Taiwan - Zero Day for the Invisible Nation

In the summer of 1992, after graduating from the University of Illinois with a teaching degree, I hopped on a plane with my college girlfriend (Now wife), and flew 8000 miles across the world to Isle Formosa, the "Beautiful Island" of Taiwan. It was one of the best decisions of my life.

I lived for five years teaching English in a wonderful culture of vibrant, hard-working, fun-loving people who have lived all their lives in the shadow of invasion from China. Ironically, I moved to the nation of Taiwan without actually knowing that the United States and nearly the entire world does not recognize Taiwan as a country. I learned acronyms like the "ROC" and "PRC" and phrases like "renegade province," and I came to understand the official title of the island as "The Republic of China on Taiwan." 

Since 1949 when the Chinese Civil War ended with Chiang-Kai Shek fleeing the mainland for Taiwan and Mao Ze Dong establishing the communist government of the People's Republic of China, the beautiful island nation and thriving democratic republic of roughly 25 million people has existed in a state of detente. And when the United States formalized a relationship with Mainland China in 1979, the island nation became an "Invisible Nation," so to speak.

That phrase is the subject and title of a new documentary on Taiwan and its unique precarious political situation. And that release coincides with a new Netflix drama titled Zero Day Attack, which portrays a riveting story of the Taiwanese president faced with an imminent invasion. While neither of these films is currently showing in the United States, they will hopefully be available soon, for it is important for American audiences to understand this complicated issue and to learn more about the wonderful place I consider a second home.

The Colorado Sound -- Great Indie Radio

"Where music discovery starts -- the Colorado Sound."

I still love listening to music on the radio in my car, especially now that I have a roughly 30-minute commute (which I've never had my entire adult life). And, yes, I know most people are simply streaming music these days on Spotify or Apple. And I do have several Pandora stations that are a regular part of my music-listening habit. 

But in the car, or honestly sometimes at my laptop with iHeart Radio, I still enjoy the old-fashioned way of listening to random music selections and discovering new songs and artists. And a big part of my car radio listening menu is a local public radio station at 105.5, The Colorado Sound. 

For the past year, I have truly enjoyed listening to Ben in the morning. It truly is music discovery with Ben -- he has introduced me to so many new bands -- local and national - as well as digging up new songs from old favorite artists. And with features like "This Day in Music History," his show has been a real treat. Ben is now moving to the evening slot at 9:00PM.

And, even though I won't be driving then, I can still tune in -- as you can from anywhere in the world at TheColoradoSound.org.  Check it out some time.

Rocky Horror Picture Show at 50

"Let's do the Time Warp again!"

And again, and again, and again ... for fifty years.

It might be one of the most surprisingly unpredictable works of film, theater, and performance art to stick around for a half century. And as Michael Brodeur explains in this Sunday's Washington Post, it's not going anyway anytime soon.  

With preemptive apologies to any fellow Gen Xers reading this, Friday marked the 50th anniversary of the U.S. premiere of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” movie in Los Angeles. (I know, that one stings.)

Your fishnets may not fit quite the same, but “Rocky Horror” — director Jim Sharman’s ribald adaptation of Richard O’Brien’s 1973 stage musical — is the same as it ever was: Boisterous participatory screenings led by “shadow casts” continue to pop off in the midnight slots of theaters around the world, sustaining “Rocky Horror” as the longest-running release in film history.

Craig Finn: a Storytelling Punk Rocker

Everyone loves a good story. And everyone loves a groovy song. And some of us love the musicians who can fuse the two in a sublime synthesis of sound and narrative. I've always loved songs of epic grandeur like Springsteen's "Jungleland" and the Grateful Dead's "Terrapin Station." And, of course, my fascination with Bob Dylan began the moment I first heard "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Tangled Up in Blue."

There are, of course, dozens of classic rock songs that weave intricate tales.

Every songwriter approaches his or her craft differently, and there are, ostensibly, as many ways to write a song as there are songs in existence. But one word you'll often hear songwriters use is "story," which implies a plot, characters, a conflict and perhaps a resolution. Just as one can write a novel with these literary tools, one can also condense it down into a song. Sometimes, it's based on real-life events, with real people and real outcomes. Other times it's entirely imaginary, culled from the minds of some exceptionally creative people. But in either case, it can be fun to follow the narrator as they recount a tale, like in the below 50 Short Story Songs.

In the world of punk and indie rock, however, the intricate nature of a great tale would seem to belie the hard, fast nature of the music. Which brings me to Craig Finn. I've recently discovered Finn, leader singer of indie rock band The Hold Steady, who has an entire catalog of solo work steeped in tales of Midwest angst. And, I recently had the pleasure of seeing Craig Finn's solo work live when he opened for former Husker Du and Sugar frontman Bob Mould. Finn's solo work in which he deftly talks his lyrics over beautiful melodies is a treat, as is seeing him perform live. And I've enjoyed his work so much, I recently bought his latest album, Always Been. 

Usual Suspects - 30 Years Later

 Thirty years ago, an independent film screened at the Sundance Film Festival blew our minds, and it did so in a way few if any films had ever done before.

Who is Keyser Soze?

I can still recall the first time I watched the film, not in a theater but on a DVD because I was living in Taiwan at the time and had missed the original hype of the film. Actually, I imagine quite a few people didn't catch it in theaters, but caught up later when the whisperings began. "Have you seen The Usual Suspects?" It wouldn't go much further than that because no one wanted to give anything away. "You just have to see it," they'd add.

When the film ended, there was a collective pause as everyone sat stunned, still trying to process what just happened in the ending of all endings. And now 30 years later, many of us are still trying to process exactly what happened. Who truly is Keyser Soze? Is anyone truly Keyser Soze? 

Of course, the clear and obvious answer is that, yes, Verbal Kint is and was the phantom all along. However, it's worth noting that the writer and director have both at various times suggested variations on that interpretation and implied "They are all Keyeser Soze."

So we know that Verbal is Soze, that he was the mastermind behind the film’s events, and he killed the other four criminals and numerous other people over the course of the narrative. “Kobayashi,” presumably, really was Verbal/Keyser’s lawyer, although that wasn’t really his name.

But the question to ask is, if the story Verbal told wasn’t true, then what is true?

That’s mostly ambiguous, although we know that the different characters in the lineup really did exist, and die, and the different crimes — the New York’s Finest Taxi service robbery, and later the boat explosion — happened in some form. It would appear that the whole purpose of allowing himself to be arrested and interrogated was to convince Kujan that Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne) was really Keyser Soze.

Regardless, I can say after rewatching the film noir masterpiece recently that, unlike so many films and television shows, that movie holds up. It's still wildly entertaining, and it remains "endlessly watchable."

It's National One-Hit Wonder Day

Ahh, the beloved one-hit wonder -- that song which by most definitions comes from a band that placed one song in the Top40 and never had another song chart that high. The Colorado Sound - independent radio - is celebrating One-Hit Wonder Day, and I've heard some wonderful contributions so far, like "Walking On Sunshine" from Katrina and the Waves. Feel free to tune in online and enjoy some great music on a great independent public radio station.

One shout out went to "Come on Eileen" from Dexy's Midnight Runners, and that selection is a true OHW Hall of Fame pick, a true GOAT of the one-hit status. And, Ben from the Colorado Sound is asking listeners to respond online with their favorites. When it comes to music, I can never give just one favorite, so I listed my Top-3:

"Safety Dance" - Men Without Hats

"One Night in Bangkok" - Murray Head

"Rock Me Amadeus" - Falco *

GQ and the New Masculinity, or 125 Ways to be a Good Guy

Since coming-of-age as a teen in the 1980s, I have been a casual reader and occasional subscriber to GQ, more formally known as Gentleman's Quarterly. It is and has been a documenter of men's fashion and style since 1957, and I think it has waxed and waned as a cultural barometer over the years.

Instead of telling our readers who to be and what to wear, in this new iteration of GQ we wanted to help men find those answers for themselves. The issue was like a giant mood board celebrating all the defiantly nontraditional forms of masculinity that had sprouted out of so many different subcultures—and were fast becoming pop. No cookie cutters allowed. Upon publication, the issue had an instant impact. We had recaptured the zeitgeist, which is exactly where GQ has always belonged.

Jump cut to 2025.

We are now, obviously, in the second Trump administration. Life feels…chaotic. And there are op-ed headlines, almost daily, declaring that we’ve swung back to a retrograde form of masculinity. You know: the whole “men can be men again” thing. (A movement espoused by JD Vance and Mark Zuckerberg—two hyperintelligent individuals who also happen to be untrustworthy when it comes to anything cultural.)

At the same time, we are supposed to believe that Gen Z represents a lost generation, and that Andrew Tate (whoever that is) has young men by the balls. To which I say: bollocks.

With its most recent issue, reporting on "The State of the American Male in 2025," the men's magazine is wading right in to the tricky discussion of masculinity. And, rightfully, it's not taking itself too seriously with the hilariously absurdist picture of a whimsically game, self-deprecating Glen Powell. 

When Glen Powell was in his 20s, he wrote Sylvester Stallone a letter. At the time, Powell was still trying to succeed in Hollywood and, as he recently described it to me, at “the point of famine.” Stallone was casting the third installment of his aging-action-hero franchise, The Expendables 3. Powell, an unknown desperate to join the ranks of a call sheet full of over-the-hill action stars, recounted for Stallone the way he was raised. In Texas, Powell said in his letter, he grew up with a gun range in his basement, had learned to fight from his uncles, and had spent long stretches of his childhood trying to find new ways to cheat death.

And, because he all love lists, the magazine is offering up a classic etiquette guide piece with "GQ's 125 Rules for Modern Gentlemen."

This means we’re helping you navigate everything from the modern landscape of online-dating etiquette to how to act in that all-women Pilates class to when (and when not) to pop a Zyn, while offering you a refresher on everything from thank-you notes to how to be a conscientious human being in public to how to act at a dinner party. The result is a list of 125 rules on how to be your best-behaved self wherever you go in 2025 and beyond. Friends, dates, colleagues, and the people sitting beside you on your next flight all thank you for reading.

Always Waiting for Godot

Bill and Ted? Together again? On stage? In an absurdist existential dramady that has intrigued, baffled, challenged, and entertained actors and audiences alike for decades?

Well, I say, sign me up.

The Samuel Beckett play Waiting for Godot has been troubling the arts world since 1952 when it premiered and while it is "tough to perform" and "impossible to understand," it remains infectiously popular, and as the Washington Post recently explained, "Actors love it."

Famously, nothing happens, twice.

Two men in bowler hats wait near a tree on a country road for the mysterious Godot, and they are eventually met by a third man and his enslaved companion, and later a boy. The next day, the scenario repeats, almost.

For the Dublin-born Samuel Beckett, a self-proclaimed “non-knower and non-can-er,” the spareness and even the meaninglessness were the point. When “Waiting for Godot,” his first produced play, premiered in French in Paris in 1953, it baffled some audiences but would go on to transform storytelling with its lack of plot, existentialist themes and acknowledgment that, if you find yourself standing around long enough, even human existence begins to feel absurd.

The play’s influence permeated theater and spread into pop culture, becoming fodder for sitcom homages and shorthand for discussing the meaning of life or (spoiler alert) waiting for someone who does not come. It’s a “Hamlet”-esque acting feat and a frequent, poignant offering in unconventional places where humanity is stressed to its limits, such as prisons, Sarajevo in wartime and New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. And, somehow, it’s also pretty funny.

As a revival begins this month on Broadway starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter — co-stars of the Bill & Ted movie franchise, itself a philosophical cult classic — many of the well-known actors and directors who have done “Waiting for Godot” discussed the challenges of the famously impenetrable play, its vast influence and what it all means. The interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

The New York Times recently sat down with Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, and director Jamie Lloyd for a discussion about how this "most excellent" rendition of a classic play came to the stage.

The Beautiful Brilliance of Brubeck's 'Take Five'

From that opening snare and cymbal to the rising anticipation of that familiar piano riff, the jazz composition 'Take Five' by the Dave Brubeck Quartet is one of the most recognizable, enduring, and satisfying songs in the contemporary jazz catalog. Released on this day in 1959, 'Take Five' is a true classic, and it's a song even people who aren't jazz fans will find themselves tapping a foot or nodding a head along with the beat. 

What is about this song that makes it so pleasing, so indelible, so timeless?

The composition of the song is a true masterpiece in its ease and complexity, and the story of how it came to be is equally satisfying. 

Paul Desmond had written “Take Five” partly as a gesture to the quartet’s drummer, Joe Morello, who wanted to show off his newfound confidence playing in 5/4 time. Listening to “Time Out,” with Morello’s broad rolling beat propelling the band and his concise, dramatic solo serving as the track’s centerpiece, he is in the driver’s seat.

But on June 25, the band tried nearly two-dozen times to get the song right, and still couldn’t. It was scrapped until a session the following week, when Morello apparently nailed it in just two takes. The “Time Outtakes” version is from June, and Morello’s part is far less developed; he taps out a sparse but somewhat obtrusive pattern on the ride cymbal, trying to perch on the end of beat one and the start of beat four. By July, he would figure out how do far more while sounding more efficient.

Digging into "The Greatness of Take Five" can be as fun as listening to it.

By the time it was written in 1959 the Dave Brubeck Quartet had become very popular, so much so that the US State Department sent the group on a tour of Eurasian countries to give them a taste of American culture. Brubeck enjoyed the exposure to other musical forms and decided to do a whole album using some of the unusual rhythms he’d gotten to know on the trip. In addition, his drummer Joe Morello liked to play in 5/4, often ending shows with a drum solo using that time signature. (It’s not clear to me why Morello liked that rhythm so much.) Anyway, Morello kept asking Brubeck to compose something in 5/4, and finally another member of the group, saxophonist Paul Desmond, came up with a couple of themes that he thought would work. While Desmond is therefore usually given sole credit for the music, Brubeck himself was very clear about his own input:

Desmond is credited with composing “Take Five,” but Brubeck says the tune was a group project with Desmond providing two main ideas. “Paul came in with two themes unrelated, and I put it together as a tune and made a form out of it,” Brubeck says. “He came in with two themes. He didn’t know which was the first or the second. He didn’t know they’d fit together. Dopa, depa, depa, dopa, lom, bom, bom, bom. That’s one theme. I’m the one that put them together and said, ‘We can make a tune out of this. . . . 3

The Magic (and hard work) of David Bowie

In 1968, Apple Records sent a letter to a young, up-and-coming star David Bowie's management, or, honestly, it may been to his father, who was a strong advocate for his son in the early days. The gist of the curt letter was Apple has made it abundantly clear that it "has no interest in signing David Bowie to the label" and explains the young artist does not represent the direction Apple is interested in.

A year later "Space Oddity" would be released.

That little tidbit of information - including an image of the actual paper letter that was sent - is just one of many fascinating artifacts from the new David Bowie Center, which is opening this September in London. And, the New York Times recently published a fun, interactive visual story about the David Bowie archives which contain more than 90,000 pieces of Bowie's legacy, from stage costumes to gold records to drawings of planned projects and shows to the infamous Apple letter.

What Was Behind David Bowie’s Genius? His Archive Holds the Answers.

It’s a rock music chamber of secrets.

When David Bowie died in 2016, he left an archive of about 90,000 items, carefully cataloged and boxed like a museum collection.

Now, the public can access the archive to learn about Bowie’s character and methods. Last week, the V&A East Storehouse, an outpost of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, opened the David Bowie Center, which will display about 200 items from the collection at a time. Fans and scholars can also place advance orders to view, and potentially handle, any of the 90,000 items.

Singles: the Film of the GenX Experience

Several years ago, I wrote a reflection on Cameron Crowe's 1992 film Singles. As the classic 90s film passes another birthday, I noticed quite a few posts on social media about watching the film and wondering if it holds up. Of course, everyone notes the incredible soundtrack, and many point out the cameos for grunge bands like Alice in Chains and acting(ish) cameos from Eddie Vedder and Stone Gossard. When I posted a link to my piece, the reception was quite positive, so I thought I'd repost here:

As Generation X meanders its way through middle age, occasionally pondering with a distinct sardonic glance who they are and how they got here in a Talking Heads-esque “Letting the Days Go By” montage, they need look no further than the box office poster for Cameron Crowe’s 1992 low-budget cult film Singles. In that image of the twentysomethings profiled in the movie resides the spirit of a generation of young people making the most of an uncertain time by focusing on their pursuit of lifestyle over career and depending on the “neighbors” who subbed in as family. Cliff and Janet on the park bench as Steve and Linda stroll pass enmeshed in a kiss, the image evokes a sense of socialness and community — they are friends and neighbors, bonded by their proximity and hopeful about the decades of adulthood out in front of them. The poster and film offer hope, promise, and above all, authenticity.

When the twenty-fifth anniversary of the film basically coincided with the passing of Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, watching the film again brought a hard dose of nostalgia against a reality check of middle age. It was the untimely and emotionally heavy death of Chris Cornell, just a month shy of the quarter century mark for the soundtrack’s release, that led me back to the first and only film that spoke to us with generational authenticity. And, when I’m feeling that generational tug and that middle age nostalgia, I look back to the gang from Seattle to remind me how it once was, and why today looks pretty good.

Read the rest of the story on Medium 

The Em Dash & ChatGPT

Oh, the em dash.

I have long used this exquisite tool of punctuation to great effect, as have so many authors from Dickens to Fitzgerald to Salinger to even the contemporary John Green. At times, some readers and editors have actually pointed out their confusion at what exactly this mark is, comments which befuddled and amused me. 

As an editor of student writing, I was often bemused by students' inability to distinguish the hyphen from the dash, and programs like GoogleDocs were actually a bit slow to adapt coding to reflect the actual look, meaning location and length, of the dash.

Anyway, until recently I was aloof to the apparent issue that ChatGPT has with the em dash. And, while I have accepted the presence and even utility of the AI software, I am quite miffed at the tarnish and shadow the program has cast upon my beloved piece of punctuation. I first heard of the controversy a couple days ago while listening to our composition teacher mention it to the class, as the class discussed an essay from Green's The Anthropocene Reviewed.   

And then coincidentally, the New York Times weighed in yesterday with a feature article:  "With the Em Dash, AI Embraces a Fading Tradition"

There are countless signals you might look for to determine whether a piece of writing was generated by A.I., but earlier this year the world seemed to fixate on one in particular: the em dash. ChatGPT was using it constantly — like so, and even if you begged it not to.

As this observation traveled the internet, a weird consensus congealed: that humans do not use dashes. Posters on tech forums called them a “GPT-ism,” a robotic artifact that “does not match modern day communication.” Someone on an OpenAI forum complained that the dashes made it harder to use ChatGPT for customer service without customers catching on. All sorts of people seemed mystifyingly confident that no flesh-and-bone human had any use for this punctuation, and that any deviant who did would henceforth be mistaken for a computer.

Those deviants were appalled, obviously. I am one;

The Atlantic Gives Free Access to all Public High Schools

In great news for schools, for education, for research, for the free exchange of ideas, for corporate altruism and philanthropy, The Atlantic announced yesterday that all public high schools will be give 100% free digital access to the magazine and its nearly 140 years of archives.

I am tremendously excited about this new offering, and I have already signed up the library-media center at the high school where I work. The Atlantic is an exceptional resource for long-form journalism, and the archives are an opportunity for students to explore criticism and essays reaching back to the time of Henry Thoreau and his fellow Transcendentalists. 

Thank you to the ownership and editorial team of this esteemed institution of the Fourth Estate. 

Starting today, The Atlantic is offering every public high school in the United States free digital access to its journalism and 168-year archive. All public high schools and districts can register with The Atlantic to give their students, teachers, and administrators unlimited access to TheAtlantic.com while on campus at no cost: all articles, full magazine issues, podcasts and audio articles, Atlantic Games, and the complete archive.

The Atlantic is already widely used as a teaching resource and read by millions of educators and students––and its archive contains landmark essays from many of history’s greatest writers and thinkers. This new offering removes financial and technical barriers for public high schools and introduces The Atlantic’s journalism to new generations of readers. Since launching an academic group subscription in July 2023, The Atlantic has enrolled more than 200 colleges, universities, and high schools in this program, reaching more than 1.2 million readers.

Foggy Sunrise

It was a cool, kind of spooky, almost ethereal sunrise on the eastern plains of Colorado this morning with a bright sunrise backlighting a thick, mysterious blanket of fog.

Images of the horses and cows lazily grazing, at ease with the natural phenomena all around, peppered the landscape of rolling hills and small bodies of water. 

My morning drives to my position as a high school librarian almost always makes me smile, giving hints and glimpses of the southern Illinois landscape where I grew up.

Sunrise Lightning

As I drove to work this morning, out Hwy14 across the eastern plains of Colorado, I saw the most unusual scene. It was a reasonably sunny horizon, as the sun peaked through some remaining clouds up high. I noticed a bit of virga, streaming down, a phenomenon I always find interestingly beautiful. And, then the sky lit up with an impressive ground strike. Aren't they always though?

It was close enough, though I couldn't hear the thunder. Several more times as the sky brightened, I witnessed a few more bolts and even caught a bit of the thunder as a few unnervingly large raindrops splattered my windshield. It was a most interesting weather event, and reminded me of how, growing up in the Midwest, I always anticipated and sort of reveled in watching storm clouds build on the horizon and roll in with calm but riveting spectacle. 

Exploring Two Sides of Murakami

My wife is an avid fan and reader of Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, and while I have tried to get into his book Norwegian Wood a few times, his work has just never quite grabbed me as a reader. And, yet, currently I find myself immersed in two of his works, and I am intrigued. 

I began by delving into his 1200 word opus 1Q84, which is a fascinating play on George Orwell's masterpiece of dystopian political literature. Murakami's work is set in Tokyo and follows two distinct and divergent storylines which seem destined to collide. The high school library where I work has not one but two copies, which I found rather surprising. And I opened one up earlier this year during the times that I'm on the floor, casually monitoring student behavior. During these times, I've slowly read several books, a few pages at a time. I figured I could be through 1Q84 by the end of the year.

I am also reading one of Murakami's two forays into non-fiction, What I Think About When I Think About Running. Murakami is a long-time distance runner, and I got to talking about the book when I discussed Chris McDougal's Born to Run with a colleague who is a runner and a reader. I was familiar with Murakami's title, and I was actually kind of intrigued by the idea. So, I picked it up a copy and have enjoyed the calm meditative prose. 

So, that's me this week -- looking at two sides of Murakami.

Gatsby at 100 ... from Myrtle's View

A leading contender for "the Great American Novel," Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby turns 100 years old this year, and while there are undoubtedly many writers, professors, artists, and critics weighing in on this anniversary, I am particularly intrigued by a clever retelling of the story from Colorado-based writer Allyson Reedy. Known primarily as a food writer, Reedy has surprised me with news of the upcoming release of Mrs. Wilson's Affair, the story of Gatsby from the perspective of ill-fated Myrtle Wilson. 

It's a fun conceit to take classic stories and re-imagine and re-tell them from alternative views. One of the best, of course, is Stoppard's Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. And another exceptional re-telling was Percival Everett's James, the story of Huck Finn from Jim's perspective, which went on to win the National Book Award.

Son Volt's "Trace" & the rise of Alt-Country Indie Folk

30 years ago a nearly perfect album was made that defined the birth and rise of alt-country, indie folk.

Music writer, fan, and real historian, Steve Hyden recently reflected on The Quiet Legacy Of Son Volt's "Trace" , and I truly love this line: “Alt-country” refers specifically to the generation of ’80s punks and indie rockers who picked up acoustic guitars and wrote songs about small-town drunks."

While I was living abroad at the time of its release and probably didn't discover it for a few years, Son Volt and the alt-country/indie folk rob vibe that it played a prominent role in establishing has a special place in my heart, having grown up in southern Illinois not far from Belleville where Uncle Tupelo formed. 

I can still recall sometime in the summer of 1990 when my mom handed me a copy of the groundbreaking, genre-defying "No Depression."  Amusingly, it was a preview copy, I believe, sent to the newspaper where she was a lifestyle writer and features editor, and the CD had been sent to the paper for a review. I truly wish I still had the copy.

Thoreau Leaves Walden Pond ... Again

For the second time in nearly two-hundred years, Henry Thoreau has left Walden Pond. This time his stay was closer to twenty-six years, unlike the roughly two years Thoreau spent there from July 4, 1845 to September 1847. Of course, I'm speaking of "Henry Thoreau," as played by historian Richard Smith of Concord, MA. 

The New York Times profiled this "Thoreau" in a lovely reflection, fitting of a life spent living a Transcendentalist experience in Walden Woods -- A Thoreau Impersonator Bids a Fond Farewell to Walden Pond:  After 26 years in character as the 19th-century transcendentalist writer, Richard Smith is hanging up his straw hat.

This is a great story, and I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Richard Smith this summer at the Thoreau Society's Annual Gathering in Concord. Richard is truly a great guy, a talented historian, and a true Thoreauvian. 

A bearded man in a waistcoat and tall straw hat emerged from a cabin on Walden Pond and faced a group of people wearing shorts and sunglasses. They were curious about his solitary life in the woods.

They addressed him as Henry David Thoreau, the 19th-century transcendentalist writer, but they were speaking to Richard Smith, a historian who has been Walden Pond State Reservation’s resident Thoreau impersonator since 1999.

Enjoy the rest of the story at the New York Times.

GenZ living its Parents' GenX life

In a new piece of commentary, which seems to somewhat masquarade as policy analysis and reporting, writer Alice Lassman informs us that Gen Z is Forcing Us to Rethink the American Dream | TIME

Lassman's online profiles describe her as a "policy expert with a focus on the global economy and gender." As a former high school teacher and writer who has done a fair bit of writing about Generation X, beginning with my master's thesis which analyzed work, life, and culture in the novels of Douglas Coupland, I key in on generational stories about Gen X and its offspring in Gen Z. And I often view writing about both with a fair amount of skepticism. For example, this line:

"America has never reckoned with a generation unwilling to blame themselves for the failure of its Dream. Gen Z might be the first to reject these goalposts, but they likely won’t be the last. This fracture should be alarming for a nation whose identity rests on the idea that even if you don’t make it, your children might—so long as you work hard."

I immediately took a double take on the idea that "America has never reckoned with a generation ..." For, the subsequent descriptors Lassman makes are the exact characterization made of Generation X in the 1990s. Like, a textbook reiteration of the exact same commentary made of the parents of Gen Z. 

Generation X was the "Nation at Risk," the first generation predicted and expected to have a lower standard of living than its parents. Gen X was the group that heard endlessly about but rejected its parents story of corporate loyalty and a respectable retirement, and the first that chose, and often had no choice but to choose, "lifestyle over career." The recession of the 1990s, the downsizing of factory populations, the off-shoring of jobs, the rise of contract or "gig work" that lacked benefits and security but was housed in the same companies that once employed Boomers and Silent Generationers for a lifetime, ... all these factors played a prime role in Xers quickly souring on and losing faith in the American Dream.

Heck, this was the first generation that grew up suspicious of societal institutions like government, education, and church, and it was a group who watched a president resign in disgrace as the US military withdrew from a decades long military quagmire. 

So, I have to say, I don't think Lassman is much of a policy expert and certainly not one who has done any significant research into her parents' generation, the parents of Gen Z.

What Literature Can Do

A student is writing a piece about literature and the impact it can have on individuals and beyond. Specifically, she is asking people about favorite books, the personal impact of such books, and ideas about "the weight a book can carry." And two particular books and quotes came to mind.

When Abraham Lincoln met Uncle Tom's Cabin author Harriet Beecher Stowe, he supposedly said, "So, you're the lady whose book started this war."

And, when Upton Sinclair was interviewed about the success and impact of his book The Jungle, he responded, "I aimed for the country's heart, and I hit its stomach."

David French & GenX Parenting

Columnist David French poses an interesting and important question in his recent New York Times column:  "How Did the Latchkey Kids of Gen X Become the Helicopter Parents of Gen Z?"

It's not unreasonable to suggest that parents of a certain age should be a bit less obsessive about micromanaging every detail of their children's lives. And, to be clear, the current generation of parents did not invent the idea of helicoptering in the child rearing game. That's reserved for the Baby Boomers who coddled their Millennial offspring to ridiculous and unprecedented degrees. Subsequently, anyone with much experience with the youngest of young people these days might suspect that the Boomers' parenting was not particularly effective in that Millennials are specifically bad at the parenting game. 

Granted, all this talk of generational trends and inclinations is obviously greatly overgeneralized. There are effective and ... pathetic parents at all ages in all eras. I wrote about GenX and the parenting game five years ago, though I had a different view than French. In fact, my piece suggests that "GenX Parenting" is the opposite of helicopter parenting. Of course, that view also implies that the very concept of "Generation X," at least in the manner that sociologist Paul Fussel and writer Douglas Coupland used it, is more about an attitude and lifestyle choice as opposed to an age range.

Gen X parents don’t hover, they don’t helicopter, and they certainly don’t snowplow. However, they are neither aloof nor disengaged. Generational writer and sociologist Neil Howe has termed Gen X parents “Stealth Fighter Parents.” They are aware and involved in the lives of their children, choosing where and when and how much. If an issue “seems below their threshold of importance,” they will let it go, “saving their energy” and probably their nerves. But if the situation “shows up on their radar … they will strike, rapidly and in force, and often without warning.” The target might be their kids’ friends or their teachers or a neighbor, or most likely the kids themselves. Gen Xers are post-9/11 “security moms” and hands-on dads. And our kids, the neXt generation, share our pragmatic, somewhat jaded, and pessimistic view of society while also being rather attentive to themselves, like Xers who had to be while we let ourselves in to the houses after school and fixed our own snacks while waiting for our parents to get home. They are woke, and to borrow from David Bowie (and John Hughes) “quite aware of what they’re going through.” That’s the scoop on Gen Z, a derivative nickname for Xer’s kids, who are out, open, authentic, transparent, and inclined to change the world themselves rather than wait for their elders.

Labor Day -- New Year's in the Fall

It's Labor Day, or what some of us like to call "New Year's in the Fall." 

Any day is a new opportunity for reinvention and a fresh start. And, this year seems kind of apropos with Labor Day falling on September 1, and the first of the month also falling on a Monday.

Here's a reflection from September of '22 about the idea of reinvention and new year's and "spring" cleaning and making a fresh start to, as Thoreau said, "advancing confidently in the direction of your dreams and endeavoring to live the life you have imagined."