ANNOUNCING!NEW 8-WEEK WRITING WORKSHOPWITH AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR, COLUMNIST AND SPEAKER HEATHER KING THE WORKSHOP: Eight weeks, Wednesday nights from 7-9, at my beautiful Craftsman apartment in Pasadena. Coffee, tea, and snacks provided. DATES:February 12 through April 8, with a week off on March11.8-PERSON MAX , CAUSE WE WANT THINGS INTIMATE. SO SECURE YOUR PLACE! EMAIL: hdking719@gmail.com COST: […]
I’VE MIGRATED!
Pray for me. I’ve been hosted by blogger for over 10 years now! And for the last going on five months, I’ve been in trying to migrate over here to wordpress. The site is up, if not totally fine-tuned. Check everything out. I especially like this cool page I worked up with some of my […]
SUNDAYS LIVE AT ST. JAMES
Here’s how this week’s arts and culture piece begins: For years during the 1990s when I lived in Koreatown, I’d attend the Sunday afternoon Bing Theater classical music concerts at LACMA. After almost a quarter of a century, the concerts have now moved a couple of miles east, to St. James Episcopal Church on Wilshire […]
“ALL THINGS ARE PHOTOGRAPHABLE”
“I look at the pictures I have done up to now and they make me feel that who we are and how we feel and what is to become of us just doesn’t matter. Our aspirations and successes have been cheap and petty. I read the newspapers, the columnists, some books, I look at some […]
HUMMINGBIRD IN UNDERWORLD, A MEMOIR
Here’s how this week’s arts and culture piece begins: Deborah Tobola is known as a visionary pioneer in the field of arts in U.S. corrections. She is a graduate of the University of Montana, and has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona. Her prose and poetry have won […]
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Last night, while searching for an Albert Dürer composition entitled “Strange Bird with Scroll,” I came across a whole cache of interesting stuff. The above seems especially apropos for today, January 1, Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God. Here’s the bird. And another bird. And here’s a self-portrait of the artist at 22, […]
IN THIS PLACE CHRIST WANTS TO BE BORN
Here’s how this week’s arts and culture piece begins: “Now he comes to be born in the narrowness of our lives, to be incarnate in us, to give his love to the world through us, through our flesh and blood. That is one meaning of the Incarnation. The reason why we are where we are this Christmas, […]
LET EARTH RECEIVE HER KING
Oh the season of Advent has been deep. I find I’m spent. Not from buying presents, eating, or showing off/arguing/sniping on social media. Rather from the deep prayer of the last four weeks… “The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light.” And then the Gospel today, the beginning of John: “The true […]
THE TAILOR OF GLOUCESTER
“But it is in the old story that all the beasts can talk in the night between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in the morning (though there are very few folk that can hear them, or know what it is that they say).When the Cathedral clock struck twelve there was an answer—like an echo of […]
DUST MOTES AND CIGARETTE SMOKE: A PAINTER WEIGHS IN FROM BROOKLYN
I’ve been going over my posts from the last ten years. This was first published on December 24, 2013. I liked it so much I’m giving it another go. Wishing you all the joys of this wondrous season. From a reader: Heather, Painted some snow-filled pots two days ago in my icy backyard. Beforehand I […]
FRENCH FRIES AS MUSE
From an interview in Insight, the magazine of The Sisters of Life, with Dr. Michael J. Brescia, Executive Medical Director and co-founder of Calvary Hospital, to talk about his experiences at the Catholic palliative care facility and hospice in the Bronx. I heard that you were responsible for a famous invention. I joined the VA hospital in […]
PERSHIING SQUARE ICE RINK EXTRAVAGANZA
Here’s how this week’s arts and culture column begins: The Bai Holiday Ice Rink Pershing Square has returned for its 22nd anniversary season. I know because I attended the grand opening, which took place from 11 to noon on Thursday, Nov. 14. From top to bottom, the event, atmosphere, and zeitgeist were quintessential LA. The […]
THE TOOLS FOR GOOD WORKS
A RADIO INTERVIEW AND AN ADVENT REFLECTION FROM ESTHER DE WAAL’S “SEEKING GOD: THE WAY OF ST. BENEDICT.”
A GLASS PANEL HOMAGE TO LOCAL FIREFIGHTERS
Here’s how this week’s arts and culture piece begins: Artist Anne-Elizabeth Sobieski’s family lost their Pasadena home to fire when she was 17. “I was frozen. I don’t know how much time went by. We just watched as the roof fell in, and one by one, every room burned.” Ever since, she’s had a special […]