The poster for “Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light,” now airing on PBS’ “Masterpiece.” Its story of power and glittering doom in Tudor England holds up a mirror to our own mirthless times.
“Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown,” — Shakespeare, “Henry IV, Part 2”
“Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light” and “Marie Antoinette” — airing back to back on PBS’ WNET-Channel 13 on Sunday nights — give us two kings in crisis as seen through the eyes of two insiders who will soon be axed.
Read MoreJohn Trumbull’s 1806 oil portrait of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, a man who wrote his way out of life’s troubles until the day he no longer could.
In the musical “Hamilton,” Alexander Hamilton sings about writing his way out — of the tragic storm on his childhood home of Nevis, an act that would set him on a course for New York and destiny, and later out of scandal.
That’s the good thing about being a writer — maybe the bad thing, too — you can write your way out of almost anything but especially tumult as you try to make sense of the irrational.
This week, I was verbally attacked by two people.
Read MoreBob Dylan performing in Rotterdam on June 22, 1978. Photograph by Chris Hakkens.
Last night, I saw “A Complete Unknown,” based on Elijah Wald’s book “Dylan Goes Electric!: Newport, Seeger, Dylan and the Night That Split the Sixties,” and I found myself haunted not just by the music and the excellent evocation of Bob Dylan —from his 1961 arrival in Greenwich Village as a gifted but vulnerable folk music newbie to his imposition of rock’n’roll on the 1965 Newport Folk Festival as its legendary, disruptive closing act. — but by an idea.
And that idea, beautifully embodied in the film by Timothée Chalamet, is this: Why Dylan? Why not somebody else, or, for that matter, anybody else?
Read MoreFrom left, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, American President Donald J. Trump and Vice President JD Vance in a heated exchange at the White House Friday, Feb. 28. Courtesy the White House.
As I’ve written many times on this blog — too many times but it bares repeating — there is much discussion of various “isms” when it comes to President Donald J. Trump, from communism to socialism, racism and sexism. But the only “ism” that matters is narcissism, and the failure to understand this prevents us from having any hope to dealing with him effectively.
Read MoreThe Broadway cast of “Six.” From left, Najah Hetsberger as Catherine of Aragon; Gianna Yanelli as Anne Boleyn, Kelsie Watts as Jane Seymour, Krystal Hernandez as Anne of Cleves, Kay Sibal as Katherine Howard and Taylor Marie Daniel as Catherine Parr. Photograph by Georgette Gouveia.
These are not the best of times to be a woman, to say nothing of any minority. The rise of bro culture and misogynistic incel culture, which helped propel President Donald J. Trump back into the White House; the demise of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in government and much of the workplace; and the curtailing of reproductive rights are among the challenges that have led women to consider the backlash to their hard-won gains.
Perhaps that’s why I found the marvelously mocking Broadway musical “Six” so moving. It’s the story of a sextet of queen consorts who for most of their history were famous, even infamous, for their marriages to an orange, scowling, bloated, diseased malignant narcissist — Henry VIII. As “Six” explores with delicious irony, Henry — no Alexander the Great in the leadership department — is today mostly famous for having been married to them.
Read MoreGala opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Sept. 8, 1971 with members of the Kennedy family in the presidential box. From left, Rose Kennedy and Sen. Edward M.Kennedy standing. Seated far right is his first wife, Joan Kennedy. Courtesy the U.S.News & World Report Collection of the Library of Congress.
Fresh from his blitzkrieg of directives, President Donald J. Trump took a break to attend Super Bowl LIX, leaving the rest of us to consider what the past three weeks have meant.
Read MoreMembers of the National Transportation Safety Board on the scene Saturday, Feb. 1, of the mid-air collision between a Black Hawk helicopter and a an American Airlines jet over the Potomac River at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Courtesy NTSB.
How are we to respond to the times in which we find ourselves? Should we retreat, understanding that they are beyond our control? Or should we, knowing they are beyond our control, respond Stoically — with courage and calm, understanding, in the words of Rev. Sydney Smith, that “it is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing, because you could only do a little.”
As I pondered this over the Christmas break and into January — the so-called “wellness month” — I got very sick and lost my voice, an apt metaphor for losing the inner voice that has always been my North Star.
In the end, I concluded that reticence — even when you cannot physically “speak” — is a kind of cowardice, and that it is incumbent upon us all to speak out.
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