Pundits are speculating that President Obama really meant it when he said he’d rather be a good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president. How unusual for a politician to stay focused on “now.” The Telegraph online in the U.K. yesterday published an opinion piece by Toby Harnden in which he questions…
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Shooting has begun for the long-awaited film version of Jack Kerouac’s classic novel “On the Road.” The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) posted this report from a city in Quebec that is doubling for Denver. Actors Viggo Mortenson of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Amy Adams, Kristen Stewart, and Kirsten…
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Our local blogging colleague “Kad Barma” at choosing a soundtrack has a big benefit event for the Merrimack Valley Food Bank coming up on Aug 29. Instead of a hyperlink, I copied his latest posting (excerpted here) to be sure readers didn’t miss the details. Get on the train, and be part…
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My family took a stay-cation day trip to Salem last Thursday, visiting the Peabody Essex Museum, our favorite place in a city that we go to once or twice a year. I’d never seen the Yin Yu Tang house, but my wife had been inside several times. This 200-year-old house from…
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In today’s NYTimes, heavy-hitter columnist Frank Rich takes on the “mosque” controversy that has spread from Manhattan across the nation. Read his essay here, and consider subscribing to the NYT if you appreciate the writing and thinking. In a related national commentary, Maureen Dowd of the NYT worries that the U.S.…
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Today is Southeast Asian Water Festival day in Lowell. This is the 14th year for the popular event. Last night, I attended the opening ceremony at Middlesex Community College, where the evening activities culminated in a candlelight ceremony and small boats floated on the canal with accompanying blessings and wishes. Master…
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You don’t have to say a lot more than “the B-52s played Boarding House Park last night.” They raised high the steel roof beams of the trademark pavilion set against a wall of brick and tall windows at the Boott Mills. The moon floated over downtown at about 7/8ths round and…
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John Collins of the Sun today reported on the start of the UMass Lowell/Queens University archaeological dig on the grounds of St. Patrick Church in the Acre neighborhood. Read the article here, and buy a copy of the Sun or consider subscribing if you appreciate the reporting.
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Texas free-thinking commentator Jim Hightower says watch the money being poured into the 2010 campaigns. Republican backers and candidates are rolling up huge sums of money to power an Obama backlash. Read his column here, which I picked up from truth-out.org, and consider supporting the sources of these opinions.
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This is one of my favorite poems by Michael Casey, Lowell High School alumnus and now Andover resident, who is the award-winning author of a classic book of poems about the Vietnam War. Michael and Nicholas Samaras (also with Lowell connections) will be reading together in Lowell next spring in a program sponsored…
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