Monuments Men is, as they say, “based on a true story,” in this case the story of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program of the allied armies during World War II, an organization composed of hundreds of (mostly) artists and art historians, from many countries, who attempted to preserve art and historic buildings during the […]

I’ve been watching the Winter Olympics with rather less enthusiasm than is my wont.  Possibly because so much else is happening in my life right now that the Olympics are more of an intrusion than a pleasure.  But still I feel obliged to watch, somehow.  (The NBC overlords are chortling as I’m typing this.) My favorite […]

So here in the States we’re celebrating the 50-year anniversary of the Beatles landing in New York, and at least one local station played nothing but Beatles the other night. And what did I think about?  I thought about what writers could learn from the Beatles. I was actually alive and present on the planet […]

It’s Star Wars, as written by those mad scamps Georges Lucas and his partner, Jean-Paul Sartre.