Opinion
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The Alchemy of Mapo Doufu
Cooking as a Daoist Art
By: - Jul 14th, 2026Ultimately, the alchemy of Mapo Doufu reminds us that the spiritual path is not a matter of retreating into a sterile, bland world free of friction. We do not find exceptional health or internal peace by avoiding the sharp, spicy, or intense elements of life.
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From the Novel Call It In the Air
Jo and Joe
By: - Jul 08th, 2026College Days. And then a flood of warm nostalgia. It startled Joey, catching him unaware, the unlikely cause tumbling out of a two-day-old edition of The Times which he'd dragged out of the dustbin after breakfast. He had purchased the newspaper on his way back from the aborted lunch with McDougal but had been too incensed to read it. Now it sat on his lap, jolting his memory and attaching his attention to a short, news-in-brief item at the bottom of the page.
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What's Next
Tabula Rasa
By: - Jun 30th, 2026In the early 2000s, there was a popular television drama, The West Wing, that followed the hyper-fast, high-stakes lives of the political elite inside the White House. Whenever the fictional president finished a grueling debate, resolved a global crisis, or wrapped up a staff meeting, he would look around the room, slap his hands together, and utter a signature two-word phrase: “What’s next?”
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From the Novel Call It In the Air
Dan Spear
By: - Jun 28th, 2026It was the truth. Well, close. His mother had said something like that after another dumb incident with his uncle. It had happened one evening when Frederick—having nothing better to do, Joey guessed—nudged his nephew with his foot while they were watching television and mused that if he dropped Joey's baseball and his rubber eraser from the same height, they would both hit the floor at the same time.
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From the Novel Call It In the Air
Calculating the Days
By: - Jun 18th, 2026To Joey, barely eleven years old in 1962, flipping a penny one million times did not seem an unreasonable task. He wasn't sure how big it was—he knew it was big—but it was a number he'd heard people use in connection with lots of things, so it had to have an end. Some people, like Diane's father, even made a million dollars in one year.
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Consistency in the Ordinary
By: - Jun 16th, 2026This is the second writing in the trilogy, a supporting essay to The Alchemical Ash. The third will come in two weeks.
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From the Novel Call It In the Air
Typhoon George
By: - Jun 10th, 2026The thought caught Joey, broadside. Yeah, he mused, slumping back into the plush leather sofa George's company thoughtfully provided out in reception, maybe that's it? He's being fired.
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Yo Yo Ma at Tanglwood
We The People: Our Shared Past, Present, and Future
By: - Jun 03rd, 2026Yo-Yo Ma joins Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and special guests in We The People: Our Shared Past, Present, and Future, a weeklong residency curated by Ma. This series of concerts, conversations, and gatherings (Aug. 1–9) offers a window into Ma’s perspective on the American experiment, inviting us to celebrate community and common purpose, consider our relationship to one another and to the land we share, and imagine a hopeful future.
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From the Novel Call It In the Air
The Blemish
By: - Jun 03rd, 2026Sarah's 1936 penny had not aged a day during the intervening quarter-century since she had purchased it. She had not let it. The meaning it held for her was still as clear as it had been on August the twenty-sixth, the day she bought it, brand spanking new, a souvenir of her eleventh wedding anniversary which fell on that day
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The Alchemical Ash
Part One of Three
By: - Jun 02nd, 2026The scholar had spent three years tracing the lineage of a single, rare manuscript on the Heavenly Horse Water Form. When he finally tracked the old teacher to a drafty shack in the northern hills, he carried the text in a silk-lined case like a holy relic. He wanted to debate the translation of the third stanza. He wanted definitions.
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Florida Arts Funding
Fewer Non Profits Get Support
By: - Jun 01st, 2026The budget provides $20 million in programming support, less than half of the $51 million recommended by the Florida Council on Arts and Culture to fully fund grants for 563 non-profit organizations.
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Call It in the Air
Chapter Two Birthday Presents; Ottawa, Canada, 1962
By: - May 27th, 2026On that day, back in 1962, Joey was given two gifts that stood out from the "stacks" of others he'd received. (He liked to tell his friends that he got "stacks of presents".)
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The Met, Money, and New York Times
Adam Nagourney Meets Peter Gelb
By: - May 21st, 2026Is Adam Nagourney 's interview of Peter Gelb nepotism at work? At least the topic of financing the arts came up.
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The Abundance of the Present
Movement One
By: - May 19th, 2026Those of an age will remember the television show “Dragnet” with Sergeant Joe Friday. It began with the over-voice saying: “Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to hear/see is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.” In this case, though, there is no name to change. There is only the writer and the machine, recounting ten days in May when something startling occurred right here in North Adams. The story you are about to read is true, embellished only with a little bit of atmosphere in its telling.
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Summer at Clark Art Institute
Full Schedule of Events
By: - May 18th, 2026The Clark Art Institute announces its summer 2026 events lineup, encouraging visitors to engage with art and nature both inside the galleries and on the grounds. Featuring talks and tours, nature programs, performing arts events, family programs, and special events connected to our summer exhibitions and renowned permanent collection, there is something for all ages
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Call It In the Air
Sheer InsanityLondon 1982
By: - May 18th, 2026Our readers are familiar with Greg Light as one half of the the Parisian dishwashers. Here is the first chapter of a new novel.
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Dishwasher Dialogues If You Live Long Enough Life Ends
Ashes in the Columbarium
By: - May 07th, 2026The Chez Haynes years were forty-five years ago. That’s nearly half a century. We all had dreams, the waitresses and you and I. And we all had vague plans, and we pursued them in Europe and later in America. Most of us went back to the U.S.
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Edith Wharton Summit
At the Mount
By: - Apr 30th, 2026The Mount, Edith Wharton Cultural Center, will host the 2026 Edith Wharton Summit from Thursday, June 4 through Saturday, June 6, 2026, bringing together leading scholars, cultural historians, writers, and Wharton enthusiasts from around the world for three days of inquiry, dialogue, and immersive programming.
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Dishwasher Dialogue, Ginsberg, Cage and Cunningham
The American Center in Paris
By: - Apr 30th, 2026My brother played chess with John Cage and wasn’t polite enough to let him win. Cage was not a very good chess player, but he admired Marcel Duchamp who liked chess.
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Blue Heron Stillness
Book Launch and New Course
By: - Apr 28th, 2026It is with great pleasure that I announce the release of my newest book, "The Stillness of The Blue Heron: A Manual For A Daoist Life of Clarity and Purpose When The World Is In Turmoil." This work is a collection of essays and poetry crafted to provide a sense of peace and direction during challenging times.
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The ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance at Williams College
Summer at the ’62 Center,
By: - Apr 28th, 2026The ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance at Williams College announces Summer at the ’62 Center, a new summer performance series running June 15 through August 29, 2026. The season features more than 30 days of programming and brings together leading arts organizations and local partners from across the Berkshires and beyond.? ?
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Dishwasher Dialogues Da Vinci’s Shoes
The Call of the Aadvark
By: - Apr 23rd, 2026Tippex and carbon paper were the greatest technological innovations for a generation of writers. In the U.S. Tippex was called White-out or even better Liquid Paper. It did what it said, whited out errors and mistakes, and left a liquid blank space on which to try again.
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Mother's Day at The Mount
Season Opens
By: - Apr 21st, 2026The Mount, Edith Wharton Cultural Center is pleased to announce the opening of its 2026 season on Saturday, May 9, 2026. Visitors are invited to return to this historic estate to experience the beauty, history, and cultural legacy of one of America’s most celebrated literary figures, Edith Wharton.
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Dishwasher Dialogues Sleeping with Rothko
Being and Nothingness
By: - Apr 15th, 2026Rafael: The relationship between the photo booth pictures and my photo-canvases was philosophically intimate. By that I mean that both seemed more real to me than oil self-portraits.
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Dishwasher Dialogues, Rauschenberg, Pollock, de Kooning and Lit Dé
So This Is Rauschenberg
By: - Apr 09th, 2026One afternoon we went to see a Robert Rauschenberg show at the Galerie Sonnabend on the rue Mazarine. It consisted of, among other things, flattened, used, tattered, cardboard boxes stuck to the gallery wall.
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