There are deep burgundy bags of potpourri, fragrance diffusers, and cleansing sprays–a different scent and mood for each season of the year. You can buy Iris Toothpaste (20 bucks a tube), Crema de Barba (shaving cream) at 71 dollars a pop, and Sapone allo Zolfo—sulphur soap—with which to scrub off after, say, an exorcism.
ANGELUS NEWS
THE GLOBAL GARAGE SALE
“Before the 1960s, Japanese had a feeling of mottainai, a difficult-to-translate Japanese word that expresses a sense of regret over waste, as well as a desire to conserve,” reports Rina Hamada, editor of Japan’s Reuse Business Journal. But that was before the living standard in Japan shot sky-high. Now people are way more acquisitive, though they’ll buy second-hand if it’s of high quality.
SPIKY, HAIRY, SHINY: INSECTS OF LA
Here’s how this week’s arts and culture column begins: “Meet your neighbors!” invites the Natural History Museum, but they’re not talking about the people next door. The exhibit “Spiky, Hairy, Shiny: Insects of LA,” runs through April 1, 2022. All over the city, for the last 10 years people have gathered insects to help the […]
NOTHIING BUT THEE
One year the Catholic Press Association had me as a speaker for their annual awards conference. I went up after some guy from EWTN who crowed about having recently expanded the station’s reach to 18 trillion or something like that. When I got up there, I laughed, “Well, my own media empire is a bit smaller…I operate it from a desk in my bedroom that’s about four feet long”…
EVOLUTION AND FAITH
Here’s how this week’s arts and culture column begins: “Evolution and Faith: What Is the Problem?”, an essay by Georgetown University Distinguished Professor of theology John F. Haught, was published earlier this year by the Portsmouth [RI] Institute for Faith and Culture. Having asked the same question myself many times, I read the article with […]
MONUMENTS, MARVELS AND MIRACLES
Catholic road trips worth taking: and when you visit those monuments, marvels and miracles, don’t forget to hang around for Mass: the biggest marvel and miracle of all
MARTHA GRAHAM: ATHLETE OF GOD
“You do not want to fail, in either clarity or passion .You give all your life to doing this one thing. It sounds grim, it sound frightening”…
RESURRECTION, REPARATION, AND RECOVERY
“Mea culpa” without Christ becomes a kind of travesty. Snitching, shaming, the imposition of groupthink, the hatred and fear of truth, especially from the safe preserve of online anonymity, simply gouge the original wound deeper.
In fact, the credo behind woke culture’s judge-jury-and-executioner modus operandi isn’t “My fault” at all, but rather “YOUR fault.”
FEMALE VISIONARIES WHO SAVED THE WORLD
Here’s how this week’s arts and culture column begins: Visionary Women: How Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Jane Goodall and Alice Waters Changed Our World (2018), by journalist Andrea Barnet, is a fascinating read. Rachel Carson (1907-1964) parlayed her curiosity and love for the outdoor, in particular the ocean into an important and lasting contribution to […]
STAINED GLASS FROM GOTHIC TO STREET STYLE
Don’t make the mistake of associating stained glass only with churches. “The second gallery is the new, hip cutting-edge pieces that are really exciting.”
“If you love traditional stained glass, there’s plenty of it and you can get up close. If you like graffiti and street art, conceptual art, sci-fi—come and check out the second gallery. This is stained glass like you’ve never seen it before.”
BEHIND THE SCENES WITH AN ART INSTALLER
The real thrill is getting to put (gloved) hands on these works. “In a gallery there’s often a stanchion or a tape line on the floor. We have the luxury and honor of being the people who are actually allowed up close. Are these D-rings strong enough? What if a viewer inadvertently jostles this pedestal: is the work sufficiently secured?”
WANTED: DISTURBING HOMILIES!
Here’s how this week’s arts and culture column begins: Recently I heard a homily in which the priest shared that he and his brethren are generally instructed by their superiors not to say anything that will disturb people. I almost wept. If we’re not here to be disturbed, to be challenged, to be called higher, […]
NIGHT AND FOG: ALAIN RESNAIS’ HOLOCAUST MASTERPIECE
Mountains of eyeglasses, combs, shaving brushes, human hair: “Here are the stockpiles of the Nazis at war.”
The ceilings of gas chambers, raked by desperate fingernails. The surgical ward where human experiments were performed: amputations, castrations, burnings with phosphorus