Blog

Philippe I, duke of Orleans, in the robes he wore to his brother Louis XIV’s coronation in 1654, oil on canvas. Palace of Versailles. The Met’s “Camp” show would define the bisexual cross-dressing Monsieur as camp, but would he?

Whose identity is it anyway?

May 12, 2019

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute’s exhibit, “Camp: Notes on Fashion” (through Sept. 9) was inspired by Susan Sontag’s seminal 1964 essay “Notes on ‘Camp’,” which she defined broadly as style over substance characterized by theatricality, irony, playfulness, masquerade and unselfconsciousness. It’s a definition and a show that cuts a wide swath, but in the end it turns out to be less about camp and more about identity — its mutability and its ownership.

Sibling rivals in the court of Camelot

February 18, 2019

“How now , spirit? Whither wander you?” — Prospero to Ariel in William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”

There are few rivalries more intense than that of siblings, especially sisters, and few sisterly rivalries more pronounced than that of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and her younger sister Lee Radziwill, who died Feb. 16 of natural causes at her Manhattan home. She was 85.

Is some speech freer than others?

January 21, 2019

Everyone is entitled to his opinion, until, of course, someone thinks he isn’t. Recently, three incidents have challenged our concept of freedom of speech.

The battle for narrative in the age of Trump

July 28, 2018

Donald Trump controls the national narrative. Instead of complaining about it, his critics need to ask this salient question: How are they to wrest control of it from him?…

Caption: Statue of Alexander the Great, third century B.C. Istanbul Archaeology Museums.

What makes a great leader?

July 23, 2018

This past weekend commemorated the birth of Alexander the Great – in 356 B.C. Pella, northern Greece – so I thought I’d offer a meditation on a subject that has often occupied me as a writer and as a manager and that is leadership.

I myself have learned a lot about “leading” from Alexander, who conquered the Persian Empire in 331 B.C. and whom I began reading about when I was a child. But what made him a great leader? What is leadership?…

Royal fever

May 12, 2018

I have a confession to make: I am in love with a much younger man – Prince Louis.

OK, so he’s only 3 weeks old but he has stolen my heart. Prince Louis is already a star — thanks to his shutterbug of a mother, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge — but even he will have to take a backseat this week as we get set for the Olympics of romance. I am talking, of course, about the wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry May 19 at 7 a.m. (EDT).

As with any such event, this is not a sprint for the press but a marathon. In my guise as editor of WAG magazine, I have been among those whetting the appetite with wedding previews …

Modern Medusas: From Barbara Bush to Barbra Streisand

April 21, 2018

Barbara Bush – who died Tuesday at age 92 and was scheduled to be buried today in the presence of four former presidents – has been the subject of many remembrances and reactions this week, most of them admiring of a woman who turned a sharp gaze and an even sharper wit on herself as much as others. So, she no doubt would’ve been amused by The New York Times’ official reflection, whose undercurrent was a motif she often addressed – her appearance. …

Greetings!
This site contains intelligent discourse with some mature themes. Engage and enjoy!