For many politicians and activists, "reality" is a projection of fear, desire and illusion, and nowhere is this truer than in the Middle East. Israeli novelist David Grossman argues that literature is one way of overcoming falsehood through knowing the Other-literature with fully formed human characters, free of stereotypes and impersonality, endowed with the power to surprise even their creator. To know isn't necessarily to justify, but is a way of broadening sympathy and avoiding the dehumanization of enemies. Grossman, an advocate of a just peace between Israel and Palestine, writes persuasively of how a pervasive state of anxiety and danger has warped individuals and societies. If an acceptable peace is proclaimed tomorrow, years might pass before the toxins in the body public would work their way out of the system. (David Luhrssen)
Remember when bands cared about albums as an art form? Instead of
slapping together a dozen tracks because, hey, they'll just end up on
everyone's iPod shuffle anyway, musicians considered how their songs
might congeal as a whole or form some sort of dram
Elvis Costello's frequent collaborator T-Bone Burnett produced Secret, Profane & Sugarcane,
an Americana-inflected album working with country and folk traditions
for images of sawdust floors set to mandolin and fiddle. Costello
intended one s
You wouldn’t expect to find T-bone and sirloin dinners at a place with stool seating and a location next to a shop hawking cell phones and cigarettes. But one of the city’s most evocatively named eateries, ZaZa Steak & Lemonade (4919 W. Capito
The enduring fantasy of older men is that a gorgeous
young woman will fall in love with them, find them sexually arousing
and long to imbibe their wisdom while sitting at their feet. That
fantasy is the spring driving Woody Allen's often-hilarious f
Away We Go, a droll comedy-cum-drama by director Sam Mendes (American Beauty),
perceptively explores the lives of more-or-less ordinary 30-somethings
lost in a world without much meaning. Verona (Maya Rudolph) and Bu
