Latest

RIP Jimmy Webb, 1957-2020

May 05, 2020

by Daniel Penny.   Jimmy Webb, denizen of St. Mark’s Place, punk guru, and rockstar couturier died last month. He was 62. An upstate runaway and downtown club kid since the ‘70s, Jimmy had gotten h...

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Coping Jawnz

April 28, 2020

by Réginald-Jérôme de Mans.  An essay topic, exploded like a soap bubble, both flimsy and eye-stinging: memories of a short story (by whom? sounds French) about a woman (a duchess? a marquise?) who...

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Bill Withers, 1938-2020

April 14, 2020

by Chris Cotonou.  Soul wasn’t just a music genre for Bill Withers, who sadly passed away recently, but an impulse – an expression, and a way to speak plainly about the tribulations (and successes)...

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Time Capsules

April 07, 2020

by Réginald-Jérôme de Mans.  We can find inspiration in everything, as Paul Smith wrote. During these times of sheltering in place, we may have to. The mind has limits, though. A colleague recommen...

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The Original Penny Loafer

March 31, 2020

by David Isle.  I’m sure you’ll remember the scene in Adam McKay’s masterwork Talladega Nights in which the dastardly (French) villain Jean Girard challenges our hero Ricky Bobby to name one thing ...

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From Inside the Velvet Mask

March 24, 2020

by Réginald-Jérôme de Mans.   We cannot outrun history’s arrow. d’Artagnan and his boon companions the Three Musketeers learned that over 5,000-odd pages of Alexandre Dumas’ rambling historical fic...

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Election Gear

March 13, 2020

by Daniel Penny.   How many of us have gotten caught up in the excitement of the campaign season over the past year and decided to smash the donate button and buy some merch?

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Vive la différence

March 10, 2020

by Réginald-Jérôme de Mans.   An old, old joke about a bunch of chauvinist French scientists at a convention. The keynote speaker cautiously begins by announcing that there is only a small differen...

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