by which she did not mean discrimination against Negroes, but the civil rights movement that had Negroes demanding their rights. A houseguest once left her window open; she threw a dead rat inside. She took tips left on restaurant tables. She’d drive 60 miles to get a cheaper spaghetti dinner. She called Hitler’s extermination policy a “semicaust,” because only half the world’s Jews died. She thought that “life didn’t make sense without a crime in it.” Her idea of happiness was to write a murder. At 1:30 in the morning, standing in a lover’s apartment, she didn’t hesitate to make a booty call to another woman. “I am a man and I love women,” she wrote. She liked young blonds, very made up. A mental health professional, observing her for only a few minutes, pegged her as a psychopath. Another writer described her as “a black cloud.” Her own assessment: “If I were to relax and become human, I could not bear my life.” No wonder, then, that Joan Schenkar begins "The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith" like this: She wasn’t nice. She was rarely polite. And no one who knew her well would have called her a generous woman. Why would you even think of reading more than 600 pages about such a monster? Well, because Highsmith wrote a half dozen books --- among them Strangers on a Train, The Talented Mr. Ripley and a wonderfully sexy, though never graphic, lesbian novel called The Price of Salt --- that will be read as long as readers like fiction that equally thrills and chills. Or you could just be a lover of biographies and sense that, in Highsmith, you will encounter a train wreck of a person like no one you’ve ever encountered --- and, as if you were a pedestrian looking up at a would-be jumper on a terrace, you won’t be able to tear your eyes away. Or, simply, you want to read a book that is original in form, authoritative in its evidence, and dazzling in its writing. And because I am now leaving description for praise, I should disclose: Joan Schenkar has been a close friend for 35 years. Her value to me is not that she is steady and loyal and easy to be with; it is exactly the opposite. Ms. Schenkar is steely and demanding; she sets the bar high and brooks no fools. I caffeinate before I see her, spellcheck before I hit SEND. In return I get tough-love criticism, dark humor, ideas I find nowhere else. She strikes me as the ideal biographer for Highsmith: brave, original and scary smart --- like Highsmith, but without the defects. [To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] But I’m almost falling into a trap. Unless we are very young or lifelong fools, we do not look to artists --- or their biographers --- for our role models. Their work is enough. And Highsmith’s work is a triumph of will and talent over circumstance and pathology --- or perhaps an astute mixture of all of that. I’m going to skip over Highsmith’s twisted relationship with her mother, her antipathy for her father and her early efforts to get somewhere as a writer to the core of her art and personality --- her obsession with love as an urgent, alpha emotion destined to end badly. Like murder. Consider her first novel, “Strangers on a Train”, which quickly became one of Alfred Hitchcock’s better movies. You know the set-up: If each man commits a murder for the other, there will be no incriminating clues --- the anonymity will yield two perfect crimes. This is, says Schenkar, “the quintessential Highsmith situation: two men bound together psychologically by the stalker-like fixation of one upon the other, a fixation that always involved a disturbing, implicitly homoerotic fantasy.” In Highsmith, there’s no real artistic development; this “double” plot is one she uses again and again. And it works just about every time, because who else writes --- approvingly --- of “the unequivocal triumph of evil over good”? Her villains aren’t exactly villains to her. They’re escape artists. That is, everything she wasn’t. Oh, but she tried. Through obsessive sex --- she once seemed to have five lovers on the hook. Through alcohol. Through a push-pull relationship with her mother. And, most of all, through her writing, her one reliable way of feeling like herself. Highsmith filled 38 notebooks and 18 diaries, 8,000 unpublished pages. With few exceptions --- she pretended she didn’t spend seven years writing stories for comic books --- these are pivotal. As Schenkar notes, “She ratted herself out every chance she got.” Schenkar should know. She read every notebook and diary and unearthed a staggering number of Highsmith’s lovers. (You’re thinking: It takes an obsessive to write a biography of an obsessive. Almost. I'd say: It takes a biographer who has equal parts empathy, imagination and artistry.) It would be perverse, after all that research, to reduce Highsmith to a conventional biography. So Schenkar abandons chronology. Instead, she backtracks, skips ahead, loops around to trace themes and obsessions in Highsmith’s life and work. The result is very much like an amusement park ride, with high-speed turns and dizzying descents. And that would not be perverse but correct: A writer like no other gets a biography like no other.
- [Epictetus](https://headbutler.com/reviews/epictetus/) - I took a nap after lunch. My sleep was deep, my awakening sudden --- I looked around as if I were seeing the bedroom for the first time on a fresh day, as if it were morning. The bed was made. Where was my wife? I ran to our daughter's room. Another bed made, another loved one missing. I looked at the clock. 7:15. First thing in the morning. I raced around the house, grabbed a cell phone and dialed my wife. And only then realized it was two in the afternoon. Wife at work, kid at school, me home. The world as it should be. Only it wasn't. I had seen over the edge, into unspeakable loss. I shook. And spent the rest of the day, in essence, recovering. So why have I now come to praise Epictetus, who said: Remember, when you embrace your child, your husband, your wife, you are embracing a mortal. Thus, if one of them should die, you could bear it with tranquility. Right. Epictetus was a Stoic. The famous one is Marcus Aurelius. Having read his Meditations, or selections from it, you know the drill: Life is short, death obliterates us, it is folly to get caught in the snare of desire. What they forget to teach you in school is that Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD) was a student of the teachings of Epictetus (55-135 AD). One man was an emperor, the other a former slave who lived simply and wrote not a word. But of the Stoics, Epictetus seems to me to be the one to read. The value of Epictetus is that he is, literally, a practical philosopher --- if you're looking for deep thoughts, big ideas or anything that leads to the linguistic and mathematical analysis we now call philosophy, he's everything you don't want. His concerns are the here and now: reality, life, death. And he's not about to quibble over their ambiguities. As Epictetus has it, your first task is to look hard at reality and see it for what it is. Then your decisions start: What can you control? What's out of your control? And if you care about the stuff that's out of your control, can you really complain when life deals you dirt? And why oh why are you even bothering to look at your neighbor to see how he/she is doing? Readers of Buddhism will find this point-of-view very familiar. The difference: In an interesting translation --- the original lectures were written in Koine, Greek, the language of the New Testament --- Epictetus is so blunt that you can't dance around his meaning. Like this: -- Grow up! Who cares what others think about you? -- You have been given your own work to do. Get to it right now, do your best at it, and don't be concerned with who is watching you. -- Nothing can truly be taken from us. There is nothing to lose. Inner peace begins when we stop saying of things, “I have lost it” and instead say, “It has been returned from where it came from.” -- Except for extreme physical abuse, other people cannot hurt you unless you allow them to. -- The universe we inhabit is the best possible universe. Fix your resolve on expecting justice and order, and they will increasingly reveal themselves in a divine intelligence whose intentions direct the universe. In summary: Drink the wine, but not too much. Enjoy the world, only in perspective. And, above all, guard your mind and use it well. Is this a useful way to think? I urge you to spend $9.95 on A Manual for Living, a version of Epictetus that's just 88 pages. About 4.5 inches square. Two ounces. Smaller than an iPod. But, in my view, more packed with protein than a Power Bar. [To buy the paperback of “A Manual for Living” from Amazon, click here.] Or, in the spirit of the cost-conscious Epictetus, spend just $5 to read Courage Under Fire: Testing Epictetus's Doctrines in a Laboratory of Human Behavior, a 21-page pamphlet by Admiral James Stockdale. Trivial Pursuit players will recall that he was Ross Perot's choice for Vice President. But long before, he was an Air Group Commander who, on September 9, 1965, was shot down over North Vietnam. [To buy the paperback of “Courage Under Fire” from Amazon, click here. To buy the Kindle Edition of "Courage Under Fire," click here.] Stockdale's parachute saved his life, but it also led him to the center of a small town, where a “thundering herd” of young men waited. They beat him and broke his leg, and then he was taken away to be tortured --- and as the senior naval prisoner of war in the Hanoi Hilton, torture was his frequent companion for eight years. Eight years. His first thought as he bailed out of his jet: “I'm leaving the world of technology and entering the world of Epictetus.” His book --- his eye-bopping, mindblowing book --- is proof how well Epictetus served him. If you're like me, you have been obsessing of late about how little of your life you actually control. Confucius said, “The way out is through the door.” Epictetus might just be the doorman. To buy the "Enchiridion" (the collected lectures) from Amazon, click here. To buy the “Meditations” of Marcus Aurelius from Amazon, click here.
- [Jim White](https://headbutler.com/reviews/jim-white/) - If you'll step into the Jim White cult, I think I can reliably assure you --- you'll be in good company, but no one you know will be there.
- [Weekend Butler: The month the world...stopped. Do you walk 6,000 steps a day more than you need to? The best documentary. The best tweet. The best NYC summer song. The most chill desert.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-the-month-the-world-stopped-do-you-walk-6000-steps-a-day-more-than-you-need-to-the-best-documentary-the-best-tweet-the-best-nyc-summer-song-the-most-chill-desert/) - AUGUST: THE MONTH THE WORLD.... STOPS Henry Miller, on his ideal day: "To be silent the whole day, see no newspaper, hear no radio, listen to no gossip, be thoroughly and completely lazy, thoroughly and completely indifferent to the fate of the world is the finest medicine a man can give himself." Sounds great... if
- [Herbie Mann](https://headbutler.com/reviews/village-gate/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: You can become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and to go there, just click here. Again, thank you. LAST WEEK IN BUTLER: Weekend Butler. Robin Williams. Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective. Brita
- [The Chocolate War](https://headbutler.com/reviews/chocolate-war/) - What do we do about banned books? Why, we read them right away, don't we? That is, if we are Good Citizens and Concerned Readers. Well, and also if we're looking for some really good smut. Because of its “language and sexual references”, protectors of the young have been trying to ban Robert Cormier's teen novel since it was published in 1974. It's now considered a taut, brilliantly written classic --- a book that teenagers should read, a book that grownups can read. I expected, therefore, to find a story that has mellowed over time, characters that seem dated, and “hot stuff” that wouldn't shock a Bratz doll. But The Chocolate War is a smoker. The plot is simple: At Trinity High, a Catholic school for boys, there's an annual sale of chocolates. You know the drill: kids “volunteer” to sell, parents are forced to buy. This year Brother Leon decides that the students will sell twice as many boxes --- 50 boxes each. Brother Leon has allies among the students: The Vigils. This secret society is Skull & Bones at the adolescent level --- unseen but powerful, sick to its core, so male-focused you have to wonder if these teenaged boys are covering for some doubts.
- [Somerset Maugham: The Razor’s Edge](https://headbutler.com/reviews/somerset-maugham-the-razors-edge/) - A book about spirituality vs. materialism can be a page-turner... if the writer is Somerset Maugham. From the first sentence (“I have never begun a novel with more misgiving”), you settle in, because Maugham is going to do something not enough writers care about: tell you a story.
- [Somerset Maugham: Of Human Bondage](https://headbutler.com/reviews/somerset-maugham-human-bondage/) - "Of Human Bondage" is, as Maugham was the first to admit, autobiographical fiction. The novel loosely follows the story of his youth: the loss of his beloved mother, unhappy years at his uncle’s vicarage, boarding school, a sojourn in Germany instead of a university in England, a season as an artiste in Paris, abortive stabs at romance, total abasement with a vulgar woman who loathes and uses him, and, and, and…. Every twist and turn of that story is the attempt of a tortured, grieving soul to be free.
- [Brita XL Water Dispenser and Filter](https://headbutler.com/reviews/water-filters/) - So each of us drinks, on average, 167 bottles of water a year. Those bottles take 1,000 years to degrade. 80% of the bottles we discard --- even the 20% of bottles dropped in recycling bins --- end up as litter. Bottled water burns oil; it takes 1.5 million barrels to manufacture a year's supply of bottles for American consumers. And, irony of ironies, bottled water wastes water: It takes 3 liters of water to package a liter of bottled water. Carbon footprint? You don't want to know. Fiji Water, anyone? What is Right Conduct? Filter your water and, if you're going out, take it with you.
- [Weekend Butler: "Who may I say is calling?" Phenomenal Annie Lennox. This Beauty Field Trip is a streaming series. Grated tomato pasta. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-who-may-i-say-is-calling-phenomenal-annie-lennox-this-beauty-field-trip-is-a-streaming-series-grated-tomato-pasta-and-more/) - “WHO SHALL I SAY IS CALLING? If the indictment of former President Trump is the biggest American story of the century so far, why is Leonard Cohen’s gravestone the image on this edition of Butler? One obvious reason: a zillion other sites are using the image of the New York Times headline. Why be a
- [Ruth Draper](https://headbutler.com/reviews/draper/) - At the start of her career, Ruth Draper asked Henry James, a family friend, for advice about her future, whether she ought to pursue a career as a conventional actress or playwright. His advice: "My dear child, you have woven your own little Persian carpet. Stand on it!" She did, and literally contained multitudes. As
- [Mitch Hedberg](https://headbutler.com/reviews/mitch-all-together/) - ''I used to do drugs,'' Mitch Hedberg liked to say. ''I still do drugs. But I used to, too.'' On March 29, 2005, that line stopped being funny --- Mitch Hedberg was found dead in a New Jersey motel room. He was 37 years old. Mitch would be the first to note the incongruity between his status as a rising comedy star and his career-and-life-ender of a presumably accidental overdose. The distance between appearance and reality, between language and truth --- that space was his playground. He was comedian-as-philosopher, comic-as-linguist. Give Mitch an everyday occurrence, and he'd hold it up to the light and deconstruct it. His humor was quiet, non-physical, smart --- there wasn't a fart joke or a sex reference in his repertoire. His art started with his self-presentation. He was tall and gangly and not altogether comfortable onstage, and he emphasized his discomfort. His hair was long and parted in the middle, so it flopped over his face when he looked down at the floor, which he did a lot. The lenses of his glasses were tinted light blue, the better to hide behind. He sometimes wore a Backstage Pass when he performed, “so when I leave the stage, I won't have problems.” Some comedians tell stories, others create characters. Mitch worked in a more demanding tradition --- the one-liner. And not one-liners that needed a set-up. The pure one-liner, the Zen one-liner, the one-liner that just sits there, surrounded by silence until you add your contribution, which is laughter. If you happen to admire the comedy of Steven Wright, you are Mitch's ideal audience. Mitch had a distinctive way of speaking that made him funnier than he can ever be on the page. His sentences were adventures; he would emphasize seemingly random words, which made him sound as if English were his second language. His accent was part Southern, part hipster, a neat trick for a kid from St. Paul. Mitch never needed more than an introduction. After that, he could win his own game. Listen: “An escalator can never break --- it can only become stairs.” “I don't have a girlfriend. I just know a girl who would be really mad if she heard me say that.” “When someone hands you a flyer, it's like he's saying, 'Here, you throw this away.'” “I order a club sandwich all the time, but I'm not even a member.” “When I was a kid, I lay in my twin bed, wondering where my brother was.” “Do you think that when a guy got the idea for a bong that a black light popped on?” “Every book is a children's book if the kid can read.” “I have no problem not listening to The Temptations.” “I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just gonna ask where they're going and hook up with them later.” All of these are from “Mitch All Together,” which is like his greatest hits. It contains a DVD of his live performance and a faster-paced, looser CD of his best bits. Neither tops 40 minutes. Not a lot of stuff for a comedian who had been at it for more than a decade. But...funny? To hear Mitch is to love him. And to love Mitch is to know you'll be returning later with friends in tow. He was, by his wife's account, as amusing offstage as on: “I remember when we'd be at a post office in some town, just mailing shit. I'd be getting stamps or writing an envelope, and I'd hear Mitch laughing and acting suspicious. When we left, he'd tell me about how he'd seen some woman sending some mail and he'd copied down her address. He bought a birthday card and wrote something like “Amy, thanks for all your hard work!! See you on the 11th!” and then put a $100 bill in it and mailed it…He loved the idea of someone being totally confused when they opened it. I remember him doing this all the time…” Another of Mitch's ideas: sending cash to Tori Spelling. Oh, dear. There I go, trafficking in Mitch's beyond-laconic style. As will you: Mitch Hedberg gets under your skin and into your speech pattern and the way you think and see. In this way, he lives on. Immortal. And yet, sadly, dead. The incongruity would make Mitch smile. To buy “Mitch All Together” from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Weekend Butler: Beauty Field Trips (with a little help from my friends). A cool movie (with Bill Nighy). 5-minute Zucchini. A poem you'll print out.. And more...](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-beauty-field-trips-with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-a-cool-movie-with-bill-nighy-5-minute-zucchini-a-poem-youll-print-out-and-more/) - INSTANT CURE FOR BAD NEWS? BEAUTY. The first item on my afternoon call to my best friend was commentary on the death of Sinéad O’Connor, sharing something I read: “This was the first time I heard a DJ cry.” I moved on to the biggest continuing bummer: the weather. We’re talking heat that will feel
- [The Origin of Fire: Music and Visions of Hildegard von Bingen](https://headbutler.com/reviews/origin-fire-music-and-visions-hildegard-von-bingen/) - As the tenth child, Hildegard van Bingen was --- as was then common --- given to the church on her 8th birthday. Her education was rudimentary. Her visions weren't; as a sufferer from migraine headaches, she saw a glow and colors around people. Naturally, she regarded this play of lights as a spiritual communication from God. And she turned her visions into music.
- [Beautiful Ruins](https://headbutler.com/reviews/beautiful-ruins/) - What’s it about? Italy in the 1960s, Hollywood in the 1960s, Hollywood now, World War II, the set of “Cleopatra,” the Donner party, Seattle, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Idaho --- but this long list is scaring you, yes? If the locations aren’t daunting, the massive cast might make you nervous. The proprietor of “The Hotel Adequate View,” a six-room, three-table nothing of a resort in an Italian coastal town only accessible by boat. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. A Hollywood publicist turned producer. A novelist who can’t get beyond the first chapter. An unproduced screenwriter. A singer-comic. An assistant film executive whose boyfriend can be found at strip clubs. And --- I almost forgot --- the woman who seems to be at the center of all this, a young American actress named Dee Moray, who was briefly in "Cleopatra" and has come to this nowhere hotel because she's been told she's dying of cancer.
- [Weekend Butler: Why do friends and lovers matter so much now? Best weekend book.  Cruelty in Texas. "Negotiating" with striking writers. Closeness without sex? Glenn Gould and Seamus Heaney videos. A great combination: Scampi-and-corn.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-why-relationships-matter-so-much-now-best-weekend-book-cruelty-in-texas-negotiating-with-striking-writers-closeness-without-sex-glenn-gould-and-seamus-heaney-videos-a-great/) - THE OLDER YOU GET, THE MORE PEOPLE MATTER In the last month, I have signed off on my novel about the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. My writing partner’s agent blessed the 20th draft of our book proposal and pitched it to editors. I revised my theatre/streaming adaptation of Bringing Home the Birkin just in
- [Arlington Road](https://headbutler.com/reviews/arlington-road/) - Noon. A suburb of Washington, DC, a street dotted with houses just a shade too small to be McMansions. No one is around. Wait --- here comes someone. A boy. White, of course. About 9 years old. Dressed in jeans and high-top sneakers. Walking unsteadily in the middle of the street. Lurching, really. And now
- [Let’s Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship](https://headbutler.com/reviews/lets-take-long-way-home-memoir-friendship/) - Caroline Knapp was the author of Drinking: A Love Story. I wrote about it because some of you surely have issues with alcohol, and I thought it might be of use. And because it’s acutely observed and beautifully written. And because there’s a painful irony here: Caroline got sober, only to die in June of 2002,
- [The solution to Hollywood's troubles: low-budget, high-quality movies about real people, like Debra Granik's "Winter's Bone" and "Leave No Trace"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-solution-to-hollywoods-troubles-low-budget-high-quality-movies-about-real-people-like-debra-graniks-winters-bone-and-leave-no-trace/) - I’ve known Joan Juliet Buck for more years than many of you have been alive. I’m an admirer of her memoir, The Price of Illusion. The other day I read her oh-so-relevant Facebook post about the strikes in Hollywood. She saw very clearly that large numbers of people who once had jobs and creative roles
- [My Neighbor Totoro](https://headbutler.com/reviews/my-neighbor-totoro/) - Every afternoon, when I meet our eight-and-almost-one-half year-old at the camp bus, I ask about her day. Perfunctory answers escape her ecosystem. But not much more. This is, after all, a girl who tells us her favorite sport is “getting into bed.” So it was quite the surprise, last week, to see our daughter rush off the camp bus, mouth engaged, face flushed. They’d had a film at camp. The best she’d ever seen. Couldn’t wait to see it again. It was “My Neighbor Totoro,” a 1988 animated feature written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. [To buy the DVD from Amazon, click here.] Know him? He may be best known for “Princess Mononoke,” the 1997 film that was the first animated feature to win Japan’s Best Picture of the Year. [To buy the DVD from Amazon, click here.] He then made “Spirited Away,” which was even more successful. [To buy the DVD from Amazon, click here.] And then, last year, he made Ponyo. [To buy the DVD from Amazon, click here.] Here’s the crazy thing. Our daughter has seen all of these movies. They leave her cold. Only “My Neighbor Totoro” gripped her and wouldn’t let go. I’ve done some reading. And I’ve watched “My Neighbor Totoro” again with the kid. I might come to disagree with her on Miyazaki’s other films --- I’ve seen none of them --- but she is absolutely correct in her five-star assessment of “Totoro.” No matter how old you are, no matter how sophisticated you may think you are, it is a fantastic film experience, an 86-minute swath of gorgeousness with a message as beautiful as its images. And the trick of it is…..there’s no trick. This is a movie rooted in the very ordinary. When the film begins, it’s 1958. Satsuki and Mei Kusakabe, eight and four years old, are driving with their father to their new home in the country. Dad’s a professor in the city, but their mother has tuberculosis and is recovering in a rural hospital, and they want to be near her. In a Disney movie, the first few scenes of the film would dazzle. Not here. The girls help their dad move in. They explore their new house and the fields and forest around it. They are, in a word, grounded. This grounding is deceptive. Magic is afoot --- spirits only the young can see. Some are dust sprites, little balls of soot that dart around the rooms. (When they leave the house, racing toward the clouds on a moonlit night, your jaw might drop at the beauty.) And then there is Totoro, a large troll who lives in a giant tree. He bellows. He grins. But for the girls, he’s really a big, soft climbing wall. Stop the action for a moment, and look at what we have. Two leading characters, both girls. A loving father who, despite his work at a university, accepts the existence of spirits. A strange house that turns out to be warm and welcoming. A monster who isn’t dangerous. In short, a world of harmony and understanding. The biggest problem here: When will Mom be healthy enough to come home for the weekend? The sense of relief generated by all this well-being isn’t boring. It’s liberating. It allows us to explore with the girls, to laugh at the socially inept boy who lives nearby, and to wallow in the girls’ adventures with the totoro. The absence of conflict allows us to do something else: respond to the film’s extravagant beauty. Miyazaki’s a wonderful painter; if there was ever a film that makes you want to move to the country, this is it. The sky, the clouds, the forest --- this animation delivers more visual interest per frame than real-world photography. The totoro’s genial awkwardness makes him fun to watch. And there’s a Cat Bus that’s just irresistible. I know; this is so over the top. Judge for yourself. Watch this…. Late in the film, something may be going seriously wrong. The girls respond. So does dad. So do the totoro and the Cat Bus and the neighbors. What a smart little critic we have at home. What a wonderful world she introduced us to.
- [Better Writing](https://headbutler.com/reviews/better-writing/) - In J.D. Salinger's "Franny and Zooey," the eldest brother tells his youngest brother: You must not only appear on the family radio show, you must always shine your shoes for the sick, old Fat Lady who lives for the show. Good grammar is like shining your shoes: nobody may notice, nobody may care, but you want to get it right nonetheless. So listen up...
- [Weekend Butler:  Why are new issues of "The New Yorker" delivered every three days???? Movie: The Sicilian "Gone with the Wind." SCOTUS Christmas party: pay up!  A comforting song. Recipe: The best gazpacho.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-why-are-new-issues-of-the-new-yorker-delivered-every-three-days-movie-the-sicilian-gone-with-the-wind-scotus-christmas-party-pay-up-a-comforting-song-recipe-the-bes/) - WHY DOES "THE NEW YORKER" SHOW UP IN MY MAILBOX EVERY THREE DAYS? I've taken a poll. One friend says he too is receiving new issues of "The New Yorker" every three days. One is sure it arrives every other day. Why are we feeling inundated by this magazine? Because New York is the media
- [Holiday Weekend Butler: Pocket Pema. "How to Spot an Idiot." Two movies.  Wisdom from Steve Jobs. Music from an American Master. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/holiday-weekend-butler-pocket-pema-how-to-spot-an-idiot-two-movies-wisdom-from-steve-jobs-music-from-an-american-master/) - HAVING TROUBLE READING? HERE'S ONE SOLUTION. I've been working on two long projects for weeks, with deadlines just days apart, so I've had a good excuse for reading my own writing and nothing else. But I have maintained one don't-miss routine: just before bedtime, I read a few pages of Pema Chodron (photo, above). Not
- [Milan Kundera: The Book of Laughter and Forgetting](https://headbutler.com/reviews/milan-kundera-the-book-of-laughter-and-forgetting/) - In February 1948, the Communist leader Klement Gottwald stepped out on the balcony of a Baroque palace in Prague to harangue hundreds of thousands of citizens massed in Old Town Square. That was a great turning point in the history of Bohemia. A fateful moment of the kind that occurs only once or twice a millennium. Gottwald was flanked by his comrades, with Clementis standing close to him. It was snowing and cold, and Gottwald was bareheaded. Bursting with solicitude, Clementis took off his fur hat and set it on Gottwald's head. The propaganda section made hundreds of thousands of copies of the photograph taken on the balcony where Gottwald, in a fur hat and surrounded by his comrades, spoke to the people. On that balcony the history of Communist Bohemia began. Every child knew that photograph, from seeing it on posters and in schoolbooks and museums. Four years later, Clementis was charged with treason and hanged. The propaganda section immediately made him vanish from history and, of course, from all photographs. Ever since, Gottwald has been alone on the balcony. Where Clementis stood, there is only the bare palace wall. Nothing remains of Clementis but the fur hat on Gottwald's head. So begins Milan Kundera’s “The Book of Laughter and Forgetting.” It’s a famous passage, and if you read nothing else by Kundera... well, you’ve read this. I would encourage you to read on, but I have to tell you, I’ve read this book once each decade for three decades, and a lot of it still eludes me. I grasp that it’s about good laughter and evil laughter, about memories you want to forget and memories that are crucial to your survival. But I don’t quite get how these seven stories make a novel, or how they express in different ways how the Czechs resisted Communism, and two of the sections (“Litost,” about a rural woman’s adventure with a literary student, and “The Border,” which makes a detour into misogyny and ends with an orgy) were a chore to read. For all that, I encourage you to read “The Book of Laughter and Forgetting” with pencil in hand, for this is the book that made Kundera’s reputation, and if you’ll just mark the sentences with ideas new to you or emotions you feel but have never quite articulated, you may agree with me that this is among the more significant books you’ve ever read. [To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here.] First, the skinny on Milan Kundera. As a teenager, he joined the Czech Communist Party. When he saw what it was, he became a reformer, and, in 1975, a refugee. He lives in Paris now, is a French citizen and writes in French. In this book, Kundera is writing about the l970s, but as I look back over the sentences I’ve marked, I’m stunned by how they can be read as commentary on our lives. Consider: The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting. Trying to hide, feeling guilty --- that’s the beginning of the end. The bloody massacre in Bangladesh quickly covered over the memory of the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, the assassination of Allende drowned out the groans of Bangladesh, the war in the Sinai Desert made people forget Allende, the Cambodian massacre made people forget Sinai, and so on and so forth until ultimately everyone lets everything be forgotten. Women don’t look for handsome men, they look for men with beautiful women. The only reason people want to be masters of the future is to change the past. And this, which rang so true, I put it into my novel: Every love relationship is based upon unwritten conventions rashly agreed upon by the lovers during the first weeks of their love. On the one hand, they are living a sort of dream; on the other, without realizing it, they are drawing up the fine print of their contracts like the most hard-nosed of lawyers. O lovers! Be wary during those perilous first days! If you serve the other party breakfast in bed, you will be obliged to continue same in perpetuity or face charges of animosity and treason! I’ve said nothing about the characters or the stories. They are strangely compelling. An intellectual about to be arrested tries to get his love letters back. A mother comes to visit her son and his wife on the same weekend they’ve having a threesome. A widow, still faithful to her husband years after his death, wants to retrieve his memories but is thwarted. Not like “regular” stories, to be sure. You’re off-balance on every page. Why read this book? Because we are also seeing memory obliterated and history rewritten. Because no matter how much we may want to avoid politics, we can’t. And because, as Kundera writes, “The sadder people are, the louder the speakers blare.” Sound familiar?
- [Too hot to cook? Here are 24 no-cooking recipes... and some thoughtful pieces about the climate crisis to read after dinner](https://headbutler.com/reviews/too-hot-to-cook-here-are-24-no-cooking-recipes-and-some-thoughtful-pieces-about-the-climate-crisis-to-read-after-dinner/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: You can become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and to go there, just click here. Again, thank you. -- The floods in Vermont and the melting ice at the Arctic Circle are part
- [The Ghost Writer](https://headbutler.com/reviews/ghost-writer/) - A zillion years ago, Roman Polanski took a 13-year-old-girl to Jack Nicholson’s house in Los Angeles, drugged her and committed several varieties of sexual crimes. He was arrested. Pled guilty. Fled the country. And, decades later, completed the editing of “The Ghost Writer” while in a Swiss jail. Let's be clear: What Roman Polanski did in Los Angeles that afternoon was appalling. Has he atoned? I can't say. Bad people often make good art; I'm just here to praise one film. A very good film --- “The Ghost Writer” won six European Film Awards, including best movie, director, actor and screenplay. [To buy the DVD from Amazon, click here. To rent or buy the video stream from Amazon, click here.] The movie has a cheery topicality: corruption at the highest levels of the British government. Intrigue. Maybe even murder. Gotta be fiction? Not necessarily. As my wife notes, the murder of respectable people by respectable people didn’t end with Shakespeare. But let's not argue: It's fiction --- fiction with a point. With a punch. Delivered with great verve by, excuse me, one of the planet’s best directors. Adapted from a novel by Robert Harris, it’s the story of a writer who’s never named. That’s appropriate; his skill is writing the memoirs of celebrities. He’s fast. And good: The last book he ghosted --- “He Came, He Sawed, He Conquered,” the memoirs of a magician --- raced to the top of the best-seller list. Now he’s called in to complete the memoirs of Adam Lang, former British Prime Minister. He has just a month to turn the manuscript in. Consider how Harris and Polanski launch the story. The book and movie begin on the ferry, crossing to Martha’s Vineyard on a blustery winter’s day. The ferry reaches the dock, empties. Except for one car, which doesn’t move. Where is the driver? It’s a mystery. It’s also great moviemaking. We quickly learn about that car and its driver. Lang has been holed up in a beach house on the Vineyard. And, coming across on the ferry one night, Michael McAra --- Lang's ghostwriter and long-time aide --- went overboard and drowned. A suicide? Or something worse? Who's who in the cast? The former Prime Minister, played by Pierce Brosnan, is a stand-in for Tony Blair. His attractive, chilly wife is a version of Cherie Blair. And the fresh trouble Adam Lang is in --- allegations that he helped the CIA kidnap four Pakistani terrorists, the sort of thing that The Hague might consider a war crime --- isn’t unbelievable, at least in England, where many citizens are quite certain that Blair was a “lapdog” for George Bush. For the ghostwriter, these charges couldn’t come at a worse time. Lang is angry and distracted; instead of working on the book, he races down to Washington for a photo op with the American Secretary of State, a woman who just happens to be African-American. Slowly, painfully, the ghost begins to make connections between Lang’s new problems and McAra’s death. And the tension mounts… If you are seeing parallels between “The Ghost Writer” and Polanski’s own situation --- a man accused of terrible crimes, living in exile, trying to clear his name --- give yourself ten easy points. If you see a connection to “Chinatown” --- a less than professional detective, way over his head, stumbles into a conspiracy so corrupt he’s unprepared even to recognize it --- give yourself ten more. (Extra-point question: The Asian man sweeping the decks at Lang’s beach house --- what’s his equivalent in “Chinatown”?) The filmmaking is confident, organic, efficient at the highest level. And why not? Although Polanski is now 77, the director who made “Chinatown” and “Rosemary’s Baby” and "The Pianist" still has his A-game. In an interview, Pierce Brosnan expresses his admiration: The lens was never far from his hand. I sat on the back of the camera one day…His viewfinder was burnished with time, the numbers were worn away and they were all penciled in on bits of gaffer tape…He’d be setting the camera up and having a private conversation with himself. You’d be going for the take and he’d be, ‘No, no, stop, no,’ and then, ‘Give me the camera, I want the camera, the fucking camera.’ He could freak some people out. But that was his passion. As filmmaking, “The Ghost Writer” is fun and provocative. And adult. It reminds us that a thrilling film can be made in a living room, that a sharp conversation can be as deadly as a bullet, that music and cinematography don’t have to assault the ear or poke you in the eye to be thrilling. How old-fashioned. How refreshing. To buy the novel of “The Ghost Writer” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy the Kindle edition of “The Ghost Writer” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy the DVD of “Chinatown” from Amazon.com, click here. For the video on demand rental of Chinatown, click here. To buy “Pompeii" by Robert Harris from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Weekend Butler: Charlie Warner's Late-Life Triumph. The Dalai Lama's birthday.  The movie opens October 20; read the book now.  Jailing a 3-year-old. How to tell if you have privilege. A song. A poem. A meal.  And a wish: stay cool.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-charlie-warners-late-life-triumph-the-dalai-lamas-birthday-the-movie-opens-october-20-read-the-book-now-jailing-a-3-year-old-how-to-tell-if-you-have-privilege-a-song-a-poe/) - CHARLIE WARNER'S LATE LIFE SURPRISE Charlie Warner (photo, above) died on June 8. He was 91. There's a terrific piece about him, in which the people he mentored say thanks. First among them: Bob Pittman. Charlie saw something in Bob when he was 19, hired him, promoted him, and helped him become programming director of
- [Thich Nhat Hanh: Teachings on Love](https://headbutler.com/reviews/teachings-love/) - My wife and I gave Thich Nhat Hanh's modest (183 pages) book to the guests at our wedding. As a party favor, it's an oddity --- a celibate Buddhist monk writing about romantic love. Well, so be it. This is perhaps a wise man's wisest book.
- [Memory Foam Back Support Cushion for Chair and Car](https://headbutler.com/reviews/memory-foam-lumbar-support-back-cushion/) - A better chair? I bought one. Adjustable height, strong mesh back --- you may have one just like it. It’s not really what I want; I crave a chair with its back at a 90-degree ankle. I can have that in the car. I can’t find it in stores --- and, believe me, I looked. So… a cushion. Lower back pain is a common affliction; there are a million to choose from. I chose one by aag, a company so foreign this is how it describes the cushion on Amazon: “lumbar support pillow is large enough for fit any size people, no matter you are small or tall, it can offer enough support to relieve your back pain. It comes with a bag you can carry it in, take it for airplane trip.”
- [Moleskine Notebooks](https://headbutler.com/reviews/moleskine-notebooks/) - There are fads built on nothing. Moleskines are the real thing. The leather-like cover takes more wear than you’ll ever give it. The elastic band is useful both to keep the notebook closed and to mark your place. There’s an inner pocket to hold business cards, receipts and small photographs. The spine is sewn, not glued, so the cover lies flat when it's opened. The paper is acid-free.
- [Roger Enrico  (1944-2016)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/roger-enrico-1944-2016/) - Roger Enrico was writing a book because, soon after he became CEO, he did something unprecedented: He paid Michael Jackson $5 million to make some Pepsi commercials. They were great popular entertainment, mesmerizing even if you cared nothing about Pepsi or Michael. Ninety-seven percent of the American public watched them at least a dozen times. This is oversimplifying, but... Those commercials unhinged executives of Coca-Cola and caused them to replace the most popular soft drink on the planet with “New Coke,” and release lame commercials.... and Pepsi jumped all over that until a nation of betrayed Coke drinkers forced Coca Cola to dump its reformulated drink.
- [Weekend Butler: The summer I learned to drink beer.  Paul Simon dreams an album. Palm Beach: A Rolls-Royce destroys a Damien Hirst sculpture. Roast Tarragon-Cognac Chicken. And more!](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-the-summer-i-learned-to-drink-beer-paul-simon-dreams-an-album-palm-beach-a-rolls-royce-destroys-a-damien-hirst-sculpture-roast-tarragon-cognac-chicken-and-more/) - THE SUMMER I LEARNED TO DRINK In my parents’ house, alcohol was for goyim. On rare occasions, my mother took a nip of Manischewitz Cream Red Concord — “a sweet but balanced wine with a velvety mouth feel and the flavor of fresh Concord grapes with confectionery notes” — but the next day she always
- [Advice for Future Corpses (And Those Who Love Them): A Practical Perspective on Death and Dying](https://headbutler.com/reviews/advice-for-future-corpses-and-those-who-love-them-a-practical-perspective-on-death-and-dying/) - As a Buddhist, Sallie Tisdale has trained herself to look, eyes wide open, at impermanence. As a nurse specializing in end-of-life care, she has attended the dying for decades. And as writer, she’s known for tackling difficult subjects. In “Advice for Future Corpses (And Those Who Love Them): A Practical Perspective on Death and Dying,” she confronts the most difficult subject of all. And --- we like to think --- the most mysterious. She’ll buy half of that: “I have never died, so this entire book is a fool’s advice.” But only half: “We are future corpses pretending we don’t know.”
- ["Everyone" watched "Succession"--- but was it a success?](https://headbutler.com/reviews/everyone-watched-succession-but-was-it-a-success/) - A few days after the final episode of “Succession,” I asked a culturally savvy, critically astute friend what she thought of it. She hadn’t watched it. More surprising, she’d never heard of it. I didn't watch it --- I watch almost nothing --- but I was stunned. Over 4 years, “Succession” collected 13 Emmys, including
- [Weekend Butler: The Optimism Issue: His brain does the walking. Maurice Sendak. Paul Newman. J.S. Bach. Kanye West's shoes. Chilled squash soup.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-the-optimism-issue-his-brain-does-the-walking-maurice-sendak-paul-newman-j-s-bach-kanye-wests-shoes-chilled-squash-soup/) - The government won’t shut down. My daughter adopted a cat. I’m walking more each day. Feeling deep gratitude for close friends. Yes, the sun may extinguish life as we know it, but not today. Despite opposition and ignorance, the good-hearted and smart are getting things done. I woke up with this song in my head.
- [Howlin’ Wolf](https://headbutler.com/reviews/howlin-wolf/) - He described himself as "300 pounds of muscle and man," but that was too modest. Howlin’ Wolf’s music is blunt as an unlocked back door -- as he sang, “What men don’t know/ little girls understand.” I trust Bonnie Raitt’s take: "He was the scariest, most deliciously frightening bit of male testosterone I've ever experienced in my life.''
- [REWRITING ILLNESS:  A VIEW OF MY OWN](https://headbutler.com/reviews/rewriting-illness-a-view-of-my-own/) - Why do people say “full disclosure?” Isn’t “disclosure” sufficient? Here’s mine: I know Elizabeth Benedict slightly. Every Mother’s Day, I recommend her book, “What My Mother Gave Me: Thirty-one Women on the Gifts That Mattered Most.” In a piece about “Rewriting Illness: A View of My Own," she writes that “a notably blunt friend”
- [Mother's Day 2023: Considering what's happening, this is a general shout-out to all women who make a difference in our lives](https://headbutler.com/reviews/mothers-day-2023-considering-whats-happening-this-is-a-general-shout-out-to-all-women-who-make-a-difference-in-our-lives/) - Mary Cassatt often painted mothers and children, and when I went looking for an image to use for Mother’s Day, I found many that would make good illustrations. (See “Mother and Child,” above.) Then I considered her dates (born 1844, died 1926), and her European life, often with her mother as a chaperone when she
- [Weekend Butler: Tina Turner's salvation: Buddhism. Killer Orcas? Does Facebook have $ for you? Weekend movie from 1931: "Little Caesar." Song of the week: Taylor Swift. One-pot spaghetti. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-tina-turners-salvation-buddhism-killer-orcas-does-facebook-have-for-you-weekend-movie-from-1931-little-caesar-song-of-the-week-taylor-swift-one-pot-spaghetti-and-more/) - TINA TURNER (1939 -2023: “BUDDHISM LITERALLY SAVED MY LIFE” A hundred million records sold. Eight Grammy Awards. The most successful singer in the history of pop music. All true. But those honors and achievements aren’t, for me, what’s most worth celebrating about Tina Turner. How hard was the first half of her life? Abused as
- [Nespresso Milk Frother](https://headbutler.com/reviews/nespresso-milk-frother/) - Luxury items scare me. You get along without them, you weaken and get one, suddenly you can’t imagine life without it. Your next thought: There’s more great stuff out there, I should... It's not that I’m cheap, through I’ve heard the rumor. Like the French, I believe in One Good Thing. The high-priced blazer I
- [Ronald K. Fried on Martin Amis (1949 - 2023): "As a devoted reader of his work, I am in mourning."](https://headbutler.com/reviews/ronald-k-fried-on-martin-amis-1949-2023-as-a-devoted-reader-of-his-work-i-am-in-mourning/) - GUEST BUTLER RONALD K. FRIED is a veteran TV producer (Dick Cavett, Tina Brown) and the author of three novels, most recently the excellent Frank Costello: A Novel. He is a frequent contributor to the Daily Beast. Martin Amis is dead. As a devoted reader of his work, I am in mourning. Amis often came across
- [Bob Dylan: On his 82nd birthday](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bob-dylan-on-his-82nd-birthday/) - Bob Dylan will be 82 on May 24. Before considering whether he’s our Shakespeare or just a terrific game player who’s made a career out of an ever-changing persona, let’s just consider his summer tour schedule. I ask you: is that the tour schedule of an octogenarian? If you’re his contemporary, give or take half
- [Somerset Maugham: The Moon and Sixpence](https://headbutler.com/reviews/moon-and-sixpence/) - We think we know the people in our lives. And why not? We know their past and their stories, their quirks and jokes, their strengths and foibles. And because we tend to see the future as much like the present --- only with more money, some lines in our faces and cooler cars --- we think we can predict how our friends and loved ones will age. And then someone goes and gets a sex change. Shows up astride a motorcycle, with an American flag on the back of a jean jacket. Has a meltdown over some political issue and stocks the house with weapons. We see such people as Exceptions. After all, most of us keep on going, with our old ideas, to the end of the line. Wisdom lies in the Middle Path, the balanced life, the known way. So those Life-Changers have to be freaks, don't they? Lord knows, it's easier to think that than to wonder: Is it possible that we really don't know anyone? That we are, in the end, strangers to one another --- no matter how close we are? And that, if we are not energetic, we are strangers to ourselves as well? That's the issue Somerset Maugham addresses in 'The Moon and Sixpence,' his 1919 novel about Charles Strickland. When we meet him, Strickland is a London stockbroker and a bore. Married 17 years. Two kids. No opinions of note. 'There was no reason to waste one's time over him,' the narrator --- a stand-in for Maugham --- concludes.
- [Impossible for me not to think of this now: Bob Dylan, "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/impossible-for-me-not-to-think-of-this-now-bob-dylan-the-lonesome-death-of-hattie-carroll/) - He wrote it in 1965. He could have written this today. Listen.... William Zanzinger killed poor Hattie Carroll, With a cane that he twirled around his diamond ring finger At a Baltimore hotel society gath’rin’, And the cops were called in and his weapon took from him As they rode him in custody down to
- [Weekend Butler: Don't-miss NYC art show (Pierre Bonnard). Meet me on Saturday night (Josh Ritter). Lin-Manuel Miranda raps (at the White House). Wisdom from Smarties. A one-skillet recipe.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-dont-miss-nyc-art-show-pierre-bonnard-meet-me-on-saturday-night-josh-ritter-lin-manuel-miranda-raps-at-the-white-house-wisdom-from-smarties-a-one-skillet-recipe/) - PIERRE BONNARD: DON’T MISS THIS I wrote a play about Matisse and knew Bonnard was his friend, but in the mental ranking that art-lovers are prone to, I didn’t consider Bonnard as Matisse’s equal, not nearly. I’ve now visited this rare show of 22 Bonnard paintings three times, and I may go again before it
- [Stumbling on   Happiness](https://headbutler.com/reviews/stumbling-happiness/) - I was nearing the thrilling conclusion of “Stumbling on Happiness” when I came across a sentence so brilliant, so subtle, so genuinely funny that I had the experience readers crave but rarely enjoy --- I laughed out loud. This is the sentence: “My friends tell me that I have a tendency to point out problems without offering solutions, but they never tell me what I should do about it.” Okay, maybe it would be better if you read the previous 222 pages. Because then you would know that one of the wittiest guys ever to teach at Harvard has not written the ultimate self-help book. That is, he does not hand you the keys to happiness and invite you to take it out for a spin. Just the opposite --- he shows you, over and over again, both logically and by reference to research, how your efforts to be happy are so misguided that they practically guarantee failure. Dan Gilbert is apologetic about that. But after assuring you that the self-help book you want would not, in fact, tell you how to be happy, he makes the case for “a book that describes what science has to tell us about how and how well the human brain can imagine its own future, and about how and how well it can predict which of those futures it will most enjoy.” He begins this exploration with “The Sentence.” Before they die, he jokes, all psychologists must write it. The trick is to wait until you're almost dead, so you won't be proven wrong in your lifetime. Professor Gilbert, no coward, plunges in. And so his way of completing The Sentence --- “The human being is the only animal that….” --- is this: “that thinks about the future.” And there, of course, is the problem. Sometimes, he notes, “we'd rather think about it than get there.” For example, volunteers asked to imagine themselves asking for a date with someone on whom they had a major crush were more likely to want to enjoy their fantasies than pick up the phone. On the other hand, when we can imagine an event, we tend to overestimate how enjoyable it will be. That's a particularly American trait --- we generally believe in a golden future. Even challenges thrill us; cancer patients turn out to be more optimistic than their healthy neighbors. Funny thing about the mind: When we do imagine unpleasantness ahead, the imaginative process minimizes its impact. That's not based on reality. It's because humans have “a passion for control” and if we lose that ability we get actually depressed. We prefer to imagine we know where we're going. And there's the next rub: We imagine. That's useful for artists in the act of creation, less so for civilians in the mainstream of life. Because there is a vast difference between what we imagine and what's real. The facts elude us. “You are a very fine person, I'm sure,” Gilbert writes. “But you are a very bad wizard.” Some fun facts along the way: You will regret what you did not do more than what you did. We make big choices shaped on our perception of future regrets. Almost any explanation, however implausible, reassures us. The only known symptom of empty nest syndrome is “increased smiling.” And then Professor Gilbert makes his big point. If we want to know how to deal with a problem, we might do well to ask someone who's experiencing it. Why don't we? Because we believe people are unique. We don't want to know otherwise: “Like most people, you don't want to know you're like most people.” So imagination is a great gift. Finding a surrogate may be a greater one: “The best way to predict our feelings tomorrow is to see how others are feeling today.” Not what you want to hear? Of course not. But doesn't it make you feel better to know there is a better way --- even if you're hard-wired not to take it? I, for one, am infinitely amused by that conclusion. Indeed, it sort of makes me happy. To buy "Stumbling on Happiness" from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Pema Chodron: Awakening Loving-Kindness](https://headbutler.com/reviews/pema-chodron-awakening-loving-kindness/) - "There's a common misunderstanding among all the human beings who have ever been born on the earth that the best way to live is to try to avoid pain and just try to get comfortable. You can see this even in insects and animals and birds. All of us are the same. A much more interesting, kind, adventurous, and joyful approach to life is to begin to develop our curiosity, not caring whether the object of our inquisitiveness is bitter or sweet."
- [Trust](https://headbutler.com/reviews/trust/) - I prefer to read short novels. I write short novels. “Trust” is 402 pages. I read it twice. The first time, because it’s just so well written, I couldn’t put it down. The second time, because I knew what the surprises were, I read it to try to figure out how Hernan Diaz did it.
- [Weekend Butler: Josh Ritter would like to gift you 2 tickets. Now will you read the Pulitzer-winning novel? Phrase of the week: "malignant narcissism." How rich is King Charles? A one-pot dinner. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-josh-ritter-would-like-to-gift-you-2-tickets-now-will-you-read-the-pulitzer-winning-novel-phrase-of-the-week-malignant-narcissism-how-rich-is-king-charles-a-one-pot-dinner-an/) - THE PULITZER “Trust” just won the Pulitzer Prize, shared — for the first time in the history of these awards —with “Demon Copperhead.” The citation: “A riveting novel set in a bygone America that explores family, wealth and ambition through linked narratives rendered in different literary styles, a complex examination of love and power in
- [Van Morrison: Astral Weeks](https://headbutler.com/reviews/astral-weeks/) - Yeah, you can play it as background music; it’s that pretty. But if you listen to it --- really listen to it --- you will find yourself being taken deep inside, to the part of you that, I suspect, you care about most: the part where the only thing that matters is what happens between you and one other person. Though it may be quiet in there, it’s far from peaceful; this is where we conduct the epic battle between self and surrender, between risk and loneliness.
- [Weekend Butler: Personal histories: E. Jean Carroll and Josh Ritter. The surprisingly political Taylor Swift. Music you've never heard. A new way to cook salmon. And more....](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-personal-histories-e-jean-carroll-and-josh-ritter-the-surprisingly-political-taylor-swift-music-youve-never-heard-a-new-way-to-cook-salmon-and-more/) - PERSONAL HISTORY: IN DEFENSE OF E.J. CARROLL Trump’s lawyer has claimed there’s no way Trump could have raped E. Jean Carroll [photo, above] in a Bergdorf’s dressing room --- the store is crowded with people, even Trump wouldn’t have risked a woman screaming when she was attacked. But I recall the afternoon we shot part
- [Pema Chodron: When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times](https://headbutler.com/reviews/pema-chodron/) - We don't get, she says, that fear is our friend. Or that it's "a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth." Instead, "we freak out when there's even the merest hint of fear." Which only makes our situation worse. And then everything falls apart -- "we run out of options for escape." This is an important moment, she argues. Because this crisis isn't just a test, it's a healing.
- [Endangered Pleasures: In Defense of Naps, Bacon, Martinis, Profanity, and Other Indulgences](https://headbutler.com/reviews/endangered-pleasures-defense-naps-bacon-martinis-profanity-and-other-indulgences/) - Our ancestors came to this country to escape intolerance. Two and a half centuries later, we --- well, many of us --- have become the kind of people our ancestors fled. Fun? Oh, we' re against it. In every form. Because fun leads to self-indulgence, which leads to....well, the old right answer is "pleasure" and the new one is "ruin." Smoke? Don't be crazy. Drink? Sure, if you want to die young. Eat? At your peril. Do nothing? Poverty awaits. As a result, we have --- well, many of us --- dull lives that only Calvinists would admire. In the pursuit of black-and-white certainty or eternal life or whatever it is we're seeking, we've not only banished gray, we've sent color packing. We may die miserable, but we'll be perfect corpses. Barbara Holland is having none of this. Like Martin Luther, she has tacked her 67 theses --- okay, one-to-three page essays --- onto the church door of our culture. "Free yourself," she cries, in the spirit of Zorba the Greek. "Take off your belt and live." This is a dangerous woman. I think I'm in love. Here, for example, are some activities, sensations and experiences --- oh, let's just call then "thrills" --- that Barbara Holland endorses: "The cold and limey rattle of a vodka-tonic being walked across the lawn. Finishing our tax returns. The smells of the morning paper, cut grass, and old leather jackets. Finding a taxi in a downpour; clean sheets; singing to ourselves in the car." Nice. But make no mistake. "Endangered Pleasures" is not just a collection of lists. Barbara Holland writes beautifully --- whereas pleasure-haters can't write at all --- on every subject she embraces. She's wry. Sly. And, on occasion, downright funny. The first essay, "Waking Up," sets the tone. It begins: "Obviously the best possible time to wake up is in the June of our tenth year, on the first day of summer vacation." What kills me in that sentence? "Obviously." Said with the assurance of that ten-year-old. Barbara Holland's ideal breakfast: "A glass of cold champagne and a perfectly ripe pear, perhaps with a spoonful of caviar eaten straight from the jar." Clothes for men, she feels, would be improved by the return of "lace cuffs and velvet breeches." Cigarettes after sex say "I am here" and "So am I." How can you justify a nap? "A perfectly healthy cat can nap through the entire month of February and wake up feeling better for it." Don't drink only at home: "A good bar is a great joy in life and a fine place to be after the day's work." Restaurants? "Expensive and worth every penny." One of the "great unsung pleasures" is...Sunday-morning sex. Sports rule --- because they're fair. Along the way, Holland offers good advice: When visiting, bring coffee that's ground from beans, lest your host believe that "instant" and "coffee" belong in the same sentence and leave you slurping Nescafe. Bare feet, whenever possible. Fight your inner lemming. "Certain things were put upon this earth for our enjoyment," she writes, "and it's wasteful and wicked to condemn them." Certain people too. I would consider it an honor to lick the memory of vodka from Ms. Holland's lips. But curling up with her book on a sunny afternoon when I ought to be doing something useful will do just as well. To buy "Endangered Pleasures" from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Mother's Day, 2021: the first of the rest of our lives](https://headbutler.com/reviews/mothers-day-2021-the-first-of-the-rest-of-our-lives/) - "One of the defining images, at least from my perspective, in this crisis has been cars lined up. Cars lined up for miles --- nice cars, lined up for miles, waiting for a box of food to be put in their trunk. I don't know about you but I didn't ever think I'd see that
- [Weekend Butler: At last, a Broadway play worth seeing! Preview: "Lessons in Chemistry." Streaming: "The Diplomat." Why the wise walk. Salad Season. Sharpen your memory. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-at-last-a-broadway-play-worth-seeing-preview-lessons-in-chemistry-streaming-the-diplomat-why-the-wise-walk-salad-season-sharpen-your-memory-and-more/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: You can become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and to go there, just click here. Again, thank you. THIS WEEK IN BUTLER: A Face in the Crowd. The Lost Wife. Miranda Lambert:
- [Miranda Lambert: Y'all Eat Yet?: Welcome to the Pretty B*tchin' Kitchen](https://headbutler.com/reviews/miranda-lambert-yall-eat-yet-welcome-to-the-pretty-btchin-kitchen/) - I haven’t been to Texas since I interviewed Tom Cruise in Dallas in 1989, and given the politics there, the odds I’ll be returning any time soon are zero to none, but after reading Miranda Lambert’s memoir/cookbook, I’m definitely tempted to head Southwest for some Paw Paw, Bev’s chicken salad, and some Hummingbird Cake. And
- [The Lost Wife: a novel](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-lost-wife-a-novel/) - There is no fable we like quite as much as the fable of a woman of low birth who endures hard times, perseveres, and triumphs. The first half of Susanna Moore’s tenth book seems to be in that increasingly discredited tradition. Beware. Her unnamed narrator’s husband has burned her with the soldering flame, and she’s
- [Weekend Butler: The woman on the red motorcycle. This weekend, read a teen book. Camera-ready criminals. Michael Jordan.  Roast Tarragon-Cognac Chicken. And more....](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-the-woman-on-the-red-motorcycle-this-weekend-read-a-teen-book-camera-ready-criminals-michael-jordan-roast-tarragon-cognac-chicken-and-more/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: You can become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and to go there, just click here. Again, thank you. - THIS WEEK IN BUTLER: The Lost Wife. Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words. Esther
- [Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words: A Writer's Guide to Getting It Right](https://headbutler.com/reviews/brysons-dictionary-troublesome-words-writers-guide-getting-it-right/) - Bill Bryson is a writer who can do anything. He can be crazy mad funny --- A Walk in the Woods is the sidesplitting adventure of Bryson and his out-of-shape pal Katz as they walk the Appalachian Trail. He can be authoritative --- A Short History of Nearly Everything lives up to the promise of the title. And he can even blend the two, as he does in his very funny book of pedantry. When Bryson wrote his dictionary, he was a pup, an unknown writer toiling as a copyeditor at the London Times. Two decades later, he revised the book --- he says it's 60% new. Nice, but that's not the reason you want it. The sad fact is, our language is daily debased. And fight it though we may, lovers of correct usage wage a lonely --- and losing --- battle. Still, it is important to know when we are right. And, also, it's nice to win arguments with the linguistically challenged. That Bryson's book is fun is built into concept --- take troublesome words, give examples of their mauling, then suggest the correct use. [I was particularly taken by this approach, as I had recently written a piece in the same vein: Hopefully (Not) , a list of ten usage and grammar errors. I was delighted to see that "hopefully" makes Bryson crazy too.] He gets right to it: "Admit to" is nearly always wrong, he says. "You admit a misdeed, you do not admit to it." Can you begin a sentence with "and"? Bryson: "The belief that 'and' should not be used to begin a sentence is without foundation. And that's all there is to it." Basically: "The trouble with this word, basically, is that it is almost always unnecessary." Did you know a "bon vivant" is not someone who lives well? A bon vivant likes good food. Someone who likes living well is a bon viveur. You cannot be married and celibate. If you are married and don't have sex, you're chaste. A boat sailing "nine knots an hour" --- do you know what's wrong with that? "Imply" and "infer" --- but you know the difference, yes? "Sentences that begin with 'it' are almost always worth a second look" --- can you guess why? "Plan ahead." As Bryson asks, "Would you plan behind?" There's lots more. And most of it is not only fun to read, it sharpens your sense of good writing and speech --- this book literally wakes you up. I'd give this book to the know-it-all English honors student, the crossword addict, the Scrabble devotee. And I'd get one for myself, just because. To buy " Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words" from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Esther Perel: "Intimacy is about where you can take me, not what you can do to me."](https://headbutler.com/reviews/esther-perel-intimacy-is-about-where-you-can-take-me-not-what-you-can-do-to-me/) - In a crevice between bricks, a small bird is making a nest. On the sidewalk, couples walk hand in hand. I installed window screens, opened my windows. Yes, it's definitely Spring. Tennyson wrote: "In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love." Almost. In the Spring, everyone's thoughts turn to the
- [Esther Perel](https://headbutler.com/reviews/esther-perel-sex-has-nothing-to-do-with-where-you-put-your-hand-its-about-where-you-can-take-me-not-what-you-can-do-to-me/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: You can become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and to go there, just click here. Again, thank you. LAST WEEK IN BUTLER: Weekend Butler. J.J. Cale. Dead End Gene Pool. They Thought
- [Esther Perel: Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence](https://headbutler.com/reviews/mating-captivity-unlocking-erotic-intelligence/) - "Why does good sex so often fade, even for couples who continue to love each other as much as ever? And why does good intimacy not guarantee good sex, contrary to popular belief? Can we want what we already have? That's the million-dollar question, right? And why is the forbidden so erotic? What is it about transgression that makes desire so potent? And why does sex make babies, and babies spell erotic disaster in couples? It's kind of the fatal erotic blow, isn't it?) And when you love, how does it feel?"
- [Dead End Gene Pool](https://headbutler.com/reviews/dead-end-gene-pool/) - The trick to money is to have a lot, but not too much. What’s too much? I could tell you --- I was once married to the daughter of the second or third richest woman in America --- but you probably wouldn’t believe me. Better that you find out for yourself. Just start accumulating wealth. When you have enough, you’ll feel great. When you have too much, some new friends --- gloom, anxiety and a nasty sense of meaninglessness --- will show up, and never leave. Guaranteed. Speaking of misery, let’s consider the heritage of Cornelius Vanderbilt, in his day the richest man in America. Wendy Burden is his great-great-great granddaughter. It is astonishing, given her bloodline, that she could pull herself together enough to write Dead End Gene Pool. It’s even more astonishing that she’s alive. When Wendy was six, her father killed himself. After that, she writes, “I only spent time with my mother when she was getting ready to leave. My brother and I had recently come to view her as a glamorous lodger who rented the master bedroom suite.” It would be easy to write this memoir from the Valley of Bitterness --- but then you’d have to live there. Wendy Burden chooses to reside on the Mountain of Absurdity. Smart move. Why waste energy on hating your mother when you can rip off lines like this, about Leslie Lepington Hamilton Burden dropping her young daughter at the airport and fleeing the jurisdiction: “She could make it downtown to Trader Vic’s in less time than it takes to put on a pair of sheer black stockings and get the seams straight.” So Wendy and her brothers fell, by default, into the care of their grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. William A.M. Burden II. He had been a successful investor, Ambassador to Belgium (oh, how he craved the post in Paris) and President of the Museum of Modern Art. But “Popsie” and “Gaga” were not exactly homey --- their Fifth Avenue apartment had 14 bathrooms and 21 rooms. The Burdens were ghosts; only their “servants” seemed real. Bill Burden had a breakthrough art collection. His wife “was a modern woman only when it came to self-medication.” By the time Wendy showed up, their marriage consisted of gallons of wine, rich meals, afternoon naps, cocktails and dinner parties. William Burden’s favorite word: Mah-velous. Really? You’ll decide for yourself. Nature abhors a vacuum. Wendy and her brother filled the absence of adult supervision with an unending series of pranks. They were, by turns, destructive, cruel, stupid and funny. I lump them all into another category: life-saving. When you pass unseen through rooms, it’s hard not to work at what Erik Erikson called “negative identity” --- “the sum of all those identifications and identity fragments which the individual had to submerge in himself as undesirable or irreconcilable.” Mooning boaters who have slowed their engines to gawk at the Burdens house in Maine, stealing every bit of food from the kitchen, stretching Saran Wrap under the toilet seat --- the young Burdens did it all. Do I have to add that Wendy also got terrible grades in school? Even if you’re not of her world, you’ll guffaw at the descriptions of meals in Maine and vacations in Florida. Her mother’s marital history is a kind of hoot. Wendy’s first crush and her efforts to lose her virginity are damn funny. To say nothing of Jacques Cousteau putting the moves on teenage Wendy on the Concorde. And the descriptions of a great meal: “It was sublime, like eating orgasms.” Take the laughs where you can get them, because you knew where this book is going --- adult diapers for William Burden, rehab for Wendy’s brothers, more inappropriate marriages for her mother. By the end, if you’re like me, you’ll find Wendy’s survival nothing short of remarkable. And you’ll be glad she heads out into her adult life only kinda-sorta rich. Lovely irony: This hardcover book about luxury and irresponsibility is selling on Amazon.com for $9.99. For Wendy Burden's web site, click here.
- [Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Teaching of Shunryu   Suzuki](https://headbutler.com/reviews/crooked-cucumber-life-and-teaching-shunryu-suzuki/) - The lives of the truly great are always a thrill to read. Not just because of their triumphs. Even more for the way they confront the challenges of their daily lives --- just as you and I must. How do we make our way in this world? How can we behave so we're not cranky all the time? How can we experience pain and still appreciate beauty? These are the questions that plague me, and may frazzle you too. How Dr. X cured a rare disease, how Ms. Y learned to sing above high C, how Billy Z mastered the 100 mile an hour fastball --- that's interesting, but not exactly relevant. And the footnotes? Spare me. So the first thing that really fascinated me about Shunryu Suzuki --- the Zen monk who's mostly responsible for bringing Zen to America --- was his response when he was asked to summarize Buddhism in a sentence. The audience laughed at the impossibility of that challenge. Suzuki had a ready answer. “Easy,” he said. “Everything changes.” But then, in his life, easy was the way he was. Or seemed to be. He didn't tell neophytes they needed to learn much before setting out on the Zen path. "In the beginner's mind, there are many possibilities," he explained. "In the expert's mind, there are few." He believed in the importance of whatever you were feeling, in the moment you were feeling it. There were no hard and fast truths. For him, the secret of Zen was: "Not always so." Which is just another way to say "Everything changes." You could almost say he didn't care about Zen. Sitting in the lotus position and watching your thoughts --- nice, but not crucial. Ditto walking meditation. "The most important thing is to be able to enjoy your life without being fooled by things," he said. Spoken like a very American Zen master. In fact, Suzuki lived in Japan most of his life. He came to San Francisco in 1959 and died there in 1971. Twelve years in America, that's all. But in those few years, he basically established Zen practice in this country. But forget the practice. Consider the life. There are very, very few biographies of Zen masters, mostly because that's the way they like it --- their practice is specific, geared to the student, as impermanent as smoke. Their lives erase themselves. David Chadwick, a longtime student of Suzuki's, thought of writing this biography. He went to ask the widow's permission. Her advice: "Tell many funny stories." Chadwick followed instructions. "Crooked Cucumber" is funny often, and where it is not, the writing is playful and light. Even if you don't care much about Zen, this book is a pleasure to read. [To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] And it's a great story. Suzuki began Zen training when he was 11. For all his gifts, his first master saw an inauspicious future for him. He nicknamed him "Crooked Cucumber" because a bent cucumber was useless --- Suzuki would become a teacher with no good disciples. But by 24, he had his own temple. He learned to run it like a small business at the same time as he taught the dharma. "If you have a flexible attitude, you can help people quite easily," he concluded. He needed a flexible attitude in San Francisco. When he arrived, Beatniks were hopped up about what they thought was Zen. A few years later, hippies were dropping LSD and hallucinating the Buddha. Through it all, Suzuki played the role of a simple monk with a sincere commitment. He barely taught. He didn't have to --- he embodied the teaching. When he had to, he became a giant. A beloved student died. He delivered a measured eulogy for her --- and then, Chadwick writes, he "let out a mighty roar of grief that echoed through the cavernous auditorium." Chadwick's account of Suzuki's final illness is equally powerful. "I have cancer," Suzuki told his students. "This cancer is my friend, and my practice will be to take care of this sickness." The scene in which, near death, Suzuki inaugurates his successor is a tour de force. As is his death. These are heavy moments. But necessary ones. "The point is to attain complete composure," he once said. Well, he knew exactly what he was talking about. The lovely thing about this book is that it's dotted with wry epigrams which, after your initial laughter, you might underline and consider. "In reflecting on our problems, we should include ourselves." "Once you say 'sex,' everything is sex." To a carpenter who seemed to have achieved self-realization: "Yes, you could call that enlightenment --- and how's your work coming?" To a vegan: "You have to kill vegetables too." ------------------- To buy 'Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind' from Amazon, click here. To buy 'Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen' from Amazon, click here.
- [Weekend Butler: Spring (the rising!) A favor: Read my Birkin play? Bummer: Liquor's not healthy, not even a little. Breaking news: Clarence Thomas. Springsteen tix on sale. Glenn Gould. Seamus Heaney. And (I didn't forget) holiday lamb.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-spring-the-rising-a-favor-read-my-birkin-play-bummer-liquors-not-heathy-breaking-news-clarence-thomas-springsteen-tix-on-sale-glenn-gould-seamus-heaney-and-i-didnt-for/) - SPRING: THE RISING It’s undeniable now. No matter how rotten the news, no matter how concerned we are about [INSERT TOPIC HERE], our sad planet has jettisoned its drab winter colors and is awash with life-affirming color. And we respond. This holiday weekend, I’m thinking of the Allegri “Miserere,” a choral piece so beautiful a
- [My Name Is Asher Lev](https://headbutler.com/reviews/my-name-asher-lev/) - My name is Asher Lev, the Asher Lev, about whom you have read in newspapers and magazines, about whom you talk so much at your dinner affairs and cocktail parties, the notorious and legendary Lev of the “Brooklyn Crucifixion.” I first read those words --- the opening paragraph of Chaim Potok's masterpiece, My Name is Asher Lev [for the Kindle edition, click here] --- when I was 12. Asher Lev was, at six, a talented draftsman, “a little Chagall.” By 12, he was clearly destined for a career in art. But he was also a Ladover Hasid, growing up in Brooklyn in the 1950s; his family kept kosher, he wore side curls, he prayed three times a day, and the conflict between his heritage and his destiny couldn’t have been sharper. At 12, I was bookish and precocious, reading Joyce’s “Portrait of the Artist as A Young Man.” I’d published a very amateur newspaper and noticed how girls seemed to like it. I was also studying for my Bar Mitzvah and starting to hear suggestions that I’d make a good rabbi. Did I identify with the narrator of Chaim Potok’s novel? Our differences were huge --- my synagogue was so liberal that, after years of silence on Saturday mornings, it had just revived the Bar Mitzvah --- but so what? Doesn’t every pre-adolescent boy dream of hitting grand slam home runs, winning the Nobel Prize or creating some kind of masterpiece? This week, most of a lifetime later, I re-read “My Name Is Asher Lev.” It is an even better, even more important book than I remember, for it speaks directly to the choices we make and the price we pay for those choices --- this is not a book about the creation of a great young artist, it’s about anyone with a dream of a life who dares to go for it. In other words, it couldn’t be more personal. This is a book about you. Of course, Potok’s young hero probably had it harder than you and I did. In the history of Western painting, he notes, no great artist has ever been a Jew. And Asher’s father, though an important and well-informed man, sees no reason that his son should be the one to change that. Art, for him, is “foolishness.” But art is in Asher’s blood. After years of drawing, he turns to oil painting. “It was,” he says, “as if I had been painting in oil all my life.” In the Lev’s community, every victory for art is a defeat for the soul. Paint nude women? “The Torah teaches us to practice modesty,” his mother reminds him. Asher not only copies European art, he draws Jesus. “Do you know how much Jewish blood has been spilled because of him, Asher?” his mother all but wails. Asher’s father is a great man who spirits Jews out of Russia and starts yeshivas for their children. But this --- this scandal in his own house, how can he begin to understand it? His response is rage, uncontrollable rage. It’s this bad: I looked down and saw my father’s fingers clenched around my wrist. I stared in astonishment at the fingers, saw the bones jut out from beneath the flesh, saw the ridges of the knuckles, then felt the pain move up swiftly through my arm. He was squeezing the wrist of my right arm; his face, pale within its frame of red beard, was contorted with rage. I cried out. My mother shouted something…. I began to cry. My father released my hand. My wrist throbbed. I could not stop crying. My mother continued to shout. My father stood at the table, his face pale, all of him quivering with rage. They were screaming at each other, my mother and father. They were screaming at one another and I sat there listening, wanting to run away but not daring to move, feeling the pain and the fear and knowing that it was because of me and not knowing what I could do about any of it. We have all had our primal battles with our parents, but this --- this is beyond anything I experienced. Fortunately, the Rebbe is wise. “A life,” he tells Asher, “is measured by how it is lived for the sake of heaven.” He gives Asher his blessing. And he sends him to study with Jacob Kahn. Kahn is a great artist. And a honest man, honest to the point of tough love. “Do you have any idea what you are getting into?” he asks. “Become a carpenter. Become a shoemaker. Become a street cleaner.” And when Asher persists, he delivers the ultimate warning: “You are entering the world of the goyim.” Now begins Asher Lev’s art training --- and ours. No matter how much you know about art, you’ll be astonished by how much you’ll learn, and how painlessly you learn it; Chaim Potok has thoroughly mastered his subject. And what he knows about people is just as impressive: how family conflicts can’t always be resolved within the family, how surrogates can play important roles, how nobody gets anywhere unscathed. Certainly not Asher Lev. “Strong words are being written and spoken about me, myths are being generated,” he tells us. “I am a traitor, an apostate, a self-hater, an inflicter of shame upon my family, my friends, my people; also, I am a mocker of ideas sacred to Christians, a blasphemous manipulator of modes and forms revered by Gentiles for two thousand years.” Yes, but he gets that greatest of all victories: He gets to be Asher Lev. Whatever price he paid, he got the prize of self-knowledge. And that lesson makes this book not just thrilling, but invaluable to every kid who’s searching for a direction in life and every adult who isn’t sure he/she has found one.
- [Peter Temple: Identity Theory](https://headbutler.com/reviews/identity-theory/) - I loathe thrillers. I've had to read a few in order to interview their authors, and not one has done anything but depress me. The characters are not like any upright bipeds known to me. The plots, however clever, always resolve with a hero who vanquishes hundreds with nary a nick to his chiseled chin. And the writing --- truly, is there anything more ridiculous than a sex scene in a thriller? Mostly, what drives me crazy about thrillers is their impossibility. 'The Da Vinci Code', for example. All the action happens, as I recall, in a matter of days. But does anyone sleep? Eat? Use a bathroom? Not that I recall. And yet the principals are as sharp at the end as they were at the start. To me, that's far more astonishing than the business about the Grail. But I am here to report that I have finally read a thriller with pleasure. More than pleasure, really. I devoured 'Identity Theory' in the same way that I consume the novels I love best --- reading on the street, on buses, when I should be working, until it filled my world, was my world, right to the end. For a simple reason: It's a brilliant piece of writing first, a thriller second. How did I come to read it? I was interested in electronic eavesdropping --- in the winter of 2006, how could you not be? --- and I bumped into a reference to it. And I picked it up. And read the first page. And found myself in Johannesburg, at 2 PM, on a weekday. The character is Niemand, no first name. He's working out. Inside. "Outdoors had become trouble, like being attacked by three men, one with a nail-studded piece of wood." Niemand is no victim: "The trouble had cut both ways: several of his attackers he had kissed off quickly." Niemand, we are told, "didn't get any pleasure in killing." Which hasn't stopped him --- Temple takes a page to recount three killings on his scorecard. You'll have no problem agreeing with Niemand's actions. Now we're on page three. An aging Mercedes --- actually, a new one, hidden under an old, rusting body --- picks Niemand up. We meet Mkane, his partner. They're on personal protection work today, collecting a woman at a shopping center and making sure she gets safely home. She does. Niemand and Mkane check the house out. Thoroughly: "There was one vehicle in the garage, a black Jeep four-wheel-drive. A camera at floor level showed no one hiding beneath it." Rather extreme precautions, you think. What kind of world is this that requires "every cupboard, every wardrobe" to be checked? The woman drinks champagne. Niemand "holstered his pistol, didn't feel relaxed." Her husband arrives, scorning Niemand's black partner. Niemand looked up, "saw something on the ceiling behind him, something at the edge of his vision, a dark line not there before....The man in the ceiling pushed open the inspection hatch..." Carnage. Out of nowhere. With hot blood and screaming and guns that don't work and then do, and bodies, bodies everywhere. In the silence that follows, Niemand inspects the husband's briefcase: envelopes, papers, a video cassette. The phone rings. He answers. The papers? The tape? Yes, Niemand has them. Will he bring them out? Yes, but how much? "Twenty thousand. And expenses." And he's off to London.... And so ends chapter one. Take a breath. Your first in a while. Turn the page. Now you're in...Hamburg. In the office of W&K. Once it was a publisher. Its current business is information --- "looking for people, checking on people." In the modern way: six computer terminals, a state-of-the-art mainframe. Very amoral. Find an address, turn it over. A couple is reconciled. Or maybe the husband, upset by the way she drained the bank account before fleeing to France, kills her. It's all the same to W&K. A former journalist works here; eventually, you know that whatever is on the cassette will come to involve him. "Eventually" is a long time coming. Temple writes real characters, and they have their stories, their frustrating days, their troubled nights. Plot points drop like Hansel's bread crumbs in the forest. But what's the rush? Every paragraph has a jolt of pleasure. Like a man remembering his wife: "...the day Lana drove the Mustang under a car transporter on Highway 401 outside Raeford, North Carolina, 1:45 in the afternoon. She was alone, leaving a motel, lots of drink taken." Like a description of Hamburg: "The sky was an army blanket, dirty grey." Like the sudden menace on a phone: "Sonny, deal with me or deal with the devil. There's much worse coming up behind me. I'm the good cop. You want to walk away from this fucken Waco you created, get the fuck out. And wherever you go, get on your knees every morning noon and fucken night and pray the Lord to take away the mark on your fucken forehead." Like the repartee, this time about a courier: "They say Ollie North used him" gets, as a riposte, "You wouldn't want that to be the high point of your career." Notice I'm not telling you the plot --- I'm no spoiler. But you get the mood of this piece. You and I, we walk down the street not especially worried about the people coming our way. In this book, paranoia rules. Anyone coming toward you could have been hired to kill you. Which makes every moment distressingly intense. Who is Peter Temple? Born in South Africa. Now lives in Australia. Was once a journalist. (It shows. His prose is tight as a noose.) Taught journalism in Australia. Edited a magazine. And, finally, chucked it to write novels. He's done seven so far, four about a detective named Jack Irish. And he's won four Ned Kelly Awards in Australia, more than any other author. Peter Temple is, in short, a major star who's as yet unknown in America. 'Identity Theory' should start to correct that. I'm off to read two more Temples. I'm sure they're great. But just as nothing is as sweet as a first kiss, no Temple novel will thrill me more than 'Identity Theory.'
- ["We're All We Have"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/were-all-we-have/) - I suggested it was time for the 9.5-year-old to make her list for Santa. She wiggled two fingers on each hand --- air quotes – and said, “Santa?” “Whoa,” I said. “You don’t think there is a Santa?” “You guys.” “What about the cookies that disappeared on Christmas Eve? What about those big black boot prints that led from the fireplace to the coffee table?” “Mommers.” “Your sacred mother? No way!” “Then you.” “Okay, I do lie,” I said. “But only about the quality of books written by my friends.” “Whatev.” Easy for the kid to say --- for her, air quotes about Santa also express how much she believes in our little family. No Santa? No worries; Mommers and Daddy O will get it done. She doesn’t see what I do. She’s got a codger of a dad and a mother who’s not 30; it could happen that she’ll survive us in a country that’s hacking away at her safety net. I envy her confidence. “We’re all we have” --- I think that often. And I suspect that thought comes up often for many people now. The crash of ’08 was the first eye-opener, followed by an understanding that Republicans were committed to not hearing the cries of their constituents and our President was going to spend his first term avoiding direct confrontation with them. And so, very quickly, we transit from “We’re on our own” to “We are the change.” Because we’d better be. If we’re not, change is just not going to happen. But old habits die hard. I say it’s up to me, but I keep looking to others for leadership. After the police assault on seated protesters at the University of California at Davis --- that video has now been seen 1.9 million times on YouTube --- I blogged on Huffington Post: Dear Mr. President: Will You Please Speak Up About Police Assaulting Protesters On College Campuses? As most of the 900 people who posted a comment noted, I shouldn’t hold my breath. If my blood boiled, there was plenty of provocation. Stupid remarks from the University’s chancellor. Lies from the police. All building to the fear that, coming soon, police would turn passive protesters into corpses. Two events changed my thinking. One occurred at Davis, where the Chancellor had a meeting at a location surrounded by protesters. If there were legitimate reasons to worry about safety, they disappeared when the protesters decided to sit in absolute silence as the Chancellor walked to her car. Almost a million people have viewed the video; if you haven’t seen it, it’s remarkable footage and well worth your time. What I took away: admiration for the creativity and discipline of those students. Whatever was in their hearts could easily have animated them to shout out, but they maintained perfect silence as the Chancellor made a walk of shame. I would have left it at that. But I happened on a blog by Kristin Stoneking, the campus minister who walked with the Chancellor. Why did she do that? Because she had been asked to mediate between students and the administration. If I quote her at length, it’s because she’s eloquent and then some: When I arrived, there was a walkway out of the building set up, lined on both sides by about 300 students. The students were organized and peaceful. I was cleared to enter the building along with a student who is a part of CA House and has been part of the Occupy movement on campus since the beginning. He, too, was reluctant, but not because he had somewhere else to be. For any student to act as a spokesperson or leader is inconsistent with the ethos the Occupy movement. He entered as an individual seeking peace and resolution, not as a representative of the students, and was clear that he had called for and would continue to call for Chancellor Katehi’s resignation. Once inside, and through over an hour of conversation, we learned the following: The Chancellor had made a commitment that police would not be called in this situation Though the message had been received inside the building that students were offering a peaceful exit, there was a concern that not everyone would hold to this commitment The Chancellor had committed to talk with students personally and respond to concerns at the rally on Monday on the quad The student assistants to the Chancellor had organized another forum on Tuesday for the Chancellor to dialogue directly with students What we felt couldn’t be compromised on was the students’ desire to see and be seen by the Chancellor. Any exit without face to face contact was unacceptable. She was willing to do this. We reached agreement that the students would move to one side of the walkway and sit down as a show of commitment to nonviolence. Before we left, the Chancellor was asked to view a video of the student who was with me being pepper sprayed. She immediately agreed. Then he and I witnessed her witnessing eight minutes of the violence that occurred Friday. Like a recurring nightmare, the horrific scene and the cries of “You don’t have to do this!” and students choking and screaming rolled again. The student and I then left the building and using the human mike, students were informed that a request had been made that they move to one side and sit down so that the Chancellor could exit. They immediately complied, though I believe she could have left peacefully even without this concession. I returned to the building and walked with the Chancellor down the human walkway to her car. Students remained silent and seated the entire way. What was clear to me was that once again, the students’ willingness to show restraint kept us from spiraling into a cycle of violence upon violence. There was no credible threat to the Chancellor, only a perceived one. The situation was not hostile. And what was also clear to me is that whether they admit it or not, the administrators that were inside the building are afraid. And exhausted. And human. And the suffering that has been inflicted is real. The pain present as the three of us watched the video of students being pepper sprayed was palpable. A society is only truly free when all persons take responsibility for their actions; it is only upon taking responsibility that healing can come. Why did I walk the Chancellor to her car? Because I believe in the humanity of all persons. Because I believe that people should be assisted when they are afraid. Because I believe that in showing compassion we embrace a nonviolent way of life that emanates to those whom we refuse to see as enemies and in turn leads to the change that we all seek. I am well aware that my actions were looked on with suspicion by some tonight, but I trust that those seeking a nonviolent solution will know that “just means lead to just ends” and my actions offered dignity not harm. The Chancellor was not trapped in Surge II tonight, but, in a larger sense, we are all in danger of being trapped. We are trapped when we assent to a culture that for decades, and particularly since 9/11, has allowed law enforcement to have more and more power, which has moved us into an era of hyper-criminalization. We are trapped when we envision no path to reconciliation. And we are trapped when we forget our own power. “I believe in the humanity of all persons.” That’s a hard one. My heart doesn’t soften easily toward those who proudly declare they have hearts of stone. But I can’t wait to make progress on my resistance when there is such urgent need all around us. So, I decided, I’d start small. Local. Maybe with a food bank that feeds hungry children. And then, on Manhattan User's Guide, I read about Elisa and Nathan Bond. She’s an actress. He’s a painter and teacher. They have a two-year-old daughter. In February, Nathan was diagnosed with stage III rectal cancer. Nine days later, Elisa learned she has stage IV breast cancer. That is a heavy load, made heavier by Elisa’s insurance plan, which won’t approve an MRI for three months after an operation. Yes, but she has a fast-moving cancer. And her doctor wants the test done now. You say, ‘This can’t be.’ Oh, but it can. The Bonds have a web site. A video awaits you --- don’t think of looking at it if you don’t have Kleenex handy. (I’m serious --- the music is “Lean on Me.”) When you collect your wits, you might do well to read their blog. You might make a contribution so they can get the medical care that insurers don’t think they need. At the very least, you might take a moment to consider these two words: Team Bond. Team Bond. We’re all we have. We are the change. These things connect for me. It's baby steps, but maybe I am slowly coming to understand that a small contribution, a modest gift or a kind word matter more now than the zillionth eloquent diatribe about the villains.
- [If I Stay](https://headbutler.com/reviews/if-i-stay/) - It started with Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project. She loved reading children’s books and wondered if other adults did too. Very much, in fact. The Wall Street Journal reports that Rubin now has three Kidlit groups in New York, and many of the members are extremely respectable members of the publishing community who really seem to get off on Young Adult (YA) fiction. So I thought I’d have what they’re having. I chose “If I Stay,” published in 2009, mostly because it is a monster success. Already available in 30 languages. Sold to Hollywood. And on its web site, almost 1,900 readers have commented on Gayle Forman’s genius and the book’s gut-wrenching, life-changing appeal. I rolled through 230 big-print, nicely spaced pages in a few hours. The novel pressed every emotional button I’m aware of. At the end, I was a mess --- limp, to be sure, but also thrilled, energized, renewed. Those book groups --- about “If I Stay,” at least, they’re not wrong. How powerful is this story? Here’s the author on its genesis: Once upon a time, there was a family: a mom, a dad, a little boy like Teddy and another little boy, just a baby. And once upon a time, there was a snow day. And a drive in a car. And a mysterious car accident. And an unfathomable tragedy. Once upon a time, one of those family members held on a little longer, though by the time the news reached me, all the way across the country in New York City, the devastation was complete. The whole family had died. But that little boy’s act of tenacity, followed by his surrender, it haunted me. Did that one little boy know what had happened to the rest of his family? Did he choose to go with them? It was out of the fog of that persistent question that one day, almost seven years after the fact, this total stranger popped into my consciousness. Her name was Mia. She was 17 years old. And a cello player. And she had no relation whatsoever to the people I knew. But the minute I met her I knew she was going to take me on a journey, to answer that question that had been living in me for years: What would you do if you had to choose? I know what you’re thinking. I thought it too: This is a set-up --- Forman has produced a weepie that exploits the constellation of teenage doubts that stop afflicting most of us as soon as we have to earn a paycheck. Not so. Gayle Forman creates shockingly real characters. A father who once played guitar in a popular Oregon band, but who traded leather jackets for tweed sport coats when he became an English teacher. A mother who can’t cook. A boy who drinks decaf. And Mia, who dreams of getting into Julliard and, at the same time, dreads it because her musician boyfriend really is her first true love. People you like. Characters you care about. (To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.) As for the violence of the car crash --- there is none. One minute the family is driving along a snowy, two-lane highway, listening to Beethoven’s Cello Concerto No. 3 on public radio, and then there’s a line space, and then we read: “You wouldn’t expect the radio to work afterward. But it does.” Dad dead. Mom dead. Brother missing. And Mia in disbelief --- is she there, or not? She pinches her wrist, as hard as she can. But she feels nothing. “Am I dead?” she wonders. She should be. Her leg’s been pared down to the bone. But she’s not in agony. Maybe she’s alive. Then why isn’t she crying? At the hospital, surgeons remove her spleen, insert a tube to drain a collapsed lung. And then they wait to see if Mia will wake up. “If I Stay” is not a medical drama. It’s bigger. We go back, in alternating chapters, to the life Mia had --- a wonderfully secure and interesting life, surrounded and supported by smart, quirky people. A poetic, romantic life, too --- the first time Mia and her boyfriend take off their shirts, he plays her like a guitar and she treats his chest as if it were her cello. All of it is in the service of one looming moment: If I stay. If I live. It’s up to me. All this talk about medically induced comas is just doctor talk. It’s not up to the doctors. It’s not up to the absentee angels. It’s not even up to God who, if He exists, is nowhere around right now. It’s up to me. That’s page 89. What follows will take you on a major emotional ride. Relatives, friends, the boyfriend --- all make their way to Mia’s hospital bed, and all have something smart and wrenching and surprising to say. And all of it serves the question, which seems more and more legitimate as we learn about Mia’s life. No spoilers here. But a suggestion: If you have teenagers, hide “If I Stay” while you read it. Because if they get their hands on this book, you will never see it again. When our daughter is old enough, I’m going to encourage her to read this book. To read an excerpt, click here. Bonus: Gayle Forman talks about music, Oregon and more.
- [Weekend Butler: Did the Eiffel Tower inspire Van Gogh? Italian nuns take a selfie at Michelangelo's David. Paul Simon finds no bridge over troubled water. A week early: the Holiday Ham recipe. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-did-the-eiffel-tower-inspire-van-gogh-italian-nuns-take-a-selfie-at-michelangelos-david-paul-simon-finds-no-bridge-over-troubled-water-a-week-early-the-holiday-ham-recipe-and-mo/) - BEAUTY BEYOND CLASSIFICATION Long ago, we liked to have dinner downtown in warm weather and drive home on deserted Madison Avenue with the radio on and the sunroof open.. One night WFUV played a 9-minute song, “Thin Blue Flame,” by Josh Ritter, a singer-songwriter we didn’t know. Long before it ended, I knew I needed
- [Chris Smither](https://headbutler.com/reviews/chris-smither/) - Chris Smither Videos Origin of Species Desolation Row Waiting for a Train You don't need to recognize Chris Smither's Buddha-like presence to savor his straight-up, finger-style blues. And you could hear only his covers to feel grateful for finding him. But what resonates most with Smither's large circle of admirers are his songs of depression, loneliness, finding and losing a lover, battling and surviving demons, and facing our common, certain ending with grace. Smither mostly performs solo, accompanied by his trademark blue guitar and an amplified beat that he foot-taps on a wooden board. He creates silence in a crowded hall --- he binds you to your seat lest your clothes rustle. And then he can bring the house down with a raucous voice, strong beat and gentle humor. Smither's songs have been covered by Bonnie Raitt, Dianna Krall, The Dixie Chicks and others. He grew up in New Orleans and started his musical career on the Boston folk scene in the company of Raitt, John Hammond, Jr., Bob Dylan and Eric Von Schmidt; he cites Lightnin' Hopkins and Mississippi John Hurt as seminal inspirations. He says that he lost a good part of the 1980's to alcohol and quit it. Now in his early 60s, Smither radiates contentment and experience while playing 200+ dates a year in small clubs and thousand-seat halls. Smither's latest, Leave the Light On, is familiar in its range from quiet and contemplative to driving, serious to light-hearted, and for its innovative arrangements of other masters. But it helps to touch on some of his earlier, equally moving and thoughtful music to set the stage for this newest CD. Smither is someone whose full body of work is to be savored as you would a beloved short story writer or poet. We read collections of Cheever, Chekhov, Vonnegut, Larkin, Levine, Rilke, Yeats; so too with Smither. Smither's lyrics come from a metaphysical place. While he can be seen as a straight-up folk and blues singer who has always mixed in covers of Dylan, J.J. Cale and traditional songs, it his own inspired lyrics, sonorous delivery, and simple, clean, blues guitar that create feeling and new meanings out of familiar puzzle pieces. Much of his material is heavy stuff, but like most joyful mystics, he winks at you and delivers “A Better One” (about moving on from failed relations with two-named women to the steady, uncomplicated and dependable love of a single-named dog) and “Winsome Smile” (“She'll say it's all her fault, she'll always be your friend, plus loads of shit too dumb to mention...”). In the title song from Drive You Home Again, Smither describes his world view as he would a car trip: Climb into this car, I will take you for a ride, We won't go very far, But I think better here inside. This is followed by a verse that Thich Nhat Hanh or the Dali Lama could have written: Every step is destination, Every moment is as long, As it will take imagination, To begin and end the song. Part equals all, that's creation, That's the sense that we belong In “Happier Blue”, Smither captures that feeling of what it is to fall in love and wonder whether we were happier in our misery: I was sad and then I loved you. It took my breath. Now I think you love me, and It scares me to death. The first track of “Leave the Light On” launches the CD with a theme central to Smither's take on his and our inner world: I don't think for pleasure, Its just hard not to do. My thinking is a measure of how much I need a clue I'm still flying blind, hoping I might find a way to stop my thinking And open up my mind. In the title cut, Smither offers a positive take on middle age without ignoring the fact that time will run out. “Origin of the Species” is a light-hearted response to fundamental religion; Eve wants to leave Eden because of the snakes, the flood is like New Orleans, only bigger, and then he's on to the theory of evolution: Charlie Darwin looked so far into the way things are. He caught a glimpse of God's unfolding plan. God said, “I'll make some DNA they use it any way they want From paramecium right up to man. They'll have sex, and mix up sections of the code, they'll have mutations. The whole thing works like clockwork over time. I'll just sit back in the shade While everyone gets laid.” That's what I call intelligent design. There's much more, just as good: lightly doubled voices of Spanish guitars and mandolins and the soft touch of Anita Suhanin's vocals. But mostly there are the words and sentiments of Chris Smither, a master songwriter, finger-style blues guitarist and performer. I find that his music carries me to a new geography of the heart and the mind. Like this: Please believe me when I tell you, The hardest part is to begin. I know you think I'm crazy, But we're halfway to the end, And if I drive you to distraction, I will drive you home again. Chris Smither does. --- Guest Butler Michael P. Krupa is a psychologist and health care consultant from Concord, Massachusetts, whose interests include music, photography and poetry. To buy “Leave the Light On” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “Drive You Home Again” from Amazon.com, click here. For Chris Smither's web site, click here.
- [Leo Kottke](https://headbutler.com/reviews/leo-kottke/) - Videos Little Martha Medley Leo Kottke says he loves the guitar because he could make a beautiful sound from one simply by dropping it on the floor. And he does not mean a custom-made beauty. When Kottke walks onstage, he carries a pair of Taylor acoustics that are as plain and unassuming as he is. They have virtually no ornamentation --- not even fretboard dots or other inlays. It is only inside that these guitars are remarkable, with specialized bracing to handle heavy gauge strings that can be tuned several pitches lower than standard. As he has for forty years, Kottke takes the stage and a lone chair to wild applause, places one guitar directly on the floor, and launches into one of his blistering 12-string compositions. Though not born in Minnesota, he is strongly identified with the state ("A Prairie Home Companion" signed off with what was intended to be its final show in 1987 with Leo playing “Crow River Waltz”) and he seems to personify an artful spirit that has endured long sunless winters.
- [Bill Morrissey](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bill-morrissey/) - Guest Butler Michael P. Krupa is a psychologist and health care consultant whose interests include music, photography and poetry. He lives with his wife and children in Concord, Massachusetts. In the short story Where I’m Calling From, Raymond Carver writes of J.P., a fellow traveler in Bill’s “drying out place”, who fell into a dark, dry well when he was 12 years old. Terrified and wetting himself, J.P. hollered himself hoarse until he was pulled up and out and back into the light. Carver’s life experience and his short stories take readers to the bottom and, sometimes, back out into the light with alcoholics, sober and dry, and couples stuck in spare settings and stark circumstances. Carver died young (50), ten years sober, productive, and forever grateful for a new life and a new love in poet Tess Gallagher, having gotten to experience what he called the “gravy years.” Like Carver, to whom he is often compared, singer songwriter Bill Morrissey developed poignant characters and settings and stories and set them to music. Morrissey died last month at the age of 59. Like Carver, Bill died sober and solidly connected to the circle of friends and loved ones who lived in close quarters with his grand but subtle talent as well as his troubles. Bill was a musical street mystic whose work is not nearly as widely known as it deserves to be, no doubt due at least in part to his battles with alcohol and depression. Bill’s story and his music are known in folk circles, especially in New Hampshire where he lived, and in small enclaves beyond. But unlike his sometime manager and early promoter Tom Rush, and in spite of Boston Music Awards for best folk recordings, Grammy nominations and numerous positive Rolling Stone mentions, Bill’s music is not well known outside of those small circles. Bill was talented, prolific, personable, troubled, uncomfortable. He smoked to the point of brown fingers. He was skinny and, even in sobriety, didn’t always look well. He wore flannel shirts and work pants and lived alone with his dog. While other musicians of wider public recognition have voices and stage personas that communicate a kind of dramatic street grit --- say Tom Waits, Leon Redbone --- Bill Morrissey was more a modern day version of Mississippi John Hurt or Robert Johnson, whose songs he admired and covered, with nothing put on or amplified. He was wry and impish and had a sparkle in his eye. Though he did perform in some large and storied venues, Bill’s live performances and his CD’s convey the feeling of a very small stage or even his living room. He sometimes forgot words but was not overly bothered and thus neither were we. His Epiphone guitar was simple and banged up. His playing was clean but sparse. He was a storyteller of subtle but intense mood and feeling. Nothing grand or Springsteen-like. Small moments at the gas station, the airport, a small apartment with a black and white TV, a woman well into life and a marriage. Rounder Records’ 2004 Bill Morrissey The Essential Collection contains 17 previously released songs Bill personally selected with help from his long-time supporter, producer, manager and former wife Ellen Karas, plus three songs written specifically for the collection. Each of these versions are clean and uncluttered by excess ornament while including wonderful touches including Suzanne Vega doubling a vocal, a Hammond B-3 organ, dobro, electric guitar (including child prodigy Duke Levine and Patty Larkin), friend Ed Gerhard on slide guitar and fiddler Johnny Cunningham. The center of every piece is Bill’s writing, baritone vocal, and his exquisitely matched strummed and finger-picked guitar. [To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.] What to share with you? Start with Inside, which opens with a lone violin and includes Suzanne Vega’s lovely vocals: Birches, perhaps Morrissey’s signature piece, takes what on the surface is a similar circumstance to that portrayed Inside --- that of a couple and the inevitable tradeoffs of later life and marriage: They sat at each end of the couch, watched as the fire burned down, So quiet on this winter’s night, not a house light on for miles around. Then he said, “I think I’ll fill the stove, it’s getting time for bed.” She looked up, “I think I’ll have some wine. how ’bout you?” She asked, and he declined… “Warren,” she said, “maybe just for tonight, Let’s fill the stove with birches and watch as the fire burns bright. How long has it been? I know it’s quite a while. Pour yourself half a glass. Stay with me a little while.” And Warren, he shook his head, as if she’d made some kind of joke. “Birches on a winter night? No – we’ll fill the stove with oak. Oak will burn as long and hot as a July afternoon, And birch will burn itself out by the rising of the moon. And you hate a cold house, same as me. Am I right or not?” “All right, all right, that’s true,” she said. “It was just a thought.” Then she said, “Warren, you do look tired. Maybe you should go up to bed. I’ll take care of the wood tonight.” “Oak,” he told her. “Oak,” she said. She listened to his footsteps as he climbed up the stairs, And she pulled a sweater on her, set her wineglass on a chair. She walked down cellar to the wood box — it was as cold as an ice chest – And climbed back up with four logs, each as white as a wedding dress. And she filled the stove and poured the wine and then she sat down on the floor. She curled her legs beneath her as the fire sprang to life once more. And it filled the room with its hungry light and it cracked as it drew air, And the shadows danced a jittery waltz like no one else was there. And she stood up in the heat. She twirled around the room. And the shadows they saw nothing but a young girl on her honeymoon. And she knew the time it would be short; soon the fire would start to fade. She thought of heat. She thought of time. She called it an even trade. Nearly every song in the collection contains just such gems of reflection and feeling and affection for people whose stories are not obviously glorious. And as one who lived near the edge, he had a wry take on mortality, as in Letter from Heaven, in which he reports on Mama Cass, Charlie Parker, Jimmy Hendrix and others: And me I couldn’t be happier. Yea the service here is fine. They got dinner ready at half past nine And I’m going steady with Patsy Cline And just last night in the barroom I bought Robert Johnson a beer Yea, I know, everybody’s always surprised to find him here. It’s a great life here in Heaven. It’s better than the Bible said. It’s a great life here in heaven. It’s a great life when you’re dead. We hope so, Bill.
- [Seamus Heaney](https://headbutler.com/reviews/seamus-heaney/) - I owe a great debt to Seamus Heaney. I finished my novel. Or so I thought. My agent agreed. Almost. There was one thing missing. A small thing. I could do it efficiently and quickly. I did. Or rather, I wrote my agent to say I did. I was reading the book one more time, I said. You’ll have it tomorrow. I stayed up late. I wrote and wrote. Not a word of it solved the problem. In the morning, I read that Seamus Heaney had died. Very sad news: He was young, just 74. And, it is generally agreed, the most accomplished poet writing in English. Newspapers and online sites reprinted some of his poems. I read them --- and Seamus Heaney, from the grave, solved my problem. The thing I needed to fix: Something’s gone wrong in David’s marriage, and his wife has moved out. His law partner assures him that Blair will return; if he’s smart, he won’t ask her about the weeks she’s been gone. Easy to say, hard to do. Then he remembers a Seamus Heaney poem. This is how that chapter of my book ends: The title of the poem is “The Underground.” That’s the London subway, of course. It’s also a reference to the Orpheus myth. A snake bites his wife, and she dies; broken by grief, Orpheus goes to the Underworld to rescue her. Hard-hearted Hades hears his music and tells him: You can have her, but if you look back before you’re in the upper world, you will lose her forever. Just before they reach safety, Orpheus can’t resist --- he looks back. In Heaney’s poem, he and his wife are in London on their honeymoon. They’re in the subway, late for a concert. She’s running ahead of him, buttons popping off her coat, and he follows, like Hansel in the fairy tale, collecting the buttons. This is how the poem ends: Our echoes die in that corridor and now I come as Hansel came on the moonlit stones Retracing the path back, lifting the buttons To end up in a draughty lamplit station After the trains have gone, the wet track Bared and tensed as I am, all attention For your step following and damned if I look back. When Heaney taught at Harvard, his wife stayed in Ireland, raising their children. He flew home every six weeks. A smart man, a good husband --- no scandal is attached to his name. Seamus and Marie Heaney were married for 48 years. Damned if I’ll look back. So there I was, a dot in Heaney’s vast shadow. And grateful for it --- with his prod, those words typed themselves. But then, in poem after poem, Heaney’s words seem… inevitable. He had the Irish gift --- the gift of bullshit --- but unlike, say, Bono, he didn’t use words for self-glorification. As someone said, he saw the Nobel Prize (among friends, he spoke of “the N-word”) as encouragement to do better. [To buy the paperback of “Opened Ground: Selected Poems, 1966-1996” from Amazon, click here.] Heaney was that rare event: a great writer, a great man. He taught. He mentored. He praised. He parented. And still did the internal work that led to a book of selected poems that topped 400 pages. "Seamus never had a sour moment, neither in person nor on paper," said the playwright Tom Stoppard. "You couldn't help loving him any more than you could help reading on from the first line." The life, in brief: Born in Northern Ireland, in 1939, the eldest of nine children. (A younger brother, age four, was killed by a car. His poem about the death ends: “Wearing a poppy bruise on the left temple/ He lay in the four foot box as in a cot./ No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear./ A four foot box, a foot for every year.") He won a scholarship to a school that nourished him, earned a college degree in English, taught, married, wrote. In college, he said of his writing, “I was just kicking the ball around the penalty area, not trying to shoot at the goal. Then in 1962 the current began to flow.” The Heaney poems you may have seen quoted mostly describe a world as foreign to us as the moon, a rural world of lorries, peat, wells, animals and the heavy tread of the Church. As he describes it in his Nobel Prize speech: …in rural Co. Derry, we crowded together in the three rooms of a traditional thatched farmstead and lived a kind of den-life which was more or less emotionally and intellectually proofed against the outside world. It was an intimate, physical, creaturely existence in which the night sounds of the horse in the stable beyond one bedroom wall mingled with the sounds of adult conversation from the kitchen beyond the other. We took in everything that was going on… But don’t make the mistake of thinking Heaney is as accessible as Robert Frost. Many poems, especially the later ones, read like stories or letters, but for the earlier ones, it would help if you have a command of myth and poetry. The through line: language. His delight in being at college is “exhilarated self-regard.” About writing: “Cultivate a work-lust/ that imagines its haven like your hands at night/ dreaming the sun in the sunspot of a breast.” A poem, he write, is “a ploughshare that turns time/ Up and over” --- like cutting peat. Because there’s always a connection between where he’s from and where he is now. As in “Digging,” one of his most frequently quoted poems: Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests; snug as a gun. Under my window, a clean rasping sound When the spade sinks into gravelly ground: My father, digging. I look down Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds Bends low, comes up twenty years away Stooping in rhythm through potato drills Where he was digging. The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft Against the inside knee was levered firmly. He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep To scatter new potatoes that we picked, Loving their cool hardness in our hands. By God, the old man could handle a spade. Just like his old man. My grandfather cut more turf in a day Than any other man on Toner’s bog. Once I carried him milk in a bottle Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up To drink it, then fell to right away Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods Over his shoulder, going down and down For the good turf. Digging. The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge Through living roots awaken in my head. But I’ve no spade to follow men like them. Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests. I’ll dig with it. “If you have the words,” he said, “there's always a chance that you'll find the way.” Did he ever.
- [The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-boy-the-mole-the-fox-and-the-horse/) - "The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse" is a British book that has sold millions of books in England, a great many in the United States, and has 100,000 5-star reviews on Amazon, with many readers saying it’s changed their lives and they’re giving it to everyone they care about. It’s been translated
- [Josh Ritter: The Cheat Sheet](https://headbutler.com/reviews/josh-ritter-cheat-sheet/) - Josh Ritter is a poster child for this site --- a great talent who produces real art and deserves to be better known. I’m a fool for his songwriting, his CDs and his performances, which is why I've written about him more often than I have about any other musician. And some of you have paid attention: T. flew from Lake Tahoe, California to Portland, Oregon to see Josh in a tiny club. A diplomat took a group to hear him in Brussels. I routinely get mail on other topics that ends with, “Oh, and for Josh Ritter….big thanks." Now Josh has written a novel, “Bright’s Passage," which will be published by a real publisher (The Dial Press, a division of Random House), on June 28. [To pre-order the book from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] It gives me no great pleasure to announce this, and I believe you’d take my side here --- I, a professional writer, am still hacking away at my novel, while this… musician has, in the midst of writing and recording and touring, finished his. It pains me equally to report that I have read said novel, and that I have found it good. Not just okay, or good-for-a-musician, but actually good. Veteran readers, who recall how often I have carried water for Josh, may be groaning at that --- you fear I’ll unleash weeks of Butler columns extolling his book. Wrong. Just one. On Tuesday, June 28. But it occurred to me that not everyone knows who Josh Ritter is, and so, just this once, I’m posting a cheat sheet. If you’re going to read his book, it might amuse you to play English major and compare his fiction to his songs. And if you have no interest in his fiction, consider this one last --- promise! --- pitch for his music. The facts you need are few. Born in Idaho. Oberlin College. Endless touring. A first CD, made for $1,000. More touring. And then the cheering started. What's the cheering for? First, that he’s a Serious Artist. But very quickly add to that: a Serious Artist who has a great time at his own concerts. Happy? Onstage, he’s overjoyed. And, often, a total goofball. Near the end of a song, he is fully capable of making a perfectly timed but totally inept 360-degree twirl on one foot, like a kid who has just picked up a guitar and thinks he's cool because he can play the opening notes of “Satisfaction.” He has a lovely way of laughing at his own stories. And then there is the occasional off-the-wall song --- like the ditty about a man and woman who fall in love guarding a Minuteman missile in a silo. No wonder he sometimes describes his music as “nerd rock.” The CD that newbies should start with is “The Animal Years,” which refers to the years of unending touring. Most of the Ritter “classics” come from this CD; it’s nothing if not accessible. [To buy the CD of “Animal Years” from Amazon, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.] From “Animal Years” --- if you watch “House,” you may have heard “Good Man.” Also from “Animal Years” --- if you listen to alternative radio, you cannot have escaped “Wolves.” Now, if you will, compare “Animal Years” to his next CD, “The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter.” Night and day. Here the lyrics are less important than the music. “It feels like a leg-breaker ---- like a guy you send out to collect debts,” Josh says. No fooling. The drums thunder. The guitars slash. The string section, to steal a line from one of the songs, is “screaming like horses in a barn burning up.” None of it's quite sufficient: “I put a whip to the kick drum/But the music's never loud enough.” And, yet, for all that, it’s a pop album. [To buy the CD of “Conquests” from Amazon, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.] And then there is the most recent CD, “So Runs the World Away.” It’s lush, intensely produced, complicated, poetic. You may not get it on first listen. But if you give it time, it grows on you; you see colors you missed, lines you didn’t hear. And then you can’t do without it. [To buy the CD of “World” from Amazon, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.] Shall we have a quiz? With a prize, even? The first two responses with the most right answers get a copy of Josh’s novel. With luck, signed. All you have to do is “Name That Tune.” Here are the lines: 1. “I love the way she looks in her underwear.” 2, “The comedy of distance, the tragedy of separation….” 3. “Don't let me into this year with an empty heart.” 4. “Did you look up at the stars and feel something for the constellations?” 5. “The lake was a diamond in the valley's hand.” 6. “The living is desperate/ Precarious and mean/ And getting by is so hard/ That even the rocks are picked clean/ And the bones of small contention/ Are the only food the hungry find” 7. “New lands for the living/ I could make it if I tried/ I closed my eyes/ I kept on swimming.” 8. “All the other girls here are stars --- you are the Northern Lights.” 9. “I'd rather be the one who loves than to be loved and never even know.” 10. “Could have stayed somewhere but the train tracks kept going/ And it seems like they always left soon/ and the wolves that he ran with they moaned low and painful/ sang sad misereres to the moon” You know how to find me. And now, Josh. BONUS VIDEO I moved “Four Songs Live” to my iPod and listened to it at maximum volume. It took me until the second song to understand what was happening in that Irish club --- the crowd knew all the words (and there can be quite a lot of words in a Josh Ritter song). These kids weren't just singing along; they were shouting. Thrilling. [To buy the CD of “Four Songs” from Amazon, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.]
- [The Perks of Being a Wallflower](https://headbutler.com/reviews/badgleysneed-designs/) - “The Silver Linings Playbook” was nominated for 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay. It won one: Jennifer Lawrence, Best Actress. And sold $132 million in tickets in America. “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” received no nominations. In American theaters, its gross ticket sales were $17 million. When I saw these films, with their similar themes, I thought "Perks" was the better movie. The other day, it was on HBO. I was doing something in another room, but I listened to one scene, and then I listened to another, and then I went in and surrendered to the film, and when it was over, I thought, simply, wow. “Perks” is about Charlie (Logan Lerman), a high school student with heavy baggage and one hope: that he’ll fit in at school and make friends. And he does --- with the freaks, notably the flamboyantly gay Patrick (Ezra Miller) and Patrick’s stepsister, Sam (Emma Watson). "Perks" has the usual high school issues: cliques, insecurity, sex, love, loneliness. Oh, and bullying. And homophobia. And, lurking below the surface, mental health. Patrick survives --- really: triumphs --- through his friendships. He makes a place for himself in his world. And, in the process, he remakes himself. The presentation of the mental health issues in “Silver Linings” strikes me as slick and shallow. The performances are compelling, but they can hardly be anything else: This is a brilliant entertainment that produces predictable tears --- Hollywood tears. “Perks,” in contrast, presents less "likeable," more "exotic" characters, and yet you can identify with them --- and love them as if their struggles are yours. Over and over as I watched it I thought: I’ve been there. My suggestion: You have too. [To buy the DVD from Amazon for $9.99, click here. There is no rental video stream currently available on Amazon. To buy the video stream costs more than the DVD, so....] Here’s the preview: And here's a signature moment, right at the start of the film, when Charlie is just getting to know Patrick and Sam. The song is "Heroes," by David Bowie. It's not casually chosen. Like the gun in Chekhov, we'll see this moment again. And we'll hear someone say: "I know there are people who say these things don't happen, and there are people who forget what it was like to be 16 when they turn 17, and I know these will all be stories someday, and our pictures will all become photographs, and we’ll all become somebody’s mom and dad. but right now these moments are not stories, this is happening, I am here, and I am looking at her and..." My eyes mist here, so I'm not going to stop. But consider: In our little lives, "we could be heroes, just for one day." Heroes. Sad Charlie. Lonely Sam. Gay Patrick. You. Me. Heroes.
- [Defending Jacob](https://headbutler.com/reviews/defending-jacob/) - A father. A mother. A son, their only child. The father is an assistant district attorney, acute professionally, but personally damaged and limited. The mother is a cipher, poorly characterized. The boy, 14, is a nasty, remote piece of shit who wouldn’t answer a direct question if you bitch-slapped him. I cared about none of them --- and yet I kept reading, turning pages fast, skimming, fighting the urge to skip to the last page to see how it all worked out. Hated it. Hated them. Hated myself for being sucked in to a book that critics have compared to Scott Turow’s genre-defining “Presumed Innocent,” which it is so not. But if you want to lose yourself in a legal thriller, yeah, you’d do well to read “Defending Jacob” before the movie’s made. [To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] The setup is more than clever. In Newton, Massachusetts, Ben Rifkin is killed on his way to school. It’s a high-profile case, so Andy Barber, an assistant district attorney, keeps it for himself. He does this because he’s the highest-ranking ADA, not because his son Jacob was in Ben’s class and might, for all he knows, be a suspect. But Jacob does become a suspect. Andy is taken off the case. And then, when Jacob is arrested for the murder, Andy’s placed on leave. Soon enough, Andy’s working for Jacob’s son’s defense lawyer, desperate to prove his son’s innocence --- just what any father who’s a lawyer would do. Twists? Here they come. Andy has a big secret, never shared with his wife, which might be a factor in the killing – or not. His wife has a boatload of anecdotes about Jacob’s childhood, which, taken together, could indicate he’s a bit more than just another sullen teen --- or not. And then another shadowy character enters the plot. And then, at the end, there’s a revelation I should have seen coming --- and didn’t. And then, at the very end, another --- believe me, you will not guess it. Maybe Andy Barber needs to be so dense for the plot to work. Maybe his wife has to be more than the warm, nurturing cliché at the center of her circle of friends for the story to make its shocking turns. Maybe William Landay doesn’t write with his feet. Here’s Chapter 1. Decide for yourself. After you’re devoured “Defending Jacob,” you have one more thrill. If you’ve haven’t read “Presumed Innocent,” get to it. Because it is, after all, the greatest thriller about a lawyer, a murder and his family that anyone has ever written --- or will. [To buy the paperback of “Presumed Innocent” from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.]
- [Ram Dass](https://headbutler.com/reviews/ram-dass/) - "How good it is when brothers and sisters dwell together in harmony.” That was the huge banner hanging on the back wall of the church. My wife and I had come to be with Krishna Das, who has been singing Hindu holy music since he went to India 40 years ago. As a bonus, Krishna Das would be celebrating the 40th anniversary of the publication of “Be Here Now” with a short film and a beamed-in visit with its author, Ram Dass. Who in the spiritual set doesn’t love Krishna Das? And as for Ram Dass --- how many people were inspired to start on the path by their reading of his landmark book? So the mood in the church was powerfully…well, harmonious. Picture it: more than a thousand friendly people, eager for a group experience of divine love. I wasn’t feeling it. This very day, every Republican in the Senate pledged to block all legislation until the President endorsed a continuation of tax cuts for the rich. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell --- here to stay. A crucial arms control treaty --- won’t be signed. A continuation of benefits for the chronically unemployed --- not happening. I was livid. When will the poor, the gays in the military, the children who don’t want missiles landing on their homes stop being so goddamn cheap and start buying politicians like the special interests do? Oh. Right. They can’t hire afford K Street lobbyists. Okay, I tell myself, we must start where we are. And where I am, as soon as Krishna Das starts his harmonium going, is in a very good place. I have flunked out of Judaism, failed to master meditation, read Buddhist texts instead of doing the practice. But Hinduism 101 --- an evening of kirtan, a Hindu prayer service that takes the form of a singalong --- just might be possible for me. Little problem, however. Here is Ram Dass, talking about meeting his guru, and passing on Maharaj-ji’s core message. And what he is saying is: “Love everybody.” More or less like this: I understand. But really --- love John Boehner? Rush? Glenn Beck? Sarah Palin? And I could go on. But there’s no wiggle room in Maharaj-ji’s message. And Krishna Das and Ram Dass, in passing it on, don’t insert any qualifiers. “Love everybody.” That’s it. In the protected space of this church, for a lot of other people, it seems to work. (By “people,” I mean mostly women. For whatever reason --- and I can suggest a few --- fewer men respond to this vibration.) Many are not beautiful in any conventional sense, and yet, as I scan the room, I hear the Beatles’ line: “How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?” Off to the side, I spot a woman dancing. There’s no more concise way to say this: To see her dance is to know how she makes love --- she’s that free. There was a time when I’d look at a women dancing like that and think, “Yeah, I could hit that.” Tonight, what I think is: How am I ever going to get there? Make no mistake: Krishna Das has real power, and if he wanted everyone here to be dancing with abandon, he could make that happen. As a performer, he’s completely natural. But that ease is deceptive --- he’s a great showman, with a keen sense of pacing. And if you’re obsessed with the Big Picture, the show he’s putting on is, quite literally, The Greatest Show on Earth. It’s to his credit that he doesn’t incite mass ecstasy. I don’t want to make this evening sound like some granola party. Just the opposite --- “Love Everyone” kicked me hard and brought up a ton of shit. Which I got to look at, close up. Not a bad thing. Just a very hard thing, this moving away from the mind and into the heart. “A book doesn’t give a living transmission,” Ram Dass has said. Yes, but I’m addicted to reading. So of course I went back and re-read “Be Here Now.” (To buy the paperback of "Be Here Now" from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.) Maybe I’m skittish about looking back at the folly that was my own life in 1970, but I wasn’t as captivated by the book as I’d been Back Then. The new book by Ram Dass, “Be Love Now: The Path of the Heart,” was much more bracing. How could it not be? Maharaj-ji died in 1973, but by then, Ram Dass knew him very well --- and as he’d be the first to say, he’s come to know his guru a great deal better since his death. The first part of the book is about Maharaj-ji’s teachings; it’s mercifully brief, because, after all, Maharaj-ji’s message is so very simple. After that, the book is mostly stories --- what it was like to be around an enlightened master. (To buy “Be Love Now” from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.) If you think The Miraculous is just sleight-of-hand --- Siegfried & Roy, performed by a guy in a diaper --- this is not the book for you. Maharaj-ji stops trains. Reads minds. Appears in several places at once. Consider the bus story: “Miracles only happen for those who believe in them,” C.S. Lewis wrote. Well, I want to believe. But not just for me. I want to believe that John Boehner will suddenly have a vision of an unemployed father wondering how he’s going to buy just one present for his kids at Christmas. I want to believe that Rush will have a vision of the size of the mountain of lies he has told for so many years. I want to believe Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin will have a vision of the ways words morph into weapons. I want to believe, with the words on the last frame of one of the Ram Dass videos, that we can “Love People, Feed People, Serve People, Remember God. First --- unfortunately --- I’ve got to make some peace with myself. And in this effort, I do believe that Ram Dass and Krishna Das can be good allies. BONUS: Krishna Das
- [365 Tao: Daily Meditations](https://headbutler.com/reviews/365-tao-daily-meditations/) - Oklahoma: Head Butler doesn’t look as if it has a community --- there are no message boards --- but it is. You write, I respond, and if you keep at it, we come to know one another. And, like a real butler, I occasionally connect you to other readers. Along the way, because of the intimacy of some of the books/movies/music I write about, some of us become real friends. Lisa Cox and I are about as close as two people who have never met can possibly be. She lives in Oklahoma and does good work there; she’s seriously smart and has a 30-gallon heart. And she had a suggestion about helping people in Moore: send money to the First Baptist Church of Moore. I understand that the default advice is to give to the Red Cross. But there was loud and profane criticism of the Red Cross in my city after Sandy. And Lisa’s endorsement seals it for me: “This church is well equipped to deal with disaster, as it did in May 1999 and in 2003. Mike Denton, my childhood friend, serves the community of Moore as a leader in that church and will know where best to use the funds so that they go directly to serve the families most impacted.” The First Baptist Church of Moore is at 301 NE 27th, Moore OK 73160. 405-793-2600. ----------------------------- Guest Butler Dominique Browning is the author of Slow Love: How I Lost My Job, Put on My Pajamas, and Found Happiness and the creator of slowlovelife, one of the web’s ten best blogs. I’ve never reposted a review before. For this book and this writer, how could I not? Often I will see something that strikes me, but I am in a hurry and rush past. Then I cannot stop thinking about what I have just seen, so I return. Even if I have only my cell phone, I snap some pictures, because I know that I am going to want to think about (and share) what's caught my attention. Walking under the scaffolding erected around a building this winter I noticed that some of the branches had been tucked underneath. I wondered how they would fare. And then I forgot about them. A week ago I happened to be on the same route. The trees, sturdy urban pears, as it happens, were resplendent, leafed out. But what was truly wonderful was that the branches trapped by the metal siding were equally boisterous. They were on their own time clock, a bit delayed in their development. But they were blooming. At around the same time a friend sent me a lovely little book of days --- a book that one is expected to read one page at a time, every day. I'm usually not good with such contours. I want to rush ahead through the month, look back to see what I missed over the year. But I decided to curb that enthusiastic impulse as best I could and instead focus on where I was (supposed to be.) I feel, at some intuitive level, that I'm in one of those life "wrinkles" (a karmic moment?) in which I am meant to be learning a very important lesson --- but I'm not sure what it is. I'm really training myself to be open to leads ---"what the universe hands you" as some put it. The book is "365 Tao: Daily Meditations." Since college, I've been drawn to rooting around in the literature and living of Tao, and as my younger son is studying the same, I'm humming alongside him. I try to keep open avenues of connection with family and with friends --- those conversational highways often require maintenance, keeping up, finding on ramps, that sort of thing. [To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] Theo, as a ten-year old, once complained about an adult he wasn't connecting with, and whom he felt didn't appreciate him: "We just don't have topic compatibility, Mom." I had never considered that concept but since then have found it enormously useful. Techies refer to "stickiness" -- or "connectivity." Velcro is a useful image, and so are burrs. (Can there be too much connection?) Some peoples' minds connect, affinities instantly spring up and there is no limit to talking, searching, examining, getting to know one another. With others, meh. Anyway, a recent entry in 365 Tao is about "Acceptance," and in metaphorical spirit it seems to be about rain and drought. (Useful enough, that: the writer advises that we not plant a garden of water-demanding flowers during drought, as that is ignorant and egotistical.) But acceptance does not mean passivity or stagnation. "Those who follow Tao do not believe in being helpless," he writes. "They believe in acting within the framework of circumstance." And perhaps that's why those flowering branches stopped me in my tracks. "I am Tao," they seem to say. "I am trapped under scaffolding, out of the light, away from rinsing showers. The wind cannot even shake my flowers loose. But what do I do? I bloom, anyway! The scaffolding is actually a marvelously textured backdrop for my extravagant beauty --- like the meticulously raked grooves of sand in a Zen garden, against which prickly pine needles will look soft and feathery. My blossoms have nothing to do with my circumstances. They have to do with who I am. My beauty comes from deep within, from the essential core of my being, from my rootedness. I will make the most of this unfortunate circumstance. Because I cannot help myself. I must bloom." Lately I seem to be hearing so many stories of people feeling trapped, stuck, unhappy in their lives, unable to take root. Does acceptance help? Does seeing how you are, in adversity, help you see who you are? So: Whether or not you have topic compatibility with someone you love: Bloom. Whether or not you feel noticed, attended to, in the sunshine of someone's attention: Bloom. Whether or not you asked to be pinned up against life's scaffolding: Bloom. Unfold in your own time, but bloom, because that is who you are, no matter what the circumstance. [reposted from www.slowlovelife.com]
- [Rumi](https://headbutler.com/reviews/essential-rumi/) - The greatest Muslim poet was born in what is now Afghanistan, back when Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists lived peacefully together. His funeral lasted 40 days, and he was mourned by Christians, Jews, Muslims, Persians and Greeks. Okay, Rumi was born in 1207 and died in 1273. That turns out to have been a turbulent era --- but there’s not a word about discord in his poems. And there’s no record of any criticism coming his way because he was a Sufi and a scholar of the Koran. Indeed, at his funeral, Christians proclaimed, “He was our Jesus!” while Jews cried, “He was our Moses!” Both were right. Rumi belongs to everyone. And always will. It makes perfect sense that this 13th century Muslim is now said to be the best-selling poet in 21st century America. The ultimate reason, of course, is the poetry itself. But first, let’s set the poetry into the life….. His father was rich, a Sufi mystic and theologian. There's a famous story of Rumi, at 12, traveling with his father. A great poet saw the father walking ahead and Rumi hurrying to keep up. "Here comes a sea followed by an ocean," he said. Rumi studied, became a noted scholar. Then, when he was 37, he met Shams of Tabriz, a thorny personality. But Shams was God-intoxicated; nothing else mattered. And so their meeting was catalytic. As Rumi said: “What I had thought of before as God I met today in a human being.” He dropped everything to be with Shams. Then Shams disappeared. Later, he reappeared --- only to be murdered, probably by Rumi’s jealous son. But by then Rumi was also God-obsessed, and he understood: Between lovers, there can be no separation: Why should I seek? I am the same as he. His essence speaks through me. I have been looking for myself. Rumi produced 70,000 verses --- but he never actually wrote a poem. Pressed by a friend to record his thoughts, he pulled out some lines he'd scribbled. “More!” begged Husameddin Celebi. Rumi's response: “Celebi, if you consent to write for me, I will recite." And Rumi began to dictate. It was quite the process, with Rumi sometimes calling out poems as he danced. As Celebi would write: "He never took a pen in his hand while composing. Wherever he happened to be, whether in the school, at the hot springs, in the baths or in the vineyards, I would write down what he recited. Often I could barely keep up with his pace, sometimes, night and day for several days. At other times he would not compose for months, and once for two years there was nothing. At the completion of each book I would read it back to him, so that he could correct what had been written." As a poet, Rumi was as clear as he was deep. His story-poems are riddles you can solve. His poems are little telegrams, straight from his heart to yours. Whatever it cost him to write is hidden. His point is: Here is honey. Taste. Eat. [To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] And is there ever nourishment in his work! Consider: No matter how fast you run, your shadow more than keeps up. Sometimes it's in front. Only full, overhead sun diminishes your shadow. But that shadow has been serving you! What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is your candle. Your boundaries are your quest. Don't mistake straightforward speech for simplicity; Rumi is as brain-busting as Zen. For example: Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open? Which reminds me of a story Rumi tells: A friend sends a prayer rug to a man in prison. What the man wanted, however, was a key or file --- he wanted to break out. Still, he began to sit on the rug and pray. Eventually he noticed an odd pattern in the rug. He meditated on it --- and realized it was a diagram of the lock that held him in his cell. Escape came easily after that..... Escape comes more easily after you read these poems. You may well find yourself, like Rumi, saying: Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that. And I intend to end up there.
- [Branch Rickey](https://headbutler.com/reviews/brach-rickey/) - Major League Baseball is racially integrated now: In 2022, 38% of the players were men of color. Before we tip our caps to a racially diverse sport, consider this: For the first time since Jackie Robinson’s early days as a big leaguer, there were no U.S.-born Black players in the 2022 World Series. Which brings me
- [We Need to Talk About Kevin](https://headbutler.com/reviews/we-need-talk-about-kevin/) - I can't remember the last time I threw a book across the room. Well, I did that several times on the long, painful day I read 'We Need to Talk About Kevin.' I had my reasons, Mostly, the characters, and, of course, the way Lionel Shriver pushes their story --- their stupidity, confusion, humanity; call it what you want -- in your face. Start with the mother, Eva Khatchadourian --- hey, bitch, your son is redlining a Harley on the highway to hell, and you're making only modest bleats of distress. The father, Franklin --- hey, moron, your son is a stone cold psychopath, he's playing you for a chump, and all you can think is that your wife exaggerates his problems. The kid himself, the Kevin of the title --- hey, punk, you get off on seeing people suffer? You have a bit of a problem accessing anything like a human feeling? Cool. Take this. [Sound of a total whoop-ass beating.] So I threw the book. As would you. Because this novel tells us, right at the get-go, that, on April 8, 1999, Kevin has taken a cross-bow to his New Jersey high school and killed seven students, a cafeteria worker and the teacher who cared most for him. He has been tried and sentenced and is now in jail, with five years --- just five? --- still to serve. His mother, now living alone, is trying to make sense of this disaster, and is writing the story in the form of letters to her husband.
- [Mental Clarity](https://headbutler.com/reviews/banyan-botanicals-mental-clarity/) - Carol Fitzgerald has been my partner in bookreporter.com for 25 years. Her memory is terrifying. Books, publishers, sales, writers — the modern history of publishing is in her head. Last week, an epic fail: “I was doing a quick errand and decided not to carry my pocketbook. Instead I tossed my driver’s license in a small leather
- [Amadou & Mariam: Dimanche a Bamako](https://headbutler.com/reviews/dimanche-bamako/) - Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia are from Mali. They met in the 1970s, married in 1980 and started performing together. Like their fellow musicians from Mali, they started with their country's version of the blues. Along the way, they went international and borrowed from cultures as diverse as Cuba and France. And they became very popular indeed. Small fact: They're blind. Both of them. And possessed of the unusual joy that is the special province of some of the unsighted.
- [Weekend Butler: "Things change." Play ball! A dead dog in a Hermès bag on the Champs-Élysées. A timely movie. A funny kid. A good use of zucchini. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-8/) - “NOT ALWAYS SO… THINGS CHANGE” The first thing that fascinated me about Shunryu Suzuki — the monk who’s mostly responsible for bringing Zen to America — was his response when he was asked to summarize Buddhism in a sentence. The audience laughed at the impossibility of that challenge. Suzuki had a ready answer. “Easy,” he
- [Colette: Break of Day](https://headbutler.com/reviews/colette/) - But here she asks a remarkable question: Who obsesses a woman most --- her mother or her man? We're trained by habit and media to think only of the man, the night, the perfume, the champagne. And then there's reality. As women hit their 50s and "the change" frees them from an insistent awareness of reproduction.... but this is beyond me. So I turn to Colette.
- [A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table](https://headbutler.com/reviews/homemade-life-stories-and-recipes-my-kitchen-table/) - A book that begins with a father, surveying the dinner table, remarking, “You know, we eat better at home than most people do in restaurants” --- how can you not be instantly hooked? Especially when you learn he's not praising a wife who's studied at Cordon Bleu and whips out four-star masterpieces night after night. As his daughter tells us: There were hot dogs sometimes, and cans of baked beans. Our garlic came in a jar, minced and ready, and our butter was known to go rancid. So what was so great about meals at the Oklahoma City home of Morris Wizenberg? It was the steady rhythm of meeting in the kitchen every night, sitting down at the table, and sharing a meal. Dinner didn't come through a swinging door, balanced on the arm of an anonymous waiter; it was something that we made together. We built our family that way --- in the kitchen, seven nights a week. We built a life for ourselves, together around that table. And although I couldn't admit it then, my father was showing me, in his pleasure and in his pride, how to live wholly, hungrily, loudly. And so it came to pass, right there on page two of A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table, that I fell in love with Molly Wizenberg. Because she had what so many of us want --- a childhood with a steady rhythm and loving parents. And because she had incorporated what she learned during those meals so she can, without embarrassment, write directly and emotionally about her family. This book has 50 recipes, and many of them are fine and useful, if a bit tilted in favor of cakes and breads, pancakes and cookies. But they're not the reason that Orangette.com --- the blog that got Molly Wizenberg started, the blog that got her a gig at Bon Appetit magazine and a book contract --- was named “the world's top food blog” by The Times of London. I mean, her father's recipe for potato salad called for ranch dressing and three-quarters of a cup of mayonnaise. That ain't gourmet. The reason to read this book --- the reason to put down whatever you're currently reading and devour these 300 pages right now --- is that it connects the food to the people who cooked it and ate it. It's a memoir about a family, a real family. About a father who loved crossword puzzles, Dylan Thomas, his kids, his wife in high heels, a cold beer on Saturdays. And his daughter. A kid who is loved by her father and knows it --- life will have a hard time crushing her. Molly Wizenberg left Oklahoma for graduate study in France before deciding she really wanted to do something with food. To support herself, she sold olive oils and taught English in Paris, then moved to Seattle and worked at a Pilates studio and as a publicist for an academic publisher. She didn't have many dates. Her first major kiss came rather late, in my view; her first big love (in Paris, of course) was unconsummated, unless you give him extra points for introducing her to Tarte Tatin. Not exactly a “career path”. But the most important people in her life believed in her and told her so. And when her dad got sick..... Yes, this is that book. We meet “Burg”, learn his eccentricities, get his recipes for French toast (he used oil, not butter) and stewed prunes with citrus and cinnamon (which is, as Molly says, excellent when slightly warmed and served atop Greek yogurt). But exactly halfway into the book, when we are attuned to its music and want this quirky family story to go on and on, Molly's father got cancer and died. At 73. Very quickly. He went in for tests and surgery, fully expecting to leave the hospital and start chemo, but when the surgeons opened him up, they found no future inside him. A book about meals is elemental, and that gives a food writer an edge when it comes time for her to write an account of death. Molly Wizenberg's chapters about her father --- his compressed dying and the long, long aftermath --- are as good as it gets. Believe me, you will weep. And cheer. Because she nails every moment. Like, after he died: I won't tell you that it was hard. You already know that. I was so numb sometimes that my hands stopped working, just locked themselves into funny, pinched fists. But then there was the gratitude, a sort of low-grade, queasy gratitude, that he was free. There is the grieving, and the recipes from new friends, and the memories of her father that remind her of more recipes, and then, because she wants to write, she starts her blog. Soon she gets an e-mail from a young New York composer who, like her, had lived in France. Brandon Pettit writes: “My friend Meredith and I relate to you because your writing is exactly how we feel and talk about food and life.” Molly writes back. And.... It's going to sound silly, I know, but I think that what it all comes down to is winning hearts and minds. Underneath everything else, all the plans and goals and hopes, that's why we get up in the morning, why we believe, why we try, why we bake chocolate cakes. That's the best we can ever hope to do: to win hearts and minds, to love and be loved. Foodies will come for the recipes, stay for the stories. Others will cherish “A Homemade Life” for the writing. Women's book clubs --- they'll show up by the thousands, making this book huge. Her father would be so proud. Ah, recipes. Try these.... Apple and Butternut Squash Soup Serves 4-5 If possible, make this soup a day or two ahead; its flavors meld and deepen after a day or so of sitting the fridge. one-quarter cup olive oil 1 2-lb butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 2-inch pieces (about 4 cups) 2 flavorful apples, preferably Gala, peeled, cored, and cut into 2-inch pieces (about 2 cups) 1 large onion, peeled and coarsely chopped (about 1 cup) three-quarter tsp curry powder three-quarter tsp ground mace one half tsp ground cardamom 1 cup good-quality apple cider 1 quart chicken stock (vegetable works fine as well) one half tsp salt one-quarter tsp freshly ground pepper, preferably white Heat oil in a large stockpot over medium-low heat. Add the squash, apples, and onion, and stir to coat with oil. Sauté uncovered, stirring occasionally, for ten to fifteen minutes, or until onion is transparent. Stir in the mace, curry, and cardamom, and continue cooking until the onion begins to brown. Add the cider. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, and cook for three minutes. Add the stock, lower the heat to medium-low, and simmer the mixture, partially covered, for another 35 minutes, or until squash is tender. Working in batches, blend mixture in a food processor or blender until smooth (be careful to not overfill, as hot liquid could expand when machine is switched on, making a huge, burning-hot mess). Return soup to the stockpot. Reduce the soup, uncovered, over medium-low heat, to about one-fourth. Stir occasionally. Stir in salt and pepper, and serve hot. Stewed Prunes with Citrus and Cinnamon 1 orange, OR 2 small tangerines, OR 1 small orange and half a lemon 1 pound pitted prunes, preferably organic 1 cinnamon stick Cut the citrus fruit in half vertically, and then slice it thinly, peel and all. Place the slices in a medium saucepan with the prunes and the cinnamon stick, and add water to cover. Bring the mixture to a gentle simmer, and cook over medium-low heat for about 30-45 minutes, until the prunes are quite tender, the citrus slices are soft and glassy, and the liquid in the pan is caramelly. Remove the cinnamon stick and serve, or store in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to a week. I find that they're actually better after a little rest, so I try to make mine a day or so before I want to eat them. To buy “A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy the Kindle edition of “A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table” from Amazon.com, click here. To visit Molly Wizenberg's blog, click here. To read an interview with Molly Wizenberg, click here.
- [Lunch at the Shop: The Art and Practice of the Midday Meal](https://headbutler.com/reviews/lunch-at-the-shop-the-art-and-practice-of-the-midday-meal/) - A reader threatened me: “One more cookbook, and I’m outta here.” Dude, don’t go. The concept of “Lunch at the Shop: The Art and Practice of the Midday Meal” --- making lunch at the office --- is as American as Kim Kardashian. The photographs are terrific, courtesy of Christopher Hirscheimer and Melissa Hamilton, who you
- [Margin Call](https://headbutler.com/reviews/margin-call/) - So your firm is leveraged 40 to 1. And its holdings are shaky --- those damned European investments. Regulators show up to make sure you have enough capital to be legit. You’re ready for them --- the day before, you moved funds to cover yourself. But now Europe sinks further. Your investments there are worth a fraction of the $6.3 billion bet you made. Frantically, you try to sell parts of the firm, then the whole thing. Meanwhile, your clients are pulling their money as fast as they can --- to slow the drain, you stop wiring funds and start mailing checks. Nothing works. You declare bankruptcy. Government agents swoop in --- and can’t locate $600 million in client funds. Which is crazy. Where does $600 million go? You resign. Because that’s what CEOs should do when it gets this bad. (Magnanimously, you refuse to take the $12.1 million payout specified in your contract. The checks you mailed to your customers? They bounced.) Now you must decide whether to testify at a government hearing or take the Fifth Amendment, a virtual admission of guilt. A movie plot? Not at all. This is what happened in 2008, just with mortgage-backed securities as the falling knife and Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns as the first dominos. But yes, this is, in broad strokes, the story of “Margin Call.” It’s also a story in the news right now --- and the CEO I’m talking about here is Jon Corzine, former Governor of New Jersey and onetime CEO of Goldman Sachs. I don’t imagine Corzine would like to see a movie about his company, but you might --- and you can stream it tonight, via Amazon, for $6.99. Which is sweet for you, as the theater where I saw it (and where it is still playing) charges $13 a ticket. [To rent “Margin Call” from Amazon, click here.] Why see “Margin Call” --- and as soon as you possibly can? As the poster says, “Something big is going down.” Sadly, financial powerhouses can take you down with them; it’s good to know how these things happen. And whether they can happen again. [Answer: see above.] The first great thing about this nail-biter of a movie is that there are no easy-to-spot villains. Terrible things happen --- this is Wall Street, where clients have become “counter-parties” and it makes perfect sense to bundle a bunch of crap, tie a ribbon around it and hawk it, even as you are selling it short in the firm’s account because you know it’s going to crash and burn. So what? The “counter-parties” are adults. No one held a gun to their heads. That’s why, in the preview, I see the key line as Jeremy Irons saying, as only he can, “That we may survive.” Stanley Tucci and Kevin Spacey and Simon Baker and Demi Moore all have their roles to play. But the overview belongs to Irons, as the head of the firm: “So you think we might have put a few people out of business today. That it’s all for naught. You’ve been doing that every day for almost forty years, Sam. And if this is all for naught, then so is everything out there. It’s just money; it’s made up. Pieces of paper with pictures on it so we don’t have to kill each other just to get something to eat. It’s not wrong. And it’s certainly no different today than it’s ever been. 1637, 1797, 1819, ‘37,’ 57, ‘84, 1901, ‘07, ‘29, 1937, 1974, 1987--- and whatever we want to call this. It’s all just the same thing over and over; we can’t help ourselves. And you and I can’t control it, or stop it, or even slow it. Or even ever-so-slightly alter it. We just react. And we make a lot of money if we get it right. And we get left by the side of the road if we get it wrong. And there have always been and there always will be the same percentage of winners and losers. Happy foxes and sad sacks. Fat cats and starving dogs in this world. Yeah, there may be more of us today than there’s ever been. But the percentages --- they stay exactly the same.” Grown-up talk. For grown-ups (and their smarter kids). So gather the clan, microwave some popcorn and watch closely. Because there will be a quiz.
- [The Square Foot Garden: Gardening Made Easy](https://headbutler.com/reviews/gardening-books/) - Let's talk gardening. The painless kind: above-ground vegetable gardening. With this method, you don't have to twist yourself into poses too tough for a yoga teacher. And the yield per spare food is crazy, so you can plant many fewer square feet.
- [Weekend Butler: I see sick people. How to upgrade your yacht. Lavender fields forever. A feel good song. The obvious recipe: Julia Child's onion soup.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-i-see-sick-people-how-to-upgrade-your-yacht-lavender-fields-forever-a-feel-good-song-the-obvious-recipe-julia-childs-onion-soup/) - LET'S START WITH A FEEL GOOD SONG Early Beatles. Great footage. Steve Van Zandt, foundational in Springsteen's band, found it, calls it "the greatest." My favorite moment: Ringo smoking a cigarette as he plays. Click here. IMAGE: A FIELD OF LAVENDER IN FRANCE From “The Next Dalai Lama,” my not-yet-published novel: She didn’t say that
- [The Source](https://headbutler.com/reviews/source/) - The Source by Ali Farka Toure Six hundred years ago, Timbuktu was the trading capital of the world. One hundred thousand people lived there, including 25,000 scholars and students. Now the city in dusty, hot Mali is home to only 4,000, and planes land there just once a week. Skip the easy moral ---
- [Edith Wharton: The House of Mirth](https://headbutler.com/reviews/house-mirth/) - The reason "House of Mirth" used to be assigned in English class is because it is a brilliantly written dissection of a society we like to think has disappeared. How dreary. And how...wrong. The reason to read it is because only the particulars have changed. The essential questions of the drama are as interesting now as they were compelling then: What will happen to Lily Bart? Will Selden rescue her? Or will rich married men ruin her? And if she is ruined, what will happen to her then?
- [Slow Love: How I Lost My Job, Put on My Pajamas, and Found Happiness](https://headbutler.com/reviews/slow-love-how-i-lost-my-job-put-on-my-pajamas-and-found-happiness/) - “Slow love” is a good description of the way I’ve come to know Dominique Browning. After decades of a nodding acquaintance when we worked at glossy magazines, we started reading the other’s web sites. There was a chance meeting at a dinner, and, recently, cultural expeditions peppered with questions, stories, ideas. Now I grasp what others figured out long ago: Dominique Browning is that rare talent who's both intellectually and emotionally fearless. “Slow Love: How I Lost My Job, Put on My Pajamas, and Found Happiness” begins in 2007, with Condé Nast’s sudden decision to close House & Garden, the magazine Browning has edited for 13 years. The news flattened her: “I’ve lost the very thing that defined my days, paced and regulated my life…. Suddenly I’m floundering. I’m terrified.” This memoir is not just the book you expect: “a story of psychological collapse, of struggling to start over again.” There’s also a parallel struggle: “not to make the same mistakes again.” She’s looking backward and forward, struggling to be wide awake, so in 267 pages, you get two books in one. [To buy the paperback from Amazon for the bargain price of $6, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] Looking back: Her magazine had burned through five publishers in ten years. Every few months, rumors had Browning following them out the door. The editor of Architectural Digest, also owned by Condé Nast, announced, “I killed that magazine once and I’ll kill it again.” Overlords called Browning in to note her failure to buy designer clothes in sufficient quantity. Looking forward: The absence of work was even more painful. Browning slept all day, then developed insomnia. She wasted hours reading just about anything on the Internet. And had a predictable response to panic: Within hours of leaving my office for the last time, I could hardly bring myself to care about my reputation. I just wanted to eat. I began calling every employed person I knew to take me to lunch. I wanted to fill my calendar with the promise of meals, even if they were only penciled in — this, after all, being Manhattan. Only food could ward off the rage, despair and raw fear that overcame me. "The first cure for illusion is despair," notes sociologist Philip Slater. No fooling: One of the pleasures of a workday morning had been to rise early, have a cup of tea, walk through the garden and get to the train on time, where I could read the paper front to back. Now that I did not have to get to work, I no longer had a structured time to read the daily paper, so I would pile it into a stack, thinking I would get to it later, until I realized I was creating a weekly daily. I missed Fridays especially. They once meant relief, time for rest and housekeeping. Now every day was Friday. Or Monday. Whatever. The second cure, for Browning, was to buy more pajamas, sell her house in the New York suburbs and move to the coast of Rhode Island, where she could garden and reconnect to the natural world. Paradise regained? Not so fast. For seven years Browning had a lover she calls “Stroller,” who was --- get this --- simultaneously legally separated and still living with his wife. While at House & Garden, she was diagnosed with a potentially lethal kidney cancer and had surgery. The operation was a complete success. The aftermath was a failure: Stroller chose to go to London rather than bring her home from the hospital. If you’re like me, you’ll want to scream at Browning, to shake her. Why spend years waiting for the king of retreat to commit? We grasp his issue quickly. But what’s hers? It’s not only Stroller. When Browning advised her employer she just had major surgery and still felt weak, she was asked, “How long is this going to go on?” Monsters, it turns out, are everywhere. Life is messy. In sentence after sentence, she makes it clear that much of what we call “normal” is simply inhuman. But if she hadn’t been thrown off the hamster wheel, she’d never have known it. So Browning doesn’t pump up the outrage. Her default is gratitude. Forced to reinvent herself, she has. She writes a terrific blog, slow love life. She produces columns for TIME. Launched a cause with more than 100,000 supporters: Mom’s Clean Air Force. At what point in the book did I see blue skies ahead for her? In the dark of 4 AM, when she was sleepless and went to her piano to play Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations: I picked my way through the first aria, which has a quiet, dignified, spare quality. It is elegant, contained; it holds much in reserve. The music did nothing for my sleeplessness; if anything, within hours I was more completely, wonderfully awake than I had been in a long time. Unexpectedly, I felt a peace suffuse my bones as I lost myself in Bach’s lines. My own anxieties were no longer drumming through my brain; my mind, that hobbled old draft horse, stopped loping along in the same rut it followed night after night. It was locking into someone else’s harmony. Bach has become a nightly visitor. I am obsessed with him: his musical tricks, jokes and puns; his charismatic energy and passion; his resilience through tragedy; his rigorous discipline; his bedrock belief in a force greater than anything human. I have to teach myself, all over again, how to practice, how to silence the critic in my head. I have to remind myself that the repeats matter, that respect for the rests is important. What my fingers lack in speed, my heart makes up in feeling. If I have to, I will crawl through sarabandes and quadrilles, letting the dance fill my soul. You write that well, something good’s bound to happen. -------------- To read an excerpt from the book, click here.
- [Weekend Butler: No glass ceiling for these women! My fearless, surely doomed Oscar choices. Wisdom from RuPaul and Emmylou Harris. A 4-star weekend movie.  Skillet-tossed (yes!) gnocchi.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-no-glass-ceiling-for-these-women-my-fearless-surely-doomed-oscar-choices-wisdom-from-rupaul-and-emmylou-harris-a-4-star-weekend-movie-skillet-tossed-yes-gnocchi/) - THE IMAGE IN THE PHOTO: Nature, showing off. JUST ONE DAY? INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY was celebrated on WQXR, New York's classical music station, with all-female programming ("We're here," a recorded announcement told us. "We were always here.") On WFUV, Fordham's alt-rock station, a line-up of female DJs programmed a day of music by women. And
- [Steve Earle: Guitar Town](https://headbutler.com/reviews/guitar-town/) - Thanks to the tabloid press, even people who have never heard Steve Earle's music know who he is --- the guy who wrote that anti-American song about that punk kid from California who joined the Taliban. That's almost right. Except for the “anti-American' part. Because on the short list of American patriots, the thinking person will always pick Steve Earle. Why did Earle write that song? “I have a son almost exactly the same age as John Walker Lindh,” he told an interviewer. “And for some reason, the way I related to it when I first saw him, you know, duct-taped naked to a board on CNN, I saw an underfed, you know, 21-year-old kid, and I got a kid that looks underfed even when I feed him, and I related to it as a parent. The first thing I thought is, 'He's got parents somewhere.'” Duh. That's not an apology for the kid's views; it's a look inside his head to try and figure out how he came to have those views. Which is how Steve Earle works --- he's always the guy with an oblique slant, a fresh angle. That was a good thing when he hit Nashville in the mid-1980s; the country music machine had run out of stars and was willing to consider someone who didn't color between the lines. So, for a while, Steve Earle was the next Hank Williams, the next Johnny Cash, the next Springsteen. Nice comparisons, but untrue. He was condemned to be himself: a “hard-core troubadour” with a penchant for politics and a weakness for drugs. So there were six marriages (“You can't say I have a problem with commitment”), jail time for drugs, and, since his release, six CDs in as many years, a book of short stories, a play and innumerable concerts and benefits. Category: Call him the King of “alt country.” But that makes him sound as if he's still wearing a chip on his shoulder--- and the simple fact is, Steve Earle's love songs alone put him in the pantheon. “I still write more songs about girls than I do anything else,” he says, and those songs run the gamut from macho-comic (“I Don't Want to Lose You Yet”) to the unabashedly heartbreaking (“I Can't Remember If We Said Goodbye”). [To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.] But yes, of course, there are also political songs. “I was probably 14 when I started going out and playing in coffeehouses in San Antonio,” he explains. “That is a very conservative military community, and, therefore, during the Vietnam War, it was extremely polarized, especially as the war wore on and body bags started to come back. It just never occurred to me to separate issues and music.” In the hope that you will fall under his spell, my choice of a starter CD is, perhaps, a curious one: not his most recent release, but his first one. “Guitar Town” is the kickoff of his career, and it begins with lyrics that both acknowledge that and celebrate it: “Hey, pretty baby, are you ready for me/I'm a hard rockin' daddy down from Tennessee.” A few lines in, he confesses he's got “a two-pack habit and a motel tan.” And just to make sure he's slapped you awake, he offers up the totally incorrect observation: “Everybody said, ‘You won't get far/on thirty-seven dollars and a Jap guitar.'” And that's all in just the first song! The rest of the CD touches all the emotional bases, from parental love to “my old friend the blues.” Politics? “I was born in the land of plenty/now there ain't enough,” he sings, but not so it would grate. And, on the remastered edition, there's a bonus track: Springsteen's “State Trouper.” If ever there was a “modern classic,” this is it.
- [The King's Speech](https://headbutler.com/reviews/kings-speech-how-one-man-saved-british-monarchy/) - Handicapping the Academy Awards is an American ritual. I find this weird. It’s not as if you and I made any creative contribution to these films or stand to profit from their success. And yet we cheer on our favorites with a passion that suggests some deep identification. It’s like rooting for a professional sports team --- only your team plays for just a single season. This year, “The Social Network” and “The King’s Speech” are the leading contenders for “Best Film.” I don’t really have a favorite. But when I thought to read more about the subject of one of these movies, “The King’s Speech” was a no-brainer for me. We all know at least a few factoids about boy billionaire Mark Zuckerberg. Like you, I have a gazillion friends on Facebook. And, no question, Aaron Sorkin writes the snappiest, sharpest dialogue in the business. But “The King’s Speech” had novelty going for it --- I knew nothing of King George VI’s stammer or about Lionel Logue, the man who helped him lose it. It’s a period movie, about a period with pleasing clothes, cars, manners. And it’s about something important: the fight against Hitler, who, if victorious, would have wrecked what we think of as Western Civilization. Kids and creativity and lawsuits vs. maturity and expertise and war. A main character of uncertain integrity vs. a hero or two. Money vs. history. What would you choose? I read “The King's Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy,” written by the grandson of the king’s speech therapist. (To buy the book from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle version, click here.) For those who haven’t seen the film --- you know who you are, and you know what you might want to do to avoid the new season of “American Idol” --- the story is simple. The Duke of York, second in line to the English throne, has a horrifying stammer; when he’s forced to speak in public, the pauses and false starts are torture for him and his audiences. Then his brother abdicates to marry an American divorcée. Now he’s king, and forced to speak. Worse, with war coming, he needs to be, along with Winston Churchill, the voice of England. Fortunately, he consults an eccentric Australian…. Yes, that’s right. “The King’s Speech” is a love story. About two heterosexual men. It’s about trust and courage and, above all, the will to work hard to be better --- it’s one artfully-delivered life lesson after another. But because it’s a movie, events have been compressed, personalities simplified. A 225-page book can tell a richer story. In this case, the screenplay came first. Knowing the film was coming, Mark Logue took his grandfather’s papers, found more, and produced a fascinating account of a man who had great impact but only modest recognition. It’s a quick, satisfying read, full of interesting information and character revelation. Like: the elocution movement. Starting in England in the late 1700s and moving on to the colonies and the United States, public speaking was a discipline, a spectacle and a sport. In Australia, young Lionel Logue was like a second tier rock star. And so, at 23, he set up a business as an elocution teacher. In 1924, Logue, his wife and their three children traveled to London. This was to be a vacation. It became a new life. Logue had some money, but not enough to keep his family going. And he knew only one person in London. Yet, with astonishing self-confidence, he rented an office on Harley Street --- home to all the chic doctors --- and began trolling for business. At that time, the cures for speech troubles ranged from cutting off bits of the tongue to training the patient to breathe differently. Logue believed the cure was a combination of physical and psychological work. The Duke of York --- like Logue, we’ll take the liberty of calling him “Bertie” --- became a patient in 1926, not in the mid-‘30s, when he was about to be king. They met 82 times in the next year. Logue was paid the equivalent of about $15,000. In the film, there are only a few speeches. In fact, Bertie made many --- and Logue was there to help him. The improvement was vivid. A Time Magazine headline: “C-C-C-Cured.” Logue bought a large house: 25 rooms, with five acres of gardens and a tennis court. His practice grew. So did his friendship with the new King. --- the subject of the last 75 pages of the book. There was a gift of royal cuff links. And money. But even more, there were letters and visits, all testifying to an unusual friendship between a royal and his subject. And there are lovely flashes of humor ---in a speech, the King fluffs a word. On purpose, he tells Logue: “If I don’t make a mistake, people might not know it’s me.” A great book? No. But a compelling one, combining history, monarchy, social commentary and medicine. And a moving one. “The bravest man I ever met,” Logue tells the King. He spoke straight.
- [Top of the Lake](https://headbutler.com/reviews/top-of-the-lake/) - In January 2013, “Top of the Lake” became the first television series to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. The theater was packed with Elizabeth Moss and Jane Campion fans. The theater was also cold as a barn, with plumbing that didn’t work. But after the intermission, no one left. And when it was over, after six intense hours, there were cheers.
- [Weekend Butler: "They came to California to ruin a man. Not to kill him, not literally. But the next best thing.” Aubrey Plaza's new movie. Best snarky email. Best sincere Tweet. Addictive music. A simple recipe from Le Bernardin with... what????](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-they-came-to-california-to-ruin-a-man-not-to-kill-him-not-literally-but-the-next-best-thing-aubrey-plazas-new-movie-best-snarky-email-best-sincere-tweet-addictive-m/) - DANIEL ELLSBERG (1931 - ) "They came to California to ruin a man. Not to kill him, not literally. But the next best thing.” What kind of book begins like this? A thriller. In this case, a political thriller. Who is the intended reader? The publisher categorizes “Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History
- [James M. Cain: Mildred Pierce](https://headbutler.com/reviews/mildred-pierce/) - It's a slippery slope. Suggest that everyone read the same book at the same time and, before you know it, you've got a book club. And then you have agita that has nothing to do with books --- who's going to bring the snacks, what wine to serve, and why the hell Jane X keeps coming when she never reads the damn books. Or, worse, the book club could be a rousing success, and there goes the first Monday of the month for the rest of your life. But HBO's launches its five-part "Mildred Pierce" on March 27th, starring Kate Winslet and directed by Todd Haynes. It looks very compelling. But I'd be serving you poorly if I just alerted you to to mark that date. There's something you might do...today. Go back to the originals --- the James M. Cain novel and the film that won her first Oscar for Joan Crawford --- and experience the real greatness of this story. James Cain is no longer a name to conjure with. Sad. He was the master of a chilly, sexy fiction that raised the hair on the back of the neck of the censors. Of the '30s and '40s crime novelists, no one --- not Raymond Chandler, not Dashiell Hammett --- could jam as much nastiness into so few pages. Two books made him immortal. His first novel, published in 1934, was "The Postman Always Rings Twice," 128 very efficient pages filled with sex, violence and some unforgettably nasty people [To buy the book from Amazon, click here. To download the Kindle edition, click here.] And, two years later, "Double Indemnity," 115 very efficient pages filled with sex, violence and some unforgettably nasty people. [To buy the book from Amazon, click here. To download the Kindle edition, click here.] "Mildred Pierce", published in 1941, is a very different kind of book. Though hardly padded, it's twice as long as Cain's first novels. There's a murder, but its real violence is verbal and psychological. And, because it begins in 1931 and ends in 1940, you't can ignore a fact that overhangs everything in the novel: the Great Depression. [To buy the book of "Mildred Pierce" from Amazon, click here. To download the Kindle edition, click here.] Finally, there's the 1945 film, directed by Michael Curtiz. William Faulkner had a hand in the screenplay, and if you recall his work on Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep, you know how gifted he is in crafting sexy dialogue, rich in double-entendres. And Crawford.... well, just look at the trailer. [To buy the $7.99 DVD from Amazon, click here.] Very different, don't you think, from the HBO version. What's the Cain story about? A man tends to his lawn, showers, gets dressed, tells his wife that he's going for a walk. She knows better --- he's going to see his mistress “and then unbutton that red dress she's always wearing without any brassieres under it.” But it's not the mistress that annoys his wife most. It's the way he's without work and not exactly looking for any. Now the author steps in, and I, for one, marvel at how Cain is both concise and vivid: “They spoke quickly, as though they were saying things that scalded their mouths, and had to cooled with spit." Because the characters don't just plt and scheme in the dark, I see “Mildred Pierce” as Cain's best novel. Here the shapely, sexy woman is a wife and mother who wants to stay married. She throws her husband out as a statement of self-respect. It's a costly gesture. As a friend says, “You've joined the biggest army on earth. You're the great American institution that never gets mentioned on Fourth of July --- a grass widow with two small children to support. The dirty bastards.” Mildred's assets are few. She can bake. And she's got a bod for sin. “Her brassiere ballooned a little, with an extremely seductive burden.” Although she's got great gams, she feels she's slightly bow-legged, so she takes short steps when she walks. To great effect --- “her bottom twitched in a wholly provocative way.” It's not long before two realities collide. She has no trouble finding a lover (and discovering that she enjoys sex) --- but it's impossible to get a job. For one thing, she is without qualifications. For another, she fears that her eldest daughter, the beautiful and haughty Veda, will scorn her if she wears a waitress's uniform or becomes a clerk in a store. But a waitress she becomes. And money flows in. Veda is, as expected, horrified. She says Mildred has “degraded” the family. Mildred's response: She spanks Veda silly. To no point. Veda crawls to a couch, laughs and whispers: “A waitress.” It is then that Mildred realizes that she fears her daughter's judgment, “her snobbery, her contempt, her unbreakable spirit.” She resolves to open a restaurant, to be a waitress no more. And she thanks her daughter for prodding her to aim higher: “We'll have something. And it'll all be on account of you. Every good thing that happens is on account of you, if Mother only had the good sense to know it.” On the eve of the opening of Mildred's restaurant, she spends the weekend with a society swell and becomes his lover. Back home, her younger daughter has spiked a fever and is in the hospital. The death scene is terrible. Even worse is Mildred's reaction: Thank God it wasn't Veda. Death and birth collide: As she buries her child, Mildred opens her restaurant. It's a great success. But we have half a book to go, and this half is a slow-mo train wreck --- the story of Veda's evil ways, her schemes to escape her mother and Mildred's shameless effort to win her love. You think your kids have foul, disrespectful mouths? Listen to Veda: “With this money I can get away from you. From you and your chickens and your pies and your kitchens and everything that smells of grease. I can get away from this shack with its cheap furniture. And this town and its dollar days, and its women that wear uniforms and its men that wear overalls.” Through it all, Mildred is Mother Courage. Her will and her work ethic dazzle. But can Veda be redeemed? Most parents have, at one time or another, a child whose ingratitude is sharper than a serpent's tooth. Well, here's the worst case --- read/watch it and weep for Mildred, then count your blessings. And then, when the HBO series starts, be the Cain expert.
- [Monsieur Proust](https://headbutler.com/reviews/monsieur-proust/) - What a love story! In 1913, Marcel Proust’s driver, Odilon Albaret, married a young woman from a small mountain village. Celeste knew no one in Paris, and her loneliness mounted. Proust suggested that she deliver copies of his new book to friends. And so it began. Messenger, housekeeper, confidante, friend, nurse --- until his death in 1922, Celeste Albaret spent more time with Proust than anyone else. Indeed, she spent so much more time at Proust’s home than she did in her own that she and Odilon moved in. As her memoir attests, she begrudged not a minute of those hours in his service. [To buy “Monsieur Proust from Amazon, click here.] Early on, she left Proust’s apartment to go to church. “There will be plenty of time for that after I’m dead,” he said. She never went to church again while he was alive. Proust --- the man and the writer --- came first. “Time contained no hours,” she writes, “just a certain number of definite things to be done every day.” And yet, no matter how exacting his demands, she never entered his room without a smile. Proust, as you know, had an upside-down schedule. He awoke in an unheated, cork-lined bedroom around four in the afternoon, burned a special powder to hold his asthma at bay, then rang for coffee. In the evening, he might go out; if he did, he gave Celeste a full report on his return. And then his writing day began….. In 1914, Proust saw Death ahead, and he decided that he had to suspend all travel and almost all socializing in order to focus on his book. With that, Celeste moved from the background of his life into sharp focus. Not only did she bring him coffee and tend to the smallest details of his life --- and Proust was a notorious micro-manager --- she got the big picture, and fast: M. Proust's whole object, his whole great sacrifice for his work, was to set himself outside time in order to rediscover it. When there is no more time, there is silence. He needed that silence in order to hear only the voices he wanted to hear, the voices that are in his books. I didn't think about that at the time. But now when I'm alone at night and can't sleep, I seem to see him as he surely must have been in his room after I had left him -- alone too, but in his own night, working at his notebooks when, outside, the sun had long been up. Proust liked to try out material on Celeste, and when he’d come home from a night in Society, he’d often tell her stories until dawn. These included astute descriptions of social figures. Even better, Proust made universal observations. “This is often why people are so nasty,” he told Celeste. “They cannot forgive others for not being as ugly as themselves.” On never going back to his childhood home: “The only place where you can regain lost paradises is in yourself.” On rising in Society: “The main thing is to gain admission. After that it just builds up on its own." “I was the privileged spectator,” she writes, “of the most beautiful theater in the world.” And the most privileged assistant. It was Celeste who pasted Proust’s scraps of paper --- his afterthoughts --- into the manuscript. For all their intimacy, the relationship was always formal: “Monsieur, why don’t you call me ‘Celeste’? It makes me self-conscious when you call me ‘madame.’” “Because, madame, I cannot.” That was that. And yet, he admitted, “The only person I could have married is you.” (In these pages, Proust is not a homosexual --- I like to think Celeste knew otherwise, but was a model of discretion. Which is entirely possible; she and her husband never gossiped about their employer. ) In every other way, this is a book of close observation, of details that, taken together, reveal character. Proust’s insistence on old handkerchiefs. He brushed his teeth obsessively, but never washed with soap. He liked an occasional beer --- if brought to him from the Ritz. He wore cheap watches. He told Odilon not to buy a new taxi: “I don’t want people to notice me as I go by.” You cannot read the long section on Proust’s death without seeing the love story from both sides. You see it even more vividly in “Celeste,” a movie Percy Adlon made about their relationship in 1981. Though filmed in Paris, everyone speaks German. No matter --- it’s one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen. Sadly, there’s no DVD. [To buy the VHS tape of “Celeste” from Amazon, click here.] Here's a snippet: In his last years, Proust compared the value of his book to Celeste’s. “When I am dead, your diary would sell more copies than my books,” he said. Yes, if she had published it right away. But she waited 60 years. That is love.
- [The Academy Awards: Who will win? And why do I think the likely winner is a tragic mistake?](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-academy-awards-who-will-win-and-in-a-preview-of-the-tuesday-podcast-why-do-i-think-the-likely-winner-is-a-tragic-mistake/) - There are 10 nominees for the Best Picture 0f 2022: "All Quiet on the Western Front,” “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Elvis,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “The Fabelmans,” “Tár,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Triangle of Sadness” and “Women Talking." If the awards from the Producers Guild and the Screen Actors Guild --- where one film won more awards than any winner
- [King Ropes](https://headbutler.com/reviews/king-ropes/) - Long, long ago, when my stepchildren were young, we’d spend a summer week at a dude ranch in Wyoming. Not in the trendy, Jackson Hole corner of Wyoming. We’d fly to Sheridan, near the Montana border, and then drive for an hour to Saddlestring, home of the HF Bar Ranch --- and nothing else. The
- [Weekend Butler: Something I never do (but I'm doing it). A live event (something else I never do, but I'm doing it). David Sedaris. 3 weekend movies. Julia Child's coq au vin. An Old School song. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-something-i-never-do-but-im-doing-it-a-live-event-something-else-i-never-do-but-im-doing-it-david-sedaris-julia-childs-coq-au-vin-an-old-school-song-and-more/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: You can become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and to go there, just click here. Again, thank you. -- THIS WEEK IN BUTLER: The Death of Ivan Ilyich. The Drama of the Gifted
- [Julia Child and Simone Beck: Mastering The Art of French Cooking, Volume One](https://headbutler.com/reviews/mastering-art-french-cooking-volume-one/) - The movie "Julie & Julia" is built around the astonishing idea that a fan of "Mastering The Art of French Cooking, Volume One" would cook her way through the book’s almost 600 recipes in a single year. I’ve been using this book for three decades and I’ve only made a fraction of the recipes. But I’ve made that fraction so many times that the pages fall open to my favorite recipes. The other way to identify my favorites? Greasy pages. Makes sense --- Child knew, when Michael Pollan and Nina Planck were still in their cribs, that it wasn’t real food that kills you, it’s grotesque American portions. As Child gaily told her television audience, "If you're afraid of butter, as many people are nowadays, just put in cream!" Such bluntness was her nature --- and her charm. She came from money and privilege; the challenge of her life was to find something worth committing herself to. First came Paul Child. Then, at 37, came the Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris. And then, through a bit of luck, came an opportunity to work with Simone Beck on a French cookbook for Americans. As she tells the story in "My Life in France," that book took almost a decade. [To read about "My Life in France" on HeadButler.com, click here.] Judith Jones was the first American editor to read the manuscript. She flipped: I pored over the recipe for a beef stew and learned the right cuts of meat for braising, the correct fat to use (one that would not burn), the importance of drying the meat and browning it in batches, the secret of the herb bouquet, the value of sautéing the garnish of onions and mushrooms separately. I ran home to make the recipe --- and my first bite told me that I had finally produced an authentic French boeuf bourguignon --- as good as one I could get in Paris. This, I was convinced, was a revolutionary cookbook, and if I was so smitten, certainly others would be. Quality mattered. So did timing. “Mastering The Art of French Cooking, Volume One” was published in 1961. In the White House was a President with a wife who loved France. Air travel was replacing ocean liners --- Americans in larger numbers were traveling to Europe. Frozen food and TV dinners were clogging the supermarkets; Child lobbied for accessible sophistication, and changed the way some of us ate. [To buy the hardcover of “Mastering The Art of French Cooking, Volume One” from Amazon click here. To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here. To buy “Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking” from Amazon, click here.] And then there was multi-media. WGBH, Boston’s public TV station, invited Child to promote her book. The station had no studio kitchen, so she brought eggs, a whisk and a hot plate. On camera, she made an omelette, narrating the process with wit and confidence. A TV series soon followed --- she was Martha Stewart before there was Martha Stewart. Actually, she was much more. Back then, cooking was not a respected profession. She showed that it was a discipline --- and an art. And she legitimized the home-gourmet. Was cooking a chore? Not after you’d seen Julia Child, amusing herself as she prepared dinner. All these years later, I’m still charmed by Child’s 13-page screed on omelettes. On the other hand, I never had much use for her pâtés or terrines, soufflés or sauces. Dessert still seems like overkill. And the seven recipes for kidney? Non-events. It’s the classics that first appealed to me, and still do. And it’s three of those recipes that I share here. If you’ll try them, you’ll raise a glass to Child and Beck --- and, like me, you’ll soon have a food-smeared cookbook on your shelves. Vichyssoise Serves 6 to 8 3 cups sliced leeks, white part only 3 cups sliced potatoes, old or baking potatoes recommended 1 and ½ quarts of chicken stock or canned chicken broth 1 to 2 teaspoons salt or to taste 1/2 to 1 cup heavy cream 2 to 3 tablespoons minced fresh chives Simmer the leeks and potatoes in the broth, covering partially, for 20 to 30 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Puree the soup in a blender or food mill. Stir in the cream. Season to taste oversalting slightly as salt loses flavor in a cold dish. Chill. Serrve in chilled soup cups. Coq au Vin Serves 4 4 ounce chunk of bacon 20 pearl onions, peeled, or 1 large yellow onion, sliced 1 chicken, 4 lb, cut into serving pieces, or 3 lbs chicken parts, excess fat trimmed, skin on 2 garlic cloves, peeled and mashed Salt and pepper to taste 2 cups chicken stock 3 cups young, full-bodied red wine 1 bay leaf Several fresh thyme sprigs Several fresh parsley sprigs 1/2 lb button mushrooms, trimmed and roughly chopped 2 Tablespoons butter ½ Tablespoon tomato paste Blanch the bacon to remove some of its saltiness. Drop the bacon into a saucepan of cold water, covered by a couple of inches. Bring to a boil, simmer for 5 minutes, drain. Rinse in cold water, pat dry with paper towels. Cut the bacon into 1 inch by 1/4 inch pieces. Brown bacon on medium high heat in a dutch oven big enough to hold the chicken, about 5 minutes. Remove the cooked bacon, set aside. Keep the bacon fat in the pan. Add onions and chicken, skin side down. Brown the chicken well, on all sides, about 10 minutes. Halfway through the browning, add the garlic and sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. (Note: it is best to add salt while cooking, not just at the very end. It brings out the flavor of the chicken.) Spoon off any excess fat. Add the chicken stock, wine, and herbs. Add back the bacon. Lower heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for 20-30 minutes, or until chicken is tender and cooked through. Remove chicken and onions to a separate platter. Remove the bay leaves, herb sprigs, garlic, and discard. Add mushrooms to the remaining liquid and turn the heat to high. Boil quickly and reduce the liquid by three fourths until it becomes thick and saucy. Lower the heat, stir in the butter. Return the chicken and onions to the pan to reheat and coat with sauce. Adjust seasoning. Garnish with parsley and serve. Clafouti (Cherry Flan) Serves 6 to 8 3 cups pitted black cherries 1 1/4 cups milk 2/3 cup granulated sugar 3 eggs 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 1/8 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup flour Powdered sugar in a shaker Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use fresh, black, sweet cherries in season. Otherwise use drained, canned, pitted Bing cherries, or frozen sweet cherries, thawed and drained. Place the milk, 1/3 cup sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, salt, and flour in your blender jar in the order in which they are listed. Cover and blend at top speed for 1 minute. Pour a 1/4-inch layer of batter in a 7- to 8-cup buttered, fireproof baking dish or pyrex pie plate about 1 1/2 inches deep. Set over moderate heat for a minute or two until a film of batter has set in the bottom of the dish. Remove from the heat. Spread the cherries over the batter and sprinkle on the remaining 1/3 cup of sugar. Pour on the rest of the batter and smooth the surface with the back of a spoon. Place in middle position of preheated oven and bake for about an hour. The clafouti is done when it has puffed and browned, and a needle or knife plunged into its center comes out clean. Sprinkle top of clafouti with powdered sugar just before bringing it to the table. (The clafouti need not be served hot, but should still be warm. It will sink down slightly as it cools.)
- [Dr. John](https://headbutler.com/reviews/very-best-dr-john/) - I was in the right place, but it must have been the wrong time I was sayin' the right things, but I must have used the wrong line I was on the right trip, but I must have used the wrong car Head is in a bad place and I wonder what it's good for I was in the right place, but it must have been the wrong time My head is in a bad place, but I'm havin' such a good time
- [Leo Tolstoy: The Death of Ivan Ilyich](https://headbutler.com/reviews/death-ivan-ilyich/) - He's dead. And Ivan Ilyich's associates are saying the usual things. No need to repeat them here --- we've all mouthed cliches after the death of a colleague. Tolstoy just took the trouble to write them down. The visit to the widow? Textbook. Viewing the deceased? Nothing new there. Mourners rushing off to their own affairs as soon as possible? Been there, done that. And then Tolstoy begins to tell the story of Ivan Ilyich's life --- "the simplest, most ordinary and therefore most terrible." Know that Tolstoy is writing in 1887. "War and Peace," with its 580 characters, is long behind him. "Anna Karenina" was published almost a decade earlier. In the last few years, Tolstoy has renounced fiction; he has been fixated on thinking his way to a new kind of Christianity, indeed a new kind of existence. So we may expect that his view of Ivan Ilyich's unexamined life will be brutally penetrating, a lacerating indictment of bourgeois life. [To buy "The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories" from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] But here is Ivan, as a youth, making his way as a man and a careerist. Sensuality, vanity, liberalism on one hand. On the other: Law school, a position obtained for him by his father, and then, five years in, the expansion of the judiciary and the need for more men, new men. Nothing lacerating in all this. Marriage follows, to "the most fascinating, clever and brilliant girl in the set in which he moved." New furniture, new linen. Not to mention those "conjugal caresses." But then Praskovya gets pregnant, and her mood changes. "Without any sort of justification, she began to be jealous, demanded that he should devote his whole attention to her, found fault with everything and made disagreeable, ill-mannered scenes." Ivan's response is not novel: He fences off a private world for himself. In, of course, his work. And thus he rises. Makes more money. Moves into better quarters. Children are born; some die. Seventeen years pass. He is now a power in the Ministry of Justice. One day he is showing a workman how he wants some curtains draped. He falls from a stepladder, gets a bruise. And that bruise becomes cancer. Of course no one knows what ails him; Ivan sees doctors who treat him in the same way as, in his courtroom, he treats others. Life and death are not the issue; the correct diagnosis is. And meanwhile Ivan feels worse and worse. He looks different. No one says it, but sometimes a look betrays them. Ivan retreats to his mirror, to see what they see. Suddenly he understands that it's not about his kidney or his appendix --- the question is whether he will live or die. And, it goes without saying, he has given not a thought to death. Now, as he looks at death, he's completely alone. No one will acknowledge that he is dying; everyone lies to him. "The awful, terrible act of his dying was, he saw, being reduced by those about him to the level of a fortuitous, disagreeable and rather indecent incident --- and this was being done in the name of the very decorum he had served all his life long." Dying, he feels he is bring thrust into a "narrow, deep black sack." Why these agonies? His inner voice tells him: "For no reason." He looks further, deeper; he reviews his life. And learns nothing. Death comes closer. He asks himself: "What if in reality my whole life has been wrong?" At last, the right question. He realizes "that those scarcely detected inclinations of his to fight against what the most highly placed people regarded as good, those scarcely noticeable impulses which he had immediately suppressed, might have been the real thing and all the rest false." He tries to defend his choices. But "there was nothing to defend." As he dies, what hope can he cling to? None. But he fights death anyway, knowing he can't save himself. The black sack takes him; then a light appears. He's an hour away from his death --- and I must stop here, because I don't want to spoil the experience of the final page for you. Indeed, everything I have said is by way of a lure, an advertisement, way to make you read this story. "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" is just 60 pages long. It's a snip to finish --- the pages fly by. I know wise people who make it a point to re-read "Ivan Ilyich" every year or so, just as a reminder. Because we are all Ivan, and this is our story.
- [Weekend Butler: Vaccination Card Holders, Elton John, Marlon Brando, a gardener who grew children, and more](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-the-beauty-issue-elton-john-marlon-brando-the-best-upbeat-movie-thats-not-sappy-a-garden-who-grew-children-and-more/) - ELTON JOHN New CD coming. Many guests. And this teaser. You can't help responding to the song --- it echoes some of his greater hits. Even more, the animation is swoonsville. And cheers for Elton's mask on the cover. Watch/listen here. THE WEEKEND MOVIE: "LOCAL HERO" The smartest, best movie with a happy ending ---
- [John Prine](https://headbutler.com/reviews/john-prine-the-tree-of-forgiveness/) - The songs on this CD? Snapshots of American lives, love songs candid as late-night texts, whimsical observations, and, at the deepest level, truths that come from blood-and-bone. In almost every case, if you look at the words, you could say, “Wait, this is… doggerel.” But pair those lyrics with a voice as old as dirt and a band that plays with singular intelligence and taste, and you get a John Prine record --- that is, an instant classic.
- [Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel](https://headbutler.com/reviews/lessons-in-chemistry-a-novel/) - “Lessons in Chemistry” has been on the Times fiction bestseller list for 38 weeks, at #1 for many of them. It was Barnes & Noble’s 2022 book of the year and one of Amazon’s top 20 books of 2022. There is a series in production on Apple TV, starring and executive-produced by Brie Larson. Book groups
- [The Drama of the Gifted Child](https://headbutler.com/reviews/drama-gifted-child/) - Skip the analytic language and esoteric commentary on her profession that fills at least half of the book, and you'll find yourself leaping from one mind-opening sentence to the next, piecing together, as I did, a take on your childhood that you haven't considered or always resisted.
- [Weekend Butler: Jimmy Stewart, in “Rear Window”— in 2023, that’s me. In 1703, The Pope did what??? What does Keith Richards do before he goes onstage? A must-see weekend movie. Gorgeous song/video. And more...](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-jimmy-stewart-in-rear-window-in-2023-thats-me-in-1703-the-pope-did-what-what-does-keith-richards-do-before-he-goes-onstage-a-must-see-weeken/) - JIMMY STEWART 2023, C'EST MOI In “Rear Window,” Jimmy Stewart plays a photographer who broke his leg and is condemned to heal in a wheelchair at home. Hitchcock made the movie in 1954, when exactly 1% of Americans had color TVs and Touch-Tone phones were a decade away. If the film were made today, Jimmy
- [Bob Dylan: The Philosophy of Modern Song](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bob-dylan-the-philosophy-of-modern-song/) - GUEST BUTLER CHARLES WARNER is a retired college professor, author, and blogger at MediaCurmudgeon.com. He is the Goldenson Chair Emeritus at the University of Missouri School of Journalism and taught for 25 years as a part-time Assistant Professor in the Media Management Program at The New School in New York. The fifth edition of his textbook,
- [Childhood's End](https://headbutler.com/reviews/childhoods-end/) - It's probably the greatest opening in all of science fiction.Earthlings are going about their lives when they suddenly notice movement in the sky.And there they are --- alien spaceships, miles above the clouds but slowly descending...
- [She Said](https://headbutler.com/reviews/she-said-breaking-the-sexual-harassment-story-that-helped-ignite-a-movement/) - Neither of the two best movies I saw last year was nominated for an Academy Award. One is "Emily the Criminal" (New York Times review. To watch the preview, click here. To stream it on Amazon Prime, click here.) The other is "She Said." It's not hard to see why it was overlooked. 1) The
- [Nos](https://headbutler.com/reviews/nos/) - Nos Virginia Rodrigues She was in her 30s. A manicurist. Professional status: singing Bach in a church choir. Then she got the part of a deaf mute in a play. Not much to do until the end, when she's supposed to find her voice and sing gloriously. The director of the play was a friend of the great Caetano Veloso So he asked Veloso to come to the dress rehearsal --- he hinted a surprise was in store. And there was --- the song at the end of the play was a favorite from Veloso's childhood. And the singer --- another surprise, maybe a bigger one. For she was sublime. Veloso wept. And thus was launched the career of one of the most magical performers you will ever hear. Mrs. B and I saw Virginia Rodrigues a few years ago. She wore a shiny silver gown of some space-age fabric and wrapped herself in a cape of the same material. The effect was unsettling --- a Brazilian Aretha, with a big wild streak hidden deep inside. Her performance was even more unsettling. And not because we don't speak Portugese. It was all her doing --- the music seemed formless, her voice was all over the map, the whole performance was like being on drugs. When it was over, we could feel ourselves returning to home base...slowly...slowly....ah, re-entry...landing. Imagine what this music is like in the midnight hour. With one small candle lit. And the curtains rustling softly in the breeze. And someone you like close at hand.... Magic in, magic out. In Brazil, her mother sold fruit and vegetables in a street market; her father was an ice cream vendor. But the family had the good fortune to live in Salvador de Bahia,"the New Orleans of Brazil." African music thrives there. So does the traditional music of Brazil. Veloso couldn't miss the "celestial" quality of her voice. It was pure. Innocent. "It transcends the distinction between erudite and popular," he said. As well it might --- hers is an operatic instrument used in the service of the commonplace. Well, hardly commonplace; even in Brazil, the blend of Yoruba culture, classical music and Brazilian pop is a total ear-opener. There is technical information about this music that's beyond me. Like: much of her music is Carnival songs from Bahia --- popular religious tunes from the Afro-Brazilian candomblé tradition. But Rodrigues changes the tempo, turning the songs inside out: religious music in a classical shell. Well, 'Nos' was produced by a classical cellist --- Rodrigues smartly covered her base. The technical information availeth not. It matters less. A woman's voice exploring the realms of sound --- shimmering, silver, like mercury --- is all you need to know. There's something in the air tonight. For the daring ones among you --- the adventurers and explorers, the ones greedy for pleasure that's rare and deep --- that 'something' means only one singer: Virginia Rodrigues. To buy "Nos" from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Weekend Butler: It's not "the battle of the sexes," it's bigger than that. Patti Smith's excellent advice for 2023. Two weekend movies, a delightful poem, a toothsome recipe.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-its-not-the-battle-of-the-sexes-its-bigger-than-that-patti-smiths-excellent-advice-for-2023-two-weekend-movies-one-gorgeous-song-a-delightful-poem-a-toothsome-recipe/) - IT'S NOT “THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES.” IT’S BIGGER THAN THAT. I posted my review of Lessons in Chemistry on Facebook. On 2 accounts, 150 “likes.” That’s a lot. More to the point: 50 comments. 98% of them were from women. I asked the friend who pushed the novel on me if she read the book
- [Bonnie Raitt: The story behind "Just Like That," the song no one expected to win a Grammy.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bonnie-raitt-the-story-behind-just-like-that-the-song-no-one-expected-to-win-a-grammy/) - Over many decades, Bonnie Raitt has won 13 Grammys. She didn’t expect to win one the other night. In the “Song of the Year” category, she was up against Beyoncé, Adele, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, and Lizzo. The “Best America Roots” nominees included Sheryl Crow and Brandi Carlile. Bonnie Raitt won in both categories for
- [Holiday Vacation Butler, 2002](https://headbutler.com/reviews/holiday-vacation-butler-im-off-until-january-2-but-ive-left-you-two-weeks-of-links-to-my-favorite-books-movies-and-videos-plus-the-usual-weekend-grab-bag-of-outrageous-links-wise-wives-and-a/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: You can become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and to go there, just click here. Again, thank you. --- Sometimes I forget that even butlers go on holiday. (You’d think I’d remember
- [The Death of Stalin](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-death-of-stalin/) - It’s not the best time to be Russian. The war in Ukraine is not a success. As the Times reports, Moscow has been sending poorly trained recruits, including convicts, to the front lines, where as many as 200,000 have died. Here's the headline of a Newsweek piece about dead oligarchs: “Russians Keep Mysteriously Falling from
- [Weekend Butler: An important GoFundMe. An actress in a movie that grossed $27,00 could win the Oscar (stream it!) The #1 bestselling novel (Don't tell: I'm reading it). When The Rolling Stones had nothing. A bracing soup recipe.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-an-important-gofundme-an-actress-in-a-movie-that-grossed-2700-could-win-the-oscar-stream-it-the-1-bestselling-novel-dont-tell-im-reading-it-when-the-rolling-stones-had-no/) - IMAGE: from Facebook: Chinese restaurant condiments. Caption: “Rothko… The Takeout Years.” GOFUNDME FOR TYRE NICHOLS You don’t need a single word from me about the tragedy in Memphis. But if you haven’t seen it, the GoFundMe launched by RowVaughn Wells, the mother of Tyre Nichols, you might click here. Her appeal is eloquent and focused, and
- [Try Not to Hold It Against Me: A Producer’s Life](https://headbutler.com/reviews/try-not-to-hold-it-against-me-a-producers-life/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: You can become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and to go there, just click here. Again, thank you. GUEST BUTLER RON FRIED is a veteran TV producer (Dick Cavett, Tina Brown) and
- [Alan Furst: Mission to Paris](https://headbutler.com/reviews/alan-furst-mission-paris/) - If you have a deadline looming or even a busy week, the absolute last thing you want to do is crack open “Mission to Paris” and think you’re going to read just a chapter, because you’re not. You’re going to read when you shouldn’t be reading. You’ll read at lunch. On the street. Deep into the night. But if you then try to convey your enthusiasm for “Mission to Paris” to someone who has never read any of Alan Furst’s 13 novels, you may have a hard time. These are spy thrillers by category, but the main characters aren’t usually spies; in this book, the hero is a Hollywood movie star who, in 1938, is “loaned out” to a Parisian producer to play the lead in a French film. More and more, in total violation of convention, Furst’s novels feature romance, invariably with women who are not swimsuit models. As for suspense, even before you start a Furst novel set in Europe during the run-up to World War II, you know at least part of the ending --- the hero is not going to kill Hitler and save the world. So why are Alan Furst’s novels so addictive? Just read the first paragraph of “Mission to Paris.” In Paris, the evenings of September are sometimes warm, excessively gentle, and, in the magic particular to that city, irresistibly seductive. The autumn of 1938 began in just such weather and on the terraces of the best cafés, in the famous restaurants, at the dinner parties one wished to attend, the conversation was, of necessity, lively and smart: fashion, cinema, love affairs, politics, and, yes, the possibility of war—that too had its moment. Almost anything, really, except money. Or, rather, German money. A curious silence, for hundreds of millions of francs --- tens of millions of dollars --- had been paid to some of the most distinguished citizens of France since Hitler's ascent to power in 1933. But maybe not so curious, because those who had taken the money were aware of a certain shadow in these transactions and, in that shadow, the people who require darkness for the kind of work they do. An immense amount of information is conveyed in those 155 words. The tension between the lively start of the fall season in Paris and the conversation no one wants to have about German money. The way that money compromises the rich Frenchmen who take it. The presence of shady characters. And, not least, the feeling you get when you have fallen under the spell of a master storyteller. [To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] And that’s just the first paragraph. The first chapter --- click here to read it --- follows a French fool who absconds with enough of that German money to live comfortably in another country for years. Think he gets away? Or do you think we see, in brisk, no nonsense prose, the efficiency of the German operation in France --- in 1938? All of that suggests what awaits Fredric Stahl when he arrives in Paris to make a movie. He’s no matinee idol: “He couldn’t punch another man, he wasn’t Clark Gable, and he couldn’t fight a duel, he was not Errol Flynn. But neither was he Charles Boyer — he wasn’t so sophisticated. Mostly he played a warm man in a cold world." The Germans, knowing Stahl was born in Vienna, are interested in him. And they want so little: come to Berlin, just to judge a festival of films about mountains. $10,000 for a day’s work. Lufthansa will fly him over and back. Stahl is less than interested. But then he gets a taste of German commitment to the triumph of the Reich. (As Goebbels’s people liked to say, “We don’t send out press releases. We send out operatives, and then other people send out press releases.”) Stahl prudently consults an American spymaster. "You're not a spy," the officer tells him. "That takes nerves of steel, and soon enough becomes a full-time job.” A “but” follows: “If, in your time here you, ah, stumble on something, something important, it wouldn't be a bad idea if you let me know about it." And that happens. Reading rapidly to the end, you could say that the reason you’re so involved with a Furst novel --- if you’re new to his books, you may want to go right on to The Foreign Correspondent and The Spies of Warsaw and Spies of the Balkans --- is because he writes so well. True enough. But I see another reason: At the start of a Furst novel, his main characters are not spies. They’re drawn into espionage by circumstance, but also, I think, by character. They see clearly that there are good guys and bad guys, and at some point, you’ve got to decide where you stand. So although these novels are about Europe in the years before World War II, they’re also exquisite little morality plays about right now, right here. But mostly, damned if they don’t make you think, “I’ve got to get to Paris, and soon.” BONUS VIDEO
- [Weekend Butler: "The apple that falls to the earth also lifts the ground." Prince Harry is right, and here's the proof. Weekend reading and compelling streaming. An easy recipe that's a crowd favorite. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-the-apple-that-falls-to-the-earth-also-lifts-the-ground-prince-harry-is-right-and-heres-the-proof-weekend-reading-and-compelling-streaming-an-easy-recipe-thats-a-crowd-favo/) - "THE APPLE THAT FALLS TO THE EARTH ALSO LIFTS THE GROUND" On our last night in Jamaica, I slipped on wet tile in the shower and landed, hard, on my left ankle. My friends are professionals at the highest level of the healing arts, and they made all the right moves: an ice pack, elevate
- [Lana del Rey: "Did you know there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/lana-del-rey-did-you-know-theres-a-tunnel-under-ocean-boulevard/) - I could say I’m paying particular attention to love songs on WFUV because I’m writing a novel that’s a love story about sophisticated people and very raw emotions and I’m a magpie who begs/borrows/steals great ideas and pithy lines. But the truth is that the first time I heard Lana del Rey’s new song, “Did
- [Prince Harry: Spare](https://headbutler.com/reviews/prince-harry-spare/) - “Spare” is the fastest-selling nonfiction book ever, with 1.43 million copies sold on its launch day. I wasn’t among those avid first day buyers. I wasn’t one of the 17 million viewers of Oprah’s interview with Harry and Meghan or live in one of the 28 million households that watched their Netflix documentary. I hadn’t savored
- [Thich Nhat Hanh: Living Buddha, Living Christ](https://headbutler.com/reviews/living-buddha-living-christ/) - Thich Nhat Hanh has no patience for religious doctrine. For him, the core of the world's religions is remarkably similar. And poster-simple. “Discussing God is not the best use of our energy,” he writes. "To take good care of yourself and to take good care of living beings and of the environment is the best way to love God." Because you have been around the block a few times, you know what an unpopular idea this is. Oh, not on the surface. In public pronouncements, spiritual leaders hold up brotherhood as an ideal and love as a common thread. But religions are also businesses. And you don't want the customers doing any comparison shopping. Better to build your brand. And what better way than to state your competitive difference by declaring --- sometimes between the lines, sometimes blatantly --- that you have an exclusive relationship with God. [To buy “Living Buddha, Living Christ” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy the Kindle edition of “Living Buddha, Living Christ” from Amazon.com, click here.] In this book, Thich Nhat Hanh --- among the sweetest guys on the planet --- will have none of that. He's completely comfortable with competing paths to spiritual wisdom: To me, religious life is life. I do not see any reason to spend one's whole life tasting just one kind of fruit. We human beings can be nourished by the best values of many traditions. And by “life,” he means real life. That is: what we actually do, how we really express our values. Thus, this story from the Vietnam War: An American soldier standing on the back of a military truck spit on the head of my disciple, a young monk named Nhit Tri. The soldier must have thought we Buddhists were undermining America's war effort or that my disciple was a communist in disguise. Brother Nhit Tri became so angry that he thought about leaving the monastery and joining the National Liberation Front. Because I had been practicing meditation, I was able to see that everyone in the war was a victim, that the American soldiers who had been sent to Vietnam to bomb, kill, and destroy were also being killed and maimed. I urged Brother Nhit Tri to remember that the G.I. was also a war victim, the victim of a wrong view and a wrong policy, and I urged him to continue his work for peace as a monk. He was able to see that, and he became one of the most active workers in the Buddhist School of Youth for Social Service. Very hard to do, How does he achieve such balance? First, meditation. Not just to cool yourself out, but, even more, to see your hot buttons --- to “recognize and accept the conflicting elements that are within us”. He also suggests that you poke around in the faiths of others. Again, not just out of a sincere curiosity, but also out of self-interest: “When you touch someone who authentically represents a tradition, you not only touch his or her tradition, you also touch your own.” So what do you do if you want to live on a higher plane? First, ignore all claims of exclusivity and superiority --- as he bluntly writes, “For a Buddhist to be attached to any doctrine, even a Buddhist one, is to betray the Buddha.” But do find a religious community; we practice our faith better when we practice together. Don't get in the mud with the enemies of peace: “Trying to overcome evil with evil is not the way to make peace.” And, finally, cultivate joy: “Enjoy being alive and you can help the living Christ and the living Buddha continue for a long, long time.” I write in Spring, the season of rebirth. For Thich Nhat Hanh, it's always Spring. To read more about “Thich Nhat Hanh: Essential Writings” on HeadButler.com, click here. To read more about "Teachings on Love" on HeadButler.com, click here. To read more about “Present Moment Wonderful Moment” on HeadButler.com, click here. To read more about “Fragrant Palm Leaves” on HeadButler.com, click here.
- [I've published Butler for 18 years. When was the last time I asked you for help? Never. Now I'm asking. Just this once.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/ive-published-butler-for-18-years-when-was-the-last-time-i-asked-you-for-help-never-now-im-asking-just-this-once/) - Friends - In a media environment that cherishes massive success, Head Butler is a minnow. After decades of writing for big prestige magazines and then producing features for the reigning god of the Internet, I have taken great pleasure --- for 18 years now --- editing a cultural concierge that publishes under the radar for
- [Weekend Butler: No, your emotional flatness isn't "seasonal, it's real. Multiple murders, multiple times, in the weekend book. An ideal soup for cold weather.  A knowing song about a daughter.  And we can't leave Bill Nighy out!](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-no-your-emotional-flatness-isnt-seasonal-its-real-multiple-murders-multiple-times-in-the-weekend-book-an-ideal-soup-for-cold-weather-a-knowing-song-about-a-daughter-and/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: You can become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and to go there, just click here. Again, thank you. — MY FIRST EVER, ONE TIME ONLY REQUEST FOR HELP: To read and respond,
- [Compulsion](https://headbutler.com/reviews/compulsion/) - Leopold and Loeb — ring a bell? Unless you’re a late-life Boomer, probably not. Here’s the cheat sheet: In 1924, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb kidnapped and killed 14-year-old Bobby Franks in Chicago, then demanded that his parents pay a $10,000 ransom. They didn’t need the money. They were rich. And brilliant students at the University of Chicago. So why did Artie Straus (Loeb) and Judd Steiner (Leopold) kill? No reason. Which was exactly the reason. They were drunk on Nietzsche’s concept of the “superman.” They believed they were above all laws. The murder — the perfect murder — was merely an “experiment.”
- [The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-half-known-life-in-search-of-paradise/) - In 1974, when Pico Iyer was a teenager, he traveled to India, where his father was meeting with the Dalai Lama. There the boy and the most exalted monk in Buddhism began a friendship that has deepened over nearly half a century. This friendship is not narrowly built around Buddhism. Iyer’s father was an Indian philosopher
- [Weekend Butler: Greetings from a computer far away, doing the best it can to serve you](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-greetings-from-a-computer-far-away-doing-the-best-it-can-to-serve-you/) - I was planning to be in New York this week. I had forgotten a few things: fate, luck, angels. And so, unexpectedly, I am far away, stunned, grateful. This Weekend Butler is rushed, and powered by a single idea. The holidays are over. There’s a drop off in hope and energy. I recall that when
- [Bob Marley & The Wailers](https://headbutler.com/reviews/catch-fire/) - Think back to 1973. The great rock revolution of the ‘60s was over. Music had become what it is now: a business. A depressing time for me --- I kept looking for flowers sprouting through the concrete and, month after month, came up with only weeds for my troubles. And then, at Max’s Kansas City, I found what I had been seeking. Some friends of friends were playing; an unknown group called The Wailers was on the bill. These young Jamaicans came out, freaky as Sly Stone, clearly tranced-out behind some serious ganja, and began to play amazingly complicated music that had me twisting in one direction while the beat had me going in another. Excited and limp, I went backstage (back then, back there, no big deal). Met the Wailers (Bob Marley was not then The Star). And, the next day, bought “Catch A Fire,” their American debut. (To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. To buy the MP3 download from Amazon, click here. To buy the iTunes download,
- [Laurie Colwin](https://headbutler.com/reviews/laurie-colwin/) - A curious thing happened after Laurie Colwin died. Her books remained in print, all of them. And that’s saying something, for she was prolific: five novels and three books of short stories, with two more books published after her death. Eighteen years after her death, her website launched. It makes sense that Laurie Colwin, in death, should be more popular than a lot of living writers who mine the same terrain. She hit the sweet spot. She wrote about privileged people so well you could legitimately call her our Jane Austen, But also, well before Nora Ephron, she threw in recipes, and in some of her perceptions, she was cousin to Woody Allen. In a time when “literary fiction” was mostly pinched and gloomy, she was the half-full glass — she even called one of her novels “Happy All the Time.” And her writing had that key element, energy; there was a reason they played Sam and Dave before her memorial service.
- [Picture in the Sand: A Novel](https://headbutler.com/reviews/picture-in-the-sand-a-novel/) - Peter Blauner was a junior person when we both worked at New York Magazine in the 1980s. I didn’t know him. And I didn’t know him when his novel, “Slow Motion Riot,” won the 1992 Edgar Award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America. I didn’t know him when he was co-executive
- [John Prine: Fair and Square](https://headbutler.com/reviews/fair-and-square/) - A classic song doesn't belong to its creator. It's ours. We take it into our lives and use it for our purposes and sing it in the car or the shower --- we own it so completely we might as well have written and recorded it ourselves. "My favorite song." It's like that. What are the elements of a classic song? No one can quite say. But some people seem to have the knack of not trying to write them --- and then rolling them out with frightening regularity. Like John Prine. Prine was once a prodigy, the next savior of the music business. At a tender age, he was introduced to Kris Kristofferson, and the next thing he knew, Kristofferson had called him up on stage. Prince sang a few songs on a borrowed guitar. Kristofferson announced, "No way somebody this young can be writing so heavy. John Prine is so good, we may have to break his thumbs." The legendary producer, Jerry Wexler, was in the audience. The following day, he offered Prine a recording contract. Prine is such a natural songwriter that on his first album he used two songs he wrote when he was fourteen. At 19, he wrote "Hello In There," a song about senior citizens that will bring audiences to tears until the end of time. For thirty years, he went his own way, pleasing himself and, in the process, delighting his loyal audience. And now, on the cusp of 60, he has a new CD that is studded with classics. These songs have an inevitability about them; it seems there's no other way they could have been recorded. I could cite examples until I bore you to death, but let's look at the first few stanzas of "Long Monday," the song I can't get out of my head: You and me Sittin' in the back of my memory Like a honey bee Buzzin' 'round a glass of sweet Chablis Radio's on Windows rolled up And my mind's rolled down Headlights shining Like silver moons Rollin' on the ground We made love In every way love can be made And we made time Look like time Could never fade Friday night We both made the guitar hum Saturday made Sunday feel Like it would never come Gonna be a long Monday Sittin' all alone on a mountain By a river that has no end Gonna be a long Monday Stuck like the tick of a clock That's come unwound - again First, the lyric line: It's more spoken than sung. Which gives you the feeling that anyone --- namely: you --- could "sing" it (but maybe no one could sing it better than a guy who's fought off neck cancer). Second, the subject: Many of us have been blessed by relationships that make a weekend fly. And then "long Monday" --- you just know he's going to stretch that "long" out, don't you? And how about those last two lines? Isn't that "again" --- almost an afterthought, really --- a killer? Prine's CD is so satisfying, so easy to put on the machine and play all day, so damn comfortable that it almost seemed that Prine had intimate access to my head. It was like, "These are my songs. This is how I feel. So how did this guy in Nashville come to write and sing them?" That was when I decided that I wanted to talk to John Prine. That's usually a terrible idea --- in my experience, you do best never to meet your heroes. But this thing could be arranged, and, in short order, I discovered that the smart, laid-back, endlessly amused persona of John Prine on "Faire & Square" is very close to the actual person I was talking to. Here are the Greatest Hits of that conversation: HB: Why do these songs sound so familiar? JP: Because this was the most comfortable I've ever been in the studio. I sang these songs in concert over the last 3 years. I knew they fit, I knew people liked them. HB: “Hello In There” was an instant classic. Forty years later, can you bear to perform it? JP: More than any other song, it gets stronger every day for me. I never tire of singing it. I don't know how I came up with such a pretty melody. It was an exercise --- to use every chord I had ever heard. I paid a guy five bucks to write it out so I could publish it. I couldn't believe it when he played it on piano. HB: Some of these new songs are so funny, do you laugh while you write them? JP: I laugh at the funny lines --- hey, I laugh at even the serious stuff. When it's going well, I feel like I'm taking dictation. But I don't have hundreds of songs waiting --- you've heard them all. HB: Do they come out in a rush? JP: I type so slow I can edit as I write. HB: You say you're lazy. Do you feel guilty when you go for months and don't write? JP: I 'm not Catholic, I'm not Jewish --- I can talk myself out of feeling guilty. Because it's easier to not write. I only love the songs I have to write. I trust a song like that --- a song straight from the gut. There are some really good songs that, if you don't write them down, someone else will. HB: On "Fair & Square," there's a political song, "Some Humans Ain't Human" --- but it's mostly funny, with only one direct reference to the President. JP: I always felt that way about protest and politics --- include it in your conversation instead of raving about it. HB: How does that song go over in the red states? JP: When I'm first singing about some issue, people change the subject. Later, it seems about right. HB: What's your daily media intake? JP: I hardly read at all. My wife reads three books at a time, but I read “Archie and Veronica” --- in the comic book form. HB: Who do you listen to? JP: I buy a lot of CDs, and I listen to them once. But Van [Morrison] or Bob [Dylan] or Merle [Haggard] --- I listen carefully to all of those. HB: Taking care of yourself? JP: I have a poor diet --- I'm a meat and potatoes guy. That has something to do with how I see things. There are no peas on my plate. "No peas on my plate" is a throwaway line from a song John Prine will never write. No loss. The songs he wrote will do just fine. Not country. Not rock. Not folk. Just...songs. With no gimmicks. I guess if you write classics, that's good enough.
- [New Year’s Weekend Survival Kit](https://headbutler.com/reviews/new-years-weekend-survival-kit/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: You can become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and to go there, just click here. Again, thank you. --- This weekend will be joyous for those who love college football, which has
- [“Alexa… play ‘Free’, by Florence + the Machine… Alexa… again.”](https://headbutler.com/reviews/florence-the-machine-im-always-running-from-something-i-push-it-back-but-it-keeps-on-coming-and-being-clever-never-got-me-very-far-because-its-all-in-my-head-but-i-hear-the-musi/) - For a week, “Free," a new song from Florence + the Machine, has been in heavy rotation here, sometimes at a volume that the neighbors notice. If you’ve ever had personal difficulty --- and by now, who hasn’t? or, more accurately, who isn’t enduring some personal trial right now? --- Florence Welch writes songs that
- [Between the Folds](https://headbutler.com/reviews/between-folds/) - One piece of paper. Folded. No cuts. Yes, origami. On a rainy day when you were a kid, you made a bird. Now? Please. You have put away childish things. Fine. But I want you to buy/rent/download --- like: right away -- “Between the Folds,” a 60-minute documentary that profiles the world’s greatest origami artists. And not for the origami. For the artists. For the inspiration. [To buy the DVD of “Between the Folds” from Amazon, click here. To rent a download of the movie and watch it now, click here. To buy the download, click here.] What these gents do with a single piece of paper --- for once, the word “mind-blowing” is an accurate description. Because if someone can take an uncut paper square and turn it into a figure so complex that collectors line up to buy it… well, we’re not talking about a little bird that flaps its wings anymore, are we? Watch: This movie, from first-time director Vanessa Gould, edited by Kristi Barlow, takes us to the intersection of engineering, mathematics and art --- a place so challenging only very special people can go there. (Or would want to, because a single piece of this kind of origami can take hundreds of hours to invent, refine and, finally, create.) One by one, we meet these creators. Gloomy about the human experiment? Think the current tsunami of stupidity in media and politics will become permanent? Stunned at the lack of entrepreneurial spark in the land? I was too. No more. For as I watched “Between the Folds,” many of the origami artists --- and two in particular --- fascinated me, inspired me and more: They almost convinced me that I can be much more creative. Start with Erik Demaine. A child prodigy. Home schooled. Started college at 12, graduated at 14. He was 20 when he joinedthe MIT faculty --- the youngest professor in its history. Winner of a MacArthur “genius” award? Of course. This is what he makes. This is why: Paper folds itself into a natural equilibrium form depending on its creases. These equilibria are poorly understood, especially for curved creases. We are exploring what shapes are possible in this genre of self-folding origami, with applications to deployable structures, manufacturing, and self-assembly. This transformation of flat paper into swirling surfaces creates sculpture that feels alive. Don’t feel badly if some of that eluded you. Just appreciate what exposure to thinking at that level does to your mind. Mental temperature rising? Good. Eric Joisel was --- tragically, he died in 2010, at 53 --- a more accessible genius. He was French, with a continental appreciation of the absurd. His figures were wry, expressive, one of a kind. They were also so complex, so lifelike, that he often needed very large pieces of paper: a rectangle measuring more than 15 feet by 25 feet. Musicians, barbarians, Renaissance actors – his figures were less than a foot high, but their detail was exacting. No wonder it took him as long as five years to design some of them. You watch these men work. You see their commitment. You gasp at how much they can create with so little. And, if you’re like me, you walk around for a few days afterward with fresh eyes, looking for a way to make your contribution. Or just appreciating the rich possibilities around you. “Between the Folds” will set your head on fire.
- [The Little Match Girl](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-little-match-girl/) - I’m thinking of doing another book, also from a classic story: “The Little Match Girl.” Hans Christian Anderson published it in 1843, two years before Dickens published “A Christmas Carol.” The issues are the same in both stories: poverty, income inequality, insensitivity. “A Christmas Carol” ends with hope, love, compassion. “The Little Match Girl” is the exact opposite: a tale of heartlessness that ends with a child’s death. As a commenter wrote on YouTube, “I really want to save the girl from all that misery and give her everything she needs, then hand everyone who turned her away a live grenade, especially her father.”
- [Unicorn Pepper Mill](https://headbutler.com/reviews/unicorn-pepper-mill/) - The Unicorn pepper mill looks simple, and is, in the way that Apple products are simple. Functionality rules. The mill is made of easy-to-wipe-clean plastic. Black plastic; like the Model T, you don’t get a choice of color. There’s a large, easy-to-open hole near the top that allows you to fill the cylinder with peppercorns. You adjust the grind on the bottom with a simple thumbscrew. Then you grind. Batteries? Oh, please.
- [Cambodian Market Bags](https://headbutler.com/reviews/cambodian-market-bags/) - f you aren't suffering from "climate fatigue," you haven't been reading the news. Politicians and businessmen --- as far as I can tell, the criminals are 100% male --- are hell-bent on lining their pockets with profits from coal and oil and wood, even if that ends life on the planet. And until November 2020, it doesn't look as if you can do anything about it. You can. Bill McKibben --- back in the day, he invented a concept called "global warming" --- has recently written something hopeful: "Social scientists estimate that getting 3 or 4 percent of people involved in a movement is often enough to force systemic change, whereas if they acted solely as consumers that same number would have relatively little effect." How do you start a movement? I say: as a consumer. Buy something cool. Others see it and like it. The thing is a hit on Instagram. It goes viral. Everybody wants it, many buy it. Voila... a movement. Consider plastic bags.
- [Anthelios Sunscreen with Mexoryl](https://headbutler.com/reviews/anthelios-50-fluide-extreme-face-mexoryl/) - Yes, this stuff costs more than creams that protect against sunburn. The thing is, those creams don’t offer long-lasting protection against Ultraviolet-A rays (UV-A). And UV-A doesn’t cause sunburn --- it causes cancer. Me, I’d rather pay more now and dramatically reduce the chance that our daughter, my wife and I get skin cancer.
- [Your Home Office: Everything you need for the long haul (cell phone stand, desk light, 100 calorie snacks, and more)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/your-home-office-everything-you-need-for-the-long-haul-cell-phone-stand-desk-light-100-calorie-snacks-and-more/) - I have come to terms with reality: I'm going to be in a closed room in an empty city until I turn off the heat and open the windows...in April. On good days, I'll get out to walk 10-12,000 steps; every day there are other steps I can take to elevate my mood, increase my
- [My exercise uniform (and yours?): The fleece quarter-zip sweatshirt, running pants, Allbirds](https://headbutler.com/reviews/my-weekend-exercise-uniform-and-yours-the-fleece-quarter-zip-sweatshirt-running-pants-allbirds/) - I’m not a model, but I’m going to play one --- just this once --- on the Internet. Since about 1962, my daily uniform has been a starched button-down oxford shirt, khakis, and boat shoes, Tretorns or Stan Smiths. For official appearances, I wear a blazer, white shirt, flannels and Weejuns --- the “Mr. Bar
- [Oh, no. It's back. These are my survival tools.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/oh-no-its-back-and-at-the-worst-possible-time-im-not-planning-to-die-this-winter-these-are-my-survival-tools/) - Omicron has my full attention. And --- not to be an alarmist, or anything like that --- it should have yours. We haven’t come this far to die now, or be sidelined for life. We’re the Smart Survivors. I’ve recommended most of these tools before. For what I hope is the last time… Finger Pulse
- [Tara Westover: Educated](https://headbutler.com/reviews/tara-westover-educated/) - We love survival stories, particularly when a plucky young woman, stranded in a terrible situation, Fights Her Way Out and Makes Something of Herself. There’s always a case worse than the worst case, but it’s hard to beat what Tara Westover was up against. Her father was a survivalist, certain that the government could show up any day to kill him. And he was a Mormon, which made him hostile to the idea of female agency. And he was crazy --- a toxic narcissist, surely bi-polar or schiozophrenic. His wife was under his thumb. Tara, the youngest of seven children, was under his boot.
- [A Christmas Carol: by Charles Dickens, abridged by Jesse Kornbluth, illustrated by Paige Peterson](https://headbutler.com/reviews/a-christmas-carol/) - A lifetime ago, I left the suburbs of Philadelphia to become a boarding student at Milton Academy, a school so different from anything I knew that it might as well have been on the moon. Suits at dinner? Amazingly, we wore them. Toothpaste inspection? Yes, and your shoes had to be spit-polished. Doing your homework
- [Borgen](https://headbutler.com/reviews/borgen/) - “Borgen” asks compelling questions. One, can you acquire power and still be yourself --- and is there a psychic law that says you lose some connection to yourself every time you gain more power? Two, is it possible to have a career and a meaningful family life and marriage at the same time?
- [Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra](https://headbutler.com/reviews/mr-s-my-life-with-frank-sinatra/) - The sex is what jumps out at me and will, I suspect, jump out at you --- it’s unvarnished and crude, but it’s great reading because it feels like the kind of truth that some men share when there are no women around. With Sinatra, that was generally the case; women had a very limited purpose.
- [The Tender Bar](https://headbutler.com/reviews/tender-bar/) - J.R. Moehringer's father, a noted disc jockey, was out of his mother's life before J.R. was old enough to remember that he was ever around. ";My father was a man of many talents, but his one true genius was disappearing.") His mother, suddenly poor, moves into her family's house in Manhasset, Long Island. And then....
- [The Queen's Gambit](https://headbutler.com/reviews/queen8217s-gambit/) - "The Queen's Gambit" ismy favorite book. In part, for the writing --- Walter Tevis doesn't waste a word. But more for the story, which is perhaps also yours: lonely kid, gifted, lost. Success, failure, crisis. A recognition moment. A helping hand. And....
- [Ann Peebles: I Can’t Stand the Rain](https://headbutler.com/reviews/ann-peebles-i-cant-stand-rain/) - "I Can't Stand the Rain" the 1973 release by Ann Peebles, is like that. Great music in these videos. From a single record. Each a classic. And there could be more than six here --- from start to finish, this is an exceptional collection of songs.
- [Weekend Butler, Tidings of Joy Issue: "The Hannukah Weed' (a short story). A Pediatrician saves a life (a true story). Nina Simone sings "Suzanne." Life-affirming commercials (yes, commercials). A political movie (the good guys win).  The end of cigarettes (in New Zealand). And much more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-tidings-of-joy-issue-the-hannukah-weed-a-short-story-a-pediatrician-saves-a-life-a-true-story-nina-simone-sings-suzanne-life-affirming-commercials-yes-commercials-a/) - TWO COMMERCIALS THAT MAKE ME GLAD TO BE ALIVE (AND MAY HAVE THE SAME EFFECT ON YOU) Suggestion: Have Kleenex handy. A car commercial. (Really) An insurance commercial. (Really) THE BEST BOOK VIDEO The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse is a runaway hit as a book. And soon as a film. The
- [Arvo Part](https://headbutler.com/reviews/te-deum/) - Do you recall how Michael Moore handled the attack on the World Trade Center in 'Fahrenheit 9/11'? To the surprise of those who hate him, he did it very, very artfully. Almost a minute of blank screen, with only sound to tell you what's happening. Sounds of the planes hitting the Towers --- sounds you've never heard before --- and the human counterpoint: people screaming. Then we see papers blowing in a smoke-filled sky, an abstract image of loss. And music: Arvo Part's 'Cantus In Memory Of Benjamin Britten,' a solemn meditation, with bells and solitary voices and silences between notes. Whoever picked Arvo Part knew what he/she was doing. Because that is holy music --- music that speaks, without intermediaries, to the soul. Which is why, when AIDS first swept across New York City in the 1980s, 'Cantus In Memory Of Benjamin Britten' --- from the 'Tabula Rasa' CD --- is said to have been a great favorite of dying men in the final weeks of their lives. For this music both acknowledges grief and suggests completion. It is, as Part has described it, 'like light going through a prism.' Who is Arvo Part? First, a child of Estonia, a tiny country across the Baltic Sea from Finland. It became a satellite of the Soviet Union when Part was young. Eventually he left, settling in West Berlin, where he has lived for decades. He's now in his 70s, with a vast number of compositions and recordings. But place is not important in accessing Arvo Part --- the key fact about him is that he has no real connection to this century. The music tells the story: It is timeless. If you must think of an antecedent, try Bach, for Part and Bach both use religious texts, in Latin. And Part, like Bach, favors a structure that, for all its intricacies, is fundamentally simple --- a prayer to God. In Part's case, the music is built on what he describes as 'tintinnabulation' --- a bell-like repetition of a single note. The music doesn't move forward. It sits. It just...exists. Indeed, if you listen carefully, it becomes the only thing that exists. As Part says: The complex and many-faceted only confuses me, and I must search for unity. What is it, this one thing, and how do I find my way to it? Traces of this perfect thing appear in many guises --- and everything that is unimportant falls away. Tintinnabulation is like this. Here I am alone with silence. I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of silence, comforts me. This is very evocative, cinematic music --- it's not surprising that, from 1958 to 1967, Part composed music for Estonian film and television. Like the best film scores, his music takes you deeper into the image, makes you look harder and see more. It's expansive, inspiring; as a conductor has noted, it takes a single moment and spreads it out. Of the many recordings of Part's work available, I prefer the 'Te Deum.' It is majestic, heartfelt, mysterious, profound, moving. But it's very personal music --- it presses emotional buttons --- and so it may feel very different to you. The good news: You will definitely feel something. There is just no way that music of this depth will fail to reach you --- the only question is how far inside it will take you. To buy ' Tabula Rasa' from Amazon.com, click here . To buy 'Te Deum' from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Marion Williams](https://headbutler.com/reviews/8933/) - Nine hundred body bags came home from Vietnam in December of 1967. My friend Ziggy brought his friend Eric Clapton over and we watched a Lyndon Johnson speech with the sound off and music on. I was on disciplinary probation, a reverse badge of honor. My roommate and I were minnows in the struggle, but
- [Weekend Butler: "Hold on tightly, let go lightly." A music video that will thrill you (and everyone you share it with). Kurt Vonnegut shows you how to make $1 million. Weekend movie: a German thriller. Julia Child's Coq au Vin.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-hold-on-tightly-let-go-lightly-a-music-video-that-will-thrill-you-and-everyone-you-share-it-with-kurt-vonnegut-shows-you-how-to-make-1-million-weekend-movie-a-german-thrill/) - "HOLD ON TIGHTLY. LET GO LIGHTLY." When I read that quote from the great theater director Peter Brook, I thought he had it backwards. If you're talking about relationships, holding on tightly seems the last thing you want to do --- your possessiveness strangles the romance. And letting go lightly? Doesn't that say: Thanks for
- [The Tallis Scholars Sing Thomas Tallis](https://headbutler.com/reviews/tallis-scholars-sing-thomas-tallis/) - When things are broken, art tends to respond in kind. It doesn’t have to be that way. There is no law that says we cannot look beyond the temporal to the eternal. It is nowhere writ that we cannot come together, in exquisite harmony, to celebrate what we perceive as an orderly and beautiful universe. Thomas Tallis (1505 – 1585) wrote glorious music under the watchful eye of four English monarchs, some Catholic, some not. His hand never wavered. He composed choral music in English, Latin, French and Italian --- whatever served the preference of his royal master. And what he wrote! Let’s just consider his 10-minute masterpiece, Spem in alium. Legend has it that he wrote it in response to a challenge from Thomas Howard, fourth Duke of Norfolk. The challenge: Could an Englishman write a better piece than Striggio's 40-part Ecce beatum lautam? Tallis was then 65, not an age when composers are thought to be at the height of their powers. But he produced a work for eight choirs of five voices each. I repeat: eight choirs of five voices each. After the first performance, Thomas Howard took a gold chain from around his neck and gave it to Tallis. [To buy this 2-CD set from Amazon, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.] Here’s Peter Phillips, creator and conductor of the Tallis Scholars, on this remarkable piece: So outstanding is 'Spem in alium' that it still seems impossible that one mind without a computer could have managed it. To write for forty voices which do not repeat themselves in consecutive motion and not to lose control of the whole colossal edifice is to set a challenge which even the Art of Fugue scarcely rivals… Spem remains the ultimate technical challenge: supremely difficult to bring off, supremely rewarding when one comes near. Please listen: Other pieces are just as complex. For Peter Phillips --- who founded the Tallis Scholars in 1978 and then mortgaged his house so he could start a record company --- complexity is not the greatest challenge. No group tours more, no group releases more CDs. And no group is less rigid. Instead of castrati, Phillips goes modern and uses women. As for “authenticity,” it’s not a priority: “We have no idea what a Renaissance choir sounded like. I'm sure they didn't sound anything like us." Longtime readers know I swoon over this group’s recording of the Allegri Miserere. And there is no more beautiful bargain than its Christmas album. But this…this is pretty much the pinnacle. A bargain, to be sure: two hours and forty minutes of music for $20. And worth much more --- in a time when the ground is especially unstable and discord surrounds us, this stuff is, simply, gold. BONUS VIDEO
- [Clarins Beauty Flash Balm](https://headbutler.com/reviews/practical-clarins-baume-beaute-eclair-and-extravagant-prada-leau-da/) - My wife has her beauty regimen down to a streamlined, highly effective routine. Retin-A. Vitamin C serum. A daily session with the Clarisonic. You’ll note: No commercial products. Recently, I spotted two new products in her arsenal. With brand names, even. Naturally, I wondered how she came to buy them. “A salesclerk told me that all the celebrity make-up artists use Clarins Beauty Flash Balm,” she said. It immediately moved into almost daily use. “At the end of a long day at work or, later at night, when your makeup begins to settle, you rub a little of this cream in your hand, then press it on your face,” my wife explained. “Very quickly, your skin looks dewy --- it’s almost an instant glow.” Or, as someone noted on a message board, “It’s like eight hours of sleep in a tube.” (To buy Clarins Baume Beauté Éclair --- Beauty Flash Balm --- from Amazon, click here.) I read the manufacturer’s explanation of ingredients that tighten the skin and reduce wrinkles, but the technical reasons that Beauty Flash Balm works are beyond my understanding. I did note the emphasis on not rubbing it in. And, elsewhere, I saw testimonial after testimonial for its use as a base for makeup and as a home facial (apply, let sit 10-15 minutes, rinse or tissue off.) I return to the observable truth: my wife never looks tired. The Clarins cream is a necessity. Prada L'Eau Ambree Body Powder, which comes in a typically gorgeous Prada package and contains, along with a powder that delivers the faintest of amber scent, a big, old-fashioned powder puff --- that, my wife said, is luxury. “Perfume is a necessity,” my wife explained. “I bought this because I felt I needed a luxury.” Luxury, in beauty, is very much a 1930s fantasy. The dressing table. The rows of cosmetics. The session in the mirror with a drink handy or a cigarette burning. Or, now, a small thing that delivers a huge amount of pampering. Over and over I read this: No beauty treatment is more sensual than a powder puff after a bath or shower. My wife goes further: “I use it on the pillows. I shake the puff in the air. For me, it’s a kind of aromatherapy.” At $62? No way! But that’s the price at Neiman-Marcus. At Amazon, it’s a giveaway $30. Much better. (To buy Prada L'Eau Ambree Body Powder with Puff from Amazon, click here.) Like my wife, I see the Prada body powder as a gift --- only next time I'll be the one buying it.
- [The 2017 Holiday Gift Guide](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-2017-holiday-gift-guide/) - HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDES The Holiday Gift Guide The Food Edition Gifts for Kids The Luxury Edition --- ALL-TIME TOP 10 CLASSIC GIFTS Timex Easy Reader Watch Esquire: “The simple retro face looks cooler than some watches that cost six times as much." Under $30. Zojirushi Stainless Steel Vacuum Insulated Mug What is astonishing about the
- [The Vintage Guide to Classical Music](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-vintage-guide-to-classical-music/) - Swafford is a witty tour guide: "Wagner secured a new mistress. One can only wonder how he did it." He's no snob: "I am among those who at age fourteen thought the '1812 Overture' was the swellest thing ever written.' And he is an enlightened listener, who gets the point of great music: "Bach wrote for Christian services, but his music is broader and deeper than that tradition; It touches the wellsprings from which all religions draw, the universal verities of the body and heart and soul." Unless you come from a home in which classical music was played and discussed, you'll need a guide in order to school yourself. This book is that and then some --- it's a reference book that turns into a friend. If my apartment were on fire and I could take only ten books, my dog-eared, heavily underlined copy of Swafford would surely be among the saved.
- [The Book of General Ignorance](https://headbutler.com/reviews/book-general-ignorance/) - In this endlessly amusing and far too informative book, you will unlearn many lies that you have been told were bedrock truths. You will learn how to read questions carefully, the better to find the tricks. [Hey, they're Brits.] You will smarten up. You will develop the proper skepticism about the “knowledge” we think we know. The Book of General Ignorance John Lloyd and John Mitchinson Life ain't fair. We have the diving dollar. Brits have the powerful pound. We've got Axe Deodorant Body Spray. Brits have Penhaligon's Blenheim Bouquet. We have American idol. Brits have Quite Interesting (or QI, as it's known across the pond). QI is smart TV. It does not shrink from the designation “intellectual British panel game,” which may explain why, despite its roaring success, no American network is rushing to import it. The host is Stephen Fry, a large, funny, educated chap who was once half of Hugh Laurie and has a bit of Oscar Wilde about him. [The significant difference, of course, is that Fry sees nothing wrong about openly declaring his homosexuality and delivering such bon mots as “I suppose it all began when I came out of the womb. I looked back up at my mother and thought to myself, 'That's the last time I'm coming out of one of those'".] The idea of the show --- well, it's complicated, and no one connected to the enterprise can figure out the scoring, but the general idea is that everything you think you know is wrong. Like: the facts. The ones you know. Moths are attracted to flames, yes? A whale could have swallowed Jonah, right? Chameleons change color, do they not? And camels --- water's in the humps. The planet's mostly water. An American invented baseball. Blackboard chalk is chalk. Don't bet on any of that. Flushed with intellectual superiority, John Lloyd, the show's creator and producer, and his head researcher, John Mitchinson, decided to go beyond television and do what all respectable Brits do at some point in their lives --- put out a book. Their purpose: provide a Real Service in a know-it-all-world. As they write: We live, they say, in The Information Age, yet almost none of the information we think we possess is true. Eskimos do not rub noses. The rickshaw was invented by an American. Joan of Arc was not French. Lenin was not Russian. The world is not solid, it is made of empty space and energy, and neither haggis, whisky, porridge, clan tartans nor kilts are Scottish. So we stand, silent, on a peak in Darien: a vast, rolling, teeming, untrodden territory before us. QI country. Whatever is interesting we are interested in. Whatever is not interesting, we are even more interested in. Everything is interesting if looked at in the right way. In this endlessly amusing and far too informative book, you will unlearn many lies that you have been told were bedrock truths. You will learn how to read questions carefully, the better to find the tricks. [Hey, they're Brits.] You will smarten up. You will develop the proper skepticism about the “knowledge” we think we know. And you'll become that annoyingly smart person --- the word I'm looking for is, I think, smartass --- at parties. Which makes this an invaluable book. To buy “The Book of General Ignorance” from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Winter's Bone](https://headbutler.com/reviews/winters-bone/) - Jennifer Lawrence was just 21 when she played the needy, mouthy policeman’s widow in "Silver Linings Playbook." This was her first Best actress Academy Award, but it wasn't her first Oscar nomination. At 20, she was nominated for “Winter’s Bone,” her first starring role. That nomination made her the second-youngest actress ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. (At 21, she was also Katniss Everdeen in “The Hunger Games.”) In an ensemble cast of "Playbook," hers was the performance that held the movie together. This is equally true of her work in “Winter’s Bone”--- she was so completely Ree Dolly that critics couldn’t imagine another actress in the role. But few moviegoers have seen that breakthrough performance; made for $2 million, “Winter’s Bone” grossed less than $7 million in American theaters. [To buy the DVD of “Winter’s Bone” from Amazon, click here. To rent or buy the video stream and watch it immediately, click here.] “Winter’s Bone" could not be grittier. Set in the bleak Ozarks of Missouri, we find ourselves among the rural poor: cramped trailers, plastic stretched over the windows in winter, not a Volvo in sight. And the Dollys are among the most wretched. Ree’s father, Jessup Dolly, was busted a while back for cooking methamphetamine. To make bond, he put up his family’s house and 300 acres of virgin timber. Now his court date is a week away --- and he’s nowhere to be found. The local lawman comes out to warn Ree that the Dollys are in danger of losing their home. Ree’s mother has suffered a breakdown and is of no help, either in caring for her children or finding her husband. Which makes 17-year-old Ree responsible for her young sister and brother --- and for tracking her father down. Ree’s quest is a walk on a knife edge; she can’t turn in her father, she can only ask for help in finding him so she can talk to him. And the only people who can help her? His relatives. Some of them make the most addictive drug on the planet. All of them don’t understand why she can’t remember she’s a Dolly --- “bred and buttered,” as she says --- and just stop. As they say, “Talking just causes witnesses.” Much of the cast is local and non-professional --- and, no offense, but they look like people who might make crank, who could scare the shit out of you at traffic lights with a sidelong glance, who would quiet you once with "I already told you to shut up with my mouth” and let their hands do the talking after that. The film feels almost like a Greek tragedy --- or an American Western. The trailer gives you a sense of the stakes and the seriousness: “Winter’s Bone” won the Grand Jury Prize for Dramatic Films and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance. In 2011, it received four Academy award nominations: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor and Best Actress. Lawrence was up against Natalie Portman (“Black Swan”), Nicole Kidman (“Rabbit Hole”), Annette Bening (“The Kids Are Alright”) and Michelle Williams (“Blue Valentine”). Portman won. Fine. But she too has given better performances. “Winter’s Bone” is both painful to watch and impossible to turn away from. The scene with the squirrel. Ree’s desperate attempt to convince an Army recruiter --- who’s played by an Army recruiter --- to let her enlist for five years so she can collect the government’s $40,000 bonus. And a climax so remarkable, so distant from anything you know as reality, that you’ll never forget it. “Silver Linings Playbook” is a pleasant confection. “Winter’s Bone,” in contrast, will, brand you. You’ll never forget it. First, though, you have to see it. =============== “Winter’s Bone,” directed by Debra Granik, was adapted from a novel by the highly regarded Daniel Woodrell. To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.
- [Weekend Butler:  Shower the people you love with love. A rare video. Your next podcast: Anderson Cooper. The show to see in NYC. A comedy to stream. A recipe for a holiday party. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-shower-the-people-you-love-with-love-a-rare-video-your-next-podcast-anderson-cooper-the-show-to-see-in-nyc-a-comedy-to-stream-a-recipe-for-a-holiday-party-and-more/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: You can become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and to go there, just click here. Again, thank you. --- THIS WEEK IN BUTLER Marcella Hazan: Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking Frank Costello:
- [Marcella Hazan: Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking](https://headbutler.com/reviews/essentials-classic-italian-cooking/) - The death of Marcella Hazan, at 89, has produced tributes from everyone of importance in Food World. It makes me want to open "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking" and cook. Until Hazan published her instantly classic cookbook, you went to a restaurant that featured Northern Italian cooking, had a meal that was destined for your top ten list, and returned home with a nagging question: This is "simple" food. Why can't I cook like this? With Hazan's book in hand, that changed. Her recipes were the essence of simplicity --- her famous tomato sauce contained only tomatoes, onion, butter and salt. But not so fast. As she pointed out: "Simple doesn't mean easy." Her definition of "simple" was not for the lazy: "I can describe simple cooking thus: Cooking that is stripped all the way down to those procedures and those ingredients indispensable in enunciating the sincere flavor intentions of a dish." So she began her book by setting forth some fundamentals. Turn to page seven. "Flavor, in Italian dishes, builds up from the bottom," she begins. "It is not a cover, it is a base. In a pasta sauce, a risotto, a fricassee, a stew, or a dish of vegetables, a foundation of flavor supports, lifts, points up the principal ingredients." The metaphor, she continues, is "architectural." And you suddenly flash back to your childhood and your afternoons playing with blocks, and a very big light bulb goes on. The light bulb here involves techniques: battuto (chopped vegetables), soffritto (sauteeing the battuto) and insaporire (bestowing taste, by coating the key ingredients with the flavoring elements). Her explanation is clear. By page nine, you are ready to cook. [To buy the hardcover book --- cheaper than the paperback --- from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] Marcella's “secret” might just be the result of her fundamental innocence. She said she never cooked until her marriage in 1955. Her training was in science --- she had a PhD in biology from the University of Ferrara, Italy. Which explains her heightened sensitivity to fundamentals --- to process. Just look at the recipes in these 704 pages. Few have more than 10 ingredients. Instructions put you in charge (you observe the meal you're cooking, you decide when it's done). And she makes sure that you won't be standing in the kitchen putting on the “finishing touches” while your guests twiddle their thumbs at the table --- this is hearty, traditional, Northern Italian “home cooking” that you can master for considerably less than the $3,000 that Hazan used to charge for a week of cooking classes in Venice. You should try before you buy. In the case of a cookbook, that's easy. I let the book fall open to a recipe for a dish I make often (in part because it's terrific, but in larger part because it's incredibly easy). Here you go: a main course that is both simple and elegant, suitable for family dining and for your snootiest friends. Like the author, this recipe --- indeed, all her recipes --- is immortal. Roast Pork with Vinegar and Bay Leaves For 6 servings 2 tablespoons butter 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 2 pounds boneless pork loin roast l teaspoon whole black peppercorns salt 3 bay leaves ½ cup good red wine vinegar In a heavy-bottomed or enameled cast-iron pot, put in butter and oil. Turn stove on to medium-high; when the butter foam subsides, put in the pork. Brown deeply, turning when each side is done. Add salt, peppercorns, bay leaves and vinegar. Turn heat to low, cover the pot and cook, turning the meat occasionally. If liquid evaporates, add ¼ cup water. When cooked through --- 40-60 minutes --- transfer the pork to a cutting board. Let sit for a few minutes, then slice. Meanwhile, remove bay leaves, add 2 tablespoons of water, and heat the gravy. Pour over the pork and serve. Or try her on a recipe you've made your own way --- or someone else's --- a million times. Bolognese Meat Sauce for about 6 servings 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 3 tablespoons butter plus 1 tablespoon for tossing with the pasta 1/2 cup chopped onion 2/3 cup chopped celery 2/3 cup chopped carrot 3/4 pound ground beef chuck, not too lean salt & freshly ground black pepper 1 cup whole milk [or 2 %] Whole nutmeg for grating 1 cup dry white or red wine 1 1/2 cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juice 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds pasta Freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano at the table Put the oil, butter, and chopped onion in a heavy-bottomed pot and turn the heat to medium. Cook and stir until the onion is translucent. Add the celery and carrot and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring to coat the vegetables with fat. Add the meat, a large pinch of salt, and some freshly ground pepper. Break the meat up with a fork, stir well, and cook until the meat has lost its raw color. Add milk and let simmer gently, stirring frequently, until it has bubbled away completely. Add a tiny grating, about 1/8 teaspoon, fresh nutmeg and stir. Add the wine and let it simmer away. When the wine has evaporated, stir in the tomatoes. When they begin to bubble, turn the heat down so that the sauce cooks at the laziest of simmers, with just an intermittent bubble breaking through to the surface. Cook, uncovered, for 3 hours, stirring from time to time. If the sauce begins to dry out, add 1/2 cup of water whenever necessary to keep it from sticking. At the end, there should be no water left, and the fat must separate from the sauce. Taste for salt. Toss with cooked, drained pasta and the remaining tablespoon of butter. Serve freshly grated cheese at the table.
- [Thanksgiving Weekend Butler: Thank YOU! What Steve Jobs knew (and Elon Musk doesn't).  A getaway movie. Getaway music.  A mind-teasing poem. Recipe: a bird after turkey. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/thanksgiving-weekend-butler-thank-you-what-steve-jobs-knew-and-elon-musk-doesnt-a-getaway-movie-getaway-music-a-mind-teasing-poem-recipe-a-bird-after-turkey-and-more/) - THANKSGIVING: THE ATTITUDE IS GRATITUDE A young man entered Club Q, in Colorado Springs, wearing a military-style jacket and carrying a long, AR-15-style rifle and a handgun, and in just a few minutes, he killed five people and wounded eighteen. His choice of location wasn’t accidental: Club Q is a gay club that attracts families,
- [Shah of Shahs](https://headbutler.com/reviews/shah-shahs/) - If you’ve been watching the spotty and inadequate coverage of events in Iran, two things may have occurred to you. One is that politicians and pundits who, last year, wanted us to bomb Iran, no matter how many civilians we might kill, are now passionate defenders of the Iranian protestors and dissidents, many of whom would be dead if we had sent planes aloft. The other is that no one on television seems to know much about Iran. Why, you may wonder, haven’t they read the 160 page Shah of Shahs, one of the better books by the masterful journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski? In case you are unfamiliar with Kapuscinski, here’s the primer: He was probably the best foreign correspondent of the last half century. Born poor in Poland, his childhood was a witness to war and death. And as a writer, that was his mission: covering war and death. Conflict zones were his home, especially in Africa; it’s said he witnessed 27 revolutions and coups, was jailed 40 times and was sentenced to death on four occasions. He was a friend of Updike and Marquez --- that says a lot right there. He died in 2007.
- [Weekend Butler: Joan Didion. New Scrabble words. How often should you brush your cat's teeth? 6 minutes of joy. Stories of kindness. An exploding whale. A recipe for cold nights. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-joan-didion-new-scrabble-words-how-often-should-you-brush-your-cats-teeth-6-minutes-of-joy-stories-of-kindness-an-exploding-whale-a-recipe-for-cold-nights-and-more/) - A TALE OF TWO AUCTIONS: PAUL ALLEN AND JOAN DIDION Two auctions in the last week. One was the biggest sale in the history of art auctions. One, of objects belonging to America’s most admired literary icon, generated prices that exceeded their price estimates. The Paul Allen auction moved rarely seen masterpieces into private collections,
- [Between Meals](https://headbutler.com/reviews/between-meals/) - It is a joy pure as Montrachet to revisit his youth, when he ate with gusto and the future was an unbroken vista of remarkable meals. Reading this book, you will feel both sated and anticipatory. Just like Liebling after a two-hour lunch.
- [Ali Farka Toure](https://headbutler.com/reviews/ali-farka-toure/) - When Ali Farka Toure died in 2006, all Mali wept. This was a giant --- he took took his country's music and blended it with the American blues of the Deep South to produce CDs of piercing originality and astonishing b
- [Weekend Butler: TWO "must see" movies.  Marcella Hazan's Bolognese Sauce. John Lennon's night light. Would you travel 3,000 miles to see a play? Still the best new book. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-two-must-see-movies-marcella-hazans-bolognese-sauce-john-lennons-night-light-would-you-travel-3000-miles-to-see-a-play-still-the-best-new-book-and-more/) - THIS WEEK'S MUST-SEE MOVIE: "THE FABELMANS" "The Fabelmans" is the story Steven Spielberg didn't think he could tell. From an interview in the Times: When the pandemic first hit, some of my kids flew in from the East Coast, and they all took up residence in their old bedrooms and Kate [Capshaw, his wife] and
- [James Salter: Last Night](https://headbutler.com/reviews/james-salter-last-night/) - he first rule of fiction is "Show. Don't tell." The best way to get you to read James Salter's stories is to serve one up. This is the title story. A woman is dying --- "She had a face now that was for the afterlife and those she would meet there" --- and she has made a pact with her husband: she'll die tonight. I'll say no more...
- [Andre Dubus: Selected Stories](https://headbutler.com/reviews/selected-stories/) - He was a small boy from Louisiana who listened to the opera on the radio on Saturday afternoons. When he graduated from college, he joined the Marines. And he got strong and thick in the chest, and later, when he grew a beard, he looked like Ernest Hemingway. Andre Dubus wrote a bit like Hemingway --- that is, he wrote about people saying bluntly what they meant, people who cheated and swore and, sometimes, killed --- but he didn't have Hemingway's fame. He couldn't. Hemingway wrote novels that became bestsellers and movies. Dubus wrote short stories. "I love short stories because I believe they are the way we live," he wrote. "They are what our friends tell us, in their pain and joy, their passion and rage, their yearning and their cry against injustice." I interviewed Andre Dubus in the early 1980s. He lived north of Boston, in one of those towns where no one you know has ever lived. He was married to a young writer, and this marriage, his third, seemed to be the keeper. There were children, and teaching, and the slow, steady pile of stories. He was a delightful conversationalist --- “Why do I go to Mass every day? Because if Ronald Reagan defines ultimate reality, I'd have to shoot myself!” - and fun to profile. The piece I wrote about him for a now-defunct arts magazine was good enough that his picture was on the cover. He hadn't experienced praise like that; he cried when he read it. He got more attention in 1986. He was driving home late one night when he spotted a car on the side of the highway. He stopped to help two motorists. Another car swerved toward them. Dubus shoved the woman out of the way. In the crash, the man was killed instantly. Dubus had 34 broken bones --- and both legs crushed below the knee. His choice, he was told, was a long rehab or one leg amputated above the knee. He had work to do, kids to support --- he took the surgery. He still needed three years of rehab. And his wife left him. Friends rallied. Kurt Vonnegut, Ann Beattie, E.L. Doctorow, Gail Godwin, Stephen King, Tim O'Brien, Jayne Anne Phillips, Richard Yates and John Updike gave readings to help him out. He won a MacArthur Genius Award. But writing came harder, and it broadened --- he became a chronicler of disability. And then, in 1999, he died. He was 62. He left behind six children, one of them the writer Andre Dubus III. If you have never read Dubus, you may have seen a movie adapted from one of his stories. It's called “In the Bedroom” and it's about a father who has to go on living in the same town with the guy who killed his son. It's a classic Dubus conflict: wounded people, difficult situation, moral choices. Nothing “clever” or “literary” here, nothing that the New York crowd can easily relate to. That story, called “Killings” is as good an introduction to Dubus as any. It's pure storytelling --- just character and plot. Or as a guy says in one of his stories, “It gets down to what's happening to you right now.” Like: a woman, raped by her husband, and what happens when she gets a gun. Like: a cratering marriage, both husband and wife unfaithful, she with a priest. Like a man who falls in love with his son's wife. [To buy the book from Amazon.com, click here. For the Kindsle download, click here.] I can make these stories sound even more downbeat by telling you that none of the characters in a Dubus story is much of a success. The teachers are assistant professors and instructors in small colleges. The women are waitresses and housewives. The houses are cramped, often with full ashtrays and sinks with dishes stacked high. And money --- the shortness of, that is --- is a silent villain throughout. And yet these are glorious stories. First, for the writing, which is simple and unadorned and more like Chekhov than a lot of writing that's called Chekhovian. But even more, because their creator loves every character he created, loves them equally for their hopes and dreams and flaws. Not many writers could put restrained desire like this: On a Thursday night in early autumn she nearly committed adultery, was within minutes of consummating it, or within touches, kisses; it was difficult to measure by time or by her mouth and tongue and hands, or by his. A father, dropping his kids off at his ex-wife's house in winter, realizes that the condensation on the windows is the warm breath of his children. A wife, miserable beyond measure, gets that she doesn't truly hate her husband; if she did, she could leave. And there are so many more remarkably people to meet, people you see in convenience stores and in strip malls, people you're not likely to know. Dubus loved them all because he was them all --- the macho guy who lifted weights was a warehouse of compassion and empathy. To read these stories is to admire the life's work of this too little known writer. And it's to feel fresh respect for the struggles we all face --- to become, if only briefly, a slightly better person.
- [The War of Art](https://headbutler.com/reviews/war-art/) - Is there a project you can't finish? Do you have a dream that stays in the ozone? A gym membership going unused? Steven Pressfield bluntly tells you why you can't do the stuff you say you most desperately want to do, and what you can do about that, and what happens when you get your motor revving high. It's 163 pages short. Lots of white space. Big ideas put into simple words. But those words will definitely harsh your mellow.
- [Pete Townshend: Who Came First](https://headbutler.com/reviews/pete-townshend/) - In 1972, Townshend released “Who Came First,” an album of songs about and for the recently departed Meher Baba. It's exactly what a love letter should be --- personal. Townshend wrote all the songs (except one, Baba's favorite, a country tune called “There's a Heartache Following Me”). He played all the instruments. He did the engineering and mixing. It was, he noted, “one gynormous ego trip.”
- [Welcome to Michael's](https://headbutler.com/reviews/welcome-michaels/) - Welcome to Michael's Michael McCarty Every few weeks, I meet friends at Michael's Restaurant. That's the sort of thing you do when you're a sole proprietor of a media shop in Manhattan --- you go where the Kool Kids go, just to remind them that you're alive. And then you have lunch. If that sounds like an inverted set of priorities, you're not a New Yorker. We get the reality: Michael's is two establishments in one. The first is a media cafeteria for the extremely powerful and their court jesters. The other is a damn good restaurant. Everybody talks about the cafeteria. The restaurant is noted mostly in passing. Both are misunderstood. The powerhouse lunchroom is misunderstood because it is exclusive without being snooty. Michael's has white tablecloths and huge flower arrangements and walls covered with Hockneys and Diebenkorns, and it is annoyingly expensive and getting more so with every menu change, but you can go there, even if you're Nobody. You may not get to sit in the fabled front room. But over time, as you get to know the staff and/or make something of yourself, your lot may improve. This is in dramatic contrast to another exclusive lunchroom, the now-departed Mortimer's, where innocents routinely entered an empty dining room only to have the owner peer dismissively over his glasses and announce that his establishment was full. The restaurant is misunderstood because so many people go there to rub shoulders with peers and would-be peers that they barely notice the food. It is possible to eat well here, but this is not a clientele that likes to chow down. If ever a restaurant should have a compost heap, it's Michael's. Neither misunderstanding is fatal. Michael's has been a popular restaurant in Santa Monica for 30 years and has owned the power lunch business in Manhattan for almost two decades. That is not a record we will see broken in our lifetimes, and while it takes a village to raise a restaurant, most of the credit should go to the founder, Michael McCarty. McCarty is such an exuberant guy --- “Party on, dude!” is his signature line --- that he's the restaurant's biggest misunderstanding of all. Alice Waters usually gets the major ink for inventing New American Cuisine, but McCarty was right there with her. And he has the credentials to prove it. After a privileged childhood of parties at summer resorts and ski retreats and an apprenticeship as a teenage gourmet at New York's better restaurants, he rushed off to Europe. He returned with a Certificate d'Aptitude Professionelle from the Ecole Hoteliere de Paris, a Grand Diplome from the Cordon Bleu, and a diploma from the Academy du Vin --- and a vision. His vision was simple. He would streamline the eternally elegant recipes of France and prepare them using the freshest ingredients in America, then he'd serve his food in a room that was lovely but relaxed. As he puts it: “My cooking is presented simply, dramatically, with none of the fussiness you find in many fancy kitchens. Even those dishes that contain butter and cream, I use the light hand that modern sensibilities demand.” What McCarty does not say: He's a Rabelaisian spirit, maybe even Falstaffian. Truffles? Pile them on! Fois gras? Thicker! So let's be clear: This is not your everyday cookbook. It's got some great twists on old favorites --- like the salad of goat cheese, beets and lettuce dressed with a white wine-dijon vinaigrette --- but for every grilled chicken with tarragon butter there's a recipe for grilled chicken with duck foie gras and morels. If you're not billing your life to your employer, you may have to restrain yourself here. But this cookbook has charms beyond food. It's also a summary of Michael McCarty's philosophy. Given his success, his obvious happiness and his uncanny ability to make the most neurotic people on the planet feel at home, that philosophy merits your attention. And, for good measure, some of the regulars offer their Michael's stories, which are often as funny and irreverent as the owner. The recipe to choose? I'm torn. I often order the roast chicken at Michael's, an organic bird with a wonderfully crisp, herbed skin --- and enough French fries for a kid's birthday party. But let's go with the most popular item on the menu: the Cobb salad. Formed like a cake, it is one massive --- and yet low-cal --- meal. I've never seen anybody finish one. But that's because Michael's customers all want to be television slim. Could that be because so many of them are on TV? Cobb Salad serves 4 1 and _ cups olive oil 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar 1/4 cup chopped chives 1 pound chicken tenders, fat and sinew removed 3 tablespoons peanut oil 3/4 pound mesclun l0 ounces cherry tomatoes, halved lengthwise 2 avocados, peeled and sliced 4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped 1/2 pound bacon lardons 1/2 pound crumbled Maytag blue cheese sea salt and freshly ground black pepper Combine the oil, vinegar and chives in a container with a tight-fitting lid. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and shake. Set aside. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat the peanut oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. When very hot, add the chicken and sear, turning occasionally, for about 6 minutes or until browned and cooked through. Transfer to a platter and set aside. To make the lardons: Cut the bacon crosswise into quarter-inch strips. Place the bacon in a large frying pan over medium-high head. Fry, stirring and turning frequently, for about five minutes, or until bacon is golden and crisp. Remove from the heat, place bacon on a double lay of paper towel to drain. Place an equal amount of the mesclun into each of 4 large shallow soup bowls. Cut the chicken tenders crosswise into thin slices and arrange equal portions of the chicken down the center of the greens. Place a line of cherry tomatoes on one side of the chicken and a line of avocado down the other. Place a line of chopped egg next to the tomatoes and a line of lardons next to the avocado. Sprinkle blue cheese over all. Service with the dressing on the side. Or drizzle a moderate amount over the top as you serve, asking guests to mix their salads immediately. And don't imagine how much better this would taste in the front room of Michael's --- consider how great it is to be serving it at Table 1 of your establishment. To buy “Welcome to Michael's” from Amazon.com, click here. For the web site of Michael's New York, click here. For the web site of Michael's Los Angeles, click here.
- [Weekend Butler: "At the edge of history, the wind is blowing in our faces." A cellist plays Bach in a forest. Bruce and Bono: who paid for dinner? Liz Truss: Russian asset? "Vem Kan Segla Förutan Vind." Easy weekend recipe.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-at-the-edge-of-history-the-wind-is-blowing-in-our-faces-a-cellist-plays-bach-in-a-forest-bruce-and-bono-who-paid-for-dinner-liz-truss-russian-asset-vem-kan-segla-forutan-v/) - "THE FRAME LARGELY DETERMINES THE OUTCOME" Translation: How you think about a future event/project/meeting/date largely determines what will happen. I asked a therapist I admire if she thought that was true. "A hundred per cent," she said. I don't believe the way any individual thinks about the election and its aftermath will, like the proverbial
- [Timex Easy Reader Watch](https://headbutler.com/reviews/timex-easy-reader-watch/) - James Fallows --- if you don’t know him, he’s in the pantheon of journalism --- gives his new Timex every possible star. Listen to Fallows praise his Timex: It's known by its big black numbers, its faux silvery case, its red second-hand, and its elegant brown pleather strap. I love this watch because it's easy
- [Weekend Butler: This winter will be even colder than you may think. What will happen to Kanye's stuff? A great use of an hour.  A Halloween joke. Recipe: Porcini & Sausage Stew. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-this-winter-will-be-even-colder-than-you-may-think-what-will-happen-to-kanyes-stuff-a-great-use-of-an-hour-a-halloween-joke-recipe-porcini-sausage-stew-and-more/) - WINTER APPROACHES…AND IT WILL BE COLD IN SO MANY WAYS The Old Farmer’s Almanac predicts: For most of the western half of the United States, the almanac predicts a winter that’s “Wet & Mild.” For much of the Midwest and along the East Coast, it predicts “Shivery & Snowy.” The eastern half of the U.S.
- [Tracy Flick Can't Win: A Novel](https://headbutler.com/reviews/tracy-flick-cant-win-a-novel/) - Tom Perotta, a freshly minted graduate of a creative writing graduate program, had an idea for a novel: “a tight-knit working-class family wins the lottery and proceeds to fall apart.” After 40 publishers rejected it, he decided to write a second novel. That book would be “short and tight, a narrative that gathered energy as
- [There There](https://headbutler.com/reviews/there-there/) - There There” tells the story of a dozen Native Americans who attend a Native Powwow in Raider Stadium in Oakland, California, that place Gertrude Stein memorably described as having no “there there.” These aren’t Native Americans from the reservation, with sand in their boots. They’re urban. As Tommy Orange writes: “We know the sound of the freeway better than we do rivers, the howl of distant trains better than wolf howls, we know the smell of gas and freshly wet concrete and burned rubber better than we do the smell of cedar or sage or even fry bread.”
- [The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-collapse-of-western-civilization-a-view-from-the-future/) - “Nature always bats last.” That old warning about our degrading environment no longer seems to apply. Now Nature bats every day. Drought, storms, melting ice and rising oceans --- the bad news is relentless. Where is the global effort to save the planet? Stalled. And we all know why: In Congress, 133 Republicans in the
- [Jason Isbell: The best of the best](https://headbutler.com/reviews/jason-isbell-the-best-of-the-best/) - HEADLINE NEWS, OCTOBER, 2022: An English site, AUK, has just named “Southeastern,” Jason Isbell’s 2013 release, as its “Number One Americana Album of the 21st Century.” And not by a few votes --- “Southeastern” polled more than double the votes of its closest rival. AUK isn’t alone in loving "Southeastern." That CD swept the 2014
- [Graham Greene: The End of the Affair](https://headbutler.com/reviews/graham-greene-the-end-of-the-affair/) - Greene was one of the masters of 20th century fiction, and “The End of the Affair” is one of his best novels. Almost everyone I know who has read it --- or seen the movie with Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore --- has found it unforgettable. As a psychological portrait of an affair. As an exploration of Greene’ untraditional brand of Catholicism. And as a clever plot: Sarah’s cheating on her husband, and her lover is convinced she’s also cheating on him.
- [Weekend Butler: If it's too heavy for Superman to carry, who will carry it? Plus: Michelle Williams on love, Chris Rock's message Kanye could use, a hearty recipe, and more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-if-its-too-heavy-for-superman-to-carry-who-will-carry-it-plus-michelle-williams-on-love-chris-rocks-message-kanye-could-use-a-hearty-recipe-and-more/) - PRELUDE: “WAITING FOR A SUPERMAN” Let’s start with a song, “Waiting for a Superman,” by the Flaming Lips. Watch. I asked you a question I didn't need you to reply Is it gettin' heavy? But then I realized Is it gettin' heavy? Well I thought it was already as heavy as can be Is it
- [Down and Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain](https://headbutler.com/reviews/down-and-out-in-paradise-the-life-of-anthony-bourdain/) - Since Anthony Bourdain died on June 8, 2018, he has been Googled ten million times. There have been five million searches about his death, three million about his suicide. Those are outrageous numbers, but Bourdain was an outsized public figure. He had a travel show that people actually wanted to watch, and it powered a
- [Newsroom Confidential: Lessons (and Worries) from an Ink-Stained Life](https://headbutler.com/reviews/newsroom-confidential-lessons-and-worries-from-an-ink-stained-life/) - I thought Life, by Keith Richards (with a lot of help), was the best rock memoir I ever read right up to the minute the Rolling Stones were officially anointed as the world’s greatest rock band. After that, it held few surprises --- there’s no story as undramatic as a success story when there’s no
- [Improv Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up](https://headbutler.com/reviews/improv-wisdom/) - I have no interest in improvisational theater. I doubt you do. But if I step back just a bit --- if I look at my life like a play that I improvise at almost every moment --- these 148 pages offer more in the way of genuine self-help advice than anything Dr. Phil can direct me to. “Don't prepare, just show up.” That's the book's subtitle and its message. Its radical message, because we have been so trained to plan and script and PowerPoint that the last thing to occur to us is just to dive in and make it up as we go along. Patricia Ryan Madson, a professor emerta at Stanford University, used to be just like us. She had a career path. She did things that were “good” for advancement. She won awards. She got her dream teaching job. Then her life fell apart. Her teaching “lacked intellectual distinction.” She didn't get tenure. How could this be? She'd been a good girl, she'd done everything right. Except, perhaps, one thing: She'd never done anything for its own sake, never taken a detour for the hell of it, never showed she was different from all the middle-level talents who grind out second-tier careers. Patricia Ryan Madson got the message. She took up drumming, just because. Spent summers dancing and traveling. Studied Eastern religion. And, two years later, was asked to head Stanford's undergraduate acting program. She spent the rest of her career there, winning the university's highest teaching prize --- though she might say the crowning achievement of her decades in Palo Alto was the founding of a theatrical group, the Stanford Improvisers. Improvising, she emphasizes, has “nothing to do with wit, glibness or comic ability.” It is simply about saying “yes” to what is in front of you. And, therefore, you can learn how to do it --- how to listen, plan just enough, follow the plan but not religiously, and then trust yourself to get to a good place through improvisation. It all starts with “yes.” Are you prepared? No? Worry not. You're fine. Indeed, spend a day without planning --- see if it ends badly. Nervous about being out on a limb? Good! The only time you should really feel confident is after you've succeeded. Worried that you won't succeed? Lower the bar. Mistakes? They're often “results that we had not planned.” Along the way, Madson offers advice that seems to have nothing to do with theater or life. “Make a point of thanking people for thankless jobs.” Write a thank-you note every day. Be a guardian angel to one person. Why? So you can be more awake, more attentive, more in the stream of life. PISCES MORTUI SOLUM CUM FLUMINE NATANT. That's an inscription Madson saw over a Welch bar. Translation: “Only dead fish go with the flow.” Now that's a warning you won't forget. It's not, however, a cue to micromanage your life. It is an instruction to take charge --- but “taking charge” has no link to control or power. It's just about engagement, creative engagement. Since I finished this book, I've been living more with two hands, open ears and a relaxed mouth. I may not be making immediate progress on a long piece of writing, but I sure am taking more notes and writing more random paragraphs. I'm noticing who listens and who doesn't, and seeing how the people who don't hear what's actually said are blocking their own progress. And I'm feeling more pain --- other people radiate it, and maybe I do too --- but also experiencing more joy. In a word: I'm more alive. This book alerted me to a better way just when I needed to hear it. Maybe it's also the right time for you to get interested in improvisational theater. To buy “Improv Wisdom” from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell](https://headbutler.com/reviews/marvin-gaye-and-tammi-terrell/) - What songs do you find in the duets of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, recorded in long ago 1967? Oh, just classics: “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” “You’re All I Need to Get By.” “Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing.” “If I Could Build My Whole World Around You.” No wonder I’ve been listening to these duets incessantly. Marvin Gaye never enjoyed being on stage. Those sessions with Tammi Terrell opened him up, made performing fun. And why not? He was a stunningly handsome young man in a tux, crooning with a beautiful young woman who seemed to have been made for him. As Gaye put it, years later, “We created two characters --- two lovers that might have been in a play or a novel." He’s not woofing. Just look at the video --- the rare video, because this was 1967 --- of “Ain't No Mountain High Enough.” Pay special attention to this part: My love is alive, way down in my heart Although we are miles apart If you ever need a helping hand, I'll be there on the double just as fast as I can Don't you know that there ain't no mountain high enough Ain't no valley low enough, ain't no river wide enough To keep me from getting to you, baby When Tammi sings “My love is alive” and Marvin whoops --- with that Motown drummer playing circles and a xylophone in the background --- it makes me wanna holler. Watch…. These are fabulous affirmations. The way we want our relationships to be. Road maps to the heart of life. [To buy the CD of the Gaye-Terrell duets from Amazon for a ridiculous $5.33, click here. There’s no download of the whole CD, but to download “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” click here.] And then there’s real life. A few months after these duets were recorded, Tammi Terrell collapsed in Marvin Gaye’s arms in the middle of a concert. The diagnosis: brain cancer. Over the next three years, she had eight surgeries. Her doctors never told her that her cancer was incurable --- her will to live trumped their professional distance. When she died in 1970, she weighed 83 pounds. She was just 24. Marvin Gaye gave the eulogy. It was short and broken-hearted. He and Tammi weren’t lovers, but he mourned like one. As he said a few years later, "It was a deep vibe, as though she was dying for everyone who couldn't find love." Though he wasn’t responsible, he faulted himself. A drug binge followed. And reclusiveness. And then, the next year, his masterpiece, “What’s Going On.” Depressed. Drugged. Paranoid. A bad end awaited. In 1984, it came --- Marvin Gaye was shot dead by his father. He was 44. The music is different when you know what happened after. That is, it’s better. More urgent. If possible, more joyful. Valerie Simpson, who co-wrote many of these songs with her husband, sees the bright side: “There will always be a couple getting a groove on to those songs.” Consider that good advice.
- [Weekend Butler: How to succeed: "handle hard better." Paul McCartney's "perfect love song." Elizabeth Strout's "ideal reader." For better health: "Pick up the pace. " Roasted carrot ginger soup. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-how-to-succeed-handle-hard-better-paul-mccartneys-perfect-love-song-elizabeth-strouts-ideal-reader-for-better-health-pick-up-the-pace-roasted-carrot-ginger-s/) - HANDLE HARD BETTER A few weeks ago, Weekend Butler included a video by Kara Lawson, the head coach of the Duke University women’s basketball team. Before Duke, she made history as the first woman on the Boston Celtics coaching staff. She coached the US women’s team to gold in in the 2020 Summer Olympics, won
- [In a Better World](https://headbutler.com/reviews/better-world/) - This is a very great film about many things, but not least about how we deal with people who don't respect boundaries. Watching it strikes me as a very good use of your time.
- [Philip Slater: The Chrysalis Effect: The Metamorphosis of Global Culture](https://headbutler.com/reviews/philip-slater-the-chrysalis-effect-the-metamorphosis-of-global-culture/) - Donald Trump is a throwback to a time when leaders were dictators, war was noble and women were property. “Why now?” is the wrong question --- what’s happening in our country isn’t limited to Trump’s candidacy. It’s bigger, much bigger. Think: global. “The Chrysalis Effect: The Metamorphosis of Global Culture” --- the last book by the brilliant sociologist Philip Slater --- gives you a way to see what’s really going on, and what’s at stake. It was life changing for me --- the best self-book I’ve ever read.
- [SPECIAL EDITION: When was the last time this happened: I publish a review on Monday, the writer wins the Nobel Prize on Thursday? (It's Annie Ernaux)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/special-edition-when-was-the-last-time-this-happened-i-publish-a-review-on-monday-the-writer-wins-the-nobel-prize-on-thursday-its-annie-ernaux/) - from the Times: The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded on Thursday to Annie Ernaux, the French novelist whose intensely personal books have spoken to generations of women by highlighting incidents from her own life, including a back-street abortion in the 1960s and a passionate extramarital affair. Mats Malm, the permanent secretary of the Swedish
- [Colette: Cheri](https://headbutler.com/reviews/cheri-and-last-cheri-colette/) - When Colette sat down to write "Cheri," she was ready. Before 1914, she produced eight stories about the boy, sometimes using the name she'd give him in the novel. In those tales, the woman isn't enjoying the last flowering of her beauty; she's older, plumper, lustier. In a word, vulgar. But by the time she
- [The Leopard](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-leopard/) - Giuseppe di Lampedusa’s only novel was rejected by Italy’s most distinguished publishers, so he died in 1957 without learning that “The Leopard” would become the best selling novel in Italian history --- the Sicilian “Gone With the Wind” --- and that it would be named by The Observer as one of "the 10 best historical novels” and that Luchino Visconti’s 1963 film adaptation would win the Palme d’Or at Cannes.
- [Weekend Butler: Aaron Judge. Anthony Bourdain. A Steven King joke. A soup recipe. A powerful fake commercial. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-aaron-judge-anthony-bourdain-a-steven-king-joke-a-soup-recipe-a-powerful-fake-commercial-and-more/) - BREATHE IN. BREATHE OUT. BREATHE IN. BREATHE OUT. A close friend is so stressed by the mid-term elections that she’s flying to Mexico and walking the beach that week. I can’t blame her. If anything, I think: why wait? Because in addition to the election, there’s plenty to get your heart racing and your head
- [Annie Ernaux](https://headbutler.com/reviews/annie-ernaux/) - As a reader, I’m prone to sudden, extreme enthusiasms --- they’re like crushes. With Annie Ernaux, that first happened in 2004, when I read “Simple Passion,” a novel-that-read-like-a-memoir. Even better, it filled just 80 pages. It was the #1 bestseller in France for 8 months, with more than 400,000 copies sold. “Simple Passion” is a
- [Weekend Butler: When politics and culture merge. Steven Spielberg watches "Lawrence of Arabia" with the director.  A Mary Oliver poem. Steven Fry meets God. Seinfeld explains writing jokes.  Apple and Butternut Squash Soup. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-when-politics-and-culture-merge-steven-spielberg-watches-lawrence-of-arabia-a-mary-oliver-poem-steven-fry-meets-god-seinfeld-explains-writing-jokes-apple-and-butternut-squash/) - WHAT'S HAPPENING IN IRAN ISN'T JUST POLITICS, IT'S CULTURE... AND ALSO MOVIES Reading about oppression in a distant country requires focus, which everyone I know is having trouble with this week. I needed to write to my business partner of 25 years --- I struggled to remember her name. I saw a play with a
- [Canned Heat](https://headbutler.com/reviews/canned-heat/) - Canned Heat was a late '60s California blues band. All white. Its founders were "Big Bear" Bob Hite and Alan ("Blind Al") Wilson, who were as much historians of early African-American music --- they cadged their name from a 1928 recording --- as they were gifted musicians. They took classics, reshaped them, turned the blues into a drone. They were both gifted on the harmonica --- John Lee Hooker said Al Wilson was the best he ever heard. And Wilson had a voice.
- [Rosh Hashanah: Is Bruce Springsteen (not a Jew) America's Rabbi?](https://headbutler.com/reviews/rosh-hashanah-is-bruce-springsteen-not-a-jew-americas-rabbi/) - In God’s account books, Rosh Hashanah divides Jews into three categories. God immediately inscribes the names of the righteous in the Book of Life — they are sealed “to live.” The class of well-intentioned but flawed people is given the ten days until Yom Kippur to reflect and become righteous. Forget about the wicked. They
- [Weekend Butler: Two airlifts, one evil, one historical, and an idea for a third. Movie preview: Whitney Houston. The wisdom of being early. A Mary Oliver poem. A joke. And Marcella Hazan's truly effortless chicken.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-two-airlifts-one-evil-one-historical-and-an-idea-for-a-third-movie-preview-whitney-houston-the-wisdom-of-being-early-a-mary-oliver-poem-a-joke-and-marcella-hazans-truly-effo/) - PHOTO: THE BERLIN AIRLIFT In 1948, Soviet forces blockaded rail, road, and water access to Allied-controlled areas of Berlin. The United States and United Kingdom responded by airlifting food and fuel to Berlin from Allied airbases in western Germany. TWO AIRLIFTS, ONE EVIL, ONE UPLIFTING -- AND A MODEST PROPOSAL FOA A THIRD They walked
- [Ernest Hemingway: The Nick Adams Stories](https://headbutler.com/reviews/nick-adams-stories/) - The boy is Nick Adams, and he is the subject of the first stories that Ernest Hemingway ever published. Most are set in Northern Michigan, where Hemingway used to hunt and fish with his father. Many feature Nick's father, who is, like Hemingway's father, a doctor. Later, Nick goes to the War, and, like Hemingway in World War I, is wounded in the knee.
- [Cordless LED Table Lamp](https://headbutler.com/reviews/cordless-led-table-lamp/) - I was inspired by a rhapsodic New York Times article about “The Lamp That’s Taking Over New York” to review the rechargeable Pina Pro Table Lamp. Some of you wrote to thank me --- this was the ideal solution for outdoor dining or romantic dinners indoors that no longer required candles. A bargain at $145.
- [Birds in Fall](https://headbutler.com/reviews/birds-fall/) - The novel starts inside the plane. Eighty minutes into the flight, just as the jet curves over the Gulf of Maine toward Nova Scotia and the moonlit Atlantic, a few passengers sense that something's wrong. The lights flicker. There's "a curious chemical smell, not exactly burning, more like a dashboard left to bake in the sun." The narrator, an ornithologist, babbles on about birds until his seat mate, a cellist, tells him to shut up. She knows what's coming; she writes her name --- in lipstick --- on her arm. The plane shudders, shakes, tumbles, explodes. And disappears into the sea. A plane crash. No survivors. And the main character of the novel with the metaphor-drenched title is the ornithologist's wife, another ornithologist. Who then travels to an inn on Trachis Island, off Nova Scotia, to identify his remains, if any. Man-made birds. Birds in nature. Birds as mythic figures. So many birds you brace yourself for a novel so sensitive you're really not deep enough to read it. "Birds in Fall" is a better book than that. Much better. Oh, it has its arch and learned references, but then, the passengers we briefly meet on that plane were accomplished professionals. And, more importantly, so are the surviving victims: their family members, whose lives we follow for five years. And so is Kevin Gearns, who --- with Douglas, his lover --- runs the inn where the widows, widowers, parents and others will gather. There is a kind of book I loathe more than any other: a rural retreat, a gathering, late nights by moonlight, candles and campfires --- and a secret is revealed. This book draws on those elements, but it is not that book. For one thing, Kessler is a master of place and time. His inn is as real as my neighborhood. And if you read this novel as I did --- sitting by an open window, at night, in warm weather --- you can easily transport yourself to an island in the first week of September, where glory is anywhere you look. [To buy the book from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] And the people! The focus is on Ana Gathreaux, expert on the migratory patterns of sparrows and now, stuck in time, as the survivor of a 15-year marriage. I felt I knew her right away; later, I learned how much more there was to know. The minor characters are just as vivid: a silent Bulgarian, Taiwanese parents, an Iranian exile, Dutch teenagers. A sprinkling of humanity, linked only by grief. And then there are the birds. Ana's knowledge is impressive --- I mean, Brad Kessler's is. I have not the least interest in the details of Nature, but I do not mind learning, in the course of a taut story, that "at the end of summer, migratory birds grow restless." How high-flying migratory birds show up on pilots' screens as "radar angels." And about the myth of Alcyone and Ceyx and the phrase "halcyon days." Even the metaphor doesn't grate. When Ana's hope that her husband will be found alive finally gives, it's like "a tiny twig, a bird bone, toothpick thin." Yes, okay. As we watch the characters deal with their loss on a minute-by-minute basis, there is welcome relief. Some of it is trivia. Did you know that Elizabethan women kept apples in their armpits, later to give them to their lovers? And some of it is tabloid ghoulishness, like the "bottles of corked seawater" that have been prepared for the families to take home. There are pages here as beautiful as anything I've ever read. To cite just one example, late one night a week after the crash, the Bulgarian sits at the inn's piano, playing Chopin's Nocturne, number 19, in E minor. He's like the Pied Piper. From all over the property, the mourners are drawn to this music --- Ana most of all, for this was her husband's favorite piece. The man without words gives them eloquence beyond eloquence. When he finishes, Ana squeezes his hands, whispers thank you. "The Bulgarian bowed stiffly, formally, the way he would in a concert hall." "How is a story like a bird?" Kessler asks, near the end. "It keeps us aloft. It flies. It goes from one place and lands at another, seemingly at random. But its movements are carefully choreographed, and if you look closely, you'll know exactly where it will next perch." In a lesser book, I would have read this and thought, "Ouch." In this book, like Ana, I just said, "Thank you." To buy "Birds in Fall" from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Roxy Music: Avalon](https://headbutler.com/reviews/avalon/) - Mortally wounded, King Arthur was brought to the enchanted island of Avalon and placed on a golden bed. Enchanted, indeed --- the island was always ruled by a woman, and all her followers were women. On the cover photo of "Avalon," the final album released by Roxy Music, we see the back of a knight's helmet. Resting on his hand is a falcon. They look out over clouds and what seems like the rising sun to a strip of land in the distance --- a goal so prized it might as well be Avalon, the paradise where the knight could find rest. And comfort. Even, perhaps, love. The power of women to heal --- it’s the link between the myth and this CD. Bryan Ferry was always a ladies man, that is, a man who lived for love. The dark suit, the white shirt, the hair cut just-so across the forehead. It’s all atmosphere, all sensuality. The rhythm that redefined “sultry.” The ethereal saxophone. The elliptical lyrics that conjured, all at once, rainy nights on Fifth Avenue, women beautiful as models, champagne served on penthouse terraces, the lucidity that strikes at 4 AM when the party's finally over. [To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.] But let's be clear --- this is no virginal search for first love, there are no teenagers here. In the world that Roxy Music evokes, the narrator knows so much about love he's jaded. Been there, done that, got the heartache to prove it. And yet he's still a romantic. So the first thing to say about “Avalon” is that this music is sexy sexy sexy. Indeed, if you were trying to explain sex to an alien and could only use sound, this is the CD you'd play; in essence, it is sex. Not wholehearted Barry White sex. Not popper-fueled KC and the Sunshine Band sex. But slow, dreamy sex; deep, underwater sex; dark, midnight sex. Above all, sex so powerful it passes for love, sex that might as well be love. No wonder “Avalon” has been so popular as “first time” background music --- this is music that respects, even exalts, women. (On the Amazon page for “Avalon,” a man writes that “Any, and I mean any, guy going to college during the early to mid eighties understands the importance of this record/CD in regards to taking care of business with their girlfriends.”) A few years later, working solo, Ferry would release "Boys and Girls," which someone has shrewdly described as "Avalon 2." [To read about "Boys and Girls" on Head Butler, click here.] To the CD itself. Ten tracks (two of them instrumentals). A grand total of 35 minutes of music --- and stripped-to-the-bone music at that. The sax, bass and percussion are extraordinary, but the emphasis is on the keyboards and Bryan Ferry's world-weary (“Who cares about you/ Except me, God help me/ When things go wrong”) quest. And the lyrics --- they're all sketches, suggestions of pictures, allowing you (or even encouraging you) to fill in the blanks. As, for example, over a languid samba melody: Now the party's over I'm so tired Then I see you coming Out of nowhere Much communication in a motion Without conversation or a notion “Avalon” defies genre. In its effort to describe the ideal, it becomes the ideal ---an object of beauty, a piece of art. If anything, it has improved since its 1982 release; a re-mix a few years ago makes it sound even more pristine, unadorned, exquisite in its nakedness. Music is transportation; it takes you somewhere. “Avalon” takes you --- takes me, anyway --- somewhere at once long ago and right now, somewhere distant and intimate. It's a vision of what could be and what is. As such, it inspires us --- well, me, anyway --- to aim higher and feel more deeply. And, of course, to manifest love.
- [The Only Woman](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-only-woman/) - This is an ideal day to feature "The Only Woman" --- the attention of millions is on one woman, and at 6 AM ET Monday, many will wake early to watch her funeral. If you didn't click this very amusing story on the Weekend Butler, you might want to watch it now. --- GUEST BUTLER
- [Weekend Butler: The waiting really is the hardest part. The Queen's prank. Country snark: "If you can't do better than that, babe... I've got a problem with it." From the vault: Judy Collins & Leonard Cohen. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-the-waiting-really-is-the-hardest-part-the-queens-prank-country-snark-if-you-cant-do-better-than-that-babe-ive-got-a-problem-with-it-from-the-vault-judy-collins-le/) - PHOTO: The imperial state crown sits atop the Queen's coffin on a velvet pillow. --- THE WAITING IS THE HARDEST PART My stepson, at 11, used to imitate me: “We have a half hour before the movie --- let’s hop over to the West Side and do some errands.” Right, I don’t like to waste
- [Tina Brown: "The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor -- the Truth and the Turmoil"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/tina-brown-the-palace-papers-inside-the-house-of-windsor-the-truth-and-the-turmoil/) - Before I read The Diana Chronicles, I thought I knew enough about the life and death of the “People’s Princess” to be a runner-up on a quiz show. And so, I bet, did you. Well, reading Tina Brown’s 2008 book, I learned… - The “engagement ring” that Dodi Fayed bought Diana on the last day
- [The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-storyteller-tales-of-life-and-music/) - I want you to stop your life and watch what is easily the best video of the year. The scene is a tribute concert, honoring Taylor Hawkins, who was the Foo Fighters drummer for 15 years. In Bogotá, Colombia, on March 25, 2022, he complained of chest pains. Medics rushed to his hotel room. He
- [A Month in the Country](https://headbutler.com/reviews/a-month-in-the-country/) - It's fair to say there never was a writer remotely like J.L. Carr. For several years, this English schoolmaster taught in South Dakota. His first publications were 3” x 5” booklets (he made 61) and maps (he made 40). Then he wrote novels. As he told Vogue: “James Lloyd Carr, a back-bedroom publisher of large
- [Aftermath: World Trade Center Archive](https://headbutler.com/reviews/aftermath-world-trade-center-archive/) - A few days after 9/11, Joel Meyerowitz --- famed for landscapes of extreme beauty and serenity --- went to the site of the World Trade Center. He talked his way into the “pile” and set up his large-format wooden view camera. He often got thrown out; he'd scurry around to another entrance and slip in again. Some officials were obnoxious. Some tolerated him. A few understood that he represented almost the only chance at an ongoing record and befriended him. He stayed there, day and night, for eight-and-a-half months, until the workers left and only a clean, empty hole remained. He took 8,500 pictures. [From September 10-17, some of these photographs can be seen at the Houk Gallery, 745 Fifth Avenue (at 58 Street), New York City.] In 2002, my wife and I went to a show of this work. Like most people, we walked through the exhibit in stunned silence. The images were completely brutal and oddly beautiful, challenging beyond our immediate ability to respond. To look at them --- any of them --- took you back to that day, and what you felt, and the people you lost. [From September 10-17, some of these photographs can be seen at the Houk Gallery, 745 Fifth Avenue (at 58th Street), New York City.] That’s a lot to deal with. In 2002, I couldn’t. And it didn’t end. I couldn’t read about 9/11. Couldn’t watch the movies. It wasn’t that I needed to push 9/11 out of my head --- I just needed to hold it in my mind in my own way. And I didn’t have a language to do that. In 2006, Meyerowitz published “Aftermath: World Trade Center Archive.” It’s massive -- 15” x 11” pages, some double-spread, some that fold out. More than 400 pictures. 340 pages. Eight-and-a-half pounds. [To buy “Aftermath” from Amazon, click here.] Ah, if only they weighed that little on the heart. “Aftermath” starts, as it should, with “before” pictures, taken from Meyerowitz's studio. Architecturally, these were not distinguished buildings, but Meyerowitz gives them symbolism and grandeur. Here they are at night, the offices brightly lit against a dark blue sky streaked with clouds. Here's one in the morning mist, the towers almost ivory against the clouds. And then there's one at dusk, with dark, red-flecked clouds streaming from the buildings, as if…. And then it was gone, and Joel Meyerowitz went to work. “I was the observer,” he writes, “but as I made my tours around the zone, I was also observed…and slowly, as the weeks passed, I could feel myself being woven into the fabric of the site….Part of what I was there to do, I came to feel, was not simply to watch, but also to listen. As a result, I cried with men on the site almost every day. Often, I didn't even know their names.” “I cried with men…” This is a privileged zone; I think back to Whitman nursing the Civil War wounded. You will have your own associations; an event bigger than the mind can comprehend forces you beyond the event, into myth and history. Scale. That’s the subject. And that’s the problem. Two 110-story buildings fall straight down into a mass of steel no more than 200' feet high. Somewhere in there are the bodies and body parts of thousands of people. As you turn the pages, you begin to grasp the magnitude of the effort --- like the need for the biggest crane in America, trucked in on 18 flatbeds. And, at the same time, the delicacy of the recovery operation --- men with rakes, men on their knees, searching for the smallest bones. Herculean strength and surgical finesse, a feat of engineering and spirituality never before witnessed on this planet. And Meyerowitz got it. His camera got it all. Jagged steel that had to be cut and shaped so that, when it was removed, no one would be ripped open by it. Men with biceps like thighs, and tattoos, and hard hats, men who came there because it was where the trouble was. Heroic men. Men like statues. Meyerowitz is an artist, and he began to see the artistic references in his pictures. “The smashed vault of the Winter Garden seemed to echo the Baths of Caracalla in Rome.” The dust in interior spaces reminded him of Pompeii. Men working under lights at night took him to Rembrandt and “The Night Watch.” And, of course, there was the steel twisted in the shape of a Cross. Meyerowitz does not often photograph people; the places where they are and what they see there suffice for him. But there are portraits here, and they have huge impact. Somehow these men and women have taken Meyerowitz's measure, or maybe they're just too affected to hide themselves --- whatever the reason, they hold nothing back. To see these workers and cops and firemen is to see them whole, in all their nobility and fragility. A worker stands in the glare of lights, telling the photographer that he'd been injured earlier that day and now, five stitches later, was back on the pile. A cop chokes up looking at a photo of a lost friend. A father and his surviving son hunt for the body of a lost son and brother. And the ritual of recovery! The honor guard forms. The flag-draped sled is carried out as work stops and everyone stands at attention. And then, back to work, raking, raking. (For a gallery of these photos, click here.) The arrangement is chronological, a trip through time. But not quite. There's a shot of a man at dusk, his shift over, on his knees, still looking for bones. “The Gleaners,” you think, and centuries disappear. Actually, quite a lot disappears as you move through “Aftermath.” Like whatever distance from 9/11 you've engineered for yourself as the years have passed. You will almost surely cry, and cry often. Those tears are a blessing, a purification, a healing. They give you a way --- they gave me a way, anyway --- to tell the story of 9/11 again, tell it in a way that's about the place and the people and not about the politics and everything that followed. Those tears are also an entitlement. They earn you the right to see the last two pages of the book. On one level, those two pictures are completely banal --- your kid could have taken them. But your kid didn't. Joel Meyerowitz did. He walked into the ruins as an obligation to the people who died there and the people who worked to bring them home, and when it was over, he was changed. And he took some pictures --- very simple, very humble pictures --- that will make you glad he gave that much of himself. They will also make you glad you took some time to look, to remember, to feel. To read an interview with Joel Meyerowitz about these pictures, click here.
- [Weekend Butler: Who benefits most from random acts of kindness? Not the recipient. You. (So get to it). The most relevant weekend movie. A woman scorned. A seasonal recipe.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-who-benefits-most-from-random-acts-of-kindness-not-the-recipient-you-so-get-to-it-the-most-relevant-weekend-movie-a-woman-scorned-a-seasonal-recipe/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: You can become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and to go there, just click here. Again, thank you. --- THIS WEEK IN BUTLER Steve Martin: Born Standing Up John Le Carre: The
- [Steve Martin: Born Standing Up](https://headbutler.com/reviews/born-standing/) - The “wild and crazy” guy. The goofball in the white suit, banjo optional. The comic with an arrow through his head. “King Tut”. You open Steve Martin's memoir expecting a laugh a paragraph. Instead, you get repressed tears, intellectual curiosity, a phenomenal learning curve --- a taut, not-a-word-wasted masterpiece that charts the making and deliberate unmaking of a stand-up comic. Happily, Steve Martin avoids pathos; he's a dry, precise, witty-after-the-fact writer. And he well understands a hoary show business cliché: Always leave 'em wanting more. “Born Standing Up” runs, with large print and photos, just 204 pages. If it leaves out so many people, movies and personal interests that some readers will feel cheated, too bad for them. Because this isn't one more late-life star cash-in, with just enough revelations to get the greedy, cynical celeb a round on Oprah and the morning shows. This short memoir is really about how Steve Martin saved his own life. It's about making magic out of nothing much --- literally. It's an exploration of the source of art, which is, for Steve Martin, as for so many creators, about confronting and then escaping personal pain.
- [Bob Dylan: John Wesley Harding](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bob-dylan-john-wesley-harding/) - The tired old line has it that if you remember the 1960s you weren’t there, but I can return to October 1967 any time I want to. I almost never want to. It was the fall of my senior year in college. Thesis done, degree requirements satisfied --- talk about your dish of cream! But there was a war on, and if you want to talk about “a nation divided,” consider how that was playing out in a year when 11, 153 body bags would come home, 467 in October alone. That month, like everyone else I knew, I went to Washington to protest; I watched peaceful people beaten and arrested, with not a mention of it in most newspapers. The culture was just as split. In greater America, “To Sir with Love” was the #1 song that month; in New York, “Hair” opened off-Broadway. Bob Dylan? That month, he was in Nashville, recording a new album. The first session, on October 17, lasted three hours; out of it came master takes of "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine," "Drifter's Escape" and "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest." On November 6, Dylan knocked off “All Along the Watchtower," "John Wesley Harding,” "As I Went Out One Morning,” "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" and "I Am a Lonesome Hobo." Late the next month, Dylan quickly finished the album. Twelve hours in the studio for 40 minutes of music --- there’s no comparison in all of American music. And that’s just the start of What’s Exceptional about “John Wesley Harding.” On December 27, 1967 --- a month after he finished recording, in the dead week between Christmas and New Year --- Columbia released the album. Promotion? None. A single? Not. Still, Dylan fans found it and snapped it up. And then it went away, until Jimi Hendrix plucked one song from it. “Two riders were approaching. The wind began to howl.” And did it ever: I can understand why “John Wesley Harding” is not in your Dylan collection. It came after three of the greatest albums ever recorded: “Bringing It All Back Home,” “Highway 61 Revisited” and “Blonde on Blonde.” Then there was Dylan’s motorcycle accident. And a long silence. And then this --- not quite a country album, though there were tendencies. With lyrics that teased and challenged: stripped-down story songs, vaguely Biblical in theme. And not one word about Vietnam, drugs, hippies or the chasm between old and young. I listened obsessively to “John Wesley Harding” that winter, and as the man says in one song, “I bowed my head and cried.” First, for the artistic achievement; Dylan had, yet again, turned his back on his past and made something completely unexpected and contrarian. But even more for what I thought Dylan was saying. He’d taken a giant step back from everything contemporary and looked deeply into what mattered. What he found was scary, exhilarating, desperately important --- and absolutely relevant to what was happening. [To buy the CD from Amazon, at the ridiculous price of $7.99, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.] Forty-five years later, I’m again listening obsessively to “John Wesley Harding.” I am a slow thinker, so it took me a while to figure out why --- of all the music I could be playing, this is the most relevant I know. The reason is right at the start of the first song: “John Wesley Harding was a friend to the poor…” The whole album is shot through with references to losers: hoboes, immigrants, drifters. In short, everyone excluded from the national conversation right now. And then, even though you and I are still lucky enough to matter, the line we can all understand: “Dear landlord, please don’t put a price on my soul.” If I make this sound heavy as German philosophy, I do my cause no favors here. The fact is, this is a fantastic listening experience, especially if you’re listening through earphones. The band ---Charles McCoy (bass), Kenny Buttrey (drums) and Pete Drake (steel guitar) was amazed at Dylan’s speed and self-assurance. Kenny Buttrey: “We went in and knocked ’em out like demos.” True, but these were the best studio players in Nashville. And the producer was the legendary Bob Johnston. And we are, after all, talking about our Shakespeare. Just listen….
- [HOLIDAY BUTLER: Two unforgettable videos (and a question for you), a Leonard Cohen confession, the best tennis book, the last word on Roger Federer, zucchini you'll actually like... and I bail for a few days.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/holiday-butler-two-unforgettable-videos-and-a-question-for-you-a-leonard-cohen-confession-the-best-tennis-book-the-last-word-on-roger-federer-zucchini-youll-actually-like-and-i-bail-for-a/) - FOOD FOR THOUGHT: TWO MUST-WATCH VIDEOS Holly Gleason, author of the definitive book on women in country music and the inside word on all things Nashville, sent me her piece about “Wait in the Truck” and the video of the song. Yes, I know it fills 5 minutes. Just, please, watch it...and note your reaction.
- [Bully Market: My Story of Money and Misogyny at Goldman Sachs](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bully-market-my-story-of-money-and-misogyny-at-goldman-sachs/) - A few years ago, I lectured at the Rutgers Writers’ Conference. My topic: Writing Non-Fiction as Fiction. The participants were middle-aged, non-professionals who liked to write. They were pleasant, and their ideas were pleasant, and nothing they were writing would ever bear a commercial imprint. Except for Jamie Fiore Higgins. She was a former Managing
- [Canal House Cooking, Volume No. 1](https://headbutler.com/reviews/canal-house-cooking-volume-1/) - Remember May? You can't forget it --- it was the warmest May on record in our hemisphere (and the 327th consecutive month in which global temperatures exceeded the global average). Remember June? Warm, wasn't it? So warm it broke 3,200 heat records in the United States. So why --- when I am not simply surrendering and ordering Chinese takeout --- am I cooking chicken with rosemary, wine and lemon juice from Marcella Hazan's cookbook? To a seasonal cookbook I must go. A summer cookbook. The first cookbook from my friends Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer at Canal House. If you were assembling a cookbook of your favorite seasonal recipes --- recipes for meals you’ve actually served, and served often ---- it would be the size of Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton’s . That is, about 60 recipes. These recipes would offer the unique tastes of your “signature” dishes. They would be easy to make --- this is a summer cookbook. And you’d have very few choices in each category. That’s the key idea: choicelessness. As consumers, we are awash in choices. Most are false choices, so your mind goes blank. You don’t so much choose as surrender. And this is as true of cookbooks as it is of the hundreds of cereals that are basically just delivery systems for high-fructose corn syrup. What we want, whether we know it or not, is an editor. Or, better, a curator --- someone who knows our values and tastes and can reduce the world to the very few things we might like. HeadButler.com is built on this principle. So is Hirsheimer and Hamilton’s book. [To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] These women describe themselves as “home cooks.” That’s testimony to the enormous effort they have undertaken to liberate themselves from decades of professionalism. Christopher Hirsheimer was one of the founders of Saveur Magazine. She has co-authored four cookbooks and taken the photographs for thirty more. She knows from “high end." Melissa Hamilton co-founded a restaurant, did a stint at Cook’s Illustrated and ran the test kitchen at Saveur before becoming its food editor. Her bio does not mention a love for sliders. Something happened to Hirsheimer and Hamilton when they moved to little towns across the river from one another in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Fresh produce, of course. But also a gentler pace. They found a loft overlooking a canal and opened a studio: Canal House. It has a dishwasher they don’t use and a wood stove they do. And in late summer they roll up their sleeves and preserve their bounty. Volume 1 is their summer cookbook. It starts with seven kinds of drinks. (Did I say this is a summer cookbook?) They teach you how to hard-boil an egg. [For easiest peeling, use eggs you’ve refrigerated for a week.] A few nibbles. Tomato and crab aspic. Four soups. A sprinkling of salads. Enough ideas for tomatoes to make you less guilty about that big-eyed purchase at the farm stand. Three kinds of fish. Ditto for chicken. Just six vegetables. And modest desserts. In short: the basics, the meals they love. Presented casually, just as you would. With gorgeous pictures and watercolors, just because. Hard to believe that something this useful could be this lovable. But the evidence that this is true is on each and every page. POTATO LEEK SOUP Serves 6 We both love this recipe but we finish it differently. CH usually likes to serve it puréed, hot or cold, depending on the weather and her mood. MH likes the gutsier texture of the crushed soup. Then sometimes we switch. The soup will be gray if you don’t trim off the dark green portion leaves of the leeks. 3 tablespoons butter 6 leeks, trimmed, washed, and thickly sliced crosswise Salt and pepper 6 small russet potatoes, peeled and thickly sliced 6 cups chicken stock 2 bay leaves Pinch of nutmeg ½ cup thick Greek yogurt 1 cup heavy cream Fresh chives or chopped parsley Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Add the leeks, season with salt and pepper (you could use white pepper if you prefer), and cook until the leeks have softened, not browned, about 10 minutes. Add the potatoes, chicken stock, bay leaves, and nutmeg. Cover and cook over medium to medium-low heat until the vegetables are soft, 20–30 minutes. FOR THE PURÉED SOUP Discard the bay leaves, add the remaining tablespoon of butter, and purée the soup in a blender. Adjust the seasonings. Serve the soup hot or cold garnished with a generous spoonful of yogurt and some chopped chives. FOR THE CRUSHED SOUP In the pot, lightly crush the potatoes into pieces using the back of a large spoon. Stir in the cream and adjust the seasonings. Add the remaining tablespoon of butter to the soup. Serve the soup garnished with fresh chives or chopped parsley. SOFT ZUCCHINI WITH HARISSA, OLIVES, AND FETA Serves 4–6 ¼ teaspoon caraway seeds or a combination of fennel and cumin seeds 1 clove garlic Salt and pepper Juice of 1 lemon 2 tablespoons harissa paste 6 tablespoons really good extra-virgin olive oil, plus a bit more for drizzling at the end 4 zucchini, sliced into thick rounds Handful cured olives, a combination of oily and briny ones is nice, pitted ½ cup coarsely crumbled feta Small handful parsley leaves, chopped Rind of a quarter of a preserved lemon, chopped Toast the caraway seeds in a small heavy skillet over medium heat just until they are fragrant, 1–2 minutes. Put the toasted seeds in a mortar and crush them with the pestle. Add the garlic and a good pinch of salt and crush the mixture into a paste. Stir in the lemon juice, harissa, and oil. Season with salt. Bring a pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Add the zucchini and cook until very tender and soft but definitely not falling apart, about 5 minutes. Drain well, then put the zucchini into a wide bowl and gently toss with the harrisa vinaigrette while still warm. Dress the zucchini with the olives, feta, parsley, and preserved lemons, finishing the dish with a good drizzle of olive oil.
- [The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-girls-guide-to-hunting-and-fishing/) - "The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing” was published in 1999. I inhaled it. The characters were people I kind of knew. They spoke the way I wanted my characters to speak. I developed a crushette on Melissa Bank. I could have written a fan letter. I didn’t. This summer, age 61, she died. All
- [Weekend Butler: What's your Covid trauma? (I'll go first.) NPR: "the best song of the last decade." What prevents addiction? (You'll be surprised.) And a great use for tomatoes.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-whats-your-covid-trauma-ill-go-first-npr-the-best-song-of-the-last-decade-what-prevents-addiction-youll-be-surprised-and-as-great-use-for-tomatoes/) - ABOUT THE PHOTO: Rachel Maddow, high school prom. MY COVID TRAUMA...AND YOURS? When I meet a new person now, I want to ask about their Covid trauma --- the personal moment that defined the pandemic for them, what hurt them the most, what they learned about themselves, what sustains them now. A real icebreaker, wouldn’t
- [And There Was Light: The Autobiography of Jacques Lusseyran, Blind Hero of the French Resistance](https://headbutler.com/reviews/and-there-was-light/) - And There Was Light: The Autobiography of Jacques Lusseyran, Blind Hero of the French Resistance” is about absolute goodness. He was blinded at 7, but he was completely happy. Despair, he said, was simply a matter of “looking the wrong way.” In fact, he could see — “radiance was emanating from a place I saw nothing about.” His light persisted in the French Resistance and in Buchenwald. If you believe in a light that guides
- [The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid](https://headbutler.com/reviews/life-and-times-thunderbolt-kid/) - Bill Bryson was born in 1951 in Des Moines, Iowa. Talk about lucky! “I can’t imagine there has ever been a more gratifying time or place to be alive than America in the 1950s,” he writes. “We became the richest country in the world without needing the rest of the world.” And Billy Bryson — white, Protestant, son of a brilliant sportswriter and the home furnishings editor of the Des Moines Register — was in just the right place to take full advantage.
- [Weekend Butler: Just like that... fall.  A Head Butler Field Trip? Movie: one of the greatest love stories. A legendary Jack Nicholson scene: maybe not. Something good with pears. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-just-like-that-fall-a-head-butler-field-trip-movie-one-of-the-greatest-love-stories-a-legendary-jack-nicholson-scene-maybe-not-something-good-with-pears-and-more/) - AND JUST LIKE THAT… IT’S FALL I missed the summer. I always do. I don't plan for that to happen, but I have books and plays to write, and I always seem to need to finish them in summer. Now it’s mid-August, and leaves fall and curl on the running track. I’ve failed my one
- [Pina Pro Table Lamp](https://headbutler.com/reviews/pina-pro/) - The New York Times headline is over-the-top: "The Lamp That’s Taking Over New York." It’s also accurate. Seven minutes ago, these tall, slim, cordless table lamps didn’t exist. Now they grace the sidewalk tables of many restaurants, "where the 14 tiny LED lights in each one cast a mellow, romantic glow over the pappardelle with
- [Weekend Butler: Points for behaving decently. Jon Stewart punks Mitch McConnell. Seinfeld and his Corvette at the White House. Big discounts on CBD cream. A much-needed corn recipe. Margaret Mead identifies the start of civilization. Beautiful music you've never heard. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-points-for-behaving-decently-jon-stewart-punks-mitch-mcconnell-seinfeld-and-his-corvette-at-the-white-house-big-discounts-on-cbd-cream-a-much-needed-corn-recipe-margaret-mead-iden/) - PHOTO: Who gets the last laugh? Jon Stewart goofs as Mitch McConnell waddles off to do the serious work of pretending he didn't really mean to deny medical care to Veterans and is now about to make it right. --- IT'S AS BAD AS YOU THINK IT IS. BUT WHAT IF YOU DON'T THINK IT'S
- [The Snowman](https://headbutler.com/reviews/snowman/) - "The Snowman" is a 23-minute animated film was adapted in 1982 from the 32-page book by Raymond Briggs. Don't know Briggs? There's a reason. He's English --- and he works as a freelance illustrator, book designer and writer of what are known as children's books. They're anything but. Oh, kids adore them, but they function quite well, or maybe even better, as books for adults.
- [The Wilder Shores of Love: The Exotic True Life Stories of Isabel Burton, Aimee Dubucq de Rivery, Jane Digby and Isabelle Eberhardt](https://headbutler.com/reviews/wilder-shores-love/) - “Did I have adventures with foreign men?'' Lesley Blanch told an interviewer on her 100th birthday. “Many times --- I like them.'' Even at that advanced age (you'll marvel at this photograph), she was still writing. Always to music, most often reggae. At night, she'd greet visitors --- she was fond of hashish dealers --- to her exotic house on the French-Italian border in clothes that matched her environment: a caftan and turban, her neck fighting a load of ethnic jewelry. To the very end of her life --- Lesley Blanch died in the spring of 2007, at 102 --- she had all her marbles. By that, I mean that she was as self-obsessed as ever. Example: Recalling the years when she used to travel, alone, through the Arab world, she boasted, “I was never raped, and I was very rapeable then!” But Lesley Blanch's big personality is just icing. As “The Wilder Shores of Love” attests, she was a very good writer with a gift for telling remarkable stories, many of them probably true. And she was the ideal writer to profile four 19th century women who defied convention and went off to make fresh starts in North Africa and the Middle East. Or, as she called them, “four northern shadows flitting across a southern landscape.” Her focus was as exotic as her prose: “love as a means of individual expression, of liberation and fulfillment within that radiant periphery.” Her women weren't head-in-the-stars about love; they were “realists of romance.” And the book works brilliantly because, though the lives of Blanch's women were only superficially similar, their priorities were the same --- breathing the oxygen that was only available on the wilder shores of love. Isabel Burton: Blanch chose her because she was “the supreme example of a woman who lived and had her being entirely through love.” From the minute she saw them, she craved the East and the famous Victorian traveler, Richard Burton. (He spoke 28 languages. Blanch writes, one of them pornography.) Once she got him, their lives became a Greek drama: She colonized him and destroyed him, and, in the process, destroyed herself. But to what astonishing heights destruction took them --- Isabel worked tirelessly on Richard's behalf and, more or less singlehandedly, turned him into a celebrity. “I have undertaken a very peculiar man,” she wrote in the early days of the marriage. He could have said the same: She traveled with 59 trunks, stayed for days in harems, and, meeting her wayward husband by chance in Venice, said hello and shook his hand. Jane Digby: “She smashed all the taboos of her time,” Blanch writes. “Hers was a life lived entirely against the rules, reasons and warnings, and it was triumphantly happy.” You may disagree --- Digby experienced the ultimate tragedy when her beloved six-year-old son slid down a balcony, miscalculated and fell to his death at her feet. But the rest? One fabulous love affair after another, culminating in the marriage to Sheik Abdul Medjuel El Mezrab. Jane was always a great horsewoman; now she mastered dromedaries, and often raced at the head of a Bedouin tribe. She prepared her husband's food, stood as he ate, washed his feet. And the outcome? She never became old. “Admiration and love,” Blanch notes, “are the best beauty treatments.” Aimée Dubucq de Rivery: Romantic? How's this: captured by pirates, flung into a harem and enslaved. Her first sight in her new life in Turkey was “a great pyramid of heads, some so newly severed that they reeked and steamed with blood.” She became “the French Sultana,” the mother of Sultan Mahmoud II (who helped create modern Turkey) and a force for freedom and justice --- quite the tale. Isabelle Eberhardt: She dressed as a man. She turned Arab. A Russian, she converted to Islam and died --- actually: drowned --- in the desert. “She adored her insignificant husband, but her sensual adventures were without number,” Blanch writes, matter-of-factly. “Her behavior was outrageous; she drank, she smoked hashish, but déclassée, she remained racée.” No one who met her ever forgot her. You won't either. Subjects and author been rarely been better matched. For despite her sympathies with travel and romantic adventure, Lesley Blanch was a serious writer. Though well-born, she was also born poor; she worked hard from a young age, first as a book illustrator, then as Features Editor of British Vogue. Over her career, she wrote 18 books, all in longhand. The combination of a good education, intense research, remarkable subjects and a vivid style is irresistible --- “Wilder Shores” has never been out of print since its publication in 1954. To buy “The Wilder Shores of Love” from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Harry Styles: "Matilda"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/harry-styles-matilda/) - You are not a teenage girl, so you may not be aware that Harry Styles begins 15 nights at Madison Square Garden on August 20, moves on to 5 nights in Austin, 5 nights in Chicago and 15 nights in Los Angeles, or that his new album “Harry’s House,” contains no hits but nonetheless had
- [Weekend Butler: Could the most holy of the holy be someone you might not notice? Weekend movie: Mark Rylance. Another zucchini recipe. An inspiring song. A cell phone mystery at the White House.  And more....](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-could-the-most-holy-of-the-holy-be-someone-you-might-not-notice-weekend-movie-mark-rylance-another-zucchini-recipe-an-inspiring-song-a-cell-phone-mystery-at-the-white-house-and/) - COULD THE MOST HOLY OF THE HOLY BE SOMEONE YOU MIGHT NOT NOTICE? In my novel, two teenage friends --- one kind of, sort of Buddhist, one Jewish --- talk about religion when they're not talking about girls. The Jewish boy tells his friend about the Lamed Vav: “The 36 Lamed Vavs are the most
- [The Burn Pits: The Poisoning of America's Soldiers](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-burn-pits-the-poisoning-of-americas-soldiers/) - What got burned in the burn pits of Iraq and Afghanistan? Petroleum, oil, rubber, tires, plastic, styrofoam, batteries, appliances, electrical equipment, pesticides, aerosol cans, oil, explosives, casings, medical waste and animal and human carcasses --- sometimes with jet fuel to stoke the fire. Was this correct military procedure? Absolutely not.
- [Weekend Butler: The week's insights (Both Sides Now/Fast & Steady). The Zucchini solution. Drink coffee for your health. A 128-page novel. The right song for the season.  And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-the-weeks-insights-both-sides-now-fast-steady-the-zucchini-solution-drink-coffee-for-your-health-a-128-page-novel-the-right-song-for-the-season-and-more/) - BOTH SIDES NOW/FAST AND STEADY When my daughter was very young, vacation meant hotels with pools --- and pool games. A favorite was “Tortoise and Hare.” I was the Hare. I'd race across the pool for an early lead. Then I'd stop, dramatically drink a pint of pretend vodka … and fall asleep, waking up
- [Josh Ritter: "Change of Time"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/josh-ritter-change-of-time/) - In my dream, we were in Jamaica, staying at a small hotel that was the Negril equivalent of the Bel Air --- so discreet that beach walkers could stroll past it without noticing it. One afternoon, we left this paradise and walked down the beach to a cluster of bars and a dock, where you
- [Cesaria Evora](https://headbutler.com/reviews/cesaria-evora/) - A great singer lived quietly on an island you almost surely have not visited. Can't place Sao Vicente? It's one of the Cape Verde islands. And you may not be able to place them either. With reason: this archipelago sits 350 miles off the coast of Senegal. It was Cesaria Evora's fate to be born there. Geography
- [Josh Ritter: So Runs the World Away](https://headbutler.com/reviews/josh-ritter-so-runs-world-away/) - I’m one of those rabid fans who thinks Josh Ritter belongs in the same sentence as Springsteen, Simon, Dylan and Cohen --- but the first few times I played his new CD, So Runs the World Away, I was seriously unhappy. It was just too different from 2007’s The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter. And "Historical Conquests" also gave me trouble, for it was too different from Animal Years, which came out in 2006. I should be used to this discomfort now. Josh Ritter doesn’t repeat. There is no sequel to “Wolves.” There will never be another “Kathleen.” Fans hoping that “Good Man” will be followed by “Great Man” hope in vain. Josh Ritter takes leaps. It’s what he does, it’s his signature. That constant but asymmetrical flow of creativity makes him happy --- more to the point, it keeps him alive. Josh Ritter condemned to repeat himself would be a tragedy. This guy needs freedom to create the next new thing like he needs oxygen. You can listen to Josh Ritter’s music and think it’s bouncy and fun, though sometimes a little dark and jagged for pop music. Or you can dig in. That is, you can spend time with a Josh Ritter CD as you might with a book that happens to be set to music --- you underline, make notes, reread. I’ve been listening to “So Runs the World Away” for a few months now. “Coming to terms with it” would be more accurate. Some songs are keepers from the get-go: for a rocking affirmation of love, “Lantern” may have extremely unusual lyrics (“The living is desperate/ Precarious and mean/ And getting by is so hard/ That even the rocks are picked clean/ And the bones of small contention/ Are the only food the hungry find”), but it takes repeated play to note that. Other songs are instantly amusing for the musical quotations: a Leonard Cohen piano riff, a lilting line reminiscent of Paul Simon, glockenspiel worthy of Springsteen or Phil Spector. And then there are the songs that challenge you right off --- you’ll know them when you hear them. “So Runs the World Away” is so ambitious and ambitious in so many ways that it may be hard to connect the songs. I’ve done that thinking, and this is what I got. Change is coming, and we’re on our own: “If there’s a Book of Jubillations/ We’ll have to write it for ourselves.” Not everyone will make it: “And around me as I swam/ The drifters who’d gone under.” But this is Josh Ritter, kids, the poet laureate of possibility: “New lands for the living/ I could make it if I tried/ I closed my eyes/ I kept on swimming.” Very bracing, very helpful --- but that’s just my interim sense of the CD. Other listeners, other takeaways. The pleasure’s in the discovery, the thinking, the interacting --- experiences that only the very best art can deliver. And “So Runs the World Away” delivers. Well, maybe not on every track. But give me a year. The songs I don’t get now will surely be my favorites by then --- and when the next Josh Ritter CD comes out, I’ll be sad there aren’t more like them. The big surprise: This CD was different from all other Ritter CDs in a way you’d never guess --- one of music’s best writers had trouble writing. My interview with Josh Ritter started there….. You’ve written about a “reckoning” after your last record. You had a great career, a band that never falters, a smart, enthusiastic audience. But “a shadow” fell and “nothing felt original.” Josh Ritter in despair? That has to come as a shock to anyone who saw you perform during that period --- as your fans know, no one is happier at a Josh Ritter concert than Josh Ritter. Now that you’re on the other side of that valley, can you see what the problem was? The writing side is the fuel for the engine. Writing stands or falls on its confidence. Some people can't go out unless they're in a nice suit. Well, I can't go onstage unless I feel my songs are alive. To sing songs that are older when new ones aren't coming --- that's scary. And I was there. Nothing was coming. I was spending all my energy to get through each night. How long did that last? It actually lasted a very long time, at least six or seven months. I go onstage to win, but that feeling has to come from inside of me --- I wasn't feeling that at the end of the night. I'd bet my hands that no one who saw you perform had a clue. Who knew? The band always knows everything. But it doesn't matter who knows it. Writing is solitary, lonely. When people ask, “What was your day like?” you can't share that you looked out the window and nothing came. There was a time I spent watching a dog out the window. It was just me watching this strange dog in a stranger’s backyard. At a certain point the dog noticed me noticing it. It started looking up at me as if it was saying, “What, already?! What?!” I didn’t know what to tell that dog. It was hell. I know you to be a voracious reader, listener, viewer --- you've got a huge appetite for information and ideas. Did diving into other writers and artists help? You throw everything down the well --- books, people, your friends and your enemies, hoping that something will come out. I ran, I ran like crazy --- I tried everything that had worked before. I believe there's a sponge in everyone's brain that they can squeeze. I knew the sponge was in there somewhere, I was casting about in my brain for it, but nothing was coming. And out of all that came an idea for a story --- about a mummy and an archeologist. Why that? There was an archetype to it. It had been explored, but in that great way that feels as if there is a ton left to look at. And the story had humor. So I went to the library and read about mummies. I loved the way the Egyptians believed in the technology. I thought that was pretty. And I thought: We can understand that belief in a person coming back to life out of love. Anyone I want to know can understand that on a fundamental level. Asking a writer to explain his writing is exactly as rude as asking a Wyoming rancher how many acres he owns. That said, let me be a boor and ask you: Once you started writing these new songs, how did it go? Tons of fragments. Writing for me is all about fragments. Nothing comes fully sprung from my head. I take the tadpoles of songs and nurse them. A few survive from the bunch and grow up into kittens. A few of these survive and grow up into feral dogs and out of these dogs springs a fully grown polar bear. All the songs that don’t make it I throw on the floor and wait for other lines to eat them up. I never feel I'm wasting my words. As effortless as writing can feel, good writing always takes time. On this record I really learned that in a deep-tissue way. The title of the CD is from “Hamlet” (Act III, Scene 2): “Why, let the stricken deer go weep/ The hart ungalled play/ For some must watch, while some must sleep/ So runs the world away.” Connect the dots, please. The title is always the last thing for me. You're looking for something that encompasses the record as you envisioned it. When nothing sticks, I go to Shakespeare and put on a play recorded by Orson Welles's company. I don't listen to the words as much as to the rhythm. That line felt beautiful to me -- in all these songs, I feel the magic and fatalism of a world about to change for everyone. A 19th century steamboat on the cover, songs about exploration, physical and spiritual, on the record --- there's fun along the way, but there's also something very serious here, what you've called “looking out across the drifts of nothing.” What's up? Exploration is a solitary thing. It's never about finding, it's about looking. Atlantis, Eldorado, the source of the Nile --- the people who made those explorations did them because that's who they were. Exploration is a metaphor for our lives, which are solitary. And that's terrifying. Mr. Ritter, you just got married! A man needs a home. And that has to be enough. You're not asking someone to be completely satisfied. Our homes are what we reach out for when we're in danger of spinning off into space. We've all got to walk that lonesome valley --- to be close with someone is to know they too have one to walk. And that's enough. In style, these songs are all over the map. What they have it common, it seems, is that each presses against the limits of its form. Is it fair to say this is your most ambitious record yet? I felt freed by the fact that I'm not working for anyone anymore. [Josh has left his record company.] It's me and the people I work with and the limits of our hopes for what we're doing. When you're not trying to get stuff on the radio, it's very liberating. What happens to music after it's made has nothing to do with what happened in the studio --- there's no use trying to figure out why. Coming to that realization was a nice thing. Ambition is completely up to you --- and, given that, I will push things. The band is, as ever, terrific, but this time out, the arrangements are much more layered, much more significant. I hear tympani, glockenspiel, synthesizer, a few background singers who sound like the entire Mormon Tabernacle Choir --- everything but a sackbut. Only because we couldn't afford one! Musically, this was the most exciting record I've made. On “Historical Conquest,” we said, “Let's collapse some atoms together and make a big explosion.” Now we know we can do that. This time, we knew we were making an exploration that could take us to a new place. You’re starting a tour of Dylanesque length. I think back to your early days, a time of incessant touring --- what you've called the “animal years.” What strategies have you devised to prevent burnout? Two weeks on, two weeks off, from now to eternity. You have a large catalogue now. The early classics seem farther away. In concert, how will you respond when people shout out for “Kathleen” or “Harrisburg”? I'll probably play some of the early ones. I'm grateful that I don't have to play “Kathleen” all the time and can give it a rest for a while. And I know Zack [Josh's bass player, who's been with him from the start] thinks so too. Mark Knopfler says he can't listen to his music after he signs off on the production. Can you? Yes. I listen to it all the time. At first, it was because I'm so proud of it. Now I learn from it --- to figure out what I want to do next. To buy the CD of "So Runs the World Away" from Amazon.com, click here. To buy the MP3 download of "So Runs the World Away" from Amazon.com, click here. To buy from iTunes, click here.
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- [Shmutz](https://headbutler.com/reviews/shmutz/) - Ask a writer what her/his book is about, and odds are good you’ll be treated to a tour of the plot, and not in twenty-five words or less. Stephen King knows better. As he wisely notes in On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, “A strong enough situation renders the whole question of plot moot.
- [Weekend Butler: Watch a derecho (know what it is?) Urgent fix for Facebook users! Sermon of the year: "Learn to handle 'hard' well.  Gazpacho! A great movie! Song of the summer! And more!](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-watch-a-derecho-know-what-it-is-urgent-fix-for-facebook-users-sermon-of-the-year-learn-to-handle-hard-well-gazpacho-a-great-movie-song-of-the-summer-and-more/) - DERECHO. KNOW WHAT THAT IS? From the Washington Post: A derecho (pictured above) is a horizontal thunderstorm that can travel hundreds of miles with the impact of a 100-mile-wide tornado. This week a derecho struck the midwest. “Ahead of the derecho, thousands witnessed skies turn an ominous shade of neon green, the heavens appearing borderline
- [Could a "children's crusade" save democracy? Consider "Blue Watermelon"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/could-a-childrens-crusade-save-democracy-consider-blue-watermelon/) - I’ve looked at the research, and while it’s clear that white women are the biggest segment of voters in swing states... and that 52% of voters aren't college graduates... and and and... Statistics are bloodless. But experience --- that is, the experience of my lost-distant youth, when I was in the streets and brainstorming confrontation
- [Weekend Butler: Must see: "A Strange Loop." A good billionaire. A wedding poem. Two recipes for late spring.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-7/) - My brother's elder daughter is getting married this weekend. Ours is a small family now, just my brother and me, so it's especially glorious to have a day of joy now --- there's almost nothing more rare. In that spirit, this Weekend Butler is in an unnaturally good mood. Like the photo (above). We knew
- [The Conformist](https://headbutler.com/reviews/conformist/) - What kind of man gets himself in such a pickle that --- on his honeymoon --- he's given a gun and asked to kill a professor he's always admired? That's the question presented at the beginning of "The Conformist," as Marcello Clerici (Jean-Louis Trintignant) sits in a Paris hotel room, waiting for the call that will tell him it's time to kill the professor. If you love movies, the answer --- told in a series of flashbacks, and, on occasion, flashbacks within flashbacks --- will make for one of the most rewarding cinematic experiences of your life.
- [Father's Day 2022: The older he gets, the more it matters](https://headbutler.com/reviews/fathers-day-2022-the-older-he-gets-the-more-it-matters/) - My daughter is 20 now. Hard to believe --- and probably hard to believe for longtime readers, who remember her as “the small person” and “the child.” What is not hard for me: the way love is now mixed with admiration. When I ask my friends what they did in the two years we lost
- [Weekend Butler: Aretha Franklin. Meryl Streep. Bette Midler. Katherine Hepburn. Leonard Cohen. A spicy summer sauce. One unforgettable poem. And much more (hey, it’s a long weekend)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-aretha-franklin-meryl-streep-bette-midler-katherine-hepburn-leonard-cohen-a-spicy-summer-sauce-one-unforgettable-poem-and-much-more-hey-its-a-long-weekend/) - MY HEROES ARE HEROINES My social media feed tells two opposite stories. One is anger and whining from white men who have enjoyed lives of the most spectacular privilege in the history of our planet and don’t want to give any of it up. The other is the story of my foundational friends, all of
- [Charlotte's Web](https://headbutler.com/reviews/charlottes-web/) - You all read “Charlotte’s Web” when you were 8. I didn’t. And because no one read it to me, my childhood ended without any knowledge of what seems to be the most popular children’s book ever written. Why did I finally read it? Because. I saw an article in the Times about a recent audio edition of the book … narrated by Meryl Streep. That is an event.
- [Weekend Butler: A nation of hostages. The Dalai Lama's birthday. The $3 million GoFundMe.  Strawberry Cobbler.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-a-nation-of-hostages-the-dalai-lamas-birthday-the-3-million-gofundme-strawberry-cobbler/) - A NATION OF HOSTAGES Consider this year’s 314 mass shootings in just 186 days. Do they make you… nervous about going to the mall, the grocery, the club, the church, theater, the parade? More often, do you just... stay home? Cue Snidely Whiplash, twirling his moustache and saying, “Yes! It’s all going just as I
- [Siddhartha](https://headbutler.com/reviews/siddhartha/) - I’m about to write something that involves Buddhism, and as the paperback is just 152 pages, I read “Siddhartha.” The chore turned out to be a thrill. A page turner. A spiritual detective story. If, like me, you’ve been too snooty to read it or it’s been forever since you got lost in a young man’s quest for enlightenment, this would be an excellent time to take an hour and --- at the very least --- feel 18 again.
- [Van Morrison: Almost Independence Day](https://headbutler.com/reviews/van-morrison-almost-independence-day/) - It’s late. Whatever you did during the day is history. So is whatever you did tonight. What comes now is the transition from your worldly self to your true self and, soon, to your dream self. There are many ways to get there. Tonight I encourage you to kill the lights and sit in the dark for 10 minutes.
- [Weekend Butler: The Secret of Life. Bill Nighy in a music video? Mary Oliver's summer poem.  A simple way to wake up roast chicken. Bob Dylan, 80, sings "Happy Birthday" to Brian Wilson, 80.  And more....](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-the-secret-of-life-bill-nighy-in-a-music-video-mary-olivers-summer-poem-a-simple-way-to-wake-up-roast-chicken-bob-dylan-80-sings-happy-birthday-to-brian-wilson-80-and-m/) - I watched the hearings, and my heart hurt for Shaye Moss and Lady Ruby, but the weather was ideal here, and the sky was outrageously blue, and I couldn’t avoid the healing power of beauty and people. Words filled screens, and a sentence about lovers committing to one another --- getting “to the far side
- [Excluding miscarriages, nearly one in five American pregnancies ends in abortion, and one American woman in four will terminate a pregnancy during her lifetime. What if those women and their children and their partners...  mobilized?](https://headbutler.com/reviews/excluding-miscarriages-nearly-one-in-five-american-pregnancies-ends-in-abortion-and-one-american-woman-in-four-will-terminate-a-pregnancy-during-her-lifetime-what-if-those-women-and-their-children/) - When a government run by white men for the benefit of a white minority and white-owned business wants even more power, it begins by declaring war on women. This is what the SCOTUS ruling that ends 50 years of a federally guaranteed right to abortion is ultimately about --- it turns the clock back to
- [On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century](https://headbutler.com/reviews/on-tyranny-twenty-lessons-from-the-twentieth-century/) - I don’t do politics here. But I do civics. And although it’s early in 2017, "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century," by Timothy Snyder, may be the most important civics book I’ll commend all year. “I think things have tightened up very fast; we have at most a year to defend the republic, perhaps less” Timothy Snyder said in a recent interview.“What happens in the next few weeks is very important.” Overwrought? Possibly. But I had relatives in Germany who, in 1933, felt that similar sentiments were overwrought and “normalized” Hitler. I don’t have those relatives any more. So, just to be on the safe side, why don’t you invest slightly more than a venti latte with an extra shot and buy this book?
- [Fashion Icons 2: Fashion Lives with Fern Mallis](https://headbutler.com/reviews/fern-mallis-fashion-icons-2/) - Anna Wintour is the Queen of Fashion? If you’re a civilian, you may believe that. You surely believed Meryl Streep was the Queen of Fashion when she starred in “The Devil Wears Prada.” And you may be convinced all over again when “The Devil Wears Prada” --- a musical, with songs by Elton John ---
- [Diva](https://headbutler.com/reviews/diva/) - I was teaching screenwriting at New York University when “Diva” reached New York theaters. Some of my students saw it. “This one’s for you,” they said. No kidding. The feature debut of Jean-Jacques Beineix, “Diva”--- released in this country in 1982 --- was unlike anything I’d ever seen. First, it was a reach back to the jaunty films of the French “New Wave.” At the same time, it was a rule-breaker, mixing opera with techno, Society with punk, chic with coarse, thriller with spectacle. And was it ever stylish! Every frame was drenched in color and attitude --- almost singlehandedly, “Diva” launched a style of French filmmaking called “cinema du look. “ A film this self-assured, this exotic, this original --- it gets noticed. In France, “Diva” played for a year and won César awards for Best Music, Best Cinematography and Best Directorial Debut. (To buy the DVD of “Diva” from Amazon, click here.) In New York, “Diva” was controversial. Pauline Kael, writing in The New Yorker, found it delicious visual candy from a director born to make movies. In The New York Times, Vincent Canby couldn’t have been more sour: “Diva” is an empty though frightfully chic-looking film… Though it means to be a romantic suspense-thriller, it has the self-consciously enigmatic manner of a high-fashion photograph, the kind that's irresistible to amateur artists who draw mustaches on the perfectly symmetrical faces of pencil-thin models in sables. Translation: This film is way too cool for me. But just cool enough for me. I got an assignment from Esquire Magazine, jumped on a plane to Paris and was soon sitting under the pin lights of Chiberta having dinner with Jean-Jacques Beineix. (Alas, my piece never ran. Beineix was about to release his next film, “The Moon in the Gutter,” and it was such a pretentious bomb that he was considered a one-hit wonder. ) So what’s the story? Jules, a young motorcycle messenger, loves opera --- and is obsessed with Cynthia Hawkins, an opera singer who refuses to record. One night, he takes his Nagra to the opera and secretly records her (Cynthia is played by a real singer, Wilhelmenia Wiggins-Fernandez) performing an aria from Catalani's opera “La Wally.” Beineix takes his time here --- he tunes us to the messenger’s frequency so we can better appreciate the genius of the singer. The bootleg Jules makes is not the only bootleg made in Paris that night. A prostitute records a tape implicating the chief of police --- and, as she flees, drops it in Jules’ motorcycle bag. And then there is the scary duo that wants Jules’ tape so they can release it as a CD. With that, we’re off --- everybody’s after the innocent messenger. A rich, eccentric helper will appear who will charm Jules with his Zen pronouncements. There will be a Lolita-like Vietnamese girl. There will be sinister props, a vintage creamy-white Citroën 11CV, a light house and a great chase through the Metro. But best of all is the burgeoning relationship between Jules and a star who confesses, “I’ve never heard myself sing.” Their relationship is not quite a love story, but it’s a beauty to watch --- and in a classic scene, they walk through a Paris that’s never been lovelier. Does “Diva” hold up, all these years later? Not entirely. The Zen hero’s just too good to be true. But the look of the film, its use of music, the way Beineix films Paris --- these triumphs were unprecedented then and remain unequaled today. If you’re in the mood to wallow in style and beauty, look no further.
- [The Perfect Summer: England 1911, Just Before the Storm](https://headbutler.com/reviews/perfect-summer-england-1911/) - In our secret hearts, many of us imagine that we belong elsewhere --- say, in England, at a great country estate, in good weather, where we enjoy every luxury because we are rich and titled. And why not, say, in May of 1911? Edward VII had died the previous spring; mourning was over, George V was about to be crowned, there would be a full season of glorious parties.
- [M.C. Escher](https://headbutler.com/reviews/mc-escher/) - I was a teenager when some kid with a bad attitude toward school and a great attitude about art showed me a book of Escher graphics. The images did what Escher intended --- they blew my mind. Soon enough, there were many experiences that produced the same effect, and I moved on. Decades later, I'm looking at Escher again, as would any clever parent with a child who really likes to draw. Kids love optical illusions. And mathematical magic. And if there's one artist who combines both, it's Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972). Escher, born in the Netherlands, was an indifferent student but a dedicated draftsman whose exacting vision and precise technique led him to explore the relationship between art and mathematics. In 1922, he visited the Alhambra, a 14th Century castle in Granada, Spain; its intricate carvings and optical tricks inspired him to go deeper into mathematical creation. He'd go on to create 448 lithographs, woodcuts and wood engravings and more than 2,000 drawings and sketches, many of them mathematically-inspired --- and to write so well on the subject that some academics considered him a research mathematician.
- [Weekend Butler: 3 love stories, 1 love poem, 1 love song, and one romantic movie (even if it's about basketball and stars Adam Sandler)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-3-love-stories-1-love-poem-1-love-song-and-one-romantic-movie-even-if-its-about-basketball-and-stars-adam-sandler/) - If you're not in a heat zone this weekend or in Ukraine or ill or otherwise disadvantaged, you are blessed. I know I am. I've got angels on my shoulder. Not celestial beings, but some people in my life --- they know who they are because I've told them --- offered wisdom at just the
- [Soul and Inspiration: the story of women who climb 20,000-foot mountains in Bolivia and a movie about a thrilling runner](https://headbutler.com/reviews/soul-and-inspiration-the-story-of-women-who-climb-20000-foot-mountains-in-bolivia-and-a-movie-about-a-thrilling-runner/) - In my review of Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, Being Peace, I wrote about the stressors we're all facing and my personal issues that make them more important to confront. My piece ended with “Fingers crossed for me… and for us all.” That produced an unusual response. Five concerned readers wrote to ask if I’m ok.
- [The Cholita Climbers](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-cholita-climbers/) - These women are Aymaras, descendants of people who have inhabited the Andes for a thousand years. They wear distinctive clothes. They speak their own language. Most are wives of the guides who lead climbers to the summits of the mountains of Bolivia. The women work as porters and cooks. In 2014, something like feminism grabbed them. They had no climbing experience, but eleven of them — the youngest was 23, the oldest 52 — set out to climb Huayna Potosí, a peak in Bolivia that tops out at 19,974 feet. They wore their traditional wide, puffy skirts and plaited hair. Their one concession: helmets instead of high bowler hats. All eleven summitted.
- [Weekend Butler: 3,044 empty chairs. 11 short novels. 1 exceptional ramen. 1 stunning quote. 1 midnight song.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-3044-empty-chairs-11-short-novels-1-exceptional-ramen-1-stunning-quote-1-midnight-song/) - 3,044 EMPTY CHAIRS [IN THE PHOTOGRAPH, ABOVE] David Keene, former president of the National Rifle Association, and John Lott, author of “More Guns, Less Crime,” were invited to speak at the graduation of James Madison Academy in Las Vegas in June, 2021. They accepted. Could they come, in their academic robes, for a tech rehearsal?
- [Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace](https://headbutler.com/reviews/small-victories-spotting-improbable-moments-of-grace/) - Bird by Bird is the book to read if you’re a beginning writer, or a baffled amateur, or just want to witness a fine stylist making the keyboard sing. I don’t have a reason for avoiding Anne Lamott’s next 14 books that makes me sound smart. Though I do have reasons. Over the years, Lamott
- [The Man Who Broke Capitalism: How Jack Welch Gutted the Heartland and Crushed the Soul of Corporate America—and How to Undo His Legacy](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-man-who-broke-capitalism-how-jack-welch-gutted-the-heartland-and-crushed-the-soul-of-corporate-america-and-how-to-undo-his-legacy/) - Bette Midler (on Twitter): "Workers of America, you keep asking, ‘Why is my life so shitty?’ Here’s your answer in two words: this prick." Two Boeing 737 Max crashes --- in Indonesia in October 2018 and in Ethiopia in March 2019 --- killed 346 people. Why did they die? Let David Gelles explain: Starting in
- [Weekend Butler: Garland Jeffreys is so much more than "Wild in the Streets." Rolling with Tom Cruise. A weekend movie that's fun and smart. Shrimp that's not boiled to death.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-garland-jeffreys-is-so-much-more-than-wild-in-the-streets-rolling-with-tom-cruise-a-weekend-movie-thats-fun-and-smart-shrimp-thats-not-boiled-to-death/) - GARLAND JEFFREYS IS SO MUCH MORE THAN “WILD IN THE STREETS” -- LIKE A DOCUMENTARY FILM For the final New Year’s Eve party in the old apartment, we invited a great many people -- people we knew and loved, people we kinda knew and might love if we knew them better, people we superficially knew
- [Raymond Chandler: The Big Sleep](https://headbutler.com/reviews/big-sleep-1/) - "How come you had a key?" "Is that any of your business, soldier?" "I could make it my business." He smiled tightly and pushed his hat back on his gray hair. "And I could make your business my business." "You wouldn't like it. The pay's too small."
- ['wichcraft: Craft a Sandwich into a Meal -- And a Meal into a Sandwich](https://headbutler.com/reviews/wichcraft-craft-sandwich-meal-and-meal-sandwich/) - Tom Colicchio is on television so often that I can’t quite picture him actually having a day job. In fact, he does, and he’s both innovative and successful. There are now four Craft restaurants, three Craftsteaks, one Craftbar – and twelve outlets of ‘wichcraft in New York, San Francisco and Las Vegas. Expansion is often the tipoff to out-of-control ego. Especially in restaurants. A chef can train many assistants, but he can only supervise one at a time. On the other hand, a sandwich restaurant --- that sucker has “chain” all over it. Or, at least, “cluster”, a series of sandwich shops in a single city, serviced by a central kitchen. Why would a sandwich restaurant need a serious kitchen? Because Colicchio isn’t making sandwiches like the ones Mom packed in your lunch bag or Dagwood built late at night on his Formica counter. These are world-class sandwiches, sandwiches that sometimes require considerable preparation, sandwiches worth the time and effort it takes to put them together --- well worth the prices that ‘wichcraft charges. And deserving of a beautiful cookbook.
- [Somerset Maugham: Ashenden](https://headbutler.com/reviews/somerset-maugham-ashenden/) - These stories are not quite fiction. By 1914, Maugham had 10 plays produced and 10 novels published; he was rich and famous, and “Of Human Bondage” was about to make him richer and more famous. So in 1915 the 41-year-old writer signed up for the Red Cross as an interpreter and medical assistant in France. He was soon recruited to join the Britain's Secret Intelligence Service. His writing would be his cover --- he’d be a French writer. That wasn’t a difficult role; he was born in Paris and lived there until he was 10, speaking mostly French. Off Maugham went to Switzerland, where he served as an intermediary between other agents in the field and the SIS in Britain. And he sent the occasional coded message. He’d volunteered as a patriotic duty --- he received no salary. He did get quite an education. “The work of an agent in the Intelligence Department is on the whole extremely monotonous,” he wrote, in the preface to these stories. “A lot of it is uncommonly useless. The material it offers for stories is scrappy and pointless; the author has himself to make it coherent, dramatic and probable.” Perhaps, but he had to burn almost half the stories because they revealed too much about British Intelligence. And they were sufficiently realist that Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, cited them an example of British cynicism and brutality.
- [Weekend Butler for Memorial Day 2022: How bright a light there must be to cast so dark a shadow.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-for-memorial-day-2022-how-bright-a-light-there-must-be-to-cast-so-dark-a-shadow/) - If you are so fortunate as to have no reason to visit a soldier’s grave on Memorial Day, you’re among the millions of Americans who can enjoy a long weekend that marks the official start of summer. No cares. Sand between your toes. Fire up the grill. Good luck with that. This Memorial Day feels
- [Nutritional Yeast](https://headbutler.com/reviews/nutritional-yeast/) - In something I’m writing that might grow up to be a novel, we’re on Nantucket, where even the new money is less vulgar than it is in the Hamptons. Think: shingled houses, sailboats instead of yachts, Teslas as the exception. Some billionaires like the quiet and the privacy and move here for the summer, jetting
- [Endless Love](https://headbutler.com/reviews/endless-love/) - A failed movie gets more attention than a successful book, even when the book's been translated into 20 languages and has sold two million copies. That is why, if you know about 'Endless Love' at all, you probably remember the movie made by Franco Zeffirelli. It starred Brooke Shields and a young actor who is no longer on anyone's map. Not that Zeffirelli wanted that outcome --- he was obsessed with the boy. The novel is told by the boy, David Axelrod. It's the story of his endless love --- that is, his obsessive love, his love that looks to all the world like madness --- for Jade Butterfield. Yeah, they're teenagers, but there's nothing "puppy love" about what they feel. This is romance that rocks their souls, addicts them to one another, turns each word and touch into a moonshot. So what does Zeffirelli --- the Italian opera director --- do? He turns the story into a homo-erotic fantasy. The big question of the book: Is David in an extreme state of love --- or is he crazy? The big question of the film: Who loves David more --- Jade or the film director? The film was a spectacular flop. And, over the years, it sufficiently damaged the book until 'Endless Love' was, briefly, out of print. A few years ago, it returned, as a trade paperback --- large pages, large print: a format easy to love --- with one of the dumbest covers I've ever seen. No matter. It's back.
- [Zojirushi Stainless Steel Mug/Thermos](https://headbutler.com/reviews/zojirushi-sm-ja48ba-stainless-steel-vacuum-insulated-mug/) - It does exactly what it’s supposed to. Hot stays hot. Cold stays cold.
- [Churchill](https://headbutler.com/reviews/churchill/) - Of all the towering figures of the twentieth century, both good and evil, Winston Churchill was the most valuable to humanity, and also the most likable. It is a joy to write his life, and to read about it. None holds more lessons, especially for youth: How to use a difficult childhood. How to seize eagerly on all opportunities, physical, moral and intellectual. How to dare greatly, to reinforce success, and to put the inevitable failures behind you. And how, while pursuing vaulting ambition with energy and relish, to cultivate also friendship, generosity, compassion and decency. That’s the opening paragraph of Paul Johnson’s "Churchill," and if you appreciate clarity, authority and verve in historical writing, you will understand why I gulped down the next 165 pages and now declare it the most exciting biography I read in 2009. I’ve studied Churchill; we all have. But the breadth of the man gets lost in a handful of anecdotes and film clips. Paul Johnson delivers the big picture and the tiny detail. So masterful is his approach, so sharp is his observation, so exacting his sense of detail that it’s not hard to agree with his assessment --- Churchill saved the world as we know it. And not Churchill the God, but Churchill the extremely interesting man. Johnson piles on the detail. Yes, Churchill drank whiskey or brandy all day --- “heavily diluted with water or soda.” Yes, he stayed in bed as much as possible, for as he told Johnson (who interviewed him at the tender age of 17), the secret of life is “conservation of energy. Never stand up when you can sit down, and never sit down when you can lie down." As a young politician, Churchill was asked what he stood for. “Opportunism, mostly,” he quipped. In fact, he was a liberal, and very progressive. Raised by a nanny, he helped her when her services were no longer needed, sat at her deathbed, kept her grave maintained. In 1910, he was a leader in the fight for old-age pensions. He saw the merits in prison reform: “The treatment of crime and criminals is one of the unfailing tests of the civilization of any country." He helped end the incarceration of children. He wrote 8 million words. He was under fire 50 times. He saw the need to overhaul the Royal Navy. His mother had more affairs than she could count; after he married Clementine, “he never looked at another woman.” He painted so well that professionals couldn’t believe he was an amateur. He championed the creation of Israel. He drank Pol Roger champagne at meals and smoked a dozen cigars a day. He played polo until he was 53. He loved building walls of brick. It’s a dizzying life. Eloquence, energy, ambition --- this Churchill was a force of nature. It is Johnson’s great achievement in these pages that he also establishes Churchill as a colossal failure, who made serious mistakes and paid for them with long years in the wilderness. This only makes even more dramatic his ascendancy; at 65, with German bombers overhead, he finally became prime minister. "I was conscious of a profound sense of relief," he wrote later. "At last I had authority to give directions over the whole scene. I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial…. I slept soundly and had no need for cheering dreams. Facts are better than dreams.” The key fact: If Britain lost the war, it would lose its civilization. So the nation simply couldn’t lose. The war years are thus the most thrilling years of all, and we see how Churchill was everywhere. Giving great speeches that roused a people under siege. Working 16 hours a day and inspiring others to do the same. And strategizing all the time --- manipulating Roosevelt, preparing for the battle of Germany, forcing Hitler to deal with Greece and postpone his invasion of Russia until the winter, with disastrous results for the Nazis. The lessons to be learned couldn’t be clearer. Churchill was armed with facts, not ideology. He had the right priorities, and in the right order. He repeatedly interrupted his schedule for well-publicized acts of kindness. He was ruthless in pursuit of victory. He held no grudges. He was, in short, a leader on a level we can hardly imagine now --- a protean figure who really did save the world. If you have an evening reserved for thrills, here they are. To buy “Churchill” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy the Kindle edition of “Churchill” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy the Audio CD of “Churchill” from Amazon.com, click here.
- [What's a smart, 2022 way to celebrate the Buddha’s 1459th birthday?](https://headbutler.com/reviews/whats-a-smart-2022-way-to-celebrate-the-buddhas-1459th-birthday/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: You can become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and to go there, just click here. Again, thank you. --- If my math is correct, May 8th marked the Buddha’s 1459th birthday. I’m
- [Sally Rooney: Is she really all that and a bag of chips?](https://headbutler.com/reviews/sally-rooney-is-she-really-all-that-and-a-bag-of-chips/) - “Normal People,” from Sally Rooney’s novel, was the BBC’s most streamed series of 2020, with 63 million views. Last week a friend recommended the 12-episode series on Hulu. A few days ago, the next Sally Rooney series, “Conversations with Friends,” launched on Hulu. I felt surrounded by Rooneyworld. All I knew of her work was
- [Weekend Butler: Why did he do the right thing? "Instinct." Stanley Kubrick's first movie. An unforgettable poem.  Celery & Apple Stuffed Chicken. An ethereal song.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-why-did-he-do-the-right-thing-instinct-stanley-kubricks-first-movie-an-unforgettable-poem-celery-apple-stuffed-chicken-an-ethereal-song/) - “BE KIND, FOR EVERYONE YOU MEET IS FIGHTING A HARD BATTLE.” New York Yankees vs. Toronto Blue Jays. We’re watching the bleachers, because Yankee slugger Aaron Judge is at bat, and if anyone is going to hit it up here, he’s the guy. And he does. A Toronto fan catches it. He turns immediately, and
- [Fashion Lives: Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis](https://headbutler.com/reviews/fashion-lives-fashion-icons-with-fern-mallis/) - “Fashion Lives” is big as a MacBook and heavy as a small barbell, but if you like to read about fashion, you’ll find it as light as an airport page-turner. Dish? Honey, the dish does not quit. Emotion, intelligence, compassion, ideas? Yes, in quantity, and not so much because the 19 designers, photographers and editors
- [John Tunis: The Kid from Tomkinsville](https://headbutler.com/reviews/kid-tomkinsville/) - The baseball novels of John R. Tunis are not only the best sports fiction for 10-to-14 year-olds ever written, they are among the best sports fiction --- period. should know. At 8, I read my first Tunis novel. By age 10, I'd read them all. In my 20s, I revisited my childhood favorite --- the first book in the series and found it held up admirably.
- [Weekend Butler: Roe & Mother's Day: Three strikes and you're not out. A must-see film.  Nantucket goes topless. The easiest great dinner ever.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-roe-mothers-day-three-strikes-and-youre-not-out-a-must-see-film-nantucket-goes-topless-the-easiest-great-dinner-ever/) - “THREE STRIKES, AND YOU’RE NOT OUT. THERE IS ALWAYS ONE MORE THING YOU CAN DO. AND ONE THING AFTER THAT.” On Tuesday night, the reaction to the leaked draft of the Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade was shock. And despair. And disgust. One line on my Twitter feed summed it up: “Roe v.
- [Do I have a hero? Yes. Harry Parker.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/mind-over-water-lessons-life-art-rowing/) - You're in a long, narrow boat, with a skin that's just one-sixteenth of an inch thick and oars that extend fifteen feet. It's 5:45 on an October morning in Boston. It's chilly. And you are about to begin a race that is the equivalent of climbing Mt. Everest. On a Tuesday morning. Before work. Just for fun. This is how Mind Over Water begins: "In the darkness, deep in silence, the lights --- green, red, a few of white --- surge ahead, in the rhythm of breathing." Craig Lambert is a veteran oarsman with the soul of a poet. And so is Harry Parker, the Harvard crew coach whose exploits first got Lambert, a gifted amateur, interested in writing about the sport. You never heard of Harry Parker? He'd be thrilled. Recognition is the least thing he cares about. He's single-minded about something else: winning. And win he does. He became Harvard's crew coach in 1963, when he was just 27. For the next 6 years, Harvard didn’t lose a single intercollegiate race. His crews won 18 consecutive races against Yale. His winning percentage from 1963 to 1997 is .806 --- he is, very probably, the most successful coach in any sport in the whole and entire world. As a coach, Harry Parker did not make inspirational speeches. For that matter, he did nothing to motivate his rowers --- he thought if they needed coaching like that, they were in the wrong place. He didn’t even promise Olympic veterans that they’d been rowing first boat. And yet guys loved him. No: revered him. Thought he was the best teacher they had at Harvard. For some reason, Harry Parker tolerated Craig Lambert long enough for the writer to harvest the coach’s voodoo wisdom. That knowledge is, for me, as valuable as the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh. Some samples: "Speed demands that we risk our balance. Velocity comes with volatility ... That which is stable is slow." "Being part of a crew makes the individual shine; in rowing you pull harder and longer that you could ever alone because everyone else in the boat is depending on you." "My years of rowing in eights [eight-man boats] convinced me that to succeed in this world we must be willing to do whatever is required despite what our mind says." "Sometimes the best response to stormy weather is to unleash your own tempest. It is one way to restore equilibrium." "Grabbing an early lead costs energy, an expense that may later haunt the front-runner ... In practice, Parker would remind his rowers that when opponents jump out in front, you must make them pay the price." "To build a winning crew, select the right athletes, place them in the proper seats, and allow for the freedom to create. In other words, hire the right people for the right jobs and manage with a long, loose leash." If you're employed in almost any organization that I can imagine, I'll bet that last idea is one you'd like to print out and slip under the boss's door. That's light years away from the sport of rowing --- and yet it's not New Age, hippy-dippy sloganeering. What it is, I submit, is writing at a level we're not used to seeing very often: prose that yokes close observation of the real world with deep wisdom about the world inside. [To buy “Mind over Water” from Amazon, click here.] "We are out here in the darkness to reveal ourselves, to discover who we are," Lambert writes. "With the oars, we attempt things that we cannot do, we confront that which is beyond our capacities. Mind over water. The shells transport us into the unknown." It almost makes you want to get out there some early morning and see how far, how fast, how smoothly you could make a boat --- or, really, your life --- go. But first, please race to read this book. To read Craig Lambert’s profile of Harry Parker in Harvard Magazine, click here.
- [Mother's Day 2022: "The older you get, the more it matters."](https://headbutler.com/reviews/mothers-day-2022-the-older-you-get-the-more-it-matters/) - The older you get, the more it matters. What is “it?” Everything. Priorities are personal, but as I see people I know falling ill or leaving the planet, health seems inarguably #1. Is financial security #2? For some, no doubt; anxiety about money can’t be good for your health. But maybe security in general is
- [Holidays 2021: gifts that matter for people who matter to us](https://headbutler.com/reviews/holiday-2021-gifts-that-matter-for-people-who-matter-to-us/) - Here we are again. Let’s start by raising a glass. We survived, we didn’t go nuts, we can still locate our hearts. And then let’s stop and use our hearts to respond to the pain and suffering we may not have to look at but is definitely there. I’ll spare you the sermon and just
- [Weekend Butler: My search for a great 18-year-old female tennis player. Five-minute squash soup. A story about Princess Margaret that's not in Tina Brown's book. Stephen King's writing secret. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-my-search-for-a-great-18-year-old-female-tennis-player-five-minute-squash-soup-a-story-about-princess-margaret-thats-not-in-tina-browns-book-stephen-kings-writing-secret-and/) - HELP WANTED: I’m creating a character for my next novel: an 18-year-old girl from Brooklyn who’s the best young female tennis player in the East. In my novel, she gets a job at an elite tennis club teaching beginners and kids. I’d like to interview a young female tennis player who coaches. And also a
- [In times of trouble, reach for music that's comfort food for the soul: Danit Treubig, Beethoven, Víkingur Ólafsson, Cesaria Evora, Miles Davis, and more](https://headbutler.com/reviews/in-times-of-trouble-reach-for-music-thats-comfort-food-for-the-soul-danit-treubig-beethoven-vikingur-olafsson-cesaria-evora-miles-davis-and-more/) - It’s almost May, but it feels like March here: gray, windy, chilly, with rare gorgeous days. The news is no help --- it delivers a steady message of stupid and cruel. What does help? The kindness of friends and loved ones. Long walks. And music. Not bouncy or upbeat or angry music. When the world
- [MUST READ: A dying boy's heart gave life to another dying boy.  Twenty-three years later, their families met.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/must-read-a-dying-boys-heart-gave-life-to-another-dying-boy-twenty-three-years-later-their-families-met/) - "MUST READ." I don't think I've ever said that here. And how unlikely it is that I'd say it about an article in...the Harvard Gazette. I get the Gazette early each morning and usually just scan the headlines, because the pieces are generally about award-winning students, cutting-edge medical research, a retiring professor --- subjects of
- [Weekend Butler:  420Lovers.com ("where smokers meet smokers"), Moroccan Chicken (yum), Basquiat (must see),  a song 4 of you may like](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-420lovers-com-where-smokers-meet-smokers-moroccan-chicken-yum-basquiat-must-see-a-song-4-of-you-may-like/) - THIS WEEK IN BUTLER Kevin Costner L.A. Burning Local Hero 420LOVERS.COM (“WHERE SMOKERS MEET SMOKERS”) “420” started as a secret code among high school kids in the early 1970s. A group of friends at San Rafael High School in Marin County, California would meet at 4:20 PM near a statue of Louis Pasteur to get
- [Kevin Costner: As he was then, so he is now.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/kevin-costner-as-he-was-then-so-he-is-now/) - SUPPORTING BUTLER: You can become a patron of this site, and automatically donate any amount you please — starting with $1 — each month. The service that enables this is Patreon, and to go there, just click here. Again, thank you. ---- Kevin Costner is the King of Paramount TV. “Yellowstone,” the serial western horse
- [L.A. Burning](https://headbutler.com/reviews/l-a-burning/) - I don’t read thrillers, and that goes double for thrillers with a detective as the main character, but a friend introduced me to David Taylor, who had written “Night Life,” which is about my double least favorite genre. Of course I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. And I was thrilled for my new discovery
- [Local Hero](https://headbutler.com/reviews/local-hero/) - The plot of "Local Hero," made in long-ago 1983, doesn't begin to convey its charm. An oil executive in Houston (Peter Riegert) is sent to a small town on the Scottish coast by his eccentric boss (Burt Lancaster) to buy up everything in sight. Then the oil company will build a giant refinery. Riches are soon on everyone' mind --- in Houston and in Scotland.
- [Weekend Butler: I’m not a Christian. What can Easter mean to me? (It can mean good news!) Holiday Ham or Holiday Lamb. Vivaldi. Handel.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-im-not-a-christian-what-can-easter-mean-to-me-well-good-news-holiday-ham-or-holiday-lamb-vivaldi-handel/) - I’M NOT A CHRISTIAN. WHAT CAN EASTER MEAN FOR ME? (GOOD NEWS) Easter is not my holiday. I believe Jesus was a great spiritual presence, but I don’t believe in the Resurrection, so I’m not saved, I face death without a savior. Not a pleasant thought to contemplate if you fear death. If you’re not
- [Tina Brown: The Diana Chronicles](https://headbutler.com/reviews/diana-chronicles/) - “August 31, 1997,” the book begins. “Paris. The car that sped into the Pont D'Alma Tunnel at twenty-three minutes past midnight was carrying the most famous woman in the world.” Really? I know I rolled over and went back to bed when my then-wife --- who was 45 minutes late to our wedding --- woke up in the middle of the night to watch the Royal Wedding. Sure, Diana was a stunner. But very few men will tell you they want to spend more than a few hours with a bulimic woman of uncertain sanity. No, Diana was a chick fantasy. The death? Another story. A horse-drawn wagon carrying a coffin and an envelope with one word, “Mummy,” had the entire world blubbering. “I still weep when I see clips,” a friend told me yesterday. “And the flowers in front of Buck House always get me.” But there have been so many books. And an excellent movie, “The Queen.” What's left? For most writers starting out on a Diana book in 2005, not much. But Tina Brown has a sharp eye for the telling fact. And her enormous Rolodex led her to sources who never talked before or who trusted her to Get It Right. The result is a reading experience that will take over your life until --- exhausted by unexpected empathy --- you turn the last page. How is this? The end of the story is the most common memory on the planet. What don't we know about this woman? Well, the “engagement ring” that Dodi Fayed bought Diana on the last day of her life --- he was in and out of the jewelry store in “seven minutes, twenty-seven seconds.” That last dinner at the Ritz --- Diana was “quietly weeping in full view of the clientele.” Camilla, on horseback, told Charles, on horseback, the first time they met, “That's a fine animal you have there, Sir.” (A very effective opening line. Observes Brown: “Women who love horses usually love sex.”) How many times did Diana see Charles before their wedding? Thirteen. How often did Charles and Diana make love? Once every three weeks, at best. In the missionary position. When the marriage ended, what did Charles do with the unused wedding presents? Had them piled up in the garden --- and burned. And there's so much more. Do the strange rituals of the Royal Family appeal to you? Are you curious about gossip columnists and photographers? And, most of all, do you get off on the sense of being in the room with real-life celebrities as their lives fall apart? Then “The Diana Chronicles” is an extra-large box of chocolates. [To buy “The Diana Chronicles” from Amazon.com, click here.] But this book is not just the greatest Vanity Fair cover story never written. Brown has a thesis. She doesn't bang you over the head with it --- it develops naturally. Like this: A shy, uneducated, dreamy girl from a dysfunctional family pushes herself into her country's ultimate family. Instead of finding Prince Charming, she finds herself married to a man who sneaks off to his lover every chance he gets. She's desperate for a hug from his mom, which is, of course, the last thing the Queen is able to give her. The marriage turns into the royal version of “A Star Is Born” --- she's going up, he's coming down. Envy, misunderstanding and misery ensue. Which leads to the wrong man, and another, and another, until she bottoms out with Dodi Fayed. “Diana told herself she was looking for love,” Brown writes. “But what she was really seeking was a guy with a Gulfstream.” And the writing! Although the book is very much a narrative, the narrator does not seem like a writer at all --- “The Diana Chronicles” reads like a transcription of a brilliant raconteur. Here is Brown on the Ritz Hotel at summer's end: ...even the more exclusive areas of the hotel --- such as its restaurant, L'Espadon --- have a louche air of rootless extravagance. South American call girls with hirsute operators from emerging markets and rich old ladies with predatory nephews can be seen poring over the wine list under the trompe l'oeil of its opulent ceiling. Dinner for two sets you back $700. Or this, Brown's takeaway of her lunch with Diana in July, 1997: The heads of world-class celebrities literally seem to enlarge. Hillary Clinton's, for example, has grown enormously since she was the mere wife of the governor of Arkansas. It nods when she talks to you, like a balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. The years of limelight so inflamed the circumference of Jackie O's cranium, it seemed her real face must be concealed by an oversized Halloween mask. If you looked into her eyes, you could see her in there, screaming. In these pages, we see Diana in there, screaming, and it makes all the difference. I always thought beneath that thin veneer was another thin veneer; Brown gives us a person. Indeed, she gives us all the people, fully fleshed. And, thus, surprising. Charles is much less of a prick than you may have thought. And Prince Philip, a consistent dunce in “The Queen”, does something quite magnificent at Diana's funeral. Are there dead spots? Diana's childhood goes on and on. And the last few paragraphs made me uneasy --- I'm not at all sure Diana's sons are her “legacy”. But those are small quibbles. Much more memorable is the intelligent conversation you have with a book like this --- for what is a more interactive experience than a smartly written book? I sat on my window seat, book in hand, and read through the morning, was handed a sandwich, read on through the afternoon, ignored the child, day becoming night, the air cooler now, turning the pages faster, feeling the blood churn, wanting to shout no, no, don't...don't, and then the abreaction, the reliving of the funeral and the tears we shed for ourselves as much as for Diana --- yeah, the day I read “The Diana Chronicles” was a good one. And the thing was, when I started reading, I didn't give a damn.
- [Weekend Butler: Life happens through people.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-life-happens-through-people/) - Life happens through people. And when it doesn’t? A character test begins. You grind it out. You look to the sky and ask for help. That was March for me. And then… life rebooted. A friend was asked to do a project. It wasn’t right for her. She flipped it to me, and it’s just
- [Vivaldi “Gloria” and Handel “Dixit Dominus”](https://headbutler.com/reviews/vivaldi-gloria-and-handel-dixit-dominus/) - It’s been a hard sell, but I’m slowly convincing the child that classical composers were the rock stars of their time. That’s certainly true of Vivaldi and Handel, which is why John Eliot Gardiner smartly had the Monteverdi Choir release Vivaldi's "Gloria" and Handel's "Dixit Dominus" on a single disc. Here you get the music of two great showmen --- say: the seventeenth century versions of The Who doing “Tommy” and The Beatles releasing “Sgt. Pepper.” That is, killer harmonies, dazzling melodies and an overt sense of exaltation. High-energy, feel good music. And the inventiveness never lags. [To buy the Vivaldi/Handel CD from Amazon.com, click here. To buy the MP3 download of the Vivaldi/Handel CD from Amazon.com, click here.] If you’ve read my piece about Vivaldi’s Sacred Music, you know the story: a famous composer and choirmaster dies poor and out of fashion, and his music is largely forgotten for two centuries. Then, in the 1920s, 300 concertos, 18 operas and 100 vocal-instrumental pieces turn up, among them the “Gloria.” Eventually every restaurant and Four Seasons Hotel is playing his “Four Seasons,”and the “Gloria” joins the repertoire of popular choral works. Of the two composers, Handel was the bigger star --- but then, he was less interested in church music than in commercial opera. He could crank out a score in two weeks; like a pop composer, he knew exactly how to manipulate an audience. This is why it’s no surprise that his “Messiah” --- which Handel wrote in just 24 days --- is the world’s best-known piece of choral music. Handel knew what he accomplished even before its premiere; he sobbed after finishing the “Hallelujah” chorus. “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God himself.” Handel’s “Dixit Dominus” is as crisp as a morning in Heaven. It’s loud, brassy, self-assured the point of preening. Handel knew fewer tricks than, say, Bach, but he knew just when to pull them out of his hat. Watch and listen: Of the two choral works, I have deeper affection for the Vivaldi “Gloria” --- in part because I once played the attention-getting C-trumpet solo in a school concert, but more for its sheer excitement. The version of the “Gloria in excelis deo” I’ve chosen for you to watch and listen to isn’t from the Gardiner recording. And it’s done at a tempo far above the speed limit. The point here is that it can accommodate speed --- and while it may kill the musicians, it can surely thrill a crowd. In their shiny precision, both the Vivaldi and the Handel are among the most exciting choral pieces I know. Cheap thrills? Probably. But when you’re looking for music that jacks you up, shows you hope and suggests glory ahead, rousing crowd-pleasers are just what you want.
- [John Coltrane: My Favorite Things](https://headbutler.com/reviews/john-coltrane-my-favorite-things/) - Note from a reader: They used to have what was called The Famous Ballroom in Baltimore, where, for $3, you could go any Sunday afternoon and see some of the greatest jazz musicians of that time. It was BYOB, and the place held probably 600 people, at big tables --- it was a great way to spend a Sunday. When Coltrane was there, for the first time since I'd been going, the line outside went around the block. The place was jammed as Trane began, accompanied by Pharaoh Sanders, Alice Coltrane, Rashied Ali, and I can't remember who else was in the band. By the second set, the ballroom was half empty. This was not music for this audience. Me, I stood up the whole time, transfixed and entranced. I was awakened in a way, that day, and I've never been the same since. You might say I saw God. ===================== We have all heard Julie Andrews sing “My Favorite Things” --- “Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens/Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens/Brown paper packages tied up with strings/These are a few of my favorite things” --- so often that only hard-core devotees of “The Sound of Music” can stand it. But in 1959, the Rodgers and Hammerstein song and the Broadway musical were new. A year later, when John Coltrane recorded an album featuring the song and named after it it, most Americans had never heard it. Why should you care about a four-song CD of some very familiar songs --- “My Favorite Things” is almost 14 minutes, “Summertime” is 11, with just enough space on the album for “But Not for Me” and “Every Time We Say Goodbye?” Because it is revolutionary but accessible. Innovative but gorgeous. Great for close listening, a cool choice for dinner music. A career peak when Coltrane’s career was finally catching fire. [To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.] And because the creator --- who would go on to record the incandescent A Love Supreme --- knew its worth: “my favorite piece of all those I’ve recorded.” His reason: “I don’t think I would like to do it over in any way, whereas all the other discs I’ve made could have been improved in some details. This waltz is fantastic: when you play it slowly; it has an element of gospel that’s not at all displeasing; when you play it quickly, it possesses other undeniable qualities. It’s very interesting to discover a terrain that renews itself according to the impulse you give it.” There’s a way of talking about “My Favorite Things” which will be of interest to musicologists --- all two of you. It’s about Coltrane’s abandonment of bebop for the modal approach that Miles Davis put to gorgeous use in Kind of Blue, the best-selling jazz record of all time. What it means: no more noisy, discordant improvisation, no more bleats and honks. Instead, you get melody --- and then improvisations on melody. Bottom line: It’s easier listening, thus easier for non-musicologists to enjoy. The title song, for instance. The cymbals at the start say: important, stately, pay attention. Then Coltrane enters, playing soprano sax with wit and warmth, and, if it’s not too strong, love. I say this because love was definitely in the air during the three days it took to record “My Favorite Things.” Coltrane was playing with his new quartet, an all-star group featuring McCoy Tyner (piano), Elvin Jones (drums) and Steve Davis (bass). A few years earlier, he had, finally, kicked his heroin addiction and made a profound connection: “I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life. At that time, in gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music. I feel this has been granted through His grace.” He felt light, free, ready to exult. And he does, taking a simple song and turning it into an Eastern dance. “My Favorite Things” was released as a single. It became a hit. So did the album: 50,000 copies sold during 1961. And Down Beat Magazine's editors named Coltrane Jazzman of the Year. They weren’t wrong. Bonus Video
- [Weekend Butler: The bubble bursts for Will Smith Enterprises. A 6-ingredient chicken. Gorgeous music.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-the-bubble-bursts-for-will-smith-enterprises-a-6-ingredient-chicken-gorgeous-music/) - THE BUBBLE BURSTS FOR WILL SMITH ENTERPRISES Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars. Much ink has been spilled on this breach of Oscar etiquette. Some wondered why Smith wasn’t arrested for assault. Some cheered him for standing up for his wife. I see two simpler explanations. One comes from his past, when he
- [Once](https://headbutler.com/reviews/once/) - There are movies that friends tell you about, and if those friends are forceful enough or more people make the same recommendation, you rouse yourself and buy a ticket, and if the movie turns out to be terrific, the next thing you know you're telling everyone about a film they just have to see. This is called “buzz,” and it's a very good thing indeed --- media companies hire consultants, often for impressive sums, to create that initial spark. But “Once” starred Glen Hansard, lead singer of a terrific Irish band --- The Frames --- that's sadly unappreciated outside of Ireland. His co-star was Markéta Irglová, a 17-year-old Czech high school student who had never acted before. And it was filmed, in 17 days, for $150,000. For the longest time, the future of “Once” looked bleak: straight to DVD. Then the film was invited to Sundance. It won the Audience Award. Fox Searchlight bought it. And as “Once” went out into the world, audiences took to it like a beautiful orphan --- they cherished it and made it a cause. That's how I came to see it; many people prodded me. What they knew: I'm a sucker for emotion that feels authentic, so I was absolutely enchanted by this little film. [To buy the DVD from Amazon, click here. To rent the video stream and watch it now, click here.] And I do mean little. He's a singer. His girlfriend has left him. He'd like to make a record and get out of Dublin. Right now, he repairs vacuum cleaners and sings on the streets. Her situation's just as dim. She may dream of music, but she's in an alien culture, separated from her husband; she sells flowers and cleans houses to support her kid and mother. He and She (they are nameless) get together to make music; they become collaborators and friends, their songs propelling the plot. But the big question --- for the audience, anyway --- isn't how their demo tape will be received. It's whether they'll become lovers. [To buy the soundtrack CD from Amazon, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.] “Two people, a few instruments, 88 minutes and not a single false note,” A.O. Scott wrote in The New York Times. And what people! At the start of the movie, Markéta Irglová seemed like her character: a young woman of modest charms and uncertain talent. By the end, I was convinced she was the most beautiful woman in the world, a great talent and a deep soul. Love? I was besotted. And Glen Hansard was the ultimate admirable guy: smart, resourceful, realistic, emotionally aware. And what music! Hansard started strumming his guitar, and I got weepy. Then he started singing, slow as a nursery lullaby: I...don't...know....you But...I....want...you All...the...more...for...that Words...fall...through...me And...always...fool...me There are, I think, only two responses to feelings this directly expressed: cynicism and acceptance. Friends, this cynic was overcome: I blubbered. And I wasn't the only one. You may have heard some of the soundtrack; it pops up on better radio stations. If it's considerably more “professional” than the film, there are reasons. Some of the songs were among the greater hits of The Frames. Hansard and Irglová had recorded a CD together. And the film's director, John Carney, was savvy about music --- he had once played bass in The Frames. Though this is music like no other --- not folk, not rock, mostly just two people literally singing their hearts out --- it's not just for emotional slobs like me. You can listen to it as you work. You can play it at dinner. It's great for a quiet evening. And, if you must, you can cry --- for happy. To buy the soundtrack of “Once” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “The Swell Season” (by Markéta Irglová and Glen Hansard) from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “The Cost” (by The Frames) from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “Fitzcaraldo” (by The Frames) from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Academy Awards Special: Jessica Chastain cheered Tammy Faye Bakker's "radical acts of love." When I profiled the Bakkers for Vanity Fair, I may have met another Tammy Faye. Here's my piece...](https://headbutler.com/reviews/academy-awards-special-jessica-chastain-cheered-tammy-faye-bakkers-radical-acts-of-love-i-profiled-the-bakkers-for-vanity-fair-heres-my-piece/) - For 99.99% of Oscar viewers, the takeaway moment was Will Smith bitch-slapping Chris Rock. I may have been among a tiny minority of viewers who were also struck by Jessica Chastain’s acceptance speech for winning Best Actress as Tammy Faye Bakker in “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.” This is what jumped out at me from
- [Akira Kurosawa: Something Like An Autobiography](https://headbutler.com/reviews/something-autobiography/) - You've loved so many of his movies. Star Wars, of course. The Magnificent Seven. That first great Clint Eastwood western, A Fistful of Dollars. And, most recently, A Bug's Life. No, Akira Kurosawa didn't really direct those movies. But he wrote and directed the films that inspired other directors to make those movies. ("Inspired" is polite; in some cases, the films other directors made were close copies of Kurosawa's stories and themes.) And the films that Kurosawa did make --- Rashomon and The Seven Samurai, most notably --- are sufficiently miraculous for critics and audiences alike to regard him as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. We say we read the memoirs of prominent men and women because we want to understand them better. But that's just part of the attraction. We are also, I thinking, looking for clues. If they became famous and important and maybe even rich, perhaps we can pick up a trick or two from their experience --- it's just a matter of cracking the code, of getting beyond the cliches about "hard work" and "good luck."
- [Reunion](https://headbutler.com/reviews/reunion/) - Claire Keegan’s exceptional novel, Small Things Like These, ends abruptly on page 128. Her other novel, Foster, says all it needs to in 96 pages. And now I come to praise “Reunion,” by Fred Uhlman, which had me holding my breath for most of its 112 pages. [To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here.]
- [Weekend Butler: It's always something.  Calm.com. The Stoics. A Russian poet. Dreamy music. And something completely different.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-its-always-something-calm-com-the-stoics-a-russian-poet-dreamy-music-and-something-completely-different/) - It’s always something. With wisdom gained from the focus group --- thanks again, all --- I completed the novel. Michael Tonello was enthusiastic about my adaptation of Bringing Home the Birkin. And I was contacted about a collaboration I’d actually enjoy. In the same period, a painful personal reversal. And the threat of a lawsuit
- ["Daily Rituals: How Artists Work” and "Daily Rituals: Women at Work"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/daily-rituals-how-artists-work-and-daily-rituals-women-at-work/) - These books are more relevant today than when they were published, and for the simplest of reasons --- artists don't go to offices. Since 2020, that's been true of many of us. We work from home, and when we're polled about returning to the office, we fight even the hybrid-model. Is there anything we can
- [Manuka Honey](https://headbutler.com/reviews/manuka-honey/) - Beyond fighting flu, this honey is a cough remedy and a balm for sore throats. It relieves sinusitis. Its high antimicrobial content makes it a favored treatment for gastritis. Its anti-bacterial power is effective in other stomach ailments. It is said to reduce gingivitis. It has a role in reducing high cholesterol. And in 2010, manuka honey was approved by the National Cancer Institute to treat inflammation of the esophagus because of chemotherapy.
- [Chants of a Lifetime: Searching for a Heart of Gold](https://headbutler.com/reviews/chants-lifetime-searching-heart-gold/) - I don’t lose books. I lost this one. A few years ago, I bought “Chants of a Lifetime” in Los Angeles, got on the plane, read a few chapters, put it aside and walked off the plane without it. I realized right away I didn’t have it. But I didn’t go back for it. You read books when you’re ready for them. Clearly I wasn’t ready for the memoir of a desperately unhappy kid who falls in love with Neem Karoli Baba, finds ultimate happiness through his guru, loses it and regains it by chanting the names of God in a language he doesn’t understand. What changed for me? First is an echo of a decades-ago conversation I had with the great short story writer Andre Dubus. I asked him why he went to Mass every day. He said; “Because if Ronald Reagan defines ultimate reality, I'd have to shoot myself!” That’s pretty much how I have come to feel about most of what now passes for news: If this is reality, I need to find something else. Better believe I have looked hard. And found lots of wisdom. But nothing grabbed me, shook me, calmed me until I encountered the music of Krishna Das. For the last few years, my wife and I have been going to his evenings at a church on the West Side. [The videos on my piece about Heart as Wide as the World were made there.] I am so not a chanter, so not a joiner, so not a seeker after a guru. But I have cherished these evenings. Last year, we brought the child, who complained briefly, then drifted into a beatific snooze. And now I find I’m noticing a convergence of my head with others. A friend and I were talking about the music in heavy rotation in our lives. I said I was mostly listening to Krishna Das. Not just "Heart as Wide as the World,” but now, even more, “Greatest Hits of the Kali Yuga.” To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. For the MP3 download. click here.] “I don’t know why,” I said, “but I feel Krishna Das helps me deal with a lot of the shit that’s in my way.” “You and a lot of people,” she said, to my great surprise. So it seemed like maybe this was the time for me to read “Chants of a Lifetime: Searching for a Heart of Gold.” [To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] It starts with Krishna Das --- the former Jeffrey Kagel, from and of Long Island --- about to return to America. He never thought this would happen; he’d hoped to stay with his guru forever. Now he was being sent back. I blurted out in anguish, 'Maharaj-ji! How can I serve you in America?' He looked at me with mock disgust and said, 'What is this? If you ask how you should serve, then it is no longer service. Do what you want.' I couldn't believe my ears. How could doing what I wanted to do be of service to him? I didn't have that kind of faith. I just sat there, stunned. Then after a minute or so he looked over at me, smiling sweetly, and asked, 'So, how will you serve me?' 'My mind was blank. It was time for me to leave for Delhi, to catch the plane back to the States. He was looking at me and laughing. I bent down and touched his feet for the last time and when I looked up he, he was beaming at me, 'So, how will you serve me in America?' I felt like I was moving in a dream. I floated across the courtyard and bowed to him one more time from a distance. As I did, the words came to me, 'I will sing to you in America.' This memoir is about getting to that moment, blowing it (a crack addiction), recovering, building a following for Hindu chanting, blowing it again (in 2002, Krishna Das pled guilty to a federal charge of money laundering and was sentenced to three years probation and six months house arrest), and moving on to bigger audiences and greater CD sales. It’s the usual story: an angel with a dirty face. Just like you. Just like me. Only here the contrasts are all in High Def. I’m not much for reading about someone else’s God-intoxication. I prefer teaching stories, anecdotes, dish --- an adventure story --- punctuated by killer one-liners. By this standard, “Chants” is a classic. It starts with Kagel’s hilarious encounter with the Army physical. Quickly serves up a picture of Kagel in his bearded, long-haired Jesus moment. And then delivers the guru, the embodiment of divine love. But this book does not read “holy.” Consider this, on his guru: He didn’t teach with words. He’d shine light on me like the sun, and I’d bloom. When the clouds came between us, I saw that they were my own clouds. Then I would sit there, freaking out, ‘What the fuck! I can’t do anything about this.’ And in the end? “I feel like I'm the same jerk I always was,” Krishna Das writes, “but I don't think about myself as much as I used to.” For most of the child’s life, my wife has put her to bed with a lecture called “Bore Me to Sleep." Exports, the Bill of Rights, what to visit in a dozen countries --- my wife has developed quite the repertoire. My wife is away for a few days, so the bedtime boredom ritual has fallen to me. Last night, my first on the job, I told stories. I rubbed her back. Nothing worked. In desperation, I reached for this book and began to read. After a few minutes, the child asked me to stop. “Too interesting," she said. Out of the mouths of babes… =========== BONUS VIDEO
- [Claudio Monteverdi: Vespers of the Blessed Virgin (Vespro Della Beata Vergine)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/vespers-blessed-virgin-vespro-della-beata-vergine/) - Quick: Name two great pieces of choral music that were created as job applications. "The B Minor Mass" by Bach? Yes. The other is harder: Vespro Della Beata Vergine (Vespers of the Blessed Virgin), which Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) sent to the Pope in 1610, hoping to get a plum job in Rome. Extra point question: Which composer got a job? Only Bach. But weep not for Monteverdi. In 1612, he was hired --- for 300 ducats a year --- as maestro di cappella at the basilica of St. Mark in Venice. Four years later, he was honored with a 200 ducat raise. And he kept that distinguished job for an extraordinary 33 years until his death in 1643. 2010 was the 400th anniversary of music that is not only a great, crowd-pleasing performance piece, it’s as modern as Jay-Z. That’s because Monteverdi engineered a revolution in music. Starting with his 1607 opera, “L’Orfeo,” he abandoned the conventions of Renaissance polyphony --- which had all the voices projecting equally, in a kind of Phil Spector wall of sound --- and moved individual singers to the foreground. Suddenly a singer was a character, and the words he sang described emotions unique to him. Choral music became drama. The instruments became the backup band; and the chorus became backup singers. And Renaissance music segued into the Baroque. If you listen closely, you can hear how the “Vespers” foreshadow Handel’s “Messiah” and the “St. Matthew Passion” of Bach. [To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.] L’Arpeggiata is a French-based ensemble created by Christina Pluhar, an Austrian-born harpist and lutenist. She has a modern, free-lance approach to casting; singers briefly become part of her group because they have something to offer for specific pieces. And she has a lighter touch than some highly praised conductors. Here is the piece, as recorded by L’Arpeggiata, in its entirety. The first few minutes should excite and console. I'm feeling more like myself already.
- [Bach: Mass in B minor](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bach-mass-b-minor/) - Bach’s B Minor Mass was never played in his lifetime, but once it was discovered a century or so later, it was an object of awe. Beethoven kept a picture of Bach on his desk. Mozart discovered him late, but made up for it with the intensity of his admiration. And Haydn made sure to get his own copy of the score. And musicologists? No one I’ve read has a dissenting opinion: The Bach Mass in B Minor is the most exalted example of religious devotion in all of Western music. Period. As we have endlessly heard, Bach’s innate talent was immense. As a composer, he could, and did, produce a cantata a week. As a musician, it was said that he could play an organ better with his feet than others could with their hands. Beyond talent, though, there are two circumstances that have helped an amateur like me develop a deeper appreciation of this piece. First is that Bach did not --- like, say, Mozart writing the Requiem --- create the Mass in a single, unified period of composition. It’s a gathering of pieces he had written over the years, and a shrewd one at that, exploring every avenue of polyphony. The other is that Bach completed the Mass when he was totally blind, with death looming. It’s cheesy to consider a piece of music as a job application, but you can’t help thinking that Bach was consciously writing a piece that God would accept as his final offering. Perhaps that is why Bach, though a Lutheran, wrote a full formal Catholic mass here --- music that could never be performed in his own church. Some critics are partial to the recording by Marc Minkowski and the Musiciens du Louvre. I can understand why. Instead of a choir, Minkowski uses ten soloists; you get a purity that multiple voices can’t produce. But I’ve been listening to the Robert Shaw recording for years. Shaw conducted the piece hundreds of times; it was in his blood by the time he recorded it. [To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. The MP3 download is here.] An Amazon reviewer has a lovely story about Shaw and the Mass. In his authorized biography, "Dear People," written by Joseph Musselman (a former Shaw chorister who later achieved his own musical reknown as a choral music practitioner), there is a wealth of anecdotes about how his performances of this work could reduce folks to tears, from Alaskan Aleuts to college kids everywhere to Soviet apparatchiks at the height of the Cold War. One of the most telling anecdotes regarding his mastery, as well as his unassuming modesty in the face of it all, occurred after a performance that must have really jelled. Following the concluding "Dona Nobis Pacem" of the Mass, Shaw left the podium and darted behind the curtain, awaiting the applause. He waited, and waited some more. Finally, not understanding why it was that the applause never arrived, he poked his head out from behind the curtain, only to find both the audience and the musicians facing each other and bawling their eyes out from what must have been a rendering of "Dona Nobis Pacem" for all time, in terms of its ability to open these tear-duct floodgates. Shaw’s version is not on YouTube, but these samples of the Mass are. First, the Kyrie eleison…. Et resurrexit --- He is reborn. Trumpets! Strings! Tympani! Flutes! And, finally, Dona Nobis Pacem.... Convincing, isn't it?
- [Weekend Butler: A totally relevant comedy to stream. Asking for a friend: do you know this woman? Avoid Andy Warhol. A complicated love story. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-a-totally-relevant-comedy-to-stream-asking-for-a-friend-do-you-know-this-woman-avoid-andy-warhol-a-complicated-love-story-and-more/) - WEEKEND MOVIE: “THE DEATH OF STALIN” This would be the ideal weekend to stream a movie about Russia. A 2017 movie that was playing to sold-out crowds in Moscow before it was banned. A comedy, even. Well, a very dark comedy, with a flawless cast. It begins with music. In 1953, a Moscow orchestra performs
- [The Empathy Diaries: A Memoir](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-empathy-diaries-a-memoir/) - Sherry Turkle, Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT, has spent decades studying the impact of digital technology on our lives and culture. She’s written groundbreaking books about the ways technology has changed our relationships. How she created this field at an institution hostile to women and her innovative research is
- [OXO 3-Blade Tabletop Spiralizer](https://headbutler.com/reviews/oxo-3-blade-tabletop-spiralizer/) - I’m the guy who loves zucchini, buys more than he should, and watches it become a science experiment in his refrigerator. Correction: I used to be that guy. Now I have a Good Grips Tabletop Spiralizer, and my zucchini doesn’t have a chance to molder --- it becomes pasta. With many fewer carbs than real
- [Winter holiday edition: This week's heroes. Helping Ukraine. A NYC vigil. A few suggestions.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/winter-holiday-edition-heroes-and-heroines-helping-ukraine-a-nyc-vigil-a-few-suggestions/) - Image: colors of the Ukraine flag beamed on the Coliseum GONE FISHING From a Times interview with a Yale professor who teaches "Psychology and the Good Life," one of the school’s most popular courses: I know the signs of burnout. It’s not like one morning you wake up, and you’re burnt. You’re noticing more emotional
- [Richard Rothman: Town of C](https://headbutler.com/reviews/richard-rothman-town-of-c/) - Richard Rothman doesn’t do anything in half-measures. For “Redwood Saw,” his first book of photographs, he left New York for Northern California’s ancient old-growth forests. There are splendid hotels and restaurants near those forests. Rothman pitched a tent and, with patience that rivaled the slow growth of the trees, made formal, intricate portraits of the
- [I've finished a draft of my novel. I could use your help. Want to read it and comment?](https://headbutler.com/reviews/ive-finished-a-draft-of-my-novel-i-could-use-your-help-want-to-read-it-and-comment/) - Almost every product in America is presented to a focus group before it hits the market. Books aren’t. This baffles me. Do writers really not want to know their work is flawed until critics savage their books and Amazon customers pelt them with one-star reviews? Or is it something simpler: Writers consider themselves “artists,” which
- [Joan Didion: Let Me Tell You What I Mean](https://headbutler.com/reviews/joan-didion-let-me-tell-you-what-i-mean/) - Joan Didion died on December 23, 2021. Sanctification was instant, and not surprising --- Didion was an icon for discerning readers, feminists, and those who discovered her more recently in her grief memoirs, The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights, and a documentary, Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold. “Let Me Tell You
- [Weekend Butler: Is it possible that the problem with almost everything is...a three-letter word? I have great tickets I can't use: want them? And free tickets to a Toni Morrison event. And Sondheim, Glück, Dylan, and more protein](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-is-it-possible-that-the-problem-with-almost-everything-is-a-three-letter-word-i-have-great-tickets-i-cant-use-want-them-and-free-tickets-to-a-toni-morrison-event-and-sondheim/) - IS IT POSSIBLE THE PROBLEM WITH PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING WRONG IS… A THREE-LETTER WORD? I was small and smart and mouthy --- a bully magnet --- so I learned early to mistrust and fear the male of the species. I thought it was just me, but as I grew older and wrote reams of journalism,
- [Weekend Butler: Reasons to be cheerful. A jaw-dropping weather report. The funniest Australian comedy. A shocking tweet. Two short books. Women who are "red wine and blue."](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-reasons-to-be-cheerful-a-jaw-dropping-weather-report-the-funniest-australian-comedy-a-shocking-tweet-women-who-are-red-wine-and-blue/) - THE QUESTION OF THE WEEK: WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE? Let’s start with a must-watch video: Ryan Marshall, from Denver’s ABC TV station, stands in a snowstorm and melts down. (Fact check: he’s John Crist, a comedian, and this is from 2020, but it’s still a pertinent question.) It's pertinent because, yet again,
- [Small Things Like These](https://headbutler.com/reviews/small-things-like-these/) - The novel ends abruptly… on page 128. A full stop in mid-stride. This is not laziness or an unfortunate editorial decision. It’s because what happens next is for you to think about. And, guaranteed, you will think about it. Who is Claire Keegan? A few years ago, this Irish writer won the Davy Byrnes Award
- [Junior Wells](https://headbutler.com/reviews/hoodoo-man-blues/) - He was making $1.50 a week on a soda truck in West Memphis to earn the money for a harmonica. But it cost $2. The pawnshop owner walked away from the counter for a moment, so he stole it. Got arrested. Appeared before the judge. “Why did you do it?” “I had to have that harp.” “Yes? Can you play it?” He took the harmonica and let loose. “Here's the 50 cents you need,” the judge said. “Case dismissed.” Amos Wells, Jr., aged 12, was on his way. By 14, he was in Chicago, sitting in with blues legends and earning the nickname “Junior.” Even as a teen, he had a distinctive style --- when you least expected it, his harmonica produced a blast, just as his singing was punctuated by the occasional yelp. And he instinctively knew that the blues was best as raunchy, sexy music, and that it held dark secrets about the midnight politics between men and women. [To buy "Hoodoo Man Blues" from Amazon, click here. To buy the MP3 download, click here.] He looked the part of a bluesman. Sharkskin suit, slicked hair, sharp hat, cigarette. One night, at a club, he handed a friend a wad of cash to hold while he played --- he couldn't abide an unsightly bulge in his clothes. Another night, a friend and his wife were threatened by some drunk jerk. Junior jumped off the stage and pointed a pistol at the jerk, as his friends wondered, “Where did he hide that gun in his skintight suit?” He was a character. In some clubs, when his band started to play, Junior was at the bar, which had been rigged with a remote mike so he could perform without having to leave his drink. On the bandstand, his tools awaited: harps in seven keys. And, always, a bottle of gin. Hoodoo Man Blues, his first record, and his best, was made in 1965. Buddy Guy --- credited, for contractual reasons, as “Friendly Chap” --- plays guitar. Jack Myers plays bass, Billy Warren is on drums. Giants, all. If they sound as if they're in a club, that's deliberate; this is pure Chicago blues, raw as the liquor served in those joints and, in the slower numbers, smooth as the lines of sharp-dressed men working to seduce foxy women. I could run down the song list and marvel at the rich variety of music, but the big picture is all that matters: These are the definitive versions of twelve classic songs. Junior's harp is as assertive as a dog in heat; his voice is slick and knowing. Listen, say, to an overdone song like "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" --- it's so down and dirty you want to check the lock on your daughter's window. When Junior died, at 63, he was laid out in a royal blue suit and wide-brimmed hat. In his coffin: harmonicas in every key and a pint of Tanqueray. Awesome, don't you think? But not nearly as awesome as “Hoodoo Man Blues,” a recording that has given joy to this listener for four decades now, a recording that belongs in the collection of anyone who claims to love music.
- [Valentine's Day 2022: Most years it's optional. Not this year.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/valentines-day-2022-most-years-its-optional-not-this-year/) - It's a manufactured holiday, designed to benefit restaurants, florists, and Hallmark cards. If you haven't been clear about your affections for 364 days, this one day won't make a difference. And "can't buy me love." In year three of a pandemic, only Scrooge could feel that way. This year, the wise celebrate every possible blessing.
- [Weekend Butler: Warm up with a thriller in Paris. A film masterpiece. The importance of paying attention. Snark from (yes!) Mahatma Gandhi. 3:54 of joyous exercise. Should married couples live apart? A unicorn event, and more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-warm-up-with-a-thriller-in-paris-a-film-masterpiece-the-importance-of-paying-attention-snark-from-yes-mahatma-gandhi-354-of-joyous-exercise-should-married-couples-live-apart/) - SHOPPING ON AMAZON: As an Amazon Associate, I earn a modest commission from qualifying purchases. How does that work? You start on Butler, buy something on Amazon --- or Whole Foods --- and Butler gets a commission. And not just on the item reviewed. Anything you buy during a session that starts with a click
- [Sundays and Cybéle](https://headbutler.com/reviews/sundays-and-cybele/) - Odds are excellent that you’ve never heard of this movie. But if you’ve seen it, there is no way you've forgotten how you felt as you saw it. I had that experience 55 years ago, and my eyes get misty every time I think of it. And I think of it often: “Sundays and Cybéle” is on my all-time Top 10 list.
- [Desperate Characters](https://headbutler.com/reviews/desperate-characters/) - Brooklyn is the new chic place to live in New York. Large apartments in ancient brownstones on tree-lined streets, neighborhood restaurants with unpretentious menus, and, most of all, a community of smart young people who both consume and create --- Brooklyn is like Greenwich Village forty years ago. And, compared to Manhattan, it's cheap. Paula Fox got there --- in fiction, anyway --- in 1970. Sophie and Otto Bentwood may be pioneers, but they don't live that way. On their table: “slices of French bread, an earthenware casserole filled with sauteed chicken livers, peeled and sliced tomatoes.” The bookcases are filled with “the complete works of Goethe and two shelves of French poets.” The floors are cedar. Over dinner, Sophie notices that a stray cat has returned. She gives it some milk. And is rewarded for her kindness with a nasty bite on the hand. Blood gushes. Her hand swells. The pain is intense. And yet Sophie makes no move to go to a hospital and get a rabies shot. In fact, she doesn't get to the hospital until page 109 of this 156-page novel. Why not? Because the bite is a kind of metaphor for America in the throes of the Vietnam War, though the war is never directly named. And the bite is a metaphor for this marriage, which is more troubled than it appears.
- [Sherryl Sachs: Costume Jewelry from her "Gilded Age" collection](https://headbutler.com/reviews/sherryl-sachs-costume-jewelry-from-her-gilded-age-collection/) - Here’s the first paragraph of The Times review: "Julian Fellowes chased his new series, “The Gilded Age,” for a decade. Call it his white whale. On HBO, you can watch it drag him and a large, talented cast beneath the waves." On Facebook, the reviews are positive — whatever they think about the scripts, viewers
- [Weekend Butler: Chilly? What to watch, what to cook. Does Wordle make you smarter?  A great sports book. And...Edith Wharton's X-rated story. (Yes. Really)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-chilly-what-to-watch-what-to-cook-does-wordle-make-you-smarter-a-great-sports-book-and-edith-whartons-x-rated-story-yes-really/) - IMAGE: Joni Mitchell and David Hockney --- “DO YOU NEED ANYTHING? HOW CAN I HELP? WHAT CAN I DO?” Chilly? I couldn’t get the bedroom heat to top 60 degrees. And the forecast adds snow to the days ahead. Warmth will have to be interior --- we’ll have to create it. Start with meals. Soup
- [Víkingur Ólafsson: Mozart & Contemporaries](https://headbutler.com/reviews/vikingur-olafsson-mozart-contemporaries/) - When I wrote about Víkingur Ólafsson in 2021, it was to praise his recording of Philip Glass piano pieces. For Head Butler readers, who mostly had never heard of him, that CD was a revelation. Philip Glass: Piano Works became a popular addition to many home playlists. It was reasonable to believe his fans would
- [Bonsai Birch Tree Table Light](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bonsai-birch-tree-table-light/) - Hard as it is for me to believe, I was a guest at a Sunday Lunch. Really, I’d forgotten they existed. Or that there was any daytime activity that might merit pants that required a belt. For table presents --- not necessary, but at this point, any social occasion is a special occasion --- I
- [Weekend Butler: Feeling lucky. Must-see weekend movies. Cannabis prevents COVID? Nancy Pelosi's 1/6 "Lost and Found." Best slippers for women. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-6/) - SHOPPING ON AMAZON: As an Amazon Associate, I earn a modest commission from qualifying purchases. How does that work? You start on Butler, buy something on Amazon --- or Whole Foods --- and Butler gets a commission. And not just on the item reviewed. Anything you buy during a session that starts with a click
- [The Adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Thief](https://headbutler.com/reviews/extraordinary-adventures-arsene-lupin/) - Arsene Lupin --- you know him not, but to generations of European readers he was the French Sherlock Holmes. Well, better than the Brit detective. Holmes was on the side of the law, a stodgy enterprise. But Lupin was a burglar. A "gentleman" burglar. A burglar with wit and style. It was a thrill to watch him work.
- [Weekend Butler: Novak Djokovic, Bob Saget, 4-star Weekend Movie, Want to work at JP Morgan? and more](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-novak-djokovic-bob-saget-4-star-weekend-movie-want-to-work-at-jp-morgan-and-more/) - SHOPPING ON AMAZON: As an Amazon Associate, I earn a modest commission from qualifying purchases. How does that work? You start on Butler, buy something on Amazon --- or Whole Foods --- and Butler gets a commission. And not just on the item reviewed. Anything you buy during a session that starts with a click
- [Collage: a fun and revelatory activity, especially when work is remote, school is virtual, and cabin fever lurks.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/collage-a-fun-and-revelatory-activity-especially-when-work-is-remote-school-is-virtual-and-cabin-fever-lurks/) - GUEST BUTLER TURNER HOUSTON is a writer, photographer, and artist. She had a career as art director and an executive producer of video and computer software and web properties, working at the National Geographic Society, Discovery Communications, American Online, and the Walt Disney Studios among other organizations. In 2014, she retired to devote herself to
- [Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bad-blood-secrets-and-lies-in-a-silicon-valley-startup/) - When I first heard of Theranos around 2012, I instantly smelled a rat: former Secretaries of State George Shultz and Henry Kissinger, and General James “Mad Dog” Mattis served on its board. Why would a company with a purported mission to cure disease and save lives have multiple trained killers and war criminals on its board, but zero actual scientists? It would be like the board of Disney being composed entirely of porn producers. It made no sense. So I wasn’t too keen on reading the book when it came out. Why delve into another sordid tale of Silicon Valley greed, excess, and VC idiocy? I felt as if the basic arc of the narrative was pretty clear. In fact, the book is much deeper than that, and the tale far more sordid than I had imagined. It’s about vain, greedy, ruthless, mediocre people—namely, Elizabeth Holmes and then-boyfriend Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani—fooling others by appealing to their vanity and greed. It’s about a young woman with big, unblinking blue eyes and a faux baritone seducing a phalanx of older, more powerful men.
- [Weekend Butler: 2022 thoughts, prayers, fears... and resolve. Must-see weekend movie. A tasty condiment. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-2022-thoughts-prayers-fears-and-solve-must-see-weekend-movie-a-tasty-condiment-and-more/) - SURVIVING/ENDURING THE PANDEMIC: A checklist, again. WELCOME TO 2022: THOUGHTS, PRAYERS, FEARS...AND RESOLVE. From R, a close friend and Butler reader: "I have noticed that your blog is often about self-improvement. I guess that is natural when we live in an era where we have so little control over our external environment, like looming climate
- [Letter from the Editor: Head Butler wants to be your booster shot.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/year-end-letter-from-the-editor-head-butler-wants-to-be-your-booster-shot/) - Last week, I had a reason to write in my calendar --- I was invited to a dinner party with notable guests in smart clothes, the sort of invitation that used to come my way with some frequency and stopped completely in March of 2020. Scorn these Society events if you like; I was looking
- [Butler's Holiday Break: I’d light a fire, pour a tumbler of bourbon -- wearing a silk robe and monogrammed slippers, like in old movies --- and wallow in these books.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/12085/) - SPECIAL DISPATCH: ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU, 1931 – 2021 Mary Wald has been the unofficial press coordinator for the Nobel Peace Prize laureates for more than two decades. How well did she know Archbishop Tutu? Here's the start of her must-read remembrance: The last time I saw Archbishop Tutu, we sat together on the deck of
- [My first essential purchase for the new year: Room Humidifiers](https://headbutler.com/reviews/my-first-essential-purchase-for-the-new-year-room-humidifiers/) - Here we go again. Winter. Living/working from home. Not going out much. Not seeing many people. As we start year 3, we’re smarter. We take vitamins and supplements and check our pulse. We mask everywhere. (In a story I’m not writing, a character says, “I even mask during sex!”) We walk. (The Times: The sweet
- [Joan Didion (1934 - 2021)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/year-magical-thinking/) - Joan Didion is not a rapid writer, but she wrote "The Year of Magical Thinking" quickly, the better to keep her prose fresh and raw. The book is very far from a howl of pain --- though she explores the outer limits of grief, Didion is the kind of writer for whom even feeling passes through the brain. Which is to say that, in addition to her grief, we learn all about her thoughts about grief and her research about grief.
- [The N95 Mask: This upgrade from the cloth mask you're using is 20 months overdue.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-n95-mask-this-upgrade-from-the-cloth-mask-youre-using-is-20-months-overdue/) - You’re vaccinated. You wear a mask when you’re in a closed space with people who may not be vaccinated or masked. Your kids wear masks at school. What can you do “better?” You might consider upgrading your mask. The reason we aren't already wearing these superior masks is because there was almost no awareness of
- [Head Butler's Favorite Movies of 2018](https://headbutler.com/reviews/head-butlers-favorite-movies-of-2018/) - I wrote and wrote this year, and so I saw many fewer movies than I usually do. But rarity breeds discrimination; I believe the few movies I did see were better than the many movies I might have seen. As a result, this is the list of a picky New Yorker. Most of these films
- [Denzel Washington: "The Equalizer"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/denzel-washington-the-equalizer/) - Robert MCall, a former CIA intelligence officer, is living quietly in Boston, working in a warehouse, drinking tea in diners, reading good books. As the Times review of the first movie notes, "Eventually, he’s going to kill someone, of course, but before he does, 'The Equalizer' is disarmingly quiet, almost as if it were committed
- [The Lost Daughter](https://headbutler.com/reviews/lost-daughter/) - You know how it is when you're stranger in a strange town? You make up stories about the people you see. Leda does this with a woman and her child who also spend their days at the beach. They're lined up like planets --- Leda, the mother, another mother who seems to have no desire for anything but her child, and then the little girl, so secure in her mother's love that she gives all her attention to an old doll. One day, the little girl gets lost...
- [Weekend Butler:  If wishes were horses: Fantasies for the week before Christmas](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-if-wishes-were-horses-fantasies-for-the-week-before-christmas/) - PHOTO: A movie theatre in Mayfield, Kentucky, after the tornado. Photo credit. IF WISHES WERE HORSES… In another world, we wouldn’t be so worried. In another world, Joe Manchin wouldn’t object to the infrastructure bill’s inclusion of a one-year extension of the child tax credit, which helped 170,000 children in his state see a dramatically
- [The Best of Butler: August 2008](https://headbutler.com/reviews/best-butler-august/) - You can feel the remnants of summer now. If you're like me, you want these gorgeous days to linger. At the same time, you can feel excitement in the air: the humming of finely tuned engines as the culture industry gears up for fall. Soon New York and Hollywood will try to seduce us with their big-ticket items --- the books, movies and music that are, they pray, award winners and monster hits. “New” is different at HeadButler.com. Because almost every book, movie or record ever released is available online, I'm not chained to any industry calendar. If it's new to you, it's new. And in that way, as the song goes, “everything old is new again.” If I were picking from an all-time “best” list, you'd see Jean Rhys, and The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin, and James Salter, and Nick Drake, and Spanx, and SIGG bottles, and many more. But that's too daunting a list to consider in mid-August. What follows is what I consider the best of the “new” reviews published on Butler --- that is, published here in '08, so far.
- [To a Mountain in Tibet](https://headbutler.com/reviews/mountain-tibet/) - Over the decades, I’ve read the chapter in “The Way of the White Clouds” about the trek around Tibet’s Mount Kailas so often the book opens automatically to it. “There are mountains which are just mountains and there are mountains with personality,” it begins. I always laugh, because Lama Govinda’s use of “personality” is such an understatement --- Mount Kailas is the most sacred mountain on the planet, and, some say, the center of the universe. I re-read Lama Govinda’s masterpiece every few years because something in me is desperate to travel to Tibet, climb to 18,000 feet and make the death-defying pilgrimage around Kailas. It’s a sweet fantasy. But it’s not my destiny. “To see the greatness of a mountain, one must keep one’s distance,” Govinda writes. I underlined that decades ago, knowing it was true of more than mountains. [To buy “The Way of the White Clouds” from Amazon, click here.] There’s a new book out, “To A Mountain in Tibet,” about the Kailas pilgrimage. The author is Colin Thubron, a British travel writer and novelist. As it happens, he’s a student of solitude, which, he knows, will intensify in Tibet. And he’s totally aware that, with his parents and sister dead, he’ll be facing personal winds much sharper than the winds on Kailas. In short, he’s just the writer to turn a short --- 218 pages --- travel book into a small masterpiece. [To buy the book of “To A Mountain in Tibet” from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] This is a travel book only in the sense that the writer takes a trip, meets people along the way, records those conversations and offers commentary. In every other way, it’s about the most important trip any of us will ever take --- the trip to the self. That’s not a pumped-up conceit here. We are talking, remember, about Mount Kailas. These descriptions will suggest the holiness: “A site of astral beauty, separated from its companion Himalayas as if by divine intent.” The most sacred of the world’s mountains, holy to one fifth of the world’s people. The highest freshwater lake in the world ---“Buddha’s mother bathed here before taking him into her womb.” Colin’s mother has died, and as he walks, he remembers. She was a hoarder; she threw away nothing. After her death, he had to winnow: The value of things no longer belongs to cost or beauty, but only to memory. The chipped and faded teacup is more precious than the silver tray that nobody used. And the letters bring confusion. Sometimes what was written for a day echoes in your head as if forever. Every one discarded sounds a tiny knell of loss. As I was saying: not your average travel guide. But there is plenty of travel, observation, anecdote. The monks love soccer. Colin’s feet bleed. Air so clear you can see a person ten miles away. “To Hindus, ‘departure for Kailas’ is a metaphor for death.” At 11,000 feet, he faces oxygen deprivation: “The air is receding from me, everything depleted. My breath is rasping sobs.” Which takes him back to his dying mother, and how he hooked the oxygen mask over her face in the hospital: “When I remove the mask, my mother’s hands go on clutching it. It is as if I were taking away her life.” Inside, the intensity builds: “I want to touch hands that I know have grown cold.” At 18,000 feet, someone says one word ---I won’t spoil it --- and Colin’s whole being rushes back to the death of his sister. A dazzling revelation, and in a very few words. Outside your skin, you are always walking --- and in this empty landscape, feeling as if you’re getting nowhere. And then you are. That is, you circle Mount Kailas, you complete the pilgrimage. Climb the mountain? The peak is at 22,000 feet. But the difficulty isn’t just technical, isn’t just physical. No one has ever reached its summit.
- [The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-four-agreements-a-practical-guide-to-personal-freedom/) - A therapist of unbreakable sanity told me she encourages her clients to read “The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom.” It’s clear. It’s short. It seems simple. It’s radical --- it urges you to liberate yourself from belief system you inherited from parents, schools, churches and mass media. Instead, use your words. Make agreements that have moral and practical force. Happiness may just follow.
- [Weekend Butler: The "Honor Walk" for Justin Shilling. Rilke on the secret of life. An ovation for Beethoven. And more....](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-the-honor-walk-for-justin-shilling-einstein-rilke-on-the-secret-of-life-an-ovation-for-beethoven-and-more/) - THE HONOR WALK FOR JUSTIN SHILLING I was in California, talking about A Christmas Carol, when I heard about the Michigan high school shooting. I’m a parent of a teenager. But you don’t need to be a parent or a concerned citizen to feel the hurt. It keeps happening! They were so young! And right
- [Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time](https://headbutler.com/reviews/kurt-vonnegut-unstuck-in-time/) - I met Kurt Vonnegut on May Day, 1969. Ray Mungo, the proprietor of Total Loss Farm, had invited Kurt up for the festivities, and Kurt and his wife Jane had driven from their home on the Cape to spend the day on a hippie farm. They got quite a show. Many communards were on LSD,
- [Number the Stars](https://headbutler.com/reviews/number-the-stars/) - In 1940, Denmark couldn't have fought Hitler; its surrender was prudent. And in 1943 the German presence isn't a concern for Annemarie Johansen, a 10-year-old fourth grader who lives with her parents and younger sister in Copenhagen. King Christian X still rides his horse through the city, and the Danes, sharing his disdain for the Germans, go on about their lives. But now life is starting to change --- as Annemarie and her best friend Ellen Rosen run home from school, two German soldiers stop them, just because they can.
- [Thanksgiving weekend: What do you say after you say 'I'm grateful?'](https://headbutler.com/reviews/thanksgiving-weekend-what-do-you-say-after-you-say-im-grateful/) - WHAT DO YOU SAY AFTER YOU SAY "I'M GRATEFUL?" YOU SAY IT AGAIN. I am grateful for my life. And yours. Such a cliché, but I’m thinking of a news story that surprised me this week: according to federal data and Johns Hopkins University, U.S. Covid-19 deaths in 2021 surpass 2020’s That’s right: more than
- [Peter Reich: A Book of Dreams](https://headbutler.com/reviews/peter-reich-a-book-of-dreams/) - Peter Reich describes his book as “a true-life 1950s adventure with a sad ending.” But it’s not written like a thriller. It’s written from several perspectives --- he’s 12 and then 22 --- but it’s the childhood stories, told in the resent tense, that are the most compelling. He helps his father train a device called a “cloudbuster” on the heavens and make rain, or push clouds together, or separate them. He watches people sit in a padded container the size of a phone booth to have their bad energy drained. He thinks that at any moment a flying saucer could land and take him away. He is a soldier --- “a pre-adolescent lieutenant in the Corps of Cosmic Engineers --- whose mission is to protect his father. And then he watches the government agents rip his father’s lab to shreds. A childhood like no other: literally, “a book of dreams.” Told so accurately, so intimately, that you are a camera perched on his shoulder, watching it happen in real time.
- [LED Desk Lamp  with USB Charging Port, 5 Color Temperatures, 6 Brightness Levels, Auto-Off Timer](https://headbutler.com/reviews/taotronics-dimmable-led-desk-lamp/) - A pristine desk was a longtime dream for me. An unattainable dream, it seemed, for no matter how big my desk, it was invariably strewn with paper and dotted with piles of books. I looked at photos of executive offices... and I despaired. How do they do it? I’ve just taken a great stride toward
- [Forehead Thermometer](https://headbutler.com/reviews/forehead-thermometer/) - I no longer saunter in to restaurants, doctor’s offices, or any other COVID-aware establishment. At the entrance, I get my temperature checked. The device: a forehead thermometer. It’s not a bad idea to have one at home. The forehead thermometer isn’t proof of illness, but it’s an excellent early warning system. The device is simple
- [Weekend Butler: Survival 101: This edition is all about good people.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-survival-101-this-edition-is-all-about-good-people/) - SURVIVAL 101: THIS EDITION IS ALL ABOUT GOOD PEDOPLE A new book by historian Niall Ferguson argues that if anti-slavery northerners had been less condescending towards slave-owning southerners, the Civil War might have been averted. Matt Gaetz says he might offer Kyle Rittenhouse a job as a congressional intern. Liz Cheney has been expelled from
- [The Weighted Blanket](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-weighted-blanket/) - The idea is simple: if you sleep under a heavier blanket, you feel comforted. Cuddled. Even returned to the womb. And… you sleep.
- [Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business](https://headbutler.com/reviews/setting-table/) - “Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business” is, as the title suggests, not really a memoir about his life in restaurants. There are mouth-watering descriptions of great meals, but this was not a book fated to be devoured by foodies and unknown to the general public. Really, it’s a how-to manual, a common sense guide to smart business practices that should be read --- like: today! --- by anyone whose livelihood involves face-to-face encounters with customers.
- [Weekend Butler: Forrest Gump 2021? Sherlock Holmes returns. Sassy Julia Child. Weekend reading: a short page-turner.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-5/) - “STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES” The Russians are gearing up for an invasion of the Ukraine, and Tucker Carlson says we should side with Putin. A Virginia politician says it may not be sufficient to ban books, we should consider burning them. The owner of an $85 million house in Los Angeles has launched a
- [Paolo Conte](https://headbutler.com/reviews/paolo-conte/) - The pianist is smoking a cigarette --- unfiltered, at that. He wears a tuxedo, but he's got the face of a stevedore. His wrinkles are badges: love affairs without end, decades of siding with losers, a lifetime of nightclubs and half-drunk glasses of grappa. His voice...does he have a voice? Does Tom Waits? Leonard Cohen? Of course Paolo Conte is foreign --- Italian, near the French border. We expect no less. Our sense of the tough-guy foreign singer starts with Truffaut (here's a flash of the music scene in 'Shoot the Piano Player'). It gets prettified by late-night viewings of that unforgettable scene from ('Casablanca') and celebrated in the sophistication of Bobby Short. And, finally, gets processed for mass consumption by our resident Piano Man, Billy Joel. A friend recently saw Paolo Conte in Venice --- at the Cipriani, of course. “Beyond good,” he reports. “Old guy, exceptionally cool, never without a cig in his mouth. Makes you wanna dance and do a lotta other things.” I'd call that a recommendation. So I did my due diligence. And can report that Paolo Conte is the kind of treasure Europe knows about --- and we'd do well to follow their lead. Conte, born in 1937 to a family of lawyers, fulfilled his destiny and became a lawyer. But he was also such a jazz fan that he represented Italy in an international quiz in Oslo. (He took third place.) He worked occasionally as a bankruptcy clerk and developed predictable views about The Way Things Work. And then he started writing songs. From the beginning, it was clear he had a poet's touch. But it wasn't until 1974, when he made his first record, that the words and the voice came together. Paolo Conte became that rarest of music business success stories --- a singer-songwriter whose career begins when most pop musicians' careers are ending. It's pointless to categorize Paolo Conte. He's a cabaret singer first, but he can scat like Louis Armstrong or Jimmy Durante. He's a killer with a love song. He can write hook after hook. And though he doesn't exactly sing, he's at least as compelling as those other non-singers, Maurice Chevalier and Yves Montand. The booklet in 'The Best of Paolo Conte' thoughtfully translates his mostly Italian, some French lyrics. And there you can see a big part of his appeal. From a song about a lover, boasting about his woman: Listen to me, you Neanderthal man. Yes, or Tangier man. Can any of you play A giddy dance, a swaying dance That takes off a woman's shoes and stockings? Or from 'Sparring Partner,' one of his best-known songs: Of him, she says, He's a fool with no story Whose memory is lost In the bottom of his demented gloves. But his glance is a veranda, Just wait and you will see How far it leads into the jungle --- Don't ever meet it. Sounds strange? Francois Ozon, one of my favorite film directors, used it to great effect in '5 x 2'. And there are surprises. A song about lemon ice cream. A sudden burst of kazoo-like fake trumpet. Praise for a '50s cycling champion. Taken together, these touches give the man in the tux away. He's a local guy, the talent too big for the town but who never left. He's see it, done it, journaled it. And these are the songs of his life. Lights down. Uncork that bottle. Paolo Conte awaits. After that, as my friend suggests, who knows? To buy 'The Best of Paolo Conte' from Amazon.com, click here.
- [McCabe & Mrs. Miller](https://headbutler.com/reviews/mccabe-amp-mrs-miller/) - The Grammys: Forget the commentary that describes this show as the breakthrough of young, edgy, acoustic bands. It was, in the main, a shlockfest: songs without melodies, meaningless lyrics, and singers emoting as if they were delivering the Gospel in the End Times. A few acts endorsed on these screens did not embarrass themselves. Let me commend Mavis Staples, Alabama Shakes, Mumford & Sons, the late Levon Helm, Bob Marley & the Wailers, and Adele. -------------------- There are 40 kinds of hot peppers in India, and sometimes it seems they use them all at once. Why serve hot spices in hot climates? Because they're good for you; by making you sweat, they cool you down. Why, when some of you are still snowed in, choose to feature a movie set in winter? Because although you may be inconvenienced, you have heat and plumbing and electricity. They didn't. Watch it and feel... warm. Robert Altman liked to say he hated Westerns. He didn't much enjoy working with Warren Beatty. He was silent about directing Julie Christie. He probably disliked her too. But in the winter of 1970, Altman took Beatty and Christie to the Pacific Northwest and made one of the best Westerns I've ever seen. Well, not exactly a Western as you may think of it: John Ford, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood. In 1970, our President was a crook, we were locked in an Asian war we could not win, our kids were growing their hair long, smoking weed and fornicating in the stairwells. With that going on, no way does Robert Altman make a traditional Western. This movie is about much more than the plot, but here's the plot: Warren Beatty (McCabe), a small-time gambler with more dreams than brains, comes to the tiny community of Presbyterian Church to open a bar and bordello. It is his great good fortune to run into Julie Christie (Mrs. Miller), an opium-smoking prostitute who actually knows how to run a whorehouse. They join forces, get successful, have an awkward romance. A corporation decides to buy them out. Christie's in favor of the deal --- she understands the power of Big Business --- but Beattie fancies himself a negotiator. So the corporation dispatches three gunmen to kill him. I was just out of college when “McCabe & Mrs. Miller” was released. I was a disciple of Leonard Cohen (whose early songs provide a gloomy, dreamy soundtrack). I admired Altman, respected Beatty, had a crush on Christie. My reaction to the film was predictable: It was one of the greater films I'd ever seen. [To buy the DVD from Amazon for $6.35, click here. To rent the video stream and watch it now for $2.99, click here.] Watch the opening sequence and see if you don't fall under its spell: Most critics didn't agree. Here's Vincent Canby, of The New York Times: “The intentions of 'McCabe & Mrs. Miller' are...meddlesomely imposed on the film by tired symbolism, by a folk-song commentary on the soundtrack...and by metaphysically purposeful photography....Such intentions keep spoiling the fun of what might have been an uproarious frontier fable.” Talk about wrong-headed! Canby wanted Altman to make another “M*A*S*H.” But Altman wanted to get inside a genre, to show that the West wasn't Gary Cooper and John Wayne --- it was just like now, with little people starting small enterprises and getting a town going, then the Big Boys muscling them out and sucking the soul from the community. The story of the hardware store and Wal-Mart. Kind of the domestic story of our time.... But forget all of that. “McCabe & Mrs. Miller” is no more about its plot than your life is. It's about dreams. And wanting to build something for yourself when you're over your head and you don't really know the players and all you have is you. And then it's about taking the next step --- gambling on love, on dreams. The Leonard Cohen lyric about the gambler says it all: “He's just looking for a card so high and wild he'll never have to deal another.” And then it's about weather. First drizzle, then snow. And as the snow blankets the town, the movie gets quieter and quieter. The climax is inevitable and dark; it's played out in bright, silent snow. What ends badly also ends beautifully --- so beautifully that you can only imagine what lies Altman told to get the money for this film.
- [Love of My Life](https://headbutler.com/reviews/love-of-my-life/) - GUEST BUTLER RON FRIED is the author of two novels, as well as a collection of profiles of 20th century boxing trainers. More recently, he’s written a novel about the gangster Frank Costello, as well as a play about Norman Mailer, which is slated for an off-Broadway production in 2022. At the age of 94,
- [Weekend Butler: Kurt Vonnegut. Elephants in Mourning. The ending of "The Sopranos." And 3 remarkably human stories.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-kurt-vonnegut-elephants-in-mourning-the-ending-of-the-sopranos-and-3-remarkably-human-stories/) - The news of the week is rarely good, and this week is no exception. Hard to believe, but the Supreme Court will rule on a NRA argument that the Constitution allows us not only to own guns but, for self-defense, to carry them everywhere. Joe Manchin still acts like he’s President. And the election results
- [Danit Treubig](https://headbutler.com/reviews/danit-treubig/) - She's no self-promoter. This disc what I found about her: "My music is above all inspired by Nature. These songs are an expression of love and gratitude for mother earth, all the magical plants and animals that live within her beauty, and the elements that make life possible. The music is an invitation to connect with that mysterious place of prayer, where the chaotic movements of thought settle into simple gratitude for life and this ever present moment."
- [Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age](https://headbutler.com/reviews/madam-the-biography-of-polly-adler-icon-of-the-jazz-age/) - When I met Debby Applegate, who had graduated summa cum laude from Amherst and collected a Ph.D. in American Studies at Yale, it was clear she was super smart. Not that her intelligence was much consolation. Like me, she seemed to be struggling with a book. Unlike me, she struggled with her first book for
- [Bistro Cooking](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bistro-cooking/) - In the Fall of 1926 --- about the same time that Ernest Hemingway was leaving Paris --- a 23-year-old American named A.J. Liebling sailed to France for a year of post-graduate dining. If you have dipped into Between Meals, the story of his culinary education (and a lot more), you know that he had a great appetite and discerning taste buds. But what comes across even more strongly is Liebling's distress: The days were flying by, and he was too broke to indulge his restaurant habit at the level of his dreams. These days, almost anyone who travels to France bearing American dollars knows how Liebling felt. If you go to Paris now, you'll find yourself in the era of the $7 cafe creme --- and as for dinner, I really wouldn't know. Since the arrival of the child, travel means Jet Blue. And even if we were to zoom over to France, we couldn't wrap our minds around spending the college fund on meals that are super-chic today and unfashionable tomorrow. So we cook French at home --- meals you'd find in a Mom-and-Pop bistro. Patricia Wells, bless her, focused on bistros long before the economy made them chic. But then, she is one of the world's most sensible food writers; she reports on trends, but doesn't succumb to them. The French noticed her talent long ago --- she's the only woman (and the only foreigner) ever to review restaurants for a French publication. "Bistro Cooking," published in 1989, was named Cookbook of the Year by USA Today. Good choice. The recipes are straightforward, the ingredients basic, the instructions clear. She's strong on vegetables and salads. There are half a dozen chicken entrees that can be prepared in a matter of minutes. (To buy "Bistro Cooking" from Amazon, click here. To read about another excellent Patricia Wells cookbook, "Trattoria: Simple and Robust Fare Inspired by the Small Family Restaurants of Italy," click here.) What recipe to choose? One of many one-dish meals that are idiot-proof. It's certainly "simple" and "satisfying" --- I have served this for many Sunday lunches, and it has always required shockingly modest effort and garnered outrageous praise. The trick: The pan is lined with sliced potatoes, onions and tomatoes. The lamb is set on a rack over the vegetables. The result? As it roasts, "the lamb's wonderful juices drip into the gratin." Wells suggests that you serve this with a "solid" red wine: a Cotes-du-Rhone or Chateauneuf-du-Pape, but any Bordeaux or California Cabernet would be just as good. GIGOT ROTI AU GRATIN DE MONSIEUR HENRY (Roast Lamb with Monsieur Henry's Potato, Onion and Tomato Gratin) serves 8-10 6 garlic cloves (1 clove peeled and split, the rest peeled and chopped) 1 pounds baking potatoes, peeled and sliced very thin 2 large onions, peeled and sliced very thin 5 medium tomatoes, cored and sliced very thin 1 leg of lamb, bone-in (6-7 pounds) 2/3 cup white wine 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil l tablespoon fresh thyme salt, pepper Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Rub the bottom of a large (16 x 10 x 2) oval porcelain gratin dish (or casserole dish) with the split clove of garlic. Arrange the potatoes in a single layer, season with salt, pepper, some of the thyme and some of the chopped garlic. Layer the sliced onions on top, season as you did the potatoes. Layer the tomatoes on top of the onions. Season with salt, pepper, the rest of the thyme and chopped garlic. Pour on the white wine, then the olive oil. Trim the thicker portions of fat from the lamb, season with salt and pepper. Set a cake or oven rack on (or in) the gratin dish and set the lamb on the rack so its juices will drip into the gratin. Roast, uncovered, for 1 hour and 15 minutes for rare lamb (for medium lamb, roast for 15-30 more minutes). Turn the lamb every 15 minutes, basting with liquid from the gratin dish. Remove the pan from oven and let the lamb sit for 15 minutes before carving. Serve the thinly sliced lamb on warmed dinner plates, with the gratin alongside. Vegetable suggestion: Green or French beans.
- [Weekend Edition: Heather Cox Richardson is required reading. A gorgeous song. A racy novel. A life coach on Zoom.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-edition-heather-cox-richardson-is-required-reading-a-gorgeous-song-a-racy-novel-a-life-coach-on-zoom/) - REQUIRED READING: HEATHER COX RICHARDSON One of the consolations of working late is ”Letters from an American,” the daily dispatch from Heather Cox Richardson (in the photo, above) that usually arrives around midnight. She doesn’t break news, she does something better: she interprets the news. And she’s better at this than anyone else now claiming
- [Jennifer Berezan](https://headbutler.com/reviews/10518/) - If you know of Jennifer Berezan, it’s because her music is on the playlist in yoga and meditation classes, massage studios and hospices. It is unparalleled late at night if you have trouble sleeping or want something better in your head than today’s awful headlines. A woman wrote: “Because it plays on almost a continual loop with no clear beginning or end to each track, I could focus on the moment I was in without knowing how much time I had been in labor or worrying about how much time I would continue to labor. I ended up laboring for 23 hours and it would have been harder if I was more aware of those hours passing.” Berezan knows why listeners respond to her CDs: “We have very little music to help us through experiences of loss and change and death. My interest in using music in this way came to me partly through my own life crisis --- an intense period of personal loss and change. I’ve received many letters saying, ‘I used this when my mother died,’ or ‘...when my lover went away,’ or ‘...when I was ill.’”
- [The Thief of Always](https://headbutler.com/reviews/thief-always/) - I'm not the only one to say it: There's almost no book more satisfying for a 9-to-11-year-old kid to read aloud with a parent.
- [Gabriels: “Love and Hate in a Different Time”](https://headbutler.com/reviews/gabriels-love-and-hate-in-a-different-time/) - I didn’t watch Jimmy Kimmel in August. Or Jools Holland on the BBC in June. So it wasn’t until “Love and Hate in a Different Time” interrupted a set of yacht rock on WFUV that I was jerked to full attention, inspired to crank the volume, stand and move. If you don’t do the same,
- [Weekend edition: What's "real?" Ask M.C. Escher. More about Gabby Petito & Brian Laundrie? (Yes.) Another necessary movie. And a great good news story.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-edition-whats-real-ask-m-c-escher-more-about-gabby-petito-brian-laundrie-yes-another-necessary-movie-and-a-great-good-news-story/) - “ILLUSION” IS THE WORD OF MY WEEK I can’t be the only one here who watches what’s happening and asks: Can this be real? Are the people in the way of public health and sensible laws and help for people who need help so scared of you-know-who and so greedy that they’re willing to be
- [M. C. Escher Pop-Ups](https://headbutler.com/reviews/m-c-escher-pop-ups/) - Twenty years from now, someone will make a breakthrough in the arts, technology or design, and remark, “Well, when I was a kid, there was this book….” He or she will mean “M.C. Escher Pop-Ups.” It’s only 16 pages. By conventional standards, a wisp of a book. Really: a pamphlet. But we do not judge Escher by conventional standards. “Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible.” And when we consider that this book takes his work into the third dimension, we --- well, some of us, anyway --- get excited. (To buy the book from Amazon, click here.) “Are you really sure that a floor can’t also be a ceiling?” Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) was a draftsman whose exacting vision and precise technique led him to explore the relationship between art and mathematics. In 1922, he visited the Alhambra, a 14th Century castle in Granada, Spain; its intricate carvings and optical tricks inspired him to go deeper into mathematical creation. He'd go on to create 448 lithographs, woodcuts and wood engravings and more than 2,000 drawings and sketches, many of them mathematically-inspired --- and to write so well on the subject that some academics considered him a research mathematician. (For more about Escher and more Escher books, click here.) “The things I want to express are so beautiful and pure.” M.C. Escher, on a flat page, is a contact high. As pop-ups? Hang on.
- [The Soul of a Farmer](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-soul-of-a-farmer/) - If you were going to bet on the prospects of a Roger Sherman film to win an award, you would be smart to bet it would. He’s been nominated twice for the Academy Award, he’s won an Emmy and a Peabody, “The Restaurateur “ won the James Beard Award, and the rest of his honors
- [John le Carré (1931 - 2020)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/john-le-carre-1931-2020/) - David Cornwell was “recruited as a teenaged errand boy of British Intelligence” and, for almost two decades, was some kind of spy. Moonlighting as a novelist, he wrote novels. Because his third novel was a spy story, the government required him to use a pseudonym. He came up with John le Carré. That novel was
- [Peter Temple](https://headbutler.com/reviews/peter-temple-1946-2018/) - Peter Temple, born and raised, in South Africa, didn’t become a novelist until he was 50 and living in Australia. He won Australia’s Ned Kelly award five times for crime writing, the first for his debut novel, Bad Debts. In 2007 he won the British Crime Writers major award, the Gold Dagger, for The Broken Shore. And in 2010, he was the first crime writer to win the Miles Franklin award for his novel, “Truth.” His Jack Irish books, about a lawyer and alcoholic who becomes an investigator, were made into three television series starring Guy Pearce.
- [You Can Only Yell at Me for One Thing at a Time: Rules for Couples](https://headbutler.com/reviews/you-can-only-yell-at-me-for-one-thing-at-a-time-rules-for-couples/) - This reader review tells you all you need to know: “I quit marriage therapy after reading this book.” When “You Can Only Yell at Me for One Thing at a Time: Rules for Couples” was published in January 2020, the publisher’s hope was for Valentine Day sales. That happened. Then the pandemic descended. And now
- [The Intrusions](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-intrusions/) - This is one terrifying crime thriller --- “’The Silence of the Lambs’ for the Internet age.” Lee Child, creator of the Jack Reacher thrillers, praises its “brilliant and organic blend of ancient terror and suspense, with modern issues as its core.” In England, it just won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award.
- [Blue](https://headbutler.com/reviews/blue/) - 50 years since Joni Mitchell released "Blue?" It seems impossible; the music is that fresh. And just right, historically; these songs pin where some of us were 50 years ago. And painful; who among those of us just starting to make our way in the world knew what the hell we were doing? This album
- [The Killers: "Quiet Town"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-killers-quiet-town/) - In 1994, 3,500 people lived in Nephi, Utah. The entire town occupied just 4.6 square miles. It’s 90% Mormon. Everybody knew everybody. On November 8, 1994, JaNae Taylor and Raymond Leo Newton were at a grade crossing on their lunch break when their car was struck by a Union Pacific train. They’d been sweethearts since
- [Weekend Edition: "Sometimes it hurts to be a woman." Pulse Oximeters (yes, again). "Curb Your Enthusiasm." A poem for lovers, and more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-edition-sometimes-it-hurts-to-be-a-woman-pulse-oximeters-yes-again-curb-your-enthusiasm-a-poem-for-lovers-and-more/) - "SOMETIMES IT HURTS TO BE A WOMAN" It will be of interest to no more than two of you that Kacey Musgraves --- a female singer from Nashville --- won Album of the Year and Country Album of the Year for “Golden Hour” at the Grammy Awards three years ago. She’s not the Nashville of
- [Alexander Nevsky](https://headbutler.com/reviews/alexander-nevsky/) - The greatest score in all of film --- so good that it inspired John Williams' shark theme in “Jaws” and James Horner's music for “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.” One of the greatest battle scenes in film --- so good that Mel Gibson surely went to school on it before shooting the “Braveheart”
- [Woman Walk the Line: How the Women in Country Music Changed Our Lives](https://headbutler.com/reviews/woman-walk-the-line-how-the-women-in-country-music-changed-our-lives/) - Dedicated fans of country and rock know just how few female stars there were for girls and young women to obsess about. This explains, I think, why the female contributors to “Woman Walk the Line: How the Women in Country Music Changed Our Lives” are so passionately committed to the female country stars they profile --- these 27 singers and songwriters are crucial to them, both culturally and personally.
- [Paula Fox: Desperate Characters](https://headbutler.com/reviews/paula-fox-desperate-characters/) - Jonathan Franzen has just published a novel, Crossroads, and “everybody” is either writing about it or chatting with him. Elle had some questions. What Franzen most wanted to talk about was “Desperate Characters.” It’s “the book that helped me through a breakup.” It’s “the book I’ve reread the most.” It’s “the book that makes me
- [Weekend Edition: Some stories of kindness and beauty: Roast chicken (again? yes), the weekend movie, "A Whiter Shade of Pale" (again? yes), and a gorilla more human than some humans](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-edition-some-stories-of-kindness-and-beauty-roast-chicken-again-yes-the-weekend-movie-a-whiter-shade-of-pale-again-yes-and-a-gorilla-more-human-than-some-humans/) - Another gnarly week, in which the usual suspects conspired to make you feel even worse. There's one stunning news story here. But as much as possible, let's focus on beauty and kindness, as epitomized by the photo (above) and this story... MORE HUMAN THAN SOME HUMANS I CAN THINK OF Ndakasi died in the Congo,
- [Andre Dubus: A story about a murder](https://headbutler.com/reviews/andre-dubus-selected-stories/) - ndre Dubus is one of my favorite writers. He embodied every contradiction I value --- he was tough and he was soft, he know a lot about love and just as much about loss --- and you only had to read a few sentences of one of his stories to know you were in the hands of a master.
- [A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes: A Son's Memoir of Gabriel García Márquez and Mercedes Barcha](https://headbutler.com/reviews/a-farewell-to-gabo-and-mercedes-a-sons-memoir-of-gabriel-garcia-marquez-and-mercedes-barcha/) - People tell me, “I’ve read a book that changed me.” I’m not convinced. They seem unchanged to me. “One Hundred Years of Solitude” was the greatest novel I’d ever read when I read it at 23, but it didn’t change my life and I didn’t think for a minute I was doomed as a writer
- [Weekend Edition: Spend the weekend without the news. 'Squid Game.' Liz Cheney. Josh Ritter, and more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-edition-spend-the-weekend-without-the-news-squid-game-liz-cheney-josh-ritter-and-more/) - SPEND THE WEEKEND WITHOUT LOOKING AT THE NEWS Curtis Mayfield was soul music’s Prince of Optimism -- and he sometimes got depressed. When that happened, he went to the movies. Why? “Movies are dreams,” he said. “And dreams are what we live on.” This is a good weekend to avoid despair by avoiding the news.
- [Harry Clarke](https://headbutler.com/reviews/harry-clarke/) - “Harry Clarke” had a limited run. The great good news: Audible has started a program of presenting short theater pieces as audiobooks. In this case, hearing is believing. And so is re-hearing --- the first time, you’re just knocked out by the story and the performance, the second time you’ll want to figure out the whys and how.
- [Stevie Van Zandt: Unrequited Infatuations: A Memoir](https://headbutler.com/reviews/stevie-van-zandt-unrequited-infatuations-a-memoir/) - "February 8, 1964, there was not one single rock 'n' roll band in the country," Stevie Van Zandt writes in his memoir. "February 9, the Beatles played The Ed Sullivan Show. “Goodbye school, grades, any thoughts of college, straight jobs, family unity and American monoculture.” A year later, 15-year-old Stevie Van Zandt met Bruce Springsteen
- [Weekend Butler: Are the rich really different? John le Carré. A history lesson about vaccines. And a Head Butler field trip.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-are-the-rich-really-different-john-le-carre-a-history-lesson-about-vaccines-and-a-head-butler-field-trip/) - THE RICH REALLY ARE DIFFERENT F. Scott Fitzgerald may have said: “The very rich are different from you and me.” Ernest Hemingway may have replied: “Yes, they have more money.”. I spent half a decade in close proximity to one of America’s richest women and her privileged friends, and in those long distant years, Hemingway’s
- [Leonard Cohen: The Favorite Game](https://headbutler.com/reviews/favorite-game/) - The Favorite Game" --- Cohen's first novel, published in 1963, when he was 29 --- charmed me 40 years ago, and still does. It's the closest thing we'll have to a memoir of Cohen's youth.
- [Weekend Butler: Al Green, Mike Pence, Leonard Cohen, Joe Manchin -- "Who Shall I Say Is Calling?"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-al-green-mike-pence-leonard-cohen-joe-manchin-who-shall-i-say-is-calling/) - "WHO SHALL I SAY IS CALLING?" I was going to lament that the future of American democracy is, to an alarming degree, hot-wired to Joe Manchin’s ass. That Joe Manchin, who worries about government spending and yet has accumulated, while in government, a net worth of $7.6 million and yet is only the 19th richest
- [Children now account for one in four new COVID cases. How can you help your kids not get sick?](https://headbutler.com/reviews/children-now-account-for-one-in-four-new-covid-cases-how-can-you-help-your-kids-not-get-sick/) - More than 250,000 cases of children diagnosed with Covid were reported last week, the highest on record. Children now account for one in four new Covid cases. 250,000 cases a week probably isn’t the highest number we’ll see. Doctors and scientists agree: the riskiest place for kids is… school. Credit for that goes to schools
- [Wisconsin Death Trip](https://headbutler.com/reviews/wisconsin-death-trip/) - This is possibly the weirdest book I have ever read. I came across it in the early 1970s, when some of the brighter minds of my generation were still considering “back to the land” options to big city careers. Remember Dylan's “Nashville Skyline” CD? His rural man is a heroic figure: “His nails are dirty, but his hands are clean.” And his priorities! He's got a “big brass bed,” he's “just watching the river flow.” This image of “the country” is a brilliant sequel to the Norman Rockwell images that were imprinted on earlier generations --- small towns, soda shops, girls with freckles, friendly doctors, little boys ripping off their clothes as they run to the swimming hole, Dad fishing in the rain, Mom having a gossip. In this world, you know your neighbors, you look out for one another, there's no reason ever to forsake this small-town heaven. Those, those were the good old days. The thing is, there were no good old days --- they sucked. Thus…. ”Wisconsin Death Trip.” Around 1970, Michael Lesy --- a graduate student seeking the intersection of history and photography --- chanced upon 3,000 glass negatives from one Wisconsin county between 1890 and 1910, years of great agitation in the heartland, economic upheaval and a vast migration from farms and small towns to the big city. Lesy's revelation: "I'd stumbled into a holocaust without Jews, buried in the history of the heartland of the United States, at the end of an era that everyone kept calling the Gay Nineties." “Wisconsin Death Trip” --- a collection of photographs and newspaper snippets --- takes you beyond socio-political truths to individual lives. And when you get down to individuals, “death trip” seems like just the right phrase: "The 60 year old wife of a farmer in Jackson, Washington County, killed herself by cutting her throat with a sheep shears." "Mrs. James Baty... died suddenly of a hemorrhage of the lungs. She leaves a husband, her family of 6 children having died of diptheria last summer." "Mrs. John Larson... drowned her 3 children in Lake St. Croix during a fit of insanity... Mrs. Larson imagines that devils pursue her." "Mrs. Carter... was taken sick at the marsh last week and fell down, sustaining internal injuries which have dethroned her reason. She has been removed to her home here and a few nights since arose from her bed and ran through the woods... A night or two after she was found trying to strangle herself with a towel... It is hoped the trouble is only temporary and that she may soon recover her mind." The book begins with a photo of a white stallion. For reasons unknown, his mane has been allowed to grow almost to the ground. It's a feminized image --- until you notice the vastness of the horse's penis. You've been warned: Weirdness follows. [To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here. Want a hardcover? A new copy is $900.] A paragraph catches my eye, about the naked, frozen body of a woman. She'd been separated from her husband; she'd had a child die. No one had noticed that she was suffering, but…. And here's one about a workman who killed himself, leaving a wife and four kids “in destitute circumstances.” Oh, the ways there are to kill yourself. Can you imagine hammering your own head? Or drowning yourself in the pool where your daughter had accidentally drowned? The pictures tell equally horrible stories. Two coffins, leaned against the wall, with little children inside, flowers around their heads. Women, some obviously demented, others just grim. Men, in their Sunday best or at work, the youth draining out of them. Houses, streets, barns. A rare celebration. A fleeting moment of beauty in a rowboat. [To view an album of some of the photographs, click here.] Lesy's intent in creating this pastiche of text and pictures, he said, was to present “a kind of soup bowl in which information would be mixed inside the brain of the viewer, and it would all be combined and sucked on and enjoyed. But it didn't work that way. People remembered the horror stories. And only remembered the horror stories in their reading.” Well, can you blame us? We like our reality prettified. But some reality just won't submit. As Lesy writes, “By the end of the nineteenth century, country towns had become charnel houses and the counties that surrounded them had become places of dry bones.” Interesting. But then, everything about this book is compelling --- at the very least, it's the most unusual book I can imagine having on a coffee table. Just be prepared: people will want to borrow it.
- [Brothers on Three: A True Story of Family, Resistance, and Hope on a Reservation in Montana](https://headbutler.com/reviews/brothers-on-three-a-true-story-of-family-resistance-and-hope-on-a-reservation-in-montana/) - If I can’t identify the players, I can’t watch the game. So… no football. If I can read a book in the time it takes to watch a complete game, count me out. So… no baseball. But basketball? Five easily identifiable players, a big ball, a shot-clock… I’m there. More, I like to read about
- [Weekend Butler: A new movie for sentient adults. What punches harder than a mantis shrimp?  My fan mail. Paul Simon, and more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-a-new-movie-for-sentient-adults-what-punches-harder-than-a-mantis-shrimp-dear-evan-hansen-paul-simon-my-fan-mail-and-more/) - STEEL CHAIR TO THE HEAD I own the book. I’ve never read it. I feature it because I love the title --- it exactly conveys the humor and absurdity of professional wrestling --- and the art is completely in your face, like a visual chair to the head. WEEKEND MOVIE: SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE Premieres
- [The Kitchen Whisperers: Cooking with the Wisdom of Our Friends](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-kitchen-whisperers-cooking-with-the-wisdom-of-our-friends/) - It’s said that the French kings had Lafite rubbed on the lips of their newborns so they’d enter life knowing a standard of quality. As a first taste memory, that’s hard to top. I can’t recall mine, but I don’t imagine it was more luxurious than custard or farina. Yours, I’d guess, is just as
- [Buying the Farm: Peace and War on a Sixties Commune](https://headbutler.com/reviews/farm/) - In the fall of 1968, I was sick of writing, sick of Cambridge, sick of the war, sick of myself. I wanted clean air and a fresh start. An invitation to visit a communal farm founded by radical journalists in Western Massachusetts? Yeah, I’d buy the gas. The farm was a few miles and a century from Amherst. The house was wood, painted red, architecturally undistinguished. The interior was worse: a warren of rooms with bare plaster walls, rough wood floors, a coal furnace. There was a wood stove in the kitchen that the residents admired as if it were the monolith from “2001.” I moved right in. Chopping wood was not my thing. I wasn’t amused when I left a glass of water in the kitchen at night and found it frozen solid in the morning. When the plumbing blew out, I failed to find the charm in the outhouse. I didn’t last. But Tom Fels did. And he became to the farm in Montague what our friend Ray Mungo --- author of Famous Long Ago: My Life and Hard Times With Liberation News Service --- was to our sister commune in Vermont: a reliable witness. A few years ago, he published Farm Friends. Now he’s back with an even more granular history of the Montague farm: "Buying the Farm: Peace and War on a Sixties Commune." [To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here.] This is not “Fifty Shades of Hippies.” It’s a densely reported account of a piece of property and the people who lived there. It spans 40 years. It is Proustian. That is: detailed, exhaustive. Will most of you care how Sam and Janice’s romance affected the future of the farm, or why Janice’s demands for her own space came to dominate that conversation, or why certain people you liked at the beginning seemed so much less attractive at the end? No. That’s another book, probably fiction. What Tom Fels does is write a kind of slow-motion real estate thriller. A run-down farm in a nowhere town becomes, over the years, valuable real estate. But the man who bought it in 1968 killed himself in 1969, leaving the property to something he named The Fellowship of Religious Youth. Soon enough, youth aged. The trustees left the farm. Its mission became nebulous. Factions formed. “You don’t really know a woman until you meet her in court,” Norman Mailer said. Ditto a communal farmer who thinks he/she has a payday coming. Even more: a communal farmer who sniffs the prospect of power. In its final chapters, “Buying the Farm” becomes a kind of boardroom drama, just played out in overalls. Fels writes: “The two people most invested in keeping the farm intact, and who had most expressly tied themselves to its history, values and potential future, were actually the principal cause of its eventual loss.” This is not to denigrate people I once called friends. Or to point a told-you-so finger at dreamers. The farm was a grand vision in 1968. It became something else. Things change. Goals that seem forever vanish like morning mist. Why not quote Dylan: “It’s life and life only.”
- [Seamus Heaney: Blackberry-Picking](https://headbutler.com/reviews/seamus-heaney-blackberry-picking/) - To read my appreciation of Seamus Heaney on Butler, click here. To buy the paperback of his Selected Poems, click here. To buy the Kindle edition of his Selected Poems, click here. Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot
- [Alfred Hitchcock: Foreign Correspondent](https://headbutler.com/reviews/foreign-correspondent-1/) - Once there were reporters. Now there is “the press.” The difference? Reporters talk tough but are secretly idealists. They're underpaid. They do the work because, to them, it's a calling --- like the Church. “The press” makes sure its hair is correctly blown-dry. Journalism: a good career. Definition of journalism: stenography. How you can tell the difference: "The press" never asks pointed questions. Or follow-up questions. Even simpler way to identify "the press" --- he/she is never a foreign correspendent. To be a member of “the press” is cringe-worthy (though highly lucrative). No drama there. But a journalist, a foreikgn correspondent --- yes, you could build a film around him/her. In the mid-1930s, the prescient film producer Walter Wanger was so enamored of the memoirs of a legendary correspondent that he spent $10,000 of his own money to buy the rights to his book. The screenplay that resulted covered a wide swath of history, dropping in on various revolutions. In 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, revolution was no longer an interesting topic --- impending war was. The movie needed to change. And then Alfred Hitchcock signed on to direct the film. A loyal Brit, he wanted to make patriotic films. But he was now in America; his film needed to start there. And so, dumping all versions of the script, Hitchcock outlined a new story. His main character was a local reporter brimming over with attitude but short on ideas. His boss would pluck him out of the bullpen to get great stories. Does the reporter jump? “Give me an expense account,” he says, “and I'll cover anything.” So, armed with a new, foreign correspondent kind of name (“Hadley Haverstock”), the reporter sets off for Europe. Naturally, the good guy turns out to be the bad guy. Naturally, the correspondent falls in love with the good/bad guy's daughter. And, because it's Hitchcock, there are great suspense scenes that turn into terrific action sequences. [To buy the DVD from Amazon, click here.] The most gripping scene occurs early on: an assassination on a rainy day in Amsterdam. The killer rushes into a crowd of men with identical black umbrellas, then jumps into a car with our hero and his friends close behind. A chase ensues. In a desolate field, dotted by windmills, the killer's car disappears. And then comes a diabolically clever investigation of the windmills. All in all, twenty minutes of pure delight. A set with an 80-foot windmill was the least of it. Hitchcock's budget --- a generous $1.5 million --- allowed him to hire William Cameron Menzies, who'd just won an Oscar for “Gone With the Wind.” Together they conceived of a climactic plane crash that leaves all the main characters bobbing in the Atlantic Ocean.[Hitchcock explains the secret from 3:30 on the video to 6:00.] The 14 writers who worked on the script somehow produced a minor masterpiece. The casting was inspired --- Joel McCrae, George Sanders, Herbert Marshall and Larraine Day --- and the acting is first rate. The anti-fascist message tacked on at the end is considerably less heavy-handed than much of the propaganda that piggybacks news today. It's no surprise that “Foreign Correspondent” got 6 Oscar nominations in 1941. What is surprising is how few Hitchcock fans have seen this movie and how neglected it is in the Hitchcock filmography. You can --- and should --- do something to correct that. BONUS: Hitchcock's two cameos
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Dispatches and Essentials, all in one place](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-dispatches-and-essentials-all-in-one-place/) - Friends --- On the not so-genius-theory that this will be a long siege, it seemed smart to gather the key essentials --- vitamins, soaps and supplies -- I've identified and, in chronological order, the dispatches I've pulled together. DISPATCHES Wash up: a guide to hand soap First, let’s keep ourselves healthy Healing your head Tools
- [HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE 2020: Life Preservers](https://headbutler.com/reviews/holiday-gift-guide-2020-life-preservers/) - THIS HOLIDAY IN BUTLER The 2020 Holiday Gift Guide: Life Preservers The 2020 Holiday Gift Guide: Gifts for Kids The 2020 Holiday Gift Guide: Books and Movies ---- Cynthia McFadden delivered a lovely message the other night for kids who are worried that Santa won’t come because of COVID. Not so, she reports. Santa’s immune
- [HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE 2020: Gifts for Kids](https://headbutler.com/reviews/holidays-2020-gifts-for-kids/) - No child I know needs to spend another minute looking at a screen. Every child I know would welcome more than a minute with an adult who cares. My friend Randie Denker is remarkably accomplished, curious, compassionate and involved. Why? In part because her mother read to her. Then she read to her daughter. And
- [Barack Obama: A Promised Land](https://headbutler.com/reviews/barack-obama-a-promised-land/) - When I was a toddler, the grownups read Time Magazine so they could sound smart at cocktail parties. They didn't read the books reviewed there or dig into The Times for deeper reporting. They didn't have to. After a few minutes on any topic, every gleaned tidbit had been shared and the conversation would move
- [Surviving the Next Wave: Experts say a million may be dead by April. Don't want to join them? Consider this Survival Guide.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-next-wave-experts-say-a-million-may-be-dead-by-april-dont-want-to-join-them-consider-this-survival-guide/) - Now comes the winter of our discontent. 245,000 dead in 9 months? That was just a preview. Here’s the feature: Last week, the country had more than 784,000 cases, more than in any other week of the pandemic. We recorded 10 million coronavirus cases on Monday, November 9, just 10 days after hitting 9 million.
- [The Second Wave: A survival guide](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-second-wave-a-survival-guide/) - NEWS: ICU bed capacity plunged to 0% in Southern California last month, as more and more people were admitted to hospital seeking treatment for Covid-19. Now, many medical facilities simply do not have the space to take in patients who do not have a chance of survival, according to the agency. The LA County EMS
- [Tidings of Comfort and Joy (because there's no better idea)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/tidings-of-comfort-and-joy-because-theres-no-better-idea/) - THE IMAGE (ABOVE) is an ultra-magnified cross-section of a human cell. This has been the longest year of any of our lives, and a bit longer for me professionally, because instead of publishing Monday to Thursday, I published for 40 days in a row at the start of the pandemic. This is not a complaint;
- ["We talked about addiction and pathology in our family" --- the nephew of Walter Tevis recalls his visits with the novelist while he was writing "Queen's Gambit"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/we-talked-about-addiction-and-pathology-in-our-family-the-nephew-of-walter-tevis-recalls-his-visits-with-the-novelist-while-he-was-writing-queens-gambit/) - "The Queen's Gambit" is one of my favorite American novels. As I noted in my review, I optioned it for a movie and wrote a screenplay. The movie didn't happen; 37 years later, it became the most successful scripted series in the history of Netflix. [If you're a subscriber, click here to stream it.] The
- [The Delta variant: It's moving faster. It's deadlier. It either is or is close to the most infectious agent on the earth in recorded medicine.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-delta-variant-we-did-everything-right-and-now-this-how-can-we-protect-ourselves/) - Infuriating, isn’t? You did everything right. Stayed home. Masked everywhere. Gained weight, walked it off. Tipped delivery people generously, donated to food banks, cheered essential workers at 7 PM. Said goodbye to the dying on FaceTime. Most important of all: got vaccinated. And now, out of courtesy, you still wear masks in stores that require
- [Weekend Butler: Covid Roulette. Three idiots, living the dream. Going to school with my daughter. A short beach novel that's smart and hot.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-covid-roulette-three-idiots-living-the-dream-going-to-school-with-my-daughter-a-short-beach-novel-thats-smart-and-hot/) - THE WEEKLY RANT: COVID ROULETTE I know people --- smart, accomplished, respected --- who aren’t vaccinated. Some have told me why. They have "better facts" than scientists like my brother, who works on vaccines and is a great deal smarter than his sibling. They’re champions of natural immunity --- translated, what they're essentially saying: “The
- [Life](https://headbutler.com/reviews/life/) - Keith Richards. Right, he's the Rolling Stone you notice when Mick Jagger's not shaking and singing. The one who kicked his heroin addiction by having all his blood transfused in Switzerland. Who was --- for ten years in a row --- chosen by a music magazine as the rocker "most likely to die." Whose solution to spilling a bit of his father's ashes was to grab a straw and snort. Whose most recent revelation is about the size of Mick's penis. Yeah, that's the guy. Wild man. Broken tooth, skull ring, earring, kohl eyes --- he's Cpt. Jack Sparrow's father, lurching though life as if it's a pirate movie, ready to unsheath his knife for any reason, or none. Got some blow, some smack, a case of Jack Daniels? Having a party? Dial Keith. When you get a $7 million advance for your memoirs, there's no such thing as a "bad" image. But the thing about Keith Richards is, he wants to tell the truth. Like: he didn't have his blood transfused. Like: he didn't take heroin for pleasure or to nod out, but so he could tamp his energy down enough to work. Like: he and Jagger may not be friends but they're definitely brothers --- and if you talk shit about Mick to him, he'll slit your throat. Why does Keith want to undercut his legend? Because he has much better stories to tell. And in "Life," the 547-page memoir he wrote with James Fox, he serves them up like his guitar riffs --- in your face, nasty, confrontational, rich, smart, and, in the end, unforgettable. [To buy the book from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here. For the audio CD, read by Johnny Depp, click here.] Start with the childhood. Keith grew up in a gray, down-and-out suburb of London. School: "I hated it. I'd spend the whole day wondering how to get home without taking a beating." By his teens, he'd figured the system out: "There's bigger bullies than just bullies. There's them, the authorities." He adopts "a criminal mind, anything to fuck them up." His school record reflects this: "He has maintained a low standard was the six-word summary of my 1959 school report, suggesting, correctly, that I had put some effort into the enterprise." His mother is his savior. She likes music, and is a "master twiddler" of the knobs on the radio. When he's 15, she spends ten quid she doesn't have to buy her only child a guitar. (No spoilers here, but much later in the book, you're going to fight tears when he plays a certain song for her.) The rest of the book? Keith Richards and a guitar --- and what a love story: Music was a far bigger drug than smack. I could kick smack; I couldn't quit music. One note leads to another, and you never know what's going to come next, and you don't want to. It's like walking on a beautiful tightrope. What music interests him? Oh, come on: the music of the dispossessed --- black Chicago blues. Mick Jagger, who lives a few blocks away and is prosperous enough to actually buy a few records, also loves this music. To say they bond is to understate: "We both knew we were in a process of learning, and it was something you wanted to learn and it was ten times better than school." The Rolling Stones form. The casting is quite funny: "Bill Wyman arrived, or, more important, his Vox amplifier arrived and Bill came with it." An apartment is acquired; think "Animal House." But also think about dedication so complete that "anybody who strayed from the nest to get laid, or try to get laid, was a traitor." Today bands dream of getting rich. Not the Stones: "We hated money." Their first aim was to be the best rhythm and blues band in London. Their second was to get a record contract. The way to do that was to play. Something happened when the Stones were on stage, something sexy and dangerous and never seen before. The Beatles held your hand. The Stones --- well, as a night watchman said after a concert, "Not a dry seat in the house." In 18 months, the Stones never finished a show. Keith estimates they played, on average, five to ten minutes before the screaming started, and then the fainting, until the security team was piling unconscious teenage girls on the stage like so much firewood. Fame. When it comes, there's no way out; you need it to do your work. The Stones at least brought a new look to it; they pissed on the press, didn't care what the record company wanted. Only the music mattered. As Berry Gordy liked to say, "It's what's in the grooves that counts." "The world's greatest rock band" --- between 1966 and 1973, it's hard to argue that they weren't. Songs poured out of them: "I used to set up the riffs and the titles and the hook, and Mick would fill in. We didn't think much or analyze. I'd go, 'I met a fucking bitch in somewhere city.' Take it away, Mick. Your job now. I've given you the riff, baby." Drugs? Necessary. In the South, a black musician laid it out for Keith: "Smoke one of these, take one of these." Keith would move on beyond grass and Benzedrine to cocaine for the blast and focus, heroin for the two or three day work marathon. Engineers would give their all and fall asleep under the console, to be replaced by others. Keith would soldier on. "For many years," he says, "I slept, on average, twice a week." With money and success, though, there's suddenly time to think --- in Keith's case, about all the things about Mick that drove him nuts. His interest in Society. His egomania. His insecurity. And his promiscuity: Mick never wanted me to talk to his women. They end up crying on my shoulder because they've found out that he has once again philandered. What am I gonna do? The tears that have been on this shoulder from Jerry Hall, from Bianca, from Marianne, Chrissie Shrimpton... They've ruined so many shirts of mine. And they ask me what to do! How the hell do I know? I don't fuck him! I had Jerry Hall come to me one day with this note from some other chick that was written backwards --- really good code, Mick! --- "I'll be your mistress forever." All you had to do was hold it up to a mirror to read it... And I'm in the most unlikely role of counselor, "Uncle Keith." It's a side a lot of people don't connect with me. If only it could be so simple as a man and his guitar! But there are other people involved, in close association, with a lot at stake --- and here comes the business story, the drug story, the power story. It's funny and silly. And, after a while, sad. Mick breaks away from the Stones and makes a solo record: "It was like 'Mein Kampf.' Everybody had a copy but nobody listened to it." Mick gets grand. Keith's lost in drugs. From l982 to 1989, the Stones don't tour; from 1985 to 1989, they don't go into the studio. And now they are rich. Beyond rich. Every time they tour or license a song, their wealth mounts --- Keith, by most estimates, is worth at least $250 million. It's ironic, really, for by any creative analysis, the Stones were over after "Exile on Main Street." And yet, here they are, almost four decades later, capable of producing the most lucrative tour of any year. Like so many things these days, music is about branding --- and there's no bigger brand than the Rolling Stones. Keith may slag his band mates; he'd never mock the Stones. Because the band is, if his version is accurate, really his triumph. Mick provided the flash, but in rock and roll, a great riff will always trump flash. A great riff will also trump time. We love rock for many reasons, and not the smallest is the way it makes us feel young, as if everything's possible and the road is clear ahead of us. And here is Keith Richards, who never grew up and is now so rich he'll never have to. His story slows as it approaches the present, and you start to wonder if this Peter Pan life can get to its end without real pain ahead. And you think, well, there's another side to this --- if Mick started writing tonight, he could have his book out before he's 70. But mostly, you wish you could go back to the beginning of "Life" and start again.
- [The Snow Goose](https://headbutler.com/reviews/snow-goose/) - "The Snow Goose" is about surface reality --- and what lies beneath. Philip Rhayader is a 27-year-old hunchback. His left arm is crippled. And he is an artist, with all the sensitivity that implies. So he moves to an abandoned English lighthouse that overlooks a marshland. Lonely? You bet. But there are consolations --- the rugged beauty of the landscape and the yearly migration of the birds. A story needs people. And here comes Frith, a 12-year-old girl. She carries a goose, wounded by a hunter. Rhayader explains that it's a Canadian snow goose that has been pushed to Europe by strong winds. He's gifted with animals --- he helps the bird heal. "The Snow Goose" is a parable we all hope is true. Friendship is healing. Beauty isn't just skin-deep. Intimacy can morph into love. And love is stronger than death.
- [Weekend Butler: Are we suddenly snowflakes and drama critics? A real Olympic hero. A relevant and thrilling George Clooney movie. Judy Collins & Leonard Cohen.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-are-we-suddenly-snowflakes-and-drama-critics-a-real-olympic-hero-a-relevant-and-thrilling-george-clooney-movie-judy-collins-leonard-cohen/) - ARE WE SUDDENLY DRAMA CRITICS AND SNOWFLAKES? One Olympics ended, another started. The Stupid Olympics, just for Americans. Start with the chaos in Afghanistan. It’s all Biden’s fault? So the chattering class will tell you. (The lunatics want him to resign, having “surrendered” in” Afghanistan, like there has ever been a stately, orderly retreat in
- [Teddy Thompson: Bella](https://headbutler.com/reviews/teddy-thompson-bella/) - The line on Teddy Thompson is that he’s just too fantastic for his own good. Too gifted a writer, too compelling a singer, too handsome a man. And too insistently artistic to release a CD of songs that kids want to buy. It’s a damn shame. Who can save Teddy Thompson? Really smart women. Why do I think this? Personal experience. My veddy British trainer screamed like a schoolgirl when Teddy stepped on stage. After a few songs, my friend Gretl said, “I want to grab him and pull on his hair.” Women over 25 --- he’s catnip to them. (If women --- and a few good men --- feel like buying “Bella” from Amazon, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.) Maybe Vogue could do a think piece on his winsome combination of good cheer and self-loathing. Or, because he can look like England’s Prince William when he’s shaved and cleaned up, he could model for Ralph Lauren. And then, having been turned into Justin Bieber's older brother, Teddy might get TV producers interested in mining his five CDs for songs --- and there are many --- that would hold female viewers at the end of a TV drama. Next stop: stardom. Has the promotion of Teddy Thompson really come to gimmicks? I resist that conclusion, though, clearly, the exquisite quality of his music has, over five CDs, failed to work much magic. Let’s give quality one last shot. Here’s an acoustic version of the CD’s poppiest tune, “Looking for a Girl (Who Knows How to Love Me).” Let’s play another round: “Take Me to the Next One.” And how about the heartbreaking “Take Care of Yourself,” with the best octave jump (starting around 2:45) since Roy Orbison: See the problem? He’s so good it looks easy. I’ve interviewed him before. I’ve teed up all his CDs and their greatest hits. I could guilt-trip you --- the greatest talent you should/must care about --- but that never works. Let’s try a different tack --- a charm offensive. Now “charm” may not be the first word that comes to mind when you’re talking about Teddy Thompson. Yes, he’s in love with love; he wants it badly and, when he loses it, wants it back. But he’s also a toxic lover, who sings “I was born with a love disease/ It’s known as chronic hard to please” and “Forward me to someone new” and “I’m looking for a girl who’s easy on the eye/ But not so fucking stupid she makes me want to cry.” On the other hand, he’s funny and ironic and self-aware, good qualities all, and if you get to know him a little --- if you see it his way --- maybe “Teddy Thompson” will morph into “Teddy,” your pal who just happens to be a fabulous musician. So let’s just….chat with Teddy Thompson. Two things fascinate me about him. One is artistic: how he came to write some of the most intimate lyrics this side of Leonard Cohen. And second, how those songs play out in the real world --- in his relationships with women. Thinking of my Teddy-intoxicated female friends, I started our conversation there. Jesse Kornbluth: Do women see you as a challenge --- the Everest of men? Teddy Thompson: Most women I date don’t know who I am…I’m not famous enough. I meet women in bars and parties. JK: But isn’t there a recognition moment: “You’re the guy in those songs!” TT: Never happens. Anyway, they’re already involved with me before they find out. JK: Do you ever get this reaction from women who like you: “Teddy, I’m hooked on your music, and I think I could help you.” TT: In the beginning, it’s not about music. JK: Eventually, they come to your show. Is that disarming? TT: Only when they say: I’m more into techno. JK: Later, though, your songs suggest that your relationships always sour. TT: Then they see that some of the songs are true. JK: In what way? TT: I like to be on my own a lot. JK: How much time can you spend alone before you feel, as your song has it, “I must get up/ I must go out/ There must be something/ I can’t do without?” TT: A week. JK: During that week, what do you do? TT: Stay home. Listen to music. Watch TV. I pretty much prefer people in short spurts. Here’s my worst nightmare: You meet someone for lunch. They say: “Let’s do something after.” Then they say: “Coffee?” And it goes on all day... JK: Maybe it would be better if you were romantically involved with a musician. TT: Never done it. Might have ego trouble. JK: Do you “need” to write? TT: I finish nothing without a deadline. JK: Isn’t that the real mark of a professional? Don’t people who have nothing to say say it all the time? TT: You know the Chuck Berry story? He got a call: “Come in and cut a record.” He got on a train with 3 songs. He got off the train with 7 more. His biggest hits, in fact. JK: How quickly have you written a song? TT: A day. I play guitar all the time. That’s recreation --- it doesn’t seem like work. When I have to record, I have to finish things. JK: Where are your parents [the legendary English guitarist Richard Thompson and his ex-wife, the folk-rock singer Linda Thompson] as examples or influences? TT: They were just encouraging enough. Which was right on the money. JK: I saw you do a terrific show. After, you were hard on yourself. What happens when you go home? TT: After a show that disappoints me, I have the urge to come home and practice. But usually I just crumble. Fall into bed. Get depressed. Then try to regroup. JK: Therapy? TT: Tried it. Useful. Stopped when I went on tour. JK: Now that no one sells CDs, touring is where you make your living. But I’m not convinced you like performing all that much. TT: I like touring for all that goes with it. Hanging out with friends, drinking in bars, hotels, the guys. It’s what they say: “Aren’t we having fun --- if only we didn’t have to do the gig!” The thing is, I do enjoy it --- when it’s right. JK: How often is that? TT: One in three is great. One in three is ok. And one is terrible. JK: Define “right.” TT: Very little to do with me. It’s the audience and the room. It’s the sound guy, the sound of the band. When I’m alone, it’s easier. Add a band, it’s all up in the air. JK: Would it be easier if your ad libs were less spontaneous? TT: I love not knowing what to say each night. That’s the upside. Even if 20% is on the edge of great or terrible, that’s exciting to me. I’m a confidence player, as they say in sports. I’m not the steady fullback who always comes through for you. JK: Was it was easier when you played in someone else’s band? TT: Like with Rosanne Cash? Yes. It’s fun to be in someone’s band --- freeing. It’s all the things I normally do …with no one looking at me. Then after a while, you go: “Could someone look at me?” Ultimately, music for me is a way to write songs for me to play. JK: In your writing, I hear outrageous variety --- ‘50s rock, classic country, power pop --- and there’s more. TT: Well, I don’t quite know who I want to be. There are so many styles I like. My friend Rufus [Wainwright] is totally distinctive --- he knows who he is and what he does well. On the way to the studio, he won’t hear a country song and think, “Oh, I want to do that.” I do. It’s not a bad thing. JK: Who is Bella? TT: A girlfriend while I was making the record. She’s heard it. But we don’t speak anymore. JK: Then why name the record after her? TT: I’d be lying if I didn’t say I wanted to stick it to her a bit. But not every song is about her. JK: Do you mind that your music makes listeners think: Those songs --- they’re all about Teddy? TT: Not at all. It is all about me. I know it sounds egotistical, but it’s the only way I know how to do it. JK: Flaubert cried when he wrote the death of Madame Bovary. Do you get excited when you write a great line? TT: No. I tend to think something is good later. When I’m writing, I’m just struggling to fill in the gaps. JK: Do you save good lines in notebooks other songwriters might want to steal? TT: It’s all in my head. Sometimes I sing into my computer. But my songwriting philosophy is: survival of the fittest. JK: Do you read reviews? TT: I wish I could say I didn’t. But people send them to you. Or you can’t resist Google. When it’s negative, I generally think: They have a point. Final thought: No. They don’t. Good is good. Better is better. Teddy Thompson is just great.
- [The Diving Bell and the Butterfly](https://headbutler.com/reviews/diving-bell-and-butterfly/) - One minute 43-year-old Jean-Dominique Bauby is a king in Paris: the editor-in-chief of Elle Magazine, father of two, friend to many, a successful man taking a test drive in a new BMW. The next moment he has a stroke that attacks the brain stem. Twenty days later, when he emerges from a coma, he is completely paralyzed.
- [Exiles](https://headbutler.com/reviews/exiles/) - The photograph on the cover doesn't suggest how short they both were, how small. All you notice is their elegance, her pleated skirt just so, his hands shoved casually in the jacket pockets of his natty double-breasted suit. Their gaze is direct. Confident. Elegant. But there's something the photo doesn't catch. Michael Arlen --- author of a novel called “The Green Hat” --- may be more successful than his friends F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. But Michael Arlen isn't who he looks like; he was born Dikran Kouyoumdjian, an Armenian. In London, he won't fit in. Ditto in New York and the South of France. And his wife isn't exactly who she looks like either. Exiles. So their son, Michael J. Arlen, thinks of them. Exiles? How can that be --- they had it all. Michael Arlen's photograph was on the cover of Time Magazine. In the South of France, he owned the very best speedboat and hired a driver for it. Willie Maugham and Winston Churchill came for lunch. “The day he arrived in Chicago, the Daily News ran a front-page story --- saying that he had arrived in Chicago.” But when the fame went away, he was beached. [To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here.] Michael J. Arlen gets the glitter. And, even more, the courage that kept his father going. He tells the delicious story of his father running into Louis B. Mayer, the movie mogul, at the “21” Club in New York. Arlen had just arrived from England; Mayer asked about his plans. “I was just talking to Sam Goldwyn,” Arlen said --- which was true, he'd just encountered Mayer's rival, who had urged him to buy horses. Mayer asked, “How much did he offer you?” Arlen thought fast: “Not enough.” A few minutes later, he had a 30-week contract as a writer at MGM for $1,500 a week. Michael Arlen wants to be a father to his son, so he invites the boy out to California. There's a weekend in Santa Barbara. At Clark Gable's house. Only Gable's not there. It's a house party of tanned men and attractive women. Of cigarettes and liquor. And a terrible moment when his father is talking --- and nobody's listening. Later, the boy finds his father sitting by the pool. “I was out here a long time ago,” his father said. “We used to play tennis. Thalberg --- he always wanted to talk about literature.” These are people of a breed long vanished, and their lives will seem strange. The big duplex apartment. Long lunches. Cocktail time. Sitting in the library at night, reading and drinking. And the sadness: young Michael hearing his father in the afternoon, not writing, just pacing, pacing. Here's his mother, dying, her last words coming across decades, from Monte Carlo: “Let's take the road down by the sea this time. It will be longer, but nothing really starts until ten anyway...” Other stories are right out of Salinger or John O'Hara. Young Michael, at boarding school, not winning and then winning a history prize. Michael, a senior at Harvard, desperate to marry his 19-year-old girlfriend. Their parents don't approve. Oh, the agony, “the back-seat-of-the car fifteen floors above Park Avenue.” And, a little later, Michael, frustrated, making a phone call and getting a job in the Henry Luce empire. I haven't mentioned the writing. I think this book is right up there with the stories of James Salter, but some will find it falsely casual, like a very self-conscious voice talking. Maybe. Consider where Michael J. Arlen came from. And consider, too, that this is an elegy, and elegies should shine. Like this: They were both of them beautiful. They were also, both of them, in a kind of exile, and sought to find a home, a country, in one another, and very nearly did, came as close to it as maybe it is possible to do, but they were each so deep in exile when they met --- and how would they have known that? My mother, so seemingly established --- a title, even, money somewhere in the background, big houses, gardens, furniture, wax for the furniture, polish for the silver, manners, style, and more than manners or style, a seeming feel for independence.... and seeking to escape from her (still unknown) exile, from all those mannered, self-protective people into this unusual man's vitality, life, imagination, energy --- well, as with many men, it turned out to be a fragile, an especially fragile kind of energy. So delicate, really. Too delicate. But that was for later, for much later. It was later that they found these things out, or didn't find them out, just lived them, lived under them. In the beginning, though, it must have been lovely.... Tastes differ. But this writing never fails to thrill me.
- [Weekend Butler: After 40 years, a District Attorney goes to jail. The Squirrel Olympics. That addictive chili sauce. Alfonso Cuarón's hottest movie. Jason Isbell.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-4/) - SHOPPING ON AMAZON: As an Amazon Associate I earn a modest commission from qualifying purchases. How does that work? You start on Butler, buy something on Amazon, Butler gets a commission. And not just on the item reviewed. Anything you buy during a session that starts with a click from Butler helps this site. There
- [Susanne Bier: "After the Wedding" and "In a Better World"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/susanne-bier-after-the-wedding-and-in-a-better-world/) - If you know of Susanne Bier, it's probably because she directed Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant in “The Undoing,” which was pandemic candy on HBO, and “The Night Manager,” a six-hour series based on an old John le Carré novel that no one had been able to crack. I know her because she directed two
- [The Vanishing Point: A Novel](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-vanishing-point-a-novel/) - There is only one kind of novel I like to read and only one kind I like to recommend to you --- novels I can’t put down, novels that, if I must go out, I read on the street. Those books are well written, but they’re not about the writing. They’re about the stories. Mostly,
- [I heard this from a cow: "Vegetables would like a word with you"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/i-heard-this-from-a-cow-vegetables-would-like-a-word-with-you/) - The Weekend Butler included David Remnick’s conversation with John Kerry, who’s off to a climate summit in Europe to try to lower the temperature. It included this: KERRY: There’s a lot of research and work being done now on the diet of cattle, for instance. There’s a thing called asparagopsis –— I believe that’s the
- [Weekend Butler: Have I solved vaccine resistance? Learn this word: asparagopsis. Blind cats who stick together. A gorgeous song, a thrilling movie, and more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-have-i-solved-vaccine-resistance-learn-this-word-asparagopsis-blind-cats-who-stick-together-a-gorgeous-song-a-thrilling-movie-and-more/) - “If you are not vaccinated, your chance of getting through this without having to become either vaccinated or infected is essentially zero.” - Dr. David Persse, Professor of Medicine and Surgery at the Baylor College of Medicine, physician director for EMS for the city of Houston, medical director for the Houston Fire Department, and the
- [Putting It Together: How Stephen Sondheim and I Created "Sunday in the Park with George”](https://headbutler.com/reviews/putting-it-together-how-stephen-sondheim-and-i-created-sunday-in-the-park-with-george/) - In 1982, when James Lapine met Stephen Sondheim, Sondheim was a theater icon. His credits included “West Side Story,” “Gypsy,” “Company,” "Follies,” “A Little Night Music,” “Pacific Overtures” and “Sweeney Todd.” But in 1981 he wrote a play that closed after 16 performances, and he was thinking of quitting the theater and designing video games.
- [Bob Dylan On A Couch & Fifty Cents A Day](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bob-dylan-on-a-couch-fifty-cents-a-day/) - “Eve and Mac McKenzie took me in an’ they were beautiful… I lived with them…and they fed me…and I stayed out all hours an’ came back in and went to sleep on the couch. An’ Peter was there. I was his idol…now he’s 18, 19. He’s in college. He’s a very smart kid…they know me
- ["The war against COVID has changed." With clarity and authority, Guest Butler Lucian Truscott IV explains how, and why, and what you can do to stay healthy.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-war-against-covid-has-changed-with-clarity-and-authority-guest-butler-lucian-truscott-iv-explains-how-and-why-and-what-you-can-do-to-stay-healthy/) - UPDATE: This week, with COVID spiking again, Wirecutter --- the New York Times-owned site that reviews products --- took another look at air purifiers. The Times report: "Our pick among small-space purifiers, the Levoit Core 300, is a true-HEPA machine, and has a CADR of 135, which means it’s effective in rooms up to 200
- [Weekend Butler: ZZ Top's tour buses, Eric Carle's hopeful children's book, Brandi Carlile sings John Prine, and a Florida woman proves the kindness of strangers](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-zz-tops-tour-buses-eric-carles-hopeful-childrens-book-brandi-carlile-sings-john-prine-and-a-florida-woman-proves-the-kindness-of-strangers/) - When your priorities are clear, hard decisions become easier. But not easy. You look forward to stronger commitments to your lifeboat crew and to a personal project that might entertain and even inspire, and you feel energized. You also look back at people and projects you're leaving behind, and you feel a twinge of guilt
- [Viva la Repartee: Clever Comebacks and Witty   Retorts](https://headbutler.com/reviews/viva-la-repartee-clever-comebacks-and-witty-retorts/) - it's better to read a collection of sharp comebacks than to be their originator. It's not only obnoxious, it's;exhausting to be witty on cue. On the other hand, it sharpens the mind to read several hundred pages of great repartee --- which Mark Twain defined as "something we think of twenty four hours too late." Viva la Repartee: Clever Comebacks and Witty Retorts Mardy Grothe It's really hard to be funny when you're on the spot. It requires a mental trick: Someone hands you a set-up line, your onboard computer whirs into action, it processes everything about the last sentence spoken, considers the linguistic possibilities, checks literary and historical references, and, just a beat later, out of your mouth flies a comeback that has everyone laughing and admiring your wit. Can you do that? I can't, most of the time. When I do hit the conversational ball back over the net with enough topspin to make jaws drop, it's usually when I'm at my worst --- that is, when I have, for no particular reason, an unnaturally high opinion of myself. I become as grand as Voltaire, or Wilde, or Churchill. I don't so much deliver a bon mot as let it drop from my lips. Insufferable, yes? Which makes me think it's better to read a collection of sharp comebacks than to be their originator. It's not only obnoxious, it's exhausting to be witty on cue. On the other hand, it sharpens the mind to read several hundred pages of great repartee --- which Mark Twain defined as "something we think of twenty four hours too late." Mardy Grothe has done a public service in collecting these anecdotes. He has, alas, swathed them in cotton; the little essays that begin each chapter are hardly of the same caliber of the witticisms that follow. No matter. Ignore the homilies; cut to the anecdotes. Like these... A reporter called out to Gandhi: 'What do you think of Western civilization?' Gandhi replied: 'I think it would be a good idea.' Dolly Parton was asked how long it takes to get her hair done. 'I don't know,' she replied. 'I'm not there.' (Ms. Parton famously wears wigs.) Noah Webster --- the dictionary maker --- was having his way with the chambermaid when his wife entered. 'I'm surprised,' she exclaimed. Webster replied: 'No, my dear. I am surprised. You are astonished.' At the height of Sen. Joe McCarthy's popularity, Robert Hutchins, the departing president of the University of Chicago, was asked if Communism was still being taught at the university. He snapped: 'Yes, and cancer at the medical school.' During World War II, a Nazi officer inspected Picasso's apartment in Paris. He paused in front of a photo of 'Guernica' and asked, 'Do you do that?' Picasso's reply: 'No, you did.' An interviewer, to a baseball player: 'Last year, you hit two home runs all season; this year, you already have seven. What's the difference?' The player said, 'Five.' Spencer Tracy was asked what he looked for in a script. His reply: 'Days off.' In a movie scene, Jean Harlow asks a salesgirl if she can see through the dress she's trying on. 'I'm afraid you can, miss,' the salesgirl says. 'Good,' says Harlow. 'I'll wear it.' Bill Clinton was once introduced as the most intelligent of the Presidential candidates. He quipped, 'Isn't that like calling Moe the most intelligent of the Three Stooges?' 'What's the best thing about being 104?' The old woman answered: 'No peer pressure.' Legendary quarterback Joe Namath was asked if he preferred Astroturf or grass. 'I don't know,' he cracked. 'I've never smoked Astroturf.' Yes. I know. You hear an imaginary drum roll after a while. But hey --- you smiled, didn't you? And you know you're going to share at least one of these stories very soon. There are 280 pages of these gems in this book. That's enough to give you enough stories for several years. And maybe inspiration to craft a few of your own. Either way, this book is guaranteed both to amuse you and make you smarter. In plain, unfunny English: a bargain. To buy 'Viva la Repartee' from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Shot in the Heart](https://headbutler.com/reviews/shot-heart/) - Gary Gilmore. You vaguely recall: the tough-guy from Utah who shot and killed two Mormon men in the 1970s. Who was then sentenced to die by firing squad. Who, instead of fighting his execution, urged the state to go ahead. Whose last words were, reportedly, "Let's do it." And who became the central figure of "The Executioner's Song," a thick, riveting chronicle by Norman Mailer and, later, a TV movie starring Tommy Lee Jones. That Gary Gilmore is not the Gary Gilmore you will meet here. This one is the brother of Mikal Gilmore, who grew up in the same household, took another path, and, somehow became a gifted writer, mostly for Rolling Stone. And who, nearly twenty years after his brother was executed, published a book about the man he knew. "I have a story to tell," he says in the prologue. "It is the story of murders: murders of the flesh, and of the spirit; murders born of heartbreak, of hatred, of retribution. It is the story of where those murders begin, of how they take form and enter our actions, how they transform our lives, how their legacies spill into the world and the history around us. And it is a story of how the claims of violence and murder end --- if, indeed, they ever end." That is a terrifying story, for it reminds us that Gary Gilmore did not, one dark night, show up with a gun and a will to kill. Things happened along the way; he was molded into a killer. And those influences may go way back --- to the very heart of his family. This is a story, then, of the origins of violence. [To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle download, click here.] Mikal Gilmore looks for the decisive moment and finds, instead, links in a chain. There was the night in childhood when demons seemed to enter the house and hover over his mother and Gary --- and from then on, Gary started having nightmares in which he was beheaded. There was child abuse, courtesy of their father: "We were late, we got in the door, we heard the door shut, and the next thing we knew we were getting razor-strapped across the back." There were shouting matches at dinner, and petty crimes committed on a dare, and then there was the Elvis Presley phase, with slicked hair and curled lips and a lot of attitude. And then, of course, the awful escalation. In a book of chilling moments, two stand out. One occurs when during Mikal's last visit to his brother. The night Gary was arrested, Mikal reminds him, he was on his way to the airport. Where was he headed? Gary tells Mikal he was on his way to Portland, Oregon --- where Mikal was then living. Why? "I think I was coming to kill you," Gary says. "Do you understand why?" Mikal does: "I had escaped the family, or at least I thought I had. And Gary had not." The other moment that will stay with me occurs just before Gary was executed. For his last words were not "Let's do it." They were "There will always be a father." The tragedy of losing people to violence is immense, and I do not want for an instant to slight the victims. But let us consider also --- as this remarkable book does --- that the killer was also a victim. And that this family produced four sons, none of whom became fathers. In these pages, Mikal Gilmore delivers one of the greatest true-crime stories you'll ever read. And more. By placing Gary's tale in the arena of domestic tragedy and stripping all sensationalism from this story, he takes the story to another, deeper level --- the book becomes a masterful study of child abuse and missed opportunities. A prudent reader might conclude that crimes of great violence testify to the high cost of screwed-up childhoods. That reader might also conclude it's much cheaper and wiser to reach out to our hurt, destructive children --- to the kids we instinctively shun --- when we can still connect with them rather than meet them, much later, at the point of a gun. As you give yourself over to this sad, sad story, do check your reactions and see, at the end, if you have become that prudent reader.
- [Dodsworth](https://headbutler.com/reviews/dodsworth/) - William Wyler got his first Oscar nomination for "Dodsworth," launching a 20-year span of remarkable achievement and honors. He's the most nominated director in Academy Awards history with twelve nominations. He is the only director in Hollywood history to win the Academy Award for Best Direction three times (for "Ben-Hur," "The Best Years of Our Lives," and "Mrs. Miniver." His other films include "Roman Holiday" "The Letter."Wuthering Heights" "Funny Girl" --- get the idea?) Under his direction, 14 actors won Oscars. Wyler's movies, in total, generated 127 nominations and 39 awards. Of his films, my favorite is "Dodsworth." Because it's the exact opposite of today's "event" movies. And because it's a film no studio would green light today.
- [Bringing Home the Birkin: My Life in Hot Pursuit of the World's Most Coveted Handbag](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bringing-home-birkin-my-life-hot-pursuit-worlds-most-coveted-handbag/) - You can't go into Hermes and buy a Birkin bag. Michael Tonello cracked the code and was able to buy Birkins from Hermès is the centerpiece of the book. It is hilarious -- if, that is, you are amused by the foibles of the rich and those who cater to them, It is tender --- if, that is, you can be touched by Tonello's burgeoning friendships with the women who became his best customers. It is even thrilling --- if, that is, your heart rate jumps when a French colleague tries to rip Tonello off and Tonello must Take Steps.
- [Weekend Butler: The best cold squash soup, a podium for cat orators, Margaret Mead explains "civilization," Otis Redding's last performance, and a space story that would terrify Bezos and Branson](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-3/) - PODIUM CAT SCRATCHER FOR INDOOR CATS (IN THE PHOTO) As I'm new to cats, I believed they only like tunnels and boxes, like the arty Cat House I recently featured. It turns out they also like to give speeches. This 22.9" x 13" x 13" podium has features that encourage cats to stand up and
- [The Plot](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-plot/) - Jimmy Fallon has an annual Summer Reads competition, with viewers voting for their favorites. The other night, he revealed the winner: Butler readers knew "The Plot" was a winner on May 16. In case you missed it, consider this a friendly reminder. I, meanwhile, have moved on to read a novel completely against my religion:
- [French Notebooks](https://headbutler.com/reviews/french-notebooks/) - One shelf of my bookcases is filled with composition books, the detritus of decades of journalism. I’m not alone in using the once-traditional notebook of college students. These pseudo-marbled notebooks have been favored by Michel Basquiat and Eddie Vedder. And Tina Brown. But there are others... French.
- [Weekend Butler: The spice of the summer, the music of the summer, and a conversation you'll never forget](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-the-spice-of-the-summer-the-music-of-the-summer-and-a-conversation-youll-never-forget/) - THE SPICE OF SUMMER: Lao Gan Ma Chili Crisp Sauce With Roasted Chili Pepper Flakes I thought a jar would last all summer. In two weeks, I've used half of it. It is true: you can use it on everything. You can add it to pasta sauce. Puts kick in mayonnaise. The chili oil is
- [Lao Gan Ma Chili Crisp Sauce With Roasted Chili Pepper Flakes](https://headbutler.com/reviews/lao-gan-ma-chili-crisp-sauce-with-roasted-chili-pepper-flakes/) - Tao Huabi started as a street vendor selling noodles and sauce to students near her hometown in the southern Chinese province of Guizhou. In the mid-1990s, she began to bottle her sauces. She became a billionaire. Sam Sifton, in the Times: "It’s magical: a boon to noodle soups and kitchen-sink stir-fries, to eggs and cucumbers,
- [Weekend Butler: A funny series in snowbound Norway, an "evidence" bag, Glenn Gould almost dances, and a short book to challenge the near-universal gloom](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-2/) - EVIDENCE BAG Excellent carry-all for writing supplies, makeup, medicine, an iPad mini, and, I suppose, “evidence.” 7.25"h x 9.5"w. Made of 95% recycled polypropylene. [To buy it from Amazon for $9.99, click here.] GLENN GOULD ALMOST … DANCES In this video, Glenn Gould is practicing Johann Sebastian Bach's Partita No.2 in C minor. Two minutes
- [Reiki: A Comprehensive Guide](https://headbutler.com/reviews/reiki/) - We tend to think that any kind of healing which originated in Asia is thousands of years old. We imagine that hermetic monks took it for decades of test drives before offering it to the faithful. And then, in the background of an Eastern treatment room, someone found a picture of a venerable deity and asked a question. And in that way, the healing wisdom came to America. So the first surprise of Reiki is that it originated with Mikao Usui, most likely in 1922. That year, he went to a Japanese sacred site to fast and meditate. He got a bonus: subtle vibrations above his head. He felt healed. More, he felt he had the power to heal. And, in short order, he taught 2,000 Japanese how to use this power. Reiki is tricky to describe, and so the first accomplishment of this excellent guide is the description of what Reiki isn't. It is not "energy medicine." It does not require a diagnosis. The practitioner doesn't need to concentrate or "direct" the treatment. The practitioner need not be in the same room, or even the same city. The patient need not be awake for the treatment to work. So what is Reiki? According to Pamela Miles --- who is probably the senior Reiki master now practicing in the United States --- it's an experience. More like meditation than medicine. And it's powerful stuff: "Reiki opens an inner spiritual connection that can significantly change the way a person experiences life, a sense of connectedness that can help transform negative attitudes and create a sense of meaning and purpose." The claims are many and varied: Sleep better. Work clearer. Breathe more deeply. Enjoy better digestion. Get relief from chronic pain. Stay calm in emergencies. Live more in the moment. Best of all, you can treat yourself. "The foundation of Reiki is self-healing," Miles writes. All it takes: a few simple hand placements. Aw, c'mon, you say. Pamela Miles is unapologetic on this point: "We are used to valuing effort --- Reiki is effortless." But....you must be trained. Once you've been trained, "you can lightly lay your hand on your head, chest, abdomen, or any place that hurts, anytime you need to regain your center, restore your well-being or relieve pain --- even while you're in a cab, watching TV, or on the phone with your mother-in-law." Okay, but what does the practice involve? Ms. Miles is not secretive or even mysterious on this point, just honest --- you can't learn Reiki from a book. But you may badly wish her to tell you more when you read some of the stories at the end of 'Reiki: A Comprehensive Guide.' Like: The girl who overdosed and arrived at the hospital without any vital signs. And still had none after two hours of resuscitation. A doctor trained in Reiki put her hand on the girl's forehead to say goodbye. The girl revived. A week later, her only symptom was a minor palsy. By now, I bet you're totally frustrated. How does Reiki work? "We don't yet know," Miles says. But it does work, of that I'm convinced. Will you be? I can't say; it depends on where you are in your life and your willingness to believe that energy vibrating from one person can be directed to heal another. And it depends on whether you read this book. My bet: if you do, you'll want to know much, much more. To buy 'Reiki' from Amazon.com, click here. To buy the Kindle edition of "Reiki" from Amazon.com, click here. To read more about Pamela Miles and her Reiki practice, click here.
- ["Stuff Happens"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/stuff-happens-2/) - It's an exciting read because, unlike most political dramas, it's intensely psychological. It's not always clear what anyone wants. (Well, Cheney is not exactly opaque.) And characters make statements for effect --- indeed, for such obvious effect that other characters can't believe they're supposed to believe them. It's boardroom chess, and it sucks you in, even though you know how it all worked out.
- [MOSAIC: War Monument Mystery](https://headbutler.com/reviews/mosaic-war-monument-mystery/) - War is, by definition, an indictment of a flaw in the character of nations and human intelligence, a tragedy, a defeat no matter who wins. Of America’s post-World War II conflicts, the Korean War (1950-1953) has a special distinction: It is almost completely forgotten. Approximately 3 million people died in it, most of them Korean
- [Weekend Butler: "Holiday" music you'll hear nowhere else, a movie you don't know and will never forget, Timothy Snyder on the most urgent issue we're ignoring,  and the summer I learned to drink beer](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-holiday-music-youll-hear-nowhere-else-a-movie-you-dont-know-and-will-never-forget-timothy-snyder-on-the-most-urgent-issue-were-ignoring-and-the-summer-i-learned-to-drink/) - HOLIDAY MUSIC Not feeling the marching band, the parade, the fireworks. Very much feeling "Knock Knock" by Mac Miller, a white kid from Pittsburgh who started rapping when he was 8 and turned pro in his teens. He was an oddity -- a suburban white kid in an urban Black genre --- and then kids
- [Weekend Butler: Your pantry wants -- no, needs -- this sauce. Your cat wants  -- no, needs -- this. A great Hitchcock thriller you've never seen. Streaming: Jesse & Ghislaine have their "moment."](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-your-pantry-wants-no-needs-this-sauce-your-cat-wants-no-needs-this-a-great-hitchcock-thriller-youve-never-seen-streaming-jesse-ghislaine-have-their-moment/) - CAT HOUSE There was never a cat because I don't like them and they know it and, self-amused sadists that are, they come right to me. But now there is a cat. A model cat. Self-amused... and amusing. And smart. He likes to be fed at an ungodly hour, which is ordinarily not a plus,
- [Travel North America: (and Avoid Being a Tourist)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/travel-north-america-and-avoid-being-a-tourist/) - Two years ago, Jeralyn Gerba and Pavia Rosati published Travel Anywhere (And Avoid Being a Tourist): Travel trends and destination inspiration for the modern adventurer. Drawing on the travel they’d done for their website, Fathomaway.com, they produced a travel book that broke with tradition –-- they were writing for “modern travelers,” they said. “We find
- [Weekend Butler: Could coffee save your life? Jimmy Fallon and Lin-Manuel Miranda sing for Broadway.  English decadence.  A hit TV series that couldn't be made now. And more.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-could-coffee-save-your-life-jimmy-fallon-and-lin-manuel-miranda-sing-for-broadway-english-decadence-a-hit-tv-series-that-couldnt-be-made-now-and-more/) - Fireworks! Mass burnings of masks! That's New York, with 70% of us having received at least one shot. In the restaurants, predictable behavior: people are loud and joyous, like the last year never happened. Let's overlook that all-too-human behavior and look into the light... the bright lights. Like.... "BROADWAY’S BACK!" WITH LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA AND JIMMY
- [Father's Day 2021: A few good things](https://headbutler.com/reviews/fathers-day-2021-a-few-good-things/) - Last year I said I didn't want a single thing. Not in a country that has one child in six going hungry and has one in four kids inadequately fed. In honor of my brother, a remarkable father who lives near San Diego, I donated to the San Diego Food Bank. In New York, I
- [Summer Music](https://headbutler.com/reviews/summer-music/) - Summer music is reggae. It always was. It ever will be. Late nights, dancing outside, beer from the bottle, joints passed around, the body eradicating the mind. These are the greatest hits. BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS When Bob Marley died in 1981, he left behind a complicated legacy: music you could dance to, music
- [Father's Day 2020](https://headbutler.com/reviews/fathers-day-2020/) - I don’t want a single thing. Not in a country that had one child in six going hungry last year and has one in four kids inadequately fed this year. Not with the government doing everything possible to limit benefits to the needy. In honor of my brother, a remarkable father who lives near San
- [Weekend Butler: The painting that saved Bill Murray's life, Eric Carle's search for a lost cat,  Best TikTok,  the sickest and funniest film, and more](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler/) - THE PAINTING THAT SAVED BILL MURRAY’S LIFE The painting (above) is "The Song of the Lark,” by Jules Adolphe Breton. The story is Bill Murray's. Because he's Bill Murray, someone laughed. He's not telling a funny story . BEST TIKTOK EVER (FOR ADULT NEW YORKERS) Click here. THE WEEKEND POEM “Aedh Wishes for the Cloths
- [The Confidence Men: How Two Prisoners of War Engineered the Most Remarkable Escape in History](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-confidence-men-how-two-prisoners-of-war-engineered-the-most-remarkable-escape-in-history/) - Margalit Fox --- you know her byline because, over two decades, she wrote 1,400 memorable obituaries for The New York Times --- loves great stories that have been overlooked. A few years ago, reading an anthology called “Grand Deception: The World’s Most Spectacular and Successful Hoaxes, Impostures, Ruses and Frauds,” she came across an essay
- [Tim O'Brien: In the Lake of the Woods](https://headbutler.com/reviews/lake-woods/) - After a crushing political defeat, John Wade and his wife Kathy retreat to a cabin in the Lake of the Woods, a part of Northern Minnesota so remote that there's nothing but water and islands between it and Canada. Thirty-six hours later, Kathy disappears...
- [Rainy, Cold, Holiday Weekend Edition: brief vacations, great escapes... a click away.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/rainy-cold-holiday-weekend-edition-long-ago-and-far-away/) - It rained on Friday as the segment of my city that hadn't left on Thursday jammed the highways, and it rained all night and most of Saturday so that as much as you wanted to go outside you wanted a working fireplace and dry wood much more, and it's still too cold and wet out
- [Weekend Butler: Required Memorial Day reading for CEOs...and you. A version of "Hallelujah" Leonard Cohen never imagined. A dog does Yoga. And how civilization started.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-required-memorial-day-reading-for-ceos-and-you-a-version-of-hallelujah-leonard-cohen-never-imagined-a-dog-does-yoga-and-how-civilization-started/) - ERIC CARLE The great children's book writer --- someone buys a copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar every 30 seconds --- died this week at 91. His last drawings include several with “50 cents” written onto the image. Why? "Children should know they too can sell their artwork.” LEONARD COHEN'S "HALLELUJAH" AS YOU'VE NEVER HEARD
- [Weekend Butler: Where I'll be on 9/24. Still More Allbirds.  "My Wife Thinks You're Dead." The Most Relevant Movie. Bob Dylan at 80.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-where-ill-be-on-9-24-still-more-allbirds-my-wife-thinks-youre-dead-the-most-relevant-movie-bob-dylan-at-80/) - WHERE WILL I BE ON SEPTEMBER 24? BOB DYLAN AT 80 When I was a tot compiling my first book, I arrived at the moment every writer dreads — many words to produce and a limited time to produce them. Crunch time. No choice in the matter. I was looking at an all-nighter. There are
- [Weekend Butler: The trouble in Israel (and here); a gifted artist in Paris (and here): The Ghost Writer (1) and The Ghost Writer (2)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-the-trouble-in-israel-and-here-a-gifted-artist-in-paris-and-here-the-ghost-writer-1-and-the-ghost-writer-2/) - Driving downtown, I saw that the police had closed off the street --- you couldn’t get near the mosque. I cruised by a synagogue: these police had a dog. American airlines have suspended flights to Israel. In case you think that what happens in the Middle East isn’t hotwired to your life, think again. How
- [An Officer and a Spy](https://headbutler.com/reviews/an-officer-and-a-spy/) - We can't see the film because no American distributor wants to be in business with Roman Polanski, a sex offender. But... we can read the book.
- [Barry Nalebuff: A fateful encounter in Aspen, a missed opportunity  (Honest Tea), a second chance (Real Made Overnight Oats). Try them?](https://headbutler.com/reviews/barry-nalebuff-a-fateful-encounter-in-aspen-a-missed-opportunity-honest-tea-a-second-chance-real-made-overnight-oats-try-them/) - He was a bartender, with bartender’s good looks and a cheerful bartender personality. He liked to party. I know this because when he was interviewing Colin Powell for Plum TV during the Aspen Ideas Festival, he asked the four-star General then serving as Secretary of State where he liked to party. That is why Plum
- [Weekend Butler: Stanley Tucci's glasses, Christopher Walken reads Maurice Sendak, Bill Bryson teaches you almost everything... and condom sales are up](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-stanley-tuccis-glasses-christopher-walken-reads-maurice-sendak-bill-bryson-teaches-you-almost-everything-and-condom-sales-are-up/) - I’ve been in Portland, Oregon all week, packing my daughter up. A few days before I arrived, the city ended indoor dining for at least two weeks. A minor inconvenience. A major heartache: the tents that are home to the homeless. They line the drive from the airport. They’re on city streets. They’re by the
- [Weekend Butler:  James Carville and "The Walking Woke," Charles Dickens  sleepwalks, Raymond Chandler's memo to his assistant, and the book I'm reading now (you might, too)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-james-carville-and-the-walking-woke-charles-dickens-sleepwalks-raymond-chandlers-memo-to-his-assistant-and-the-book-im-reading-now-you-might-too/) - JAMES CARVILLE WOKES UP In an interview, political adviser James Carville --- author of the famous campaign slogan “It’s the economy, stupid,” and my personal favorite, “No man stands so tall as when he stoops to kiss an ass” --- said the unsayable: "Wokeness is a problem." If he’s right, we’re about three weeks away
- [Cooking with vegetables --- if McDonald's will do it, what's stopping you?](https://headbutler.com/reviews/cooking-with-vegetables-if-mcdonalds-will-do-it-whats-stopping-you/) - It is a law among sensible investors that you do not buy individual stocks. But when I read about all the fast food chains that sell plant-based burgers and saw that McDonald's --- which buys about 580 million pounds of meat a year --- will introduce meatless burgers this year, I did the unthinkable, I
- [Víkingur Ólafsson](https://headbutler.com/reviews/vikingur-olafsson/) - Glenn Gould, move over. There’s a new kid on the block. Víkingur Ólafsson has been described as "Iceland's Glenn Gould,” which is both accurate and critical shorthand. But it’s not hype. Ólafsson is young, born in 1984. He was launched with a big push from Deutsche Grammophon. His concerts are confounding: the mastery, the speed.
- [1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List](https://headbutler.com/reviews/1000-foods-to-eat-before-you-die-a-food-lovers-life-list/) - Mimi Sheraton, once the restaurant critic of The New York Times, is the ultimate authority on food. It’s easy to be flip about what she’s created here and call “1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die” a 5-star bucket list, but it’s more than that
- [Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Fit, Sexy, and Smart -- Until You're 80 and Beyond](https://headbutler.com/reviews/younger-next-year/) - At the office, a kid is looking at you as if something's wrong --- the EJECT button has been pushed but you're still there. At a party, an attractive man/woman passes by --- and just doesn't see you. That's when you're start to think: My God, I am old. But that's absurd. "Old" is what your parents were at your age. Hell, at your age minus 10. You? You're okay. Could weigh less. Could be more buffed. Could eat better. But no real complaints. Great. Think that will last? Try this quick test: 1) Do you do aerobics for 45 minutes four days a week? 2) Do you lift weights two other days each week? 3) Have you stopped eating crap? 4) Outside of your job, is there something you deeply care about? 5) Do you have a life partner who really cares about you --- or a bunch of good friends? If you can say yes to those questions, you have no need for "Younger Next Year." But if you can't, please read on, because if Lodge (a doctor) and Crowley (his 70-odd-year-old patient) are right, they can help you live to a ripe old age, with your wits intact and your body ready to romp. [To buy the paperback for men from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] There is also a book for women. [To buy the paperback of "Younger Next Year for Women" from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition for women, click here.] This idea --- live long and well, then die fast --- is very much in the air these days. It's the Grail. No lingering disease. No chronic conditions. You run the machine at a fairly high speed for eight or nine decades and then make a quick trip to the junk heap. To die in your own bed at 90 --- sweet. Lodge and Crowley bluntly tell you that the final third of your life can be just that satisfying --- that, if you do what they tell you, you can be 60 years old and "be functionally younger every year for the next five or even ten years." Why? Because "70 percent of what you feel as aging is optional. You don't have to go there." How do you stop aging? You suspect the answer is "a lifestyle change," and it is. Lodge and Crowley believe that "50 percent of all illnesses and injuries in the last third of your life can be eliminated by changing your lifestyle in the way we suggest." Which is a euphemism. "The way we suggest" is almost certainly a total change for nearly everyone. When I was a Good Person, I worked out three or four days a week. I thought I was in damned good cardio shape. But I was nowhere near what these guys call fit. What they want from us is nothing less than a second job: six days of hard work, without fail, each and every week. They don't apologize for this. Or sugarcoat it. They say: "Be a guy; suck it up....six days, serious exercise, until you die." Until you're 50, you may be too busy for a six-day commitment; they'll consider four or five for you. But "after 50, six is mandatory." They explain why. Our bodies are gifts from our ancestors, they say; we're hard-wired to run all day to find our food. Our bodies don't know that we sit at computers 60 to 90 hours a week; they want to move. And they want to be fed as if we were still roaming the Savannah. So have one more Big Mac with fries, and then cherish the memory --- that part of your life is over. Ditto more than two glasses of wine a night. Ditto... but you get the idea. For every negative, Lodge and Crowley offer a positive. You will feel great. You will look better. You may even lose weight. And, the ultimate --- you'll be alive. Want to live long and hard and happy? Know someone in his/her 50s or 60s who's starting to feel creaky? Please consider investing in this readable, tart, funny, profane and ultimately exhilarating book.
- [Glenn Gould:  The Goldberg Variations](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bach-goldberg-variations/) - In 1741, a Russian count who lived in Leipzig had trouble sleeping. To calm his nerves, Count Kaiserling ordered Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, his personal pianist, to play in the next room. And the Count asked Johann Sebastian Bach to provide Goldberg with some clavier pieces --- music that would be soothing but cheerful. Bach, at the height of his genius, was not about to knock off some insignificant ditties. Instead, he produced what's been described as “the most serious and ambitious composition ever written for harpsichord.” In form, the piece consists of an aria, thirty variations, and a repeat of the aria. The jaw-dropping achievement? Instead of writing variations on the melody, Bach built the piece by embellishing the ground bass line. The Count loved Bach's music. “Dear Goldberg,” he would say, “do play me one of my variations.” Or so the story goes. The Count claimed ownership --- he had, after all, paid Bach with a golden goblet filled with a hundred gold pieces --- but this work has never been known as the Kaiserling Variations. For more than two hundred years, it was the Goldberg Variations. And then, in 1955, the cognoscenti dubbed it the “Gouldberg” Variations. Glenn Could was a certified prodigy. He could read music when he was just 3 years old and was composing at 5; now, at 22, he was about to make his debut for Columbia Records. His choice of music: The Goldberg Variations. And he'd play them not, as written, but on a piano. Gould's recording sessions were instant legend. He had astonishing requirements: the right room temperature, the right chair. Before recording, he would soak his hands and arm to the elbows in hot water for twenty minutes. Eccentric? He hummed as he played. He rocked in his chair until it squeaked. But his interpretation was revolutionary: up-tempo, dramatic, technically dazzling. No pianist has ever been hyped like Gould. Record of the year? Try the decade. But even that was too small. No sooner had Gould's Goldberg Variations been released than critics were calling it one of the century's greatest recordings. And the world agreed: Gould's recording sold and sold and sold. [To buy the 1955 recording from Amazon, click here. To download it from Amazon, click here.] Gould's astonishing debut --- imagine if Bruce Springsteen had made "Born to Run" at, say, 15 --- is the starting point of a terrific new documentary about him. "Genius Within" is probably the most intimate portrait we'll ever have of Gould; it's also bristling with insight about creativity, innovation and more. Lots to look at, lots to think about --- until the season's "quality" films are released, this is the movie to see. Gould quickly cemented his legend --- as musician and eccentric. And then he topped himself. In 1981, the now 50-year-old pianist decided to re-record the Goldberg Variations in the same New York studio that was the setting for his 1955 debut. Pressed for an explanation, Gould cited the advances in technology: stereo, Dolby. But more to the point, he said, he had listened again to his 1955 recording --- and he'd found it “very nice, but 30 interesting, independent-minded pieces going their own way.” His self-assessment was harsh: His original recording contained "things that pass for expressive fervor in your average conservatory, I guess." [To buy the 1981 recording from Amazon, click here. To download it from Amazon, click here. To buy “A State of Wonder: The Complete Goldberg Variations (1955 & 1981)” as recorded by Glenn Gould, with a Gould interview, from Amazon.com, click here.] Some critics find Gould's second recording superior: thoughtful, energetic, the interpretation of a mature artist. Others cite technical glitches and phrasing that couldn't be explained as “eccentric”. Clearly, there's no end to debate when the subject is Glenn Gould. But the overarching fact about this 1981 recording overwhelms the critical conversation --- this was Gould's last record. He died just a few weeks after it was released. My opinion? Sorry. I'm much more interested in the sharpening of intelligence that comes when you compare two of anything. And, of course, I'm of the view that there's no “wrong” choice here. Because to say one version or another of the Goldberg Variations is "better" is to miss the point. This is music --- in any version --- that belongs in every life. For the Glenn Gould web site, click here.
- [Weekend Butler: Derek Chauvin's ex-wife; the best American hotel for readers; a great unknown movie, and an Oscar podcast featuring.. uh, me](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-derek-chauvins-ex-wife-the-best-american-hotel-for-readers-a-great-unknown-movie-and-an-oscar-podcast-featuring-uh-me/) - THE LINE THAT JUMPED OUT AT ME THIS WEEK (BECAUSE I’M FEELING THAT WAY, AS YOU MAY BE) All the people we used to know They’re an illusion to me now - Bob Dylan, “Tangled Up in Blue" HARD TO BELIEVE, BUT… Derek Chauvin’s ex-wife, at 43, became Mrs. Minnesota in 2019. THE ACADEMY AWARDS…
- [Poetry Month, Part 2: "And did you get what/You wanted from this life, even so?/I did./And what did you want?/To call myself beloved, to feel myself/Beloved on this earth."](https://headbutler.com/reviews/poetry-month-part-2-and-did-you-get-what-you-wanted-from-this-life-even-so-i-did-and-what-did-you-want-to-call-myself-beloved-to-feel-myself-beloved-on-this-earth/) - Was it only a week ago that I posted Part 1 of the Poetry Month special? So much happened. And one dominant event: the trial of Derek Chauvin. Watching that video again and again: brutal. And the verdict: a swirl of emotions, mostly great sadness. Thirteen words jumped out; for me, it's the deepest line
- [Snowblind: A Brief Career in the Cocaine Trade](https://headbutler.com/reviews/snowblind-brief-career-cocaine-trade/) - In the mid-1970s, when I was living with a woman who defined upward mobility, I found myself at Elaine’s seated next to a writer who was already famous. She raved about a book by a first-time writer no one knew – like: how could that be? I bought the book the next day and, because it was not just good but outright great, I read it as slowly as possible, making the pleasure last. Then I called the author. Bob Sabbag turned out to be small and wiry and not likely to be going to Elaine’s any time soon. At one point, I suggested he read an article in The New Yorker. “This month’s issue?” he asked, and at that moment we became friends for life. This week, for the first time in 35 years, I read Bob’s book again. It is still that good. Better, in a way, because although it was a big book for a generation of young writers, no one has successfully imitated his style. It’s as Louis Armstrong said of Bix Beiderbecke: “Lotta guys want to play like Bix. Ain’t nobody done it yet.” You’ll notice I have not led with the subject of the book. For good reason. “Snowblind: A Brief Career in the Cocaine Trade” is the story of a successful package designer named, in these pages, Zachary Swan. He starts smoking marijuana and soon discovers the high school truth that if you buy a pound and sell 15 ounces yours is free. Then he moves on to cocaine, where a small chunk is exponentially more profitable. We now know what coke is: addictive, reality-distorting and available mostly from people who would be called “bad company.” In the early 1970s, it was something much more innocent: a party drug. And it was a kind of amusing challenge: How do you smuggle a kilo of the stuff from Colombia to New York without getting busted? Zachary Swan did it successfully many times. That is the real subject of the book --- how a prankster uses his creativity and immaturity in the service of an enterprise that will put him behind bars for quite some time if he screws up or has bad luck. Essentially, it’s “The Thomas Crown Affair,” just with a different commodity. [To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] There are wonderful characters in these pages: Honest Ellery, Nice Mickey (and, yes, there’s a Mean Mickey too). Crazy Leslie (because someone must have a gun), the Lothario (“one of the world’s most accomplished assmen”), Bad Breaks Billy, the Canadian --- you get the idea. And there are brilliant importing schemes: coke in religious statues, coke in rolling pins delivered to unsuspecting girlfriends, coke in gifts carried home by couples who have won a “contest” created by Swan. What’s absent in this book? Check out the first page. What don’t you see? Verb contractions. That’s because Bob Sabbag was a Latin scholar educated by Jesuits; he writes with the formal precision of a diamond cutter. Sabbag writes in an afterword, “Never in the history of American literature, I would venture to say, has a book been purchased by so many people who had never before purchased a book in their lives.” Fools! Yes, this is a how-to book --- for 1974. But these techniques went out with the Nixon administration; it’s a much nastier business today. “Snowblind” now has cult status. It’s an “underground classic.” Too bad. The book is a romp, a giggle, a writing lesson, a cautionary tale --- and, in its category, a kind of masterpiece. I envy all of you who have never read it and have such gems as the Duplicate Bag Switch ahead of you.
- ["You can blow out a candle/ But you can't blow out a fire/ Once the flames begin to catch/ The wind will blow it higher"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/you-can-blow-out-a-candle-but-you-cant-blow-out-a-fire-once-the-flames-begin-to-catch-the-wind-will-blow-it-higher/) - Chris Wallace was the only American journalist permitted to interview Vladimir Putin face-to-face at the Helsinki summit in 2018. As Craig Lambert writes in a profile of Wallace, the longtime host of Fox News Sunday asked Putin a blunt, unprecedented question: “Why do so many people who criticize you end up dead?” For good measure,
- [Sharon Olds: Strike Sparks](https://headbutler.com/reviews/sharon-olds/) - Her father is dying, and her plane's been cancelled, but there's another, leaving in just a few minutes, not in this terminal, but it will get her to her father before he dies, and so Sharon Olds runs --- I swear, to you, she runs as no woman has ever run before. (Does she make it? Read this.) She's making love. Though it looks like she's having sex, because the writing is so specific. (Sorry. No links. Buy the book.) But as much as Sharon Olds revels when he does [redacted] to her and she [redacted], she's not just about the act but about its meaning. (“How do they do it, the ones who make love without love?” she wonders.) Her son, he's so big now. (How did it happen? When? Read this.) And her daughter --- brushing her hair, Sharon Olds can't help thinking: What does it all mean? Parents, lovers/husbands, children. Sharon Olds deals mostly --- I could almost say: deals only --- with the big topics. At least, the big topics if you have parents, husbands/lovers and kids. And she deals with them so directly, so bluntly, that it may come as a surprise to those who do not know her writing that she is a poet, and, for my money, the best we have. [To buy the book from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] The subject of a lot of poetry is poetry: the poem taking its place --- or wanting to --- in the great chain of literature. Sharon Olds has done her reading. And she has her influences. But the beauty of her writing is that you see none of that. All you get is a woman, looking and listening, and then talking. “Do what you are going to do, and I will tell you about it,” she writes at the end of a poem about her parents, and that's the strength of her work --- it's just the facts she thinks you need, plus her take on them. Sharon Olds can go this deep because she lives this deep. She does not read newspapers or watch TV. “The amount of horror one used to hear about in one village could be quite extreme,“ she explains. “But one might not have heard about all the other villages' horrors at the same time.” Also, she doesn't drink coffee or smoke, and she limits her wine. Her life is marriage, kids, work. Which, she says, accounts for accessibility of her poems: I think that my work is easy to understand because I am not a thinker. How can I put it? I write the way I perceive, I guess. It's not really simple, I don't think, but it's about ordinary things -- feeling about things, about people. I'm not an intellectual, I'm not an abstract thinker. And I'm interested in ordinary life. So I think that our writing reflects us. “Strike Sparks” is a selection of her poems from 1980 to 2002. It tells a story, though that wasn't her intent along the way. (“I'm just interested in human stuff like hate, love, sexual love and sex. I don't see why not.”) In these poems, we follow the dying of a father, the growth of children, the deepening of love through sex. And more. Let me not cast Sharon Olds as the literary equivalent of a thriller writer who can swear like a sailor. Her observations are often small and wry, what you might find in a newspaper column: Whenever I see large breasts on a small woman, these days, my mouth drops open, slightly. But, mostly, she does what the greatest poets do: She knows what you feel, but can't find the words to say. Married to someone you actually like? Read The Wedding Vow. Those last words --- would “wow” be appropriate? Yes, Sharon Olds has politics, but only briefly in these poems, and mostly dating back to Vietnam. (If interested, you might read her letter to Laura Bush, declining dinner at the White House. The restraint is amazing. And, again, so is the last line.) Writing about Sharon Olds, I feel I'm typing with my knuckles. Let me get out of the way; she can speak for herself. I Could Not Tell I could not tell I had jumped off that bus, that bus in motion, with my child in my arms, because I did not know it. I believed my own story: I had fallen, or the bus had started up when I had one foot in the air. I would not remember the tightening of my jaw, the irk that I'd missed my stop, the step out into the air, the clear child gazing about her in the air as I plunged to one knee on the street, scraped it, twisted it, the bus skidding to a stop, the driver jumping out, my daughter laughing Do it again. I have never done it again, I have been very careful. I have kept an eye on that nice young mother who lightly leapt off the moving vehicle onto the stopped street, her life in her hands, her life's life in her hands. BONUS VIDEO To buy “Gold Cell” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “The Dead and the Living” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “Satan Says” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “Blood, Tin, Straw: Poems” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “The Unswept Room” from Amazon.com, click here.
- [David Byrne: American Utopia](https://headbutler.com/reviews/david-bryne-american-utopia/) - What’s it about? It begins with Byrne alone, at a table… well, let him tell it: "In its simplest terms, you’ve got a person who’s very much inside himself. The show starts off with me holding a brain, and then it moves to a person who gets involved with a larger community, and that’s the band. There are 11 of them plus me, so there are a dozen of us, and we all function like a wonderful, ecstatic machine. There’s a joy in that. This person is coming out of himself a little bit. This person and the whole community move on from that to engaging with a wider world, to engaging with social justice and issues and civic engagement and all those kinds of things. It’s not narrative in a conventional sense; it’s more a narrative of ideas and emotions."
- [Weekend Butler: Valuable advice from Steve Jobs; the best film to stream; a CEO who pays everyone at least $70,000, and a hot 130-page novel](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-valuable-advice-from-steve-jobs-the-best-film-to-stream-a-ceo-who-pays-everyone-at-least-70000-and-a-hot-130-page-novel/) - THE IMAGE A man in Argentina planted a guitar-shaped forest of 7,000 trees, more than 1km in length, in memory of his wife who loved music. --- TWEET OF THE WEEK Once people get vaccinated and we start mingling again, don't ask me "how are you?" or "what's new?" We're only doing deep and weird
- [Disassembly Required: A Memoir of Midlife Resurrection](https://headbutler.com/reviews/disassembly-required-a-memoir-of-midlife-resurrection/) - One morning Beverly Willett checks her husband’s phone and, on his voicemail, hears an unrecognizable woman say she loved him. After 20 years of marriage? After two children, then 7 and 12? Has Jake lost his mind?
- [You've been to the Temple of Dendur at the Met. Did you know it's in the Sackler Wing --- and how the Sacklers made their fortune? Let me introduce you to the patriarch.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/youve-been-to-the-temple-of-dendur-at-the-met-did-you-know-its-in-the-sackler-wing-and-how-the-sacklers-made-their-fortune-let-me-introduce-you-to-the-patriarch/) - 2020 was a record year for opioid deaths: More than 81,230 people died from a drug overdose between June 1, 2019, and June 1, 2020. That’s two of three deaths from drug overdoses. For many, the unintentional drug of choice was OxyContin, a product of Purdue Pharma, a company founded by the Sackler family. The
- [Love Everyone: The Transcendent Wisdom of Neem Karoli Baba Told Through the Stories of the Westerners Whose Lives He Transformed](https://headbutler.com/reviews/love-everyone-the-transcendent-wisdom-of-neem-karoli-baba-told-through-the-stories-of-the-westerners-whose-lives-he-transformed/) - This book delivers stories of remarkable experiences, one over and over --- his ability to know everything about you. I realize that is not a sentence that has any credibility with many of you, but it seems Baba did know the thoughts, hearts and secrets of everyone who came before him. And the bigger miracle: He knew all that and still loved them unconditionally.
- [April is Poetry Month. Here are 9 great poets and 9 great poems. And Robin Williams.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/april-is-poetry-month-here-are-9-great-poems-and-9-great-poems-and-robin-williams/) - SHOPPING ON AMAZON: As an Amazon Associate I earn a modest commission from qualifying purchases. How does that work? You start on Butler, buy something on Amazon, Butler gets a commission. And not just on the item reviewed. Anything you buy during a session that starts with a click from Butler helps this site. There
- [My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey](https://headbutler.com/reviews/my-stroke-insight-brain-scientists-personal-journey/) - In the winter of 2008, when all was politics, my non-political friends kept sending me the video of Jill Bolte Taylor's 18-minute talk at the TED Conference. That audience swooned; two million online viewers and instant fame followed. Dr. Taylor was named to Time Magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world. She had the obligatory audience with Oprah. And now here's My Stroke of Insight, the bestselling book. What's the fuss about? For those who have not already shed tears of joy at Jill Bolte Taylor's story, she had a stroke. And there was no one better to have it. For when she woke up on December 10, 1996 to discover ”I had a brain disorder”, she was a 37-year-old neuroanatomist at Harvard's brain research center. And so she quickly figured out what was happening to her. She had two reactions. One came from her left hemisphere: "I'm a busy woman. I don't have time for a stroke.” The other came, immediately after, from her right hemisphere: "This is so cool!" And with that, Jill Bolte Taylor embarked on a wondrous trip: “My perception of physical boundaries was no longer limited to where my skin met air... I felt like a genie liberated from its bottle.” That's not just metaphor. One of her brothers is a schizophrenic who believes he's personally tight with Jesus --- and he's a big reason Jill Bolte Taylor gravitated to brain research. She was, by her account, very much the scientist in her work. Right-brain insights didn't interest her --- until, that is, they were all she had, all she was. Her account of her stroke and her recovery is so wonderfully and meticulously detailed that it's hard not to be suspicious of these chapters. She had a stroke and she remembered just about every thought and sensation. How cool is that --- or how unlikely? Since James Frey, commentators are on the lookout for comma errors in memoirs, but Jill Bolte Taylor gets a total pass in hers. That is partly because she is a scientist who writes like a scientist, and that invariably impresses a civilian audience. But even more, millions and millions of people buy the argument of “My Stroke of Insight” because it says something that we desperately want to hear: Heaven is just one thought away. One decision, really. Here, on one side of the brain, you can access “the life force power of the universe.” On the other, “the single individual”. These, she says, are “the we inside of me.” And she presents you with a challenge: “Which would you choose?” You know what she chose: “I believe the more time we spend running our deep inner peace circuitry, then the more peace we will project into the world, and ultimately the more peace we will have on the planet.” “I believe in magic,” Arthur Lee sings on Love's magnificent Forever Changes. “Why? Because it is so... quick.” So does Jill Bolte Taylor. This is not to minimize the commitment and work her rehabilitation required --- that took years. But she confidently believes that inner peace is a choice. You choose it, you have it. Oh, there may be backsliding, there may be a bump here and there, but if I understand her correctly, we all have the capacity to experience bliss just by an act of will. In the words of the old Apple slogan: “Think different.” How did a serious scientist reach such a simplistic conclusion? She had a powerful experience. And she found herself in a universe she had never played in. And, boy, is she happy she found it: “Nowadays, I spend a whole lot of time thinking about thinking just because I find my brain so fascinating.” If you have ever taken a high-quality psychedelic drug, you know exactly what she's talking about. But drug use is not required. This experience has been extensively chronicled in a myriad of spiritual texts and in books like Timothy Leary's High Priest, which charts, in minute-by-minute detail, “the rebirth experience, the flip-out trip from which you come back as a man.” (In a hurry? Just watch and listen to Eight Miles High by The Byrds, and see if you don't feel your mind slip off the planet.) Fun stuff. But most of us also have to pay the rent and educate the kids --- we spend “a whole lot of time” in a reality that can be pretty nasty. And if we spend any time feeling peaceful, it's often because we have a spiritual discipline or have spent considerable time slogging through our garbage in the office of a mental health professional. My friend Jeffrey Rubin has spent three decades blending traditional psychotherapy and Eastern meditation. Along the way, he's read and studied pretty much everything out there. Experience with clients has confirmed for him the power of old emotions and old conditioning --- and of the changes you can make in how you think. But not in an instant. “There are no shortcuts to bliss,” he reminds me. Jill Bolte Taylor's experience gave her a shortcut. But her book is actually most valuable for what it says about slowing down, taking a breath, making time for kindness. Her publisher downplays it, but “My Stroke of Insight” is best as a guide to caregivers --- in brief and blunt language, she lists exactly what a stroke victim needs if she's to have a full recovery. And because Taylor compares re-educating stroke victims to teaching children, those chapters are also valuable to parents of pre-schoolers. Eye-contact. Patience. Empathy. We can never be reminded too often to be human. After all the excitement fades, consider Jill Bolte Taylor's book a 175-page Post-it note. To buy “My Stroke of Insight” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy the Audio CD of “My Stroke of Insight” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy the Kindle edition of “My Stroke of Insight” from Amazon.com, click here. To visit Jill Bolte Taylor's web site, click here.
- [Weekend Butler: Paul Simon builds a bridge, Hemingway wears a dress, hazelnut cocoa crème decadence, and the woman who beat the Klan](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-paul-simon-builds-a-bridge-hemingway-wears-a-dress-hazelnut-cocoa-creme-decadence-and-the-woman-who-beat-the-klan/) - Ernest Hemingway thought it was bad luck to talk about writing: It takes off "whatever butterflies have on their wings and the arrangement of hawk’s feathers if you show it or talk about it.” A PBS documentary honors that view. It also, as is the way with many Ken Burns documentaries, never says anything once
- [Eva and Eve: A Search for My Mother's Lost Childhood and What a War Left Behind](https://headbutler.com/reviews/eva-and-eve-a-search-for-my-mothers-lost-childhood-and-what-a-war-left-behind/) - Julie Metz can do anything. She’s a sought-after designer; the cover she created for my first novel was light years better than the one the publisher forced on me. She wrote a memoir, Perfection, that began as a horror story, turned into a tale of revenge, ended in hard-won sanity. (The headline of the Times
- [Tammy Duckworth: Every Day Is a Gift](https://headbutler.com/reviews/tammy-duckworth-every-day-is-a-gift/) - In the rarefied world of celebrity ghostwriters, Lisa Dickey is the gold standard. She has worked on 20 books, and ten have become New York Times bestsellers. She wrote her own book, Bears in the Streets: Three Journeys Across a Changing Russia, an original, insightful account of her travels in Russia over two decades. And
- [Brandi Carlile: Broken Horses](https://headbutler.com/reviews/brandi-carlile-broken-horses/) - This is how “Broken Horses,” Brandi Carlile’s memoir, begins: The Carliles are nail-biters. I started biting my nails at three years old. Everyone told me that if I didn’t keep my hands out of my mouth, I’d get sick. I contracted meningococcal meningitis at age four. We were living in Burien, Washington, in a single-wide
- [The Weekend Butler: An image 55 million light years away, Jeffrey Epstein and alligators, blind gun owners in Iowa, and a novel scarier than 'Silence of the Lambs'](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-weekend-butler-an-image-55-million-light-years-away-jeffrey-epstein-and-alligators-blind-gun-owners-in-idaho-and-a-novel-scarier-than-silence-of-the-lambs/) - THE IMAGE: TAKE A LOOK AT SOMETHING 55 MILLION LIGHT YEARS AWAY A new phrase for me: event horizon. It's a brain-splitting concept: In astrophysics, it's the point of no return around a black hole; beyond the event horizon, all light and matter is consumed. For some years an Event Horizon Telescope has been trained
- [Sally Grossman (1939 - 2021): "She was filled with laughter and delight. I could see the love in his face."](https://headbutler.com/reviews/sally-grossman-1939-2021-she-was-filled-with-laughter-and-delight-i-could-see-the-love-in-his-face/) - Sally Grossman died recently. She was the widow of legendary music impresario Albert Grossman, but that's not why she got a New York Times obituary --- in 1964, she was lounging in a red outfit in the background of the photo on the much discussed cover of Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home. I
- [F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Last Tycoon](https://headbutler.com/reviews/f-scott-fitzgerald-the-last-tycoon/) - If you don't know the copyright on "The Great Gatsby" expired on January 1, 2021, it's not because that happened in silence. The novel that was a flop in Fitzgerald's lifetime, selling just 25,000 copies, became a classic, the great American novel, selling 30 million copies... and then it entered the public domain. There was
- [The Weekend Butler: The Italian "Gone with the Wind," stuff I just learned, and a classic TV hit that would be a hit today](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-weekend-butler-the-italian-gone-with-the-wind-stuff-i-just-learned-and-a-classic-tv-hit-that-would-be-a-hit-today/) - DID SHE READ YOUR MIND? Corinne Putili, on Sherry Turkle, in The New Yorker This year has offered a stark and painful lesson about social deprivation. After a year away from people who don’t live in my house, I’m finding it harder to respond to the increasingly rare texts from loved ones asking how I
- [Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of the Village of Le Chambon and How Goodness Happened There](https://headbutler.com/reviews/lest-innocent-blood-be-shed-the-story-of-the-village-of-le-chambon-and-how-goodness-happened-there/) - Two French policemen, acting on the orders of their Nazi masters, came to the little village of Le Chambon on a February evening in 1943. Their purpose: arrest the minister, Andre Trocme, who was known to be doing something to save Jews. That arrest proved a more difficult task than they imagined. First, the minister
- [Weekend Butler:  The woman in the picture, a major breakthrough in kitchen cleanup, and... Paris in the spring](https://headbutler.com/reviews/weekend-butler-the-woman-in-the-picture-a-major-breakthrough-in-kitchen-cleanup-and-paris-in-the-spring/) - THE IMAGE: MÉMORIAL DES MARTYRS DE LA DÉPORTATION There were 200,000 French citizens, almost all of them Jews, deported by the Vichy government during World War II. If you've visited Notre Dame, you've walked past the memorial without knowing it's there, underground, at the rear of the cathedral, at the tip of Île de la
- [The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-gifts-of-imperfection-let-go-of-who-you-think-youre-supposed-to-be-and-embrace-who-you-are-2/) - I'm closing in on THE END of a novel. It's set in the present, but it draws on ancient wisdom. As is my custom, I've read all the classic texts. It recently occurred to me to see what modern wisdom looks like, on the theory a recent book might deliver fresh insights. A therapist friend
- [Travel Anywhere (And Avoid Being a Tourist): Travel trends and destination inspiration for the modern adventurer](https://headbutler.com/reviews/travel-anywhere-and-avoid-being-a-tourist-travel-trends-and-destination-inspiration-for-the-modern-adventurer/) - You do not want to open “Travel Anywhere” if you have been drinking or toking. First, you will turn down the corners of pages of destinations, hotels and restaurants that are particularly appealing. Then you will go to the Web to see what it costs to go there. And then, if you are sufficiently blitzed, you will grab a passport and rush to the airport.
- [The Weekend Butler: $25,000 shoes (they'll soon be worth more), spinach that can send email, a funny video, and a 272 page novel just right for a weekend afternoon.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-weekend-butler-25000-shoes-theyll-soon-be-worth-more-spinach-that-can-send-email-a-funny-video-and-a-272-page-novel-just-right-for-a-weekend-afternoon/) - BEST BUY So this costs $25,000. Seems like a lot? Click the link and read about it. It’s going to be worth a lot more. BEST VIDEO Maybe it helps to be a guy of a certain age to relate to this, but this Jeffrey Lewis song is the most fun video I’ve seen since
- [Meg Wolitzer: The Female Persuasion](https://headbutler.com/reviews/meg-wolitzer-the-female-persuasion/) - I opened “The Female Persuasion” in the morning and didn’t put it down until I’d finished it --- the ultimate compliment. The reason has nothing to do with politics and issues and everything to do with the people. Simply, I fell in love with them. I felt I knew them. And I wanted to know them better, even when their foibles and flaws made me want to yell “Turn back!” at them, as if they were characters in a horror movie.
- [Pro Tips: A miscellany of smart stuff you might not have seen and might want to know](https://headbutler.com/reviews/pro-tips-a-miscellany-of-smart-stuff-you-might-not-have-seen-but-do-want-to-know/) - PICTURED (ABOVE): BURJ AL BABAS: TURKEY'S $200 MILLION ABANDONED GHOST TOWN They built a village of the ultimate McMansion: castles. Nobody came. For the crazy story of this real estate development gone wrong, click here. STILL THE ONES: THINGS BUTLER READERS RECENTLY BOUGHT IN LARGE NUMBERS FOR HEALTH AND COMFORT Cell Phone Stand The best
- [Umalali: The Garifuna Women's Project](https://headbutler.com/reviews/umalali-garifuna-womens-project/) - When my heart hardens and my armor needs piercing, I go to the music of women. And if they don't sing in English, the better --- it's the sound that heals. Like the music of the Garifuna women of Belize. I have already praised Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective. That effort to save a culture and language from extinction was admirable. But even more, the music was spectacular --- I thought this was the most interesting World CD I heard in 2007. And now, ten years in the making, we have a dozen songs by Garifuna women. It was recorded where Ivan Duran, the CD's inexhaustible producer, found women singing: in kitchens, streets, temples. They sang of the life they knew. And, when asked to record, they showed up when they could make time. One song was inspired by a conversation overhead between a grandmother and her granddaughter. “Leave behind those street-walking girlfriends of yours,” she says. “That is not glory, that is not luck. Good luck for you is obeying my words.” Another song asks an unborn child why his birth is so difficult. Another, again sung from a mother's point-of-view, laments rumors that she is prostituting her daughter: “All I can do is look around, I am so disappointed/ It is all over the newspapers on the streets.” Almost as an answer, another singer dismisses all gossip about her: “I only depend on one thing, and that is work/ No one will make me hang my head here.” Another song is a wife's lament to her traveling husband. And, perhaps the saddest, is a mother's cry at hearing the news that her policeman son has been killed in a brawl. “What will become of me on this earth now that you're gone?” she asks. “What shall I say to your siblings when they arrive?” These lyrics are not exactly a pick-me-up, so the good news is that you won't understand a word these women are singing. But the feel of the CD isn't sad in any way. The music is pretty much pure joy. The joy is the living, the simple fact of it. History bypassed these women long ago; theirs is the life of eternal duties, ancient rhythms and primal emotions. Photographed in cotton dresses against sand and sea, they look wise. And they look beautiful --- beautiful because of what they know rather than how they look. And so, when they sing, you feel they are singing truth. They don't really have another reason to sing --- they've had no show-biz careers and won't get them now. So these songs are like field recordings, which are then layered and processed and yet somehow still sound authentic. I've had “Umalali” in heavy rotation for weeks now, as an antidote to a tsunami of bad news and the prospect of more coming. I hear the strumming of guitars, the pulsing of drums, and then, like a knife, Sofia Blanco asking for a moment with her granddaughter. I don't know how that conversation worked out in the lives of its characters. In my life, she has my fullest attention. To buy “Umalali: The Garifuna Women's Project” from Amazon.com, click here. To read more about “Umalali”, click here. To read more about Andy Palacio on HeadButler.com, click here.
- [Butler readers on Smith College's racial crisis: "Toxic wokeness," "tone-deaf administrators," and more](https://headbutler.com/reviews/butler-readers-on-smith-colleges-racial-crisis-toxic-wokeness-tone-deaf-administrators-and-more/) - Last week, I republished Michael Powell’s New York Times article, Inside a Battle Over Race, Class and Power at Smith College and invited you to weigh in. I have no idea of the gender breakdown of Butler readers; I find it interesting that every response but one came from a reader who identified as a
- [Wabi-Sabi](https://headbutler.com/reviews/wabi-sabi/) - Raymond Chandler's manuscripts were perfect. That's because he typed on half sheets of paper. As soon as he made a typo --- this was so long along Wite-Out hadn't been invented --- he ripped the half page out of the typewriter and started again. On March 13, we'll mark the one year anniversary of a
- [Al Kooper: Blood, Sweat & Tears](https://headbutler.com/reviews/child-father-man/) - You don’t have to be old to take this quiz. An acquaintance with Classic Rock will suffice. Here’s the question: Which is your least favorite band of the 1970s --- Chicago, Boston, or Blood, Sweat & Tears? Easy to make the case against Boston. Just consider “More Than a Feeling.” Even easier to hate is Chicago. Remember “Saturday in the Park?” But them we come to Blood, Sweat & Tears, and all the bells ring. “Spinning Wheel.” “And When I Die.” And the ultimate bummer: “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy.” Yes, Blood, Sweat & Tears gets my vote. The most annoying group of an entire decade. And for a reason I can’t use on the others. Because Blood, Sweat & Tears made one of the most interesting, highest quality records of the 1960s: “The Child Is Father to the Man.” How can this be? Two words: Al Kooper. Al Kooper may be unknown to you, but he’s a legend to musicians. As a kid, he was a session musician on hundreds of teen hits. He gigged around, made a lot of friends, and one day in 1965, found himself in the studio watching Bob Dylan record. The project that day was “Like a Rolling Stone” --- a song so extravagantly brilliant that it’s been ranked The Greatest Song of All Time. But it needed…something. An organ. Al Kooper was told to get in there and figure out an organ riff. He balked. He’d never really played the organ. On the other hand, as a friend of his once told me, “What can’t Al play?” You know what he did --- you can hear him right at the beginning, neatly framing the recording. Kooper moved on to a blues band, and then he started dreaming of a group that was as tough as a blues band, only backed by horns. And he formed Blood, Sweat & Tears. (The name came from a gig he played with a bloody hand.) Blood, Sweat & Tears fused soul, jazz and rock in a way that wasn’t “progressive” or “cool.” The secret was the songwriting --- in addition to six songs by Kooper, there were contributions from Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson, and Gerry Goffin/Carole King. The album had structural integrity; it began with an overture and ended with an “underture.” And it had those supertight, superfine horns. Critics raved. Audiences swooned. The album rose to #47. There were no hit singles. [To buy the CD --- it is a measure of this album’s obscurity that there’s no MP3 download and that you can buy the CD for $6.99 --- from Amazon, click here.] Al Kooper left the group after the first album, and the band went, as they say, in a different direction --- including, in 1970, a tour of Eastern Europe under the sponsorship of the State Department. (You may imagine how well that went over with the long-haired, stoned music lovers of that era.) Naturally, the sucky commercial version of Blood, Sweat & Tears made a fortune from its hits --- and is the band you know as Blood, Sweat & Tears, if you know it at all. Kooper? He discovered Lynyrd Skynyrd and produced their first three albums. (Some of the hits on those records; "Sweet Home Alabama," "Saturday Night Special" and "Free Bird.") Since then, he’s popped up here and there, gifted and irascible as ever. It’s another measure of this group’s unacknowledged greatness that there’s only one song from “Child Is Father to the Man” on YouTube. Happily, it’s the most passionate song on the record: “I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know." Listen: My brother and I saw the original Blood, Sweat & Tears once. It was the spring of 1968, and even though there was a war raging, the night was so fine you couldn’t help but feel optimistic. The band was playing in a club in the Village, and from the start, the place rocked. Every song had something smart --- I fondly recall the grunt Al Kooper made after he sang the line “I could be President of General Motors, or just a tiny grain of sand” in “I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know." The song ended. There was some sort of conference on the stage, and then Kooper announced that Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot in Memphis. “Oh my god, they killed Moses,” my brother said. “We gotta get out of here,” I said, and we hustled home before any bad shit could start. There’s a connection between music and personal history; we can always remember where we were when X or Y happened. Kooper, King, that song --- it’s a triad for me. I’ll never be able to listen to this album and only hear the wonderful music. Lucky you. You can. BONUS VIDEO Al Kooper. 1995. No loss of power.
- [Michael Powell: Inside a Battle Over Race, Class and Power at Smith College](https://headbutler.com/reviews/michael-powell-inside-a-battle-over-race-class-and-power-at-smith-college/) - You take your career in your hands if you dare to write about campus issues. Facts are elusive; people bring their own. And although their "facts" are often what you get when you are the last player in a game of Telephone, they love to “speak their truth” --- very forcefully. (If they’re students, they
- [Mane ’n Tail Repair ’n Replenish Shampoo and Conditioner](https://headbutler.com/reviews/mane-n-tail-repair-n-replenish-shampoo-and-conditioner/) - “It is only shallow people,” Oscar Wilde said, “who do not judge by appearances.” Because that is not just witty but true, the New York Times headline surely got a ton of clicks: You’re Not Imagining It: The Pandemic Is Making Your Hair Fall Out. The Times report was dire: "The phenomenon is not all
- [Garner's Quotations: A Modern Miscellany](https://headbutler.com/reviews/garners-quotations-a-modern-miscellany/) - One of the perks of editing this site is the friends you make. At some point in our middle-middle age, I made the acquaintance of Bill Novak, the most distinguished ghost since Caspar --- he wrote or coauthored some two dozen books, including the bestselling memoirs of Lee Iacocca, Tip O’Neill, Nancy Reagan, the Mayflower
- [The Friends of Eddie Coyle](https://headbutler.com/reviews/friends-eddie-coyle/) - Jackie Brown, at twenty-six, with no expression on his face, said that he could get some guns. That’s how The Friends of Eddie Coyle (also available as a Kindle edition) begins, and in 1970, when this 182-page novel was released, it simply exploded the category. There had never been a book like it --- a crime story with modest action and major dialogue, almost every word to the point. George V. Higgins, who was then a lawyer for the U.S. Attorney in Boston, would go on to publish more than two dozen books. None exploded a category, none rocked the world. “Eddie Coyle” gave him immortality, bestowed a career-enhancing role for Robert Mitchum in the movie, and influenced a generation of writers. It’s still fun to read. If, that is, you like your crime hard-boiled, your characters realistic, and no sappy moral lessons along the way. The part about morality is the key. Once upon a time, crime stories featured good and bad criminals. The good ones were guys who could have had legit careers like you and me, only there was a sick mother or a sister who needed an operation, and crime represented the shortest path to money. And then there were bad guys, who liked to hurt people and had to be put down like dogs at the end. None of that here. These gun dealers and petty criminals swim in the dreary world of low-end Boston crime. They have small dreams --- winter in Florida --- and modest hopes of achieving them. Their wives are shrews. In their world, survival equals victory. So the entire effort is simply to survive. But survival is not easy. Not, anyway, for Eddie Coyle. He got arrested in New Hampshire for driving a truck filled with illegal booze, and like an idiot, he pleaded not guilty, pissing the DA off, and he got convicted, which was no surprise, and now he’s facing a few years in jail. Which he does not want to do: I got three kids and a wife at home, and I can't afford to do no more time, you know? The kids're growing up and they go to school, and the other kids make fun of them and all. Hell, I'm almost forty-five years old. Eddie, no genius, is aware that the only way to avoid jail is to rat out enough friends to thrill the New Hampshire prosecutors. So he goes to his favorite Massachusetts Federal agent, Dave Foley: I was thinkin' in terms of you maybe talkin' to the prosecutor up there, and havin' him drop a word to the judge how I been helpin' my Uncle like a bastard? Well, I would. But then again you haven't been. What? I gave you a couple of calls. Yeah, you give me some real stuff, too. You tell me about a guy that's gonna get hit, 15 minutes later he gets hit. You tell me about some guys on a job, but you don't tell me till they’re coming out the door with the money. That's not helping Uncle, Eddie. You gotta put your whole soul into it. Here it gets complicated, and I’m not going to spoil your pleasure by getting into all that. I do want you to know that this book is not 100% male --- one guy has a girlfriend who’s a stewardess (and because he’s not auditing literature courses at Harvard in his spare time, he gets off telling friends how there’s nothing between her and her jeans). There are some well-executed bank robberies. A few muscle cars. Mostly, though, there is dialogue that seems more overheard than written --- guys talking to talk, guys talking to deceive. “The only one fuckin' Eddie Coyle is Eddie Coyle,” the Federal agent says. But by the time he gives that little lecture to Eddie, you know better --- even though you’re light years from your own, tame-by-comparison world.
- [Valentine's Day 2021: Gifts for Life](https://headbutler.com/reviews/valentines-day-2021-gifts-for-life/) - The photograph (above) is the highest resolution photo ever taken of snowflakes. --- In years past, I’ve resisted writing Valentine’s suggestions because it is just so obvious that if you haven’t grown your romance in the last 364 days, there is no way to make magic with a big show on the 365th. But this
- [Esther Perel: The State of Affairs: Rethinking Adultery](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-state-of-affairs-rethinking-adultery/) - “The State of Affairs” is required reading for everyone whose life has been touched by infidelity --- which, statistically, is you and you and you and you and....
- [Joe Allen (1934  -  2021): He called himself “a fifth-rate Broadway icon.” Not so. He was one of New York’s greats.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/joe-allen-1934-2021-he-called-himself-a-fifth-rate-broadway-icon-not-so-he-was-one-of-new-yorks-greats/) - Joe Allen, who died the other day at 87, got the Great Man send-off in the paper of record: a long and admiring obituary and a follow-up of testimonials from Broadway stars. If his name is unfamiliar to you --- that is, if you didn’t have dinner at one of his restaurants before or after
- [When Prophecy Fails](https://headbutler.com/reviews/when-prophecy-fails/) - It has surely come to your attention that there are Americans who believe improbable --- no, impossible --- fantasies are facts. That is why the $2.7 billion lawsuit that Smartmatic filed against Fox News, Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro, Rudolph Giuliani, and Sidney Powell begins like this: "The earth is round. Two plus two equals four.
- [The very best laptop stand](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-very-best-laptop-stand/) - You are at home. You have been at home for some time. You are going to be home for who knows how much longer. I work many hours a day. No matter how long I sit here, my back feels fine. Why? I don't hunch. I work on an Apple desktop with a monster monitor
- [Finger Pulse Oximeter](https://headbutler.com/reviews/now-might-you-be-interested-in-having-a-pulse-oximeter/) - NOTE FROM A READER #1: When I read your piece on the pulse oximeter early last year, I purchased one right away and used it daily. Many many months later, my mother lost her sense of taste and I immediately gave her my oximeter. She monitored her oxygen levels religiously and when she dropped to
- [Mark Knopfler](https://headbutler.com/reviews/mark-knopfler/) - Forty-Five Republican Senators voted against a trial for Donald Trump, making it impossible he'll be convicted. That means the only people who will be found guilty of anything are the fools who believed that storming the Capitol would be doing his will. Mark Knopfler told that old, sad story in 2007 in his song, "Punish
- [Small Victories: Recipes, Advice + Hundreds of Ideas for Home Cooking Triumphs](https://headbutler.com/reviews/small-victories-recipes-advice-hundreds-of-ideas-for-home-cooking-triumphs/) - “Small Victories” is a book that asks to be loved because it loves you first. Julia Turshen has personality to spare, and she doesn’t hold back --- her book is a collection of the foods she likes to cook, stories about those recipes, life lessons learned from cooking, and “small victories” --- little tricks and home truths that make easy recipes easier and better.
- [Curtis Mayfield](https://headbutler.com/reviews/curtis-mayfield/) - Who remembers 1972? In that year, Curtis Mayfield's soundtrack to “Superfly” was everywhere --- this was the rare hit movie with a soundtrack that was an even bigger hit. But that was his least achievement. A crusading songwriter for black equality, black pride and black power, he wrote the civil rights songbook. You perhaps recall “People Get Ready” and Martin Luther King Jr’s favorite anthem, “Keep On Pushing.” Versatile? He delivered love songs that inspired. Mavis Staples got it just right: "His love songs made you fall in love, and his message songs made you want to go out and do something good for the world.”
- [The Fran Lebowitz Reader](https://headbutler.com/reviews/fran-lebowitz-reader/) - As a satirist and social commentator, Lebowitz owned the late 1970s and early 1980s --- the era of Andy and Bianca, Studio 54 and cocaine, with AIDS and Reagan money on the horizon --- in Manhattan. She was a tough-talking demolition machine; her astringent, precise sentences could destroy entire categories. And she was a great character --- she chain-smoked, wore blazers and white shirts and faded jeans and Bass Weejuns, and growled at interviewers as if they had just rudely awakened her.
- [Ruth Bader Ginsburg: The Last Interview, and Other Conversations](https://headbutler.com/reviews/ruth-bader-ginsburg-the-last-interview-and-other-conversations/) - Her father came to America from Russia when he was 13. He went to night school to learn English. He never had any formal education except Hebrew school in any country. Her mother died the day before she graduated from high school. Her husband got sick, and she juggled motherhood, law school, and his law
- [Nobody joins a cult. They just forget to leave.  How do you get them to leave?](https://headbutler.com/reviews/nobody-joins-a-cult-they-just-forget-to-leave-how-do-you-get-them-to-leave/) - This is the most frightening footage I've seen since January 6. [Alas, a few minutes after I published this piece, Parler was taken down and the link stopped working.] Matthew Scarboro created this two-minute video from years of Trump speeches. It's messianic and inspiring; Trump describes his cause as the will of God, tells his
- [Stone Soup](https://headbutler.com/reviews/stone-soup/) - My least favorite book for children is Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree, which has sold more than 5 million copies, has been translated into every language but Urdu, and is beloved by parents who encountered it when they were young and have happily inflicted it on their children. It can be read as a love
- [December 31, 2020: Dinner is now at 6 PM. 9:30 is the new midnight. Your social life (online) starts at 10 PM. Better must come](https://headbutler.com/reviews/december-31-2020-better-must-come/) - Dinner is now at 6 PM. 9:30 is the new midnight. Your social life (online) starts at 10 PM. Is this you? It’s certainly me. With some additional changes that may apply to only a few of you. Like: the weather sucks, and I didn’t go outside for two days. Like: All I do is
- ["The Color of Light," my play about Henri Matisse](https://headbutler.com/reviews/advertisements-for-myself-the-color-of-light/) - As many as 100,000 people visit Vence each year, mostly to see the Chapelle du Rosaire. I suspect most of them leave, if not moved, at least appropriately impressed --- every tour guide tells visitors that Matisse, one of the most celebrated artists of the last century, described the chapel as the “masterpiece” of his career. The story behind its creation? It’s no secret, but it seems to be known only by hard-core art lovers and scholars. It certainly wasn’t known to me when I waltzed through the chapel decades ago.
- [TaoTronics Space Heater](https://headbutler.com/reviews/taotronics-space-heater/) - Baby, it’s cold inside. That’s because my apartment is a block from the East River, and my street can be a wind tunnel. It’s also because my living room walls are glass, which is pleasant in summer, not in winter. And then there’s the third strike. I’m on the 2nd floor, directly above the building’s
- [Richard Goode: Beethoven](https://headbutler.com/reviews/beethoven-piano-concertos/) - If Richard Goode's name is not familiar, that's almost his design. He's a scholar of the music he loves, not a brash showman --- he was 47 before he gave his first solo recital in Carnegie Hall. He plays, he teaches, he reads. And the deeper the dive, the richer the music. It seems right that he was the first American-born pianist to record all the Beethoven sonatas.
- [Wislawa Szymborska: Poems New and Collected](https://headbutler.com/reviews/wislawa-szymborska-poems-new-and-collected/) - It sounds like a Polish joke: Did you hear about the Polish poet who won the Nobel prize? There are certainly some nearly comical responses. In 1996, Wislawa Szymborska (l923-2012) won the most money in the history of Nobel awards and the most money ever won by a poet: $1.2 million. You or I might have upgraded our real estate. She stayed in her small apartment --- a fifth-floor walk-up. Her output was small, just 350 poems. Why so few? "I have a trash can in my home.” This is how she began her Nobel acceptance speech: "They say that the first sentence of any speech is always the hardest. Well, that one's behind me." Wislawa Szymborska’s favorite phrase was “I don’t know.” This was not conversational. It was the entire matter. Her take on history was harsh, as you might expect from someone who was born in Poland and had to endure the Nazis ("Old age was the privilege of rocks and trees”) and the Communists (“At the very beginning of my creative life I loved humanity. I wanted to do something good for mankind. Soon I understood that it isn’t possible to save mankind”). And her poems? They’re direct, conversational. You could say: easy to read. Until you walk away from them. [To buy the paperback of her Collected Poems from Amazon, click here.] An early poem, “Classifieds,” is a collection of advertisements never placed in newspapers. A few are light: I RESTORE lost love. Act now! Special offer! You lie on last year's grass bathed in sunlight to the chin while winds of summers past caress your hair and seem to lead you in a dance. For further details, write: "Dream." But then: WANTED: someone to mourn the elderly who die alone in old folks' homes. Applicants, don't send forms or birth certificates. All papers will be torn, no receipts will be issued at this or later dates. She likes to imagine life from other angles, as in “The Railroad Station,” which begins: My nonarrival in the city of N. took place on the dot. You'd been alerted in my unmailed letter. You were able not to be there at the agreed-upon time. The train pulled up at platform 3. A lot of people got out. My absence joined the throng as it made its way toward the exit. Several women rushed to take my place in all that rush. It follows that history cannot be trusted: Those who knew what this was all about must make way for those who know little. And less than that. Some are like short stories. A terrorist has planted a bomb in a bar. There are 13 seconds before it explodes. From across the street, he watches people walk in and out. A poem about a funeral is all direct quotes: what people say. You wait for a comment about the deceased. And wait…. A cat. In an apartment. Alone --- its owner has died. And one, “A Contribution to Statistics,” in its entirely, because it was the one that seduced me. Out of a hundred people Those who always know better: fifty-two. doubting every step --- nearly all the rest. Ready to help, as long as it doesn't take long: forty-nine. Always good, because they cannot be otherwise: --- four, well, maybe five. Able to admire without envy: --- eighteen. Led to error by youth (which passes): --- sixty, plus or minus. Those not to be taken lightly --- forty and four. Living in constant fear of someone or something: --- seventy-seven. Capable of happiness: --- twenty-something tops. Harmless alone, savage in crowds: --- half, at least. Cruel when forced by circumstances: --- better not to know even ballpark figures. Wise after the fact --- just a couple more than wise before it. Getting nothing out of life but things: --- thirty (I wish I were wrong). Doubled over in pain, without a flashlight in the dark: --- eighty-three, sooner or later. Righteous --- thirty-five, which is a lot. Worthy of compassion --- ninety-nine. Mortal --- a hundred out of one hundred. Thus far this figure still remains unchanged. And, finally, this: Yes, that’s what the Nobel for poetry looks like. (Many thanks to Jo McGowan Chopra)
- [The Driver's Seat](https://headbutler.com/reviews/drivers-seat/) - There is no writer more despicable than the reviewer who spoils a book by revealing significant plot points. But what do you call a novelist who begins the third chapter --- the third chapter --- of her book with this about Lise, the main character: She will be found tomorrow morning dead from multiple stab wounds, her wrists bound with a silk scarf and her ankles bound with a man's necktie, in the grounds of an empty villa, in a park of the foreign city to which she is traveling on the flight now boarding at Gate 14. Try this: genius. The Driver's Seat is just 100 pages. It will take most of you about an hour. But in that hour, you are in for an experience even more head-splitting than you'll get from Jim Thompson's aptly named The Killer Inside Me. Because --- obviously --- this book is about something considerably trickier than who-gets-killed. So the first brilliance of Muriel Spark's writing is its stunning originality; this is a book that really makes sense only backwards, when you finally have all the information to understand what happened. A close second is the writing. “Surgical” is often used to describe Spark's prose, and in this, her most unsettling novel, you can see why. In a line here, a line there, we learn that Lise is 34 years old. She lives in the north of Europe, perhaps Sweden. She has worked in an accounting office since she was 18, with the exception of “the months of illness” --- and from the clothes she buys in the opening chapters and her strained, off-balance encounters with other people in the first few pages, we clearly get she's had a breakdown and is now having another. She lives alone. She's no oil painting: Her lips, when she does not speak or eat, are normally pressed together like the ruled line of a balance sheet, marked straight with her old-fashioned lipstick, a final and a judging mouth, a precision instrument, a detail-warden of a mouth; she has five girls under her and two men. A dull woman? That's just the point. You'd never notice her, but on the last day of her life, you'd certainly feel her --- and you'd find her really creepy. The customers in a clothes store feel her; she makes them “gasp and gape”. Her co-workers sit, silently, as she tells them, through hysterical laughter and tears, that her vacation will be “the time of her life.” And on the plane that takes her south, presumably to Italy, she so terrifies the man next to her that he bolts out of his seat. On and on it goes, a nightmare of inappropriate conversation, off-putting behavior, fevered action. She's supposed to have a date with her dream man --- where is he? “The torment of it,” Lise says. “Not knowing exactly where and when he's going to turn up.” What's going on here? Is this a thriller? A search for the dream man that suddenly veers from romance to violence? There are cops jumping in from time to time --- is this a detective novel? All of the above. And more. With a resolution you don't see coming and then can't see how it could have ended any other way. “The Driver's Seat” was published --- as “a metaphysical thriller” --- in 1970. Spark was already a literary powerhouse, thanks to The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, her 1962 novel about a spinster schoolteacher in Edinburgh, Scotland. It had been published --- in its entirety --- in The New Yorker. On stage, it starred Vanessa Redgrave. Completing the triumph was the 1969 film, starring Maggie Smith, who won an Oscar for best actress in the title role. “The Driver's Seat” was immediately recognized as a new kind of book: a traditional, last-day-of-life narrative, told with unfamiliar brevity and objectivity. Spark wrote more than twenty novels; this was one of her favorites. And her most prescient: you can see the accuracy of this close study of alienation and dislocation on the faces of untold people walking on any street. Or just watch the quirky, disturbing movie version of The Driver's Seat --- with Elizabeth Taylor in the leading role and Andy Warhol in the cast. Muriel Spark wrote her novels in composition books, using one side of the page. No typewriters or computers for her --- she preferred pens that were not just new, but never touched by others. Rewriting? To her, that was the pastime of hacks; she rarely revised. “The Driver's Seat” is proof she didn't need to. To buy “The Driver's Seat” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “Memento Mori” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “The Finishing School” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy the DVD of “The Driver's Seat” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy the DVD of “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Thanksgiving: Reasons to be cheerful](https://headbutler.com/reviews/thanksgiving-reasons-to-be-cheerful/) - Very hard to balance the balance sheet this holiday. A tyrant thwarted, hunger at record numbers. Vaccine coming, hospitals full and loved ones missing from our tables. And I know that we too will have our turn at loss, illness, and death. But as the Swedish writer Per Olov Enquist noted: “One day we shall
- [A Child's Holiday in America](https://headbutler.com/reviews/a-childs-holiday-in-america-2/) - These selections have the power to re-connect you to your childhood. Not the childhood you had, with its predictable dose of uncertainty and awkwardness, but the childhood you had in your head, the magic one. Reading and watching with a child, you can go there again. Here’s wishing you do.
- [R.L. Burnside](https://headbutler.com/reviews/rl-burnside/) - R.L. Burnside (1926-2005) was the last of the hard-core blues musicians. Born in Mississippi, he worked as a sharecropper until he heard about better opportunities in Chicago. His father, brother, and uncle were all living there, so off he went --- and in just a month, his father, brother, and uncle were all murdered. They say the best thing to do when you see trouble coming, call 911. I believe it's quicker to call 357. Back in Mississippi, he told interviewers, he spent six months in jail for murder. Why only six? His employer needed him and pulled strings to spring him. I didn't mean to kill nobody. I just meant to shoot the sonofabitch in the head. Him dying was between him and the Lord. As you may imagine, R. L. Burnside drank hard --- his beverage of choice was a concoction he called the Bloody Muthafucka, made of Old Grandad Whiskey and tomato juice --- and played harder. You want subtle, look elsewhere. Burnside struts and shakes, moans and cries, cares nothing about convention (most of the lyrics on a terrific song are “Burnside.... Burnside”) and, although he married just one woman and had a dozen children, casts himself as present at the creation of sin. Women and whiskey, hard luck and trouble --- these are the raw ingredients of Burnside's music. Work hard, get nowhere; screw up, lose it all. It's an unforgiving world: Walked through water, walked through mud Came to a place called the bucket of blood Asked the bartender for a little something to eat Gave him a dirty glass of water and a tough ass piece of meat But the words don't matter. This music starts at urgent and then redlines. Listen to "It's Bad, You Know" --- yes, you heard it on The Sopranos --- and then just try playing anything else. You can't. R.L. Burnside's appeal is just too primal for all competition. There's the signature Burnside shuffle beat, raunchy harmonica and cocktail organ. There are the shockingly blunt lyrics: “She asked me why/ I just went on and told her.” And there is Burnside's nasty guitar and knowing voice at the center. [To buy “Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down” from Amazon.com, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.] R.L Burnside is definitely not for children or prudes --- he's bad, you know. But if you're in that Friday night, just-got-paid party mood, he makes misery astonishingly satisfying.
- [Smart Snark: Anne Taintor coffee mugs & more](https://headbutler.com/reviews/smart-snark-anne-taintor-coffee-mugs-more/) - Anne Taintor’s 1977 Harvard degree in Visual and Environmental Studies turned out to be preparation for jobs as a waitress and a seamstress. But she had an interest in collage, so she made wooden lapel pins and earrings decorated with artwork from 1940s and 1950s advertisements. These ads elevated the stereotype of the white housewife to a domestic goddess. Taintor had a different view: “My motto is: “Say what you mean…but do it with a smile.” She juxtaposed one of these images against the caption "intellectuals gone bad." It sold at a crafts fair, so she made more and started a company that makes clever coffee mugs and much more.
- [Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating Small-Scale Community in a Large-Scale World](https://headbutler.com/reviews/pocket-neighborhoods-creating-small-scale-community-in-a-large-scale-world/) - We now know that direct social interaction --- being in the same physical space as other people --- helps you live longer and better. We know that hyper-focus on events you don't control is destabilizing and local involvement make you feel centered. And we know the best kind of neighborhood has all age groups. And
- [The Polar Express](https://headbutler.com/reviews/polar-express/) - You will believe.
- [Surviving the pandemic: Déjà vu all over again](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-deja-vu-all-over-again/) - The class clown and his two friends throw spitballs that hit the blackboard six inches from the teacher’s head. She’s steaming. “Who did this?” she demands. The jerks don’t speak up, and because the jerks also enjoy pounding kids on the playground no one else does. “In that case,” the teacher says, “I’m going to
- [Head Butler 2018 Holiday Guide](https://headbutler.com/reviews/head-butler-2018-holiday-guide/) - I never order entrees in restaurants any more --- there's just too much food on the plate. Instead, I order two appetizers. The variety is appealing, as is the size. This year I'm thinking of holiday giving the same way. Fewer big presents, if any. More appetizers --- you know them as Stocking Stuffers. Here are a great many.
- [Head Butler Holidays: 2019](https://headbutler.com/reviews/head-butler-holidays-2019/) - In our hearts, we have twinges of the old consumer spirit, but really... wouldn't you rather buy the freedom of immigrant children who sleep in cages and feed the families about to be denied food stamps and fix up a building so the homeless could have decent shelter? That longing fuels this holiday list. It's a smaller list than before: the best of the best. And very few expensive items. Because maybe there's a charity that would welcome your help. Bless you for opening your heart and letting some of your green energy go there...
- [Bleak House](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bleak-house/) - On Sunday nights a few winters ago, we drugged the child and turned our attention to our television. With good reason. We had read that the BBC had made a brilliant miniseries from what is arguably the most satisfying of all novels by Charles Dickens. By the final episode, we were evangelists for the series. Like this: Of all the distinguished adaptations of classic English novels, 'Bleak House' is among the greatest. The writer is Andrew Davis, whose credits are impeccable ('Pride and Prejudice' starring Colin Firth). The production is lavish: great houses, squalid and exalted London, a cast of 2,000. Would you have chosen Gillian Anderson (once of 'The X-Files') as the wretchedly unhappy Lady Dedlock? Well, she's astonishingly moving. This is not a minority opinion. 'Bleak House' had 10 Emmy nominations and won a Peabody Award. [To buy the 8-hour DVD from Amazon for a ridiculous $9.99, click here. To stream the 8 episodes for $1.99 an episode --- or, if you have Amazon Prime, at no charge --- click here. To buy the paperback of the novel, click here.] For those who haven't read the novel, it's thick. But a page-turner. It has the speed of journalism. And the indignation --- here, Dickens takes aim at two fat targets: the absurd Chancery Court and the cruel fate of poor children in London. And then there is the overriding story line, which is a mystery --- a whodunnit. I read "Bleak House' decades ago, when I dreamed of becoming a professor and putting kids through their paces analyzing books like this, and I fondly remember the two days I spent holed up with it. What was the secret that Lady Dedlock carried? Why was Tulkinghorn, the slick, dreadful lawyer, so eager to expose her? Onward I read, while the inheritance lawsuit --- Jarndyce v. Jarndyce --- made its plodding, soul-deadening way through the court, destroying so many lives in the process that it seemed no good could come of it for the young lovers who hoped someday to be made rich by it. Vladimir Nabokov, in his Lectures on Literature, devotes a brilliant chapter to 'Bleak House.' His analysis is acute and detailed; if you want to be dazzled, read the book (or watch the mini-series) and then read it. You'll see levels you could not imagine on your own. What you can get on your own is plenty --- Dickens writes in a clear, cold rage, which always purifies good writing. On the matter of the Court, he wrote from experience: In 1844, he filed suit over the disputed copyright to 'A Christmas Carol.' His opponents declared bankruptcy; although Dickens 'won,' court costs wiped out his victory. As for his passion for reform, you will never forget dear Mr. Jarndyce's words after the death of poor little Jo: "Dead, your Majesty. Dead, my lords and gentlemen. Dead, Right Reverends and Wrong Reverends of every order. Dead, men and women born with Heavenly compassion in your hearts. And dying thus around us every day."
- [Charles Nolan (June 3, 1957 - January 30, 2011)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/charles-nolan-june-3-1957-january-30-2011/) - I rolled off the plane, clicked the New York Times and there, on the main screen, was Charles Nolan --- dead. How could this be? I knew Charles had been visited by cancer. But the last time I saw Andy Tobias, his partner of 16 years, he’d said nothing about Charles’s health. And just a week ago, when Andy and I traded e-mails, he was his usual ironic, borderline goofy self. Charles dead, of head and neck cancer, at 53 --- that’s terrible enough. But the next day, Andy’s website brought more news, all wretched. Early in January, Andy had buried Judy Davis, his 91-year-old mother. A week earlier, he’d participated in a memorial service for his stepfather. Andy has heroic qualities --- he’s possibly the nicest person I know, generous in the extreme, with a magician’s ability to manufacture time --- but Superman would fold under this much loss. I worried for Andy. Yesterday, at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament, there was a funeral Mass for Charles. I’m ambivalent about retailing this service --- I always liked it that, in the 1800s, when a Londoner died, his street was often covered with hay so the sound of horses’ hooves wouldn’t disturb the mourners in their grieving. So part of me says this was precious, and private, and should be limited to the memories of those who were there. But there was a magnificence about this event that demands sharing. Let me just introduce these men. Andy Tobias is Jewish, one of two sons, Horace Mann and Harvard, making his first fortune --- on paper only, as it turned out --- in his early 20s. For a while, he wrote for New York magazine about business and money. He pumped out one witty, helpful bestseller after another. Then he was a software pioneer, with a program called “Managing your Money” that actually did what it promised. He lost a lover to AIDS. And now he’s the treasurer of the Democratic National Committee. Charles was Catholic, one of nine kids born in ten years. He rocketed out of Massapequa, Long Island to Seventh Avenue. One by one, he revived stodgy brands (Bill Blass, Ellen Tracy and Anne Klein), only to walk away from fashion for a year because it was totally clear to him that the best use of his time was to help get Howard Dean elected President. Then he went out on his own and became a brand himself, so self-confident about his clothes that he used regular people --- like his mother, like Andy’s mother --- in his shows. Two powerful men. A great love story. Married in every way but in the eyes of the state. The Mass began with a soprano singing “Ebben? Ne andro lontana,” from “Le Wally.” Charles chose it, thinking of the overwhelmingly emotional Callas recording. Andy listened to the music and questioned the choice: “It’s devastating.” Charles had a ready response: “Well, I’d like people to be slightly devastated.” Which tells you quite a lot about Charles right there. There were candles and incense, and readings, and then we got to the meat, from St. John 2:1-11. It’s the story of the wedding banquet, and the party that quickly runs out of wine. Jesus asked that six jugs be filled with water, and, as you recall, the water became wine. And not just any wine: The master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now." “He made the ordinary extraordinary,” the priest said. And then he connected that story to Charles. In the 1970s, he recalled, Charles volunteered at a homeless shelter for woman that this church sponsored. After the first night, he went back to his apartment and, before entering, stared at his key. How was he so lucky to have a home when so many didn’t? He burst into tears. He held that moment close, never taking his good fortune for granted. And gave and gave to causes that mattered. I’m used to fill-in-the-blank eulogies delivered by strangers. But this priest really seemed to know Charles. The faint Long Island accent piqued me; I looked in the program. The priest was David Nolan, a brother. The stories continued. They burned. Charles, sick, “never catching a break --- there was only more sickness, more pain.” Charles, dying in Andy’s arms, as Andy sang to him. Andy holding the body until the undertakers had to take Charles away. You shake your head. You ask: how do they do it? You wonder: Could I? Communion was offered. And prayers. And then Andy got up. I can’t imagine how. He didn’t talk long --- self-possession is a scarce commodity in such moments. Some funny stories, a wry anecdote, remarkable restraint --- Andy hit it out of the park. After 9/11, I went to funerals where Rudy Giuliani asked mourners to give the dead a standing ovation. The first time, I was moved. As he did this at more services, the gesture seemed show-biz and made me uneasy. But here --- you couldn’t not stand and applaud a guy going home to many, many nights in an empty apartment. One final song, from Rhonda Ross Kendrick and the David Raleigh Ensemble --- violinist, cello, piano, a few backup vocalists. I’m especially susceptible to music, but in this moment, with that song, who wouldn’t be? I mean: the Diana Ross and the Supremes classic, “Someday We’ll Be Together,” presented softly, as if for an audience of butterflies. (Later, I googled: Ms. Kendrick is the daughter of Diana Ross.) I was standing by the door as Andy and the Nolans went out. A pale blue coffin. Grief cutting lines into young faces. But such strength --- resilience you read about in books, only staring you right in the face. It broke my heart to think this, but these were the words that came to me: They can bear this. I can too. It’s part of the bargain. It’s what we’re built for. I came out into a gray day. Black water soup in the icy streets. Not much joy in the air. I had an important meeting to go to, dinner to cook for my wife, a chapter book to read with the kid. I can’t remember when I felt so lucky, so glad to be alive. Godspeed, Charles. And to Andy, as he’d say, “hugs.” Videos: “Ebben? Ne andro lontana,” performed by Maria Callas “Someday We’ll Be Together,” performed by Diana Ross and the Supremes
- [The Glass Key](https://headbutler.com/reviews/glass-key/) - "The Glass Key," published in 1930, was Dashiell Hammett's favorite book --- quite a statement when you consider that he also wrote "The Thin Man" and "The Maltese Falcon." “The clues were nicely placed there,” he explained, “although nobody seemed to see them." He's right. “The Glass Key” is a cleverly plotted novel, with more than its share of plot twists and turns. It's got a love triangle of sorts (and even a risqué scene that will fuel a fantasy some cold night). And in its style, it's quite innovative: We're never told what the characters think. Instead, we have to figure out their motivations from their actions --- and in addition to the expected sharp dialogue, there's plenty of rough-and-tumble action in these 214 pages.[To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] But I don't think that's why readers respond to this book. It's the politics. In “The Glass Key,” we see what political corruption looks like --- from the inside. Ned Beaumont describes himself as “a gambler and a politician's hanger-on.” That's too modest. He does most of the smart thinking for Paul Madvig, a behind-the-scenes power broker who controls large chunks of an unnamed city. Ned is no bruiser --- he's tall, tubercular and a sucker for a stiff drink --- but, on occasion, he's Madvig's enforcer. And there is much to enforce: a creep named Shad O'Rory is hoping his candidates will control the city after the upcoming election. Then there is the small matter of a Senator's son, found dead in the street, right in the middle of Chapter One. Everyone has an angle. The Senator needs Paul Madvig's support. Madvig wants to marry the Senator's daughter. Madvig's daughter was having an affair with the Senator's son. And Madvig looks like the boy's most likely killer. (Got all that? It's simpler in the movie.) Beaumont persuades the District Attorney to give him limited authority to investigate the case. His aim, of course, is to slow that investigation down. Which he does by planting a key piece of evidence. And that's not half of it. The newspaper publisher is heavily in debt. The mortgage on his plant is held by a bank that favors a candidate not in Madvig's stable. So what? As Beaumont points out, “He'll do what he's told to do and print what he's told to print.” Dirty stuff, all of it. Which isn't to say there's no hero. There is --- Ned Beaumont. How can that be? Because there's a thin vein of idealism in Ned. Because he has a code. Because, in the end, he is a gentleman. And because he recognizes that Madvig, though corrupt, has the city's interests at heart. That's what makes “The Glass Key” so fascinating --- the way it presents a raw, ugly reality and then makes a kind of sense of it. Is moral order restored at the end? The title tells us it can't be; the glass key is a phrase from a young woman's dream. Yes, it can open a door. Once. Then it shatters. And the door can never be locked again. You don't need deep Freudian understanding to grasp that she's talking about the price of worldly knowledge --- that is, the end of innocence. In “The Glass Key,” men are always smoking dappled cigars. Some of them wear both vests and hats. They make corruption almost stylish.
- [Monsoon Solo: Voices Once Submerged](https://headbutler.com/reviews/monsoon-solo-voices-once-submerged/) - Norman Mailer said you don’t really know a woman until you’ve met her in court. I say you don’t know a woman until you’ve read her poems. Gretl Claggett is one of my best friends. She’s written several times for this site --- most notably about Kathryn Harrison and Cara Hoffman. I’ve read her prose work-in-progress. When we get together, we start with gossip and kvetching, but then we get down to a conversation about writing. Until this week, I’d read exactly one of her poems, “Happy Hour.” When women laugh at jokes they don’t find funny and men tell stories only half-true, I recall how, at his house, my parents and their friends welcomed in the weekends. How they’d sit by the fireplace wishing the flame’s ribbons could tie up life’s loose ends. How they’d never see him lead me from the room and up the stairs, martini in hand. Olives bobbing like bloodshot eyes. After, cleanup: a monogrammed handkerchief, the quick zip of pants, he’d slip a silver dollar into my pocket --- Good girl. This is a poem about childhood sexual abuse. Sustained abuse. Occurring sometimes in the home of the close friend of the poet’s unsuspecting parents. It’s a cautionary tale, a dark history, a survivor’s account. One thing it’s not, after all these years: a call for help, a cry for pity. The poem is not fiction. It’s not a creative leap. It’s testimony. It’s Gretl’s story. And it’s one of the reasons I came to like her so much, first as a writer --- because that’s the way it works for me --- and then as a person. She doesn’t play the victim card. She’s a writer, a real one: emotional yet disciplined, capable of looking into a moment without being swallowed by it. “Happy Hour” doesn’t suggest the theme --- or the primary subject --- of the poems in Gretl Claggett’s first book, “Monsoon Solo: Voices Once Submerged,” but it does give you a good idea of her method. Her interest is in bringing to the surface the truth of the stories we know --- or think we know --- about one another. The courage is in the intensity of the search-and-rescue effort. What makes her a poet worth noticing is the skill she brings to the effort. Let the John Barth quotation from the front of the book be her creed and your guide: “Like an ox-cart driver in monsoon season… one must sometimes go forward by going back.” [To buy the paperback of “Monsoon Solo,” click here.] Gretl Claggett is from Hannibal, Missouri --- birthplace of Mark Twain --- and although she now lives in New York, many of her poems are set in the real America. And the people there! Vietnam vets who, back home, die “accidentally.” The handsome kid in high school, and how he lost an eye. An actress about to go onstage at a community theater, her daughter at home. The fate of a “door-to-door door salesman.” A wife who tells her husband “I’m in love with someone else.” The widow of an unloved husband. A chronicle of losers? Beware of surface, shallow judgments. Consider that the poet might have considerable compassion for these people, and that you might too. Like this: Life is not a dinner party. We don’t get to surround ourselves only with the charming and the beautiful, with people who have happy problems. And we shouldn’t ask our writers --- especially our poets --- to offer phony pleasure. Gretl Claggett penetrates appearances, brings back what’s underneath. That is the job of the real poet. The discovery for me: My friend is a real poet. I liked her for all the right reasons. As can you.
- [Special Election Edition: Aretha Franklin, Annie Lennox, Chuck Taylor Converse Sneakers, Steve Kornicki's Chinos](https://headbutler.com/reviews/special-election-edition-aretha-franklin-annie-lennox-chuck-taylor-converse-sneakers/) - I don't believe the election requires one more word of commentary. Okay, just this: As a nation, we have been saved by women --- especially Black women in Pennsylvania and Georgia. For the big picture, I defer to Aretha Franklin and Annie Lennox. For the style takeaway, I suggest Chuck Taylor low-cut sneakers are about
- [NOVEMBER 4, 2020: Three stories for the day after the election](https://headbutler.com/reviews/november-4-2020-three-stories-for-the-day-after-the-election/) - Many of us went to bed – if we went to bed at all --- wondering as much about this as about the outcome: How is it possible, after four years of this man, that more people voted for him than voted for him in 2016? It may yet happen that, as the polls suggested,
- [Love You Forever](https://headbutler.com/reviews/love-you-forever/) - "I'll love you forever I'll like you for always As long as I'm living My baby you'll be."
- [What the World Needs Now: Burt Bacharach Classics](https://headbutler.com/reviews/very-best-burt-bacharach/) - Burt Bacharach starred in a GEICO commercial. Burt Bacharach was in the Austin Powers movies. Burt Bacharach recorded with Elvis Costello and Dr. Dre. And when he was 77, Burt Bacharach was fired. He found ;this humorous: "The last time I was fired I was 19 years old and was playing piano in a restaurant
- [Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles](https://headbutler.com/reviews/benedictines-of-mary-queen-of-apostles/) - If a classical CD sells 500 copies a week, that’s good enough to propel it to #1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical list. “Lent at Ephesus,” the second CD by the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, sold 8,000 in the week after its release. Most of the 22 nuns of the Benedictines of Mary
- [Christina Baker Kline: The Exiles](https://headbutler.com/reviews/christina-baker-kline-the-exiles/) - Her first four novels had modest sales, so Christina Baker Kline’s publisher decided to bring out her fifth as a paperback original. Book clubs discovered it, loved it, and members shared it with friends. “Orphan Train” became the sleeper hit of 2013. It spent 105 weeks on the New York Times list, more than a
- [Want to keep your bones strong? Consider Collagen Peptides & Vitamin D](https://headbutler.com/reviews/want-to-keep-your-bones-strong-consider-collagen-peptides-vitamin-d/) - Because I’m of “a certain age,” I know women of a certain age. Some are fit and active. Some have had some nasty breaks in the health department but are doing well. Some are terrified they’ll fall, break a hip, and skid toward an early grave. Female friends who have taken some physical knocks have
- [Lennon: The Man, the Myth, the Music, The Definitive Life](https://headbutler.com/reviews/lennon-the-man-the-myth-the-music-the-definitive-life/) - Guest Butler Joe DePreta, a New York marketing consultant and writer on cultural trends, is a student of musicology from Sinatra to the Sex Pistols. When I was a kid, my friends and I sat on a park bench and debated and talked over each other like a Robert Altman ensemble about the important hierarchies
- [NAC (N-Acetyl Cysteine)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/nac-n-acetyl-cysteine/) - The next few months are a perfect storm. Unbreathable air. A spike in Covid-19 as cooler weather has us gathering indoors and idiots get away with refusing to wear masks. And even if you lock yourself down and keep the windows closed, the stress of the election on your emotional and physical health. I have
- [A Most Beautiful Thing: a much needed shot of inspiration](https://headbutler.com/reviews/a-most-beautiful-thing-a-much-needed-shot-of-inspiration/) - James Fallows, speechwriter to Jimmy Carter and longtime writer for The Atlantic, found today’s inspiration, a much praised documentary that was destined for theaters. “A Most Beautiful Thing” is now streaming on NBCUniversal’s new Peacock service. It will soon be available on Amazon. Watch the trailer. Read Jim’s piece. If you’re not moved, even inspired,
- [Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bon-iver/) - Amazingly, many of you are unaware of Bon Iver. So let's start with a story... As winter descended, Justin Vernon moved to his father's cabin in the woods of Northwestern Wisconsin. He was "60 miles away from anyone I love, sometimes more like 1500." But he was "about 18 feet away from everything I love" --- a pile of old guitars, a mound of microphones, wires, chords, electric boxes. For several months, he dug in, chopping wood, thinking, writing, playing, recording. When he emerged, he had nine songs, about 35 minutes of music. Magic music
- [Djivan Gasparyan](https://headbutler.com/reviews/djivan-gasparyan/) - In the middle of the night, when it’s so quiet that you can barely hear the breeze, what kind of music would you want to hear? Something that honors the silence and blends with it. Something beautiful and melodic. Something slow --- energetic music would just sound gaudy --- and meditative. Eternal music, expressing feelings beyond words. For the last 1,500 years, people have found that kind of music played on the duduk, a double-reed instrument that’s a distant cousin of the oboe. Armenians feel it’s theirs, but versions of it are also played in Turkey, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. Think of the duduk as the blues delivery system of the region, for its haunting, slightly rasping sound suggests suffering and isolation. Indeed, the composer Aram Khatchadourian suggested it was the only instrument that could bring him to tears.
- [Snak Yard Shiitake Mushroom](https://headbutler.com/reviews/snak-yard-shiitake-mushroom/) - As the mushroom softened, so did the flavoring. The sharpness of the sea salt faded, there was a smooth middle moment that was all about texture, and then there was a small explosion of spices. In that moment, I became a convert to the cult of Snak Yard Shiitake Mushrooms.
- [Face Shields](https://headbutler.com/reviews/face-shields/) - EDITOR”S NOTE: Face shields may be a good thing for you. For almost everyone, however, they are NOT a substitute for a mask. Simply, MASKS ARE ESSENTIAL. To buy a pack of 15 disposable masks from Amazon, click here. Let’s start with a Facebook post by “NY, NJ, CT & the rest of the NE.”
- [Chris Dickey (1951 - 2020)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/chris-dickey-1951-2020/) - The news that Chris Dickey had died suddenly in Paris sucked the air out of me, as it did for a number of my crowd. People who do words for a living and a life sent me emails, delivering the news and little more; like me, they were stunned and silent. Friends who followed his
- [Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents](https://headbutler.com/reviews/caste-the-origins-of-our-discontents/) - In “Caste,” she examines the origins of racism --- a social structure that makes racism possible, seemingly invisible and seemingly inevitable. You won’t get a screed here. You will get a 500-page, addictively readable account of caste in Nazi Germany, India and, of course, the United States that conclusively makes this case: “Race, in the United States, is the visible agent of the unseen force of caste. Caste is the bones, race the skin.”
- [Timothy Snyder: Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty from a Hospital Diary](https://headbutler.com/reviews/timothy-snyder-our-malady-lessons-in-liberty-from-a-hospital-diary/) - Bev Veals, a three-time cancer survivor in North Carolina, feared she could no longer afford her health care. She reached out to her Senator, Thom Tillis, for help, and when she got scorn, she recorded her phone calls with one of his staffers. [To hear the quotes, click here.] BEV VEALS: “You’re saying that, if
- ["You Should Have Known" (on HBO as “The Undoing”)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/you-should-have-known/) - "The Undoing" is a 4-star HBO production. It stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant. The writer-producer is David E. Kelley, who created "L.A. Law," "Ally McBeal" and "Chicago Hope." The director is Susanne Bier, who directed two of my favorite movies, After the Wedding and In a Better World and, more recently, the series of
- [Two Minute Semi-Gourmet: Seeds of Change Rice and Annie Chun Noodle Bowls](https://headbutler.com/reviews/two-minute-semi-gourmet-seeds-of-change-rice-and-annie-chun-noodle-bowls/) - The pandemic turned a great many of us into bakers. Bread. Pies. Cakes. Some of us opened international cookbooks, discovered spices, cooked elaborate meals. Soon we started seeing articles about a weight gain: the “Covid 10.” Then it got warmer and everyone was walking. I’m not a baker. After college, I was briefly an assistant
- [The Day of the Jackal](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-day-of-the-jackal/) - The novel doesn’t crackle with suspense --- we “know” that de Gaulle lives --- but no matter: this is a “howdunit.” Forsyth describes paramilitary fighters, forgers and cops. He takes us deep into a shadow world of disguises, identity changes and Swiss banking. He shows us what’s it like to form a secret organization.
- [Somerset Maugham: Cakes and Ale](https://headbutler.com/reviews/cakes-and-ale/) - His parents were known as "Beauty and the Beast." Once someone asked the lovely Mrs. Maugham how she remained faithful to her ugly little husband. "He never hurts my feelings," she said. She was equally tender to her youngest son, William. When he was just eight years old, she died. Seventy years later, William Somerset Maugham was still saying, "I shall never get over her death. I shall never get over it." Two years later, his father died, and Willie Maugham, who had lived so long in Paris that he spoke no English, was shipped back to relatives in the English countryside. He had a club foot. And a stammer. He wanted to be a writer; he was persuaded to go to medical school. When he was 23, he produced a novel. It was a huge success. Medicine was forgotten. By 1930, when "Cakes and Ale" hit the bookstores, Maugham had published "Of Human Bondage" and "The Moon and Sixpence" and a book of innovative spy stories about Willie Ashenden, his alter-ego and favorite narrator. He was the highest-paid, most famous writer in the world. No mystery why --- his books were chatty and easy to read. They went down smooth and whole, like oysters. Once consumed, they presented no bulk. This was deliberate; Maugham had gone to school on de Maupassant and Chekhov, practiced writing stories that had no adjectives and, with considerable sweat, forged a prose style that read like conversation. [To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] Maugham was not known as a bomb-thrower, but "Cakes and Ale" in 1930 changed that. The novel was a scandal. Not for the sex. For literary reasons --- it starts with a vicious portrait of "Roy Kear," a popular writer of second-rate novels clearly modeled on a then-noted English writer. The odd thing: Kear is important only for getting the story started, he couldn't be a more minor character. Kear, in any event, gets things going by leaving a message for Willie Ashenden, now a moderately successful, extremely observant writer. Good manners require Ashenden to accept an invitation for lunch. There, to his surprise, Kear turns the conversation to Edward Driffield, the venerable English novelist (Maugham modeled him on Thomas Hardy) who wrote so many deadly boring books over so many decades that he is regarded as a master. It turns out that, as a boy of 15, Ashenden was befriended by Edward Driffield and his first wife, Rosie. Roy Kear is writing an adoring biography of Driffield; he'd love Ashenden to share those memories. Instead, Ashenden drifts down memory lane and tells us the story no one knows --- the truth about the Driffield marriage. Ashenden's memories seem to be a chronicle of small-town snobbery. In the countryside where young Ashenden (and Maugham) spends school vacations, the Driffields are not respectable. Edward is a writer, thus automatically suspect. And Rosie --- well, she has a past. Young Ashenden is aware of their checkered reputation, but he is hungrier for adult friendship than he is for social propriety. The Driffields become his second family --- until they suddenly bolt, leaving debts and questions behind them. Years pass. Ashenden is now a medical student in London. He runs into Rosie; their friendship resumes. But Ashenden is now twenty --- he understands that although Rosie seems to love her husband, she is repeatedly unfaithful to him. And, soon enough, he becomes her lover. One of them, anyway, for Ashenden must confront an idea that few men can handle: women's right to sexual freedom. Roy Kear can't. Here he is, pumping Willie Ashenden: "I suppose she was awful." "I don't recollect that." "She must have been dreadfully common. She was a barmaid, wasn't she?" "Yes." "I wonder why the devil he married her. I've always been given to understand that she was extremely unfaithful to him." "Extremely." "Do you remember at all what she was like?" "Yes, very distinctly," I smiled. "She was sweet." Not what Kear wants to hear. Much later Ashenden spells it out for him: "She was a very simple woman. Her instincts were healthy and ingenuous. She loved to make people happy. She loved love." "Do you call that love?" "Well, then, the act of love. She was naturally affectionate. When she liked anyone, it was quite natural for her to go to bed with him. She never thought twice about it. It was not vice; it wasn't lasciviousness; it was her nature. She gave herself as naturally as the sun gives heat or the flowers their perfume. It was a pleasure to her and she liked to give pleasure to others. It had no effect on her character; she remained sincere, unspoiled, and artless." Whew! That's a long way from bike rides in the country, even further from lunch with Roy Kear in a London club. And although "Cakes and Ale" is a relatively short novel --- it's a crisp 300 pages --- there are many more twists in it. I won't spoil them for you. It's been fashionable for decades to dismiss Maugham as a mere storyteller, as if the ability to tell stories is a second-rate gift. But unless you are a snootball critic, stories are what you read fiction for. In "Cakes and Ale," Maugham juggles half a dozen characters without breaking a sweat. The novel seems formless and weightless, a tale told by a friend over drinks. You cannot imagine how hard it is to do this. Of all his books, Maugham considered "Cakes and Ale" his favorite. Read it and you'll see why.
- [Alice Munro: Dear Life](https://headbutler.com/reviews/alice-munro-dear-life/) - I read --- especially fiction --- because I want to know how it feels to be someone else. To think like someone else. To have someone else's adventures, crises, romances and triumphs. Because, for an hour or a day, I want out of my life. By those measures, "Dear Life" was the book of the year for me.
- [Bed Tents](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bed-tents/) - The adult-in-training spent the last few years in her room. This is not news. The unseen teen is a staple in American homes. Our is an extreme case --- she had the Marcel Proust thing going, she rarely left her bed. If she'd had an en suite bathroom, her life at home would have been
- [Toots Hibbert: The Otis Redding of Reggae](https://headbutler.com/reviews/best-toots-amp-maytals/) - The year was 1973. "The Harder They Come" was a cult movie, and my friends and I spent our nights --- and, sometimes, days --- listening to the soundtrack. The Wailers (before Bob Marley become God and the group was relegated to back-up status) came to town, and I met them, and Toots and The Maytals came to town, and I met them too. One afternoon, I went down to the Chelsea Hotel to suggest a movie to Marley. Before I could tell him my ideas, he put his spliff down long enough to draw a square on a piece of paper. "This one is us," he said. He drew another square. "This one is the bank." He drew a connecting line, looked up at me and grinned --- and our movie died right there. Toots Hibbert was more fun. We zoomed around in my friend Steve's open-air Jeep one night like the college kids Steve and I almost were. Toots came from a very different background, to say the least, but it was his good mood that pushed us onward. But then Toots always seems to be in a good mood. We wanted to believe that we were on the ground floor of reggae, and he let us. Much later, I did the research and discovered that Toots had helped pioneer the music about a decade before I happened upon it. The son of a Seventh Day Adventist minister who preached in the Jamaican hills, he grew up dreaming of Kingston. He migrated there in the early 1960s, got a job in a barbershop, and hooked up with two other country boys, Raleigh and Jerry. From the start, Toots was the Jamaican blend of James Brown and Otis Redding. He had a voice like a rasp --- and he could shout all night. And he had energy. Short, barrel-chested, endless;y smiling, he loved to perform, loved that people liked his singing, loved the idea that music could bring people together in a way that fused spirituality and, well, sex. Toots and The Maytals had some hits in Jamaica, and then, in 1966, he was convicted of what he calls "a trumped-up ganja charge." In his words: I didn't have any ganja, I didn't even start smoking yet. They didn't have no cause to do that, but they found some cause. People try to do things to hold you back in life. So they put me in jail for about nine months or so, and that's where I wrote the song. They gave me the privilege of using my guitar. I didn't have to do other work, just play guitar. The song was "54-46, That's My Number." And then, in 1968, Toots and The Maytals recorded "Do the Reggay," the song that named the music. As he recalls: There was the beat in Jamaica, reggae was played long before I started singing. And there was a slang, like a nickname for someone who don't dress properly --- like if you are barefoot, people would call you "streggae." They say, "Hey, that guy is streggae, don't talk to him." If a girl don't dress properly, like don't have on any top, they call her streggae. So one morning, we just said, "Let's go along and do some reggae." Those days we'd just make stuff up, anything. A bird flies around the corner, you write a song about it. So we just say (singing): "Do the reggay, do the reggay," and that's it. A few words, y'know? And nobody paid it any mind until it started to go all over the world. I saw it in the Guinness Book of Records. So I thank God that I did something good, and I didn't even plan it . By the time I met this modest, friendly guy, he was huge in Jamaica, having already recorded most of his 31 hits. I'd only seen "The Harder They Come," and I knew about two -- and was hooked on only one, the addictive "Pressure Drop." Now I know there's so much more, and the work is so much richer and more complex --- like his non-Rasta song in praise of ganja, "Pass the pipe on the right hand side." [To buy "The Best of Toots & The Maytals" from Amazon and get the MP3 download free, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.] This CD collects the Greater Hits. There are more to come; clearly, he'll go to his grave singing. He should. "I try to give my audience the real everything," he says. By which he means: music that makes you get up and dance. Many make this claim. But by mixing R&B and reggae and his own beautiful soul, Toots pulls it off. He'll never be as rich and famous as Bob Marley was, but he's plenty satisfied with what he's got. You will be too.
- [The Kali Yuga](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-kali-yuga/) - What if what's going on is bigger than politics, economic inequality, jingoism, racism and sexism? What if we’re experiencing a series of prompts that, taken together, should open our eyes to what’s actually happening? What if life is an epic play and our task is to figure out who we are in the story? What
- [Head Butler takes a holiday, but he's left you many treats -- don't stay home without them!](https://headbutler.com/reviews/head-butler-takes-a-holiday-but-hes-left-you-many-treats-dont-stay-home-without-them/) - SHOPPING ON AMAZON: You start here, buy something there, Butler gets a commission. And not just on the item reviewed. Anything you buy during a session that starts with a click from Butler helps this site. There are two ways to get to Amazon. 1) Click on a specific link on a Butler review. Or
- [SMOD](https://headbutler.com/reviews/smod/) - Do you like music that makes you happy? I don't mean moderately happy, 7.5 on a scale of 10, isn't it a great day happy, kinda sorta happy. I mean ecstatic, get up and dance happy, throw caution to the winds and kiss a stranger happy, pump up the volume and wake your neighbors happy, see yourself realizing all your dreams happy. I wrote those lines, a few years ago, when I was besotted by Dimanche a Bamako and I wanted you to be as well. Hype? I didn’t think so then, and I don’t think so now --- on this release, the blind husband-and-wife singers from Mali, produced by genius/madman Manu Chao, deliver an imagined weekend concert in a park in Mali’s capitol. The music has brilliant harmonies, memorable melodies and dozens of Manu Chao’s favorite tricks: police whistles, xylophone, sirens, cheering crowds, a Tex-Mex organ and a beat that pounds disco right through the wall into reggae's yard. (Their recent CD, Welcome to Mali, is a studio project, but it’s just as good.) And now comes their son, Sam, with a debut CD called “SMOD,” which is also the name of his group. The creation myth has it that Sam and his friends formed a group to make “African Rap.” And that, late at night, they’d rehearse on the rooftop terrace of Amadou and Mariam’s house. Manu Chao happened to be staying there. He liked what he heard and volunteered to produce. The music evolved. Chao left the sound effects out. And the result is glorious, exultant, original. [To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.] Yes, but is it as life-affirmative, addictive, desert-island-worthy as “Dimanche a Bamako?” Nothing is. But it’s damn good, and there’s not a clinker on it. Play it once, you'll play it again and again until you drive everyone crazy --- in the best possible way. Hype? Just listen: BONUS Here they are, after a concert at the Olympia in Paris. Fans were hanging around. The group appeared. And suddenly a street in Paris was like a street corner in the Bronx in the 1950s….
- [Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture](https://headbutler.com/reviews/brunelleschis-dome-how-renaissance-genius-reinvented-architecture/) - The problems faced by Brunelleschi were practical but daunting: how to support the weight of the massive dome without external support, how to safely build it without scaffolding, and how to hoist an estimated 70 million tons of building materials several hundred feet above the ground and put them into position with pinpoint accuracy. Brunellesch's winning proposal for building the dome not only did away with any external support, it also did away with the wooden centering used for building even the smallest of arches. His daring ideas combined with his penchant for secrecy led many to consider him a madman.
- [Diptyque candles](https://headbutler.com/reviews/diptyque-candles/) - It lasts much longer than most other candles --- between 50-60 hours. Because once it fills a room with scent, you can blow it out and the room will continue to be gently perfumed for hours. Because when it’s burned out, you’ve got a vase for short-stemmed flowers.
- [Bill Hicks](https://headbutler.com/reviews/spoken-word/) - An act like this produces strong responses. One irate listener leveled a gun at Hicks; another broke his ankle. Many simply walked out, sometimes in packs. Bill Hicks never considered softening his routines. “It's always funny until someone gets hurt,” he said. “Then it's just hilarious.”
- [Pete Hamill on Bob Dylan: It begins, "In the end, the plague touched us all." He wrote this in 1974.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/pete-hamill-on-bob-dylan-it-begins-in-the-end-the-plague-touched-us-all-he-wrote-this-in-1974/) - It is widely argued that “Blood on the Tracks” is Bob Dylan’s best record. In some other universe, that might be an interesting conversation. In this one, making the case for one piece of music --- or book or movie or painting --- is for people who have the time, money and need for diversion.
- [Leave Something on the Table, and Other Surprising Lessons for Success in Business and in Life](https://headbutler.com/reviews/leave-something-on-the-table-and-other-surprising-lessons-for-success-in-business-and-in-life/) - The underlying story of this book isn’t how a poor boy from San Antonio scaled the heights and stayed at the top for three decades, it’s something even more remarkable. In a time when more and more CEOs are borderline criminals, Frank Bennack is straight and honest --- you could do a deal with him on a handshake. He’s the model of what a leader should be, and not just in business
- [Big Mama Thornton](https://headbutler.com/reviews/blues-singer/) - The first night she sang at Harlem's Apollo Theater, she was Willie Mae Thornton, and she was the opening act. The following night, as "Big Mama" Thornton, she was the headliner. That overnight success came in 1952, when Willie Mae was 26. By then, she had moved far beyond the gospel songs she learned in the churches of Montgomery, Alabama, where her father was a minister and her mother sang in the choir. Now she was living in Houston, performing in clubs, learning to play drums and harmonica, drinking gin and milk, and being open about her sexuality decades before it was cool to be a lesbian. “My singing comes from my experience…my own experience," she said. "I never had no one teach me nothin’. I never went to school for music or nothin’. I taught myself to sing and to blow harmonica and even to play drums by watchin’ other people! I can’t read music, but I know what I’m singing! I don’t sing like nobody but myself.” Of the 16 songs on the "Ball & Chain" CD, recorded when she was in her early 40s, two were huge hits --- for others. One was "Hound Dog," which she first recorded three years before Elvis got to it. And then there is "Ball N' Chain," which Big Mama wrote and owned until Janis Joplin started using it as her show-stopper. But the amazing thing about this CD is that these two classics are matched by almost every other song on it. In part, that's because the musicians playing with her are world-class. On the first few songs, her band features Buddy Guy (guitar), Walter Horton (harmonica) and the great Fred Below (drums). On two cuts, her only accompaniment is Fred McDowell's slide guitar. And for six glorious songs, she's backed by a band that includes Muddy Waters (guitar), James Cotton (harmonica) and the incomparable Otis Spann (piano). [To buy "Ball 'N Chain" from Amazon, click here. For the MP 3 download, click here.] Mostly, though, what transports you is Big Mama. Her range astonishes. One moment, she's a crude shouter, loud enough to hush belligerent drunks; the next moment, she's the repository of all the heartache in the world. You'll listen carefully to "Sweet Little Angel" because no one's done it better. And you'll want to get up and dance to "Wade in the Water," because she's singing flat-out gospel against a pounding tambourine and a scorching guitar. But on the twentieth hearing, or thereabouts, you will listen to Otis Spann's hushed piano against her forlorn voice in "Life Goes On" and feel something like awe. Big Mama never knew real success. She got royalties of $500 for "Hound Dog," her first and only commercial hit. She lived hard. She drank more than was good for her. She died in l984, aged 62, in a Los Angeles rooming house. Naturally, she's much more popular now than she was when she was alive. BONUS
- [Black Beauty](https://headbutler.com/reviews/black-beauty/) - "Black Beauty" was Anna Sewell's only book. Her aim, she said, was "to induce kindness, sympathy and an understanding of the treatment of horses." She succeeded admirably; "Black Beauty" was an instant hit, and, it is said, is "the sixth best seller in the English language."
- [Everything You Need to Know About Tana French](https://headbutler.com/reviews/everything-you-need-to-know-about-tana-french/) - A writer has a book coming out in two months. When was the last time the Times did a feature about the writer that promotes her previous books –-- all of them? That’s what Janet Maslin did this week. The tone of the first paragraph suggests her enthusiasm: Tana French has written seven novels, with
- [Shining City](https://headbutler.com/reviews/shining-city/) - I have, at long last, read a contemporary novel I wish I'd written. I knew from the very first two sentences: Julian Ripps was too fat to be reclining in a hot tub between a pair of naked women, unless he was very rich or they were prostitutes. He wasn't, but they were. But all is not well in the hot tub next to the infinity pool on the flagstone deck high above Los Angeles. The hookers depart, leaving Julian to deal with the aftermath of a two cheeseburger dinner and the possibility --- no, the likelihood --- of a criminal indictment for money laundering. The myocardial infarction hits him in the tub, and, four pages into the novel, he's dead. We next find ourselves in the ballroom of the Beverly Hills Hotel, site of a Bar Mitzvah. As you might expect, there are chocolate fountains and a Vanity Fair photographer and guests who behave “as if they were at a fund-raiser that just happened to feature klezmer music during the cocktail hour.” The father had his corporate communications guys write his speech, the kids get henna tattoos, and the music starts with the voice of a rapper “whose shrewdest career move involved getting hot.” But it's the “motivational dancer” on each arm of the Bar Mitzvah boy that signals we are in the hands of a comic master. And in case we're slow on the uptake, consider the chapter's end, as everyone dances --- “in a celebratory mosh” --- to these “incantational” words: She a ho, she a ho, she a mothafuckin' ho, ho-ahhh... It gets better. Among the guests at the Bar Mitzvah are Marcus Ripps, brother of the dead pimp, and his wife Jan. They live in Van Nuys. He's had a dull managerial job at a novelty toy factory for fifteen years. She owns Ripcord, a moribund boutique. Their son's on scholarship at an exclusive private school where “a sixth-grader was selling his Ritalin to a high school sophomore.” They're being crushed by an $80,000 home equity loan. They haven't had sex for a month, and when Marcus, in frustration, tries to part Jan's thighs, it's “like trying to crack a safe that had no combination.” Very quickly --- Greenland is not one for pretty flights of prose that an editor dare not remove --- the factory is history. (“To everything there is a season: a time to expand, a time to downsize, a time to move the entire operation to the Far East.”) But when a door closes, another opens, this time to Shining City, a dry cleaner on Melrose that Julian has bequeathed to Marcus. (They had not been close: “Marcus remembered Julian as someone who took the noble out of savage.”) Marcus visits the establishment. A woman walks in and hands him an envelope filled with cash. Slowly, he realizes. The lawyer hadn't told him Julian was a “pip” --- he'd said “pimp”. And now Marcus can be that guy. It was “a disorienting sensation, as if he'd been exploring a Pacific atoll and had come upon a production of Porgy and Bess being performed by a cast of house cats.” I don't want to spoil the fun for you, so let me just point out that --- unless you are a devout believer in almost any religion --- you will have a hard time seeing Marcus and Jan as “bad” people for what they do next. Indeed, even if you are morality incarnate, you have a hard time keeping a straight face as Greenland serves up hilarious scene after hilarious scene. [To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] For Marcus and Jan are, like many of us, just trying to hold it together, make it through and leave a little something for their kid. But what do you say to a woman who tells you: "Dates, Marcus. I have SUV to pay off. Some guy who likes Greek would be good. Juice told you that costs double, right? Triple if he's Arab." How do you deal with a naked corpse handcuffed to a bed? And what happens to your philosophy of life when you discover a connection between your sexual frequency and your checking account balance? Beneath our thin veneer of personality, Greenland suggests, lies an equally thin veneer of self. That's not a judgment, it's just how it is for besieged suburban American families --- and many others. You can get all dreary about that, or you can write a book with killer lines and credibly funny scenes. And a pimp you can love? Believe it. Seth Greenland has the typing fingers of a Dominican shortstop. He's fast and sure, and if he's a little slick toward the end, you won't hold it against him. You'll be too busy laughing.
- [Diana Vreeland: D.V.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/dv/) - In the first three pages of this book, Diana Vreeland he namedrops Irving (Swifty) Lazar, Oscar de la Renta, a tony London restaurant called San Lorenzo, a bare-assed Jack Nicholson and Ahmet Ertegun. If you are of a certain age and know your way around Media and Society, this is delectable fare. If not --- and don't blame yourself: Mrs. V. was born in 1906 --- this will read like fiction.
- [Bob Dylan: Blonde on Blonde](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bob-dylan-blonde-blonde/) - Bob Dylan recently released "Rough and Rowdy Ways," his first collection of new songs in 8 years --- 71 minutes of music. I listened to it, admired a few songs, and decided most of it was admirable but boring and not worth reviewing. Nonetheless, it rocketed to #1 on Amazon. After that, I'd bet, few
- [Tana French: The Trespasser](https://headbutler.com/reviews/tana-french-the-trespasser/) - “The Trespasser” occupies familiar territory (Dublin neighborhoods and pubs) and involves familiar themes (an incident, a victim, a suspect or two, a theory, or two or three), but as with Ms. French's other novels, I find that the story she wants to tell isn't only about the crime.
- [Tana French: The Secret Place](https://headbutler.com/reviews/tana-french-the-secret-place/) - Guest Butler Nora Levine is our Tana French expert; she last reviewed French’s “In the Woods.” In her other life, Levine, a former law librarian, unravels the mysteries of her husband’s legal briefs in Oakland, California. As with thread in a delicate blanket stitch, Irish crime writer Tana French weaves characters from one novel into
- [Cassandra at the Wedding](https://headbutler.com/reviews/cassandra-wedding/) - You're a twin --- so close to your sister that she moved across the country. Now she's getting married to a man you've never met and cutting the cord for good. And you're her only bridesmaid. In the universe we now inhabit --- the urban chickscape of “Sex and the City” --- Cassandra Edwards would have a posse of smart-talking, Chardonnay-swilling pals to help her through this overwrought moment. They'd gab for hours about her choice of a bridesmaid's dress. They'd speculate about the groom's endowment. And they'd tease Cassandra for her ambivalence about catching the bouquet. Cassandra at the Wedding is a stunning rebuke to that shallow-as-glass sensibility. It's a smart, stylish, disturbing novel --- a book much too good to languish at an Amazon.com ranking of 1,000,000. But then, Dorothy Baker is not exactly a household name. Young Man with a Horn --- her fictionalized account of the doomed jazz great Bix Beiderbecke --- was published in 1938. It's pure pleasure; I've read it a dozen times since discovering it as a kid. I thought it was her only novel until a Butler reader tipped me to “Cassandra at the Wedding”, the last of what turn out to be Baker's three novels. Like “Young Man with a Horn,” this novel begins effortlessly: "I told them I could be free by the twenty-first, and that I'd come home the twenty-second.” That makes Cassandra seem chatty and friendly. Well, it doesn't take long for her bitchy side to surface. Example: Her twin's beloved is John Thomas Finch. Cassandra's comment: “Where'd she meet him --- Birdland?” Soon we see that Cassandra is an inventory of neurosis. She's writing a thesis about French writers rather than be a writer --- her mother wrote plays and novels --- but she's stumbling even in her academic writing. Her biggest issue, naturally, is her twin. She's just obsessed. And with every detail of their lives. She was, she notes, born “two ounces heavier and eleven minutes older than the one named Judith.” As children, they lived on the Northern California ranch where Judith will be married. They came right home after school: “We didn't need people.” Now, even though separated, they're so in tune with one another that they have both bought the same dress to wear at the wedding. To Cassandra, that's one more metaphor for all that's wrong about Judith's wedding --- one more reason she must stop it. She explains this to us at great length, and some readers, wading through these pages, will think this book is just talk talk talk. It's not. Baker is doing something far more subtle and accomplished --- she's presenting a close account of an unraveling personality. On the wedding day, there's an event. No spoilers here, but it's not the wedding, and it is a shocker. And it leads to more. And, in the end, you feel you've come to know some people at least as complex as you are and as twisted as some people you know. Oh, there's a twitch I've failed to mention. “With men I feel like a bird in the clutch of a cat, terrified, caught in a nightmare of confinement, wanting nothing but to get free and take a shower,” Cassandra tells us. Translation: She's gay. Context: “Cassandra” was published in 1962, so at no point is this ever made explicit. But you can read the entire book without being aware of her sexuality. For me, that's the mark of damn good writing. To buy “Cassandra at the Wedding” from Amazon.com, click here. To read more about “Young Man with a Horn on HeadButler.com and buy it from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Bob Dylan](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bob-dylan-1/) - Chronicles, Volume 1 Bob Dylan "Lou Levy, top man of Leeds Music Publishing company, took me up in a taxi to the Pythian Temple on West 70th Street to show me the pocket sized recording studio where Bill Haley and His Comets had recorded 'Rock Around the Clock.'" Now I ask you: Of all the ways you might have imagined that Bob Dylan would begin his memoirs, would you have dreamed…that? If you're like me, you'd expect something more cryptic ("The ragman draws circles") or political ("How many years can some people exist before they're allowed to be free?") or lyrical ("Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed"). But the lead of a magazine profile? No way. And that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the surprises that Dylan delivers in what's billed as the first in a series of memoirs. But "surprises" may not be the right word --- "put-ons" may be more like it. In the beginning of his career, when Bob Zimmerman, son of a Minnesota storeowner, morphed into a Woody Guthrie clone, he was the very embodiment of passionate liberalism and poetic truth --- Tom Paine meets Rimbaud. Well-respected books testify to his ambition, his cruelty to friends and colleagues, his contempt for the press. [If you're interested in a more likely chronicle of Dylan's early years, read "Positively Fourth Street" --- there's a link to it at the bottom of this review.] You'll find none of that here. This Dylan is a guy who had "come from a long ways off and had started from a long ways down." He had thought for a time of going to West Point. He had no great commitment to social justice or nuclear disarmament. Later, he would dream of a house with a white picket fence. Maybe Dylan really believed this stuff way back then. Or, more possibly, believes it now and has simply backdated his opinions --- forty years and a lot of living can play tricks on memory. Or maybe he's doing what he's done all along, what artists always do --- tell his story as fable, create mystery around truth, cover his tracks. After all, what does he owe us? He's given us his music. This book was never going to be a cry from the heart, a plea for understanding; it was, I suspect, more like an activity, something to do on the road while Dylan roams the world on an endless concert tour. So Dylan meanders through his early days in New York, presenting charming portraits of the people he meets along the way, the books he reads, the music business circa 1962. "I had no ambitions to stir things up." Right. But this writing has a purpose --- it loosens Dylan up. Unlike a Real Writer, who writes and cuts and rewrites and cuts, Dylan writes and writes, saving every precious word. And, slowly, he writes himself into the book's true subject, which is music: how you make it, where it comes from, what you do when the magic's not in your fingertips anymore. "A song is like a dream," he writes, "and you try and make it come true." Now he's getting somewhere, you think, and then, suddenly, you hit a rich vein --- the 60-page story of making a record in New Orleans with Daniel Lanois as the producer. Bono had recommended Lanois, and Dylan finds him a good collaborator ("He wanted to dive in and go deep. He wanted to marry a mermaid") but their work together doesn't get off to a great start ("The tune was gaining weight by the minute and none of its clothes were fitting"). The process of creation --- that's a safe place for Dylan, and suddenly he's free to write. And joke. Other people enter, and they have their say. The book breathes. And the reader leans in, enchanted by the tale. I have mixed feelings about "Chronicles" the book. I have none about the audio version. It's read by Sean Penn, who has, as an actor, the most perfect pitch for accents and who nails Dylan here. He's hip, but not too. Annoyed, but not self-righteous. He is, in short, the Dylan you imagine when you think of the private Dylan. I can't imagine a better road trip than to listen to Sean Penn read Dylan --- and then to listen to Dylan. Even a daily commute would be ennobled by Sean and Bob. But not quite as ennobled as a road trip with Dylan's music. To order the audio CD read by Sean Penn from Amazon.com, click here. To order the audio cassette read by Sean Penn from Amazon.con, click here. To order 'Chronicles' as a book from Amazon.com, click here. To order "Positively Fourth Street" from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Maggie Smith: Good Bones](https://headbutler.com/reviews/maggie-smith-good-bones/) - In 2015 Maggie Smith sat in a Starbucks in Bexley, Ohio, and wrote a poem on a legal pad. She didn’t think “Good Bones” was her best poem, but she sent it out. Rejections followed. The online literary journal Waxwing published “Good Bones” in June 2016, That was the week a gunman killed 49 people
- [Bloody Sunday](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bloody-sunday/) - It took a 12-year investigation that cost $280 million and filled 5,000 pages. But now we know. In the words of British Prime Minister David Cameron: "What happened should never, ever have happened... Some members of our armed forces acted wrongly. The government is ultimately responsible for the conduct of the armed forces. And for that, on
- [Taffy Brodesser-Akner:  Fleishman Is in Trouble](https://headbutler.com/reviews/taffy-brodesser-akner-fleishman-is-in-trouble/) - This novel isn’t a catalogue of the marital complaints and sexual triumphs of a short 41-year-old Manhattan doctor who suddenly finds himself Tinder’s swordsman of the year. Soon after Toby has made the case against Rachel, his mega-successful bitch ex-wife, we discover he’s not the narrator. Libby is. She’s known Toby for 20 years. And she’s a writer.
- [The Pied Piper of Park Avenue](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-pied-piper-of-park-avenue/) - In 2014, The New York Observer published its first serial since "Sex and the City" --- my seven-part fiction about idealistic kids at New York’s elite private schools. I'm dealing here with Manhattan's 1% and with the poor who live a few blocks away. If I were writing it now, it would be about high-school
- [Kabir: Ecstatic Poems](https://headbutler.com/reviews/kabir/) - Did you know there were stand-up comedians in India in the 1400s? Me neither --- until I read Kabir. Alas, technology did not exist to immortalize his performances. Yes, they'd be in a language few of us understand, but it wouldn't matter --- just hearing his voice and seeing him recite would, I suspect, have me rolling on the floor. Why? Because Kabir was playing the greatest comic role of all --- God's own fool. Sacrilege! Why, this is one of India's most beloved poets? A holy man --- his name means "God's grace." He's studied in school, from the earliest grades, in his home country, but he's studied even more diligently by scholars and seekers. Like he'd care! To quote him: The Yogi comes along in his famous orange. But if inside he is colorless, then what? For him, there is only one thing that matters --- union with God, by any route that gets you there: When the bride is one with her lover, who cares about the wedding party? It goes without saying that the "facts" about Kabir are few. He was born to a virgin mother in 1398 --- maybe. He died in 1518 --- perhaps. Did he really live for 120 years? Was he married? Did he have a religion? Ah, he was a weaver: one of the few hard facts we know about him. And one more: He wrote about 700 verses. Well, we know this too: He wasn't educated. And he doesn't pretend to be: "I do not quote from the scriptures/I simply see what I see." He expresses what he sees in two line bursts of poetry that read like prose --- like speech, really. Often, he's in a dialogue, usually with different parts of himself. Always, he seeks the truth, then writes what he finds. And, more often than any other poet I can think of, he's blisteringly funny --- because when someone delivers the truth without any spin, it's generally giggle-producing. Here are some poems of Kabir, read by Ram Dass: Kabir is refreshingly free of doctrine. On one level, he's pure common sense in his suggestions on Right Conduct: When you were born in this world Everyone laughed while you cried Conduct NOT yourself in manner such That they laugh when you are gone Here are some of Kabir's punchlines, as interpreted by the poet Robert Bly: Kabir will tell you the truth: this is what love is like: suppose you had to cut your head off and give it to someone else, what difference would that make? Love for the divine is just as physical --- indeed, carnal: If what you feel for the Holy One is not desire, then what's the use of dressing with such care and spending so much time making your eyelids dark? Kabir is always urging us to wake up and show our love: Do you have a body? Don't sit on the porch! Get out and walk in the rain! At the same time, Kabir reminds us to look inside: Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God? He is the breath inside the breath. The clarity! The simplicity! You think you get it on the first reading, then you finding yourself thinking about his lines --- and you see how much is underneath them. Like great blues music, like great comedy, there are levels and levels. But mostly, there is the truth that Kabir can't share, the truth you must find for yourself. the truth that is ever-changing: Looking at the grinding stones, Kabir laments In the duel of wheels, nothing stays intact. May I disagree? Admiration for Kabir has lasted now for a thousand years. Odds favor that readers will still be devouring him in another thousand.
- [The Practicing Stoic](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-practicing-stoic/) - GUEST BUTLER CRAIG LAMBERT is the author of Shadow Work: The Unpaid, Unseen Jobs That Fill Your Day and Mind Over Water: Lessons on Life from the Art of Rowing. He was a longtime staff writer and editor at Harvard Magazine. The ancients had self-help books. No classical Oprah interviewed writers on a divan in
- [January 1963: Mary Meyer badgers JFK to do more for the poor](https://headbutler.com/reviews/january-1963-mary-meyer-badgers-jfk-to-do-more-for-the-poor/) - In January, I published a fact-based novel, JFK and Mary Meyer: A Love Story. It was a reimagining of the diary that Kennedy’s only serious lover kept during his presidency. A year after his assassination, she was murdered as she took her daily walk on the towpath in Georgetown. Ben Bradlee, her brother-in-law, burned her
- [Walking Through Walls](https://headbutler.com/reviews/walking-through-walls/) - in the 1950s, Lew Smith had a great career as an interior decorator --- "the only heterosexual decorator in Miami" --- with clients ranging from the Old Guard in Palm Beach to dictators in the Caribbean. Then the paranormal beckoned. "If you control your thinking, you control your reality," Lew said. "Change your thinking, and you change your reality. It's that simple. Our physical world is nothing more than a manifestation of our thought energy." And he began to make magic.
- [Redlined: A Memoir of Race, Change, and Fractured Community in 1960s Chicago](https://headbutler.com/reviews/redlined-a-memoir-of-race-change-and-fractured-community-in-1960s-chicago/) - How many rotten novels and memoirs begin like this: Mom had died, just five years after Dad’s death in 1989. Readying our former home for sale, my two brothers and I scoured the house, separating trash from treasure. In the attic, we found our gold. Standing under naked beams in the dim light, we discovered
- [Ta-Nehisi Coates: Between the World and Me](https://headbutler.com/reviews/8660/) - If Coates is obsessed with the body --- especially the bodies of black men --- it’s not only because he’s been reading history ever since he went to Howard University, but because the vulnerability of his own body is the first life lesson he learned as a kid growing up in Baltimore.
- [Canvas Boat/Shopping Bags](https://headbutler.com/reviews/canvas-boat-shopping-bags/) - Before the pandemic, my city levied a charge for each bag you needed for your groceries. That went away. For a month or two. Now plastic bags have been outlawed and it’s a nickel per paper bag. These bags rip at the worst possible time. Clearly the answer is to own a durable bag ---
- [Dominick Dunne: The Two Mrs. Grenvilles](https://headbutler.com/reviews/two-mrs-grenvilles/) - His mother was blueblood Society. His father was a bank president and a friend of the King of England. But privilege spoils. Blood thins. Their son Billy was tall and handsome. He was also weak and shallow. Billy Woodward had a thing for showgirls. He married one of them --- and, in 1955, after dinner
- [Van Gogh: A movie (“At Eternity’s Gate”) and a book (“Van Gogh in Auvers: His Last Days”)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/van-gogh-a-movie-at-eternitys-gate-and-a-book-van-gogh-in-auvers-his-last-days/) - With van Gogh, the life is everything --- he’s the mad, insolvent genius who cut off his ear, never sold a painting and killed himself. That’s just a fable. As Wouter van der Veen writes in “Van Gogh in Auvers: His Last Days,” van Gogh was not poor. Not insane. Not anti-social. Didn’t live in a hovel. He spoke four languages, slept in hotels, ate in restaurants, and if he only sold one painting, it’s because he knew the value of his work and was holding it back until it was accepted and praised.
- [Van Morrison: Veedon Fleece](https://headbutler.com/reviews/van-morrison-veedon-fleece/) - A comment on YouTube is telling: “The only perceived evidence that I can think of supporting the idea that we encompass a soul is the fact that it is impossible for something like this to come from flesh.” Put it another way: flesh channels eternity on these tracks. The music grounds you, refreshes you; it’s a spa for the soul. Suggestions: Don’t try to analyze it. Surrender to it. Though it’s good company by day, it’s magic at midnight --- with the lights out, it will take you deep; with a partner, it can be a healing and a communion.
- [Citizen: An American Lyric](https://headbutler.com/reviews/citizen-an-american-lyric/) - In these poems, blacks routinely experience “micro-aggressions” that they respond to at their peril. To be black is to eat the words of whites: “This is how you are a citizen. Move on. Let it go.”
- [Pearl Kornbluth (1917 - 2020): "There's always something more you can do."](https://headbutler.com/reviews/pearl-kornbluth-1917-2020-theres-always-something-more-you-can-do/) - Almost a decade ago, I told my mother how I’d begin her eulogy: “Does anyone need any wooden hangers?” That was a metaphor. My mother was a collector, not a hoarder. The vicuña coat she bought at Orbach’s in 1958 has lived, ever since, on a wooden hanger in a special bag in her closet,
- [Peter Temple: Truth](https://headbutler.com/reviews/truth/) - Temple’s characters are complex, his plots complicated, his world smudged if not outright dirty --- that is, his books are entirely credible. In this one, a young prostitute is found murdered in a super-luxury high rise that boasts the ultimate in technology --- though on the night of the murder, none of it works. In Temple’s books, high and low always meet. Not only might the murder be connected to the torture and execution of three thugs, but Steve Villani, chief of the Homicide squad in Melbourne, must deal with citizens of every caste.
- [Jason Isbell: "The Nashville Sound"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/jason-isbell-the-nashville-sound/) - I saw Jason Isbell in New York last week. The audience stood when he walked on stage and never sat down. They knew what they were getting, and they were hungry for it: human-scaled art, deep truth captured in the moment when the thoughts and feelings are fresh. And he writes simply --- his lyrics would make great t-shirt slogans.
- [Father's Day 2019](https://headbutler.com/reviews/fathers-day-2019/) - On the morning of Father's Day, my daughter will be on a plane heading west. Hard to believe, but The Child is now the Young Adult, and it's time for her to look at colleges. Do I feel slighted we won't be together on Father's Day? Not at all. She knows she is extravagantly loved. And that my 17 year commitment to her emotional security is more than my obligation --- it's a gift that gets mirrored back to me. (And then there's the small problem of buying me anything, because there is nothing I want.) I'd bet the fathers in your lives would also like nothing better than to know that their kids realize how much they're loved. But maybe it's also nice to show up with a gift. Here are 29 suggestions.
- [The Traveling  Wilburys](https://headbutler.com/reviews/traveling-wilburys/) - George Harrison had been in a band. He wasn't looking to start another. But in 1988 he had a solo CD coming out. He had a song that could be a hit single. He needed another song --- a new song, a song not on the CD. Soon he had Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan and Tom Petty singing with him. And then they wrote more songs....
- [John Steinbeck: Travels with Charley in Search of America](https://headbutler.com/reviews/john-steinbeck-travels-with-charley-in-search-of-america/) - GUEST BUTLER JULIA PIZZOLATO grew up in the heart of Texas and is a wannabe New Yorker currently living in Palm Springs, California. She gave up television for good 2 years ago and is currently reading the books she's been hoarding for years. She offers psychology-based ad agency services when she's not reading. Meet her
- [Jane Gardam: Old Filth](https://headbutler.com/reviews/jane-gardam-old-filth/) - Jane Gardam didn’t start writing until she was 43 and the youngest of her three children was off to school. Now 91, she has published 25 books. She’s the only writer to have won the Whitbread for best novel twice. She’s been nominated for the Booker. Among Those Who Know in England, she’s on a
- [100 Journeys for the Spirit](https://headbutler.com/reviews/100-journeys-spirit/) - I knew --- of course I knew --- Bryce Canyon in Utah. The Bighorn Medicine Wheel in Wyoming. The Nazca Lines, the Serpent Mound in Ohio. Most of the religious sites (and the book covers the full range). I knew --- but had forgotten --- the island off Venice called Torcello.
- [Burn](https://headbutler.com/reviews/burn/) - Of his films, which one did Marlon Brando prize above all others? No. Not "The Godfather." "Burn.” You haven’t seen “Burn” --- indeed, you may never have heard of it --- because: 1) It was made in 1970, before many of you were born. 2) It’s an action movie/political thriller about colonialism. It was released
- [The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate --- Discoveries from a Secret World](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-hidden-life-of-trees-what-they-feel-how-they-communicate-discoveries-from-a-secret-world/) - I have read “The Hidden Life of Trees,” and I no longer doubt that trees communicate with one another. An individual tree is an endangered species, likely to die young. A community of trees is a forest, and there a tree can live for hundreds of years. (A spruce tree in Sweden is 9,500 years old.) In that community, “trees experience pain and have memories, and tree parents live together with their children.”
- [Chris Rea](https://headbutler.com/reviews/chris-rea/) - Chris Rea Samples Auberge (audio only) Looking for the Summer The Road to Hell Blue Cafe You've probably never heard of Chris Rea. And yet he's had a highly successful twenty-five year career in Europe. And he's sold about 30 million CDs, mostly in Europe. And --- how is this for irony? --- it won't do you much good to fall in love with Chris Rea and hope to see him in concert because he's stopped touring and now says he'll record with a three-piece band under the nondescript name of The Fire Flies. "It's not until you become seriously ill and you nearly die and you're at home for six months that you suddenly realize --- this isn't the way I intended it to be,” he's said. “Everything that you've done falls away and you start wondering why you went through all that rock business stuff." But just listen to Chris Rea, and you'll be glad he spent a quarter century playing sleek, grown-up rock that has two easy-to-spot signatures --- guitars that are fluid as mercury and a voice that sounds as if it's been up all night and doesn't plan to rest any time soon --- even if his style is impossible to pigeonhole. Who is Chris Rea? A master guitarist who didn't pick up a guitar until he was 19. A Brit who learned the blues from records. And a singer-songwriter who, a wag noted, “seemed only to get in the charts when Dire Straits were somewhere else.” Yes, there are echoes of Mark Knopfler in the seamless guitars. A bit of the languor of Knopfler too. But there's something about Rea's music that's idiosyncratic and addictive --- in almost every song, I hear the summer. Blazing sun, burning beach, the tang of lotion mixed with ocean ozone. And time nowhere to be found, time banished. In Rea's pre-global warming world, I feel forever young, fit, in love or about to be. This is sexy, dreamy stuff. With lyrics you'd actually listen to if the music weren't so damn compelling. Organ hotwired to your spine, wicked harmonica, guitar riffs that J.J. Cale would happily steal --- this is the music a lot of us make in our heads and never find in reality. Well, here it is. For Rea's fans, the one irresistible CD is 1991's “Auberge,” which was huge in Europe. Not hard understanding why --- the start of the title song is like nothing you've ever heard before. To wit: A door closes. Boots on stone. Car door slams. Ignition. A guitar trill, building. An organ asks a haunting question. A slide guitar responds. Now the drums kick in. A guitar figure, repeated. Horns. And, at last, that rough voice: On the hard fast train On the road to gain Something gets right through to your telling bone There's a sudden itch An electric twitch Sometimes I swear this body's got a mind of its own If you listen to this much and are not dancing in your seat --- oh, but that's impossible. At any volume, when the horns, guitars and drums are working together, resistance is futile. I've been listening to Chris Rea, on and off, since “Auberge.” Each time, he's a glorious anti-depressant: a grittier Chris Isaak, a raunchier Bryan Ferry. He's good for parties. As subliminal dinner music. To seal an assignation. Or when all you need to time-travel is a whiff of Coppertone. To buy “Auberge” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “The Best of Chris Rea” from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Yeah, No. Not Happening.: How I Found Happiness Swearing Off Self-Improvement and Saying F**k It All—and How You Can Too](https://headbutler.com/reviews/yeah-no-not-happening-how-i-found-happiness-swearing-off-self-improvement-and-saying-fk-it-all-and-how-you-can-too/) - Karen Karbo must be one of my favorite writers, because I review all of her books. For a very good reason. She writes well-researched biographies with an original point-of-view. And they’re short; for readers like me, that’s a service. Even better is why she writes these books: she knows service is also selfish. She wants
- [Beverly Willett on Flannery O'Connor: “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”](https://headbutler.com/reviews/beverly-willett-on-flannery-oconnor-the-truth-does-not-change-according-to-our-ability-to-stomach-it/) - BEVERLY WILLETT wrote "Disassembly Required: A Memoir of Midlife Resurrection," the best memoir I read last year. [For my review and an excerpt, click here.] She lives in Savannah, where she is President of the Flannery O'Connor Childhood Home Foundation. When I get sad and frustrated these days, I think of Flannery O'Connor. In 1950,
- [Nina Kaufelt pines for John Prine --- and peaches](https://headbutler.com/reviews/nina-kaufelt-pines-for-john-pine-and-peaches/) - NINA KAUFELT last wrote, unforgettably, “It was like watching a Hollywood movie in which Gregory Peck straightens everyone out, only it was in my own house, and it was my husband.” Blow up your TV, throw away your paper Go to the country, build you a home Plant a little garden, eat a lot of
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Thich Nhat Hahn on suffering: Rest your hand on his/her back](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-thich-nhat-hahn-on-suffering-rest-your-hand-on-his-her-back/) - As a novelist, I’m a journalist. I read every relevant book about my subject, make documents with each book’s best stories and ideas, create a timeline, make a briefing book. Writing a novel becomes more about making connections and connecting the dots for me than it is about towering feats of inspiration. I remind myself:
- [Kurt Vonnegut: "Those years weren’t lost. They simply weren’t the way I’d planned them. Those years were adventures. Planned years are not."](https://headbutler.com/reviews/kurt-vonnegut-those-years-werent-lost-they-simply-werent-the-way-id-planned-them-those-years-were-adventures-planned-years-are-not/) - On May Day, 1970, Kurt Vonnegut --- the suddenly famous author of “Slaughterhouse-Five” --- drove from his home on Cape Cod to a hippie farm near Brattleboro, Vermont. There was a Maypole. Dancing. Music. Drugs, of course. Some nudity, of course. I was an outsider, an observer. I watched Kurt, who seemed bemused. I watched
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Subject to change -- welcome to the next incarnation of Head Butler](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-subject-to-change-welcome-to-the-next-incarnation-of-head-butler/) - The image above is by Miles Hyman, a consistently excellent artist who lives in Paris. Decades ago, he created the Head Butler logo. ---- Friends --- On March 1, Butler made a pivot from a 4-days-a-week cultural site to a 7-days-a-week service site. I had to look up the date. That long? Time blurs. I
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: A Mother’s Day like no other](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-a-mothers-day-like-no-other/) - I cheered this news: Irish pubs will be closed until August 10. Maybe longer. Imagine that: a sacred privilege of Irish citizenship, postponed. I was also cheered by this, on Twitter: I told a guy in the market that I was a nurse in a covid unit and I wear a mask to protect him
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Did Natalie Wood drown in an accident, or was she….?](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-did-natalie-wood-drown-in-an-accident-or-was-she/) - The death of Natalie Wood in forever ago 1981 seems so unimportant today that my typing about it and your reading about it --- the word is “indulgence.” But HBO is rolling out a documentary about her tomorrow: "NATALIE WOOD: WHAT REMAINS BEHIND" (May 5, Tuesday: (9:00 -10:40 pm ET/PT) and HBO On Demand, HBO
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Strutting toward the apocalypse](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-strutting-toward-the-apocalypse/) - Jackie Fletcher --- the woman in the photo --- felt strongly about the lockdown, so she went to an open-it-up protest at the State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois on Friday. As she told her local NBC news affiliate: “I’m here to protest the loss of our rights. We’re protesting for our First Amendment and other
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Louise Bernikow: “In September, I will be 80 years old.” It means: In September, I will be here, alive."](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-louise-bernikow-in-september-i-will-be-80-years-old-it-means-in-september-i-will-be-here-alive/) - QUOTE OF THE DAY: MATTHEW 25:31-46 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Two series you can actually stand to watch](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-two-series-you-can-actually-stand-to-watch/) - I’ve turned the TV on so rarely in the last five years that the Young Adult has to do it for me. I’m often asked, “Didn’t you love X [some universally beloved binge on HBO or Netflix”]?” I explain I don’t watch TV. “What do you do at night?” “I collect copyrights,” I say. Meaning:
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: "The garden center delivered flowers to my mother. And more: 'We were worried you had no food, so we brought some.'"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-the-garden-center-delivered-flowers-to-my-mother-and-more-we-were-worried-you-had-no-food-so-we-brought-some/) - USING EVERY LITTLE THING... AGAIN AND AGAIN I try to be generous with others. I’m tight about spending for myself. Like that little glass in the photo. I have a collection of those. I drink wine in them. The little crest on the side... regal, I think. (It's not my family shield --- my brother
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: “Sophie's Choice” in 2020: “Work and very possibly die, don't work and your family starves”](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-sophies-choice-in-2020-work-and-very-possibly-die-dont-work-and-your-family-starves/) - In 1979, William Styron wrote a novel about three people living in a Brooklyn boarding house. One is Sophie Zawistowski, who is Polish, Catholic, beautiful. And haunted. On the night she arrived at Auschwitz, a camp doctor gave her a terrible choice: one of her two children would die immediately by gassing, one would continue
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: "Don't pick up the rope."](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-dont-pick-up-the-rope/) - As I was thinking about the apparent strain some/many couples are having with mutual 24/7 presence, I recalled a passage in Married Sex, my 2015 novel, that resonated with a lot of readers. It’s a conversation between law partners. V is 75, the queen of New York divorce lawyers; she’s seen it all. David is
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: “Are they trying to kill all the gays right now? If one more iconic diva hits this Zoom, they’ll be scraping us off the floor."](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-are-they-trying-to-kill-all-the-gays-right-now-if-one-more-iconic-diva-hits-this-zoom-theyll-be-scraping-us-off-the-floor/) - BUTLER’S BUSINESS MODEL: Patreon is a click-to-donate site. Sign in. Choose your level of support --- ignore the suggestion of $15 a month, anything is just fine --- and you’ll make an automatic monthly contribution to a grateful Butler. THE AMAZON LINK: There are two ways to get to Amazon. One: Click on the “Buy
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Old: Acts 20:35 “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Now: “It’s vastly more blessed to have.”](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-old-acts-2035-more-blessed-to-give-than-to-reserve-now-its-vastly-more-blessed-to-have/) - It’s Sunday. Let’s start with some glorious music: “QUARANTIFICAT,” performed by the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, from the “Magnificat,” by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788) View from My Window was launched on March 22. The idea is simple: take one photo from your locked-down home and share it. To quote the founders: “Every day, through our windows,
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Do You Use A Pulse Oximeter? (And If You Do, Why Didn’t You Tell Me?)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-do-you-use-a-pulse-oximeter-and-if-you-do-why-didnt-you-tell-me/) - BUTLER’S BUSINESS MODEL: Patreon is a click-to-donate site. Sign in. Choose your level of support --- ignore the suggestion of $15 a month, anything is just fine --- and you’ll make an automatic monthly contribution to a grateful Butler. THE AMAZON LINK: There are two ways to get to Amazon. One: Click on the “Buy
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: President Jim Jones suggests you drink the Kool-Aid](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-president-jim-jones-suggests-you-drink-the-kool-aid/) - Lucky you if you haven’t seen this: How did it happen? At yesterday’s White House press conference, William Bryan, the secretary for science and technology at the Department of Homeland Security, spoke about research his team had conducted that showed signs of the virus weakening in warmer and more humid temperatures. “The virus dies quickest
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Your money or your life? Or: Do you feel lucky?](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-your-money-or-your-life-or-do-you-feel-lucky/) - CAPTION: Joshua Bickel, a photojournalist for the Columbus Dispatch, covered a protest outside Ohio governor Mike DeWine’s daily press briefing. A hundred protesters had gathered. They pressed up against the glass outside the governor’s office, demanding Ohio reopen for business. Last week --- or was it the week before? --- he was saying: “Anyone who
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Hi! I mean: Wow! High! (It's April 20). Plus: why Vitamin D can help, and other reality-based Good News](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-hi-i-mean-wow-high-its-april-20-plus-why-vitamin-d-can-help-and-other-reality-based-good-news/) - CAPTION: Hospital workers who have been treating COVID patients for weeks stand in traffic in Denver to block cars of open-the-country protesters. Comment on Twitter: “Those people will show up on the hospital’s doorstep in a few weeks demanding to have everything done for them in the midst of the breakout they created." It won’t
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: “If you have a flexible attitude, you can help others quite easily."](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-if-you-have-a-flexible-attitude-you-can-help-others-quite-easily/) - QUOTE OF THE DAY Jimmy Kimmel: “I’m starting to think these characters who support Trump might be suicidal. They seem to fight hardest for the things that will kill them. They want freedom to gather in large groups during an epidemic, they want guns, they want pollution. I figured it out — they want to
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Despair is contagious. There’s a lot of it going around. For a good time, call…](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-despair-is-contagious-theres-a-lot-of-it-going-around-for-a-good-time-call/) - The Stanford marshmallow experiment was a 1972 study on delayed gratification. In this study, 32 children were offered a choice between one marshmallow or pretzel or two marshmallows or pretzels if they waited for 15 minutes. Then the researcher left the room. In follow-up studies, the researchers found that children who were able to wait
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC:  I don't want to "look inside." I want to look inside the minds of great artists... and be inspired.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-i-dont-want-to-look-inside-i-want-to-look-inside-the-minds-of-great-artists-and-be-inspired/) - If you’re feeling the days are more or less the same now --- with your mood being the major variable --- I’m with you. My take: Two phenomena shape these days. 1) Stupid people do stupid, hurtful things, generally on purpose. Still hard to believe it, but the White House and its enablers increasingly seem
- [The Tree of Life](https://headbutler.com/reviews/tree-life/) - Films are rarely this ambitious, and, most of the time, we don’t want them to be. With good reason: we’re scared to know what we think, we desperately don’t want to look up at the stars and confront how very small we are. “The Tree of Life” goes there, and stays there. It’s a forced meditation. And it shreds you.
- [Katsura](https://headbutler.com/reviews/katsura/) - The book you really want is Katsura: A Princely Retreat. It’s out of print, but you can find a copy at Amazon.com for $450. Failing that, you’ll be well rewarded with Katsura, a far more modestly priced ($34.19) picture-and-text effort that weighs as much (five pounds) and is far thicker (400 pages) than the collector’s item. In case Katsura is a mystery to you, don’t fret --- this Imperial Villa built in the 1620s in Kyoto fell into obscurity for several hundred years and wasn’t rediscovered until 1933, when a German architect named Bruno Taut visited and saw it as an astonishing ancestor of Twentieth Century Modernism. Thanks largely to Taut’s advocacy, it has been beautifully restored and is now a must-see on any visit to Japan. (Charmingly, there are no tours on weekends, and the lectures are only in Japanese, though an English audio guide is available) For a virtual tour, click here.
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: "It was like watching a Hollywood movie in which Gregory Peck straightens everyone out, only it was in my own house, and it was my husband"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-it-was-like-watching-a-hollywood-movie-in-which-gregory-peck-straightens-everyone-out-only-it-was-in-my-own-house-and-it-was-my-husband/) - CAPTION: The Kaufelt family. Rob is the former owner of Murray's Cheese. Nina is the author of the extremely useful Real Food: What to Eat and Why and other books. You get shot if you call kids "adorable," so...the kids are Julian, Rose and Jacob. REPORT: US ALERTED ISRAEL, NATO TO DISEASE OUTBREAK IN CHINA
- [740 Park](https://headbutler.com/reviews/740-park/) - I was once married to an extremely rich woman. When we were out together, her set tended to forget I was a writer --- worse, a journalist. That is perhaps why, in a Hamptons living room, a mogul announced to a roomful of wealthy people (with one exception: me), "If you have less than $750 million, you have no hedge against inflation." I assume --- well, I look at your buying patterns on Amazon.com, so, really, I sort of know --- that no Butlerite has achieved that barrier against inflation. And so, like me, when you confront a spectacle suited only to the deeply, truly, madly rich, your reaction is the same as mine. That is, you press your nose against the window and gawk. Okay, you say you don't. "They're rich --- but are they happy?" you ask. "A craving for material things points to a hole in the soul," you note. Yeah, I've said that too. "Donald Trump --- I wouldn't go out with that loser for all the money in the world." Right. But what if he actually called you? The great thing about books that celebrate or investigate the rich is that we can indulge our very normal curiosity in the privacy of our own homes. No one can see our envy; our noses aren't literally pressed again the glass. Hey, we're reading. Improving our minds.
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: When he says it's not about the money... it's about the money](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-when-he-says-its-not-about-the-money-its-about-the-money/) - I try not to turn the beginning of these pandemic Butlers into a Facebook diary, but I have to say that yesterday was the best in a while. Good call with my 103-year-old mother, who was lucid, pissed off, determined to see her grandchildren again. Good weekly call with KB, which reminded me again of
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Living in Your Living Room (Good news, bad news)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-living-in-your-living-room-good-news-bad-news/) - GOOD NEWS: DON’T NEED YOUR STIMULUS MONEY? WANT TO HELP? PLEASE BOOKMARK THIS GiveDrectly.org identifies households that desperately need money. Why? “We believe people living in poverty deserve the dignity to choose for themselves how best to improve their lives --- cash enables that choice.” Each household gets $1,000. GiveDirectly has recently helped 1,204 households
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: The problem is men](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-the-problem-is-men/) - CAPTION: Nancy Pelosi, daughter of Big Tommy D’Alessandro, Jr., a Maryland Congressman and Mayor of Baltimore from 1947 to 1959, at John F. Kennedy’s inaugural ball. She was 20. Yesterday began as a good candidate for worst-day-ever. Heavy rain here. Wind so strong it threatened the tent hospital in Central Park. And bad news, a
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Only those who go too far know how far they can go, plus: writing condolence notes](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-only-those-who-go-too-far-know-how-far-they-can-go-plus-writing-condolence-notes/) - CAPTION: The statue of Abraham Lincoln in front of the New York Historical Society When the United States was the most richest and most powerful nation, the middle was safe. In just three years, we have become a Third World nation, and the middle is rapidly in danger of becoming .. less. The middle class:
- [Stanley Kunitz](https://headbutler.com/reviews/stanley-kunitz/) - It says a great deal about Stanley Kunitz that he was 95 when he was named Poet Laureate for the second time. First, it reminds us that he lived to a great age --- he died, in 2006, at 100 --- and was a vital talent right to the end. And, even more, it underscores that his career was more of a marathon than a sprint. W.H. Auden got it exactly: "It's strange, but give him time. A hundred years or so. He's a patient man. He won't mind waiting.” The really fascinating news, though, is that Stanley Kunitz continually improved as a poet. “Passing Through: The Later Poems” --- almost universally considered the best of his ten books --- was published when he was 95. And, for once, “best” and “most accessible” belong in the same sentence. For as he aged, Kunitz said, “I've learned to strip the water out of my poems.” The result is a clarity and directness that makes Kunitz an ideal poet both for people who only sort of like poetry and for those who like to dig into a poem and explore the layers. Digging in: That's the right phrase to describe the pleasure of a Kunitz poem. He was a lifelong gardener, and as soon as he arrived at his summer home on Cape Cod he was with his plants: tending, pruning, marveling. (His final book, published in 2007, is a gardening chronicle.) This connection with growing things is closely connected to the key issue of Kunitz's life and work --- parenting. An odd connection? Consider the biography. A few weeks before he was born, his father drank carbolic acid and died. His mother, a tough-minded immigrant, raised two daughters and Stanley for eight years, then married a charming, loving man who was like a father to the boy. Alas, he had a fatal heart attack four years later. Kunitz might have found “the lost father” at Harvard, but after graduating summa cum laude he was told there was no teaching opportunity there --- the Christian students might resent a literature instructor who was a Jew. He gigged around, committed himself to poetry and began a seventy-five year career as a poet. The poems in “Passing Through” touch all the bases. Right off, we get the primary wound (which Kunitz repeated by leaving his first wife and young daughter): “You say you had a father once/his name was absence.” He has a healthy interest in women: “I think I'd rather sleep forever/than wake up cold/in a country without women.” He's got a loving father's appreciation for his daughter: “I like the sound of your voice/even when you phone from school/asking for money.” And on the biggest topic of all: Peace! Peace! To be rocked by the Infinite! As if it didn't matter which way was home; as if he didn't know he loved the earth so much he wanted to stay forever. But lines out of context aren't nearly as appealing as the thing itself. Here's “Passing Through,” written to mark his 79th birthday: Nobody in the widow's household ever celebrated anniversaries. In the secrecy of my room I would not admit I cared that my friends were given parties. Before I left town for school my birthday went up in smoke in a fire at City Hall that gutted the Department of Vital Statistics. If it weren't for a census report of a five-year-old White Male sharing my mother's address at the Green Street tenement in Worcester I'd have no documentary proof that I exist. You are the first, my dear, to bully me into these festive occasions. Sometimes, you say, I wear an abstracted look that drives you up the wall, as though it signified distress or disaffection. Don't take it so to heart. Maybe I enjoy not-being as much as being who I am. Maybe it's time for me to practice growing old. The way I look at it, I'm passing through a phase: gradually I'm changing to a word. Whatever you choose to claim of me is always yours: nothing is truly mine except my name. I only borrowed this dust. To buy “Passing Through” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “The Wild Braid: A Poet Reflects on a Century in the Garden” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy “The Light Within the Light: Portraits of Donald Hall, Richard Wilbur, Maxine Kumin & Stanley Kunitz” from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Josh Ritter: Animal Years](https://headbutler.com/reviews/animal-years/) - Josh Ritter reads Mark Twain. He bows to the example of Leonard Cohen. And then he sits in his Idaho farmhouse and writes songs that speak of our time and speak to our time and aspire to last for all time. I mean: He's very ambitious. He had a following from the start. He was the thinking kid's Dave Matthews, or someone like him. Unabashedly romantic. Shamelessly poetic. And openly eager. In Ireland, this is a winning combination --- or maybe, as Ritter jokingly suggests, a potato-growing nation has a place in its heart for a kid who grew up among spuds. [To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.] Or maybe it's that Ritter can write songs that bring chills. I'm thinking, of course, of 'Thin Blue Flame,' the second song on this CD, which clocks it at nine minutes plus. The cheapest thing to say is that it evokes early Dylan. (Like that would be a bad thing.) But it's been forty years since Dylan turned his thin blue flame on the distance between what we say and what we do. We all know more now --- things ain't black and white. So Ritter gets to 30,000 feet fast: 'And over hills and fields I flew/ Wrapped up in a royal blue/I flew over royal city last night.' And some of what he sees is amazingly beautiful: 'Dreams were a fist shaking themselves at the clouds" and 'The lake was a diamond in the valley's hand.' But in that royal city...oh, what happens to people is tragic: Borders soft with refugees Streets swimming with amputees It's a bible or bullet that they put over your heart It's getting harder and harder to tell them apart The days are nights and the nights are long Beating hearts blossom into walking bombs And those still looking to the clear blue sky for a sign Get messages from so high they might as well be divine And now the dogs are howling at your door Singing about vengeance like it's the joy of the lord Bringing justice to the enemies not the other way round The guilty were killed and they're killed where they're found If what's loosed on earth would be loosed up on high It's a hell of a heaven we must go to when we die The piano pounds, the hell intensifies --- you feel like your face is burning. Crying would be beside the point; this is just the way it is, the way you've suspected it is but hadn't dared to say in your own words. And here he has. (Watch out, Bruce Springsteen.) Ritter is not a poet of despair --- he's not going to leave you in the gloom. So the ending: I heard my friends laughing out across the fields Girls in the gloamin' and the birds in the wheel The raw smell of horses and the warm smell of hay Cicadas electric in the heat of the day A run of three sisters in the flush of the land The lake was a diamond in the valley's hand The straight of the highway in the scattered out hearts They were coming together they were pulling apart And angels everywhere were in my midst The ones that I loved and the ones that I kissed I wondered what it was I'd been looking for above Heaven's so big there aren't no need to look up So I stopped looking for royal cities in the air Only a full house gonna have a prayer... And there you are. Limp. Terrified of what's to come. I am happy to report that what follows is mostly jaunty. Fun. Clever. Musical. In Josh Ritter's universe, it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive. It's just that the entertainment doesn't come cheap. Or easy. People are going to have to work --- to think --- to enjoy this CD fully. Thankfully, for you, that's not a problem. To buy 'Golden Age of Radio' from Amazon.com, click here. To buy 4 songs Live' from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Rainer Maria Rilke: The Dark Interval: Letters on Loss, Grief, and Transformation](https://headbutler.com/reviews/rainer-maria-rilke-the-dark-interval-letters-on-loss-grief-and-transformation/) - Letters were important for Rilke. He didn’t dash them off; he considered them equal to the poems that made him famous. The letters of condolence are more than smart ways to say “so sorry for your loss.” They’re meditations on loss and pain --- and a road map to acceptance and healing. Rilke is a big believer in time. It doesn’t console, he says; it does “put things in order.”
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC:  Easter. All rise. Some soar. And then – can I really be saying this? --- there are angels.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-easter-all-rise-some-soar-and-then-can-i-really-be-saying-this-there-are-angels/) - CAPTION: At Salem Moravian Graveyard — referred to as God’s Acre, as are all Moravian burial grounds --- there are graves for 7,000 men, women, and children. In death, all are equal. God’s Acre consists of rows of flat markers of white marble. Each is 20 inches by 24 inches, four inches high, pointing east.
- [Emmylou Harris: Hard Bargain](https://headbutler.com/reviews/emmylou-harris-hard-bargain/) - Emmylou Harris has many admirers, but my wife and I may be the only ones who chose our wedding date based on her tour schedule. It wasn’t that we were following her around like a couple of Deadheads --- we wanted Buddy Miller, then her lead guitarist, and his wife Julie to give a mini-concert for the guests at our wedding. We spent just enough time with the Millers that weekend to grill them about Emmylou. They had no dish --- really, they had almost nothing to say about her. And they explained why: Emmylou Harris is an unspeakably nice person. Her twitches are minor: baseball, her dogs, and if there’s a third one, I’ve forgotten it. After three marriages, she lives in Nashville with her mother and brother. She has a shelter for rescued dogs in her yard. Her career reads equally saintly. Over 40 years and 25 records and a dozen Grammys, she’s followed her instincts, and, in the process, avoided sudden spikes and tumbles. She has graced hundreds of records as a celestial back-up singer and duet partner. The verdict is generous: There are, a critic has said, no bad Emmylou Harris records --- only good ones and better ones. “Hard Bargain” is one of the better ones. Recorded in just a month with only three musicians, its first distinction is that Emmylou wrote 11 of the 13 songs. This is unusual --- it’s only the third release on which she’s been the dominant writer. The second distinction is that she’s 64 now, and, like a lot of people who have hit their sixties, she can’t quite grasp where the time went. And why people who have been important to her --- Gram Parsons and Kate McGarrigle, most prominently --- can be located only in memory. This is a CD of deep feeling: sad memory, deep loss, specific regret. But it’s not self-indulgent or maudlin --- if anything, the music is unusually jaunty. Very much like the new Paul Simon CD. And like Simon, she’s reached a place where she can see far and she can see wide --- without trading sharp observation or wry insight for boomer platitude. [To buy “Hard Bargain” from Amazon, click here. To buy the MP3 download from Amazon, click here.] It’s tricky to interview an icon. Fame at that level is a shield; you can’t get in, she can’t get out. It’s tough enough with actors. It’s much tougher with an Emmylou Harris, because everything about her --- that crystalline voice, that forever gray hair --- suggests that she’s some kind of living saint. When we chatted on the phone, that seemed like a good place to start. Jesse Kornbluth: I’ve been listening to you --- and reading about you --- for decades, and it occurred to me: I know nothing about you that you don’t want me to know. How have you achieved that? A flawless life? Or total discretion? Emmylou Harris: A flawless life, absolutely. The only time I ever appeared in the Enquirer was for a piece about people who let their hair grow gray. I guess I’m not much of a wild child. JK: Buddy Miller says that he feels what he plays is “country” and that stuff they play on the radio is “alternative.” Given that he was your guitarist, on and off, for a decade, it’s no stretch to say that applies equally to you. Where are you with country music and/or Nashville? EH: I’m nowhere with country music. I don’t hear much of it, so I shouldn’t venture an opinion, but when it finds me, it seems formulaic. I don’t hear anyone who moves me like George Jones or Bill Monroe. The country that you hear on the radio, it feels poppy but without the originality of pop. JK: Do you miss your country years? EH: I had my run. It served me well. Country taught me how to sing, it put me on a path. But I was never going to be locked into a formula. I don’t want to be considered a current country artist. JK: Still, you live in Nashville. Go out much? EH: I’m going out tonight to present an award to Kris Kristofferson and see a free movie. JK: What about tomorrow night? EH: Normally I don’t go out. I run a dog rescue shelter. JK: Topic change: your new CD. On which you do your own backup vocals. Is this a first? EH: No, but I’ve never sung backup on all the songs before. JK: Musically, is it more of a challenge? EH: As an experience, it’s easier to harmonize with yourself than with others. But I still judge it by the same standards --- if I didn’t sound good or we needed a different color, we’d bring someone in. JK: You’ve spoken of going from gig to gig on your bus: “I'm like a trench soldier, I've been out there on the bus.” After all these years, do you ever look at rock stars and think, “I’d kill for their plane?” EH: I love the bus! You can spread out. You have your books. You can sleep when you want, have company when you feel like it. And you can take your dogs. I wish I’d realized that earlier --- it’s only in the last 15 years that I’ve taken them with me on the bus. They’re such a joy --- they keep you in the present. JK: When I think of you, I think of Virgil’s line: “Admire a large vineyard, cultivate a small one.” By which I mean: You’ve always been hungry for the music --- not the fame. EH: You must have somebody listening. I have just enough people paying attention that I have the freedom to be in charge. And I have a great record company --- Nonesuch understands what I’m about. JK: Paul Simon, who’s 69, says, “When I’m in the music, I’m no age.” And as a performer, you too have achieved around 40 years of visible past. No surprise that your new CD is drenched in time --- time as a force, almost a character. How heavy does that feel? EH: Paul’s right --- time is light when I’m making music. Other times it ranges from heavy to inconsequential. But the press of time? It’s always there. And it’s sometimes a wonder --- I can’t believe that I’m at this age and still working and have all these things I want to do. In that, I’m lucky. I’m healthy and in better shape than I was 30 years ago. JK: Energy, creative spark, opportunity --- so why name the CD “Hard Bargain?” EH: Just being in the world is a hard bargain. Everything has a price, a blessing and a curse. It’s relentless. We can’t really resist life --- we’re pulled back into it. JK: What’s the reward? EH: The reward is that we're here.
- [David Carr: The Night of the Gun](https://headbutler.com/reviews/night-gun-david-carr/) - "Let's say, for the sake of argument, that a guy threw himself under a crosstown bus and lived to tell the tale," David Carr writes. "Is that a book you'd like to read?" Yes.
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: What if Trump gave a Grand Reopening party --- and nobody came?](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-what-if-trump-gave-a-grand-re-opening-party-and-nobody-came/) - CAPTION:Thousands of vehicles lined up before dawn Thursday to seek aid from the San Antonio Food Bank. The agency fed about 10,000 households --- the largest single-day distribution in the nonprofit's 40-year history. ---- What if Trump reopened the country? That's his plan. He announced it this week: "In four days, we had the biggest
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: "I need to get out more," plus Easter music so fabulous a 17th century Pope kept it for himself](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-i-need-to-get-out-more-plus-easter-music-so-fabulous-a-17th-century-pope-kept-it-for-himself/) - CAPTION: Alice Glass, a Head Butler reader, is an out of work theatre artist in Berkeley, now making high quality masks with a filter pocket. She wrote me: “I’m a one-woman operation. I don’t have super high volume, but I would love the boost.” You gave her a boost: 100 masks sold, so far. These
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Plague fatigue. Impatience. "Tone." And then... a thumbs-up.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-plague-fatigue-impatience-tone-and-then-a-thumbs-up/) - My parents were screamers, so it’s no surprise I do everything I can to avoid situations where someone is yelling. And I try never to be the one who’s raised his voice. Except, apparently, yesterday. It started in the morning, when a friend, a fellow writer, sent me the video of the English doctor at
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Chris Cuomo can save your life: “The fever softens you up. It makes your body hurt so you don’t move -- and then it gets into your lungs. Stand up!"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-chris-cuomo-can-save-your-life-the-fever-softens-you-up-it-makes-your-body-hurt-so-you-dont-move-and-then-it-gets-into-your-lungs-stand-up/) - Chris Cuomo got a call from “a friend of a friend of a friend,” who is a doctor and pulmonary expert. The doctor told him to get up, stretch his torso (despite the discomfort), and try to hold his breath for 10 seconds (although he felt unable to do so). Then the physician shared crucial
- [Mane 'n Tail](https://headbutler.com/reviews/9565/) - If my 30 years as a user of the shampoo and conditioner are a guide, it has these selling points: 1) It makes your hair look clean and thick. 2) It can be used safely on all hair types and for chemically treated hair. 3) You can use it on your dog. 4) It lasts forever and could not possibly be cheaper.
- [Bertolt Brecht: Selected Poems](https://headbutler.com/reviews/selected-poems/) - Winner: Each January, the American Library Association honors the best children’s books. A major award is the Caldecott Medal, given to the most distinguished picture book. This year’s winner: This is Not My Hat, written and illustrated by Jon Klassen (and praised here in October). --------- You knew Brecht wrote plays: "Galileo,” “Mother Courage” and more. What about his poems? News to you, you say. Not really --- you know some of them. Like: Show me the way to the next whisky bar Oh, don't ask why, oh, don't ask why Show me the way to the next whisky bar Oh, don't ask why, oh, don't ask why For if we don't find the next whisky bar I tell you we must die [Okay, so you know Alabama Song as a song recorded by The Doors.] Or how about: Oh, the shark has pretty teeth, dear And he shows them pearly white. [Okay, so that’s Bobby Darin singing Mack the Knife.] The fact is, Brecht was a prolific poet. A popular poet. And one who has surprising relevance now. If you know anything about Bertolt Brecht, that has to sound like a wild stretch. Though not a Communist, he was a lifelong Marxist who seemed to enjoy East Berlin much more than Los Angeles. He resisted personal hygiene and reportedly stank like a badger. And yet --- go figger --- he leapt from bed to bed. And from home to home. As he says, “We changed countries more often than we changed our shoes.” As a playwright, Brecht disliked emotion; his goal was to make audiences think. In his poems, though, he could balance rationality and emotion. In “Parting,” he could even acknowledge --- and work around --- political differences and the irony that his prominence has made him economically comfortable: We embrace. Rich cloth under my fingers While yours touch poor fabric. A quick embrace You were invited for dinner While the minions of law are after me. We talk about the weather and our Lasting friendship. Anything else Would be too bitter. Looking back, Brecht seems less like a radical, more like ... well, some of us. You could almost say that the writer who died in 1956 is a citizen of the 21st century. [To buy Brecht’s “Selected Poems” from Amazon, click here.] How? First, he had no use for the writer as solitary hero. Or of solitary heroes of any kind, which he viewed --- as some of us do --- as media creations. As he wrote: The young Alexander conquered India. Was he alone? Caesar beat the Gauls. Did he not have even a cook with him? Philip of Spain wept when his armada Went down. Was he the only one to weep? Frederick the Second won the Seven Year's War. Who Else won it? Every page a victory. Who cooked the feast for the victors? Every ten years a great man? Who paid the bill? Who pays the bill? We have come to know what Brecht knew: the little people. They are Brecht’s great concern, and now, thanks more to the Internet than any other media, we can’t help but be aware of them. The poor. The hungry. The old and shoved aside. Kids. And you can say, yeah, but he had a radical point-of-view about the disenfranchised and overlooked. Well, how radical, really, is this: “First feed the face. Then talk right and wrong.” The theme Brecht is largely working out in his poems --- see if this doesn’t resonate a little for you --- is just as simple: How do you live an ethical life in a corrupt society? A tricky question. For one thing, it’s easy to be self-righteous about Other People --- and still pay a price: Even the hatred of squalor Makes the brow grow stern. Even anger against injustice Makes the voice grow harsh. Alas, we Who wished to lay the foundations of kindness Could not ourselves be kind. For me, it’s this willingness to be as hard on himself as he is on those who keep The People down that makes Brecht much more than a propagandist. How often, for example, have you felt like this: Traveling in a comfortable car Down a rainy road in the country We saw a ragged fellow at nightfall Signal to us for a ride, with a low bow. We had a roof and we had room and we drove on And we heard me say, in a grumpy voice: No, we can’t take anyone with us. We had gone on a long way, perhaps a day’s march When suddenly I was shocked by this voice of mine This behavior of mine and this Whole world. If the role of the poet is to articulate thoughts and emotions we share but cannot say, Bertolt Brecht is an important poet. Shockingly accessible. Surprisingly touching. And, more often than you might have thought, a chronicler of anxieties very much like ours.
- [Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots](https://headbutler.com/reviews/unorthodox-scandalous-rejection-my-hasidic-roots/) - Decades ago, when I was reporting a story on New York sex clubs for Playboy, the proprietor of one club showed me a special door that provided Hasidic rebbes a discreet exit when their congregants showed up to be serviced. I admire that foresight. “Below the belt, all men are brothers,” Henry Miller wrote, but
- [Unorthodox: The Satmars v. Feldman & Kornbluth](https://headbutler.com/reviews/unorthodox-satmars-v-friedman-kornbluth/) - You do not want the Satmars on your case. I learned this the hard way the other week, when I reviewed Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots, Deborah Feldman’s account of growing up in this ultra-religious community. I praised the book, and a bunch of you bought it, but my praise and your
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: "Caffè sospeso." "Tikkun olam." "Pay it forward."](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-caffe-sospeso-tikkun-olam-pay-it-forward/) - CAPTION: Doctors have attached photographs of themselves to their chests so their patients will recognize them and know there's a person underneath the hazard suit. On Twitter, John Richardson, the Senior Political Editor of The Atlantic, wrote four perfect sentences in a row. They read like poetry --- and prayer --- so I broke John's
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Giving The Finger To “Time To Meditate… Slow Down… Reflect”](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-giving-the-finger-to-time-to-meditate-slow-down-reflect/) - I’ve pretty much had it with rich white people who describe this catastrophe as an opportunity for personal growth and rich white people who are launching websites for writers to share their experiences because “We found time. Let’s spend it together.” I understand the desire to serve. And the need to push away or acknowledge
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Ignore the President. Act like a Governor. Take Charge.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-ignore-the-president-act-like-a-governor-take-charge/) - CAPTION: New York firemen applaud hospital workers at shift change. "So let us not talk falsely now The hour is getting late" - Dylan, “All Along the Watchtower” Before we start...watch this: Heart pounding? Tears? Good. This is where I’ll get to today, but first, sadly, a racing heart and tears of a different kind…
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: How to look your best on Facetime](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-we-could-be-heroes/) - WE COULD BE HEROES: BRETT CROZIER… AND HUGH THOMPSON, JR. by Charles P. Pierce, Esquire columnist. I encourage you to read him daily… and subscribe. If there is a “real deal,” Charlie Pierce defines it. His piece begins: To measure properly what Captain Brett Crozier, no longer the commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: "Who was that masked man?" (Hint: No longer just the Lone Ranger)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-d-day-in-new-york-is-april-5/) - A million years ago, I wrote a novel with a Mafia guy. It was fascinating to hear how he put together the largest cash burglary in the history of Chicago, and how he got arrested for a zillion felonies, and how everyone in his crew was convicted. But not Luigi --- he’d built his defense
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Possibly the most important video of your life](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-possibly-the-most-important-video-of-your-life/) - "Patient Zero," in general usage, refers to the first case of a catastrophic trend. I give it a more personal meaning: the first person in my circle to be afflicted. Because, ultimately, the world shrinks to that. I care for John Prine. I have an acute interest in Chris Cuomo’s “haunted” night: shivering, hallucinating, beaten
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC:  "Okay, boomer"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-okay-boomer/) - PHOTO CAPTION: My daughter and I walk in a park two blocks away. To get there, we pass by Rao’s, the legendary restaurant that, it’s said, used to be a clubhouse for gangsters, politicians, and cops. (The sauce is great. You can buy 2 large jars at Amazon for $33, or the same jars at
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: "Nobody move, nobody get hurt."](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-nobody-move-nobody-get-hurt/) - We were in a small bakery on a small island. (Definition of small: golf carts, no cars.) It was crowded: 4 customers. A man --- a friend to everyone in the bakery --- entered and said, ironically, “Nobody move, nobody get hurt.” By my amateur calculation, New York is 5 to 10 days away from
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: First, let's keep ourselves healthy](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-first-lets-keep-ourselves-healthy/) - From now until... whenever, Head Butler has a different mission. - Helping you stay alive - Helping you and yours staying mentally sharp and entertained - Finding the positives in “social distancing” The world as we know it ended last night. Here are some ways to keep yourself healthy. A virus killed it.
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Hand Soap!](https://headbutler.com/reviews/wash-up-the-best-way-to-avoid-coronavirus-hand-soap/) - It’s not hard to save your own life. Forget masks. The ones at the drug store and Amazon don’t work well enough and are suddenly expensive --- what a surprise. The simple solution: Wash up. Often. For 30 seconds at a time. Just that: Handwashing is critical. Wash before eating, before taking out contacts, after touching someone or something that might be contaminated, after you've been in public and touched a railing or opened a door; wash at every opportunity. Regular soap? It's fine —-- until you look at your dry skin and realize there’s a reason to spring for a liquid soap that’s antibacterial and contains non-chemical moisturizer.
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Healing your head](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-healing-your-head/) - It’s tempting to power down and feed our heads with “Law & Order” binges. No blame there. But we get karma points if we start a project, read a book, clean our closets, find a virtual way to help, and, above all, be useful. That is our ultimate goal: to stop thinking about ourselves 24/7, to serve, to make this time better for others. It starts with listening to others, at length, without judgment, but with massive empathy. Getting out of our own way so we can help others begins with self-help: acknowledging our fears, starting with the fear of your death and the death of loved ones, so we can chill the internal buzzing and be present. That is a challenge. I flunked meditation. I take comfort and find stability in music and books. If you’re also in that tribe --- that is, if you feel a lot and send your feelings directly to your head --- some of these suggestions may be useful.
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Tools for the long haul](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-tools-for-the-long-haul/) - My daughter is like a cop. My friends are like sheriffs. And I am a cop for them. We get it. As you do. We are all in lockdown. House arrest. For the duration. And when we emerge, blinking in daylight like moles, the world will be different. That’s the bottom line. Last week was Before. This is Now. Job #1 is getting to After.
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: The week ahead. And looking back: Do you remember when Costco gave free samples?](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-the-week-ahead-and-looking-back-do-you-remember-when-costco-gave-free-samples/) - I live in the epicenter of the pandemic. My Lifeboat People and I are fine (so far). I have been self-isolating for decades, so the isolation is bearable (so far). I have a play to finish and a book to write, and I’m productive (so far). But as the virus moves closer, I’m like everyone
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC:  "To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-to-plant-a-garden-is-to-believe-in-tomorrow/) - We’re on our own. By now we know the drill. Don’t sleep all day. Make your bed first thing. Bathe and shave. Don’t binge all day. Drink and get high “responsibly.” Get outside and walk. And above all... no social life. Oh... plant a garden.
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Ignoring the President, maintaining your goals, honoring your purpose](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-ignoring-the-president-maintaining-your-goals-honoring-your-purpose/) - The headlines this morning were all about the stimulus. But this is the real news: In the interest of his suddenly declining fortune, this President will let you die. Call it what it is: capitalist fascism. And the form it takes is genocide. I was restrained by friends not to use that word yesterday. But.. really... what other word describes the heartless sacrifice of human life for personal gain? Before the President spoke, I was planning tentative themes for the Butler week. Today would be love, because I was seeing a lot of it in my mail and my heart. Wednesday: food, because, as Brecht said, “First feed the face, then talk right and wrong.” Thursday... but then I thought about my friends in recovery and their magnificent, hard won steadiness: “One day at a time.” And then I recalled something Gurumayi said: “You are loved more than you can ever know.” Fool that I am, I believed her. Doing this Butler is an exercise in sharing that.
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Staying Steadfast in Biblical Times](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-staying-steadfast-in-biblical-times/) - There's no dancing around it, and I can't believe I'm typing this: If the President has his way, many New Yorkers will be sick by mid-April and there won't be enough medical equipment to save us. I can't believe I'm typing this: Many of my friends and loved ones may die. And I can't believe
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: DUNKIRK](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-dunkirk/) - Dunkirk. That’s the metaphor I’ve been looking for: the heroic evacuation of Allied troops from a French beach in 1940. When the evacuation began, Winston Churchill had been Prime Minister for 14 days; he told the House of Commons he expected “hard and heavy tidings.” But the RAF, badly outnumbered, provided brilliant air support. The Navy dispatched every ship. And this is the glory part: Any Brit who had a boat on the coast set off to Dunkirk. And 340,000 soldiers were rescued. The boats that rescued soldiers were piloted by the proverbial motley crew -- merchantmen, fishermen, small boat owners. That is: civilians. I know that if you had a boat, you would have mobilized in ten seconds. I know I would have.
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: We're wearing masks... but the masks are coming off.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-were-wearing-masks-but-the-masks-are-coming-off/) - The caption on that photo (above): Pope Francis about to start extraordinary prayer in empty St. Peter’s Square for those suffering from the virus, their families and medical workers. That’s Rome. Here’s what’s happening at Mt. Sinai West Hospital. 10th Avenue and 59th Street, 4.8 miles from my apartment. Please spend 2 minutes with Diana
- [The Shock Doctrine](https://headbutler.com/reviews/shock-doctrine/) - Naomi Klein's take on 9/11: it was like other disasters, natural or political --- it gave our government an opportunity for yet another business-take-all power grab. Klein has no patience with American "goodness" and "good will" and even "democracy" --- when the interests of American business are at stake, she argues, idealism goes out the window. Terror, torture, mayhem, murder: The techniques are technicalities. All that counts: the triumph of business interests, a continued flow of money and power to the inner circle.
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-well-cross-that-bridge-when-we-get-to-it/) - PHOTO CAPTION: The massive field hospital in Central Park? Thank an evangelical Christian relief organization, Samaritan’s Purse, which is led by Franklin Graham, son of the late televangelist Billy Graham. Four trailers delivered tents, beds, personal protective equipment and 10 ventilators. 70 health care workers from around the US will arrive soon. Sigh. I hoped
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: Subjects to Change, Cheap Shots from the Cheap Seats, and more](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-subjects-to-change-cheap-shots-from-the-cheap-seats-and-more/) - Subject to change. Because too much is happening to spend a day writing about one book, CD or movie.
- [SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: "No one can look long at the sun or death."](https://headbutler.com/reviews/surviving-the-pandemic-no-one-can-look-long-at-the-sun-or-death/) - La Rochefoucauld: "Le soleil ni la mort ne peuvent se regarder en face." ("No one can look long at the sun or death.")
- [Puzzle So Hard](https://headbutler.com/reviews/puzzle-so-hard/) - Puzzle So Hard's 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzles are not of sailing ships or small towns. They’re not like anything. That’s because of the designers she chose: a Mexico City mural artist, a South African embroiderer, and a Toronto photographer, among others.
- [The Stoics: Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius... and a Buddhist monk](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-stoics-epictetus-marcus-aurelius-and-a-buddhist-monk/) - What is to be done? A lot, actually, but for the moment --- and I use that phrase consciously --- we can only work on ourselves. And the most effective way to do that is to embrace Stoicism which, as it turns out, is consistent with certain Buddhist teachings.
- [My Mrs. Brown](https://headbutler.com/reviews/my-mrs-brown/) - Emilia Brown, 66, is a brown wren, just the kind of woman you expect to find in a neat, small house in a town as drab as Ashville, Road Island. But there is something about Mrs. Brown and about Billy Norwich’s writing that is quietly extraordinary, and although there were any number of pages when everything seemed just a little too neat, I never found myself putting the book down. I did find myself crying a lot. And often.
- [Chocolate is good for you --- if it's dark chocolate](https://headbutler.com/reviews/chocolate-is-good-for-you-if-its-dark-chocolate/) - Dark chocolate has health benefits. An analysis of several studies that included data on over 500,000 participants found that those who regularly eat dark chocolate (two to three 30-gram servings per week) had a lower risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, and strokes. In another study of over 2,000 participants, the more chocolate they reported eating (up to twice per week), the less coronary artery plaque they had. And the studies go on and on...
- [Into the Wild](https://headbutler.com/reviews/wild/) - My wife and I stumbled out of a Manhattan theater in stunned silence. In San Diego, so did my 22 year-old stepson. So has everyone I've urged to see "Into the Wild."
- [ThinAddictives Cranberry Almond Thins](https://headbutler.com/reviews/thinaddictives-cranberry-almond-thins/) - Unlike most snacks sold in bulk, the cookies came in packages of three --- you could carry one or two around as a snack. Calories? 100 per package. 100% natural? Yes. “Sophisticated?” Raisins are not. But with antioxidant-loaded almonds and cranberries… definitely. Affordable? About 75 cents for 3 cookies… 25 cents each. More expensive than one of those rice cake snacks, but considerably more appealing.
- [Finnish Nightmares: An Irreverent Guide to Life's Awkward Moments](https://headbutler.com/reviews/finnish-nightmares-an-irreverent-guide-to-lifes-awkward-moments/) - Karoliina Korhonen invented a character named Matti and began making cartoons about him. Matti is, like his creator, a Finn. His religion is “peace, quiet and personal space.” He gives them to others, hoping to get them back in return. He’s silent, but not sullen. When someone is angry, he blames himself.
- [Brian Fallon](https://headbutler.com/reviews/brian-fallon/) - Resistance is futile only when it’s primarily negative. The only resistance that matters --- to me, anyway --- is resistance that begins with an affirmation. Like: Yeah, what’s happening sucks, but over here…over here is fun and love and joy. And Brian Fallon is Exhibit A of fun and love and joy.
- [Albert Camus: The Plague](https://headbutler.com/reviews/plague/) - The novel is an allegory, ultimately about the spread of Nazi ideology and a community's reaction to that deadly invasion. It asks: How should people act when faced with a daily threat to life? How can they survive when an arbitrary fate marks some for immediate death, others for a later grave? What do we owe our neighbors? And, in the end, what does it all mean?
- [Philip Roth: The Plot Against America](https://headbutler.com/reviews/philip-roth-the-plot-against-america/) - You cannot get more visionary than this “what if” story that envisions the institutionalization of anti-Semitism in an America with Charles Lindbergh in the White House. Roth’s twenty-second novel emits as much dystopian brilliance as, say, Roald Dahl’s “Genius and Catastrophe,” an unnerving story about the much-desired birth of baby . . . Hitler. "The Plot Against America" is Dahl and a touch of “The Twilight Zone” too. It’s not surprising that HBO will present the book as a six-part miniseries. The novel’s thesis — that Lindbergh would have been nightmarishly bad for the Jews — is so convincing that when Roth introduces the pro-Nazi Lindbergh to the story, I Googled “Lindbergh + Hitler.” I learned that in 1938 — the same year as the Kristallnacht pogrom against Germany’s Jews — Lindbergh accepted Hitler’s Service Cross of the German Eagle, just as Roth writes. Three years later America’s aviation hero asks the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the Lend-Lease Policy to negotiate a neutrality pact with Hitler. Another Google verification: For many Americans, Lindbergh’s attraction to the German dictator did not compromise his celebrity. Neither did his political stance as an isolationist: In the parlance of the 1930s, Lindbergh declared himself an “America Firster.”
- [Is Thomas Keller's Roast Chicken the Greatest Ever?](https://headbutler.com/reviews/is-thomas-kellers-roast-chicken-the-greatest-ever/) - n 1994, Thomas Keller took ownership of The French Laundry in Yountville, California. Fame followed quickly. He has since opened Per Se, Bouchon, Bar Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery, and Ad Hoc.He is the first and only American-born chef to hold multiple three-star ratings from the prestigious Michelin Guide, as well as the first American male chef to be designated a Chevalier of The French Legion of Honor, the highest decoration in France. His cookbooks are not as a simple as his recipe for roast chicken, but they are beloved.
- [Beethoven Violin Concerto](https://headbutler.com/reviews/beethoven-violin-concerto/) - Almost a decade after Beethoven's death, Felix Mendelssohn brought the piece to the public's attention. He understood what Beethoven had written: the only major work for violin composed since Mozart's 1775 burst of five concertos. This time people heard it for what it was --- probably the greatest violin concerto ever written.
- [Now it's official: The New York Times praises "JFK and Mary Meyer"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/now-its-official-the-new-york-times-praises-jfk-and-mary-meyer/) - A sure sign of success: The book is reviewed by the New York Times: "Hemmed in by the construct of the diary to shape Meyer, Kornbluth has wisely given us less rather than more, and as a result his book adroitly captures the contradictions of a woman trying to balance her Jekyll-and-Hyde life as gracious Washington socialite and punditic libertine."
- [Patricia Highsmith: The Price of Salt](https://headbutler.com/reviews/patricia-highsmith/) - It's Christmas, and money's tight, so Therese Belivet does what any unemployed 19-year-old stage designer might --- she takes a temp job in the toy department of a Manhattan department store. Her days define dreary. The aging sales clerks seem “stricken with an everlasting exhaustion and terror.” As for her customers, they're also desperate, but for a doll, any doll. Then Mrs. H.F. Aird walks in. Calm gray eyes. Blonde. Pale, thin ankles. Suede high heels. Her voice was “like her coat, rich and supple, and somehow full of secrets.” Therese has a boyfriend, who “talked like any of the people one saw in Village bars, young people who were supposed to be writers or actors, and who usually did nothing.” After ten months, they aren't growing closer. This isn't love. But Mrs. H. F. Aird --- what is that attraction? Therese sends a card that says nothing much. But just sending it is provocative. Carol Aird, 32 and unhappily married and a mother, responds. And so it begins... Patricia Highsmith, known for thrillers that show how easily evil can masquerade as goodness, wrote “The Price of Salt” right after Strangers on a Train. She was short of cash, so she took a job in a department store. A cool beauty walked in. After she left, Highsmith felt “cool and swimmy” in her head; that night, she wrote an eight-page outline. Her publisher had been pressing her for another suspense novel, but she said that she didn't regard “Strangers on a Train” as suspense --- and she considered this new plot “simply a novel with an interesting story.” That is so disingenuous. This was the late 1940s and early 1950s, and even in wicked New York, Highsmith notes, “those were the days when people wanting to go to a certain bar got off the subway station before or after the convenient one, lest they be suspected of being homosexual.” So to write a love story about two women --- could Highsmith have been completely surprised when Harper & Bros. rejected it? The happy ending: A “specialty” press published “The Price of Salt” --- under the byline of “Claire Morgan” --- in paperback in 1952. It sold a million copies. [To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] It deserved to. In a swift 275 pages, Highsmith creates a world that's entirely plausible. First, there's the love story: the push-pull of the flirting, the heart-stopping looks, the thrill of a touch. Then there's the suspense aspect. Divorce wasn't no-fault anywhere in America in the early 1950s; it was a time of private detectives and blame. And so, when Carol and Therese take a trip, they're not alone --- Mr. Aird's private eye follows. This is not a romance without consequences. And, of course, there is the sex. But do not think for a second that this book has appeal only to women who love women --- or men who get off on lesbian sex. There is, in fact, almost no sex in the novel. And that is its power. The book is about two women coming to terms with forbidden love --- about wanting to be together and having trouble saying how much they want that, and being scared and having misunderstandings. It's got all the stuff of a love story between heterosexuals. Just with higher stakes. And an ending that's surprising... “I never wrote another book like this,” Highsmith. Well, you never read one like this. To buy “Strangers on a Train” from Amazon, click here. To buy “The Selected Stories of Patricia Highsmith” from Amazon, click here. To buy “The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley Under Ground, and Ripley's Game” from Amazon, click here. To read about Joan Schenkar's biography, 'The Talented Miss Highsmith,' click here.
- [Alan Furst: The Foreign Correspondent](https://headbutler.com/reviews/foreign-correspondent/) - The heroes of most thrillers are usually manly men, built on the John Wayne model. If they have inner lives, they're in flight from them. So when it comes to sex, women are simply receptacles; they exist to satisfy whatever needs violence can't. Or, if the hero is created on the James Bond model, the guy is the sex object, the blonde of the piece. Either way, when the thriller writer is forced to slap up a sex scene, I dissolve in giggles. And I wonder how women can read these books with pleasure. But the bedroom scenes here are so hot that, all by themselves, they're a reasonable inducement to pick up this novel. And not just for the heat, but for the emotion driving the lust --- these are lovers using their bodies to communicate their most urgent, indeed desperate feelings in the face of oncoming war and possible death. They are wonderfully human, perfectly imperfect characters we can care about. And more: They're so clearly well-matched that we want it to work out for them.
- ["Game Changers" (“Someone asked me, ‘How could you get as strong as an ox without eating any meat?’ And my answer was, ‘Have you ever seen an ox eat meat?’”)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/game-changers-someone-asked-me-how-could-you-get-as-strong-as-an-ox-without-eating-any-meat-and-my-answer-was-have-you-ever-seen-an-ox-eat-meat/) - When was the last time I encouraged to watch something on Netflix? Never. But I encourage you to stream "Game Changers." Why? Because I read Nate Herpich's article, ‘Game Changers’ puts muscle behind plant-based diet, in the Harvard Gazette. Below, I reprint it. And I suggest three cookbooks that couldn't be more relevant: V Is
- [You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life](https://headbutler.com/reviews/you-are-a-badass-how-to-stop-doubting-your-greatness-and-start-living-an-awesome-life/) - Sometimes you think, "This is as bad as it's going to get," and then it gets worse. I don't need to list the week's events; you read the news, you know what's been happening since the acquittal in the Senate. And you watched the primary results with dismay. Is it actually possible --- is it
- [My Name Is Lucy Barton](https://headbutler.com/reviews/my-name-is-lucy-barton/) - It’s clear in every sentence: Elizabeth Strout knows this story in a way that makes Lucy Barton’s life not just credible, but real. And now Laura Linney has done it on Broadway, and she's recorded an audiobook.
- [Do I Make Myself Clear? Why Writing Well Matters: A Practical Guide to Writing Well in the Modern Age](https://headbutler.com/reviews/do-i-make-myself-clear-why-writing-well-matters-a-practical-guide-to-writing-well-in-the-modern-age/) - “Do I Make Myself Clear? Why Writing Well Matters: A Practical Guide to Writing Well in the Modern Age” fills 416 pages. For casual readers and would-be writers, it is to be tasted --- that is, skimmed. For obsessive grammarians and dedicated writers, it’s homework --- and there will be a test.
- [Orolay Women's Thickened Down Jacket: The “Amazon coat”](https://headbutler.com/reviews/orolay-womens-thickened-down-jacket-the-amazon-coat/) - The answer to a woman’s prayers in this endless Polar Vortex winter is the Orolay Women's Thickened Down Jacket, or, as those who swear by it call it, “the Amazon coat.” Orolay? Not a fashion brand. It’s a Chinese company that makes cabinets and folding chairs. If you go to its website, you will see that it was written in Chinese and poorly translated. And you will grasp that they've made, in essence, a knockoff of a $1,000 coat by Canada Goose. Cost of this coat: $130.
- [The Nickel Boys: A novel](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-nickel-boys-a-novel/) - The genius of the book is Whitehead’s suppression of anger. He just tells a story. An innocent boy. A hellhole. What happens there. With a stunning ending you can’t see coming. Not a word of sermonizing --- not a cry for justice or a lament for the legacy of American racism. Just story story story, a novel you can’t stand to read but can’t put down.
- [Kate Tempest](https://headbutler.com/reviews/kate-tempest/) - Kate Tempest is probably the most important voice in music now. Hype? Listen.
- [Letters of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience](https://headbutler.com/reviews/letters-of-note-an-eclectic-collection-of-correspondence-deserving-of-a-wider-audience/) - Shaun Usher was a copywriter in a London ad agency. A very bored copywriter. And not finding inspiration for a stationery client. He went to the library and started reading books of letters. He was hooked. So he started a blog: Letters of Note. He had modest hopes for his blog: “I literally started it to pass the time in a sales job I hated. In the evenings when I got home I’d let off steam by doing the blog.” His criterion was simple: “fascinating correspondence.” He read 20 letters for every one he chose. He collected 125 in an oversized, 7” by 11” book that prints a photo of the original letter and then a clear version in type. It was a bestseller in England for a year.
- [Power Snackers Lemon Chia-Crunch](https://headbutler.com/reviews/power-snackers-lemon-chia-crunch/) - There was a new sweetness to the salad --- nothing dramatic, just the suggestion of sweetness. And a significant upgrade in nutritional goodness. Would they be good crumbled on yoghurt? I tried that. Yes. Contents: a mix of almonds and walnuts, flax and sunflower seeds and reishi mushrooms blended with maca, lucuma, coconut, vanilla and lemon. Good for you!
- [Twyla Tharp: Keep It Moving: Lessons for the Rest of Your Life](https://headbutler.com/reviews/twyla-tharp-keep-it-moving-lessons-for-the-rest-of-your-life/) - “Keep It Moving: Lessons for the Rest of Your Life” is not a how to guide for going gently into the night. She writes: “As age becomes reality, I think we start to retreat, we retract, we become protective, we become secluded, and we begin to ossify.” And then she calls bullshit on all of that.
- [Sarah Ban Breathnach: Simple Abundance: 365 Days to a Balanced and Joyful Life](https://headbutler.com/reviews/sarah-ban-breathnach-simple-abundance-365-days-to-a-balanced-and-joyful-life/) - These are extraordinary times, but they are not the New Normal, because there is nothing normal about what is unfolding every day. And the only way to safeguard ourselves and those we love is by realizing and acknowledging that technology must have its limits. How do we do this? The way women have always protected their own: by creating emotional and psychological safe havens that shelter what we hold sacred.
- [The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols: Adapted from the Journals of John H. Watson, M.D.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-adventure-of-the-peculiar-protocols-adapted-from-the-journals-of-john-h-watson-m-d/) - In “The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols: Adapted from the Journals of John H. Watson, M.D,” it’s 1905, and in the new century “crimes are getting bigger” and Holmes is getting older. We see him on the cusp of his 50th birthday, and though he doesn’t feel old, he senses a gloomy retirement ahead: “I’ll rusticate among flora and fauna.” But at a birthday lunch with the now happily married Watson, his brother appears, with a fresh mystery for Holmes: a document found on the body of a murdered member of the British Secret Service. It refers to as meeting of a group bent on world dominance. Is this threat real?
- [Valentine's Day 2020](https://headbutler.com/reviews/valentines-day-2020/) - I usually treat Valentine's Day with ironic detachment --- I believe if you don't show up 364 days a year, lavish gestures on one day won't do much for your romance. I'm not ironic this year: The news is bad, and the commentary is worse, dancing around the terrifying possibility that we're about to live in a banana republic. Yes, you 'll feel better if you give money to candidates who can tip the Senate. Yes, you may want to volunteer. But you also have to feed your soul, jumpstart your heart, do right by your libido, reinvigorate your imagination. Here are a very few suggestions.
- [Rainer Maria Rilke: Letters on Life](https://headbutler.com/reviews/rainer-maria-rilke-letters-on-life/) - Rilke was a prodigious correspondent, and an idiosyncratic one --- on his desk was a pen for letters and another for “real” writing. But that suggests a false distinction; some of the 7,000 letters he wrote are rough drafts of poems. And the ideas in the letters are often the same ideas as the ideas of the poems, just expressed more directly.
- [Miles Davis: Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud](https://headbutler.com/reviews/miles-davis/) - This is one of the greatest jazz soundtracks in film --- some say the greatest. The trumpet couldn't be more evocative: mostly slow and breathy, thoughtful and tender, lonely and okay about it. In a word: cool. The quintessence of cool.
- [Gabriel Faure: Requiem](https://headbutler.com/reviews/requiem/) - At memorial services, the music is often the Requiem of Gabriel Faure, It’s a gorgeous piece: lush but understated, powerful but not loud. It sends you into yourself in a way that heals; the music becomes secondary, a vehicle.
- [Valentine's Day 2019](https://headbutler.com/reviews/valentines-day-2019/) - In the run-up to Valentine's Day, we scurry around looking for something that's... just right. Because feelings --- real feelings --- are hard to express. Even the most eloquent of us go dumb in the presence of the beloved. And so.. things.
- [John F. Kennedy’s “Rosebud” --- could it be a book: "Melbourne," by David Cecil?](https://headbutler.com/reviews/john-f-kennedys-rosebud-could-it-be-a-book-melbourne-by-david-cecil/) - John F. Kennedy had a role model. He found him in a book he read when he was very young and very sick: David Cecil’s “The Young Melbourne.” As he told Jackie when he gave it to her, it was his favorite book. Jack Kennedy aspired to be the young Melbourne, and became him.
- [Comfort Food for Uncomfortable Weather (Real & Political)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/cooking-up-a-storm-when-the-weather-turns-cold-the-cold-start-cooking/) - When the weather turns cold, the cold start cooking. Here are 15 cookbooks useful in the big chill. And, better yet, 23 recipes that will keep body and soul together, even in a Polar Vortex. Click on the links for the recipes.
- [Miles Davis: Kind of Blue](https://headbutler.com/reviews/miles-davis-kind-blue/) - The biggest sellers in any category are often cringeworthy. Top-selling music CD: “The Eagles Greatest Hits.” (If I hear “Hotel California” one more time, I'll scream.) The hugest movie: ”Titanic." Highest book sales: After “Harry Potter,” it's “Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution” and “The Da Vinci Code.” My conclusion: The public is often wrong. One notable exception is the biggest-selling jazz record: Kind of Blue. Released in August of 1959, it's #12 on Rolling Stone's list of "500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” [To buy the CD of “Kind of Blue” from Amazon, click here. To buy the MP3 download, click here.] There are reasons why this album is so significant. The musical ones are technical but boil down to this: Miles Davis changed the language of jazz from improvisation based on chords to threads based on scales. That opened the music up and maximized the opportunity for melodic sweetness. The sound here: Hard bop's vanished, noisy improvisation's been sent packing. The trumpet is breathy, spacey, minimal; it's a late-night walk on a deserted Paris street. The band is made up of giants: John Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley on saxophone, Paul Chambers on bass, Jimmy Cobb on drums, and the pianists Wynton Kelly and Bill Evans. They recorded with no rehearsal and minimal conversation --- all the musicians had to work with were sketches of scales. None of that really matters. What counts is what you hear --- and the welcome news this time is that the music which breaks tradition and makes history is surprisingly easy to listen to. Most of the songs are slow, trance-like, relaxed; this is Barry White for hipsters. Any fool can hear this CD and feel space opening up and possibility enlarging --- it's at once totally serious and extremely accessible. The proof is in the listening. And for half a century, the listeners and critics agree: If you own only one jazz record....
- [Agatha Raisin and The Quiche of Death](https://headbutler.com/reviews/quiche-death/) - What are the odds that I would read, much less praise, an English murder mystery starring a retired public relations executive who sells her London business and moves to a cottage in the Cotswolds?
- [Slim Harpo](https://headbutler.com/reviews/slim-harpo/) - Slim Harpo was born James Isaac Moore in Louisiana in 1924. At 15, he became an orphan when both his parents died. He left school, worked as a dock hand, started playing harmonica with local bands. He had an early understanding of popular taste. He could deliver dirty blues riffs; he could also write songs
- [Winter Survival Kit](https://headbutler.com/reviews/winter-survival-kit/) - It was 70 degrees in New York last weekend. Don't be fooled. Winter will return. Also impeachment. Some terrible surprise or other. And bad news about your flu shot: it doesn't do much to ward off this year's strain. So you want your immune system to be humming and your spirits to be above average.
- [Life isn't everything: Mike Nichols, as remembered by 150 of his closest friends.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/life-isnt-everything-mike-nichols-as-remembered-by-150-of-his-closest-friends/) - Mike Nichols was famous for many of his 83 years. And that these are stories from his equally famous friends: Richard Burton, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Kushner, Tom Hanks, Alec Baldwin, Robin Williams, Emma Thompson, and 90+ others in a who's who of late 20th century show business.
- [Man's Search for   Meaning](https://headbutler.com/reviews/mans-search-meaning/) - Days after the war ended, Viktor Frankl walked out of the camp and into the countryside. He listened to the birds sing; he felt the expanse of earth and sky. He did not yet know that the wife he thought of constantly was dead. He had just one sentence running through his head: "I called to the Lord from my narrow prison and he answered me in the freedom of space." And with that, Frankl entered his future.
- [There was a 25% tariff on French wine last fall. There's a 100% tariff just around the corner.](https://headbutler.com/reviews/special-tariff-edition-buy-french-spanish-and-italian-wine-and-scotch-now-or-pay-more-next-week/) - Some of the leaders of what used to be called the free world were having a chat at a free world gathering. These are buttoned-up people. But they had an irresistible topic, and they gossiped and made jokes about the free world's favorite buffoon, the President of the United States. A video camera recorded it
- [Love: Forever Changes](https://headbutler.com/reviews/forever-changes/) - Rolling Stone ranks it 40th in its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Some critics place it higher: "the American 'Sgt. Pepper.'" Which is ironic, because "Forever Changes" is as "produced" as the Beatles classic --- there are strings here, and horns. Like "Sgt. Pepper," the record wasn't easy to classify. Psychedelic? A bit. Mexican-tinged? That too. But in 1967, the last thing Young America wanted was Smart and Complex.
- [V Is for Vegetables: Inspired Recipes & Techniques for Home Cooks -- from Artichokes to Zucchini](https://headbutler.com/reviews/v-is-for-vegetables-inspired-recipes-techniques-for-home-cooks-from-artichokes-to-zucchini/) - A great many cooks have adopted the vegetables-at-the-center-of-the-plate religion, with animal protein as a side dish, garnish, afterthought --- or non-presence. (They ignore what the Zen master Shunryu Suzuki noted: “You have to kill vegetables too.") Michael Anthony hasn’t surrendered to the Meme of Vegetables. He includes fish and meat recipes “because that's the way I eat." He just happens to like to eat vegetables more: "I am a cheerleader saying, ‘Hey, you can do this. Give it a try.' I tell readers, ‘Set yourself up like this in the kitchen and you'll be able to cook this quicker.’”
- [Carl Jung: Memories, Dreams, Reflections](https://headbutler.com/reviews/memories-dreams-reflections/) - 2017's great national obsession has been to figure out --- really, to try to figure out --- why a certain person is the way he is. How did he get so damaged? Doesn't he know it? Why, in a long life, has he taken no steps to get fixed? How can his range of responses be so limited? And the ultimate: Will his need to feel smart and powerful lead to our doom? I'm thinking that there are few readers of Jung publicly struggling with these questions --- if there were, we'd see frequent references to "the shadow." For Jung, the shadow is "the dark side" --- ‘‘that hidden, repressed, for the most part inferior and guilt-laden personality whose ultimate ramifications reach back into the realm of our animal ancestors and so comprise the whole historical aspect of the unconscious.’’ It's painful to acknowledge that we are both brightness and blackness; we prefer to believe we are good, with small defects that don't deeply impact our goodness. But as Jung writes, "Unfortunately there can be no doubt that man is, on the whole, less good than he imagines himself or wants to be. Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. At all counts, it forms an unconscious snag, thwarting our most well-meant intentions.”
- [Park Avenue Potluck: Recipes from New York's Savviest Hostesses](https://headbutler.com/reviews/park-avenue-potluck-recipes-new-yorks-savviest-hostesses/) - In the silver serving bowl on the cover of “Park Avenue Potluck”, there's a....could that really be a casserole? For that matter, when was the last time you saw “Park Avenue” and “potluck” in the same sentence? Yes, the days of black tie dinners that begin with Rigaud candles in the hall and champagne in the living room are over. “Ladies who lunch” have pretty much died off. Fashion shows have lost their urgency. And thank you notes are starting to look a lot like e-mails. Oh, one thing hasn't changed: the ultimate audience. "I design every menu according to what the men will eat," a hostess says. She's a smart one. The C-level husband labors all day to keep his family in a zillion dollar co-op and a country “cottage” --- if “New York's savviest hostesses” are going to make their men go to dinner parties, better believe they'll focus on their care and feeding. So what we have here is a book of recipes that a Manhattan hostess could actually cook --- has, in fact, actually cooked. Like a local club cookbook. If you happen to live in a neighborhood where everyone's rich, accomplished and fit. So (and this may be meaningful) only the drinks are exotic. Like “Pond Water” --- sugar, vodka, limoncello, lime juice and thyme. Not something you drink every day. The book offers a killer nibble: Indulgent Spiced Pecans. The soups here are simple and toothsome and, mostly, appallingly heathful. There are no fewer than 15 casseroles, including a mac-and-cheese punched up with dry mustard. Chicken with Potato Chips: there's a blue-collar concept. Nice recipe for cider-marinated pork loin from a Rockefeller. A pot roast recipe I don't know, but very much want to try. Applesauce with dark rum. And far too rich desserts. For a recipe, let's choose a dinner that a man could love.... Sweet-and-Sour Meat Loaf Serves 6 1 cup crushed canned tomatoes 4 tablespoons light brown sugar 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard 2 pounds ground beef 1 cup dry bread crumbs 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste) 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper 2 tablespoons grated onion 1 large egg Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Simmer tomatoes, sugar, vinegar and mustard together until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat. Mix beef with bread crumbs, salt, pepper, onion and egg. Add 3/4 cup of the tomato mixture. Form into a loaf, place in a baking dish, and cover with foil. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil from the meat loaf and spread the remaining tomato mixture over the loaf. Bake for 30 minutes more. Serve hot or cold. Florence Fabricant, a world-class food writer, did this book as a labor of love --- it benefits Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. As a private cancer facility, it's the world's largest. As a cause, it's one of the most prestigious in New York. Good to see a fundraising tool that not only tempts the palate but suggests “New York's savviest hostesses” aren't all insufferable snootballs. To buy ”Park Avenue Potluck: Recipes from New York's Savviest Hostesses” from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Sleepless Nights](https://headbutler.com/reviews/sleepless-nights/) - There is not much plot in "Sleepless Nights," though its 151 pages capture the shapes of many lives. The novel travels from New York jazz clubs in the '40s to Boston, Amsterdam, Holland and the heights of New York literary society. Along the way, Hardwick distills the essence of her Kentucky childhood and discreetly visits her tumultuous marriage to Robert Lowell. Throughout she displays her fierce eye for “the cemetery of home, education, nerves, heritage and ticks.
- [Gift Guide: A Child's Holiday in America](https://headbutler.com/reviews/a-childs-holiday-in-america/) - These books and videos have been road-tested on a child who’s never been shy about expressing her opinions. They passed muster. Some of them moved into heavy rotation. Now that she’s 15, they are nostalgic touchstones of her fast receding childhood. And how did that happen? A note about these selections: They have the power to re-connect you to your childhood. Not the one you had, with its predictable dose of uncertainty and self-doubt, but the one you had in your head, the magic. Reading and watching with a child, you can go there again. Here’s wishing you do.
- [Every Last One](https://headbutler.com/reviews/every-last-one/) - A very bad thing --- for a wife and mother, the worst possible thing --- happens right at the halfway mark of Every Last One, and if I tell you what it is, I’ll ruin the first half of the book and maybe more. So forgive me if I’m obscure here. Anna Quindlen is a writer-and-a-half --- a Pulitzer Prize-winner for her columns in The New York Times, beloved author of half a dozen novels --- and she has a smart, loyal audience of women who, as it turns out, are also the core of my readership. Slow I may be, stupid not. No spoilers lie ahead. Mary Beth Latham, the novel’s narrator and main character, is an ordinary woman who makes a big deal of her ordinary status: suburban, white, married, three teenaged kids. “This is my life” --- the first line of the book ---- launches a litany of the start of her day. Alarm at 5:30 (her husband, an eye doctor, sleeps on). On with the robe (“printed cotton in the summer, tufted chenille for the winter”). The coffeemaker clicks as she leaves the bathroom. Newspaper on the back step. Dog out of the kennel and into a bowl of kibbles. Wake kids. Off to work. “One day I was a freelance copy editor,” she tells us. ”Then I had three children, then I took a master gardening class, then I started a landscaping business. The business is successful.” Yes, you know this woman. Maybe you are this woman. Then it may be very familiar to you that the problems are buried, that the family moves from one surface intimacy to the next, that Mary Beth feels blessed: I never thought anything really bad would happen. It was all the good things that seemed real to me --- where they’d go off to college and where they’d live and what my grandchildren would call me. Quindlen is sensationally good at showing how life can be a celebration of the daily ritual, but she does it far too long. (Women may disagree; a complicated but loving family with no greater problems than one depressed kid and a daughter’s clinging boyfriend could be catnip for a lot of readers.) After a while, I started skimming --- I actually wanted to get the Very Bad Thing. After the Very Bad Thing, I was pretty much a mess. Flaubert wept as he wrote the death of Bovary; I imagine Quindlen shed buckets when she broke Mary Beth like a twig and then forced her to go on for another 150 pages. It’s tough reading --- some, I’m sure, will find it too tough after the sweetness of the first half --- but astringent. It feels good, sometimes, to cry about people who aren’t real. Here’s how talented Anna Quindlen is: She has an “ordinary” woman narrate a wise, closely observed, achingly eloquent book, and you never wonder how Mary Beth could be that smart . Quite a trick. Forty pages shorter, and it would have been a classic trick. To buy “Every Last One” from Amazon.com, click here. To buy the Kindle edition of “Every Last One” from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Night Work](https://headbutler.com/reviews/night-work/) - Michael Cassidy returns in “Night Work.” Now it’s December, 1958, and he’s got a Cuban killer to transport from New York to Havana. A simple assignment? Think again, to “Godfather 2,” and all that happened in Havana on New Year’s Eve of that year. Well, Cassidy will be in the thick of that. And there will be a woman, and some unsentimental soldiers and equally unsentimental revolutionaries, and a corrupt Senator from Florida --- what a surprise! --- and, not least, Fidel Castro.
- [Louise Fili: Brilliantly designed Italian pencils, gift cards, and more](https://headbutler.com/reviews/louise-fili-brilliantly-designed-italian-pencils-gift-cards-and-more/) - When most people think of “style,” they think of fashion designers. I think of Louise Fili. You’ve seen her designs everywhere and every day: Williams-Sonoma, Sarabeth’s, Tiffany & Co., Paperless Post. For a decade, she designed the covers of Pantheon Books --- that’s more than 2,000 book jackets. Of course she’s in the Art Directors Hall of Fame. Fili’s specialty is Italy. Not the Italy of tourism. And not even the hidden Italy, the Italy naccessible only to the very rich with chi-chi travel agents or low budget travelers willing to turn off the main roads. Fili explores a lost Italy, an Italy of the imagination. In a digital age, her work couldn’t be more analog. And more specific: Her inspiration is an era in Italian design that begins roughly in 1920 and ends with the neonization of signage in Italy around 1960. Louise Fili may live and work in New York, but her head and heart resides in Italy.
- [Capresso Burr Coffee Grinder](https://headbutler.com/reviews/capresso-burr-coffee-grinder/) - If you’re serious about coffee, you want what the pros use: a burr grinder. A burr grinder may give you the choice of as many as 16 speeds, but because it runs at a slower speed, it generates less heat. The burrs create uniform grounds. You can set a timer for five to sixty seconds so you don’t stand there, your life reduced to this chore, while you grind.
- [Joni Mitchell: Morning Glory on the Vine: Early Songs and Drawings](https://headbutler.com/reviews/joni-mitchell-morning-glory-on-the-vine-early-songs-and-drawings/) - In 1971, Joni Mitchell created a 58-page book of handwritten lyrics and 30 illustrations and watercolor paintings. Her manager and agent had it printed and bound by “a Japanese fellow who used pale blue and silver foil on the cover and made it look, to me, like a bridal book.” She gave it to 100 friends that Christmas. It is safe to say that is a cherished gift that has become more cherished over the decades. Joni Mitchell is now 76. She’s had some health issues. Her attitude toward her celebrity --- "I wasn’t a kid that played air guitar in the bedroom and went, 'Oh! I'm gonna be rich and famous!' and all of that.” --- has mellowed. She has come to feel that "work is meant to be seen, or heard, as the case may be." This year’s manifestation: “Morning Glory on the Vine: Early Songs and Drawings,” 128 professionally published pages, with 25 handwritten songs/poems from the early ‘70s that aren’t on any album, buttressed by watercolors and felt-tip pen illustrations.
- [Carrie Fisher: A Life on the Edge](https://headbutler.com/reviews/carrie-fisher-a-life-on-the-edge/) - Weller casts Carrie in heroic terms, and she has a point. Her openness about her bi-polarity cut some of the stigma from the disease. And although she once told me that we were “too sensitive to live,” she tried damn hard to stick around. And better, to make life brighter for others. It’s a miracle she did so much good stuff.
- [A Venetian Coronation, 1595](https://headbutler.com/reviews/venetian-coronation-1595/) - Giovanni Gabrieli, an organist at San Marco, composed a festival piece that featured trumpets, sackbutts, a dulcian, violin,viola, drums and two organs. To that he added sixteen singers. And then he did something novel --- he positioned the singers and players in as many as eight locations in San Marco.
- [Colostrum](https://headbutler.com/reviews/colostrum/) - I’ve been taking Colostrum for “leaky gut” --- the unfortunate marketing term for “increased intestinal permeability” --- for a month. And while I can’t prove it’s the reason I’m feeling more energetic and cheerful --- there have been several encouraging life developments recently --- I have unfailingly put a spoonful of white powder in a water glass first thing each morning and last thing each night. And I have every intention of doing that for another month before taking a break.
- [Colostrum and Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C](https://headbutler.com/reviews/spring-cleaning-colostrum-and-lypo-spheric-vitamin-c/) - Winters have been hard for me. I have asthma, and have spent years dosing myself with an inhaler and, on bad days, sucking on a ventilizer, and, on worse days, popping Prednisone. At some point, my asthma usually turns into asthmatic bronchitis. Last year, a genius allergist (name on request) discovered the cause of my troubles and prescribed a monthly infusion of a drug that costs about $60,000 a year, but is, thanks to my insurance, free to me. I am now so symptom free I don’t ever use my inhaler. Along the way to restored health, I decided to enhance it. Colostrum and Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C kept me in tip-terrific form all winter. Not a chance in the world I’d give them up now.
- [California Cooking and Southern Style: 100 Great Recipes, Inspired Menus, and Gorgeous Table Settings](https://headbutler.com/reviews/california-cooking-and-southern-style-100-great-recipes-inspired-menus-and-gorgeous-table-settings/) - Most of the year, the Dittmers live at Rancho La Zaca, a chip shot from Santa Barbara. It’s concrete and glass, with insane views, and at 7,000 square feet, it cries out to be shared. A good thing, because the Dittmers entertain. A lot. Not just the swells. And not for social points. Frances writes: “A gathering of friends at table is simple and profound, a sacred space in which we nourish our bodies and our souls…. At age 60-something (and I still can’t get over that), I am probably not going to be secretary-general of the U.N. But I can bring people together at the table. We all can.”
- [The Best of Caetano Veloso](https://headbutler.com/reviews/best-caetano-veloso/) - His CDs are all over the map: experiments in Latin American music sung in Spanish, Brazilian classics, his own catalogue. Start with this collection. Let him sing you his stories. You'll quickly see what he means when he says: "I make my records as a painter would paint his canvas."
- [Caetano Veloso & David Byrne: Live at Carnegie Hall](https://headbutler.com/reviews/caetano-veloso-david-byrne-live-carnegie-hall/) - For one sensational week each year, the trees blossom and my street gains a canopy of white. In a light breeze, there are waves overhead. A stiffer breeze, and it seems to snow. And then, suddenly, there are leaves and we’re on our way toward summer. The words that come to mind are “delicate” and “Japanese.” I cannot watch TV news in this season. So much beauty in the world, but every screen shows guns and violence and threats of more. Men choking on their own testosterone and daring us to withhold admiration --- what a pathetic spectacle. My idea of manhood? David Byrne and Caetano Veloso, separately and together. Tall, thin, professionally sensitive --- as performers, they’re brothers. Neither seems likely to break a sweat. Veloso’s songs start in the ether; there’s no thrust, no urgency. He’s in the transportation business; his songs don’t come to you, you come to them. And when you arrive, you’re wrapped in his thoughts and moods. [To read more about Caetano Veloso, click here.] Byrne’s trickier. When he was the kingpin of Talking Heads, he wrote his share of off-kilter hits; he can, at will, get you dancing. But he’s shy, maybe aloof, and diffident --- no one’s more self-consciously cool than a New York art rocker. Veloso and Byrne both work in the upper register. They share a borderless sense of music, one minute in America, the next in Brazil. Pairing them in concert at Carnegie Hall --- a no-brainer. My wife and I saw the 2004 Veloso-Byrne concert from about the tenth row. It was magic, spectacular right from the from start --- I think pretty much everyone there got that, and felt privileged, and went nuts with pleasure and gratitude after each song. A while back, we ran into Byrne at a gallery and asked about a CD. “Soon,” he said. “Maybe.” Well, what’s eight years --- half as long as it takes for single malt to be drinkable. [To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.] Veloso begins the show. If you’re new to him, you might not immediately grasp that Brazilians rank him in the Bob Dylan zone. Then the sweetness and sensitivity seduce you. Byrne’s presence comes almost as a shock. But not really, because there’s no band here, just cello and percussion --- the Talking Heads songs you know and love do rock, just more intimately. Byrne and Veloso do some duets. Byrne sings in Portuguese. The words really don't matter; this evening was really about an exploration of sound. Namely, about how many different ways you can achieve gorgeousness. We live in the land of reality TV competitions; we can't help ourselves from asking who won. These guys are way beyond that. Serve this music with wine at dinner. And don't fail to savor it again, late in the evening; in the dark, it is the wine.
- [The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: A Novel](https://headbutler.com/reviews/guernsey-literary-and-potato-peel-pie-society/) - GUEST BUTLER: Elise O'Shaughnessy was my editor at Vanity Fair. Ah, those were the days. I'm not crazy about clubs, whether they'd have me as a member or not. And I don't like reading about book clubs, knitting circles, or sweet potatoes. So when the unfortunately titled "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society"
- [Dora Lives: The Authorized Story of Miki Dora](https://headbutler.com/reviews/dora-lives-authorized-story-miki-dora/) - Miki Dora was dark and moviestar handsome, he had a dangerous, surly presence, and he surfed like no one else --- he was so accomplished he could look laid-back. He quickly became the king of Malibu surfers, James Dean on a surfboard, "the dark knight of surfing."
- [Night Life](https://headbutler.com/reviews/night-life/) - How often do I read thrillers? Rarely. How often do I stay up until 3 AM, manically turning pages so I can see how a thriller ends? Never. And yet reading until my eyes blurred was exactly what happened the night I opened “Night Life,” by David C. Taylor. I had modest expectations. I was
- [Mulatu Astatke](https://headbutler.com/reviews/broken-flowers-soundtrack/) - The ingredients sound...odd. Mulatu Astatke grew up in Ethiopia but went abroad to study jazz in America. He was influenced by Miles Davis and John Coltrane --- and by the organist Jimmy Smith. What he brought back to Ethiopia was a blend of soul and jazz. Which he then proceeded to blend, once more, with traditional Ethiopian music. The result is easy to listen to and hard to describe. The horns play cool jazz figures; you could almost mistake them for clarinets. But under that is a groove that could have been created by Booker T and the MGs. And connecting the two are some Ethiopian chords that sound exotic, space-changing, hypnotic. Think desert cha cha. Cuba goes to Memphis. Desert trance music. Like nothing you have ever heard before. Mulatu Astatke is the man in charge of all of it: He writes the music, arranges it, and plays piano, organ, vibes and percussion. Although the Golden Years of this Ethiopian music were ancient history --- from 1968 to 1974 --- Astatke is still a major figure in Ethiopian music, regularly playing and teaching. Happily, Jim Jarmusch is one of those directors who not only listens to a lot of music, but looks for a way to integrate it into his films. "Music often leads me," he says. "I discovered Mulatu Astatke's music maybe seven years ago, and I was blown away by a few things I found that he had recorded in the late sixties. I was on a hunt for a number of years: I bought some vinyl; some of his jazz stuff; some Latin jazz recorded in the states; other Ethiopian stuff. And then I was like, "Oh, man, how can I get this music in a film? It's so beautiful and score-like." Then when I was writing 'Broken Flowers', I was like, "Well, this neighbor [Jeffrey Wright] is Ethiopian-American, I can turn him on to the music." There are other musicians on the soundtrack of 'Broken Flowers' --- and four songs by Astatke that are crucial to the feeling of the film. They're certainly crucial to my jaded ears, which perk up as soon as his songs start. And which led me to order a CD with much more of his music: the highly-regarded Ethiopiques, Vol. 4: Ethio Jazz & Musique Instrumentale, 1969-1974. Recently I added Information Inspiration, Vol. 3. You'll want to be the first on your block to hear this music. Not because of the 'hip' factor, though I won't pretend that's unimportant. But because of the pure pleasure --- this is very happy music, and happy in a smart way. Each time you listen, you hear a little more. With a hundred encounters, you may actually get what this genius is doing. To buy the 'Broken Flowers' soundtrack from Amazon.com, click here. To buy 'Ethiopiques, Vol. 4: Ethio Jazz & Musique Instrumentale, 1969-1974' from Amazon.com, click here. To buy 'Inspiration Information, Vol. 3' from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Shooting Star: The Brief Arc of Joe McCarthy](https://headbutler.com/reviews/shooting-star-brief-arc-joe-mccarthy/) - Tom Wicker, one of the greater New York Times reporters of the last half century, brings us the life and significance of Joe McCarthy in less than 200 large-print pages. It's a terrific primer for those who know just enough about McCarthy to realize they know almost nothing. And even those who think they know the McCarthy story will be stunned and enlightened. For this is the story of a small-town boy from Wisconsin with a work ethic to hold up as an example. And then it is the story of a man who --- almost by accident, it seems --- exploited fears that he couldn't control, found they brought him fame, and didn't know when to quit.
- [The Bee Cottage Story: How I Made a Muddle of Things and Decorated My Way Back to Happines](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-bee-cottage-story-how-i-made-a-muddle-of-things-and-decorated-my-way-back-to-happines/) - Bee Cottage is not some spectacular palace. It’s small, in the village, not that much of a house. But Frances had energy, creativity and personal need --- she made it a home. Her home.
- [Peter Handke: A Sorrow Beyond Dreams](https://headbutler.com/reviews/peter-handke-a-sorrow-beyond-dreams/) - "The Sunday edition carried the following item under 'Local News': 'In the village of A. (G. township), a housewife, aged 51, committed suicide on Friday night by taking an overdose of sleeping pills.'" That's the opening of Peter Handke's 96-page account about the suicide of his mother. It takes perhaps an hour to read. But like the best of Handke, "A Sorrow Beyond Dreams" stays with you
- [How to Drink Like a Billionaire: Mastering Wine with Joie de Vivre](https://headbutler.com/reviews/how-to-drink-like-a-billionaire-mastering-wine-with-joie-de-vivre/) - Start with the cover: Oldman opening a bottle of champagne with a sabre. Then the quote at the start of the book: “We are all mortal until the first kiss and the second glass of wine.” And the mission statement (“to relieve drinkers of wine’s pretentiousness”), the Hemingway quote (“Write drunk, edit sober”). And then he’s into advice. “Curb thy swirl.” Put your hand over the glass as you swill? News to me. As what makes great wine great. Why Portuguese should be big. And when is the best time to drink champagne. [That’s easy: Any time.] In short: This is the cheekiest, most fact-pact cheat sheet in all of winedom.
- [Bragg Organic Raw Apple Cider Vinegar](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bragg-organic-raw-apple-cider-vinegar/) - I knew winter’s coming because my annual bout of Sinusitis began. Ten days of Amoxicillin followed. I got better. Then I didn’t. “This sometimes requires a second round,” the doctor said, and I started ten more days of medicine. On day 4, with no change in the swamp residing in my head, I had dinner
- [Aretha Franklin: Lady Soul](https://headbutler.com/reviews/aretha-franklin-lady-soul/) - "Chain Of Fools," "Money Won't Change You," "People Get Ready," "Since You've Been Gone (Sweet Sweet Baby)," "Good To Me As I Am To You," "Ain't No Way," "Chain Of Fools" and "Groovin'" can be found on "Lady Soul," which Amazon is selling for a bargain price. Released in 1968, the aptly named CD featured great Muscle Shoals musicians and singers that included Whitney Houston's mother. Franklin scored three Top Ten hits and stayed on the charts for a year; "Lady Soul" occupies #84 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums.
- [Gerald and Sara, Scott and Zelda, Ernest Hemingway... and Jerome Robbins](https://headbutler.com/reviews/amanda-vaill-gerald-and-sara-scott-and-zelda-ernest-hemingway-and-jerry-robbins/) - “Somewhere” is 531 pages long. I hate long books, but I devoured every page. Amanda Vaill’s new book, “Jerome Robbins, by Himself: Selections from His Letters, Journals, Drawings, Photographs, and an Unfinished Memoir” is a little shorter --- just 488 pages --- but photographs occupy many of those pages. And Vaill’s introductions to each section can be viewed as a cheat sheet to her biography. If you’re a math-minded person, that means you get 1,000 pages of great reading at half the length.
- [Gun Metal Sky](https://headbutler.com/reviews/lori-lieberman/) - I get many self-produced CDs. I try to listen to them all. Sadly, I usually make it only through a song or two. And then I send off an e-mail expressing admiration for the singer/songwriter and apologizing for the few issues I can spare for music. What I don't say: I'm on your side, but standards are standards. Gun Metal Sky, a new CD by Lori Lieberman, came my way via her sister. I was not entirely thrilled to have it, for her sister is a talented and thoughtful woman who once did our daughter a great kindness, and there is no sense of obligation that weighs heavier on me than one that involves a sincere interest in our kid. I did not, therefore, rush to play it, or even to find out that Ms. Lieberman is more than her sister's sister. I know better now. Three decades and change ago, a young singer-songwriter saw Don McLean perform. She was knocked out. And so Lori Lieberman wrote a poem about that night and the man who was “killing me softly” with his songs. She was then collaborating with some noted songwriters; her lines become “Killing Me Softly”, which was recorded by Roberta Flack. It sold trillions.
- [Come Through: Bon Iver/Justin Vernon and TU Dance](https://headbutler.com/reviews/come-through-bon-iver-justin-vernon-and-tu-dance/) - Vernon and his band have collaborated with Minnesota’s TU Dance on "Come Through," directed and choreographed by Uri Sands; it premiered at the Palace Theatre in the Spring of 2018 as part of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Liquid Music Series. Why this group? Why now? Vernon: “I’d never been moved by dance really before. What I came away with after seeing TU Dance perform for the first time is, like, there’s real pain, there’s real struggle, and there’s real redemption. I didn’t know bodies moving around to simple music could do that much.”
- [The Sports Edition: Tennis, Baseball, Football](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-sports-edition-tennis-baseball-football/) - The Sports Edition exists because everyone I know can't take phone calls at night because... the U.S. Open. And the baseball season is approaching a final reckoning. I won't be watching one minute of professional football --- I stand with Colin Kaepernick, and I also don't like to see people trade their health for money --- but that's a minority opinion; the NFL is the biggest thing in American sports. So this is a good time to suggest the best books about these sports. It's also a good time to note the absence of women in this selection. It wasn't deliberate --- the heroes celebrated in sports biographies have traditionally been male. It can be corrected; I'd welcome suggestions of books and movies about great female athletes and teams.
- [Season of Life: A Football Star, a Boy, a Journey to Manhood](https://headbutler.com/reviews/season-life-football-star-boy-journey-manhood/) - This is the ritual for Gilman School football players before each game: Coach Joe Ehrmann: "What is our job as coaches?" Players: "To love us." Ehrmann: "What is your job?" Players: "To love one another." Creepy, huh? At the very least, embarrassing. I mean, here is a coach who used to play for the Baltimore Colts. And here are students at a posh Maryland private school. And instead of pumping one another to maim and kill on the football field, they're pledging to....love one another? What's going on here? As Jeffrey Marx tells it, this is a story of almost Biblical simplicity. Back in 1974, when he had just finished the sixth grade, Marx was a ball boy at the Colts' training camp. He was a sweet kid, and the players adopted him. Jump-cut to 2001. Marx is now a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. The Colts have moved to a new stadium in a new city; Marx visits Memorial Stadium in Baltimore shortly before it's to be torn down. And then he gets an idea: He'll look up the players who befriended him almost three decades ago. Joe Ehrmann, he discovers, has turned into a hero. This was not intentional. Ehrmann's younger brother had died of cancer. Ehrmann had turned to God. And not half-heartedly --- he'd become a minister. And he had a mission: to help boys become men.
- [Butler's taking two weeks, but not leaving you empty-handed](https://headbutler.com/reviews/summer-2019-it-begins/) - These are tricky times. A grinning maniac is driving the clown car of his administration at top speed into a wall. Danger lurks anywhere guns are legal. The global markets are sending a message that could have been predicted. And on social media, the choices I see are two: "We're screwed" or "2020." So my business here is increasingly urgent: promote calm, sanity, creativity, laughter, entertainment, enlightenment. These choices ring those bells for me. I hope something here does that for you.
- [Is Paris Burning?](https://headbutler.com/reviews/is-paris-burning/) - In the summer of 1944, the U.S. 4th Infantry and the Free French 2nd Armored Division raced from Normandy to Paris. Their goal: save Paris from ruin. In Paris, meanwhile, citizens crushed by four years of German occupation and rule took to the barricades. Would the improvised French rebellion block the detonation of tons of explosives by the demolition experts of the 813th Pionierkompanie? On August 25, 1944, as Paris was liberated, Hitler asked, “Is Paris burning?”
- [Toni Morrison (1931 – 2019)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/toni-morrison-1931-2019/) - The timing of Toni Morrison’s death is not without some irony – just days after a gun massacre in Texas that was all about race. She had a clear take on that subject: “What are you without racism? Are you any good? Are you still strong? Are you still smart? You still like yourself? If you can only be tall because somebody is on their knees, then you have a serious problem. And my feeling is white people have a very, very serious problem, and they should start thinking about what they can do about it.”
- [The Stories of John Cheever](https://headbutler.com/reviews/john-cheever/) - Proof that the sand really does go more quickly the closer you get to the bottom of the hourglass is the date of my New York Times Magazine profile of John Cheever. Seems like just a few years ago that his collected stories were published and I set out to write about him. But it was 1979. When I interviewed Cheever, he was a youthful, wiry 67. But we recently marked what would have been his hundredth birthday. Of the many profiles I've written, why is my Cheever piece still so vivid for me? The answer has less to do with the man than with his work. That summer, I'd rented a cheap house in Southampton. In the mornings, I sat in the yard and read Cheever. In the afternoons, I read him on the beach. It took a week to polish off the 700 pages of his stories. I followed that delicious, once-in-a-lifetime experience with an afternoon at Cheever's house in Westchester. He liked to bicycle each morning, so we saddled up and rode around his neighborhood (“Peter Frampton lives there”), and then, over iced tea, we sat and talked on the porch. Cheever gave good interview (“What did I learn from Ernest Hemingway? Not to put a shotgun in my mouth”). Not surprising; some writers are great talkers. Cheever had another reason to be extravagantly quotable --- he was afraid I'd learn that he was bi-sexual and include that in my piece. In 1979, that would have been a career-ender for a literary titan of Cheever's generation. Cheever need not have worried. I suspected nothing and heard no gossip --- I was too busy being dazzled by his stories. “The American Chekhov,” the shorthand had it. Yes, in the sense that Cheever, like Chekhov, could take even the smallest moment and turn it into material. But that description seemed unhelpful, because Cheever was so completely American --- so completely New England, really. Cheever wrote many of these stories in the storage room of his New York apartment. In the morning, he'd dress as if he were going to an office, but he rode the elevator down to the basement, where he'd hang up his suit pants and start writing. Some days he'd get all the way to the end of a story; every night, he'd kill a bottle of liquor. Ah, the 1950s.... There are Cheever stories you've probably read in school: “The Swimmer” and “The Enormous Radio." [To read "The Swimmer," click here. To hear Cheever read "The Swimmer," click here.] There are stories --- like “The Hartleys” --- that you wouldn't have loved when you were younger but are oh-so-meaningful now. And there are stories that will make you feel as if you're reading about the characters in "Mad Men." [To buy “The Stories of John Cheever” from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] If you want to audition Cheever, seek out the first story in the book: “Goodbye, My Brother”. It's about a WASP family with one of those big houses on the bluffs of Nantucket. The family's three grown sons, a daughter, a mother, various spouses and kids have assembled for a late-summer vacation. Swimming, drinking, family dinners, club dances, game nights at home: This reunion should look like a Ralph Lauren commercial. Why it doesn't: Lawrence --- the youngest brother, the one who “looks like a Puritan cleric” --- has arrived. We all know people like Lawrence, people who try “to spoil every pleasure.” We endure them because we don't see much of them. But to share a house with Lawrence, to have your two weeks of vacation darkened by his omnipresent scowl --- it drives the narrator, an otherwise mild-mannered high school teacher, to spill the blood of his blood. Lawrence departs in a huff on a gorgeous late-summer morning --- not that, from the ferry, he'd see its beauty. And the narrator? The ending of his relationship with his brother is inspiration for a final look at much more than a family drama. Here's the last paragraph: Oh, what can you do with a man like that? What can you do? How can you dissuade his eyes in a crowd from seeking out the cheek with acne, the infirm hand; how can you teach him to respond to the inestimable greatness of the race, the harsh surface beauty of life; how can you put his finger for him on the obdurate truths before which fear and horror are powerless? The sea that morning was iridescent and dark. My wife and my sister were swimming -- Diana and Helen -- and I saw their uncovered heads, black and gold in the dark water. I saw them come out and I saw that they were naked, unshy, beautiful and full of grace, and I watched the naked women walk out of the sea. I ask you: Is not that one of the most beautiful pieces of writing you've ever read?
- [The Art of Racing in the Rain](https://headbutler.com/reviews/art-racing-rain/) - "When a dog is finished living his lifetimes as a dog, his next incarnation will be as a man." Not all dogs. Only those who are ready. Enzo, a shepherd-poodle-terrier mix, is ready
- [Bettyville](https://headbutler.com/reviews/8479/) - George Hodgman died on July 20, 2019. When George Hodgman was a boy, he and his mother ended the day holding hands and praying. Not just for themselves, but for all the people in their tiny Missouri town. “We made our way from one street to the next, we asked for help for those suffering
- [The Story Of My Life: The Autobiography of Helen Keller](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-story-of-my-life-the-autobiography-of-helen-keller/) - Helen Keller examined one stone after another and seemed pleased when she could decipher a name. Her attention was drawn to a marble slab with the name ‘Florence’ in relief. She dropped upon the ground as though looking for something, then turned to me with a face full of trouble and asked, ‘Where is poor little Florence?’
- [Come to the Edge](https://headbutler.com/reviews/come-edge/) - The longtime girlfriend of John F. Kennedy, Jr. --- a woman he should have married, and didn’t --- writes a book about their long friendship, glorious romance and fraught break-up.
- [Bryan Ferry](https://headbutler.com/reviews/bryan-ferry/) - Bryan Ferry was born in 1945. He started dressing like Cary Grant in the early 1970s. Jerry Hall dumped him for Mick Jagger in 1977. Avalon appeared in 1982. "Boys and Girls" came four years later. Since then, it's been grim. CDs of songs by others, with embarrassing covers of Bob Dylan. Now fodder for British journalism mostly as a fashion icon and as a celebrity who dates a woman thirty years his junior. For most people: about as relevant as Flock of Seagulls. But I find myself listening to "Boys and Girls" often because Bryan Ferry was, simply, one of the greatest filmmakers ever to become a rock star. And his songs, individually and collectively, are like travelogues that take you to a place you've always wanted to go. [To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.] That place is love. Not “My wife is my best friend” love. More like lust and longing so intense it redlines into love. Obsessive love. Love on two bottles of Krug and maybe a puff of Mendocino's best. Love that jets you out of this vale of struggle and anxiety into elegance and glory. Love that makes you, as one of his songs has it, a “slave” to love, love for which you'll pay any price: Tell her I´ll be waiting In the usual place With the tired and weary There´s no escape To need a woman You´ve got to know How the strong get weak And the rich get poor In his prime, Ferry was tall and Bowie-thin, with a forelock of black hair that hung just so. He performed in black suits and white shirts; sometimes he wore a dinner jacket. He didn't move much, never broke a sweat. An English decorator said of him that he was more likely to redecorate a hotel room than to trash it. Exactly. Music is what he heard. Or saw. Words came harder, which is one reason there were big spaces between records. But texture was another reason; these songs are layers upon layers. In one song, he starts with clip-clop drums, plucked guitars, a distant organ, a wail of a sax --- instruments tiptoe in and out. And over that, his lovesick tenor: Oh baby do it again and again I can hear nothing Windswept is the sand Oh baby show me more I can see nothing Windswept is the shore And there you are, on the moonlit beach. You may regret it in the morning, but for right now, you want more, you must have more. From “Don't Stop the Dance”: Mama says love is all that matters Beauty should be deeper than the skin Living for the moment, lips and lashes Will I ever find my way again No one has a name, no one has a past, no one has a problem. And no one has a question about any of it. What do you find on the street tonight? Nothing It's a river of no return Diamonds they're your only friend tonight Break the mirror and bang the drum Let's be cool about it Oh we're cool about it now Stone woman --- the pain is gone And the pleasure is yet to come “Cool about it” is Bryan Ferry in three words. Cool like the most handsome man at the party, sitting in the corner, just watching and waiting for the moment to come to him. Cool like the tall beauty, the one you think must be a model, but is actually so much more. Cool like you becoming that gorgeous, cool like the best dream you ever had of yourself. Cool like the magic you and your partner might find via this movie music. Cool like this super-produced CD. I mean: just totally cool.
- [I Am Awake](https://headbutler.com/reviews/i-am-awake/) - Norman Mailer said you don’t really know a woman “until you meet her in court.” I might add, “Or until she sends you her book.” With Fern Nesson, the question requires another: Which book? Because there are many Fern Nessons. The Fern Nesson I met a few years ago is the wife of Charles Nesson, the mega-talented Harvard Law professor. That alone told me she’s much more than arm candy. How much more, I’d learn only recently. Fern Nesson, it turns out, graduated from Barnard, applied to Harvard Law on a whim, won admission instantly. After a triumphant sprint through law school, she moved back to New York to clerk for a U.S. District Court judge and become a civil rights lawyer. Charles Nesson remained at Harvard. An unthinkable distance --- in 1972, she returned to Cambridge and married him. The second Fern Nesson --- the lawyer --- endured a "white shoe" law firm for an interminable eighteen months before moving on to work for Marian Edelman at the Children's Defense Fund. The third Fern Nesson was the mother of two daughters, a voracious reader, a killer tennis player. The fourth Fern Nesson was a Ph.D. candidate in American History at Brandeis. Her department sent her master's thesis to the University Press of New England; the publisher promptly sent her a contract, and “Great Waters: A History of Boston's Water Supply” was published in 1981. The fifth Fern Nesson was an assistant district attorney doing first degree murder appeals for the Middlesex County District Attorney. She turned 40. After “some intense thinking about my future,” she quit her job and --- as the sixth Fern Nesson ---began writing a novel, “Harmonic Convergence.” The seventh Fern Nesson, recalling her childhood ambition, got her Masters degree and, for eight years, taught American History and Eastern Religions at the Cambridge School of Weston. At 50, the eighth Fern Nesson, seeking a tough challenge, began to study Math at Harvard. Three years as a math teacher at Boston’s Commonwealth School followed, then a few years teaching Medieval History. Two years ago, she added another role: Director of College Counseling. As I opened I Am Awake, I got it --- this book is authored by the many-lived Fern Nesson. It’s everything she’s learned, everything she’s read, everything she can draw with a Japanese brush or paint with watercolors, everything she can photograph. As the distillation of a rich, textured, privileged life, it’s a centering device, a meditation-starter --- for the author and reader alike. “Reader” may be too strong. You turn pages, quickly at first. Here’s Chuang Tzu --- “You will find the answer in the sound of water” --- with a lovely photo of water and sky on the facing page. Pema Chodron’s “Say yes to life. Soften and open” is paired with a photo of hydrangeas. “Make love with light,” from John Daido Loori, is matched with a delicate watercolor. Pretty, you think. Very. But to what point? Then, as you keep turning pages, your pace slows --- the book tunes you. The words, though profound, seem less heavy; the images are less like art. On the next to the last page, Nesson quotes herself: “All my life has prepared me for this very moment.” Ah. Aha. And on the final spread, the reveal --- a story: A man asked Buddha: “Are you are celestial being or a god?” “No.” “Are you a magician or a wizard?” “No.” “Are you a man?” “No.” “Well then, my friend, what are you?” “I am awake.” That’s the pinnacle, yes? It seems typical of Fern Nesson, after all her learning and teaching, after all the high-powered conversations and famous friends, that she has the greatest possible ambition. “I Am Awake” --- expensive, self-published in a preliminary private run of 50 --- might sit on a coffee table. But it’s the furthest thing from a coffee table book. To buy “I Am Awake” --- or to see the first 15 pages --- click here.
- [Vegetable Harvest:   Vegetables at the Center of the Plate](https://headbutler.com/reviews/vegetable-harvest-vegetables-center-plate/) - Timing is everything. Patricia Wells, an American living in Paris, started her cookbook series in the traditional way --- with a book about bistros. She moved up the food chain to fine Paris restaurants, then wandered south to Provence and the Trattoria cooking of Italy. And now this book on vegetables. Perfect timing. American cooks ---and eaters --- have come to understand what the French always knew: The way to slimness is portion size. That is, smaller helpings of fatty protein, larger servings of vegetables. This is also the way to health. If you've read anything about food inspection and food safety, you know you're taking a chance every time you shop at the supermarket. They say you'd never eat sausage if you saw how it's made; ditto for most beef, chicken or pork. The secret --- saieth my wife, the one-time food professional --- is to spend more money to buy smaller quantities of the highest-quality meat and poultry. How do you fill your plate and satisfy your hunger? With vegetables, which are, at their worst, much less toxic than run-of-the-mill supermarket meat and poultry. “Vegetable Harvest” establishes Patricia Wells as Julia Child for the new millennium. She's not a frothing New Ager, telling you to heap your plate with vegetables because meat is sinful --- she's just a close observer of traditional French cooking. That is, meat/fish/poultry prominent on the plate, just cooked with vegetables or surrounded by them. To that good sense, she's added some welcome information: nutritional data about the dish --- Tomato and Strawberry Gazpacho (below) is 27 calories per serving, with 1 gram of protein and 6 grams of carbohydrates, and a suggestion of a smart wine. And she's not above serving up the odd fact about her subjects (did you know that, in the 16th century, Europeans considered the tomato as an aphrodisiac?). “Vegetable Harvest” is an encyclopedia of recipes --- it's 300 pages, with almost no commentary. Most are simple, requiring few exotic ingredients or advanced techniques. I'm particularly excited about the soups, but judging from the recipes I've tried and the pages I've turned down, there's a lot here to love in every category. And I certainly look forward to loving the healthier, trimmer me. I'll come closer to that goal with recipes like these: TOMATO AND STRAWBERRY GAZPACHO Serves 8 1 pound fresh tomatoes, NOT peeled, but rinsed, cored and quartered 1 pound fresh strawberries, rinsed and stemmed 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar In a food processor or blender, puree tomatoes and strawberries. Add vinegar and blend. Taste for seasoning. Chill thoroughly. Serve in small, clear glasses. ASPARAGUS BRAISED WITH FRESH ROSEMARY AND BAY LEAVES Serves 4 16 plump spears white or green asparagus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt several sprigs fresh rosemary several bay leaves, preferably fresh Rinse the asparagus and trim the rough ends. In a skillet large enough to hold all the asparagus in a single layer, combine the asparagus, oil, salt, rosemary and bay leaves. Sprinkle with several tablespoons of cold water. Cover. Cook over high heat until the oil-water mixture starts to sizzle. Reduce the heat to medium and braise the asparagus, turning from time to time, just until the asparagus starts to brown in spots --- 8 to 10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the asparagus. Serve immediately.
- [Philip Roth: Goodbye, Columbus](https://headbutler.com/reviews/goodbye-columbus/) - In 140 pages, the story gets resolved as we know it must. And more, it points to a future that Roth could barely imagine and that we know all about: the evolution of Neil into other first-person narrators who explore religion and status and striving in a remarkable body of work. Philip Roth was 26 when he published Goodbye, Columbus. A great achievement at any point in a writer's career, but as a first effort, at that tender age,and then to fill the rest of the book with five accomplished short stories...
- [Levels of the Game](https://headbutler.com/reviews/levels-game/) - Many tennis buffs think this is the best book ever written about the sport. Despite the fact that I once spent a week at a tennis camp, researching a magazine story, and, 8,000 balls later, I emerged --- an even weaker player --- I agree. And I am in love with any sport that has inspired Tretorn and Stan Smith sneakers, which I find far so much more elegant than Nikes that I consider them dress shoes. Levels of the Game is, on the surface, an account of a single match between Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner in the semifinals at the U.S. Open in Forest Hills. But as the title suggests, a game --- any game, at any degree of competition --- is not just about competence. How you play is a revelation of character; how you play is who you are. It's on all the other levels that this is a great book --- one of the greatest you may ever read, period. First, because of the subject. Arthur Ashe was not the Jackie Robinson of tennis; when he emerged in the 1960s, he was the only African-American player of note in America. Clark Graebner was a dentist's son and a ringer for Clark Kent. As it happened, Ashe and Graebner were both best-of-breed. It's not inaccurate to say that they were friends. But you can't miss the notion that they are also archetypes: privileged white kid from Ohio vs. against-all-odds black kid from Virginia. In a mere 146 pages, John McPhee --- you know his byline from a zillion profiles in The New Yorker, many of them mesmerizing, some beyond dull, but all meticulously reported and more carved than written --- has pulled off a literary coup. He has written an account of the match that's thrilling sports reporting. After, he clearly interviewed Ashe and Graebner at length, for he recreates what they were thinking and feeling at every key point in the match. And then he goes still deeper, talking to parents and wives, coaches and mentors, so he can deliver acute biographies of each player and a revelatory portrait of a sport --- and a nation --- in transition. A mediocre writer would construct this book with long passages in italics. Or chapters that pull us out of the match and take us back to Virginia or Ohio. Well, you don't write a book called “Levels of the Game” without being aware of the levels of your craft --- and knowing that, when you settle yourself at the keyboard, you can play at a championship level. Which is not to say that the book reads like “great writing”. Just the opposite. It reads like great storytelling. There are no flights of language. It's just great reporting. And then, for a paragraph or a page, the telling of a story that takes place far from Forest Hills that helps to explain why Ashe or Graebner are playing a certain way or having certain thoughts about their match. The biographical, historical and psychological passages are surprising. And thrilling --- you will be amazed at what Ashe had to overcome, and who helped, and how it worked out. And the same for Graebner, though, of course, the challenges are considerably smaller. But what's most exhilarating is when the strands merge, and you're both in the match and inside the players' heads. Like this: Now the thought crosses Graebner's mind that Ashe has not missed a service return in this game. The thought unnerves him a little. He hits a big one four feet too deep, then bloops his second serve with terrible placement right into the center of the service court. He now becomes the mouse, Ashe the cat. With soft, perfectly placed shots, Ashe jerks him around the forecourt, then closes off the point with a shot to remember. It is a forehand, with top spin, sent cross court so lightly that the ball appears to be flung rather than hit. Its angle to the net is less than ten degrees --- a difficult brilliant stroke, and Ashe hit it with such nonchalance that he appeared to be thinking of something else. Graebner feels the implications of this. Ashe is now obviously loose. Loose equals dangerous. When a player is loose, he serves and volleys at his best level. His general shotmaking ability is optimum. He will try anything. 'Look at the way he hit that ball, gave it the casual play,' Graebner says to himself. 'Instead of trying a silly shot and missing it, he tries the silly shot and makes it.' Notice what's missing: the construction “he thought”. McPhee has no need to step back from the moment and use that writerly qualification. He knows what Graebner thinks --- he's writing from authority. And so every word can drive the narrative forward. The writing has the power and velocity of the game it describes. Everyone who likes tennis even a little will savor and learn from this book. But even more, anyone who likes good writing --- or aspires to write well --- should clutch “Levels of the Game” like a lifeline. The way you learn to write, after all, is to read great writing and imitate it until you break through to a style of your own. If that's your game, start here. To buy “Levels of the Game” from Amazon.com, click here.
- [Ruth Reichl: Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir](https://headbutler.com/reviews/ruth-reichl-save-me-the-plums-my-gourmet-memoir/) - “Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir” is --- I’m not doing to say “dishy,” I’m not going to say “delicious” --- an important book about media disguised as a memoir with recipes. It’s 288 pages. It reads fast. The stories are sharp and memorable; as a bonus, they are as much about working with people and being a leader as they are about food. In crazy times, it’s a comfort.
- [Charles Reich (1928 - 2019): The Greening of America](https://headbutler.com/reviews/greening-america/) - The author of "The Greening of America" got a big obituary in the New York Times, but I can assure you: he may be the most forgotten author of one of the biggest best sellers of the 1970s. A friend suggested that Reich's book was a prescient analysis of the corporate state and an idealistic vision of a way out. I hadn't read it. I looked for it on Amazon, and was stunned to learn it was out of print, with only used copies for sale. I bought it, read it, saw the charm and innocence of his vision, and decided to publish it as a Head Butler book. Not at a wearying 125,000 words --- I cut it to a more reader-friendly 25,000. Reich wrote a new introduction and a final chapter, and in 2012, it made a second debut.
- [Life Is Meals: A Food Lover's Book of Days](https://headbutler.com/reviews/life-meals-food-lovers-book-days/) - This book is a record of the Salters' lifelong interest in food. When they name-drop, it's more often the name of a long-dead French chef than a celebrated friend. But they're not snobs. When they share a recipe, it's usually for a dish that's already an old favorite of yours: Gratin dauphinoise. Risotto. French chicken. Chili. Cucumber soup. Their household cookbook is handwritten. Their book of days is casual: a personal anecdote here, a recipe there, a memory following.
- [Keith Jarrett: The Koln Concert](https://headbutler.com/reviews/koln-concert/) - 'The Koln Concerto' is a great relief from the music of its period. Jarrett recorded it when 'fusion' was all the rage. That loud, aggressive jazz-rock has its fans, but I am not among them. In contrast, I find 'The Koln Concerto' refreshingly quiet and lyrical. And subtle. It touches all the tender places, but it keeps veering toward optimism and radiance. For that reason alone, it works as dinner music and 9 PM 'deep thought' music and late-at-night, go-to-bed music
- [Buddy Guy: A Man and the Blues](https://headbutler.com/reviews/man-and-blues/) - His music is hot and sexy, cool and elegant, the soundtrack for a hard life dotted with moments of radiance --- no wonder women set bottles of liquor, like holy offerings, in front of his amplifier. Eric Clapton called him the "greatest blues guitarist ever." On his first trip to England, Rod Stewart volunteered to be his valet. Jimi Hendrix said of him, “Heaven is lying at his feet while listening to him play guitar.” The musician that these giants raved about --- and women adored --- is less famous than he ought to be. Second-rate talents with decent marketing and a bit of luck are famous, at least for a while --- if Buddy Guy is among the greats, why can't we name any of his hits? In part, because Buddy Guy is the king of Chicago blues, a genre at once rough and tender, down-home and ultra-knowing, and, at its core, black as the skin of the darkest field hand in Mississippi --- and thus not of interest to the mass audience until some skinny white guy is stroking that Fender six-string Stratocaster. And, in part, because Guy and his producers botched his career. He came to Chicago from Louisiana: "I was so far out in the country, man. We didn't have running water, no electric lights, no radio, and I didn't know nothing about no electric guitar. We used to get the catalogs, like from Sears, and that's how our mother would order our clothes. Didn't have no stores there to buy clothes from." He started playing professionally in Baton Rouge, won a contest, headed north. In the early 1960s, when some of the best Chicago blues records were made, he was a session guitarist; anything fancy he played was mixed down. By the mid-l960s, Buddy Guy was Jimi Hendrix before there was a Hendrix; he would pick the guitar with his teeth and play it over his head. (One night Hendrix came, stood in the front row and taped Guy's performance so he could go to school on it.) At the same time, Buddy Guy was Clapton before there was a Clapton. In fact, the young British bluesman got the idea for Cream as a power trio from Buddy Guy. And as for Cream's music, well.... "You know that Cream tune, ‘Strange Brew'?" Guy has recalled. "Eric and I were having a drink one day, and I said, ‘Man, that Strange Brew… you just cracked me up with that note.' And he said ‘You should…'cause it's your licks.'" By the time anyone in Chicago understood or appreciated what Buddy Guy was playing, others had patented that sound. He made a few authentic Chicago records, then languished without a record contract for a decade. By the time of his third or fourth rediscovery, he was old enough to be a grandfather --- and by then, he had moved beyond pure blues to a kind of showmanship that upstaged the music. But there was a window --- a few years in the mid-l960s --- when Buddy Guy had it all: a powerful set of songs, masterful compatriots, a willing record label. You can hear him in those glory days as the wingman for Junior Wells in that harmonica player's electrifying and flawless Hoodoo Man Blues. (For contractual reasons, he's billed on early editions of that record as "Friendly Chap.") And then, in 1968, he made a debut record that is nothing less than a primer of Chicago blues. [To buy the CD of "A Man and the Blues from Amazon and get a free MP3 download, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.] On "A Man and the Blues," the music has been mixed so Buddy Guy is front and center, and he is never less than dazzling. He plays a single note and lets it hang until it drops out of hearing range. Or he'll rain notes down like bullets, a staccato assault on your ears. But he never plays anything just for show --- everything is in the service of the song. And he's backed by great musicians, especially Fred Below on drums and Otis Spann on piano. Here's a challenge: On slower songs, tune everyone else out and listen to what Spann and Below are playing. It may be blues, but it's as least as subtle as jazz. There are fast songs that get toes tapping and the heart pumping, especially the Motown hit "Money (That's What I Want)" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb." But it's the slow stuff that takes your breath away. "What can a man do/when the blues keep following him around?" he asks. "So many ways you can get the blues," he moans. He's sitting "a million miles from nowhere" in a shack by the cotton fields. But he's a man. And so he looks for a man's solution: "I'm gonna find me some kind of good woman/Even if she's dumb, deaf, crippled or blind." It's lonely, lonely stuff --- it's the very definition of the blues. "Give me a little piano now, Spann," he cries, and in comes a glissando as delicate as Chopin and twice as heartbreaking. Makes you want to reach for a cigarette and a whiskey, even if you don't smoke or drink. Don't feel sorry for Buddy Guy --- over the years, he's sold millions of records, won Grammys, achieved the status of a legend. One of the last, in fact; pushing 70, he's the sole survivor of the Chicago greats. No, the sorrow is for us; "A Man and the Blues" should have spawned a half dozen albums that would have given us a catalogue as rich as that of John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters. Before he left home, Buddy Guy's father told him, "Son, don't be the best in town. Just be the best until the best come around." But no one I can think of has ever come around with anything better than "A Man and the Blues."
- [Mariza](https://headbutler.com/reviews/mariza/) - In the winter of 1970, my writing partner and I left frigid Vermont to knock out a screenplay on the Mediterranean coast of Portugal. We found a village delightfully overlooked by tourists. And there we rented a house by the sea for $80 a month, with maid included. The living was good and the writing went well --- so well that, one Friday, we decided to take the day off. We had some tabs of LSD. Back then, my attitude was: Why not? So we took the acid and went out for a walk. The sun, the sea, the breeze --- you can imagine the intensity of the pleasure. We heard a brass band. Strange: the tune could only be described as “mournful.” And then --- just as the full force of the drug hit us --- a procession turned the corner: the band, followed by a few hundred local penitents, dressed in black, carrying a statue of the crucified Savior and a half dozen coffins. We hadn’t realized --- it was Good Friday. Think of a Fellini parade, but with a bleak, depressed cast. Consider a world of infinite physical beauty and the simple life we all allegedly crave, but drained of all hope this side of the grave. Picture a crowd dressed in black, well aware that theirs is a tragic fate but bearing their lot with dignity. That sense of a tragic destiny, of joy that falls just short of its target, of love that is always fated to fail --- all that is at the heart of Portuguese Catholicism, and, also of the Portuguese music called fado.
- [The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-womans-hour-the-great-fight-to-win-the-vote/) - In 1919, by the slimmest of margins --- one vote --- the Susan B. Anthony Amendment was approved by Congress. Now 36 states needed to approve the amendment so it could become law. 35 voted aye, 9 rejected it, 3 refused even to consider it. "If the Tennessee legislature ratified the Nineteenth Amendment," Elaine Weiss writes, "woman suffrage would become the law of the land and twenty-seven million women would be able to vote, just in time for the fall presidential elections; if the legislature rejected it, the amendment might never be enacted. It all came down to Tennessee."
- [The Four Just Men](https://headbutler.com/reviews/four-just-men/) - What if you could do something about unindicted criminals and about policies we know to be wrong but are in no danger of being criminalized? Impossible? Not if you’re one of the fictional characters known as the “Four Just Men." As Edgar Wallace tells it in his short novel, in the early years of the last century, this fearsome foursome --- George Manfred, Leon Gonsalez, Raymond Poiccart, and a man known simply as Thery --- assassinated the leader of the Servian Regicides, shot a “poet-philosopher” whose sick thinking corrupted a generation of young people, and hanged a leader of the French Army in the Place de la Concorde. Vigilantes? You can call them that. But they don’t act like hate-filled zealots. The Four Just Man are civilized. They advise their targets they are guilty of crimes. They tell their targets to reform. They alert their targets to the date of their death. They even give their targets a final warning --- delivered in person. As the author notes, "The honesty of the Four was their most terrible characteristic." Honesty --- how thrilling. [To read the book online for free, click here. To buy the paperback from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] Now the Four Just Men have a new target: Philip Ramon, the Foreign Secretary of Great Britain. He is a public servant of unquestioned integrity with a conscience in working order. And yet he is about to commit a crime. A legal crime. But a crime nonetheless: His proposed legislation --- The Alien Extradition Act of 1905 --- would send a great Spanish social reformer, currently directing his followers from a safe perch in England, back to Spain. Once there, the corrupt government would kill him. No reasonable Brit wants this to happen. But the Four Just Men are not like those of us who read the newspapers and bitch. Because they believe Sir Philip is a good man with a single blind spot, they have sent word to him: Drop the bill, or die. Naturally, almost every policeman in London is assigned to protect Sir Philip. The question is: Are they up to the task? Can they even identify the Four Just Men? Very quickly you will get past the moral question --- terrorists? vigilantes? heroes? --- and find yourself lost in the whodunnit. And the howtheydunnit. You may even find yourself rooting for The Four Just Men. How does it end? Glad you asked. Edgar Wallace held a contest when he published this novel, offering 500 pounds --- not a small sum in 1905 --- for the correct answers to some esoteric questions about the ending. Several readers guessed the answers. Wallace lost money. Or did he? For Wallace hyped 'The Four Just Men' as if it were a new flavor of Coca Cola. He took out full-page newspaper ads, put posters on subways and buses, even advertised in the movies. The publicity launched his career. And Wallace went on to become the most famous writer in the world. He was quick --- he could write a novel in a weekend. He was good. And he was prolific: 175 books, 24 plays and countless articles. The only title known to the contemporary reader? “King Kong.” Maybe you've heard of it. 'We kill for justice,' claim the Four Just Men. On that morally uncertain but dramatically delicious boast rests the second of Edgar Wallace's titles that the world should remember --- and relish. BONUS VIDEO “The Four Just Men” grew up to be a popular English television series. Here’s a promo:
- [The Weekend Story: "Dear Life" by Alice Munro](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-weekend-story-dear-life-by-alice-munro/) - Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize in 2013. Massive cheering followed, for Munro's stories are deep, intimate and concise --- they're compressed novels. Although she knows so much about her characters, she tells the core of their stories without "literary" frills. This story, "Dear Life," is also the title of her 2012 collection. It reads like fiction. Things happen in it that you believe must be fiction. In fact, it's the only piece of memoir she's ever written.
- [The Feelies](https://headbutler.com/reviews/feelies/) - Devices off. Full attention, please. We have come to pay homage to The Feelies. It’s safe to say very few of you know them. Well, that’s almost by design. This band formed in suburban New Jersey in 1976. In the ‘80s, they released --- very quietly --- four records, each causing modest swooning. By 1988, when they put out “Only Life,” savvy critics were calling them “the best underrated band in America.” [To buy “Only Life” from Amazon, click here.] And then they went on hiatus. For 19 years. Now, with “Here Before,” they’re back. [To buy the CD, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.] Already certain ideas are occurring to you. Those titles --- could they be more laconic, more ironic? That subterranean status --- could it have been what the band wanted? Detached excellence --- could that have been their point? These are the opening lines of the new CD, from a song called --- two words again --- “Nobody Knows.” Is it too late to do it again? Or should we wait another ten? To pose that question is delicious arrogance, isn’t it? But self-assurance is a given in Feelieland. These are supremely confident nerds of the art school breed: mostly tall, skinny, bespectacled, with a seriously talented female bass player who joined the band long before that move was chic. Stage presence? Casual. In the extreme. At one of their rare --- thus: historic --- concerts, when they crank the tempo and build to something like a rave, they have been known to jerk around, sometimes bouncing, even jumping. Smiles? Banter? Never happened. So it’s really all about the music, isn’t it? Here it gets thorny, because words turn into salad here. The Feelies influenced R.E.M. and were influenced by Lou Reed, but they’re far more subtle and sophisticated than either. And even that’s not quite accurate, because their music seems so simple --- it’s built on three guitars. There are two drummers, but it’s not as if they’re loud. What, then, is the big deal? The big deal is punk meets J.J. Cale meets The Byrds meets the Thirteen Floor Elevators meets Indian raga meets surf music meets the Velvet Underground. Country western dance band. Movie soundtrack rock and roll….when the general mood of the movie is urban and cool and observant, smart without being ambitious But let me stop reaching. Let’s just listen. We’ll start with “It’s Only Life,” the title track of the CD that converted me: Let’s go live, to a rare performance video…. See --- I mean: hear --- what I mean? Why I’m crazy for The Feelies. And why I’m hopeful for your life once you have them near. Instant heavy rotation is the least of it. You will, I predict, press them on friends. Give them as presents. Play them at parties. (Caution: Dancing may break out.) Hum the melodies on the street. The only question: Which CD to buy? You might start with “Only Life.” And then again, if you buy one, you’ll end up buying the other. Because, really, once you let this stuff into your head, you’re hooked. Proof that not all addiction is bad. BONUS VIDEO
- [Automatic Vacuum Sealing Machine (Cryovac)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/automatic-vacuum-sealing-machine-cryovac/) - I knew of vacuum sealing devices, but I assumed they were expansive and complicated, used mainly by cooks partial to sous vide and, of course, weed dealers. Imagine my surprise when I found a simple one that costs just $29. I bought it. Went shopping. And spent a happy 15 minutes filling the freezer compartment. I felt like a pioneer woman making enough plum preserves to last the winter.
- [Isaac Mizrahi: I.M., A Memoir](https://headbutler.com/reviews/isaac-mizrahi-im-a-memoir/) - There is plenty to cheer in Mizrahi’s memoir, “IM.” If you like the story of a gay kid who has his mother’s support and encouragement --- backstage at that show, as Mizrahi’s mother beamed, I stood with Marc Jacobs, who said, tellingly, “My mother never comes to my shows” --- here you go. If you like a fashion success story, there’s plenty for you here. And if you like a story of a midlife coming to terms, “IM” has that too.
- [Mother's Day, 2019](https://headbutler.com/reviews/mothers-day-2019/) - In socio-political terms, Mother's Day is a loathsome, regressive holiday --- it's how we "thank" mom for a year of free labor. But set that aside. As long as we're locked into this holiday, let's make it meaningful. Like, perhaps, with these gifts
- [Eddie Izzard](https://headbutler.com/reviews/dress-kill/) - Eddie Izzard's shows seem random, a set of associations particular to that time and place. You get the sense that you are seeing material no other audience will ever be exposed to, and, to an extent, that is true. But the randomness is also a brilliant trick --- it's how Eddie brings you inside his head, the better to watch his synapses flash.
- [Annie Ernaux: The Years](https://headbutler.com/reviews/annie-ernaux-the-years/) - I don’t know what to call “The Years” --- history? memoir? --- but I do know it’s the best book I’ve read this year. For me, that means the writer is in my head --- I can connect to the characters, I find their thoughts and actions credible, and more, their thoughts and actions resonate with my life experience.
- [Al Green: He Is the Light](https://headbutler.com/reviews/he-light/) - What does "He Is the Light" sound like? Very much like Green's greatest hits. These songs are version of gospel: sexy music with God as the love object. But even more, they're Willie Mitchell's creative triumph --- they're dominated by a beat that invites you to make a special kind of march to God.
- [Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee](https://headbutler.com/reviews/furious-hours-murder-fraud-and-the-last-trial-of-harper-lee/) - There was a book about a murder in Alabama that Harper Lee wanted to write, and couldn’t. And a book about herself that the obsessively private Harper Lee wouldn’t have dreamed of writing. Casey Cep has written both. In 275 pages. Hats off to her.
- [Patti Smith: Just Kids](https://headbutler.com/reviews/just-kids/) - Who doesn't love to read about the struggling years of people who become great successes? This is among the best of that breed --- the story of a woman with a pure heart who willed herself to be an artist and a man who loved art with the same intensity but with a cool eye for the ways it could launch him into money, fame, Society.
- [David C. Taylor: Night Watch](https://headbutler.com/reviews/911-whereof-one-cannot-speak-thereof-one-must-be-silent-0/) - It seems to be an unwritten law for writers with web sites and members of the Bloviating Class that something must be said about 9/11. I have thought about this, and I’m sorry. I can’t. I just can’t. It’s not a matter of personal loss, for I lost no one that day. It’s not a matter of personal trauma, for I spent much of that day in an office far from the World Trade Center as the host of an AOL chat room. My resistance is about privacy. In Victorian England, when there was a death, the street where the mourners lived was covered in straw, so the horses’ hooves didn’t disturb those who were grieving; in the forest, when an animal is sick, it goes off and hides until it’s healed. That’s how I feel about 9/11. Out there in America, you may genuinely grieve, but you cannot know --- and we cannot tell you --- how it is for us in New York. What we saw, what we did, how we felt --- these are our wounds. Do we heal? Is there --- that awful word --- closure? I think not. Neither does Michael Oreskes, Senior Managing Editor of The Associated Press, who has written that these wounds are permanent for New Yorkers. Before I came to feel this way, I did two pieces that may be of interest. One is an appreciation of Aftermath, Joel Meyerowitz’s fine book of the photographs he made at Ground Zero. (HuffingtonPost has republished this piece, with a much bigger slideshow.) The other is my account of what it was like to work at AOL that September. I used to stand with Ludwig Wittgenstein: “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.” But when words fail, there’s music. If you’re near a church or concert hall this weekend, there are some symphonies you can’t avoid. Very unlikely that you’ll hear Gustav Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, the “Resurrection.” Leonard Bernstein revered Mahler. Conducting his music, he became Mahler. And in that transformation, he took an orchestra and chorus to the place where I’m trying to get my feelings about 9/11 to go --- transcendence. Because, really, what else is there to aspire to? Or, perhaps, this....
- [The Weekend Movie: Long Shot](https://headbutler.com/reviews/watching-dark/) - I tend to go to foreign films, the longer and more lugubrious the better, but last weekend I saw a really funny American movie. Would you believe: A rom-con. Here's the pairing: Fred Flarsky (Seth Rogen) is a crusading journalist from Brooklyn. Charlotte Field (Charlize Theron) is the Secretary of State. He gets hired to
- [Night Watch](https://headbutler.com/reviews/les-choiristes/) - The story begins simply enough. Magda and Karl Brandt --- in Germany, he’d been von Brandt,” but he had dropped the von in deference to the democratic spirit of the country in which they now lived” --- are walking through Central Park after dinner. A hot dog vendor, a Jew who survived the Nazis, sees them. He thinks they remember him. He’s not wrong. They kill him. Cassidy follows up. Soon there’s a man trying to kill him
- [The War on Drugs: "A Deeper Understanding"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-war-on-drugs-a-deeper-understanding/) - I’m not the only one who thinks the songs on “A Deeper Understanding” are as sublime as rock gets. The CD has sold a ton. It won a Grammy. For all its intensity, it delivers joy --- the joy you recognize when someone has done something hard, and succeeded. You can even move to it. If you buy one CD this season in a category once called “rock,” this is it.
- [The Diamond Necklace](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-diamond-necklace/) - Most days Guy de Maupassant is my favorite French writer, and Bel Ami is my favorite French novel. He apprenticed at the feet of Flaubert, and he learned his lesson: tell stories, unadorned. This is the one they make you read in school. Lucky students! The girl was one of those pretty and charming young
- [Mohsin Hamid: The Most Important Novelist Now Writing?](https://headbutler.com/reviews/mohsin-hamid-the-most-important-novelist-now-writing/) - I think Mohsin Hamid is the best --- that is, the most relevant --- novelist now writing. First, because Hamid understands that we live in a time of shortened attention spans, he writes short novels. Second, because his writing, which is often in the second person, is so intimate that you are tempted to think he has read your mind. Finally, because in book after book, he writes about the most urgent issue of our time. Refugees.
- [Nadja on Nadja](https://headbutler.com/reviews/nadja-on-nadja/) - Jean Rhys --- the author of the cult favorite, After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie --- died in 1979. But looking deep into the life of a troubled woman didn’t die with her --- unflinching novels about women who are self-destructive and doomed have become a sub-genre of women’s fiction. I haven’t read many of these books,
- [James Salter (1925-2015)](https://headbutler.com/reviews/james-salter/) - 32-year-old James Horowitz decided to end the life he knew --- career Air Force pilot, buttoned-up husband and father --- and become a writer. There was scant evidence he could succeed as a creator of stories and novels. But there was absolute certainty that he had to do it. As James Salter, he invented a distinctive style, built on the integrity of the sentence. To Hemingway’s muscularity he added feminized insight; the result was prose that was as deeply emotional as it was taut and exact.
- [Poker as Life: 101 Lessons from the World's Greatest Game](https://headbutler.com/reviews/poker-as-life-101-lessons-from-the-worlds-greatest-game/) - Lee Robert Schreiber's scary-smart book confirms my darkest fears. "Poker," he tells us, "is primarily about psychology, in which the perceptive, intuitive and observant student of human nature will usually be materially rewarded at the end of a session (or a month of sessions), while the psychologically dense or unexamined will remain cash, and insight, poor." Trust this man. (Well, not at a card table...) He put himself through college playing cards, and I'd be willing to bet it wasn't a community college. He has played at every level. He has read a book or three --- he quote philosophers with the same flair as he cites poker gurus --- and he can writing a charming sentence.
- [The Life of Milarepa](https://headbutler.com/reviews/life-milarepa/) - Every religion has saints who perform miracles and thus convince lesser believers of the rightness of their faith. Tibetan Buddhism is a particularly astringent discipline, fit only for the hardiest of souls --- meditating in caves in a cold climate at high altitude is not for wimps. So if you do not know the story of Tibet's greatest saint --- Milarepa (1052-1135) --- prepare to be amazed.
- [Audrey Hepburn said, "Paris is always a good idea." So....](https://headbutler.com/reviews/paris-in-the-spring/) - Here's one version of a perfect day in Paris: Have breakfast at the Marly. Be moved by a silent stroll through the "Deportation" memorial to the 200,000 French Jews taken in World War II. Lunch at the Rotisserie du Beaujolais. Lose all sense of time at a classical music concert in the little church by
- [David Mamet: How to tell a story](https://headbutler.com/reviews/david-mamet-how-to-tell-a-story/) - Start, every time, with this inviolable rule: the scene must be dramatic. It must start because the hero has a problem, and it must culminate with the hero finding him or herself either thwarted or educated that another way exists
- [First: Sandra Day O'Connor](https://headbutler.com/reviews/first-sandra-day-oconnor/) - Sandra Day O’Connor’s life and career is a Rubik’s Cube. As Evan Thomas describes her in “First,” she has many facets: cowgirl, rancher, lawyer, wife, mother of three, legislator, state court judge --- and the first female Supreme Court Justice. Everyone who reads this biography will have a different perspective, whether lawyer or not.
- [Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet](https://headbutler.com/reviews/sky-burial-epic-love-story-tibet/) - Wen and her future husband, Kejun, were Chinese medical students in the mid 1950s. They married when they graduated. Wen was 26. Kejun was 29. They were blissfully happy. Three months after they were married, Kejun was sent to Tibet with the Chinese Army. Soon afterward, Wen received notice that he had "died in an incident." Impossible, she thought. He’s not dead. And if he is, I cannot leave him in Tibet. And so she set off on an impossible mission: to reclaim her present, her future, her one and only love.
- [T Bone Burnett: "The war of art and 'surveillance capitalism' --- think of this as a prayer that we become reunited with ourselves."](https://headbutler.com/reviews/t-bone-burnett-the-war-of-art-and-surveillance-capitalism-think-of-this-as-a-prayer-that-we-become-reunited-with-ourselves/) - I quote this all the time: "Art alone endures. The bust outlasts the throne." I used to hope it's true. Now I pray it is. Politicians who are wholly owned subsidiaries of business are, literally, killing the planet. And the Internet I once loved is, increasingly, a sewer. At SXSW, on March 19, 2019, T Bone Burnett addressed one part of those disasters: the horror that Google and Facebook have become --- and the bigger horror they have in mind of us.
- [The Essential Marcus Aurelius](https://headbutler.com/reviews/essential-marcus-aurelius/) - Marcus Aurelius was not the first to see the world as a play in which the characters chase after shadows, forget they are the leading actors of their own dramas and discover too late --- if at all --- that they have wasted their lives. And he was not the first to know what to do about it. But he was blunt and brief and non-judgmental, and the combination makes him stand out from other philosophers. Almost 2,000 years after his death, you can read him as if he published his book last week.
- [Josh Ritter: Fever Breaks](https://headbutler.com/reviews/josh-ritter-fever-breaks/) - A Josh Ritter CD. Produced by Jason Isbell. With the 400 Unit as the recording band. If these names mean anything to you, this is terrific news.
- [J.D. Salinger](https://headbutler.com/reviews/jd-salinger/) - "The greatest mind ever to stay in prep school." So said Norman mailer. I say different.
- [Peter Tosh](https://headbutler.com/reviews/peter-tosh/) - When Peter Tosh sang “Get Up, Stand Up” --- you think of it as a Bob Marley song, but Tosh and Marley wrote it together --- that was something to see. Literally, because Tosh stood six feet five inches, and he stood straight and proud. Proud and angry. Bob Marley jogged in place as he
- [Lee Bailey](https://headbutler.com/reviews/lee-bailey/) - Before there was Martha Stewart, there was Lee Bailey. He started small. A shop. Then a department at Henri Bendel. Then books. Very successful books --- “Lee Bailey’s Country Weekends” won the Tastemaker Award for Best Cookbook in 1983 and has sold more than 150,000 copies in hardcover.
- [Graham Greene: The Quiet American](https://headbutler.com/reviews/graham-greene/) - I recently re-reread "The Quiet American" without regard to the politics. And this time I discovered an even better book --- a detective novel --- that is brilliantly plotted and written. For me, it's Graham Greene's best novel, and that's saying something, for Greene was probably the most gifted storyteller of the mid-20th century.
- [Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat](https://headbutler.com/reviews/radiant-child-the-story-of-young-artist-jean-michel-basquiat/) - What Javaka Steptoe has recorded in this book is the arc from dream to accomplishment. What ingredients are necessary for that to happen. Who needs to provide support. The price that gets paid. And who gets acknowledged at the pinnacle. This is a story of triumph.
- [Vigilate!  English polyphony in dangerous times](https://headbutler.com/reviews/vigilate-english-polyphony-in-dangerous-times/) - To “vigilate” is to monitor, watch over, or control. And that’s exactly what Catholic composers had to do in England during the reign of Elizabeth I. She had two resident Catholic composers in the Chapel Royal: William Byrd and Thomas Tallis. She admired their talent and liked them --- as long as they didn’t openly practice their religion. And, of course, as long as their music could be played in the Church of England. “Vigilate” is a collection of English Renaissance vocal church music --- that is, all voices, mostly singing in Latin, no instruments. Think of this as “underground” music: Catholic composers responding to political and religious pressure by not telegraphing their beliefs. They’re often described as “recusants,” secret Catholics.
- [Etekcity WiFi Smart Plug, Energy Monitoring Wireless Mini Remote Control Outlet with Timer](https://headbutler.com/reviews/etekcity-wifi-smart-plug-energy-monitoring-wireless-mini-remote-control-outlet-with-timer/) - My brother and I moved our 102-year-old mother into Assisted Living and bought her a brilliant tower lamp that, with a smart plug, could be controlled by Alexa. It turns out you don’t need Alexa. So says Preston Bealle, who is my guru in all things technological. As you may recall, it was Preston who
- [Music for the New Year](https://headbutler.com/reviews/music-for-the-new-year/) - So he's a crook and likely insane, and she's a liar, and then there's the heartless one, and the bought-and-paid-for one, and the know-nothing, and the outright fool --- after two years, is there anyone reading this who doesn't know the cast and the plot? We're now in the second or third act of this tragic farce, and because we're desperate to know how it ends, we tune in daily or hourly for the latest news. Some of our impulses are good (we're citizens, we feel it's our duty to be informed) and some are not (don't we all slow down to gawk at wrecked cars?). No matter the reason, this takes up too much headspace. The cure, I've found, is music. As McLuhan said, "You can't see around corners, but you can hear around them." And what I hear is the sound of an alternate future --- and of eternity. So, in the early morning, when it's quiet, I listen to a bunch of songs. Not all of them every day. And not always in this order. By the end, I've taken a tour of my emotional life, my heart is pumping, and I'm prepared -- or so I like to think --- to face the news of the world.
- [Peter Gabriel: "Solsbury Hill"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/peter-gabriel-solsbury-hill/) - On one level, it’s about walking away from a super group: the agonizing decision, the epiphany, the flight. It’s also, as Gabriel has said, “about being prepared to lose what you have for what you might get, or what you are for what you might be. It's about letting go."
- [Cat & Dog Page-A-Day Gallery Calendars](https://headbutler.com/reviews/cat-dog-page-a-day-gallery-calendars/) - There are a million pet calendars, but among the most loved, I have learned, are the pet-a-day calendars from Workman Publishers. I think I know why. On a monthly calendar, you get a dozen animals. With these, you get 365. To put it in 1950s American male terms, that’s like getting a new centerfold every day.
- [Winter Survival Tools: Skin Cream, Back Scratcher and the "Body Back Buddy"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/winter-survival-tools-skin-cream-back-scratcher-and-the-body-back-buddy/) - “Gotta get through January, gotta get through February.” That’s Van Morrison, who knows a thing or three about chilly weather, internally and emotionally. We’ve got a ton of that this month. When headline after headline reads like the plot line of a paranoid thriller,-- I get chills. And the weather! By day, you go out and wonder "Where is everybody?" At night, the streets and sidewalks are empty --- it’s just too cold. Can’t walk in the park. Have so much work --- thank you, God of work! --- that I find a daily reason not to go to the gym. Long days in warm, dry rooms and the briefest possible encounters with sunlight yield predictable results: dry skin, tight muscles, back and shoulder pain. And I bet I’m not the only one. So: cream.... a back scratcher... and a "Body Back Buddy."
- [Winter Wonderland: 4 movies, 5 books, 1 puzzle](https://headbutler.com/reviews/winter-wonderland/) - It’s an icebox. Over the weekend, you can watch football. You can follow the government shutdown. Or you could turn away from all that and feed and entertain that smart mind of yours.
- [The State of My Union: "I was so much older then/ I'm younger than that now."](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-state-of-my-union-i-was-so-much-older-then-im-younger-than-that-now/) - The President is delivering his State of the Union report. I’m not watching. It did occur to me that this would be a good time to present the state of my union. Not headline-making. But considerably more honest than the other guy’s. And mine actually grapples with an idea, maybe even an idea you’ve also been wrestling with.
- [Kazuo Ishiguro: "An Artist of the Floating World"](https://headbutler.com/reviews/kazuo-ishiguro-an-artist-of-the-floating-world/) - The Uber driver who took me from Krakow to Auschwitz a few years ago told me about a former classmate who had an unfair advantage. “In Nazi times, his grandfather robbed a Jewish family,” he said. “Today my classmate drives a Lexus and lives on his ‘family estate.’” Nearly 75 years had passed since that opportunistic grandpa benefited from the murder of his Jewish neighbors — and the matter was still real for my thirtysomething driver. This is exactly the never-ending post-war consciousness that Kazuo Ishiguro recreates brilliantly in “An Artist of the Floating World,” the 1986 novel that helped to bring him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. Ono, the novel’s sixty-something narrator, asks, in so many words, if it’s fair, in, say, 1948, to judge the way people behaved in 1942 — when their war-time conduct resulted in the suffering, even death, of innocent people.
- [Before the Oscars: 5 better 2018 films you can see at home right now](https://headbutler.com/reviews/before-the-oscars-5-better-2018-films-you-can-see-at-home-right-now/) - It’s not just that this is a blah Oscar field. For me, it’s that I saw several better films that either didn’t get nominated or, if they did, are destined to lose. Before or after the Oscars, you might consider watching them. Caution: It’s always annoying when you, excited by a film to the point of needing to talk about it and the only people you can talk to haven’t seen it and don’t want to.
- [Carole King & James Taylor: Live At The Troubadour](https://headbutler.com/reviews/carole-king-james-taylor-live-troubadour/) - These 15 songs, spread over 75 minutes, are impeccable --- the technology of recording, video and editing has advanced so dramatically that the early videos seem raw and awkward. Not that these performances are slick and cynical. What you get to see and hear is the intimacy of this relationship
- [The Gardener Says: Quotes, Quips, and Words of Wisdom](https://headbutler.com/reviews/the-gardener-says-quotes-quips-and-words-of-wisdom/) - The earth turns. The pages fall from the calendar. And the first amusing garden book arrives. This one is a host/hostess gift for the passionate planter in your life. It’s “The Gardener Says: Quotes, Quips, and Words of Wisdom. Assembled by Nina Pick, who has been collecting quotes since she was 4, it’s a pocket-sized anthology: 150 pages of deep thoughts and witty comments about gardening.
- [Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon -- and the Journey of a Generation](https://headbutler.com/reviews/girls-us/) - Anyone can use clips and rumor to write about the famous. Sheila Weller puts you in the room. Her methods are exhaustive journalism --- she's written six books, she's won prizes, she's the real deal --- and empathy. So the path from nowhere to immortality for King, Mitchell and Simon is an epic tale, and Weller's scope is vast --- to track "the journey of a generation." Only on the surface is this a book about music, and who makes it, and how, and why. The bigger subject, the better subject, is how women found their way in their professional and personal lives, 1960-now. So, for Weller, these stories are about “a course of self-discovery, change, and unhappy confrontation with the limits of change.
- [A Village Lost and Found: Scenes in Our Village](https://headbutler.com/reviews/village-lost-and-found-scenes-our-village/) - Buddy you’re a young man hard man Shoutin’ in the street gonna take on the world some day You got blood on yo’ face You big disgrace Wavin’ your banner all over the place Brian May wrote those lyrics for --- but of course you remember.... Thirty years ago, the young guitarist and songwriter dropped out of school to see if his college band, Queen, would go anywhere. Did it ever! The group made 15 albums, sold 300 million copies. Songs like “We Will Rock You” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” brought Queen to the height of British rock --- you won’t be mocked if you argue that this was the best English band of all time. And let’s not forget Freddie Mercury, the lead singer, lost to AIDs --- and still mourned by millions. When Queen quieted down, Brian May completed his academic work and earned a PhD. from Imperial College, London. (You can buy his thesis on Interplentary Dust, A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud.) As a mass communicator, he had an interest in a more direct explanation of the way things work, so he co-authored a book, Bang! The Complete History of the Universe. And now the versatile Dr. May has topped himself --- he’s taken a lifelong interest in stereoscopic photography and produced a picture-and-text book that is at once a historical chronicle and a work of art. A Village Lost and Found: Scenes in Our Village comes in a slipcase; in a separate folder, you get a 3-D viewer that May and his collaborator, Elena Vidal, created for this project. Where does a fascination like this come from? You guessed it --- May’s childhood. As a boy, he liked to let his eyes relax as he looked at the wallpaper in his room; eventually, it moved, popped, acquired dimensionality. Later, a cereal box contained a prize: a 3-D viewer. He started exploring three-dimensional art, making pairs of sketches with the central object of one frame set just slightly off-center. Voila! 3-D! At college, May was near enough to Christie’s to begin to build some expertise. He discovered the work of one “TRW”. To his great good fortune, learned that T.W. Williams was perhaps the most poetical photographer of the 1850s. Eventually, he rounded up a vast collection of these nearly forgotten images. What Williams had done, May realized, was to freeze a small village in a magical moment --- instead of reading about it in a novel by Thomas Hardy, you could almost literally visit it. That is, with the help of a viewer, you could feel yourself in the scene. And what a scene: a rural idyll, five minutes before the train come to town, and mass literacy, and industrialization. Where was this town? The images provided no clues. So May published a picture of the village church on his website and offered a prize to anyone who could identify it. Thirty-six hours later, he knew--- it was Hinton Waldist in Oxfordshire, the village where Williams had grown up. From there, he was able to document most of the photographs The book has about 80 scenes, some in color. Intelligently, the left hand page offers a large single image. On the right, you’ll find two panels of that image. Slip the page into the easy-to-assemble stereo viewer, let your eyes relax --- and enter a world that’s 150 years old. The images are gentle, but compelling. Here is a knife grinder chatting with a woman in the doorway of her cottage. A farmer loads a cart. A potato harvest at Dick Carter’s place. Martha and Daniel at the churn. Mrs. Giles at the water pump. Gleaners. Anglers. Brian May, in his scholar’s voice, talks with his collaborator about this one-of-a kind book. Note how he speaks of a “seminal genius” and “fresh launch” for a nearly forgotten artist. Very true. But for the reader/viewer, it’s something else, something that a rocker would, however great his erudition, understand --- it’s a trip.
- [Luck and Circumstance: A Coming of Age in Hollywood, New York, and Points Beyond](https://headbutler.com/reviews/luck-and-circumstance-coming-age-hollywood-new-york-and-points-beyond/) - Orson Welles? Or Michael Lindsay-Hogg? When I met Michael in l985, the possibility that he was the son of the genius who co-wrote, produced, directed and starred in “Citizen Kane” was of very minor interest to me. Nor --- though I was pretty much addicted to music --- did I care that he was among the pioneers of the rock video, making promo films for the Rolling Stones and The Beatles (he also directed their breaking-up film, “Let It Be”) or that he had just come off the triumph of the incendiary “Normal Heart” at the Public Theater. Only one of his credits jumped out at me: the movie of Athol Fugard’s play, “Master Harold...and the Boys.” That year, I was obsessed with the idea of filming --- as a Western --- J.M. Coetzee’s allegorical novel, Waiting for the Barbarians, and I wanted Michael to direct it. We never got the movie made. But there were dinners that were almost as satisfying, with Michael talking, talking, and the rest of us listening, listening. He was a great storyteller, and although the stories were about famous people, you never thought he was name-dropping, because his mother was Geraldine Fitzgerald, who was so sensational in "Dark Victory" and "Wuthering Heights," and her friends were Hollywood and theater royalty, and, in a rock and roll way, so was Michael. And now, all these years later, we have his memoir, “Luck and Circumstance: A Coming of Age in Hollywood, New York, and Points Beyond.” It’s a curious book. On the surface, it’s an exploration of Michael’s paternity, about which his mother had persistently lied. His father, she insisted, was Edward Lindsay-Hogg, an English baronet who was tall and dark and thin and lived in Ireland. Michael was to ignore all rumors to the contrary. “We [Orson and I] would go out for dinner together,” she told her son. “And you know how people can put two and two together and make three.” Well, they did make three, as Michael learns at the end of the book from his mother’s friend and his own sometime lover, Gloria Vanderbilt. I spoil nothing by telling you this, for the link is everywhere in the reviews and publicity. But the frame of the book that reviewers are praising obscures its real charm, which is Michael Lindsay-Hogg, talking, talking for 272 pages. [To buy the book from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.] Picture a Brit, cigar in his fingers, a glass half full of some golden liquid, the meal finished, the night getting on. He is slim and elegant now, but he is telling you about his childhood, when his nickname was Pudge Hoag. Then, when he is fourteen, his mother takes him to a play rehearsal. He meets an actor, Roddy McDowell. And the director, Sidney Lumet. “A few days later, I, Michael, was back at school and was again Pudge Hoag, but it didn’t matter because I knew where I was going.” The next year, his mother is Goneril in “King Lear,” directed by Orson Welles. Again she takes her son to a rehearsal. And here…well, let me quote: As he passed behind the seat I was sitting in, my left arm over the seat behind me, Orson stopped. I felt a quick aware tension with him behind me, unmoving in the dark. A moment. Then, as if to clarify his presence, he laid his right hand on my shoulder and squeezed it, kneading it twice, the second pressure stronger than the first, and then he continued on. I was not used to being touched by male family members. My stepfather had taught me how to shake hands and look the other person in the eye, but he had not been brought up to be a hugger of males and this was in the middle of the five-year period when I was not to see Edward Lindsay-Hogg at all. A space break. Then: “I suppose I longed for a father.” Could you listen to that voice a little longer? I could. Sixteen. Michael leaves school and goes to work at the Shakespeare Festival. A brief bit of Oxford. A few encounters with Welles. (“He finished his main dish and looked down balefully as though the plate, now empty, had somehow deceived him.”) And then, at 24, the big break --- directing the English TV show, “Ready Steady Go!” with guests like the Stones, The Who, the Everly Brothers, Otis Redding, James Brown, Paul Simon, the Supremes --- you get the idea. And the occasional phone call: “Mr. Welles wanted to know if you could join him and Marlene Dietrich for dinner at Le Caprice tonight at eight.” The middle of the story is milk and cookies: With Mick Jagger, I’d suggest, he’d question, I’d clarify, and he’d agree, usually. But with The Beatles, that evening, I found an idea was something to be mauled, like a piece of meat thrown into an animal cage. They’d paw it, chuck parts of it from one to the other, chew on it a bit, spit it out, and then toss the remnant to me, on the other side of the bars. “Rain.” “Paperback Writer.” “Hey Jude.” “Revolution.” He did them all for The Beatles. “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” for the Stones. And their concert film, “The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus,” which didn’t see the light of day for 28 years. And “Brideshead.” And, and... Scott Fitzgerald said personality was “an unbroken series of successful gestures.” Well, for a few decades there, Michael Lindsay-Hogg defined personality. And has the stories to prove it. As for Orson Welles and the lost father theme, it’s secondary, for me, to his love for his mother, who worked to keep him in school and married to assure his security. Near the end of her life, she suffers dementia, and Michael weeps for her and for himself: I never got her. Not when I was a little boy, she was always earning the rent; . . . not when she’d married my stepfather; . . . and now that Boy [his stepfather, Stuart “Boy” Scheftel] is dead, I could have had her. We could have gone to the theater, or for a walk, or out for a meal together, and I could finally be with her, the two of us only. And now I’ll never have her, to myself, alone. Yes and no. Missed her in life, got her here. It’s the rare memoir you finish and think you really know the people because the writer really knows the people. And more, that he’s taken their measure, done the necessary tabulation of flaws and weaknesses, and then decided that the “lies and deceptions” miss the point. The point --- and every tell-all memoir that crosses my desk misses this --- is that he loved them. And, in the process, learned to love himself. Great story. Beautifully told. Would that there were an audio book so you could hear the voice.
- [A brilliant light, a smart plug... and Alexa](https://headbutler.com/reviews/a-brilliant-light-a-smart-plug-and-alexa/) - My mother turned 102, and it was finally time for her not to live in her apartment with only caregivers for company, so we found an excellent assisted living complex a few blocks from my brother’s house, and I went out to California, and we de-accessioned and stored and filled two dumpsters and engineered a
- [Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout](https://headbutler.com/reviews/radioactive-marie-pierre-curie-tale-love-and-fallout/) - There are exciting, original books, and then there is “Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout” --- a book so astonishingly inventive that the cover is both a joke and a metaphor. "Radioactive” glows in the dark. And that’s just the start of the charm and beauty and high intelligence of an oversized book that mixes text and art, documents and narrative, to tell a story that starts with the story of the Curies and then radiates outward. Image-and-text --- like a non-fiction graphic novel? Sure, if the non-fiction graphic novel had been drawn by Matisse and Warhol and researched and written by Joan Didion. The author’s description should be the start of you moving closer to the screen and reading more slowly: “a visual book about invisible things --- in this case, radioactivity and love.” “Radioactive” is such a bitch slap to traditional thinking about books and biography and the subject of radiation that --- the metaphor is inevitable --- it really has no half-life. This is a reading/viewing experience you’ll never forget. And when you need to give a book to someone who has “everything,” it’s an obvious choice. [To buy “Radioactive” from Amazon, click here.] The subtitle --- “love and fallout” --- is the hint that this is a book of mystery and magic, for Marie and Pierre Curie, though two, shared a love so deep they lived and thought and worked as one. And then, as we consider what happened to them, and what their discoveries have meant to the planet….. But the core of the book is the story of these two great scientists. Marya Sklodowska, a brilliant student from Poland, came to Paris to study at the Sorbonne. In 1894, she met Pierre Curie, an iconoclast who taught physics and chemistry. How deep was their love? As Pierre wrote to her, "It would be a fine thing ... to pass our lives near to each other, hypnotized by our dreams; your patriotic dream, our humanitarian dream, and our scientific dream." The Curies discovered radioactivity and, in 1903, won the Nobel Prize for Physics. Much excitement followed about its uses. And so it makes a kind of sense that the Curies would carry radium around, unaware that it causes radioactive poisoning and cancer. (Even now, some of their notebooks must be stored in lead boxes.) Pierre died in 1906. Marie carried on. In 1911, she won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry; she’s one of only two scientists to win the Nobel in a second field. Eventually, radiation killed her. It’s a great story, often told and memorably filmed. For Lauren Redniss, a professor whose sketches-and-text pieces have been featured on the New York Times Op-ed page, the attraction was larger: I was drawn to Marie Curie’s story because it is full of drama --- passion, discovery, tragedy and scandal. But I also thought the story was an interesting way to look at questions that affect our world right now. Since Marie Curie coined the word "radioactivity" in 1898, we’ve struggled with nuclear-weapons proliferation, we’ve debated the role of radiation in medical treatment, and we’ve considered nuclear energy as an alternative energy source to counter climate change. These questions all have roots in a love story in turn-of-the-century Paris. Her research was vast: I traveled to Hiroshima to interview atomic bomb survivors, to the Nevada Test Site outside of Las Vegas to talk with weapons specialists, to Warsaw to see the house where Marie Curie was born, to the Curie Institut in Paris to interview the Curie’s granddaughter. I spoke with an oncologist exploring innovative radiation treatment in San Bernadino, California and the Idaho National Laboratory’s Director of the Center for Space Nuclear Research about how nuclear power and propulsion can enable space exploration and crystal cities built on the moon. And what do you get? Two hundred pages that bear re-reading. I, for one, didn’t immediately notice how the book begins: the stories of Marie and Pierre, before they met, on facing pages, with black-and-white drawings that look as if they were done by pre-pop Warhol. They get together --- and although the background switches to pastels, there’s a red heat field between them. Clever! [Some sample pages: here and here.] With their great discovery, the story widens. First, of course, there’s the commercial exploitation; there are radium-laced "toothpaste, condoms, suppositories, chocolates, pillows, bath salts and cigarettes." The author’s comment: an image of a woman sitting in a room lit by radium. It glows. There’s a mandatory stop at the Nevada Test Site where, in just a year, our government exploded almost 1,000 nuclear bombs under ground. Just as spooky: the depths of the Merry Widow Health Mine in Montana, where some desperately ill Americans went to breathe radioactive air they thought would cure them. And there’s an account of the Hiroshima bombing I’ve never read or seen. You can’t experience this book without thinking of Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. But it’s not, in the end, a downer. “One of the things that links the Curies' scientific work to their passionate love affair is their curiosity --- that ability to make a leap of imagination and to look into the unknown,” Redniss has said. “If there's an idea central to the book, it's that intellectual adventurousness.” How adventurous are you?
- [Murray Bruce: The Art of Dying](https://headbutler.com/reviews/murray-bruce-the-art-of-dying/) - UPDATE: Murray Bruce died on Tortola on February 3, 2019. A quarter of a century ago --- so long ago it seems like the Pleistocene, so clear in memory it seems like this morning --- Rochelle Udell introduced me to Murray Bruce. Rochelle was then the Associate Editorial Director of Conde Nast. She had infallible
- [Far from the Polar Vortex: Page-turners set in distant places](https://headbutler.com/reviews/far-from-the-polar-vortex-page-turners-set-in-distant-places/) - Books can take you anywhere. So says the old cliche. In brutally cold weather, these novels have taken me far away --- to warmer, sunnier places. Turn on the reading light. Settle in. And go.... Old Filth Jane Gardam didn’t start writing until she was 43 and the youngest of her three children was off

## Short Takes

- [Books by Friends: Nicole Zeitzer Johnson, Daniel Asa Rose, Cort Casady, Stephen Saltonstall, Dori Salerno, Ann Medlock, Stephen Mo Hanan & Linda Condrillo](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/books-by-friends-dori-salerno-ann-medlock-stephen-mo-hanan-linda-condrillo/) - Nicole Zeitzer Johnson, illustrations by David Concepcion, "Joyfully Josie" The story that Josie’s mother, Nicole Zeitzer Johnson, tells in this short, illustrated book is powered by a simple idea: children with disabilities can have rewarding friendships with children who have none. Josie can’t talk, can’t walk, can’t sit up without falling over. And yet, like
- [Murray Dewart: Hammer and Tongs: Journal of an Artist and Sculptor](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/murray-dewart-hammer-and-tongs-journal-of-an-artist-and-sculptor/) - I have a problem reviewing Murray Dewart’s book. He’s been my brother’s best friend for 60 years. It’s possible I facilitated his marriage. I’ve spent a night in his guest room. I’ve reviewed his son’s media. But I want to tell you about the book. Solution: describe it, using no adjectives. A first. Here goes.
- [Lori Lieberman: From "Killing Me Softly" to "Truly"](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/lori-lieberman-from-killing-me-softly-to-truly/) - Lori Lieberman is one of the writers of the classic “Killing Me Softly” --- early proof she’s a singer-songwriter of uncommon sensitivity. Now she’s released “Truly.” Old songs? Why? Lori: “When I was a girl growing up in Switzerland, my father introduced me to all kinds of American music. He was an interesting character to
- [Books by Friends: Craig Unger, Lara Galloway, Sally Koslow](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/books-by-friends-patricia-morrisroe/) - Sally Koslow: "The Real Mrs. Tobias" In the delivery room, the obstetrician delivered good news to my mother: “It’s another boy.” My mother’s immediate reaction: “Damn! Another daughter-in-law!” Some of my marital history suggests my mother was wise. Sally Koslow and I are friends and I was an enthusiast for The Widow Waltz, but it
- [When We Were Bright and Beautiful: a rich, white, Ivy League athlete is accused of rape, and that's just the start of his family's dysfunction](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/when-we-were-bright-and-beautiful-a-rich-white-ivy-league-athlete-is-accused-of-rape-and-thats-just-the-start-of-his-familys-dysfunction/) - In an unforgettable “Law & Order" episode, someone says, “There are two laws, one for the poor, one for the rich.” DA Jack McCoy knows better: “There are no laws for the rich.” That was then. Now, when a rich, white athlete from Princeton is accused of raping his girlfriend, we wonder if life in
- [In her 80s, Ann Medlock publishes a powerful first novel, "Silence of the Seamaid"](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/in-her-80s-ann-medlock-publishes-a-powerful-first-novel-silence-of-the-mermaid/) - I became aware of Ann Medlock because of the Giraffe Heroes Project, which she started “to inspire people to stick their necks out for the common good” and to honor those who did --- among the 2,000 people she’s profiled, she honored my mother. Now in her late 80s, she’s published "Silence of the Seamaid,"
- [THE NEW MEGATRENDS: SEEING CLEARLY IN THE AGE OF DISRUPTION](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/the-new-megatrends-seeing-clearly-in-the-age-of-disruption/) - Ethics prevent me from reviewing this book --- it was my honor to brainstorm with veteran trendspotter Marian Salzman in its creation, as I have on several of her previous books. I can say that trends have the lifespan of fruit flies now; it’s her genius to identify and explain ones that might affect more
- [“You look into the sky and see a beautiful cloud. The cloud has become the rain, and when you drink your tea, you can see your cloud.”](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/you-look-into-the-sky-and-see-a-beautiful-cloud-the-cloud-has-become-the-rain-and-when-you-drink-your-tea-you-can-see-your-cloud/) - A film about Thich Nhat Hanh.
- [Head Butler's Greatest Hits: the best-loved videos I've featured, lovingly preserved](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/head-butlers-greatest-hits-the-best-loved-videos-ive-featured-lovingly-preeserved/) - --- Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth, dancing to Jackie Wilson’s “Your Love Has Lifted Me Higher” -- Bon Iver, with The Staves, "Heavenly Father" --- Brian Fallon, "Wonderful Life" --- Joan Osborne, "Shake Your Hips" - Kurt Vonnegut's "chalk talk" - Amy Winehouse, 'Back to Black.' Because of the backup singers… the way they move…
- [Owen Lewis: “When a man loves a woman…”](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/owen-lewis-when-a-man-loves-a-woman/) - When we last read Owen Lewis, it was 2015, and the psychiatrist/teacher/poet had just published “Best Man.” The title could not have been more ironic or bittersweet --- the 23 poems were about his brother Jason, who died in 1980, age 23. Jason was the tragedy every family fears: a bright, drugged thief and liar.
- [The answer to the question in the title of "What to Do About the Solomons" --- read it.](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/the-answer-to-the-question-in-the-title-of-what-to-do-about-the-solomons-read-it/) - American Jews in Israel. An inheritance, which means money and a lot more. Back in Los Angeles, a son’s alleged financial crime --- what kind of crime did you expect? --- has become a family scandal. Not promising material, when you consider how Jews are presented in American fiction. The writer loves them. Or the
- [Garland Jeffreys: What are the odds?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/garland-jeffreys-what-are-the-odds/) - The so-called law of life says that you start winding it down as you hit the golden years, but Garland Jeffreys is 73, and at City Winery, he put on a 90-minute show that ranged from reggae to New York soul to sound-clouds that would have done Van Morrison proud --- he and his raised
- [In a month of causes, "Happy Hour" matters three different ways.](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/in-a-month-of-causes-happy-hour-matters-three-different-ways/) - Every month has a cause. This month, Gretl Claggett has three. As a writer, Monsoon Solo: Voices Once Submerged more than qualifies her for prominence in National Poetry Month. And “Happy Hour,” a film she made of a poem from that book, fits right in to National Child Abuse Prevention and Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
- [“Wink” --- B-list characters in an A-list play](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/wink-b-list-characters-in-an-a-list-play/) - My nights are suddenly -- and happily -- filled with plays written or produced by friends. Like “Wink,” written by Neil Koeningsberg, who was once a legendary Hollywood publicist and then a brilliant talent manager. In his new incarnation, he’s writing about a teenager who’s got life challenges -- homelessness and gender confusion -- and
- ["Baghdaddy" --  an unlikely musical comedy storms Broadway](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/baghdaddy-an-unlikely-musical-comedy-storms-broadway/) - When I met Charlie Fink in 1996, he was head of the AOL venture capital division. He gave Carol Fitzgerald and me $3 million to start bookreporter.com, and I decided I liked him...a lot. (Just making sure you're paying attention --- it wasn’t $3 million.) Now Charlie is a force in the arts and is
- ["In Search of Israeli Cuisine" ---  It's nothing like what your grandmother cooked.](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/in-search-of-israeli-cuisine-its-nothing-like-what-your-grandmother-cooked/) - Israeli cuisine --- is that an oxymoron, like, say, Kosher fish? But as the American-born Israeli chef and restaurateur Michael Solomonov tours Israel in "In Search of Israeli Cuisine,” a feature-length documentary just opening somewhere near you (click for cities and theaters), we get a lot more than a Food Network make-them-hungry travelogue. Roger Sherman,
- [These "reflections of an ordinary life" are anything but ordinary.](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/these-reflections-of-an-ordinary-life-are-anything-but-ordinary/) - Katrina Kenison is one of those people who would much rather get you talking than gas on about herself. Her life, she contends, is “ordinary.” Her writing, she’ll say, is about small things. But as I’ve learned, late in life but maybe just in time, the little moments are the big ones: watching TV with
- [Dawes: Smart Pop for Sentient Adults](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/dawes-smart-pop-for-sentient-adults/) - Taylor Goldsmith, lead singer of Dawes, doesn’t have the look of a rock star, but this is Alternative Rock, a sub-genre that places a premium on writing. And here there are few better. Dawes once toured with Bob Dylan, an honor they hoped might turn into friendship. Dylan ignored them. After the final concert of
- [Frank Delaney (1942-2017)](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/frank-delaney-1942-2017/) - Long ago, when a girlfriend fired me without notice, I started each day by writing “She doesn’t love” me 50 times because until I burned the fact into my head, I didn’t believe it. I feel that way about Frank Delaney’s death. I can grasp, with difficulty, that he had a stroke and died. What
- [PREVIEW: Garland Jeffreys, "14 Steps to Harlem"](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/preview-garland-jeffreys-14-steps-to-harlem/) - His mother worked in a Domino sugar plant. His father took the train from Sheepshead Bay to his job in a Harlem factory. Thanks to their dedication and love, their son was able to go to Syracuse. And in 1973, when Garland Jeffreys got a gold record for “Wild In the Streets,” he gave it
- [If you haven't read it, this is still The Book To Read: 'When Breath Becomes Air'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/the-book-to-read-when-breath-becomes-air/) - At 36, Dr. Paul Kalanithi was finishing his residency as a neurosurgeon. At 37, he died of cancer. In the final year of his life, he wrote a book, “When Air Becomes Breath.” It’s dazzling and important, less about death than you’d expect and more about love --- love of his work, his wife, their
- [Nam Prik Asian Chili Hot Sauce: the next Sriracha?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/nam-prik-asian-chili-hot-sauce-the-next-sriracha/) - When I met Erick Yi, he was an investment adviser at Merrill Lynch in Los Angeles. (I can personally attest: honest, creative, successful). And then he was gone --- to launch a hot sauce. I thought he was having a pre-midlife crisis. In fact, he was having a genius insight: He invented Nam Prik, an
- [You’ve heard it a million times. Now hear it for the first time.](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/youve-heard-it-a-million-times-now-hear-it-for-the-first-time/) - Sheku Kanneh-Mason, 17, is the BBC Young Musician of 2016. He has a record contract. And he made Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” new.
- [Travel to… Oman?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/travel-to-oman/) - As an executive of the Huntsman Cancer Foundation, my friend (and illustrator of A Christmas Carol) Paige Peterson often travels to the Mideast. And as a board member of the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, she recenty went to Oman. Her article and her photos describe lovely architecture, great landscape, friendly people, a smart leader.
- [The story you won't see in the film: "Ray & Joan: The Man Who Made the McDonald's Fortune and the Woman Who Gave It All Away"](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/the-story-you-wont-see-in-the-film-ray-joan-the-man-who-made-the-mcdonalds-fortune-and-the-woman-who-gave-it-all-away/) - In the new movie “The Founder,” Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton) comes off as first cousin to a certain hard-charging, win-at-all-costs businessman who’s found a second career. There’s much more to the Kroc story than that, and Lisa Napoli unearths it in “Ray & Joan: The Man Who Made the McDonald's Fortune and the Woman Who
- [I'm no seer. But Joan Pancoe just might be.](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/im-no-seer-but-joan-pancoe-just-might-be/) - When two friends whose opinions you respect praise a movie, book or service, it’s actionable. That’s how I found myself in Joan Pancoe’s apartment for a Soul Reading. Joan has been a karmic astrologer, psychic therapist and spiritual teacher since 1976, and has written several books. (The most recent is "Cosmic Sugar, The Amorous Adventures
- [“Climbing Back: A Family's Journey through Brain Injury"](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/climbing-back-a-familys-journey-through-brain-injury/) - I haven’t seen most of my college friends in 47 years. When I think of them, I see them as they were --- as we were --- in 1968. Elise Rosenhaupt and her boyfriend Tom: off they go, bright and shining, headed for New Mexico. So when Elise sent me her book, “Climbing Back: A
- [How Does That Make You Feel? True Confessions from Both Sides of the Therapy Couch](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/how-does-that-make-you-feel-true-confessions-from-both-sides-of-the-therapy-couch/) - Sherry Amatenstein is a New York City-based licensed clinical social worker. She’s written 3 three books on relationships. Now she’s edited “How Does That Make You Feel? True Confessions from Both Sides of the Therapy Couch,” with essays by 13 therapists and 21 patients. “I wanted to humanize shrinks to the shrunks,” she says. “I
- [A delicious new guide: “Shop Cook Eat New York: 200 of the City's Best Food Shops"](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/a-delicious-new-guide-shop-cook-eat-new-york-200-of-the-citys-best-food-shops/) - I’ve scoured New York in search of exotic and esoteric food suppliers for 60 years, but a woman from France who’s lived here only a decade makes me feel like a first-time tourist. Nathalie Sann and photographer Susan Meisel set out to find 200 of the city’s best food stores, and in “Shop Cook Eat
- [My Lord, this is gorgeous...](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/my-lord-this-is-gorgeous/) - The Head and the Heart: "Lost in My Mind"
- [The antidote to house porn: “The New Small House”](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/the-antidote-to-house-porn-the-new-small-house/) - At the height of the real estate bubble, the average American house was 2,268 square feet. After the crash, it shrunk to 2,100. Now the median single family house is getting bigger. But what if you don’t need or want 4 bedrooms, 3 baths and a Great Room? Then you’ll be interested in “The New
- [So you wrote a book? Here's how to let the world know.](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/so-you-wrote-a-book-heres-how-to-let-the-world-know/) - When I was launching Head Butler Creative Services, I expected to get queries from writers --- often first-time writers --- with questions about their manuscripts. To my surprise, I’ve often heard from writers who ask, “The book’s done. Now what?” Some want me to introduce them to agents; that’s not what I do. More either
- [December 2: Join me to hear a king of African music.](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/december-2-join-me-to-hear-a-king-of-african-music/) - I haven’t proposed a Head Butler Field Trip in years, but an artist as remarkable and generally distant as Boubacar Traore doesn’t come to New York often. He’ll be peforming at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Friday, December 2, at 7 PM. Tickets are $65, and include museum admission. For information and tickets, click
- [For sale: Hawaiian retreat](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/for-sale-hawaiian-retreat/) - If you love Hawaii and all things Hawaiian --- like the rainforest and the Grateful Dead --- we are selling our 550 sq. ft. home on one verdant acre for $125,000. Multiple fruit trees, sugar cane, exotic tropical flowers, palms, fairy trail and art studio. Contact: Grace Iurilli at graceinhawaii@gmail.com.
- [Words on Music: Introducing Robin Meloy Goldsby](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/words-on-music-introducing-robin-meloy-goldsby/) - When I launched Head Butler/Jesse Kornbluth Creative Services, I didn’t expect to be editing a manuscript by a Times best-selling writer --- but that happened. Even more unlikely: I didn’t expect to be editing a collection of short stories by a writer who could be praised in the Times. The disclosure is that Robin Meloy
- [Trump: What's the Deal?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/trump-whats-the-deal/) - 25 years ago, I wrote a documentary about Donald Trump. He huffed and puffed, and the documentary was never shown. He'd kill it again if he could. But “Trump: What's the Deal?" is now available on iTunes. The new trailer gives you the idea right off: "The old Trump. The new Trump. The same Trump.
- [Kids hold their breath. They love balloons and kites. They might also like this book about air.](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/kids-hold-their-breath-they-love-balloons-and-kites-they-might-also-like-this-book-about-air/) - How’s this for perfect timing: a children’s book about air, published on International Women’s Day by Maya Ajmera, President and CEO of Society for Science & the Public, and Dominique Browning, co-founder of Moms Clean Air Force, with a foreword by mega-mom Julianne Moore. “Every Breath We Take: A Book About Air” is written for
- [Jesse, The Small Person, England: Advice, please](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/jesse-the-small-person-england-advice-please/) - In an attempt to separate my 14 year-old daughter from her phone and her ignorance of anything that happened before last week, I'm taking her to England for a week or so in August. This is a splendid opportunity for me to play the part of Clark Griswold, Idiot Dad. I can't. I won't. So,
- ["45 Years" -- the movie for those who have attained a certain age](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/joy-the-first-film-of-the-trump-era/) - I saw “45 Years” this week -- for the second time. I needed to watch the final few minutes again, I needed to see how Charlotte Rampling feels the full force of what has happened to her and realizes that she needs to do something about it. If you are young and new to love
- [Friends & Family: Some Recent Books I'd Like Even If I Didn't Know The People](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/friends-family-some-recent-books-id-like-even-i-didnt-know-the-people/) - Eating Delancey: A Celebration of Jewish Food In the introduction, Joan Rivers writes, "Jewish food makes Italian food seem like Lean Cuisine." Potato pancakes! Jackie Mason jokes! Bagel and a schmear! Ratner's! Real knishes from Yonah Schimmel!Lox, eggs and onions! Brisket with prunes and raisins! And stories --- such stories! My youth comes back to
- [Married Sex: the audio book](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/married-sex-the-audio-book/) - The audio book of Married Sex: A Love Story is finally available. May Wuthrich produced and directed, Tavia Gilbert read the female characters, I read the description and the narrator’s dialogue. I hadn’t opened the book in months, and I’d blocked the simplest fact --- it's drenched with emotion --- and I certainly had no
- [“The Long Haul” --- come for the story, want to flee, stay for the writing.](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/the-long-haul-come-for-the-story-want-to-flee-stay-for-the-writing/) - I met Amanda Stern at a publishing party. A few minutes before I had to leave, I was bored. So I asked her, “If I don’t hit on you, can we talk for 10 minutes?” About three minutes in, I knew I wanted to read her novel, “The Long Haul.” Key fact: It was published
- [Hipsters, Flipsters and Finger Poppin' Daddies, Knock Me Your Lobes](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/hipsters-flipsters-and-finger-poppin-daddies-knock-me-your-lobes/) - The headline is from Lord Buckley, but it could just as easily come from the mouth of Chandler Brossard (1922-1993), who was the hippest American writer you’ve never heard of. I’ve read him, but that’s because I knew him. We met at LOOK Magazine --- if you were born after it shuttered, LOOK was like
- [Car Seat Headrest: Way ahead of the curve](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/car-seat-headrest-way-ahead-of-the-curve/) - Biting my clothes to keep from screaming taking pills to keep from dreaming I want to break something important I want to kick my dad in the shins I was referring to the present in past tense it was the only way that I could survive it I want to close my head in the
- [When the dead are still alive for us: “Best Man”](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/when-the-dead-are-still-alive-for-us-best-man/) - I know Owen Lewis as a psychiatrist (not mine) and a professor at Columbia. His poetry comes as late-breaking news, and the subject of “Best Man” even more so: 23 poems about his brother Jason, who died in 1980, age 23. These poems are blunt, colloquial, rooted in real events. Jason steals Owen's prescription pad.
- [Take a trip to Harbour Island without leaving home](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/take-a-trip-to-harbour-island-without-leaving-home/) - It’s not easy to get to Harbour Island. Fly to the Bahamas, take a small plane from Nassau to Eleuthera, then board a boat for the 15-minute crossing to Harbour Island. Once you’re on the tiny island --- three miles long, a half-mile wide --- there are no cars, only golf carts. Why go to
- [Ella Woodward got sick. Then she ate herself well.](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/ella-woodward-got-sick-then-she-ate-herself-well/) - Ella Woodward was your basic 19-year-old English girl --- “a sugar monster, and I mean a total addict.” But in 2011, she was diagnosed with Postural Tachycardia Syndrome: “I literally couldn’t walk down the street, I slept for 16 hours a day, had never ending heart palpitations, was in chronic pain, had unbearable stomach issues,
- [Elaine Kaufman:  “Yeah, I’m an icon…”](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/elaine-kaufman-yeah-im-an-icon/) - One night I was to have dinner at Elio’s with a famous painter who was, in her mid-40s, 8 months pregnant. When I made the reservation, I told Elio that the painter had to be seated promptly. This didn’t happen. After 40 minutes, we walked a few blocks north. Elaine knew without asking that something
- [Josh Ritter: “If you want to see a miracle, watch me get down.”](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/josh-ritter-if-you-want-to-see-a-miracle-watch-me-get-down/) - New song. New CD coming. Counting the days.
- [Lake Street Dive: "Nobody knows what I'm doing here (and I ain't got a clue)"](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/lake-shore-dive-nobody-knows-what-im-doing-here-and-i-aint-got-a-clue/) - written and sung by Rachael Price.
- [A ghost speaks... softly](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/a-ghost-speaks-softly/) - When Bill Novak writes a book with a major celebrity, you know about it --- he's the king of ghosts. Sometimes, though, he writes books you never hear about. Private books. In the Times, he tells all.
- [The first gift of Christmas: "Joy"](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/the-first-gift-of-christmas-joy/) - I am such a sucker for films like this. Of which there are so few.
- ["Magic Mike XXL" -- Go for the fun, walk out thinking about your place in the dance](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/magic-mike-xxl-go-for-the-fun-walk-out-thinking-about-your-place-in-the-dance/) - If you skipped “Magic Mike” because you thought it was about men who thrill women by humping the air in thongs, you missed a seriously good movie. Its real subject was late-stage capitalism: Mike (Channing Tatum) wants to design furniture, but the economy only wants him to strut his stuff for sexually unfulfilled women. “Magic
- [A first-time director to watch, an actor's breakthrough performance](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/a-first-time-director-to-watch-an-actors-breakthrough-performance/) - Lou Howe is married to my favorite and only stepdaughter, but if I didn’t know him, I’d still be knocked out by “Gabriel,” the film he wrote and directed. Rory Culkin is devastatingly compelling as a damaged kid so desperate to fix his life that he stalks a long-lost girlfriend. “Gabriel,” a little film that
- [A nail-biting, true story of a French family in World War II](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/a-nail-biting-true-story-of-a-french-family-in-world-war-ii/) - Heroes tend not to talk about their exploits, so no one told young Charles Kaiser what his French cousins did in World War II. It was a lot: André Boulloche coordinated the Resistance movements in the nine northern regions of France, and when he was captured, his sisters did all they could. The price was
- ['Pot Luck' won't get you high. It may just improve your health.](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/pot-luck-wont-get-you-high-it-may-just-improve-your-health/) - Richard Lewis spent two decades in charge of the Absolut advertising account — he invented those classic Absolut ads. He’s taught Branding at Yale and NYU. You may recall his book, Why Hire Jennifer? Now he’s back, with an equally accessible book: “Pot Luck: Why Marijuana is Today's Medicine.” Huh? His reason: 23 states have
- [You are falling into a deep, deep sleep](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/you-are-falling-into-a-deep-deep-sleep/) - Jason Clement is the first engineer to be inducted into the Sony Samurai Society, the most prestigious honor that a Sony employee can be awarded. When someone of this stature creates an app and “Zen” is in the title, I pay attention. Not that I grasp the tech: “Zen Tunes combines Isochronic tones with monaural
- [Workin' for the man ev'ry night and day](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/workin-for-the-man-evry-night-and-day/) - You pump your own gas. Check out your own groceries. Book your own plane tickets. Essentially, you work for large corporations --- for free. How that came to be is the subject of “Shadow Work: The Unpaid, Unseen Jobs That Fill Your Day,” by Craig Lambert. I’m too conflicted to review this book: Craig's not
- [Surprise! I am reading a 531-page novel.](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/surprise-i-am-reading-a-531-page-novel/) - “All the Light We Cannot See” was a finalist for the 2014 National Book Award and a #1 New York Times bestseller. Despite the praise, I didn’t rush to read Anthony Doerr’s book --- the last time I read a 531-page novel the author was Russian and dead. Then I saw this video --- and
- [Glen Hansard: OMG](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/glen-hansard-omg/)
- [New goodies from Louise Fili: delicious Florence, yummy Tutti Friuti](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/new-goodies-from-louise-fili-delicious-florence-yummy-tutti-friuti/) - You bought so many boxes of her Perfetto Pencils that Amazon was out of stock for weeks. You went on to binge on her "Quattro Parole Italiane" note cards and envelopes. Now the indefatigable Louise Fili is back with "Tutti Fruiti" --- Perfetto pencils in 6 delicious colors. [To buy Tutti Fruiti pencils from Amazon,
- [Bob Dylan with an unlikely backup band: The Rolling Stones](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/bob-dylan-with-an-unlikely-backup-band-the-rolling-stones/)
- [Lyrics by Bob Dylan, Music by Marcus Mumford ](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/lyrics-by-bob-dylan-music-by-marcus-mumford/) - Performed by Marcus Mumford. At the end, is that sweat in his eye --- or tears? (Yes, that's Johnny Depp on guitar.)
- [MACA: Food for Inca warriors](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/maca-food-for-inca-warriors/) - Maca is a Peruvian turnip-like vegetable, processed into capsules. It’s said to increase stamina and energy and delivers what is euphemistically described as “an increase in libido.” From the New York Times article: ‘Some scientific studies claim to show a link between consuming maca and an increase in libido. One historical account says that the
- [New York Babysitter: If our kid were younger, Louisa would be The One](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/new-york-babysitter-available-i-rate-her/) - It feels as if I've known Louisa Oreskes more years than she's been on the planet. And I can't believe she's now 18 and a senior at the Bronx High School of Science. Her babysitting history: "I love kids and have a lot of experience with kids of all ages. I'm available weekdays 4-7 PM,
- [Nora Ephron: 'I Remember Nothing'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/nora-ephron-i-remember-nothing/) - Even before I read the I-didn’t-really-love-it-but-who-wants-to-piss-her-off New York Times review of Nora Ephron’s new book, I knew she had one coming out --- she has many fans among Head Butler readers and some of you have written to say, “You didn’t review I Feel Bad About My Neck, which was really terrific; are you going
- [Brandy Clark: 'You were lyin' there with nothing on/ But a goofy little grin and a platinum blonde'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/brandy-clark-you-were-lyin-there-with-nothing-on-but-a-goofy-little-grin-and-a-platinum-blonde/) - You were lyin' there with nothing on But a goofy little grin and a platinum blonde I can't believe you'd do that on our bed I got a pistol and I got a bullet And a pissed off finger just'a itchin' to pull it The only thing keepin' me from losin' my head is... I
- [The Beauty Part](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/the-beauty-part/) - Bon Iver. For the CD that started it all, click here.
- [Reader Mail (Advertisements for myself)](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/reader-mail-advertisements-for-myself/) - From Paul Zengilowski My children will turn 19 and 21 in a few weeks and the birthday gift choice falls to me. My wife and I bought them books by the bushel when they were young --- some they chose, more often though, we exercised our parental prerogative. That stopped as they entered their mid-teens
- [Do not think for a second you will watch this only once](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/do-not-think-for-one-second-you-will-watch-this-only-once/) - The band is Future Islands. Mesmerizing at the start, eye-popping at the end --- watching Sam Herring is like watching the young Brando. So... full screen. Maximum volume.
- [The best piece I’ve read in weeks: Maria Bello on her ‘modern family’](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/the-best-piece-ive-read-in-weeks-maria-bello-on-her-modern-family/) - I interviewed Maria Bello a few years ago. My male friends drooled --- she’s even more beautiful than most Hollywood actresses. I found her smart and quick. Now I find her wise. Here’s how her piece in the Times starts: When my 12-year-old son, Jackson, asked me if there was something I wasn’t telling him,
- ["None of us wanted to give our babies up, none of us. But what else could we do? They just said, 'You have to sign these papers.'”](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/none-of-us-wanted-to-give-our-babies-up-none-of-us-but-what-else-could-we-do-they-just-said-you-have-to-sign-these-papers/) - “Philomena” is tied with “Dallas Buyers Club” as the best movie I’ve seen this year. Another beyond amazing performance from Judi Dench. What’s it about? The less you know the better (whatever you do, do not read the Times review, which is an encyclopedia of spoilers.) Okay, this: In the 1950s, when she was 16
- [Hunger Update: ‘There is virtually no more immediate way to affect the lives of the poor than to give to the agencies that help feed them, especially now when need has so greatly escalated.'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/hunger-update-there-is-virtually-no-more-immediate-way-to-affect-the-lives-of-the-poor-than-to-give-to-the-agencies-that-help-feed-them-especially-now-when-need-has-so-greatly-escalated/) - from The New York Times: As a result of cuts to SNAP, the federal food stamp program, which went into effect on Nov. 1 (and precede further potential reductions of $4 billion to $40 billion), food pantries are already experiencing mounting burdens. One of the city’s largest, the Bed-Stuy Campaign Against Hunger in Brooklyn, has
- [Madonna Badger: 'I go to wherever the light is, because anything else is darkness, and it can be a deeply black darkness.'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/madonna-badger-i-go-to-wherever-the-light-is-because-anything-else-is-darkness-and-it-can-be-a-deeply-black-darkness/) - You may not remember her name, but you know her story: On Christmas Eve, her house burned, and her three daughters and her parents died in the fire. Now Madonna Badger has written a piece for Vogue. It's a tough read; prepare to weep. Prepare also to be surprised by what she has learned ---
- [Joan Schenkar on James Purdy: The Oddball of American Literature](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/joan-schenkar-on-james-purdy-the-oddball-of-american-literature/) - Joan Schenkar, author of The Talented Miss Highsmith, champions a long-neglected writer, now back in print. James Purdy (1914-2009) is the Oddball of American Literature --- surely one of the oddest ever to be lobbed over the National Net. He writes in a style entirely his own: that of a lavender uncle who decorates his
- [Graduation Wisdom](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/graduation-wisdom/) - In a sea of banality, Paul Hawken delivers a fireball of a speech.
- [Head Butler 2.0: What's In It For You?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/head-butler-20-whats-it-you/) - The point of cosmetic surgery is to make you look as if you’ve had a good night’s rest, not as if you’ve been lifted by cranes. That’s what I wanted from a new, improved Butler, and that’s what the exceptionally talented crew --- that’s you, Eric, Sunil, Erin and Litza --- at the Book Report
- [World Class: Amadou & Mariam in New York](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/world-class-amadou-mariam-new-york/) - I didn’t trust my own reaction, so I took friends with me to see Amadou & Mariam. From pretty much the start of the show, we were all equally stunned --- nothing prepares you for a band this exciting. “Is there anything more beautiful than a gold Fender Telecaster against a purple dashiki?” one of
- [The Woman on the Subway](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/woman-subway/) - I was reading. So was she --- and she was laughing. I looked over and saw: The Tender Bar. “That was the best book I read whatever year it came out,” I said. She said she was loving it. “Later, it will break your heart,” I said. She said, “It already is. But it’s worth
- [Julie Metz](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/julie-metz/) - Joyce Wadler, a hard-to-fool New York Times reporter, visited the author of Perfection in her Brooklyn apartment. How did the woman who confronted five of her dead husband's lovers fare? Read all about it.
- [Pablo Thrailkill Castelaz](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/pablo-thrailkill-castelaz/) - Sometimes, though there’s no paper in our communication here, you can sense when a message is blotched with tears. So it was yesterday, when a California reader forwarded a link to a site called Get Well Pablo. But Pablo didn’t get well. He died last week, of a rare cancer, just six years and six
- [War Games](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/war-games/) - I stopped playing "war" around the time I started reading. If that connection between war toys and books isn't unique to me, it’s not surprising that men who seem never to have read a book are the loudest cheerleaders for a big stick in international matters. This time around, they see Iranians as brown-skinned, sword-wielding
- [Farrah Fawcett (1947-2009)](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/farrah-fawcett-1947-2009/) - I interviewed Farrah Fawcett several times, but I can't say I understood her. The immensity of her fame separated us, of course --- it's hard to imagine any single woman as the fantasy object of an entire generation. But there was also the looming figure of the thuggish Ryan O'Neal. The night we met, he practically threw
- [Alice Hoffman: Shame on You!](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/alice-hoffman-shame-you/) - The Boston Globe reviewer didn’t like Alice Hoffman's new novel. This happens. Hoffman was unhappy. This also happens. But then, in a Twitter post, Hoffman called the Globe reviewer, Roberta Silman, “a moron” and said she wasn’t qualified to criticize her book. (In fact, Silman has had a respectable literary career. Look for yourself.). And
- [Alice Hoffman: “I'm Sorry"](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/alice-hoffman-“im-sorry/) - The novelist has issued an apology: "I feel this whole situation has been completely blown out of proportion…Of course, I was dismayed by Roberta Silman's review, which gave away the plot of the novel, and in the heat of the moment I responded strongly and I wish I hadn't. I'm sorry if I offended anyone.
- [Reader Review: 'The Tender Bar'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/reader-review-tender-bar/) - A big thank you for mentioning The Tender Bar. I'm halfway through it and have mixed feelings: I can't wait to get to the next chapter, and I don't want it to end. He adds those wonderful 'hit you in the heart' sentences at the end of many of the segments, and I have to pause
- [Pamela Miles: Reiki Master](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/pamela-miles-reiki-master/) - It’s frustrating to be a friend and client of Pamela Miles and not be able to explain how Reiki works. All we know in our house is that the “magic hand” puts the kid to sleep when nothing else works, sucks the stress from our psyches, and reduces our need for prescriptions and doctors. So
- [ In My House I’ve Got No Shackles, You Can Come and Look If You Want To](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/my-house-ive-got-no-shackles-you-can-come-and-look-if-you-want/) - If you’re in the cult, you know --- that’s Arthur Lee and Love, from their transcendent 1968 album, 'Forever Changes'. For no reason, I’ve been singing their songs in my head for days; watch, and you’ll do the same. A primer on this sadly overlooked masterpiece is here.
- [Michael Jackson: The Last Word](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/michael-jackson-last-word/) - Louise Palanker --- someone who actually knows something about Michael Jackson --- has used her personal knowledge to profile him as the sad pervert he was. If you only know the King of Pop through his music, I encourage you to read this --- and share it with other parents and Jackson fans. And then
- [Michael Jackson? Now? Why?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/michael-jackson-now-why/) - Because Joan Schenkar --- author of The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith, which will be published this fall --- knows something that no one does: Highsmith, with her visionary’s sense of darkness, had, decades ago, written 30 words about Michael Jackson. Millions of words have been spewed about
- [Is “Free” Anything?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/“free”-anything/) - A few years ago, Chris Anderson, editor of Wired Magazine, published a book called The Long Tail. The phrase --- and the idea --- entered the language; I’m sure you’ve heard by now that because everything is available on the Web, everything sells. Now he’s back with Free: The Future of a Radical Price ---
- [Weekend Movie: 'Public Enemies'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/weekend-movie-public-enemies/) - It's summer, and at the movies you mostly have a choice between PG-13 stupid and R-rated stupid. So it was a great relief to spend two hours with Michael Mann's movie about 1930s bank robber John Dillinger. First, for Johnny Depp, who gives a dead-end loser enough sizzle so that, at the end, when the
- [Big Bird Goes to Cordon Bleu](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/julie-julia/) - It seems every woman I know can hardly wait for August 7th, when civilians can finally see "Julie & Julia", Nora Ephron’s film about Julie Powell, a New Yorker who cooks her way through every recipe in Mastering the Art of french Cooking, Vol. 1, and Julia Child, who’s played by Meryl Streep. If you
- [Eat, Pray, Revenge?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/eat-pray-revenge/) - Every woman alive, it seems, has read Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir, Eat, Pray, Love. But who knew the name of her former husband? Well, he’s Michael Cooper, and soon we’ll know much more about him --- he’s just sold his memoir, "Displaced", to a publisher for publication in Fall, 2010. A news item: “Cooper offers the flip
- [Lori Lieberman](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/lori-lieberman-1/) - My total bad. The singer-songwriter from Los Angeles --- her most recent CD is Gun Metal Sky --- made her first New York appearance in four years, and I, thinking the set involved just Lori and her piano/guitar, failed to tell you about it. Well, she came with a full kit, including a cellist and
- [The Louvre Speaks English](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/louvre-speaks-english/) - Not getting to Paris soon? Cheer up: The Louvre Museum is now online in an English version, with 22,000 images. Today I visited David’s Intervention of the Sabine Women. If only the virtual espresso could have been real and at the Café Marly.
- [Can The Times Open a Movie?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/can-new-york-times-open-movie/) - If you've been reading the New York Times recently, you may have noticed unprecedented editorial coverage of Nora Ephron's movie, 'Julie & Julia', which opens this Friday. Now Nikki Finke has published an eye-opening scorecard of the coverage. The curious among you may want to check back next Monday for the weekend box office gross,
- [Why Is This Happening to Me?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/why-happening-me/) - I played it once. I played it twice. Now I can’t stop. It’s The Who. 1982. Eminence Front. Handle with care --- this could be contagious.
- [Sincerely, John Hughes](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/sincerely-john-hughes/) - In which every smart kid's favorite film director becomes the pen pal --- and friend --- of a teenage fan. Read it and cheer.
- [David Updike: Eulogy for My Father](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/david-updike-eulogy-my-father/) - Whether you liked John Updike's writing or not, whether you cracked open his books or not --- if you read nothing else this week, read his son's eulogy. It's gorgeous.
- [District 9](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/district-9/) - If you want a see a real film --- original, brilliantly made, disturbing as hell, violent, but not a thrill ride for 14-year-olds --- "District 9" is almost all that’s out there. [Watch the preview.] Some of you will realize it’s Childhood’s End turned upside down. It occurs to me that all of us might
- [Michael Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, The New York Times Book Review --- and Head Butler?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/michael-jackson-patricia-highsmith-new-york-times-book-review-and-head-butler/) - Joan Schenkar published Patricia Highsmith & Michael Jackson: How the Dark Lady of American Letters Met the Self-Styled King of Pop on these screens recently, and a great many people noticed --- including the editors of the New York Times. Now the Highsmith comments about Jackson are the first item in this week’s “Inside the
- [Julie & Julia: Will You Still Be Hungry Afterward?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/julie-julia-will-you-still-be-hungry-afterward/) - Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia opens this weekend, aloft on the hopes of foodies, chick flick lovers and Ms. Ephron’s omnivorous publicity machine. I haven’t seen it, but from the trailer, I might be tempted to conclude that the film’s potential stumbling block is Meryl Streep as Julia Child: She’s neither the brilliant co-author of
- [Malcolm Gladwell: Out of Whack](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/malcolm-gladwell-out-whack/) - I’ve often thought that Malcolm Gladwell is too slick to be true, but I was agog when The New Yorker published his piece on “To Kill A Mockingbird”. The flaw was massive: He used 21st Century values to sneer at a novel that was published in 1960 and set in the South of the 1930s.
- [Health Care & Mozart](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/health-care-mozart/) - My rant on health care inspired more reader comment than any piece in the five-year history of this site. I'm not surprised. Health care is a moral issue. An economic issue. And a national security issue --- as a threat to the country, health care costs make terrorism look small. I didn't expect to read so
- [California Dreaming](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/california-dreaming/) - Times of collective and personal crisis always afford the opportunity for great breakthroughs and transformations. In his new Esalen workshop, which starts August 30th, Jeffrey Rubin will share his tools for getting through --- and, more, flourishing.
- [Homework for Parents: Please Watch This Video](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/homework-parents-please-watch-video/) - It happened to a Miss America winner. It happens today to one in every four girls, one in every six boys. And one big reason why: The adults in their lives are clueless about the kind of men who really abuse kids. (Hint: It’s not gay men.) The good news: With knowledge, predators can be
- [Hype Alert: 'Homer & Langley'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/hype-alert-homer-langley/) - E.L. Doctorow’s Homer & Langley has been panned by the New York Times, but most book columns have been beating drums for it as one of the prizes of the Fall. Sadly, no. Doctorow is a god to me --- once a great book editor, then a serious novelist, always on the smart side of every
- [SIGG Bottles: Don’t buy them](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/sigg-bottles-dont-buy-them/) - The reusable bottles that were supposed to be so much safer --- and better for the environment --- than disposable gourmet water bottles have just been revealed to contain Bisphenol-A (PBA). The company says the tainted bottles were all manufactured (and sold) before 2008. I don’t care --- I’m removing my endorsement from the archives and
- [Do I Have a 'Problem' with Elizabeth Gilbert?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/do-i-have-problem-elizabeth-gilbert/) - Reading my review of Drink, Play, F@#k: One Man's Search for Anything Across Ireland, Las Vegas, and Thailand, some have asked if I have a “problem” with Elizabeth Gilbert. Well, yes. Let's ignore the possible calculation in the book’s content --- I have an odd feeling that food, spirit and love are issues that resonant
- [Dan Brown: 'The Lost Symbol'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/dan-brown-lost-symbol/) - A billion copies of Dan Brown’s 528-page thriller will be delivered to breathless customers on September 15th. “Should I do something about this?” I asked my wife. “No way,” she replied, remembering my dismemberment of page one of Brown’s last effort, The Da Vinci Code. Still, it is not a Butler’s right to deny guests what
- [Head Butler Field Trip: Willie Nile](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/head-butler-field-trips-willie-nile-tift-merrittteddy-thompson/) - On Thursday, September 24th, we're off to to Joe’s Pub (in NYC's Public Theater) to see urban rocker Willie Nile. He's been around forever, but he's probably new to you --- and his House of a Thousand Guitars is as exciting as anything you'll hear this year. (Watch a video from the new CD. Click
- [Take 30 Seconds: Help Gustiamo Win $50,000](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/take-30-seconds-help-gustiamo-win-50000/) - American Express is sponsoring a contest for small, innovative businesses with a $50,000 first prize. I nominated Gustiamo.com, the Bronx-based, women-owned importer of high-quality Italian food. Before September 13th, Gustiamo needs 60 fans to second the nomination. (If you’ve ordered from them, you know they’re great; if not, would you take my word for it?) To
- [Mailbag: From Willie Nile](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/mailbag-willie-nile/) - I guess he didn’t hate that rave review. In his bread-and-butter note, he writes: “Started a new album. Songs coming fast and furious. Having a ball. Just played to 40,000 in Lisbon. Who says rock n roll can't be fun? It's a lot more than money and fame.”
- [New York Kids: Where the Cool Things Grow](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/new-york-kids-where-cool-things-grow/) - Nature rules at this 250-acre paradise just 20 minutes from the city. But not for long --- it’s the last weekend for the Edible Garden at the New York Botanical Garden. Kids can dig in the garden and forage in the woods. And there will be cooking demonstrations by Lidia Bastianich and Emeril Lagasse, among
- [Reader Review: Panasonic Lumix Digital Camera](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/reader-review-panasonic-lumix-digital-camera/) - "I requested the Lumix camera for my birthday. When I showed it around the party, everyone said, 'Panasonic? Please...' Which is what N. said too. But that Leica lens is incredible --- it just blows everybody away."
- [Drum Roll: Butler Message Boards](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/drum-roll-butler-message-boards/) - Some of you would like message boards on the site, some don’t. I don’t, for the simple reason that I don’t want to be a censor. Recently, the light bulb went on --- Facebook can be the HeadButler.com message boards. So, each day, I’ll post the new piece --- and any particularly compelling Short Takes
- [Out and About in New York](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/out-and-about-new-york/) - Over the weekend, I took the junior member and some pals to The Highline. Yes, it’s great at night to watch sexual exhibitionists perform behind the uncurtained windows of The Standard Hotel, but there's also great family-friendly fun in strolling, reading and just sitting in the Fall sun. (The snack bar is ‘Wichcraft.) Next field
- [The Weekend Movie: ‘Coco Before Chanel’](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/weekend-movie-coco-chanel-0/) - What a film! Subtle characterizations, sophisticated dialogue, country houses to drool over, and a how-she-made-it plot that transforms gritty ambition into a noble calling. Need more convincing? Watch these.
- [Zut alors! Big Macs at the Louvre](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/zut-alors-big-macs-louvre/) - Just what you want when you visit the Louvre --- a McDonald’s burger, fries and a Coke. Well, soon you can chow down. Another good reason to love the d’Orsay.
- [Our Chefs Can Take the Heat](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/our-chefs-can-take-heat/) - In August, I raved about Canal House Cooking, Vol. 1, which became my go-to summer resource. Good call, as it turns out. Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer’s first effort has been named a finalist in The Tournament of Cookbooks. Their competition? Big time chefs like Thomas Keller and John Besh. Now I really can’t wait for
- [Girls Like Us: the music of Joni, Carly and Carol --- on stage](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/girls-us-music-joni-carly-and-carol-stage/) - Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon -- and the Journey of a Generation is one of my favorite biographies, delivering eye-popping dish and sharp analysis. Now, for one night only, some great singers --- Liz Callaway, Capathia Jenkins, Ann Hampton Callaway, Jessica Molaskey and Barbara Walsh --- will sing the music of
- [Sorry, We Can’t All 'Get Along'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/im-sorry-we-cant-all-get-along/) - I wrote my review of the LeBron James memoir, Shooting Stars, the morning after Fox News, Drudge, Limbaugh and others of that ilk were having a field day over the beating of a white student by two African Americans on a St. Louis school bus. Police later decided this beating was not racially motivated --- a
- [Coco Chanel](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/coco-chanel/) - Reviewing The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lessons from the World's Most Elegant Woman, I alerted you to a new film about her, "Coco Before Chanel”. It’s just opened in New York and Los Angeles, and the New York Times raves: “The film… bears less resemblance to a standard-issue biopic than to a novel by
- [Report from the Field: Willie Nile](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/report-field-willie-nile/) - U2 was playing across the river, but the place to be was Joe’s Pub, where another Irishman and some scarily accomplished pals played an hour-long set that goes right into my Ten Best Ever file. Willie Nile may be physically small, but he’s got a huge rock ‘n roll heart, and it was on full
- [Shriver Report: Women Talk Back](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/shriver-report-women-talk-back/) - Maria Shriver struck a nerve --- but not, I suspect, the one in her happy headline. Thank you for your raw and angry letters. Here are excerpts from two of them: 1) I was told that teaching was an exceptional job for a woman because the vacation times matched those of my children. It mattered little that
- [Gonna Fly Now: 'Canal House Cooking'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/gonna-fly-now-canal-house-cooking/) - Our new favorite cookbook is one of eight to advance to the next round in food52's Tournament of Cookbooks. The authors are trying hard not to brag, but they won Round 1. And for those who care about celebrity endorsements, Gwyneth Paltrow picked “Canal House Cooking" as one of her four "most notable" cookbooks of
- [I Brake for Beauty](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/i-brake-beauty/) - A friend made a mix for me. “Another Train” by the Poozies is the second song. Watch/listen and you’ll see/hear why I’m having so much trouble getting to the third song. (Thanks, Bill.)
- [Shriver: More Reader Blowback](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/shriver-more-reader-blowback/) - 1) “Women are working -- in largely underpaid jobs that men have generally found to be beneath them (secretaries, nurses, grade school teachers). And what about all those much-touted Ivy-league educated mommies with the muscular earning power who opted out (the big story of only a few years ago)? Are they back in the trenches?” 2) “Shriver's
- [If Only](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/if-only/) - Strolling through his Camden, New Jersey neighborhood in 1949, Howard Unruh killed 13 people in 20 minutes. He was a quiet guy, a World War II vet who lived with his mother; he could never explain his killing spree. Last week, he died. From his obituary: “Mr. Cohen fled to the roof of his apartment… as
- ["The Good Men Project" (and me)](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/good-men-project-and-me/) - Unknown gents appeared last year with an entreaty: ‘Please contribute an essay to our book about men.’ Flattered, I read their list of suggested topics. One jabbed at me: how sex and drugs wasted the Boomers’ time and purpose. I thought: No way --- it’s just the opposite. And I wrote a piece called ‘Sex
- [Bette Midler: Force of Nature](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/bette-midler-force-nature/) - For a lot of New Yorkers, Halloween is "Hulaween", Bette Midler’s costume party/benefit for the New York Restoration Project. Don’t know it? Founded by Midler in 1995, this cause is all about dotting our city with clean parks, tree-lined streets and community gardens. Current goal: plant a million trees in New York by 2017. Progress
- [My Romantic/Sexual History: Live!](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/my-romanticsexual-history-live-nyc/) - I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I agreed to write an essay for The Good Man Project. My piece about my education in manhood --- which took place in the beds of some extravagantly kind women --- was one of 31 in this book; I thought it would get lost. But
- [The Times of London's 'Book of the Decade'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/times-londons-book-decade/) - Atop a list of 100 books, The Times declares, "It is our book of the decade; but it will outlast that judgment, too. It is a work of force and dark brilliance, a perfect expression of the early 21st-century’s terrors —- and of the hope we must all have that we shall not destroy ourselves,
- [How To Save The Book Business](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/how-save-book-business/) - Literary pundits have been weighing in on the ills of publishing, so I thought I’d take a shot. I'm a little tougher than most --- as I write in the first sentence of my screed, “Book publishing has been trying to commit suicide for all the decades I've been writing, and now it's finally getting
- [Making An Entrance](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/making-entrance/) - U2, Fergie --- and Mick Jagger. If you watch nothing else, watch the first 30 seconds for Jagger’s entrance. Maximum excitement, maximum presence. And a life lesson: This is how it’s done.
- [Head Butler Holiday Project: Suffer the Children](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/head-butler-holiday-project-suffer-children/) - The New York Times reports that hunger in America is at a 14-year high --and it’s 14 years only because the government didn’t start tracking hunger until 1995. That’s 49 million people who “lack consistent access to adequate food”, up 13 million from a year ago. One figure that leapt out at government officials ---
- [Consumer Warning: Elizabeth ('Eat, Pray, Love') Gilbert's New Book](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/consumer-warning-elizabeth-eat-pray-love-gilberts-new-book/) - Elizabeth Gilbert memoirs begin in crisis. In Eat, Pray, Love, she's on her bathroom floor at three in the morning, desperate to end her marriage. In the just-published sequel, Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage, Felipe --- the Brazilian she loves too much to marry --- is detained by Homeland Security as he tries to
- [The Best Wedding Entrance Ever?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/best-wedding-entrance-ever/) - Well, surely the happiest --- hang in for the entrance of the bride at the 4-minute mark. Now that is joy! (Views on YouTube: 38,600,000.)
- [The Best Divorce Entrance Ever?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/best-divorce-entrance-ever/) - For every great video, there is a parody.
- [Kate McGarrigle: Sadness Descends](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/kate-mcgarrigle-sadness-descends/) - Kate was sister to Anna, mother to Rufus and Martha. She died, age 63, on January 18, 2010. Here she and Anna perform a song Anna wrote, “Heart Like a Wheel.”
- [Kate McGarrigle: ‘Her soul told her hands what to do”](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/kate-mcgarrigle-her-soul-told-her-hands-what-do”/) - Extraordinarily eloquent descriptions of a life --- and a death --- by her children, Martha and Rufus, and her sister Anna. From an English newspaper, of course.
- [Bob Dylan at the White House](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/bob-dylan-white-house/) - For whatever reason, the image is static. The music certainly is not.
- [Amazing Clint Eastwood Scene: "The Ugliest Bitch"](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/amazing-clint-eastwood-scene/) - In 'White Hunter, Black Heart,' Clint plays film director John Huston. (Thanks for this, Larry.)
- [Are You Ready for the Country?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/are-you-ready-country/) - Before many of you were born, Western Massachusetts was dotted with communes founded by city kids who'd decided that back-to-the-land was the best idea going. At that moment, farming seemed like a reasonable use for my English Lit degree, so I grabbed a chilly bedroom overlooking the back 40. Turns out I like central heat
- [‘An Education’ -- Your Next Movie?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/-education-your-next-movie/) - I’m trying to remember why I didn’t rush to see "An Education" the day it opened. The reviews were raves, and the idea --- an English girl on the verge of applying to Oxford meets an Older Man --- was compelling. (Now I remember. We have a daughter. The idea creeped me out.) Well, we finally
- [You may never drink Chardonnay again](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/you-may-never-drink-chardonnay-again/) - Not much white wine is consumed in this household, largely because friends keep giving us Chardonnay. I know I’m a jerk about this, but really --- is Chardonnay a wine or a marketing strategy? Chardonnay is especially despised around here because I had a great cheap white once in Paris, a Bordeaux called Chateau Magence.
- [Book Awards: How odd, we occasionally agree](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/book-awards-how-odd-we-occasionally-agree/) - The finalists for the National Book Critics Circle awards have been announced, and three books I liked made the cut: FICTION: Blame, by Michelle Huneven NON-FICTION: Strength in What Remains, by Tracy Kidder MEMOIR: Lit, by Mary Karr Now will you try them?
- [Animal Farm: The Harvard literary magazine goes to the barnyard](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/animal-farm-harvard-literary-magazine-goes-barnyard/) - The Harvard Advocate is America’s oldest college literary magazine and, most of the time, its best. (One exception: when I was its managing editor. The editor, a poet, was too lofty to produce an issue and had zero intention of letting me produce one so, with some colleagues, I formally impeached him. “That sort of
- [The Allegri Miserere: The Time Is Now](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/allegri-miserere-time-now/) - Music for Holy Week, and a remarkable story of music held for the personal enjoyment of the Pope --- until Mozart came along. At the very least, listen here.
- [ NYC Sublet: Oprah’s Decorator Was Here](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/nyc-sublet-oprahs-decorator-was-here/) - Fully furnished 2 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, on West 58th Street, a block from Central Park. 12 months starting July 1. $4,200. For pictures and details, click here.
- [Fantastic Mark Knopfler Tickets: Red Bank, 5/5](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/fantastic-mark-knopfler-tickets-red-bank-55/) - Boo-hoo. I have two fantastic Mark Knopfler tickets -- Row F, dead center -- but I have belatedly realized I can't go. My loss can be your thrill. The concert is 8 PM, Wednesday, May 5, at the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey. Yours for my cost: $160 each.
- [No Time for a Book? Read a Q&A with Bill McKibben](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/no-time-book-read-qa-bill-mckibben/) - I know how it is. You really want to read Bill McKibben's important new book, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. But you suspect it's a downer. And anyway, what can one person do about climate change? I have a middle-path solution: Read Salon's excellent interview with Bill McKibben. It's short and
- [Italian Gourmet --- At A Discount](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/italian-gourmet-discount/) - Gustiamo --- the ultra-special Italian importer of artisanal food --- meets you half-way (maybe more). The ladies write: 10 years of a $15 flat shipping fee --- no more. If you place an order on Gustiamo.com, shipping charges are now calculated on the basis of how many items you are purchasing. This is how it
- [Josh Ritter: It’s That Time](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/josh-ritter-its-time/) - Josh Ritter’s new CD, So Runs the World Away, comes out May 4th. An advance copy has come my way --- and I play it so often it's wrecking my life. Not kidding. These songs are urgent and beautiful, worldly and ethereal --- they grab hard and don’t let go. Readers who live in cities where
- [Matt Damon/Paul Greengrass: First See 'Battle of Algiers'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/matt-damonpaul-greengrass-first-see-battle-algiers/) - The screenwriter of “Green Zone” (in theaters on March 12) describes it as “Three Days of the Condor” meets “Battle of Algiers.” Hmm. “Green Zone.” That’s Iraq. Title put you off? You avoid “political” movies? No matter --- you’ll see this one. It stars Matt Damon. And was directed by Paul Greengrass, who collaborated with Damon in
- [Blogroll: I Love Paris](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/blogroll-i-love-paris/) - …and so I have a crushette on Nichole Robertson, an American copywriter from New Jersey who gets to live in Paris for several months a year with her husband and two sons. Nicole has a jeweler’s eye, a advertiser writer’s crisp prose, and priorities I admire: “Paris is a big source of inspiration to me,
- [Blogroll: I Love Paris](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/blogroll-i-love-paris-0/) - ... and so I have a crushette on Nichole Robertson, an American copywriter from New Jersey who gets to live in Paris for several months a year with her husband and two sons. Nicole has a jeweler’s eye, an advertising writer’s crisp prose, and priorities I admire: “Paris is a big source of inspiration to
- [Coming Attractions: Josh Ritter](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/coming-attractions-josh-ritter/) - Josh Ritter’s new CD, "So Runs the World Away", isn’t out until Tuesday, May 4, but prudent readers will pre-order it now. Daily Candy has a charming preview: Josh and his wife, Dawn Landes, doing one of his new songs in their kitchen.
- [Video of the Week](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/video-week/) - Consumer warning: Watch it once, you'll be addicted.
- [Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/sister-rosetta-goes-us/) - The CD's been out for two years, but every time I hear Raising Sand -- the Alison Krauss/Robert Plant collaboration -- I’m floored all over again.
- [Twyla Tharp: 'Come Fly Away'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/twyla-tharp-come-fly-away/) - Nostalgic for the Olympics? No need. World-class athleticism has moved to Broadway, where the women in Twyla Tharp’s troupe are tossing off the dance equivalent of triple-axels and the men could teach Shaun White a thing or two about innovative leaps. Okay, I’m not a neutral observer --- I was Ms. Tharp’s collaborator on her
- [Mary Herczog (1964-2010)](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/mary-herczog-1964-2010/) - My friend Julie turned me on to cancerchick.com, the web site of her friend Mary Herczog, who was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1996. Mary shared her ups and downs on this site for years; I got there late, when it was obvious she’d almost run out of time. On February 16, she finally
- [Simon & Garfunkel: On Tour](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/simon-garfunkel-tour/) - They’ve been through every permutation in their relationship, but if you saw them sing together at the MTV anniversary show (sadly, not on the web), you saw two men perform so brilliantly they looked at one another afterward, stunned. So we shouldn’t be surprised there’s a tour, starting in Canada in late April and then moving
- [ ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ -- Meet America’s Sweethearts](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/eat-pray-love-meet-americas-sweethearts/) - Some will say that Julia Roberts (America’s Sweetheart #1) was destined to play Elizabeth Gilbert (America’s Sweetheart #2) in the film adaptation of Eat Pray Love. Watch the trailer. Decide for yourself.
- [College Daze: Joan Schenkar at Bennington](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/college-daze-joan-schenkar-bennington/) - And those were the days. For a thesis adviser, Joan Schenkar --- author of The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith --- had the esteemed literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman. Her bonus: Hyman was married to the haunted short story ("The Lottery") writer and essayist Shirley Jackson. Schenkar knew
- [Quadruple Grande Latte: I see a red door...](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/quadruple-grande-latte-i-see-red-door/)
- [Scenes from a Marriage: JK on Laura Bush](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/scenes-marriage-jk-laura-bush/) - Having been married a few times, I was asked by a friend at the Brennan Center for Justice to review Laura Bush's memoir. My piece is only a little political, so maybe those of you who remember Laura and/or George fondly can stand to read it without gagging. Anyway, it's here.
- [Stieg Larsson’s Last Interview](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/stieg-larssons-last-interview/) - Three weeks before he died --- and long before The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was published --- the then-unknown novelist spoke with a journalist. Among the revelations Stieg Larsson shared: “I thought of Pippi Longstocking.”
- [George Steinbrenner: Bullyball](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/george-steinbrenner-bullyball/) - I reviewed "Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball" for Bloomberg Business Week. It was a splendid opportunity to be kind to the failing 80-year-old majority owner of the New York Yankees. I didn't take it. Read it here.
- [New York Sublet: Tasty Bargain](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/new-york-sublet-tasty-bargain/) - Beautifully furnished one-bedroom on 87th St. between West End and Riverside. Pre-war building, 800 sq. ft., eat-in kitchen, elevator. All utilities (that's wi-fi and cable, too) included. One-year sublet, $2,700 per month. Write KateHamptonNYC@AOL.com.
- [What He Did For Love](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/what-he-did-love/) - There had been tensions, and they came to a head when it was time to tour just as his wife, after a difficult pregnancy, gave birth to a sickly child. What would you do? Peter Gabriel --- lead singer of one of the most popular bands on the planet --- quit Genesis and chose not
- [ A Bruce Springsteen Contest: Which Two Books?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/bruce-springsteen-contest-which-two-books/) - They met at the gym. He allegedly said she had “the best ass” there. And then, according to the New York Post, Bruce Springsteen had an “inappropriate” relationship with 45-year-old Ann Kelly, wife and mother of two --- and a dead ringer for Bruce’s wife. Now the Kellys are getting divorced. Among the allegations from Kelly’s
- [Kenny White Takes Comfort in the Static](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/kenny-white-takes-comfort-static/) - When last we heard from Kenny White, he was tough on himself (“I'm getting tired of coming close/ Tired of the chances I don't take”), determined to do better (“You got a brain, you got style/ So you might as well put it on the line once in a while”) and reveling in the absurdity of young women
- [Wine Update: reds/whites --- on sale](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/wine-update-great-reds-and-whites-sale/) - I have raved before about Chateau Magence. This white Graves is thin as a Riesling, just more structured, and it packs a deceptively gentle punch. In New York, you can find it at K&D Wines (1366 Madison Avenue, phone: 212 289 1818), where the 2008 Magence goes for $9.99 a bottle --- an insane price
- [A Retreat, and Then Some: Tortola (British Virgin Islands)](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/retreat-and-then-some-tortola-british-virgin-islands/) - Our beautifully renovated West Indian cottage has three bedrooms, two baths, garden living and writing room, and the “best view in the BVI." Terraced landscaping, with bananas, mangos, pineapples and limes. New kitchen and bar, dishwasher, laundry room and studio; with security system. A Caribbean gem located above two bays. Minutes from the beach, but
- [Baby, You're a Rich Man: My 'Business Week' Review](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/baby-youre-rich-man-my-business-week-review/) - The music business, Hunter S. Thompson once suggested, is "a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." So what, one wonders, is Edgar Bronfman Jr., scion of the Seagram liquor empire, doing as the CEO of
- [Mood Elevator: Classical Power Unleashed!](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/mood-elevator-classical-power-unleashed/) - When some yahoo --- like your kid --- says classical music’s a bore, here’s your answer. And the fireworks at the end! Carmina Burana, of course.
- [ Cancer: Save Yourself!](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/cancer-save-yourself/) - Nicholas Kristof writes in the New York Times that the President’s Cancer Panel is releasing a disturbing report. The key finding: “Only a few hundred of the more than 80,000 chemicals in use in the United States have been tested for safety, Many known or suspected carcinogens are completely unregulated.” Don't look to industry to seek more
- [Michael Gross vs. the Metropolitan Museum](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/michael-gross-vs-metropolitan-museum/) - When last we checked in with Michael Gross, author of Rogues' Gallery: The Secret Story of the Lust, Lies, Greed, and Betrayals that Made the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he was being flogged by the Museum and its trustees for writing such a cheeky book. The Met wasn’t selling the book in its gift shop;
- [Josh Ritter. NYC. 5/20. Coming?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/josh-ritter-new-york-town-hall-520-coming/) - The 5/20 show was sold out well before the CD was released. (Some tickets are available for the 5/19 show.) If you're one of the lucky and/or smart people with tickets for the 20th --- the night my wife and I are going --- and want to make some kind of Head Butler field trip out of
- [Christopher Hitchens: No Thanks](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/christopher-hitchens-no-thanks/) - A publishing imprint I admire releases just one book a month --- a sane strategy in a wobbly business. The June book: a memoir by Brit critic and man about town, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22. I suspect the reviews by American writers will be good to glowing --- Hitchens is nothing if not witty. Alas, I have
- [The Best Book on Leadership --- Ever?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/best-book-leadership-ever/) - Steve Hannah, CEO of The Onion, is not especially funny. But he is damn smart and a great judge of character, as this New York Times interview suggests. Ten years ago, he met one of my very few heroes, Lt. Gen. Harold Moore, co-author of one of my favorite books, We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young. The book
- [‘Girls Like Us’ – The book now has a free soundtrack](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/girls-us-–-book-now-has-free-soundtrack/) - It’s like a low-tech app, a “m-book,” if you will. As you’re reading Sheila Weller’s beach-book-and-then-some, Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon -- and the Journey of a Generation, you can go to a web site and listen to the songs that made them want to write, as well as the songs they
- [Peter Wolf: Extreme Fun](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/peter-wolf-extreme-fun/) - Peter Wolf’s brief tour is ending, and weren’t we lucky to see him. He looks like a stoned hipster out of an R. Crumb comic --- skinny, tall, all in black, dark shades, dangling hair, porkpie hat --- but as a showman, there’s none sharper. He’s got bouncing leg disease that takes him all over
- [The Beauty Part: Liam Hurley](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/beauty-part-liam-hurley/) - Before Liam Hurley was Josh Ritter's drummer, he was a puppeteer at the Central Park children's theater. Now he's taken "The Curse," a song from Josh's new CD, and painstakingly made an animated video. Love Josh, loathe Josh, no matter --- I don't see how you can fail to be knocked out by the gorgeousness of
- [When Daddy Fails: 'The Unavailable Father'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/when-daddy-failed-unavailable-father/) - Sarah Simms Rosenthal's father could be witty and warm. But she always had to tiptoe around him; when he was in a bad mood, his rage filled the room, and, more often than not, it was directed against her. Their “broken” father-daughter relationship cost her plenty --- a predictably heavy loss of security and love.
- ["Don't Stop Believing"](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/dont-stop-believing/) - Jonathan Alter writes: “Obama had just gotten back from Asia, and he said that he had just spoken with the President of South Korea who had told him that his biggest problem that he was facing domestically that the parents were very concerned that their kids were only learning English starting in 2nd grade and
- [Is your kid targeted by bullies? 'Friending' bullies?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/your-kid-targeted-bullies-friending-bullies/) - The cruelty of kids to kids didn’t start with Facebook and texting. If your kid is a target --- or a bully --- a kid’s book set a century ago powerfully shows how this cruelty catches on and grows. And, worse, how good kids get caught up in it and go along with it. The
- [‘Laurence Fishburne totally checked out your legs...’](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/laurence-fishburne-totally-checked-out-your-legs/) - A reader reports: “Okay, so I'm a woman of a certain age. I'm sitting in the front row of the play about Thurgood Marshall, and, when it’s over, I stay for the question-and-answer session. I’m wearing a short dress, and I had put on the Sally Hansen leg make up that your wife uses. My
- [The bells are ringing --- in Rhinebeck](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/bells-are-ringing-rhinebeck/) - The non-Hampton up the Hudson will be the scene of a media frenzy when Chelsea Clinton marries What's His Name there. And then it will, please, slip under the radar again. If you must go to Rhinebeck, my pals at Rural Intelligence offer a field guide to the town’s cool stuff.
- [Georgia Tapert Living: Chic on Sale](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/georgia-tapert-living-chic-sale/) - Georgia Tapert is transitioning from retailing to furniture design, so she's decided to close her shop. If you need a gift or have little pockets of boredom in your home, you'll do well to head down to SoHo for lovely glassware, china, table accessories and more at shockingly agreeable prices.
- [Escapes: There's Even Popcorn & Air-Conditioning](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/beauty-part-only-movie-see/) - Summer. Brain rot rules the sixplex. Is there any movie worth seeing? Two. First up: "Winter's Bone," my favorite movie of the year. (To read my rave and find a theater, click here.) And not to overlook: "The Secret in Their Eyes." From Argentina. It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. Playing in cities now.
- [Sorry If You Think This Is Political. I Don't.](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/sorry-if-you-think-political-i-dont/) - Eric Balderas, who is about to be a sophomore at Harvard, has the classic biology major’s dream --- cure cancer. This month, when exams ended, he flew home to San Antonio. At the airport on his way back, his Harvard photo ID didn’t get him past the TSA. That is because Eric was born in Mexico
- [In Just Six Words: What really matters to you?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/just-six-words-what-really-matters-you/) - My pal Craig Davis, once lord of creativity at JWT, moved back to his native Australia to become Chief Creative Officer at Publicis Mojo --- and launch the first web site to link advertising with idealism. Brandkarma.com asks: Oil spills, product recalls --- can brands be a force for good? And then people around the
- [The Miles Franklin Award: And the winner is....](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/miles-franklin-award-and-winner/) - The Miles Franklin Literary Award is the most prestigious literary prize in Australia. Funded by the author of "My Brilliant Career," it's awarded to "the novel of the year which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases." This year's winner: Peter Temple, for "Truth." To quote the
- [Butler Goes To a Tea Party](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/butler-goes-tea-party/) - No politics here. So when my pals at the Brennan Center ask me to review political books, I jump. This time, I work out on Dick Armey’s new book, Give Us Liberty: A Tea Party Manifesto. Click if you dare.
- [Julia Roberts: Eat Pray Snob](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/julia-roberts-eat-pray-snob/) - So where was Julia Roberts at the Metropolitan Club party after the New York premiere of Eat Pray Love? At a private after-party, upstairs. Protected by bodyguards. Who didn't get in? Many, including Elizabeth Gilbert. Best moment: "Roberts did spend about five minutes in the main party room. But as she and her posse ---
- [NOT SAFE FOR WORK (unless you have an office with a door you can close)](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/not-safe-work-work-unless-you-have-office-door-you-can-close/)
- [Are you 17-30? Know someone who is? A gift certificate awaits...](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/are-you-17-30-know-someone-who-gift-certificate-awaits/) - My friends at The Book Report Network are thinking about creating a book website for the college/twentysomething demographic, so they’ve created a survey for 17-to-30 year-olds. If you still dwell in this demo, would you weigh in? If these years are behind you, please share this with 17-30 year-olds you know. Those who complete the
- [Hawaiian Eye: A Trip To A Hawaii Tourists Don't See](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/hawaiian-eye-trip-hawaii-tourists-dont-see/) - Hawaii is 5,000 miles away. On a muggy summer night, the Lower East Side feels just as distant. But the party for the paperback edition of "Fierce Heart: The Story of Makaha and the Soul of Hawaiian Surfing" [To buy the book from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle version, click here] featured not only a
- [Consumer Warning: Avoid 'Dinner for Schmucks,' Find 'The Dinner Game'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/consumer-warning-avoid-dinner-schmucks-find-dinner-game/) - Steve Carell makes few mistakes, but 'Dinner for Schmucks' looks like a whopper. Even the trailer looks unfunny. Too bad, because the premise is amusing --- sophisticated men host a dinner to which each brings an idiot, and at the end of the evening, the sophisticated guys choose a winner. Or it was amusing in
- [Beryl Bainbridge: The art of facing death](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/beryl-bainbridge-art-facing-death/) - Beryl Bainbridge, a real writer, died on July 2nd. Last year, she wrote a piece about death. Here's a sample: "I think of death a lot, indeed always have, although when young I had a belief that it was a long way off. Now, it isn’t, and I continually think of how I would prefer
- [Josh Ritter, Tarrytown, NY, 8/7](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/contest-josh-ritter-tix-tarrytown-ny-87/) - Josh Ritter will be at the Tarrytown Music Hall on Saturday, August 7th at 8 PM. It's a small (800 seats) old bandbox, an ideal venue for a singer/songwriter. If years past are a guide, the Josh/Tarrytown combo is a fine mini-expedition: a pleasant drive, a stroll along the Hudson, dinner at one of the
- [America's First Truck Stop Book Tour](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/barbara-richardson-queen-road/) - I'm a fan of "Guest House," a novel by Barbara K. Richardson that --- gasp --- wasn't published by a major New York imprint. [Read about it here. Buy it here.] I'm becoming an even bigger fan of Ms. Richardson, who has invented a new kind of book promotion --- she's taken to the road,
- [Bobble Bottles: The Ultimate Endorsement](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/bobble-bottles-ultimate-endorsement/) - A longtime friend of this site has had a stroke --- mild, blessedly --- and is in rehab. She reports: “This city has the most heavily chlorinated water I have ever tasted. At home, I have a big Britta system --- here, I basically had to abstain. My sister ordered me a Bobble Water Bottle.
- [I wonder if it happened like this....](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/i-wonder-if-it-happened/) - On Thursday, Secretary of Defense Gates had what's been described as "a very brief" conversation with the Florida minister who was planning to burn the Koran. How brief? I like to think he said just three words: "Google Salman Rushdie."
- [Jonathan Franzen & David Brooks: ‘Freedom’s just another word…’](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/jonathan-franzen-david-brooks-freedoms-just-another-word…/) - I was once on a panel with David Brooks. Something I said was something he’d never heard before --- and wasn’t likely ever to think. I wish there were film of that moment; he all but rocketed out of his chair. Jonathan Franzen produces somewhat the same reaction in Brooks. Obviously, his column will make
- [Going to Paris? Don't Make This Mistake!](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/going-paris-dont-make-mistake/) - E-mail from a reader: Back in the 90s, I had a copy of An Hour from Paris and enjoyed the couple of trips I tried out. Just prior to a recent Paris trip, I figured one of Ms. Simms' trips would be perfect for my wife, our nine-month-old, and me. But when I packed the night before
- [The Beauty Part: 'Into the Mystic'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/beauty-part-mystic/) - Our friend Ron Fried --- he wrote Christmas in Paris, 2002 --- has a knack for unearthing musical truffles. Like: this melt-the-hardest-heart cover of a Van Morrison classic by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, who, a few years back, starred in a small gem of a film called Once.
- [Things That Make You Go Hmmm: Jonathan Franzen’s ‘Freedom’](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/things-make-you-go-hmmm-jonathan-franzens-freedom/) - Jonathan Franzen was just on the cover of Time Magazine. Now he gets a rave review in The New York Times from the impossible-to-please Michiko Kakutani. So I clicked into Amazon to buy it. "This book will be released on August 31." Ditto Barnes & Noble. [I had hoped to give this book to my
- [Simon & Garfunkel: ‘See how they shine….’](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/simon-garfunkel-see-how-they-shine…/) - Paul’s Spanish guitar intro….at the one-minute mark, the smile before they sing together…and then....just the music. Transcendent --- and more so because, at the majestic age of 69, with the years in their voices, they’re better than ever. Great wine does this. Matisse. Very few others. We are so lucky to have them.
- [Lori Lieberman: Washington Crossing, New Jersey, 9/25](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/lori-lieberman-washington-crossing-new-jersey-925/) - Her sister sent her my way. Lucky me. Lori Lieberman is not only the writer behind the classic “Killing Me Softly,” she ‘s a singer-songwriter of uncommon sensitivity. And then lucky Lori --- friends at the excellent “Concerts at the Crossing” series picked up on my rave, and now she’s performing there, Thursday, 9/25,
- [Jonathan Franzen, David Brooks & My Wife: I'll Have What She's Having](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/jonathan-franzen-david-brooks-my-wife-ill-have-what-shes-having/) - David Brooks is not my favorite op-ed columnist, but not because of his politics. It's his reporting. If you happen to know anything about the subject he's writing about, you often have to rub your eyes --- he twists the facts to make his case. So it was with his column about Jonathan Franzen and
- [Five Hour Energy: ‘Y'all d Think She Be Good To Me’](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/five-hour-energy-yall-d-think-she-be-good-me/) - Play loud. Repeat as needed. C.C. Adcock.
- [A Song You'll Never See on the Charts: 'May I Suggest?'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/song-idea-no-one-thinks-share/) - Some of you may recall a wonderful video by the Poozies of “There’s Another Train.” (Click here to watch/listen.) The same friend who sent that instant generator of tears and gratitude has done it again. The group is Red Molly. The songwriter is Susan Werner. Nine bows to them all.
- [Primal Scream Time](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/primal-scream-time/) - Maybe it's the elections, coming closer, closer, like the monster in a bad sci-fi movie, with media amplifying every stupefying footstep. Maybe it's the weather. Whatever, I'm in the mood to punch stupid in the face. Or just crank the volume high for a classic from the Pleistocene --- “Wild in the Streets,” by Garland
- [Barack Obama on Bob Dylan at the White House](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/barack-obama-bob-dylan-white-house/) - The President's review: "Here’s what I love about Dylan: He was exactly as you’d expect he would be. He wouldn’t come to the rehearsal; usually, all these guys are practicing before the set in the evening. He didn’t want to take a picture with me; usually all the talent is dying to take a picture with
- [So Many Reasons to Love Tim Gunn: Here's Another](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/so-many-reasons-love-tim-gunn-heres-another/) - You've seen the news stories: gay teenagers, pushed by bullies, are killing themselves. In response, gays celebrated and not are making a series of videos on the theme of "It Gets Better." In our house, the female residents are addicted to "Project Runway," hosted by Tim Gunn. They admire him because, they say, he's the only reality
- [Arvo Pärt: ‘It is enough when a single note is beautifully played.'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/arvo-pärt-it-enough-when-single-note-beautifully-played/) - On November 13, I’m going to Lincoln Center for the American premiere of Arvo Pärt’s “Stabat Mater.” (For tickets, click here.) The New York Times is all over the Estonian composer, with a big piece in the Times Magazine. But if you’re a longtime reader of this site, you’ve had the cheat sheet on Pärt for
- ['The Social Network' -- have you seen it?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/social-network-have-you-seen-it/) - If not, why not? If yes, you know: It’s probably the smartest, most thrilling --- certainly, the most provocative --- movie you’ll see this year. Enjoyable? Merely delicious.
- [Mark Zuckerberg reviews 'The Social Network'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/mark-zuckerberg-reviews-social-network/)
- [What were you doing when you were 18?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/what-were-you-doing-when-you-were-18/) - This is what Stevie Winwood was up to. A rare video. Do crank the volume.
- [Buckyballs are creative fun -- and help the planet](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/buckyballs-are-creative-fun-and-help-planet/) - On three Mondays --- November 1, 8 and 15 --- Buckyballs will donate 100% profits from Buckyballs online sales to The Buckminster Fuller Challenge! (It's an annual $100,000 prize awarded to solve humanity's most pressing problems.) What are Buckyballs? Where do you buy them? Click here.
- [These Are the Days](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/these-are-days/) - Thanks to the Internet, I can honestly say something that sounds crazy --- I’ve never met some of my best friends. So I was skittish about accepting Christopher Hirsheimer’s invitation to a surprise lunch for her business partner, Melissa Hamilton. I “know” Chrisopher and Melissa because I was an early fan of their Canal House cookbook
- [Politics: 'Maybe he'll listen to you'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/politics-maybe-hell-listen-you/) - For those who have the stomach for these things, I have an Open Letter to Michelle Obama on Huffington Post.
- [Paul Simon: One New Song, One Click Away](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/paul-simon-one-new-song-one-click-away/) - Paul Simon slapped up a Christmas song --- not cloying holiday cheer, but definitely something to cheer about --- on www.paulsimon.com.
- [For sale: 2 French 1920s leather club chairs](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/sale-2-french-1920s-leather-club-chairs/) - They're smallish. The cushions need restuffing; the leather could use some patching. But they have a certain charm and elegance. And they must go --- their replacements are arriving today. No reasonable offer refused? Hey, we'll take an unreasonable offer! Write me at HeadButlerNYC@AOL.com.
- [All the federales say/ They could have had him any day/ They only let him slip away/ Out of kindness I suppose](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/all-federales-say-they-could-have-had-him-any-day-they-only-let-him-slip-away-out-kindnes/)
- [The Film to See](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/film-see/)
- [A very good reason to make sure you are alive on May 27, 2011](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/very-good-reason-make-sure-you-are-alive-may-27-2011-0/) - That's the opening of 'The Tree of Life,' written and directed by Terence Malick.
- [Tattoo You](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/tattoo-you/) - So there you are at the biker bar, drinking the local brew but still feeling badly under-decorated. Or you’re at an airport terminal in a state that allows residents to carry concealed weapons, feeling like everybody can tell you’re a Volvo-driving, latte-swilling Yankee Democrat. No need to play the part of a wimp --- not
- [Gobsmacked by a "Distinguished Professor"](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/gobsmacked-distinguished-professor/) - In a blog on “The Smart Set,” Paula Marantz Cohen recently “leveled my gaze at the men’s buttoned shirt in the hope that it might yield insight into the subtle expressiveness of the male wardrobe.” One aspect mystified her --- the detachable collars on men’s 19th century dress shirts: As originally designed, the collar was
- [John Weidman's Quietly Outsized Talent](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/john-weidmans-quietly-outsized-talent/) - John Weidman and I were friendly at college, and we live in the same city, but we've taken different paths --- he writes musicals with Stephen Sondheim, I stick to print --- and we've rarely seen one another in four decades. So I was delighted when Harvard Magazine asked me to write a short profile about John. Here
- [May I lead you to water in NYC on 11/16?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/may-i-lead-you-water-nyc-1116/) - Water, water, everywhere? We like to think so. But our most important resource is our most endangered resource. If you don’t know this from Susan Leal’s book, Running Out of Water, you might want to show up at the Council of the Americas (680 Park Avenue) on Tuesday, November 16th, for an 8:30 AM (yes, AM)
- [Springfield Sexual Addiction Center: From PERV to PERFECT in as little as 10 days.](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/springfield-sexual-addiction-center-perv-perfect-little-10-days/) - Are friends and co-workers always borrowing pens from you --- and forgetting to return them? And don't they always have a good excuse: “I don’t know it was yours.” Well, they’ll know who owns these. The collection of eight pens is called Borrow My Pen. The pens are embossed with the names of uniformly stupid
- [Jacques Sandulescu: February 21, 1928 – November 19, 2010](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/jacques-sandulescu-february-21-1928-–-november-19-2010/) - “I was arrested in Brasov on my way to school,” his book begins, and right there, right at the start, you know that nothing good follows. Jacques Sandulescu was 16, and tall, and very strong, but there were many with an equal will to live who died in the hell of the Ukrainian coal mines.
- [FOR SALE: 2 of Dominick Dunne’s Club Chairs](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/sale-forget-previous-ad-2-dominick-dunnes-club-chairs/) - At last week’s auction of Dominick Dunne’s furniture and memorabilia, we bought two blue damask-covered club chairs. They came yesterday, and we were, initially, delighted. Then we noticed that, in our living room, they seem small -- they’d go better in a bedroom. Alas, we don’t need them there. So we want to find a
- [An iPad case that looks like a leather-bound book](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/gift-almost-cool-ipad/) - This season, it looks as if “everyone” who doesn’t already have an iPad will be getting one. Know this: The iPad isn't fragile, but it does need some protection. And there is your chance to make yours…special. The BookBook is a zippered and padded leather case made specifically to give stylish protection to iPads. Handmade, so each
- [You, the night, the music: Steinway for sale](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/you-night-music-steinway-sale/) - Vertical walnut Steinway, model F, Louis XV style. Purchased at Steinway Hall NYC 1965, one loving owner in Teaneck, New Jersey. Written appraisal done by Steinway technician in July 2010 with today’s replacement value: $25,300. Our price: $3,500.00. Contact jdknyny@yahoo.com.
- [Sign on to Head Butler's weekend gig: 'Sign Off'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/sign-head-butlers-weekend-gig-sign/) - New York is Media Central, and that’s the problem --- we’re inundated with information. One solution: a curator (the Head Butler idea). Happily, some smart friends have created Sign Off (The Last Email of the Day). On weeknights, they give you short takes on 3 important news stories you may have missed, 3 biggies coming
- [Dept. of Nepotism: Good news --- she’s really talented](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/dept-nepotism-good-news-shes-really-talented/) - When my niece graduates from Stanford this spring, she knows exactly what she wants to do next: sustainable fashion. Huh? That doesn’t mean recycling potato sacks into evening dresses --- Irys much prefers to use discarded scraps of fabric. May I brag: She was not only in a New York Times fashion spread over the weekend,
- [The President Called For A New Civility, So I'm Canceling Sprint](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/president-called-new-civilility-so-im-canceling-sprint/) - You gotta start somewhere. I started here.
- [Just do it](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/just-do-it/) - If you’ve ever been tempted to roll blind dice with me, do it now --- the Kanye West CD, "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy," is that good. It inspires the kitchen sink of adjectives --- symphonic and synthesized, eloquent and vulgar, self-lacerating and gloriously ego-driven, menacing and titanic, studded with guest stars and resoundingly solo.
- [Darren Criss and Chris Colfer: ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/darren-criss-and-chris-colfer-baby-its-cold-outside”/) - I don’t watch “Glee,” but my wife and daughter do, and my wife drags me in to watch any scene that involves the gay kid. We shake our heads at how enlightened the show is. Who’d a thunk it? Here is a duet, traditionally male-female, now sung by two males --- on Fox, no less. Welcome to
- [The Periodical Room: Paris and Better Living by e-mail](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/periodical-room-paris-and-better-living-e-mail/) - If you’re a Francophile or are looking for the ideal gift for someone who is, consider the gift of a year’s subscription to Bonjour Paris. Launched in 1995, BP’s archives include more than 7000 articles; the site has a Q & A section and its staff will do research for premium subscribers. For a limited time,
- [Another Year: A film about adults, for adults](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/another-year-film-about-adults-adults/) - December brings “screeners” --- DVDs of new films that the producers and studios consider award-worthy. This year’s crop is a stone bore; only “The Fighter” has grabbed us. Go out to a film? Same story. With one exception so far: Mike Leigh’s “Another Year.” It seems almost like a throwaway: a happy couple in their
- [Broadway Must-See: 'The Book of Mormon'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/broadway-must-see-book-mormon/) - I'm told Sondheim laughed so hard at a rehearsal of "The Book of Mormon" he almost had a medical event. Previews start Feb. 24. Click for tickets. But wait, you say --- a musical about Mormons? From the creators of “South Park?” Watch….
- [Tracy Chapman: State of the Union](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/tracy-chapman-state-union/) - I had almost stopped thinking about Christina-Taylor Green, the 9-year-old killed in Tucson. Then I read about how her family allowed her organs to be harvested and donated. The right decision, but as a father, very hard to go there. Then I heard Tracy Chapman's song, "Bang Bang Bang." And then I thought not to spare you. If so
- [Townes van Zandt: After reading 'The Last Temptation of Christ'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/townes-van-zandt-after-reading-last-temptation-christ/)
- [If you're an asshole, Sprint's for you](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/if-you-have-asbergers-you-want-sprint/) - I am a connoisseur of stupid commercials, but the holiday Sprint commercial stands knees and ankles below the dumbest. The set-up: two neighbors, one standing in front of his holiday-lit house, one --- Mr. Asshole --- standing in the street. Mr. A has just texted that his neighbor’s house is an eyesore. And he has just
- [The Most Popular Video In Our House (This Week)](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/most-popular-video-our-house-week/)
- [The Most Popular Video In Our House (This Week)](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/most-popular-video-our-house-week-0/) - An Otis Redding classic. He owns it. Always will. But this excites in a different way. And Mick's hand gestures...
- [Dominique Browning: India](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/dominique-browning-india/) - Dominique Browning, new to the blogroll, has been traveling in India. No surprise: The quality of her dispatches and photographs is exceptional. Two pieces are especially worth your time: her account of trying to experience the Taj Mahal and her eye-opening The Waste of Poverty.
- [Joan Schenkar and Patricia Highsmith: Partners in Crime](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/joan-schenkar-and-patricia-highsmith-partners-crime/) - Who would spend 8 years researching and writing a biography of Patricia Highsmith, the dark genius who wrote thrillers packed with evil? Someone who might also have some Issues. In the Paris Review, Joan Schenkar --- author of The Talented Miss Highsmith --- writes: “I rue the day I didn’t have my late stepmother whacked. I’d
- [Kate Betts: Everyday Icon -- Michelle Obama and the Power of Style](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/kate-betts-everyday-icon-michelle-obama-and-power-style/) - Remember Inauguration Day, 2009? Michelle Obama stunned the fashion world --- and a lot of Americans --- by skipping the traditional First Lady uniform and wearing an Isabel Toledo dress with J. Crew gloves. Now, in Everyday Icon: Michelle Obama and the Power of Style, Kate Betts looks through Mrs. Obama's closet, bridging the gap
- [Who is the King? This man. (And check out the Queens)](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/who-king-man-and-check-out-queens/)
- [Grammys: I would have sworn THIS was Song of the Year](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/grammys-i-would-have-sworn-was-song-year/)
- [Book Video of the Week: Alan Arkin](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/book-video-week-alan-arkin/) - Alan Arkin’s An Improvised Life is out in March. I’ve read it. The first half has great stories and is delightful. The rest is a ponderous tract on improvisation. I much prefer Patricia Ryan Madson’s Improv Wisdom.
- [Gonna Wash Those Knots Right Outta My Hair](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/gonna-wash-those-knots-right-outta-my-hair/) - Of 406 customer reviews on Amazon, Wen Tea Cleansing Conditioner gets 218 5-star and 70 4-star reviews. Add two more 5-star raves from the females here --- after the first use, our daughter ran a brush through her hair and encountered not a single knot. Is that big? It is huge. Yes, this stuff costs. But
- [Josh Ritter: Not a CD, Not a Concert….A Book!](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/josh-ritter-not-cd-not-concert…-book/) - Josh Ritter has written a novel. Between concerts and writing songs and recording them --- in what you and I would call spare time. Bright’s Passage has terrific credentials: Random House/Dial Press, praise from a Poet Laureate. It’s not out until June 28th, but you can read Chapter One now.
- ['All in a dream, all in a dream the loading had begin...'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/all-dream-all-dream-loading-had-begin/) - I was thinking about Japan and the irony of atomic energy there, and then I thought of this. Nostalgia often softens the edge of greatness. But not here.
- [Piano Man: Kenny White at The Carlyle](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/piano-man-kenny-white-carlyle/) - Marc Cohn --- remember Walking in Memphis? ---- dropped in to sing with Kenny White at the Carlyle Hotel. "If there were justice," he said, "Kenny would do the half-time show at the Super Bowl and the Black Eyed Peas would be playing here." Hype? You wouldn't suspect that if you'd been there: This too little-known singer-songwriter plays smart,
- [The Little Things: In Charles Nolan's Memory, Andy Tobias is funding this](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/little-things-charles-nolans-memory-andy-tobias-funding/) - Lisa Becker writes to Andy Tobias, who just lost Charles: “This past Christmas Day I was home cooking for my husband when I saw a news report about a grass roots organization operating here in Atlanta, the Global Soap Project. It was founded by a man named Derreck Kayongo. He and his family fled from
- [How hard is it to get a ticket for "Book of Mormon?"](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/how-hard-it-get-ticket-book-mormon/) - Roger Friedman reports: A week before the opening of “The Book of Mormon,” the show is playing at 101% in previews. And opening night is the hottest ticket in town. And when did HeadButler.com encourage you to buy tickets? JANUARY 17.
- [Am I the only one....](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/am-i-only-one/) - ....who started to watch the HBO "Mildred Pierce" mini-series and found it so painful that I had to bail after five minutes? Granted, I tasted only a sliver, but what I saw was so obvious, such a dumbed-down version of the original book and movie, that I machine-gunned the remote to the first thing that resembled a movie with genuine entertainment
- [I will never get tired of this....](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/i-will-never-never-get-tired/)
- [18 seats, one server: Let's not all go the same day](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/18-seats-one-server-lets-not-all-go-same-day/) - Where would you rather have a meal in New York --- Per Se or Torrisi? My foodie friend Carla Capalbo knows all, and after her review of Torrisi, I bet you forget all about Per Se.
- [Information, Please: Are you giving money to Koch Industries?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/information-please-are-you-giving-money-koch-industries/) - Ever since Jane Mayer eviscerated the Koch Brothers in The New Yorker, some of us have been looking more closely at these billionaire brothers. In Wisconsin, we recently learned, Koch Industries is the biggest donor to a Governor determined to smash the teachers’ union. Big surprise: the company is poised to make fresh fortunes in that
- [I never do this, but....](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/i-never-do/) - March 10, 2011 -- A few days ago, the New York Times published a story about the rape of an 11-year old girl in Texas by as many 18 men, some teenagers, some adults. A few of the suspects proudly recorded the attack on their video-equipped cell phones. Almost as incredible as the attack: in
- [Would YOU read this book?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/would-you-read-book/) - The novel --- let's skip the title and author --- was highly praised. (Sarah Gruen called it "haunting.") And then one of you suggested it. So I got it. And started to read. Here's the set-up: A married woman, late in her pregnancy, has stomach pains. She's just moved into a new house. Husband's at work. Phone's not
- [‘Win Win’ is the movie of the week --- no, the month.](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/win-win-movie-week-no-month/) - Funny, real, compelling and funny again, “Win Win” is worth every effort you may need to make to find it. In the theater where I saw it, there was cheering along the way, and more at the end. In New York. Cheers. The less you know about the movie, the more you’ll love it, but, okay,
- [Birthday 'Girls' -- One to Have, One to Give](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/birthday-girls-one-have-one-give/) - Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon --- and the Journey of a Generation celebrates its third birthday this week, and Sheila Weller’s page-turner has just passed its 110,000 retail sales mark. Ms. Weller is celebrating with a 2-for-1 offer: “Buy it on Amazon, then 'Message' me on Facebook with your receipt and
- [Oops, I did it again: My cover story in Harvard Magazine](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/oops-i-did-it-again-my-cover-story-harvard-magazine/) - 'Does that mean you're on the cover?' the little one asked, incredulously. No, it means the profile I wrote about blogger Andrew Sullivan fooled the editors (of Harvard Magazine, yet!) and that Andrew's mug didn't break the camera. Read it here.
- [Please mark your calendar: May 13, 'The First Grader'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/please-mark-your-calendar-may-13-first-grader/)
- [In 1964, for 400 pounds, the Rolling Stones made a commercial](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/1964-400-pounds-rolling-stones-made-commercial/)
- [Summer! And our thoughts turn to...Sally Hansen Leg Spray](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/spring-and-our-thoughts-turn-tosally-hansen-leg-spray/) - Pants? Not quite banished. But skirts and dresses are ascendant. As is the golden glow of a healthy tan. And that is why God made Sally Hansen Airbrush Leg Spray.
- ['Oh, oh, what a night, oh, what a garden of delight'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/oh-oh-what-night-oh-what-garden-delight/) - The Paul Simon concert in Toronto. A young woman called out for "Duncan." She shouted that it was the first song she'd learned to play on guitar and sing. Paul invited her onstage. And then....please click.
- [Sure to be a magic night: Please join me....](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/sure-be-magic-night-please-join-me/) - Kate McGarrigle, just 63, died of cancer in January. If you knew the music she made with her sister Anna, you probably felt the sadness I did, for Kate was not just a exemplary singer, the way she sang and what she sang told you she was an extraordinary person. (Her children, Rufus and Martha
- [Ladies & Gents: Lori Lieberman, NYC, May 1](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/ladies-vgents-lori-lieberman-nyc-may-1/) - When we last left Lori Lieberman, a LA-based singer-songwriter of Mack truck intensity and crystalline delivery, I had become a big fan of her CD, Gun Metal Sky, and was off to see her in a rare New York appearance. Now she’s recorded an even more personal CD, Bend Like Steel. Here's a song. And here’s the
- ['One Day' -- Will this movie be the grownup hit of the summer?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/one-day-will-movie-be-grownup-hit-summer/) - Anne Hathaway stars in the film adaptation of One Day, the insanely popular novel about friends who resist becoming lovers. The movie opens in mid-August. Already, English fans of the book have their doubts that it can measure up to the novel. Watch the trailer, read the book, have a semi-informed opinion.
- [Alexander McQueen: Only those who go too far know how far they can go](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/alexander-mcqueen-only-those-who-go-too-far-know-how-far-they-can-go/) - I want to see Jerusalem. And The Normal Heart. I’m on my way to both plays --- as soon as I recover from the vast, unsettling, brutal and beautiful Alexander McQueen retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Fashion? Oh, it’s so much more. Sculpture, obviously; these clothes start with a passionate concern with fit
- [The 'Angry Birds' Theme (slightly modified)](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/angry-bird-theme-slightly-modified/)
- ['War Horse' Tickets: Saturday, 6/4](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/war-horse-tickets-saturday-june-4/) - We can't use our 3 tickets to War Horse --- a play that seems to sell out for every performance. They're for the 2 PM matinee on Saturday, June 4. Excellent seats: Row J in the Orchestra. Yours for $425. Write me.
- [The PS 22 Chorus: Baby, She's a Firework](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/ps-22-chorus-baby-shes-firework/) - The soloist amazes me. Bet she'll bring tears to your eyes too.
- [Meet Jeffrey Rubin, Be Instantly Cured Of All Ills](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/meet-jeffrey-rubin-be-instantly-cured-all-ills/) - No. Not true. But if you’re interested in East/West spiritual/psychological integration, you can chat up the author of The Art of Flourishing: A New East-West Approach to Staying Sane and Finding Love in an Insane World at a book launch/signing at Tibet House, 22 West 15 Street, this Thursday (6/16), 7-9 PM.
- [Run to see this movie (Did you not hear me? RUN!)](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/run-see-movie-did-you-not-hear-me-run/) - Where it's playing. Why to go:
- ['Old School, baby, like Frank and Sammy Davis'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/old-school-baby-frank-and-sammy-davis/) - I have seen Movits, and you didn't, and boy, did you miss a great one. These are Swedes who used to rap, but then heard ‘30s swing and combined the two. The leader is the Philip Seymour Hoffman of Scandinavian music, the sax player thinks he’s backing Springsteen, the mixmaster is a paler blonde than Anita
- [The Mail: An exchange about how I make money](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/mail-exchange-about-how-i-make-money/) - If I got all my income from HeadButler.com, my family would live in the park. Could the site be a serious moneymaker? Maybe. I could slather the screens with ads for penis extenders. I could review porn. I could get you bargain prices on shit that's not worth owning. But I don't. 'Admire a large village, cultivate a small one,'
- [A Head Butler selection wins a prestigious award](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/head-butler-selection-wins-prestigious-award/) - Kudos to those of you who picked up on Steve Lerner’s Sacrifice Zones: The Front Lines of Toxic Chemical Exposure in the United States when I reviewed it last fall. It has just won the Lillian Smith Book Award, the South's oldest and best-known book award. (Previous winners include James Farmer, John Lewis, and Alice Walker.)
- [It Gets Better: J.K.Rowling writes to an orphan](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/it-gets-better-jkrowling-writes-orphan/) - Sometimes a book can be a lifeline. Like...here.
- [Jade is 4. She has cancer. Artists are helping. You can too.](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/jade-4-she-has-cancer-artists-are-helping-you-can-too/) - From the blog of our friend Jane Chafin: Los Angeles parents (artists) with no health insurance, a sick child, a caring community. Want to help? Start here.
- [Stephen King: 'This wasn't entertainment -- this was life or death.'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/stephen-king-wasnt-entertainment-was-life-or-death/) - King's introduction to a new edition of Lord of the Flies is just breathtaking: "It was, so far as I can remember, the first book with hands — strong ones that reached out of the pages and seized me by the throat. It said to me, 'This is not just entertainment; it’s life or death.'"
- [Video of the Week: 'Against all odds, we're the big door prize.'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/video-week-against-all-odds-were-big-door-prize/) - It's called 'In Spite of Ourselves.' John Prine wrote it. He sings it with Iris DeMent. I can picture them singing it on a screen porch lit by fireflies.
- [Mick Jagger: 'There's nothing wrong with you I can't fix'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/mick-jagger-theres-nothing-you-i-cant-fix/) - His last solo CD sold 900 copies in London, so on this solo effort, he's assembled a group called SuperHeavy and taken a more...shall we say...supporting role. Is it anything? (Apologies for the commercial prologue.)
- [Should gays be allowed to visit their loved ones in the hospital? The Governor of Wisconsin says no. What do you say?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/should-gays-be-allowed-visit-their-loved-ones-hospital-governor-wisconsin-says-no-what-do/) - We went to see The Normal Heart on Broadway last night. (Tickets are 50% off at TKTS.) I had seen the original production in 1985, when we had a President so opposed to acknowledging homosexuals that he didn’t speak the name of the disease until 36,058 Americans had been diagnosed with it and 20,849 of
- [Manu Chao is coming: Get your tickets now!](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/manu-chao-coming-get-your-tickets-now/) - Manu Chao is coming to America, and if you want to know why you should care, just watch the start of this video, making sure your eyes and ears are wide open at the 2:15 mark, when Chao and the band go into hyperdrive and the audience becomes a bouncing, screaming mob. Who
- [Back by popular demand: 11 brilliant minutes about ...well, everything](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/11-brilliant-minutes-about-well-everything/)
- [Tempting, isn't it?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/tempting-isnt-it/) - Escape. Into the Wild. Without regard to “consequences.” Sometimes it’s life-affirming; sometimes fatal; sometimes both. Maybe best to start with Sean Penn’s great movie and/or Eddie Vedder’s haunting music.
- [Theodora Roosevelt Keogh](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/theodora-roosevelt-keogh/) - She may have been the best female writer of her time --- kudos to you if you can name one of her nine novels. Joan Schenkar was her devoted reader and friend. In the Paris Review, she makes you wish you knew her.
- [Head Butler becomes a Gilty Pleasure](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/head-butler-becomes-gilty-pleasure/) - No doubt you know of GiltCity.com, the site that sells luxury items and experiences at preferred pricing. What you may not know: The blogs of Gilt City's “Unlisted” site give you very savvy, very inside information about goods, services and experiences in New York (and, soon, more cities.) And now Head Butler will be appearing
- [The hungry children look up, and they are not fed](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/hungry-children-look-and-they-are-not-fed/) - Summer is cruel to the poor --- and especially to poor children. Seventeen million American kids get free lunches during the school year. In summer, they get nothing. The effect of hunger is never good, but when it comes to kids, hunger slows brain development, and kids come back to school in September less
- [A piano, a beautiful voice -- and, briefly, politics fades](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/piano-beautiful-voice-and-briefly-politics-fades/) - "Lost hours and secrets too/ No one will find but you/ Falling is like brand new rain/ Places I have never been/ I thought these things would come to me/ Love is another country, and I want to go." That is Tift Merritt, from Another Country, and in a month when the national conversation is ugly,
- [And now I take your head over for the rest of the summer...](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/and-now-i-take-your-head-over-rest-summer/) - It's "Pumped Up Kicks," from Foster the People. Listen to it once and you'll be its slave. Here is the real-world reference. You can download it here. This is an acoustic version, more personal, more gorgeous. And charming? Look how the drummer has taped his wallet to the drum head A reader responds: “Fine, you've had
- [Jim Lehrer, Old Greenwich, September 15](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/jim-lehrer-old-greenwich-september-15/) - The veteran newsman is also an accomplished writer. Over lunch at the Innis Arden Club on 9/15, he’ll discuss his a new book Tension City: Inside The Presidential Debates, From Kennedy-Nixon To Obama-McCain. For information and tickets, click here.
- [Video of the Week: The PS 22 Chorus of Staten Island](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/video-week-ps-22-chorus-staten-island/)
- [Matt Damon Tells A Moron Why Teachers Teach](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/matt-damon-tells-moron-why-teachers-teach/)
- [The Best Commercial in Months](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/best-commercial-months/)
- ['And in the naked light I saw, 10,000 people, maybe more..'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/and-naked-light-i-saw-10000-people-maybe-more/)
- [Billie Holiday: 'I'm like an oven who's crying for heat'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/billie-holiday-im-oven-whos-crying-heat/)
- [Flourish with Jeffrey Rubin](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/flourish-jeffrey-rubin/) - The author of The Art of Flourishing will speak on 'Insights from Buddhism and Psychoanalysis' at New York Insight on Friday, 9/16, 7-9 PM.
- [“how do you like your blue-eyed boy, Mister Death”](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/“how-do-you-your-blue-eyed-boy-mister-death”/) - You, of course, recognize that line --- from an e.e. cummings poem. On Friday, when the news came from Norway, no one at The New York Times thought of it; the first Times stories focused on a kneejerk equation: “terror” equals “al Qaeda” and “Muslims” and “jihad.” But no one got it as wrong
- [Garland Jeffreys: 'Not getting any younger, but not feeling very old'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/garland-jeffreys-not-getting-any-younger-not-feeling-very-old/) - Heading out to see a 68-year-old rocker, you can’t help but ask yourself: Can he still do it? Last weekend, in a delightful bandbox of a New Jersey club, on the hottest day of the year and working under lights that added a few degrees, Garland Jeffreys proved he could --- and then some. Working
- [My Weekend: A Wedding on the River](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/my-weekend-wedding-river/) - My wife's sister has been married for 25 years. She and her husband re-upped at few years ago --- at the Elvis chapel in Vegas, of course --- and, last weekend, they did it again, this time at a Tara-like B&B on the Ohio River. Look back: Kentucky tobacco fields. Look over: Indiana. Mid-view: barges
- [ Turn down the lights/Turn down the bed/Turn down these voices inside my head](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/turn-down-lights-turn-down-bedturn-down-these-voices-inside-my-head/)
- ['I'll never smoke weed with Willie again'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/ill-never-smoke-weed-willie-again/)
- [The Show to See: Willem de Kooning at MOMA](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/show-see-willem-de-kooning-moma/) - I wrote a short take on my Gilt blog about the influence of the Hamptons on de Kooning’s work, but the piece to inhale before you go to this exhibition is Jill Krementz’s picture-and-text tour in New York Social Diary. Jill is one of our best chroniclers of writers and artists, and here she delivers
- [Todd Snider: ‘All we need is a ten and five-er…’](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/todd-snider-all-we-need-ten-and-five-er…/)
- [Paolo Conte: Come to the Cabaret](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/paolo-conte-come-cabaret/) - He defies description. The European Tony Bennett? A saloon singer? Or just... Paolo Conte.
- [You'll Never Guess Whose Music Is In An NFL Commercial](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/youll-never-guess-whose-music-nfl-commercial/) - Unlikely choice. But kinda terrific. Can't get it? It's this.
- [Steve Jobs and My Mother](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/steve-jobs-and-my-mother/) - My 94-year-old mother --- a lifelong reader, mother of a writer and a medical researcher who writes beautifully about science --- is losing her sight. She's been admitted to a pilot program that might stop her vision loss; if it doesn't work, darkness awaits. But on the just-introduced Apple iPhone 4S, there's an amazing voice-recognition
- [Duane Hampton Lecture: Is Less More?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/duane-hampton-lecture-less-more/) - Duane Hampton, author of Mark Hampton: An American Decorator, will be speaking at the New York Society for Interior Design (170 East 70 Street, New York City) this Wednesday, 9/14, at 6 PM. Admission is free, but RSVP is required. Write rsvp@nysid.edu or call 212-472-1500, x405.
- [Amy Winehouse & Tony Bennett: Seeing & hearing what was lost](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/amy-winehouse-tony-bennett-seeing-hearing-what-was-lost/) - Tony Bennett has a new CD: “Duets II.” This one, with Amy Winehouse, is just so good --- and so sad. (To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.)
- [Flourishing in New Jersey](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/flourishing-new-jersey/) - Jeffrey Rubin will speak on The Art of Flourishing this Sunday, 11 AM to 1 PM at the home of Harriet Diamond, 692 Mildred Avenue, Teaneck, NJ 07666.Free to members of New Jersey Society for Clinical Social Work, $40 for Non-Members.
- [The Show to See: Richard Serra](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/show-see-richard-serra/) - At the Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea, until November 26.
- [Marching Orders: for downtown friends everywhere](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/marching-orders-downtown-friends-everywhere/) - “Let's see action, let's see people, let's see freedom, let's see who cares.” Pete Townshend, from Who Came First.
- [The movie to see: ‘Margin Call’](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/movie-see-margin-call/) - Rave rave rave. And not just me. Read the Times. Or just watch this.
- [Required Reading: a sister's eulogy for Steve Jobs](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/required-reading-sisters-eulogy-steve-jobs/) - Novelist Mona Simpson gave a eulogy for her brother that is just amazingly good. Like this: "He believed that love happened all the time, everywhere." And: "What I learned from my brother’s death was that character is essential: What he was, was how he died." And: "Death didn’t happen to Steve, he achieved it." And much
- [Morris Dees: marked for death](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/morris-dees-marked-death/) - Morris Dees has been marked for death for decades --- long before I wrote about his Southern Poverty Law Center and how he bankrupted Klansmen who weren’t about to be prosecuted for the lynching of a young African American. This month, the SPLC won the appeal of a $1.3 million verdict against a notorious Klan
- [One Night Only (11/3): 'Paris Unlaced!'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/one-night-only-113-paris-unlaced/) - My friend Anne Undeland, who's well-known for her one-woman shows, will now become an infamous courtesan in the Paris demimonde of 1890 who is facing the end of her scandalous career when a young rival seeks to displace her as the city's reigning "grande horizontale." On Thursday only, 11/3, at 7:30 PM, Anne will perform
- [When Diamonds Aren't Forever](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/when-diamonds-arent-forever/) - Edward Jay Epstein has started to make e-books out of four decades of investigative reporting. As we're coming into the season when we'll be hearing "a diamond is forever," I thought to re-read one of his books, "Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? And Other Investigations of the Diamond Trade." It's mostly about De
- [Does Starbucks support Occupy Wall Street?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/does-starbucks-support-occupy-wall-street/) - The nine-year-old informs me that the guy on the side of the Starbucks "holiday" cup is the soldier from "The Nutcracker." But look at his face: dead ringer for the hero of "V for Vendetta." He'd better be careful --- the cops are getting edgy.
- [Padlette: the coolest, cheapest iPad holder](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/padlette-coolest-cheapest-ipad-holder/) - Want to use your iPad when you’re standing on a bus? On a paper-strewn desk? When you’re in bed and you fear you might nod off, only to wake when it shatters on the floor? The Padlette is a worry-killer. This simple rubber strap on the back of your iPad allows you to hold the
- [Department of OMG: Amy MacDonald](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/department-omg-amy-macdonald/)
- [I might as well confess: On most days, this is my favorite song](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/i-might-well-confess-most-days-my-favorite-song/)
- [I saw her -- and was high for a week.](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/i-saw-her-and-was-high-week/) - Marion Williams. One of the greatest gospel singers. As you are about to find out.
- [Video of the Week: Brit Humor at its Best](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/video-week-brit-humor-its-best/)
- [Memo from Gretl Claggett: Dear Jerry Sandusky, Man Up](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/memo-gretl-claggett-dear-jerry-sandusky-man/) - Many of you were as blown away as I was by Gretl Claggett’s interview with Kathryn Harrison. Now, on the Daily Beast, she’s taken on a tougher challenge: telling her own abuse story in an open letter to Joe Paterno’s assistant football coach at Penn State. Brace yourselves.
- [You know the song, but with this footage....](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/you-know-song-footage/) - The singer is Blind Willie Johnson. He's been praised here.
- [Have I ever told you about.....](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/have-i-ever-told-you-about/) - Sometimes life serves up an amazing story. And it gets told. Again. And again. Richard Babcock --- the greatest magazine editor who ever threw it over for writing --- has taken that situation, set it in a marriage, and turned it into a short story that Alfred Hitchcock would happily have turned into a half-hour
- [A Tale of Two Parks](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/tale-two-parks/) - On Monday --- a day so lovely it seemed criminal to stay in the zip code of the 1% --- my wife took a field trip downtown to Zuccotti Park and the 9/11 memorial. She got quite an education. Zuccotti Park, she said, was the very model of an impromptu community. Harmony ruled. Order prevailed.
- [You think: Loser. Freak. No loss. Don't care....](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/you-think-loser-freak-no-loss-dont-care/) - .... and then you see this.
- [Don't know if I can take this. Going to try. You?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/dont-know-if-i-can-take-going-try-you/)
- [Leaving Omelas](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/leaving-omelas/) - In the short story, "Omelas" is a word made from the reverse of Salem, Oregon. So it's at least ironic to hear from Fred Leonhardt about it: “Your mention of Omelas struck a nerve: Here in laid-back, hip Portland, the elites of the city -- the proverbial pillars of the community -- once covered up for
- [I am such a fool for this stuff](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/i-am-such-fool-stuff/) - "21 Jump Street," in theaters March 16.
- [Robert Pattinson, Uma Thurman, Kristen Scott Thomas, Christina Ricci](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/robert-pattinson-uma-thurman-kristen-scott-thomas-christina-ricci/) - Unfair! I wanted to do a new movie version of my almost-favorite novel, Guy de Maupassant's "Bel-Ami." And now it's been filmed, with the hunk from "Twilight" in the lead role. It's out in England in March; the American release date has not been set. Here is the link to the novel, in which a handsome
- [Edith Piaf: like a shot of courage through the ears](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/edith-piaf-shot-courage-through-ears/)
- ['A Separation' won an Oscar. Will you see it now?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/i-have-seen-best-film-2011/) - Now that it's won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, 'A Separation' will be opening in more theaters. Please, if you can, make it your next film. (Like: what else is there to see?) The night we went, no one moved for 120 minutes. And when it was over and the credits were running --- in
- [Rube Goldberg Eye Candy](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/rube-goldberg-eye-candy/) - My daughter showed this to me. Her teacher showed it to her. This is the 4th grade. What a great school.
- [ Fingerless Gloves for Texting: Custom Version](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/fingerless-gloves-texting-custom-version/) - Why should your hands look like anyone else’s? My friend Lucy, at Chapeaux de Lulu, knits strikingly original gloves. She’s fast. And, at $25 the pair, affordable. Say hi.
- [Crazy mad delicious](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/crazy-mad-delicious/)
- [Over-Served: The Total Stupidity of Online Advertising](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/over-served-total-stupidity-online-advertising/) - If you look for a product on the Web --- like, for instance, Clark's Desert Boots --- the next 3 trillion times you go to a frequently visited site --- like, for instance, Talking Points Memo --- an ad for Clark's Desert Boots will be "served" to you. Marginally dumb, but at least Clark's is making
- [Bruce Springsteen: 'We Take Care of Our Own'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/bruce-springsteen-we-take-care-our-own/) - Only a fool would miss the irony of the title of this song. If the rest of Wrecking Ball (to be released on March 6) is anything like "We Take Care of Our Own," it's exactly what these times demand --- pounding drums, chiming guitars, glorious backup singers and one great performer pointing a righteous
- [Sunday at MOMA: The 10-Year Lunch](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/sunday-moma-10-year-lunch/) - Aviva Slesin’s charming documentary about the Algonquin Round Table --- Dorothy Parker, George S. Kaufman, Harold Ross, Harpo Marx, Robert Benchley --- will be shown at the Museum of Modern Art on Sunday, 2/5, at 2 PM.
- [Maureen Walsh: 'I don't miss the sex'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/maureen-walsh-i-dont-miss-sex/) - Maureen Walsh serves in the legislature in Washington State. Watching this, it is very hard not to fall in love with her.
- [Is 'Smash' anything?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/smash-anything/) - NBC, desperate for a hit series, reportedly spent $25 million promoting 'Smash.' It sounded like an unpromising cross between 'Glee' and 'Chorus Line,' but the creator is top-drawer and it features Angelica Houston, so I gave it a try. Granted, I wasn't coming in at the start of the show, but the few minutes I saw were grating
- [I long to see a movie that's as much fun as this commercial](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/i-long-see-movie-thats-much-fun-commercial/)
- [Josh Ritter: 'Bringing in the Darlings'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/josh-ritter-bringing-darlings/) - Josh, on his new, 6-song effort, recorded and mixed in 4 days: “I knew I wasn't making my next album here, but something smaller, and that smallness felt really good. I was listening to a lot of early Buddy Holly, Ricky Nelson, and the Everly Brothers, and the mood struck me one day to sit down
- [SEXY AND I KNOW IT: 'Neil Young'(Jimmy Fallon) & Bruce Springsteen](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/sexy-and-i-know-it-neil-youngjimmy-fallon-bruce-springsteen/)
- [Yet another reason to love John Green](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/yet-another-reason-love-john-green/) - John Green, if you've missed my wild praise for The Fault in Our Stars, makes regular video blasts. Like this...
- [The movie to see: DETACHMENT](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/movie-see-detachment/) - The trailer is a knockout. If the film is a tenth this good, it's ...mandatory. It opens in New York 3/16, in Los Angeles 3/23.
- [June. HBO. Aaron Sorkin. I can hardly wait. ](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/june-hbo-aaron-sorkin-i-can-hardly-wait/)
- [I know. It's Spring. But I stumbled on this again, and...](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/i-know-its-spring-i-stumbled-again-and/) - ....it's beautiful in so many ways I couldn't resist.
- [If this were my son, I'd be sooo proud of him....](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/if-were-my-son-id-be-sooo-proud-him/) - ...but then, if this were my son, he'd never have to write this letter to his mother.
- [Consumer Warning: This could be addictive](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/consumer-warning-could-be-addictive/) - Joan Osborne. A CD of covers of blues classics. To download 'Shake Your Hips' for 99 cents, click here. For the CD, click here. For the MP3 download of the CD, click here.
- [Cold Day, Hot Flash](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/cold-day-hot-flash/) - The new Bruce Springsteen CD, “Wrecking Ball,” isn’t out until March 6, but the ghost of Clarence Clemons brought it to me, and I’ve been playing it while my wife watches the Santorum/Romney death match. (Who’s having a better time?) Poking around, I found a video of the title song, made during Springsteen’s last concert
- [For 20somethings who don't just drink --- they read](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/20somethings-who-dont-just-drink-they-read/) - For some kids, the best thing about graduation is that they’ll never have to read a book again. For kids we love, the best thing about graduation is that they can read whatever they want. For those kids --- and for slackers who may yet be saved --- The Book Report Network has launched 20Something
- [Who says one person can’t make a difference?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/who-says-one-person-cant-make-difference/) - In Washington and Israel, politicians with short memories are desperate to bomb Iran. Last week, in Israel, graphic designers Ronny Edry and Michal Tamir created a poster and put it on Facebook: “Iranians. We will never bomb your country. We love you." It moved fast --- including to Iran, where Iranians started responding with warm
- [Letter from Los Angeles: The Head Butler Fan Club](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/letter-los-angeles-head-butler-fan-club/) - It was Spring Break for The Child. That means two things. 1) Go somewhere warm on 2) Jet Blue. Los Angeles was anything but warm last week, but my mother and brother joined us, so it was at least cozy. And fun, especially the Wax Museum and the Getty (do NOT rent the taped audio guide,
- [In Brief: "The Prophet of Tenth Street"](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/brief-prophet-tenth-street/) - Tsipi Keller and I were on a literary committee. After the meetings, we talked baseball, sealing our non-literary friendship. So I was stunned that this Israeli-born writer whose bio is dotted with grants and prizes would write a novel as sexy --- really: as dirty --- as Jackpot. Her new novel couldn’t be more different. “The
- [Levon Helm: 'Everything dies, baby, that's a fact/ but maybe everything that dies someday comes back'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/levon-helm-everything-dies-baby-thats-fact-maybe-everything-dies-someday-comes-back/) - One more. Just because.
- [Dan Savage: 'If we don't stone non-virgins to death on their wedding night...'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/dan-savage-if-we-dont-stone-non-virgins-death-their-wedding-night/) - He's speaking at a high-school journalism conference. Count how many kids walk out. Are they right to do so? Or would they have walked out on a gay man no matter what he said? Discuss.
- [Killer Funny: a Mother's Day commercial for....Amazon](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/killer-funny/) - Every once in a while, 'Saturday Night Live' gets it just right. (To see what the fuss is all about --- or even to buy the book --- click here.)
- [Holly Gleason celebrates Earl Scruggs (1924-2012)](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/holly-gleason-celebrates-earl-scruggs/) - This much you know: Holly Gleason, who knows all things music, has the bigger story: Earl Scruggs might’ve been a master musician and innovator of the same caliber as Miles Davis or Coltrane, but he was more a man who sought to bring people together. As a player, his first break came in 1945 with Bill
- [Obama on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/obama-couch-inside-mind-president/) - Justin Frank is my friend, and I admire his work, and I'd love to write about "Obama on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President," just out in paperback. But as it's political, all I can do is reprint my blurb: “An analyst who can coin phrases like ”obsessive bipartisan disorder” to describe our President is
- [A Tallahassee Lassie has a House for Sale](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/tallahassee-lassie-has-house-sale/) - Want to move to Florida or own a winter home there? My friend is selling her 3,500 square foot lakefront home in Tallahassee with almost 11 acres, barn and pastures, 72' lap pool, lots of extras. View photos and specs of the home here. Or --- how 'now' is this? --- take a video tour (with
- [Decorator's Los Angeles Sublet](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/decorators-los-angeles-sublet/) - This 2 bedroom, 2.5 bath garden duplex with 2 parking spaces in West Hollywood is impeccable --- it was recently featured in Elle Decor. Available June, July, possibly August. $3,000. If interested, write me.
- [Buce Springsteen, in Berlin: 'When I Leave Berlin"](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/buce-springsteen-berlin-when-i-leave-berlin/) - I can't think of another man who turns me into a screaming teenage girl.
- [Ray Bradbury: WATCH THIS, WATCH THIS](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/ray-bradbury-watch-watch/)
- [In the end, the camera always finds the star.](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/end-camera-always-finds-star/) - The Who. 1965. Energy to burn. Stay with it... because there.... at the end... is Keith Moon.
- ['Move like Jagger.' Maybe. But you'll never be able to dance like this. ](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/dance-jagger-mazybe-you-can-youll-never-be-able-dance/)
- [July 3, 2013: Just a year away (take your vitamins)](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/july-3-2013-just-year-away-take-your-vitamins/) - a preview for "Despicable Me 2," featuring some minions.
- [Coming Attractions: Brandi Carlile](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/coming-attractions-brandi-carlile/) - I've just heard the single from "Bear Creek," Brandi Carlile's new CD. I think ....well, judge for yourself. (Okay, I'm cheating. I'm publishing the lyrics because I think they're that amazing. But I'm not sure I grasp the meaning. If you can deconstruct, feel free to write and school me.) The CD isn't out until June 5, but you
- [Laura Harrington: the Triumph of ‘Alice Bliss’ ](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/laura-harrington-alice-bliss-book-tour/) - I reviewed Alice Bliss last year. It was full of stuff that drives me nuts, and yet I loved it. Now I’ve met its author, Laura Harrington, who, I discovered, is very much like her novel --- a great talent but not showy, accomplished but not the least bit arrogant. Indeed, it wasn’t until we
- [Breaking News: Could Aaron Sorkin be....could Aaron Sorkin be.... could Aaron Sorkin be...](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/breaking-news-end-could-aaron-sorkin-be-no-more-original-oh-david-brooks/) - You make the call.
- [Fun Read of the Week](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/fun-read-week/) - "I wanted to get my husband to watch our daughter so I could get stoned and pound out this essay about being a mom who smokes pot." For the rest, click here.
- [This time of year: 'It's a pity/ the days can't be like the nights' ](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/time-year-its-pity-days-cant-be-nights/)
- [Not available in any store: 'Wicked Woman'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/not-available-any-store-wicked-woman/)
- [Jerry Sandusky (and others) cost Penn State $60 million, for starters](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/jerry-sandusky-and-others-cost-penn-state-60-million-starters/) - The NCAA penalty is so big that we find ourselves thinking more about Penn State than the victims. Gretl Claggett looks beyond the spotlight to others who bear responsibility. She asks: What about Dottie Sandusky, Jerry's wife? Why don't enablers speak up?
- [August: North Fork Long Island Rental (Lovely! We've stayed there)](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/august-north-fork-long-island-rental-lovely-weve-stayed-there/) - Last-minute North Fork (Greenport) rental. Perfect getaway for writer or writing couple. Easy, understated elegance in seaport town. Recent construction with well-crafted historic charm. Large master bedroom upstairs with two full baths and two offices. Downstairs guest room and bath. Dream modern kitchen area and glass-surround dining room on beautiful garden. Cable TV, wi-fi, fitness
- [Feel like standing up and cheering? Go right ahead!](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/feel-standing-and-cheering-go-right-ahead/)
- [Counting the days: 'The Bourne Legacy,' opening 8/10](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/counting-days-bourne-legacy-opening-810/)
- [When a friend betrays you: My dilemma, your advice, my decision](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/when-friend-betrays-you-my-dilemma-your-advice-my-decision/) - In 1989, a close friend told a series of lies that almost took down my career. I’ve never confronted her. Recently, an event and the power of Brandi Carlile’s new CD re-opened the wound. And I thought, after all these years, I might tell this woman that I know what she did and that ---
- [This is a commercial. I could watch it again and again. ](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/commercial-i-could-watch-it-again-and-again/)
- [‘I saw her dancing, dancing/ In some old smoky place/ I bet I was the only one there to watch her face’](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/i-saw-her-dancing-dancing-some-old-smoky-place-i-bet-i-was-only-one-there-watch-her-face/) - Otis Redding. "Got to Get Back.' An overlooked classic.
- [Mika Brezinski: Hot Stuff](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/mika-brezinski-hot-stuff/) - On VanityFair.com, the most visited page is a short piece about Joe Scarborough's possible candidacy for President in 2016. (Yes, you read that right.) Or is the photograph the reason for the traffic? On "Morning Joe," Mika sits, shoulders back, scowl forward --- a chilly, unattainable beauty. In the magazine? Look for yourself.
- [The Silver Linings Playbook](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/silver-linings-playbook-1/) - The movie killed at the Toronto Festival. Oscar buzz has begun --- and the movie’s not even in the theaters. (Think: November 21.) You can read the novel while you wait. And get a glimpse why there’s such a fuss.
- [Want to be your best you? Act. ](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/want-be-your-best-you-act/) - Want to be your best you? Prepare like an actor. When you’re facing a big challenge, you can get some seriously bad advice. You’ll hear: “Fake it ‘till you make it.” Or: “Just imagine they’re all in their underwear.” If only it were so simple. Jane Marla Robbins, a veteran actress and teacher, knows better.
- [Karl Rove on Craig Unger on Karl Rove](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/karl-rove-craig-unger-karl-rove/) - As HeadButler.com is politics-free, I can do no more than announce the publication of "Boss Rove: Inside Karl Rove’s Secret Kingdom of Power,” by my friend Craig Unger. His thesis: Rove now controls the Republican Party. His subject is not persuaded. Rove’s review: “An entertaining work of fiction.” Which is it? Start at Harper’s, where Unger
- [A political ad? Not possible. Political ads aren't this emotional.](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/blue-blue-windows-behind-stars-yellow-moon-rise/)
- [A bread-and-butter note from Gretl Claggett](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/fight-sexual-expose-children-helping-filmmaker/) - From Gretl Claggett to Head Butler readers: "Thanks for your generous contributions to my Kickstarter campaign for 'Happy Hour,' a short film that explores the memory of childhood sexual abuse, complicity and grooming. We have exceeded our funding goal! Every dollar counts and is deeply appreciated." And from Head Butler management: It's moving when this community
- [Lorenzo Weisman](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/lorenzo-weisman/) - My friend Lorenzo Weisman was sick, then better, then, unknown to most of us, sick again. And now, way too soon, dead. He was only a couple of years ahead of me at college, but it seems like I have spent my entire life looking up to him. In Cambridge, he was the epitome of
- [How can you watch this without thinking: 'Sure would be nice for him to come home safely --- right now.' ](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/how-can-you-watch-without-thinking-sure-would-be-nice-him-come-come-home-safely-right-now/)
- [Oh...My...God: Martha Wainwright](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/ohmygod-martha-wainwright/) - Her mother died. She couldn't write. Now she has a CR coming out: 'Come Home to Mama.' This is her version of the last song her mother wrote. Brace yourself. Martha Wainwright: Proserpina on Nowness.com.
- [Oh...My...God: Martha Wainwright](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/ohmygod-martha-wainwright-0/) - Her mother died. She couldn't write. Then she could. Later this month, she has a new CD: 'Come Home to Mama.' This is her version of the last song her mother wrote. Brace yourself.
- [Wanted: Manhattan apartment or share ASAP](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/wanted-manhattan-apartment-or-share-asap/) - Mature, refined, female entrepreneur/creative marketing exec seeks pleasing Manhattan accommodation --- small apartment, private bedroom in apt. share, house-sit --- week-to-week or month-to-month, while refining long-term housing plans. A non-smoking neatnik respectful of your space, ‘stuff’ and privacy. Excellent references (in case being a long-running fan of this website does not say enough). Replies to:
- ['An expression of care to each child each day'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/expression-care-each-child-each-day/) - In 1969, with funding for PBS uncertain, Mr. Rogers testified before a Senate committee. What he said, what he did...
- ['There could never be a father who loved his daughter more than I love you.'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/hallelujah/) - Paul Simon and his daughter sing the Leonard Cohen classic. Starts slow, but around two minutes in, she kills it. And notice how Paul doesn't join her until the end. Sweet.
- [The duet of the year: Katy Perry and Jodi DiPiazza](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/duet-year-katy-perry-and-jodi-dipiazza/) - A poet friend wrote: "The singing broke me in pieces." Kleenex? Get a box.
- [Apple earbuds for the iPhone 5: WTF? ](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/apple-earbuds-ipone-5-wtf/) - First, the human ear is not, as Jonny Ive puts it, "so" unique. ("Unique" is an absolute; something cannot be more unique, less unique or most unique.) Then consider the alleged breakthrough. Apple did not know the shape of the human ear when it produced iPhones 1-5? They put out those cruddy ear buds because
- [The king's not dead](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/kings-not-dead/) - The theater is on the third floor of a church near Times Square, and there is no elevator. The set? Subliminal --- it’s black box theater. But as soon as Stephen Mo Hanan steps on stage, you know this will be an immensely satisfying “King Lear.” He delivers his first lines ---“'tis our fast intent/
- [Think your kid is hot stuff? Watch Quinn Sullivan](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/think-your-kid-hot-stuff-watch-quinn-sullivan/) - He's 12. I spared you the video made when he was 7. (Thanks, GC)
- ['Keep Calm and Carry On'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/keep-calm-and-carry/) - A charming bit of history, British and literary. (Thanks, LMS)
- [Feel like playing "You make the call?"](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/feel-playing-you-make-call/) - Here are the concluding paragraphs of two reviews of Tom Wolfe’s new novel. One is from his hometown Bible, the New York Times. The other is from the Financial Times, based in London. Which is which? And which one would you tend to believe? “Back to Blood is as fraudulent as the forged paintings at
- [Best Christmas Video Ever (First Runner-up)](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/best-christmas-video-ever-first-runner/)
- [Terence Malick: I'm counting the days](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/terence-malick-im-counting-days/) - If you hated "Tree of Life" --- and most of you did --- you'll probably be equally appalled by "To the Wonder." But consider the preview...
- [Maurice Sendak: 'There are so many beautiful things in the world...'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/maurice-sendak-live-your-life-live-your-life/)
- [Field Trip: Garland Jeffreys, NYC, 1/18](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/field-trip-garland-jeffreys-nyc-118/) - Garland Jeffreys and his band deliver a seriously satisfying high-octane show, with stops at reggae, new wave and actual rock. He’ll be at the Highline Ballroom on Friday, 1/18, early enough (8 PM) for kids. Holler if we’ll see you there.
- ['Get your mind off winter time, you ain't goin' nowhere'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/tie-yourself-tree-roots/)
- [House for sale by classy Tallahassee lassy](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/sale-tallahassee-lassys-classy-house/) - Paradise Found! Lakefront Mediterranean-style stucco home with every imaginable amenity. Firefly Pond Farm is located on 10.83 acres in prestigious Dublin Downs on beautiful and very private Lake Belmont. 7600 Bradfordville Road Tallahassee, FL 32309 Beds: 4 Baths: 3.5 Sqft: 3,562. $799,000 for sale by owner. Randiedenker@gmail.com
- [I used to be indifferent to Fiona Apple. Then I read this. ](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/i-used-be-indifferent-fiona-apple-then-i-read/) - Fiona Apple's dog is dying, so she canceled her tour. And wrote a letter to her fans explaining why. Here's part of her letter. But the whole thing is worth reading. I can't come to South America. Not now. When I got back from the last leg of the US tour, there was a big,
- [Artisans: A Crafty Bunch](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/artisans-crafty-bunch/) - Some of you are handy, and not just around the house. At the holidays --- and beyond --- two Butler readers are very crafty indeed. Bookish: Amanda Tobier buys old books in libraries and thrift shops, then transforms them. “I make art from art,” she says. You can see her work on Tumblr and on
- [Josh Ritter: ‘I guess it adds up/ to joy in the end.'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/josh-ritter-i-guess-it-adds-joy-end/) - Two years ago, on tour in Canada, Josh Ritter got a phone call from his wife. Marriage over. After 14 months. Okay, so at the lowest moments of our lives it’s music that gives us comfort. But what if you’re a musician whose life gets flattened --- whose music do you turn to? After you’ve
- [Sonia Taitz: First the 4-star novel, then the 4-star memoir](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/sonia-taitz-first-4-star-novel-then-4-star-memoir/) - I am a huge fan of Sonia Taitz’s novel, In the King’s Arms, the story of a young New York City woman who heads off to England --- the obvious destination of any English grad student whose parents are Holocaust survivors --- and has memorable romantic entanglements. Using much of the same material, she’s now
- [Doesn't that music seem... familiar? ](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/doesnt-music-seem-familiar/) - Great visuals. Attention-getting music. But whose? The Lumineers.
- ['What are you fighting for? It's not my security.'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/what-are-you-fighting-its-not-my-security/) - Marianne Faithfull. 'Broken English.' 1979. Just slightly ahead of her time.
- [On the importance of talking ](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/on-the-importance-of-talking/) - Robin Roberts said she was warned that “at one point I would feel like dying.” Shortly after the transplant, that came true, she said: “I was in a pain I had never experienced before, physically and mentally. I was in a coma-like state. I truly felt like I was slipping away. Then I kept hearing,
- [Video of the Month: Jimmy Fallon and Michelle Obama](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/video-of-the-month-jimmy-fallon-and-michelle-obama/)
- [I was sure this was Stevie Wonder. Weren't you?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/i-was-sure-this-was-stevie-wonder-werent-you/) - The drums. The xylophone. Signature Stevie Wonder, yes? No. "Nah Nah Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" was recorded by a one-hit wonder called Steam. As for the classic refrain, it was added by the writer to make the song too longer for DJs to play --- the other side of the 45 rpm record was
- [March Madness... in Books](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/march-madness-in-books/) - Anywhere you look, people are filling in their brackets --- it's all basketball all the time now, as the NCAA marches toward the college championship. Bookreporter.com came up with a neat variation: literary match-ups between authors from American colleges. (Like Harvard --- that Ralph Waldo Emerson, known for his essays, has powered his team to
- [Life imitates Art](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/life-imitates-art/) - Charles Pierce, in Esquire, about Bradley Manning: "We are to believe through this ruling that Manning was treated more rigorously than was necessary and that his treatment was more excessive than legitimate government interests demanded, but that nobody in authority ordered it, nobody in authority countenanced it, and that nobody in authority will be called to
- [Who'd a thunk it? A Nora Ephron story you haven't heard ](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/whod-thunk-it-nora-ephron-story-you-havent-heard/) - from Susan Braudy: Nora and I were part of a small group of women writing for the Times Magazine who in the spirit of the late 1970′s gathered to petition the Times editors to hire more female freelancers. We met for one strategy session at Nora and her then husband Dan Greenberg’s posh east side
- [ Laura Munson’s Haven Writing Retreats](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/laura-munsons-haven-writing-retreats/) - You surely remember Laura Munson, author of the New York Times best-seller, This Is Not The Story You Think It Is --- the marriage memoir in which her husband unilaterally declares their marriage over and she responds with “I don’t buy it. What can we do to give you the distance you need, without hurting
- [I know this is soooo last January...](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/i-know-this-is-soooo-last-january/) - ... but the clarity of the video makes me wanna scream and shout and let it all out.
- ['There's a hole in my shoe/ I don't mind/ 'Cuz it keeps me connected to the ground'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/theres-a-hole-in-my-shoe-i-dont-mind-cuz-it-keeps-me-connected-to-the-ground/)
- [How bright a light must there be to cast so dark a shadow? This bright. ](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/how-bright-a-light-must-there-be-to-cast-so-dark-a-shadow-this-bright/)
- [Save the date: August 9, 2013 ](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/save-the-date-august-9-2013/)
- [George Jones (1931-2013) ](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/george-jones-1931-2013/)
- [The movie to see: 'Mud'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/the-movie-to-see-mud/) - Would you run to a film with a gloppy one-word title? I wouldn't. But having chosen our last film --- Danny Boyle's loathsome 'Trance' --- the choice wasn't mine. And the New York Times review was enthusiastic. And 'Mud' stars Matthew McConaughey. So off we went. Verdict: a terrific movie, acutely written, brilliantly acted, tense
- [My next obsession: Lou Doillon](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/my-next-obsession-lou-doillon/)
- [If you have four minutes...](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/if-you-have-four-minutes/) - Norah Jones. Bob Dylan's "Forever Young." At the memorial service for Steve Jobs.
- [May I present...Ta-Nehisi Coates and Luxury Travel Mom  ](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/may-i-present-ta-nehisi-coates-and-luxury-travel-mom/) - I’ve admired the big-brain, big-hearted writing of Ta-Nehisi Coates on The Atlantic blog for years. But it wasn’t until last week, when he went to Europe for the first time, that my admiration turned to something like awe. Raised in Baltimore, where he says “my first language was violence,” he now shares a travel diary
- ['The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' --- literally](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/the-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock-literally/) - My friend Georgia Shreve is having a concert this Friday, May 3, at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall. I asked her for a preview: “My concert brings together the loves of my creative life: literature and music. I’m fascinated with the work of T.S. Eliot, and I have chosen 'The Love Song of J. Alfred
- [Quarterly: a small step for Jesse, a giant step for the Internet](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/quarterly-a-small-step-for-jesse-a-giant-step-for-the-internet/) - Gretchen Rubin, Tim Ferris, Cool Hunting, Amanda Hesser --- not a shabby lineup. Well, move over, kids, because there’s a new member of the team: me. It’s like this: There’s this service called Quarterly. You pick a contributor, plunk down your subscription fee, and, four times a year, you get a mystery package. (If you
- [325,000,000 views on YouTube: you don't want to be the billionth.](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/325000000-views-on-youtube-you-dont-want-to-be-the-billionth/) - "Gentleman," the new video by Psy. (His last video, "Gangnam Style," now has 1.5 billion views.)
- [Crowd Funding: Garland Jeffreys and Ann Medlock ](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/crowd-funding-garland-jeffreys-and-ann-medlock/) - Garland Jeffreys, friend of the site, is a kickass ageless rocker who can't stop creating. His last CD, The King of In Between, went into heavy rotation when it was released and hasn't slipped off my personal hit parade. Now he's raising money for his new CD. But click on his picture and let him
- [Only in New York (through Thursday): ‘Cape Spin’](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/only-in-new-york-through-thursday-‘cape-spin’/) - 130 wind turbines, 400 feet high, in Nantucket Sound --- who wouldn’t want that natural, cheap energy? A lot of people, as it turns out. (Including the Kennedys.) ‘Cape Spin! An American Power Struggle’ tells the funny/tragic story of this project. It’s good. (My friends made it.) For tickets, click here.
- [What did Matt Damon know and how did he know it?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/what-did-matt-damon-know-and-how-did-he-know-it/) - from "'Good Will Hunting" (1997)
- [Josh Ritter: One of those nights....](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/josh-ritter-one-of-those-nights/) - It takes large stones to begin a show in a noisy, jammed New York club by coming out solo, dropping to your knees and howling like an Idaho wolf. Josh Ritter did that. He began his second song, also solo. Then, one by one, the other musicians stepped onstage and, like artists who know exactly
- [The movie to see: 'Frances Ha'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/the-movie-to-see-frances-ha/) - After, try getting this woman out of your head. Her optimism, her love of her friend, her lack of filter --- for most of the movie, these charm you. But there comes a moment when you lose patience with Frances. She's no longer a young woman trying to find a place for herself in her
- [Guess the author, win a prize. The answer: ELIZABETH GILBERT](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/guess-the-author-win-a-prize-the-answer-elizabeth-gilbert/) - From the publisher's catalogue, [REDACTED's] first novel in twelve years, weighing in at 512 pages: This is an extraordinary story of botany, exploration and desire, spanning across much of the 19th century. The novel follows the fortunes of the brilliant Alma [REDACTED] (daughter of a bold and charismatic botanical explorer) as she comes into her
- [Marty Arnold (1929-2013)](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/marty-arnold-1929-2013/) - Marty Arnold was the deputy editor of The New York Times Magazine when I was writing often there. One piece was a murder investigation: the killing of a 13-year-old boy in a suburban schoolyard. Four boys had been arrested; two of them were brothers and had been convicted. I quickly discovered they were innocent, so
- [What Would Patricia Say? Highsmith on today’s issues](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/what-would-patricia-say-highsmith-on-today’s-issues/) - What would the meanest, toughest novelist have to say about social media, gay bankers, memoirs and more? Joan Schenkar, author of The Talented Miss Highsmith, serves up some probable responses.
- [Harry Parker (1925-2013): "I had no idea what my potential could be until he taught me how to find it.”](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/harry-parker-1925-2013-i-had-no-idea-what-my-potential-could-be-until-he-taught-me-how-to-find-it-”/) - Harry Parker has died. He was a legend --- a real legend, not one cobbled together by press agents and trickery --- and coaching Harvard crews to five decades of victories was the least of his greatness. Start with Craig Lambert’s evocative appreciation. Then go on to Craig’s lovely book, Mind Over Water.
- [Andre Aciman: “Have I ever felt at home at Harvard, at home in America?”](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/andre-aciman-“have-i-ever-felt-at-home-at-harvard-at-home-in-america”/) - André Aciman, an Egyptian exile, came to Harvard in the late 1970s for a Ph.D. Now Aciman, one of our most stylish writers, has published “Harvard Square,” a novel about an Egyptian exile who comes to Harvard in the late 1970s for a Ph.D. What gives? I explain all in Harvard Magazine. [To buy the
- [Almost makes me wish I was 20 again](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/almost-makes-me-wish-i-was-20-again/)
- [Krishna Das Kickstarter: 'Down to Earth, Up to Heaven'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/krishna-das-kickstarter-down-to-earth-up-to-heaven/) - Butler veterans know that while I have no spiritual practice, I never miss a chance to chant with Krishna Das. And I often listen to his CDs as I write; I find them calming as Mozart. He's financing his next CD on Kickstarter; in essence, you're buying it early. (Noted: at a price beyond retail.)
- [Lorraine Kreahling: 'Herman massacres 35 high school students. And yet you feel for him.' ](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/lorraine-kreahling-herman-massacres-35-high-school-students-and-yet-you-feel-for-him/) - You don’t expect to like Herman of the newly released film “Hello Herman,” starring the devilishly cute Garrett Backstrom and the subtly dynamic and roughly handsome Norman Reedus (of AMC’s “Walking Dead”). We meet sixteen-year-old Herman on his way to massacre 35 fellow high school students. Reedus is the online journalist Lax Morales, whom Herman
- [James Joyce: Celebrate 'Bloomsday' on Sunday, June 16](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/james-joyce-celebrate-bloomsday-on-sunday-june-16/) - Frank Delaney is one of those Joyceans who can recite ”Ulysses” from memory. Share the knowledge? Try and stop him. Every week he invites listeners to join him as he deconstructs the book line by line. And they do, by the thousands --- his podcast is about to hit a million downloads. What’s the attraction?
- [An O.Henry Story](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/an-o-henry-story/) - In 1989, my stepchildren gave me an Eddie Bauer watch for Christmas. A few months ago, I accidentally wore it when I went swimming in the Caribbean. Once it was waterproof. No longer. It stopped. I took it to the cheapo watch repair in the 86th Street subway. The Eddie Bauer watch, new, cost no more
- [Two American Families: How do they manage?](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/two-american-families-how-do-they-manage/) - Did you watch the Frontline documentary? (You still can, online.) It tracks two Milwaukee families, one African-American, one white, over 20 years, as they struggle to stay in the middle class. Weird timing for me; I’d just finished writing about one of the richest families in Milwaukee. So watching this documentary wasn’t like watching another
- ['Love is an angel disguised as lust.' ](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/love-is-an-angel-disguised-as-lust/) - That line is the quote at the start of my book. It's not casually chosen --- it's pretty much what the novel is about. The source: 'Because the Night,' written by --- here's a trivia tidbit --- Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen. A stunning performance, don't you think?
- [Ludwig Wittgenstein: 'About what one can not speak, one must remain silent.'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/ludwig-wittgenstein-about-what-one-can-not-speak-one-must-remain-silent/) - Posted on 9/12/2013. Filmed on the 57th-floor terrace of Four World Trade Center. Principal dancers Maria Kowroski and Ask la Cour of the New York City Ballet.
- [Caffeine Hit: I would have loved to have been... oh, the drummer.](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/caffeine-hit-i-would-have-loved-to-have-been-oh-the-drummer/)
- ['Blue Jasmine' -- a minority view](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/blue-jasmine-a-minority-view/) - Almost every critic flipped for “Blue Jasmine.” Most of my friends swooned. My wife was moved. I must have seen a different film, because I winced early and often at Woody Allen’s recreation of “A Streetcar Named Desire.” The story in brief: Jasmine has fled New York, where her husband was convicted of financial fraud
- [A Week Away](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/a-week-away/) - You get to North Captiva Island, Florida by flying to Ft. Myers, taking a half-hour cab, then making a fifteen-minute crossing by boat. On the island, it's golf carts. No cars. And... nothing. No shopping. No people. Think: the Hamptons, if a neutron bomb hit. Seriously, at night we saw lights in only two houses.
- [The Droid ‘Opera’ commercial: Color me obsessed](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/the-droid-‘opera’-commercial-color-me-obsessed/) - The child mocks me for talking back to the television (“You’re sooo critical”) but how can you not react to this? The setup: two attractive people at the opera. He’s hot, in the Jon Hamm way (black tie but unshaven). She’s hot, in the Mika Brzezinski way (blonde and chilly). He’s seated in the middle
- [Dock Ellis: 'It was easier pitching on LSD'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/dock-ellis-it-was-easier-pitching-on-lsd/)
- ['Breaking Bad' Finale: 'Guess I got what I deserved.'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/breaking-bad-finale-guess-i-got-what-i-deserved/) - The song that ended the last show. Back in the day, I taught Vince Gilligan in a screenwriting class at NYU. When he was reading from his script, no one missed class --- there was nothing I could teach him. Yeah, that good.
- [Available: Fantastic NYC Caregiver](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/available-fantastic-nyc-caregiver/) - One reason our daughter writes 'I am awesome" on snow-covered cars in winter is because Opal Campbell was her caregiver for her first five years. Opal is loving but firm, full of plans and adventures that kids love, steady, honest -- we have nothing but praise for her. She's now looking for full or part-time work, ideally
- [MixxCentury.com: a good idea, a good deal](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/mixxcentury-com-a-good-idea-a-good-deal/) - “Who’s your decorator?” friends ask when they visit us in our new digs. The answer surprises them: King’s Lane and eBay. Too bad we finished the apartment before our good friend Holly Palance and Dawn Moore launched MixxCentury.com. They really do the mix: antiques and collectibles from their homes, antiques shops and more. Prices range
- [Paul Simon: 'Over the Bridge of Time'](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/paul-simon-over-the-bridge-of-time/) - Paul Simon just turned 72, and he has a new release. Actually, a new/old one: the first single disc compilation of the best of Simon & Garfunkel and Simon's solo career. If you collect Simon's CDs, you probably have all these songs. If not, "Over the Bridge of Time" isn't a bad place to start.
- [Josh Ritter's Acoustic Tour: Step right this way](https://headbutler.com/shorttake/josh-ritters-acoustic-tour-step-right-this-way/) - Did you seriously think I wouldn't slip Josh Ritter into my novel? If so, silly you. Here's what I wrote: I set my iPhone for random music, inserted my ear buds, and listened as I walked. There was even some striding --- give me a crisp drummer and a bass player with wit, and I

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- [Drama](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/books/drama-books/)
- [Theater](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/books/theater/)
- [Products](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/products/products-products/)
- [Games](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/products/games/)
- [Thrillers](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/books/thrillers/)
- [Fashion](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/books/fashion/)
- [Beauty/Vanity](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/products/beautyvanity/)
- [Health](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/products/health/)
- [Writing /Creative Services](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/books/writing-creative-services/)
- [History](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/history/)
- [History](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/books/history-books/)
- [Humor](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/humor/)
- [Humor](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/books/humor-books/)
- [Philosophy](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/books/philosophy/)
- [Holiday](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/products/holiday/)
- [Rap](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/music/rap/)
- [Sports](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/books/sports/)
- [editor's letter](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/products/editors-letter/)
- [Shoes](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/products/shoes/)
- [Education](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/products/education/)
- [Gardening](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/books/gardening/)
- [Theater](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/music/theater-music/)
- [Pandemic: Dispatches and Essentials](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/products/pandemic-dispatches-and-essentials/)
- [Drama](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/drama/)
- [Pro Tips](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/products/pro-tips/)
- [Weekend](https://headbutler.com/review-categories/products/weekend/)

## Blogroll Categories

- [News](https://headbutler.com/blogroll-categories/news/)
- [Intelligence](https://headbutler.com/blogroll-categories/intelligence/)
- [Media](https://headbutler.com/blogroll-categories/media/)
- [Books](https://headbutler.com/blogroll-categories/books-blogroll/)
- [Travel](https://headbutler.com/blogroll-categories/travel-blogroll/)
- [Spirituality](https://headbutler.com/blogroll-categories/spirituality-blogroll/)
- [Finance](https://headbutler.com/blogroll-categories/finance/)
- [Art](https://headbutler.com/blogroll-categories/art/)
- [Blogs](https://headbutler.com/blogroll-categories/blogs/)
- [Society](https://headbutler.com/blogroll-categories/society/)
- [Health](https://headbutler.com/blogroll-categories/health/)
- [Style](https://headbutler.com/blogroll-categories/style/)
- [Show Biz](https://headbutler.com/blogroll-categories/show-biz/)
- [Exotica](https://headbutler.com/blogroll-categories/exotica/)
- [Words](https://headbutler.com/blogroll-categories/words/)
- [Music](https://headbutler.com/blogroll-categories/music/)

## Shorttakes Category

- [Short Takes](https://headbutler.com/shorttakes-category/short-takes/)