Recent Posts

Real Crimes and the Coming Violence

An alpine glacier as I flew towards Milan.

I just enjoyed a get-away to Europe for almost two weeks. I spent three days with Mona at her place in southern Switzerland where I hadn’t been for 20 years, and another three days in a small town in the Italian Alps with my old […]

Premonitory Depression Blues

Spending a few days in New Orleans, and liking it a lot. Can’t say I know the place, since we’re mostly hanging around the touristic areas. Didn’t try to connect with any locals before coming, though I did read Billy Sothern’s interesting Katrina and post-hurricane account “Down in New Orleans: Reflections from a Drowned City“. […]

The Tortoise vs. the Gangster

The other night I went to the SF Art Institute to speak to a class on “The Contested City.” The students had been given Nowtopia to read and a bunch of intelligent questions were prepared. The 3-hour class was given over to “grilling” me in a friendly but pointed way, which I really […]