The next day is a blur. I remember it, but not in sequence, more as flashes: the harsh white of the desert light, his profile against the windscreen, the dust kicking up behind us, the sunset and the moonlight, the feeling of being both very young and already used up. It’s odd, because in theContinue reading “Chapter 66: Two Sleepy People “
Category Archives: Aesthetics
The Human Condition According to Dostoevsky
By Bergotte The series has been moving, in its way, toward this. Homer gave us mortality without consolation. Ovid gave us transformation without stability. Dante gave us love as the architecture of the universe. Shakespeare gave us the self as performance, unmoored from any fixed ground. What Dostoevsky gives us is the consequence of allContinue reading “The Human Condition According to Dostoevsky”
Chapter 65: Come Fly with Me
By the time they put me through to the boy’s suite at the Beverly Hills Hotel, I’ve already crossed the country and felt Cornelia’s words rearranging themselves inside me. The desert is only a few hours away. I want one last stretch of sky with him before everything changes, just a few days bathed inContinue reading “Chapter 65: Come Fly with Me”
Woodstock Music and Art Fair, 1969
Essay · Music & History Four Days on Max Yasgur’s Farm Woodstock was not what it was advertised to be. It was not three days of peace and music — it was four days, the weather was frequently terrible, the organisation collapsed almost immediately, the food ran out, the sound system failed repeatedly, and atContinue reading “Woodstock Music and Art Fair, 1969”
Chapter 64: Houses and Rooms Are Full of Perfumes, the Shelves Are Crowded with Perfumes
Topper is back in Georgetown, and I’m about to return to Los Angeles. “I need to wrap things up with Mr Woolf,” I tell everyone, and it’s true. I do need to drive over to thank him for his time and give him a parting gift, a Baroque French clock I picked up at auction.Continue reading “Chapter 64: Houses and Rooms Are Full of Perfumes, the Shelves Are Crowded with Perfumes”
Natalie Wood
Essay · Film & Lives The Girl Who Never Quite Belonged to Herself Natalie Wood was one of the most naturally gifted actresses of the Hollywood studio era, a woman who made the transition from child star to adult performer with a completeness that almost no one manages, who received three Academy Award nominations beforeContinue reading “Natalie Wood”
Chapter 63: Fairytale of New York
“Birdie, honey!” Mrs Montgomery calls. “Come here,” she says, slipping an arm around my shoulder. “What do you think of this seating?” The countdown to the wedding is on, and Mrs Montgomery has taken over completely. Topper and I are fine with it. Neither of us is particularly invested in wedding planning, and she’s aContinue reading “Chapter 63: Fairytale of New York “
Speaking for God: How Medieval Women Seized Power Through Divine Voice
They had no pulpit, no vote, no university, no legal standing, and no legitimate path to public authority in any institution their world recognised. So they found the one loophole the medieval Church could not easily close — the direct line to God — and they used it to address popes, command armies, reshape theology,Continue reading “Speaking for God: How Medieval Women Seized Power Through Divine Voice”
Chapter 62: I’ll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin’)
I’ve barely stepped through the front door when Miss Mary calls for me from the kitchen. I’ve taken a taxi from the airport, deciding at the last second that I wanted a few days “visiting with Miss Mary,” as I tell Topper, who “understands.” I rush in and hug her tight, greeting her like theContinue reading “Chapter 62: I’ll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin’)”
Ian Fleming’s Bond
Essay · Literature & Culture The Man Who Cannot Be Killed James Bond was created in 1952 by a bored, unhappy, recently married former intelligence officer writing his first novel in a Jamaican house he had built to escape from England, and he has refused to die for seventy years. The refusal is the mostContinue reading “Ian Fleming’s Bond”
My World of Interiors 