Muddy River: A Town in China
The greater the flood of news the faster we are carried along. We have time to see only the surfaces …
Category Archives: Essays
Army of Shadows: A Film
Army of Shadows — a French film noir about resistance to the Nazi occupation —The Resistance. What could be better? …
Katyn: A Film
I was just on the cusp of realizing that “foreign” films existed and were a real alternative to what 1950s …
Mountain Building and Human Existence
The tallest peaks in the famous Rocky Mountains of Colorado are half the height of most of the those in …
Inglourious Basterds: A Film
You either love Quentin Tarantino’s movies or you think they are disgusting. I fall into the second camp. To lift …
The Power of NO
I’ve been thinking about the power of NO, lately, and the power it takes to say when it matters most. …
Peru: Reading While Walking
If summer is a time to travel it is also a time to read. For me combining the two is …
Peru: It’s A Jungle Out There
The sun rises at 6 a.m. in the jungles along the Tambopata River in eastern Peru. Faint whispers of light …
Peru: Out of the World and In It
It’s always instructive to leave what is familiar and visit what is only partially so. The lens of vision shifts. …
Nanking: 1937
In the macabre history of human horrors the Japanese Army’s Rape of Nanking, China, December 1937, stands in the first …
Sin Nombre: A Film
The corners and sidewalks at truck rental places, hardware stores, building supply stores in Marin County are filled with small, …
Big Sur in Springtime
On Easter Sunday we hiked a few fingers of the great hand of God, the Santa Lucia mountains and …