An autocrat bent on subverting societal norms. A country on edge, anxious for stability but in thrall to a myth. And an angry young man with a gun. The tinder, the kindling and the match. The actors were Sturmtruppen and Feuerwehrmann, not Antifa or Proud Boys. The setting was towns…

The Vapors’ single hit — 1980’s “Turning Japanese” — regularly makes it onto “80s nostalgia” and “Where are they now?” lists. But that hardly does them justice. These days, Ronald Reagan is so far in the rearview mirror he could almost be a punchline. In 1980, he wasn’t to me…

Greetings from Portland, OR. Until recently, site of the worst urban air quality on the planet. A week or so ago, before we could no longer go outside, my friend Jacob and I sat in my backyard. Suddenly he pointed up in surprise. “Whoa, look at the Moon!” he said…

What’s the soundtrack to this groundless moment? The answer depends on your taste, of course. But it’s probably not classical music, at least the orchestral works written roughly 300 to150 years ago. Many sound ponderous and dinosauric today, artifacts of a time before artists were encouraged to express ambivalence and…

Having died only a few days before the close of 2019, it’s an open question whether or not Richard Alpert — better known as Ram Dass — will make it onto major publications’ rankings of “This Year’s Notable Deaths.” But while the spiritual teacher and erstwhile Harvard professor may have…

When Ronald Reagan revealed, in 1994, that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease — a finding many already suspected — I felt no compassion towards him whatsoever. That’s not totally true. Actually, what I did was that I celebrated. It felt like cosmic retribution for his willful ignorance of…

Is everybody drinking ayahuasca now? …

Moving with unhurried precision, the woman handed me a small wooden pipe and a lighter. Pressing myself more upright on the couch, I spared a nervous glance into the bowl, where a pinch of glassy crystals rested on a bed of dried herbs. …