“Now and then we had a hope that, if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates.” –Mark Twain, S-t-e-a-m-boat a-comin’! The Pirates of My Youth by Jack Simons As a child, I developed a passion for jewels and gold – strange, seeing I possessed none, and neither did my parents. In […]
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Instead of Fear by Jack Simons I don’t believe I was really awake when General Douglas MacArthur gave his famous speech at West Point to accept the Sylvanus Thayer Award on July 12, 1962. I had graduated from high school 35 days earlier, and was more interested in girls, Fords and Chevies, college in the […]
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California Dream by Jack Simons A Honda showroom in Monterey, California – January 1966 – not a fancy place, just a concrete slab structure with large display windows set between Del Monte Avenue and the beach – a landscape of scraggly trees and sand-acclimated weeds. In a back room the owner showed us a prototype […]
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Life Portraits by Jack Simons I first encountered Édouard Manet while in the army. A friend spread prints of his paintings across a bunk to show me. I had somehow mixed up Manet in my mind with the ever-present Claude Monet — and who could avoid Monet in this modern world? — Christmas cards, public […]
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The Call by Esther J. Brown 1. They began to call to me in 2009. I remember the day, a late September afternoon in Jerusalem, while I climbed around some limestone tombs south of the Old City walls. I sat on a stone to listen, looking east at the Palestinian village of Silwan, toward Mecca. […]
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Watching Old Movies: Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Jack Simons When I attended Baylor University in 1962, I had to choose one of three dormitories: Penland: the newest and most expensive; Brooks: the oldest and cheapest; Kokernot: twelve years old and middle-priced. I reasoned I didn’t want to live with the rich, nor did I […]
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Epic Saturday by Andrew Collins I’m not a huge fan of the “favorite movie” designation. It’s kind of like calling someone your “best friend.” But if you pointed a gun at my head and told me to make a list of my top films, I’d have to start with The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Growing […]
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“Starry Night” by L. Angelenos by Lena Rivera Andrea Bogdan’s studio window perches right above 5th and Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles. Cars rush past, people on the corner scream and laugh, and a siren wails out; this music swirls up to her ears and pushes her deeper into the vibrant and imaginative piece […]
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Theaters I Have Known by J. Hamilton In 1931 my father saw Frankenstein at the Seminole theater in Seminole, Oklahoma. Four years later, he watched Bride of Frankenstein at the same location. The Seminole passed for a “theater palace” in that small town, but Main Street had two other theaters as well: the Rialto, and […]
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Neon Wonderland by Lena Rivera As the sun set on Saturday night, September 22, Pershing Square transformed into a hub of light and energy. Music thumped, and the colorful excitement lured people, by the hundreds, from nearby sidewalks. Overhead, lasers flashed through thick smoke, turning it from green to purple then blue. Children swung sparkling […]
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