Austin Film Society (AFS) – Our Own Private Idaho
I reference the anarchic and collage-like Van Sant film of the early 90s in the title of this article. That’s because AFS is the only arthouse movie theater (and so…
Exploring a Socratic Dialogue
There is renewed attention to the Plato’s Euthyphro. In 2017 Harvard University Press updated a version in the famous Loeb Classic series, begun in 1911. In 1914 the Loeb published…
T. S. Eliot and the Nucleus of Modernism
Ask a group of poetry experts what the most consequential poem of the 20th century was. The majority vote will most likely be The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot. Written…
An Overnight Trip to Mineral Wells, TX
Lou Reed sang in his song “A Small Town” that he wanted nothing to do with the one he grew up in and had to ‘get outta there’ as fast…
LBJ and the Space Program
Pres. Lyndon Johnson oversaw the Apollo space program during his term of office in the 1960s. The current Administrator of NASA, Bill Nelson, was at the LBJ Library in Austin…
Landscape and Authority
The nine studies in this book edited by Stephen Whiteman (The Courtauld, University of London) cover a wide range, both geographically and temporally. Their topic is the role of landscape…
Leti Garza – A Performer with a Cause
Leti Garza is more than just a singer-songwriter. Her career has spanned decades as a performing artist, actor, dancer, musician, and human rights activist. Leti’s cadence and range ride like…
Knowledge Lost
In these days of book-banning in America, the we must ask ourselves about the nature of knowledge. Faced with the onslaught of the thought police (who masquerade as elected state…
The Mob has Overthrown every Free Republic
University of Texas professor H.W. Brands has written another important book on American history. Perhaps best known for his book on FDR (Traitor to His Class), Brands holds the Jack…
Heracles: The Garland of Greece
This study of Heracles (better known by his Roman name Hercules) derives from the PhD thesis of Sofia Frade. She is now Assistant Professor at the University of Lisbon; during…